Our top 10's of 2000 - Time to throw down

I was already about to. Mainly to give us an idea of how we might "vote" if we were the Academy or something. I'll use a couple of voting methods based on current results.

Nothing serious, since most lists aren't done. Just a fun bit to see what we are like as a group of voters. I bet it looks a lot like some of the groups we are ragging on.

BTW, all, feel free to also go back and just change lists upon reflection if you feel it's appropriate. Like I'm moving Traffic down just to show Edwin. It's changing threads, mister, if you keep it up. (you know which thread it'll go to)

The good thing is, at least we can all have a sense of humor about all this.

~Edwin

I only described the under-represented films on the list, since most people are already familiar with the others.

1. In the Mood for Love (Wong Kar Wai) - Graceful, sensual, and unabashedly romantic film on a relationship that develops between two married neighbors. Maggie Cheung is a revelation.
2. Dolce (Alexander Sokurov) - Spare, elegiacal, and other-worldly documentary on Japanese writer, Toshio Shimao, as seen through the eyes of his surviving family.
3. Yi Yi (Edward Yang) - Simple, yet profound observation on the beauty of mundane ritual and the passage of life.
4. Beau Travail (Claire Denis) - Lush, visually poetic examination of military training, adapted from Herman Melville's Billy Budd.
5. Dancer in the Dark (Lars von Trier)
6. The Gleaners and I (Agnes Varda) - Simple, beautiful and poetic documentary filmed in exposition style about the traditional process of gleaning as it is practiced by a diverse group of people in contemporary France.
7. Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (Ang Lee)
8. High Fidelity (Stephen Frears)
9. Best in Show (Christopher Guest)
10. Gohatto (Nagisa Oshima) - Oshima returns to fine form in this incisive exploration of repressed sexuality in a training camp for Samurais.

Updated on 3/21/01: Removed The Terrorist from #10, added The Gleaners and I. Ranking order revised.
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Strictly Film School

Damn Pascal, where did you get to see In the Mood for Love? I might have to get the HK DVD. And I've been revelatin' on Maggie Cheung for quite some time now.

OK, I now have found my choice for best short film of 2000:
Golden Shower! For those of you that haven't seen this, you must watch! It is such a back-in-the-day buffet!
http://www.newvenue.com/archives/fea...ure44_site.mov

That's how I got to see it. The DVD transfer is pretty good by the way, with selectable/removeable subtitles.


Methinks that someone has been playing the rubber suit fitting scene in Irma Vep in super slow motion!


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Strictly Film School

Quote: "4. Beau Travail (Claire Denis) - Lush, visually poetic examination of military training, adapted from Herman Melville's Billy Budd."

I would have put it in my top 10 list, except that I saw it (in NYC) in September 1999.

I’ll bet that In The Mood for Love will be appearing in people’s 2001 lists because of the ridiculous US commercial release schedules. I did see it last year, but it didn’t make my list because I’m just not in tune with Wong Kar Wai – I enjoyed it, but not enough.

I guess that the confusion in top 10 lists will persist until US distributors start releasing films in a timely fashion (forced to do so by multi-region DVD players, we hope). As a particularly egregious example Croupier kicked around for over 2 years before it was finally rescued by Shooting Gallery.

Ted

Pascal, which Wong Kar-Wai dvds would you recommend for someone with only a region 1 player?

Wong Kar-Wai can run the gamut from the sublime to the ridiculous. I think that In the Mood for Love is his best work to date. On the other hand, Chungking Express and Fallen Angels left me disoriented and hollow.

The HK DVD for In the Mood for Love is non-region coded, so it will play on a Region 1 player (NTSC video). The only difference is, you have to pick up the DVD from a specialty store like Poker Industries or Five Star Laser (which also sells through Amazon z-shops). Note: It is Five Star Laser not DVD, which I embarrasingly found out was porn.

I also like Ashes of Time and Happy Together, both of which are on Region 1 DVD.

By the way, with regards to the Top 10 list, I excluded Croupier because I saw it in 1999. I agree that this survey is going to get complicated, especially with international participants.

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Strictly Film School

Quote: "Pascal, which Wong Kar-Wai dvds would you recommend for someone with only a region 1 player?"


Al,

What's a film buff like you without an all region player? I think that you can get a Sampo 620 from 800.com in the $130 range. Don't wait until the MPAA cracks down.

If you like Truffaut for example MK2 is starting to release some pretty amazing sounding (16:9 with all sorts of great suplements) DVDs in R2. Compare that to the lousy pan & scan atrocities from Fox Lorber.

That way we can all watch the same movies tfor top 10 list purposes, to get this back on topic :-).

Ted

as of 02/25/01

Best of 2000 :

1. Wonder Boys (****)
1. Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (****)
1. You Can Count on Me (****)
4. Almost Famous (****)
5. Traffic (****)
6. Thirteen Days (*** 1/2)
7. High Fidelity (*** 1/2)
8. Quills (*** 1/2)
9. Jesus Son (*** 1/2)
10. Chocolat (***)

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Highly Recommended :

Keeping The Faith (***)
The Virgin Suicides (***)
Frequency (***)
The Legend of Bagger Vance (***)
Emperor's New Groove (***)
Chicken Run (***)
Erin Brockovich (***)
The Cell (***)
Titan A.E. (***)
Cast Away (***)
The Gift (***)
Meet The Parents (***)
Boiler Room (***)
Small Time Crooks (***)
Dr. T and the Women (***)
Center Stage (***)
Fantasia 2000 (***)
What Lies Beneath (***)

------------------------------------------------------------

the so so and the terrible and the guilty pleasures :

The Patriot (**), Perfect Storm (** 1/2), Gladiator (** 1/2), MI-2 (** 1/2), X-Men (** 1/2), Scary Movie (** 1/2), Way of the Gun (** 1/2), Shanghai Noon (**), Coyote Ugly (** 1/2), 28 Days (**), After Sex (* 1/2), Autumn in New York (* 1/2), Woman on Top (**), American Psycho (** 1/2), U-571 (**), Whipped (*), The Whole Nine Yards (** 1/2), The Ninth Gate (**), The Road to El Dorado (** 1/2), Me, Myself and Irene (**)

still to see :

Requiem for a Dream, Yi-yi, The House of Mirth, The Contender, State and Main,

2001 Films seen so far :

Hannibal (**)
3000 Miles to Graceland (* 1/2)

Terrific 1999 Films just seen :

Mansfield Park (****)
Croupier (*** 1/2)
Topsy-turvy (*** 1/2)
Princess Mononoke (*** 1/2)
The Limey (***)
Titus (***)

You can't prove anything. And even if I did, it is a free country, man. Oh wait, were you talking to me?

All right, I'm throwin' down.

1. You Can Count on Me - Kenneth Lonergan cinematically captured why those of us who have siblings simultaneously pity and envy our only-child friends. The most emotionally honest film in some time.

2. Traffic - Steven Soderbergh took two Movie-of-the-Week type stories this year and elevated them to great heights. This was the better of the two. Credit screenwriter Stephen Gaghan for not even attempting to solve this puzzle.

3. Wonder Boys - Curtis Hanson follows up L.A. Confidential with, for my money, an even better film. I've never seen Michael Douglas better, or more likeable. I can't imagine how this movie could have been improved.

4. High Fidelity - taken less seriously than Cameron Crowe's Almost Famous solely due to it being a comedy. But, without the trappings of serious drama, Frears and Cusack reveal deep truths about life, love and the pursuit of a great record collection.

5. Almost Famous - a coming of age story spattered with great gobs of nostalgia. The key to the film is Kate Hudson as Penny Lane, who embodies the very spirit of why kids like William Miller (Patrick Fugit) are drawn to the rock'n'roll lifestyle.

6. Dancer in the Dark - it's odd to place any sort of ordinal value on this film. It exists far beyond the critical realm. To tell the truth, months later, I can't even tell you if I like it. Seeing it was like being a subject in a psychological experiment. I know I'll buy the DVD, but I can't tell you if I'll be able to watch it again for some time.

7. Requeim for a Dream - a totally different take on drugs. Darren Aronofsky shows how some drug dealers work in alleys and end up dead or in prison, while others wear white coats and earn six figure incomes and the respect of their community. Contains the finest, bravest female performance of the year by Ellen Burstyn.

8. Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon - romance, mysticism, sheer energy and beautiful scenery. Add in an amazing performance by relative newcomer Zhang Ziyi and you have one of the best films of the year.

9. Chicken Run - while I feel this film was dumbed down somewhat for mass audience appeal, what remains is a triumph of painstaking artistry and imagination.

10. State and Main- simulaneously one of the funniest and sweetest movies of the year. A great ensemble cast led by Philip Seymour Hoffman, William H. Macy, and Rebecca Pidgeon bring one of the best scripts of the year to life. Don't tell him, but David Mamet may just be softening in his 'old' age.

Adrian, I'd like to ask you to simply go back and edit your last list post anytime you want to update it. It makes it a bit confusing when you have multiple instances of the same list.

For all, it might be nice if you would simply stick a new post in anytime you make a change simply to mention the fact that the list has been updated. If you only edit your list then this thread ends up looking inactive even though it isn't. And for totaling purposes it helps me, especially since I expect changes for several months still.

OK, an early "total" has been collected. There are several good ways to do votes, but considering the nature of ranking our lists, I just gave a 10-1 points scale for films we listed. If you didn't specify (Edwin ), I took the middle of the road for all films in your 10 list. Films below 10 didn't get points.

Again the goal of the thread isn't to pick "winners" or anything, just to put out in public what we liked so that others can get into what our tastes are, or what films we may have missed. It's also a nice place for others to get ideas about good films to rent/go see.

There is plenty of diversity. 90 films were mentioned so far. Way more than I expected. You'd have a tough time convincing me that there were 90 good films this year, maybe 30 or so.

Finally, I think some films have really suffered from simply not being seen yet. Some that I think could benefit from coming to rental so the rest of us could see them:

Yi Yi, Dancer in the Dark, Croupier, Billy Elliot, Requiem for a Dream, Virgin Suicides, Sunshine. Oh Brother and 13 Days might be too new for some lists as well.

Anyway as of tonight our overall top 10 is as follows:

1 - Traffic
2 - Almost Famous
3 - Requiem for a Dream
4 - Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon
5 - High Fidelity
6 - You Can Count on Me
7 - Gladiator
8 - Wonder Boys
9 - Oh Brother, Where Art Thou?
10 - Dancer in the Dark

Erin Brock is just barely in 11th right now.

I hope that this list does not influence any list changes simply to modify the outcome. I'd rather see a true measure of the totaling of our own tastes, as diverse as they are.

Those top 3 are far in front of everything else, but somehow I doubt the Academy would give Requiem that sort of respect. Still, I'd say that's a pretty decent list. Certainly it has a little bit of everything and closely resembles some of the other 10 best lists by groups that we've already seen.

As always, this is only for fun. Please, no wagering.

Sorry, Seth, I've updated my list several times since I originally posted it, but haven't done any new posts. From now on, I'll give a heads up whenever I update.

Rob

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"That suits me down to the ground."

Hey, no prob to you or anyone else here on that. The thread has stayed afloat and since I just did a totalling last night, I'm pretty sure I caught everybody's recent changes. But a quick notify from now on will keep me from having to double check every list as I update the totals, which may not be essential here, but they are fun to look at.

But as things go on this list will start to drop unless people put a new post mentioning a change. The reason for wanting an update date back in the original post is for others who come in and scan the lists, they might like to know that a list is different than the last time they saw it.

And by all means, discuss anything about the films you do/don't add to your list as you see them. It's certainly interesting to share excitement of seeing some great film, or to hear reasons why it didn't click for you.

Currently, I have just borrowed Battlefield Earth and Art of War, so look for my list to change. OK, maybe not.

Just updated my list to include O Brother, Where Art Thou and Thirteen Days. Only O Brother cracked the top ten (at #6).

Rob

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"That suits me down to the ground."

These are in no particular order, and I am listing them based on when they were released in my area.

1. Magnolia
2. Erin Brokovich
3. Traffic
4. Nurse Betty
5. Shanghai Noon
6. Gladiator
7. The Hurricane
8. U-571
9. Frequency
10. Remember the Titans

Brett B.

Updated to include that I saw State & Main and Shadow of the Vampire. Neither will make my list, though I very much enjoyed S&M. I liked Shadow, but was somewhat let down by it.

House of Mirth & Malena open here this weekend. I also found out that In the Mood for Love opens in the middle of the month. I'm looking forward to it since I finally saw my first Wong Kar-Wai film Happy Together, a few weeks ago, and enjoyed it a great deal.

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"It's funny how the colors of the real world only seem really real when you viddy them on the screen"

S&S Challenge: 72 ...39
DVD BEAVER

My DVD Collection

That sucks to hear from you Brook. I've been excited to go see Vampire. Maybe I will have better luck with it.

State and Main didn't have enough punch for me. The jokes were there, but a bit too dry and some of the delivery I found too slow/low key.

BTW, for anyone from another planet, IMDb.com is having members vote for awards over there.

If anyone cares, my top 10 is here .

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Surf on to...

Seth,

List has been constantly updated since I first posted it, but I will make mention of future updates.

The list is near final. I have a few more to see then will be calling my list offical. I never thought the amazing, challenging, unique masterpiece that is "Dancer In The Dark" would make it so high on my list of the year's best films, but there you go.

Jason

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ICQ: 16733922

Yes, Jason!

I wasn't expecting universal appreciation and acclaim, but I'm also thrilled to see Dancer in the Dark making this list. For me, it was the only movie that really mattered last year - the only truly amazing experience I had in a theater - and I'm fretting over the possibility that it might lose its tenuous grasp on the 10-slot and fall off our list entirely!

Hey, didn't we share favorite movies last year, too? Mine was The Straight Story, but Malkovich was a very close second.

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"Only one is a wanderer; two together are always going somewhere."

Al's DVD Collection
Al's Criterion Collection

Well, I also thought the delivery was a bit off Seth, but I got a lot of laughs out of it. Plus I'm predisposed to like anything with Phillip Seymour Hoffman, and it finally gave David Paymer a juicy role, instead of the nerds and toadies he usually plays.

There is a special screening of The Wind Will Carry Us this weekend that I'm going to make sure to attend.

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"It's funny how the colors of the real world only seem really real when you viddy them on the screen"

S&S Challenge: 72 ...39
DVD BEAVER

My DVD Collection

Brook, I highly recommend The Wind Will Carry Us; it was one of my top film choices for 1999. It is very reminscent of Abbas Kiarostami's earlier films, A Taste of Cherry and Through the Olive Trees, in its celebration of life, and is visually serene and beautiful. I would love to see it again myself.

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Strictly Film School

Seth, I updated my list (page 2).

Are we gonna do a worst of?

Hunter

Jason already has a worst of list going, it's just falling off the daily listing because no one posted in a day or so. Just look back a few days, it ends with Time to Throw Up as his parody of this thread.

Well, I haven't seen Dancer yet, so maybe that will save it. And I think EB is a top 10 kinda film too. But overall I am pretty pleased with our tastes as a group, but that's probably just cause the group list isn't too far from mine.

Sadly many of the films in our list are buried in obscurity. IMDb has a fun vote on odd-catagories, one of which is "What film deserved to make a lot more than it did?" You Can Count on Me has almost no votes (and I voted for it) which is kinda ironic considering the catagory. I mean I think the fact that only 800 some people voted on it, while 30000 voted on Gladiator pretty much tells you where it stands. Not enough people saw it to vote it to the top of the list of things that should have had more people see it. Not that it has to win, but it ain't even in the running at all and it didn't bring in the money that many of the others did, yet it's pretty much their equal.

Similar for Requiem, Dancer, even Oh Brother.


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"We keep you alive to serve this ship. So row well, and live."

"You're mucking with a 'G'!"

Here are mine:

1. Almost Famous (Simply wonderful film about growing up, the characters are so real that I actually felt their pain at times. Also a wonderful film about the spirit of music and its ability to unite people. Wonderful, wonderful, and wonderful-what a great film)

2. You Can Count On Me (Cheers to Kenneth Lonnergan for creating characters so real that they never arrive at simple answers to life's problems. Take the situation with Terry, who has good intentions with Rudy, but ends up getting into trouble for his good intentions. Two of the years best performances from Mark Ruffalo and Laura Linney are also in this film)

3. Requiem for a Dream (shattering portrait of the American Dream gone awry, with the year's best performance from Ellen Burstyn and stunning direction from Darren Arronofsky)

4. Crouching Tiger,Hidden Dragon (need I say anything that hasn't already been said? An epic with heart, soul, romance, and heart-pounding visuals)

5. Quills (Difficult, often hard to watch portrait of artistry at its extreme, as well as the danger of art on the fringe for a society- a perfect film for a society that acts as if it doesn't censor- but still does- AMPA Anyone?)

6. Traffic (brilliant film that leaves more questions than it does answers- with another of the year's best performances from Benecio Del Toro)

7. High Fidelity (Brutally honest film about men- and their relationships with women. A great film from a great book, with two of the year's most underrated performances from John Cusack and Jack Black)

8. The Cell (Visionary filmmaking by Tarsem Singh- functions on many levels as a film- as psychological study, as philosophical study, and as a thriller)

9. The Virgin Suicides (dazzling film about the loss of innocence, also a moving period piece. A great film debut from the daughter of a legend)

10. Gladiator (Huge Spectacle that harkens back to the days of Ben-Hur and El Cid- the film also succeeds on a deeply emotional level- thanks in large part to Russel Crowe's great performance)


Runners Up: Boiler Room, Frequency, Shadow of the Vampire, American Psycho


Yet to see, but could most certainly effect: Before Night Falls, Wonder Boys, Jesus' Son, Pollock, George Washington, Cast Away, Dancer in the Dark, The House of Mirth


Worst Films of the Year:

1. Oh Brother Where Art Thou (and I am a huge Coen's fan!- but man did they get this one wrong)

2. How the Grinch Got Bastardized (oops I meant Stole Christmas- Jim Carrey at his worst, none of the stuff added from the original cartoon version works)

3. The Contender (a film that truly lacked the courage of its own convictions- a film that pretended it had bigger balls than an elephant, and ended up having smaller balls than a chihuah on steroids)

Absolutely. Although I am choosing "Requiem" as the best film of the year (it left me shaking, thrilled, numb and wrung out, but in a good way), "Dancer In The Dark" being at #2 should not say that one is better than the other. It is unlike anything I have ever seen before on film. Sure, there may be a problem here or there, but Lars Von Trier's vision of Selma is unforgettable. I've seen the film twice in the past two days (UVIC only has this film for two days under their schedule, but seeing that both shows I attended sold out, it may come back), and am now listening to Selmasongs.


I haven't seen Seth update the list for my inclusion of DITD into his Top 10 Median list, but the reason being is this film hasn't been available to many. It was screening here for only two weeks in November, I missed it, and as mentioned before, I caught it at the University of Victoria's Cinecenta.


I posted my list last year, it looked like this:

1. Magnolia 2. Eyes Wide Shut 3. The War Zone 4. Toy Story 2 5. The Iron Giant 6. Fight Club 7. The Talented Mr. Ripley 8. The Limey 9. Election 10. The Insider

Worst: Idle Hands, Pokemon 2000, Runaway Bride.

Regards,

Jason


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ICQ: 16733922

I'm giving a little space in updating the total list results just to allow enough data to change for it to be interesting, so to speak. Probably SUN night I'll retotal.

It's amazing how many great films slip through the cracks. Just about everyone has one of the "top" films still to see. I have DITD, Vampire, Sunshine, Yi YI, among others. I'm sure we are all excited for others to see our faves that they missed.

Personally, while YCCoM is not my top film, I do think it deserves the most support since it seems to be buried based upon content/method. Just a regular story told in a regular way, but it's done so wonderfully that I was surprised to be seeing such a refreshingly real film.

If its not about swords, kung-fu, or crime or if it doesn't have some flashy style/big cinematography scenes, it just doesn't interest people...unfortunately.

Seth, Re:YCCoM, before picking it as the best film, I had to sort of come to terms with the fact that it is more of a talking picture than a moving one; there is nothing particulary cinematic about it - very little would be lost in the translation to a stage play (all other things being equal - truly equal - a technically more advanced or groundbreaking picture wins out). Oh well, it overcomes its static nature due to its perfect tone, its message (which it doesn't brow beat you with) and its honesty.

Side question (not really significant enough to merit its own thread and I think this thread has enough steam it can handle a slight diversion): Do you have trouble picking your number 1 for any given year? In my experience, my #1 film seems to pick me as much as I do it. The 2 through 10 may be tough, but my #1 pick has been easy. It asserts itself and I don't even really have to think about it. For the last few years You Can Count on Me, The Straight Story, A Simple Plan, The Sweet Hereafter, Fargo, Leaving Las Vegas, etc. have all just asserted themselves for me as the best of the best. Anyone else?