29 December 2000

3. CROUCHING TIGER, HIDDEN DRAGON
Like so many good films this year, this one is a genre bender. Ang Lee took the art film, the kung fu film, the romantic adventure, and the movie musical and mixed them into a beautiful, passionate, wild marmalade of a movie. The film has no predecessor... except for the entire history of movies. Even mentioning things like the fact that Yuen Woo Ping also choreographed the wire work in The Matrix are too mundane when discussing the magic of Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon. Chow Yun-Fat and Michelle Yeoh bring their personal iconography to the picture as the "adult" leads, and then there is the glorious work of Ziyi Zhang, who deserves a Supporting Actress nomination as much as anyone out there this year. This film makes the claim of "girl power" that Charlie’s Angels has taken look silly with real girl power. Women fight women, men fight women, men fight men, but all with honor and grace and beauty. A perfect antidote to some of the worst films of the year.

2. TRAFFIC
Has there ever been a great film about drugs? Not really. There have been drugs in films and films with characters on drugs, but no one has dealt with the rich moral complexity of this issue. Until now. Steven Soderbergh had delivered his second masterwork of the year with Traffic, telling the story of drug trafficking from a wide variety of angles. And each is as complicated and real and ugly and beautiful as the truth. There isn’t a performance in the film that doesn’t hit it out of the park. But the heart and soul of the film is Benicio Del Toro, who carries the suffering of the movie on his shoulders and is the only one who understands how small the victories must be in a world of losses. And if you think that the massive amount of Spanish he speaks in the film will hurt come Oscar time, keep in mind that De Niro won for The Godfather II with all but three lines of his dialogue in Italian. Catherine Zeta-Jones also deserves unique recognition for her pitch-perfect work as a woman who has it all and intends to keep it... regardless of the cost. Soderbergh used a completely different team (cinematographer and cutter) on Traffic and got amazing technical work across the board yet again. But most importantly, he pulls off an entire parade of human desperation and finds ways to bring some light and hope to every story. One of the great movies ever.

1. BEFORE NIGHT FALLS
How does one describe a work of abstract art? I heard word that Before Night Falls was special. But I had no idea. Julian Schnabel has made a film that should hang on the wall of the Metropolitan Museum of Art. He has somehow managed, in just his second film, to learn the intricacies of what film is all about and to spew it out in fresh and shocking ways, over and over, without calling attention to the fact that he is pushing the artistic envelope. The audience has to bring themselves to the screen, prepared to feel and think and suffer. The story of Reinaldo Arenas is not a happy one on the surface. But the expression of passion that Arenas brings forth is as joyous and beautiful as his life is stark and emotionally violent. It’s an interesting reflection of Quills that Arenas, stuck in absolute poverty, carves his one- and two-word poems into trees. And that upon learning that his grandson may be gifted artistically, his grandfather literally chops down a tree in a rage, taking an ax to his spirit. But he will not be denied. His voice will rise above Havana like a balloon and keep on rising, no matter how many bullets his oppressors put into it. Schnabel has, in collaboration with the amazing actor Javier Bardem, offered us a chance to go somewhere that we have never been able to go in a film. It is magical; it is literal; it is literate; and it is all about a deep breath of life.

E-ME. What are your favorites of 2000?

HOLIDAY SCHEDULE:
Wednesday, 12/27 - Top Ten Movies I Just Don't Get
Thursday, 12/28 - The Worst Ten of 2000
Friday, 12/29 - The Best Ten Films of 2000
Weekend, 12/30 - New Year's Resolutions
Tuesday, 1/2/01 - Hot Button 2001 begins