29 December 2000

10. HIGH FIDELITY
The first of two films in the Top Ten that would have to be considered narrowcasting. Both, not coincidentally, were commercially hoisted on their own musical petards. High Fidelity tells the story of the male search for love, as seen through the eyes of John Cusack’s 30-something-year-old regular guy -- who is also special -- in Chicago. Jack Black, as a big mouth who can deliver the charm when he wants to, steals the show with his high-energy performance. The women, from Iben Hjejle to Lisa Bonet to Catherine Zeta-Jones, are sexy and spectacular and reason enough for a man to lose his mind. But it’s the music and the love of it that drives this film. The music is always safer than the women but, ultimately, you have to let it all hang out and work to make it happen.

9. THE TERRORIST
A terrific movie that I caught at Roger Ebert’s Overlooked Film Festival; it’s stayed in my brain pan for months and months since. On the surface, The Terrorist is a simple tale of a young woman who is ready to give her life in the service of her country and her beliefs. The star is Ayesha Dharker, who will soon be seen in the second Star Wars movie. She is small and fierce and sexy and completely focused, a human missile of spirituality. The film was made in 1998 and finally released in America last January. Director Santosh Sivan went against the traditional Bollywood style of Indian cinema to make this as a rare Indian indie and created a very special film.

8. POLLOCK
After I saw this film it a few weeks ago, I didn’t expect to rank it this high. The acting is spectacular, but it felt to me, at first, like an actor’s bonanza and not all that much more. But again, it is a film that I continue to think about long after the screening. Interestingly, it is one of six films in this year’s Top Ten that is, in some major part, about a wonder boy. Pollock is a powerful story about an artist who knew he had greatness in him and was willing to battle every demon and reality itself in pursuit of his dreams. Completing him is his wife, Lee Krasner, who understood genius and was willing to battle to follow her husband’s dreams as well. I’m not acquainted with the truths of Pollock’s life, some of which director/star Ed Harris has been accused of leaving out, but based on the experience of the film itself, it deserves high praise indeed.

The Top Seven that follow have something in common beyond my appreciation for them. Each also represents a remarkable tour de force by the director. Five of the seven come from established masters, who are working at the top of their game. One comes from a well-respected talent who reaches a new level with his latest film. And one comes from a second-time director who has assimilated film, it seems, into his blood, with stunning and unexpected results.

7. FINDING FORRESTER
Gus Van Sant covers some of the same ground that he did with Good Will Hunting, but he takes it to a more intimate place with a less glib urban edge. I had a conversation with a colleague in which he claimed that I connected with this film partly because it was the story of a father and a son. But he doesn’t get the film. The magic of Finding Forrester is that the young man gives as much to the older man as he gets... probably more. There is a real equality between the two, when all is said and done, because the power of genius is not quantified by age, but by the genius itself. The subtleties of this film are lost on some because Van Sant doesn’t wave the flags. Rob Brown’s performance is nearly perfect, with all the grunt and shuffle of every teenager in America. And Sean Connery gives his best performance since The Untouchables.

6. ALMOST FAMOUS
Cameron Crowe has been a professional writer since he was 15 years old. He knows how to do it and he knows how to do it well. But his work as a director has grown every time he’s gotten into the director’s chair. And he has reached a new peak with Almost Famous, a movie as warm and clean and relentless and peaceful as the story itself. Crowe has a unique ability to change speeds and to slow things down to a pace that would scare most directors away. In this "unofficial" autobiography, Crowe takes his movie doppelganger through the looking glass into the world of rock-n-roll and celebrity. Beautiful. Can’t wait for the director’s cut.

5. QUILLS
Philip Kaufman has long embraced the rough-hewn reminiscence of history. Quills, from Doug Wright’s play of the same name, is a story about censorship and society’s willingness to silence human communication for the sake of convenience. It just so happens that the Marquis de Sade wrote about sex. So, Kaufman gets to romp and have fun, but he always comes back to the core issue... the silencing of a man’s truth, regardless of whether it is meaningful or frivolous, angry or kind. This is a wonderfully theatrical piece and the cast shines from start to finish.

4. ERIN BROCKOVICH
Soderbergh’s first masterpiece of 2000. What was Steven Soderbergh doing directing a Julia Roberts film that was being sold with Julia’s low-cut blouse? Well, brilliant stuff, thank you. Of all the major director’s films, Brockovich is the most subtle. But don’t let that fool you. There is a lot of gutsy, funky work by Soderbergh and cinematographer Ed Lachman and editor Anne V. Coates, much of which goes right over the head of the audience. And that’s a good thing. I always use the example of a bed scene with an ill Marg Helgenberger (great performance!) in which Soderbergh & Co. have a bright white light behind the bed. This is a massive piece of continuity illogic... but it is beautiful and it brings something remarkable and foreshadowing to the sequence. There are edits in this film that literally brought tears to my eyes. The simple power of the man throwing rocks at the power plant... and the moment of Helgenberger realizing what is going on and the intimacy of Erin and George and the lady at work turning on Erin’s light... wonderful stuff. And then there is Julia Roberts. And Albert Finney. And Marg Helgenberger and on and on... a great, great movie that I was sure would be in the top slot... for a long time.

PAGE FOUR: The Top Three