The Magnificent Seven
(The Best Movies of 1999)
In our Best of 1999, we expressed our hope that 2000 would be half as good a year for movies. It wasn’t. Unlike last year, when American Beauty had us looking closer, this year’s film offerings usually made us want to look at a book.
Still, we try to be optimistic here at Screen & Noted. Though Y2K didn’t exactly produce a bumper crop of celluloid greatness (see our Worst of 2000), at least there was no Armageddon to worry about—film or otherwise. And aren’t you glad you won’t have to hear the term “Y2K” anymore?
Actually, there were some movies that managed to emerge from the cesspool smelling like a rose petal-covered Mena Suvari. As per our David Fincher fixation, we’ve picked seven of these as our best films of 2000. They come from a variety of genres; you’ll find comedy and even action among the usual batch of character-driven dramas. But all of them represent what we like best about the movies: imagination, good storytelling, and above all, entertainment.
OUR TOP SEVEN
(presented in alphabetical order)
American Psycho – Mary Harron’s adaptation of Bret Easton Ellis’s infamous novel was chilling not only for Christian Bale’s breakthrough performance as corporate climber-slash-serial killer Patrick Bateman, but for its insinuation that Bateman’s soul is only slightly more dead than that of the yuppie next door.
Best in Show – Mock-meister Christopher Guest earned a blue ribbon with his faux documentary about show dogs and their hilariously idiosyncratic owners. The year’s funniest movie, it proved that one Fred Willard cameo is worth a thousand of Scary Movie’s head-impaling penises.
Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon – Taiwanese director Ang Lee’s masterpiece honoured its ancestors—old-school martial arts movies and heroic-epic wuxia novels—with an uncanny blend of dreamy imagery, high romance, and fight choreographer Yuen Wo Ping’s trademark flying-warrior fantasies.
Erin Brockovich – Steven Soderbergh wisely kept his bag of art-house camera tricks shut, and let Julia Roberts do the best acting of her career. Playing a real-life legal assistant who helped win a huge class-action lawsuit, Roberts dressed like a hooker, swore like a sailor, and proved beyond reasonable doubt that she’s not just a romantic-comedy lightweight.
Gladiator – A Circus Maximus of crowd-pleasing entertainment, Ridley Scott’s throwback to sword-and-sandal spectacles like Spartacus and Ben-Hur won a thumbs-up thanks to Russell Crowe’s virility and Joaquin Phoenix’s villainy. We who are about to buy [the DVD] salute you!
Traffic – Featuring the year’s most to-die-for ensemble cast, Steven Soderbergh’s denouncement of America’s War on Drugs was a stylish, carefully layered antidote to an overdose of wastoid tripe like Dude, Where’s My Car? Wait a minute… isn’t Steven Soderbergh already on this list?
X-Men – A senses-shattering optic blast from director Bryan Singer, complete with a Wolverine (Hugh Jackman) seemingly willed into flesh from the pages of Marvel Comics. ‘Nuff said?
As always, we want to hear from you. Drop us a line and let us know which films you think should have made the list, and which ones don’t belong there. We’re always happy to hear the opinions of others before disregarding them completely.