Hey folks, Harry here with my picks for my choices for BEST FILMS that I saw in the year 2000. As I am sure many of you will note there are a great deal of films that are not listed… Below you will find 15 features in the order of my preference. And while I liked a great deal more than these in the calendar year that has passed… these that are listed here are the films… that as of this moment, I feel are my picks that in addition to being beloved by myself, also offer quite a bit more than being ‘just a movie I like’ or ‘just being cool’.

While compiling the list from my master list of all the films I’ve seen this year all I could think was that the best film experiences I’ve had in a theater this year had nothing to do with the calendar year… But rather had to do with the screenings I attended and where usually films released at some point in the past. My favorite? SNAKE IN THE MONKEY’S SHADOW… an absolute transcendental film experience with a perfect film audience as the first film on the last night of films at this year’s Quentin Tarantino Film Festival aka QT QUATTRO. Or during the same festival, I was introduced to Fernando Di Leo or GAMBIT or SAINT JACK. Also watching WONDER BAR or THE SEA WOLF or SNATCH at this year’s BUTT-NUMB-A-THON. At one point this year I found myself at the Alamo Drafthouse with Tim, Quint, Jed, Father Geek and myself watching BEETLEJUICE in 35mm glory at 4am and realized that this life of mine is truly beautiful in the living. Or watching a Double Feature of Ken Russell’s THE BOYFRIEND and the Kirk Douglas classic THE VIKINGS in my backyard in Scope with Quint as mist from above placed the particles in the air to create a shaft of visible flicker light from the projector.

The best moments of film come individually. Not packaged in a Hollywood Weekend… not always… Sometimes they are the memories and presentations you create for yourself… but the following follow the traditional rules for creating such lists…

It should also be noted that I could only find 15 titles to place on this type of list, whereas last year I had 30… that does show the type of year we’ve had. As for my worst list… that will be coming, and believe me… that was even easier!

These are MY picks, and remember, when evaluating this sort of thing, your list is YOUR LIST, my list is Mine. We are equally wrong and right. The fun is in the arguing back and forth. OH… and the key film that I haven’t seen this past year was WONDERBOYS which I never was able to catch… so based on reputation… consider that. I’ve seen just about everything else though.

The first 10 films are all virtually or nearly at a tie in my mind, with the order coming only on the slimmest of preferences. Afterall how can you compare a stop-motion film about chickens trying to live free in the hills of England with 4 troubled New Yorkers brought to their knees by addiction in an NC-17 nightmare world or a romantic black & white French film about transcendental love and fate or Ang Lee's Martial Arts Masterpiece or the black and white documentary or a film about suicide and the mysteries of little girls... In assembling the list I had to finally bring in things like historical significance, personal repeat watchability and when all of that was done... this is what I came up with. Enjoy

1 REQUIEM FOR A DREAM

Why is this the best film of the year? It doesn't have the gosh gee whiz of CROUCHING TIGER HIDDEN DRAGON or that film’s romantic soul. It doesn’t have the luscious sense of other-worldly bliss that GIRL ON THE BRIDGE has.

What REQUIEM FOR A DREAM does have is poignancy, power and sheer emotion. This film throws everything at you… Assaulting you with the very viscera of cinema. The technique that Darren Aronofsky throws about in this film is brutal and entrancing, but because of his actors… ALL OF THEM… at no point am I taken out of the film by his technique. Instead it helps to propel every moment and nuance of the film.

Ellen Burstyn did not give a Best Actress performance this year… that is downplaying her accomplishment on screen in this film. She gave the best performance in film this year. Male/Female… doesn’t matter. Her pleas to be on the TV and to wear that Red Dress… Absolutely stunning. The fidgeting in her eye… The twitching in her lips, the rubbing of her fingers and then her delivery… This character is a film classic.

Every single character is fully realized with personality and soul. Jennifer Connelly has never been so beautiful and so tragic all at the same time. Jared Leto has never even been close to a film this good before. I love FIGHT CLUB, but this film has all the concussive oomph of that film. HOWEVER, it has acting and character work that far exceeds anything done there.

SEE THIS MOVIE at all costs. Theater Owners, I challenge you to swing open those doors and let anyone in… regardless of age. This film must be seen by all, for it is the best film of 2000.

2 GIRL ON THE BRIDGE

If I was allowed to offer just one name into the BEST ACTOR category this year it would be Daniel Auteuil. His Gabor was my favorite male character on screen this year. And this is quite simply my favorite story of the year. The idea that there are two losers in the world… utterly hapless without one another, but when together, they are so complete that the very world bows… chance disappears… everything aligns for them and their whims. However, since both had been losers for so long, they have trouble accepting being winners in the here and now and are always trying to split apart. FANTASTIC AND BRILLIANT! I love it. I can watch this film continually for days on end. Is it the themes of running off and joining the circus or carnival? Could be… Is it Vanessa Paradis, the most lovely woman on film this year? Could be… Overall, I believe that it has to do with the pure romanticism of this movie. Love is never so transcendental as it is when portrayed in black and white.

3 CROUCHING TIGER HIDDEN DRAGON

As you can see from my top three choices of the year, there really isn’t a theme other than the fact that the studio created films of 2000 just really didn’t do it for me. CROUCHING TIGER HIDDEN DRAGON is the film event of 2000. Over time this film will continue to grow in power and significance. This is the first GREAT MOVIE to incorporate into a serious drama, many of the techniques and flairs of the martial arts cinema. For a geek like me, watching a Kung Fu film with the dramatic power this film has kills me. I love it. Like 2001 was for SCIENCE FICTION. Like THE SEARCHERS was for the WESTERN. Like THE GODFATHER was for the Crime Film. Like all great pivotal films it redefines the genre in which it is telling its story. Also, along with those other films, the movie ensures that Ang Lee will be placed in the history books as being a filmmaker that changed a genre… something quite remarkable.

4 THE VIRGIN SUICIDES

I never got a chance to see this film in a theater because… well one thing or another kept me from that theater and made it so that I missed it. However, luckily, Moriarty called it to my attention and placed it on his 35mm Home Theater set up and I took a look see. As you can probably guess from its placement on this list… I loved it.

Sophia Coppola has done something remarkable. She has made the best Coppola directed film made in the last 20 years. And she did it by filling the film to the very brim with details and moments of truth. This is the best film about ‘mysterious little girls’ since Peter Jackson’s HEAVENLY CREATURES.

However, this film takes a completely different tact. Coming at the mystery of little girls, not from within, but from the outside. From those boys across the street trying to figure the beautiful mysterious creatures out.

I would like to formally offer up for awards, Kathleen Turner, for Best Supporting Actress. I had all but given up on ol Kathleen… There are only so many V.J. WACHOWSKIs and that other junk I can take from a once beloved film star before I begin to lose interest… but here she commands the screen and plays the thankless role of the strict mother sans make-up and made to look older and older. A great turn for her, and the type that I award because it is hard to crawl out of the ‘bad film slump’ that actors often times find themselves trapped in. Here she has managed to escape. Her husband in the film, James Woods is fantastic as the squirrelly weird math-teacher/shell-shocked parent.

Then there are the girls and their moments… they are beautiful and sad… a houseful of trapped beauties awaiting to be set free… watching the world around them fall apart.

Like in HEAVENLY CREATURES, they are shown alive and happy and everybit the vibrant young girls that they are.

Also, Josh Hartnett delivers a spot on perfect performance as Trip.

The script by Sophia, based on the novel by Jeffrey Eugenides, and her direction are perfect. I lost myself in this film. And the music was bliss… one of the best soundtracks and scores I’ve heard this year. NOT TO BE MISSED.

5 DARK DAYS

I first saw this film at SOUTH BY SOUTHWEST here in Austin in a mostly empty Paramount Theater. I chose to see this based upon the reception by AICN spies at Sundance, and passed up going to a party with the Hughes Brothers to stay and see it. This is why I watch movies rather than party. Watching this film felt like the best science fiction film noir and horror film wrapped in an extremely realistic drama.

However, this Documentary by first time filmmaker Marc Singer gripped me around the throat… slowed down my breath and took me where I never dreamed of going. Beneath the sewers and subway tunnels of New York into sub-strata areas where hundreds of homeless live in New York in utter darkness… eating rats, killing them… sometimes each other. Building fires, patching into electrical mains for power… building subterranean houses… fighting the bugs, going above ground for supplies and returning. Broken people with terrible tragedy in their lives and the potential for so much more than what they were living.

This is the documentary that is simply too good to be nominated for an Academy Award. So instead, I recommend a Noble Peace Prize. A GREAT FILM!

6 THE TERRORIST

I first saw this film off the coast of Nicaragua in a Dutch Cruise Ship filled with film critics and movie fans. Many on the ship were quite upset at the number of subtitled films being offered at the festival, and their frustration was only matched by Roger Ebert’s extreme frustration at their frustration. And I couldn’t agree more. Films like THE TERRORIST are why we go to that cinema around the corner without the films in the top ten.

In America, we hardly ever get to see films from INDIA, but this year I’ve seen 3 films by filmmakers from India that I love. UNBREAKABLE, which many of you saw… a little seen festival film called ABCD by Krutin Patel that was my pick at the AUSTIN FILM FESTIVAL and then there was Santosh Sivan’s THE TERRORIST, the best of the lot.

Santosh Sivan has directed a stunning and beautiful film about a young beautiful Indian girl named Malli, played by Ayesha Dharkar, who enters into the world of terrorism. Now this film has no country by name, no political beliefs by name and no religious beliefs by name. Instead what we have here is a brilliant story about a teenage girl, who instead of existing in our world, has embraced the world of mine fields and explosive vests and suicide missions. Haunting and unforgettable. Absolutely one of the best films I’ve seen this year. Good luck finding it, but it is worth every second of the search! If there was any justice in the world she would be nominated for Best Actress… but alas she has no Big Academy Campaign to push her.

7 ALMOST FAMOUS

Yes, I am quite aware that this is my first mainstream American produced studio film on the list, but you have to understand… It has been a frustrating year for the American Film Market in terms of great films made at home. Most of the ‘Academy fodder flicks’ churned out at the end of the year had major flaws amongst the brilliance. Problems that I just couldn’t place above the films you see here… which didn’t have them.

I love ALMOST FAMOUS, in that giddy sort of way, and I’m dying to see CAMERON CROWE’s much longer UNTITLED when it comes to DVD… whenever that may be. But right now, I have to say, as is, ALMOST FAMOUS is the best Studio film made in America this year. I’d pick the wide-eyed Patrick Fugit for my final 5 best actors this year. I’d nominate Frances McDormand for Best Supporting Actress. And I would like to break up Kate Hudson’s first marriage and marry her immediately.

The film has a bit of magic in it. The type that makes loving it easy. I still feel that it is one of the most personal films made by a filmmaker this past year… an ode to a muse, that which was a source for creation. A Beautiful Soulful movie. And again, Cameron… wherever you may be… Thank you.

8 BAMBOOZLED

Massively misunderstood by folks at large, and some critics completely knee-jerked their reviews based on the blackface and allowed their skewed perceptions based on these to blind them to the brilliance of the satire that SPIKE LEE was engaging in.

Spike completely unleashes on the entire media perception in the 20th Century of Black Culture as represented in film and television.

While I may not agree with all of his theories and perceptions, I can not deny that he makes his point fantastically. Unfortunately, not enough people caught this film.

After watching the film, go to Amazon and order A SEPARATE CINEMA: FIFTY YEARS OF BLACK CAST POSTERS by John Kisch and Edward Mapp. In addition to giving you a list of a great many titles to films that Spike Lee makes references to, they complete your history lesson with wonderful write-ups about each film. Should be made the companion book for the film.

9 SHADOW OF THE VAMPIRE

One of my early fave films of the year. E. Elias Merhige created from Stephen Katz’s wonderful script a film that I love.

Just now is it finally being released across the country, and hopefully you’ll enjoy it as much as I do. Malkovich and Willem Dafoe are fantastic in the film, and if Dafoe doesn’t win BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR for his portrayal of Max Schreck, then the Academy should just close up.

Watching Dafoe in this film was a blessing. He put so much thought into the character… giving Schreck that strange eccentric feel that would have to come to a character that had lived for centuries and centuries. Watching everyone die, killing to stay alive. Played like nothing I’ve seen before, his performance and character work actually adds more resonance to the original film for me. I LOVE THIS BABY!

10 CHICKEN RUN

A perfect work of cinema. Aardman Animation enters into the world of feature films, and the medium has been improved instantly.

Gorgeous cinematography, a great score, wonderful unforgettable characterizations and an absolute splendid time in a theater.

The film has only one flaw, the knowledge that it’ll be at least 2 years till we get the next feature from Aardman. As great as this film is, Aardman is only going to improve. Watch the Gromit films, each one got better. This will be the same… trust me…

11 GIRLFIGHT

Michelle Rodriguez is just wonderful in this film and the direction from Karyn Kusama is absolutely superb. SEE IT!

12 OH BROTHER WHERE ART THOU

Listed as the worst film of the year by a fella at ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY… Are they on Crack? Could be, it is all in the eye of the beholder, and to this beholder, this was cinematic bliss. Not my pick for the best Coen film, but ya know what… Let’s see if we can ever get a consensus on that one. The score, visuals (BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY competitor with CROUCHING TIGER HIDDEN DRAGON) and performances by the three leads are all bliss. Enjoy.

13 UNBREAKABLE

I dearly love this film, but it isn’t quite as complete as the films in the top ten. I’ve seen it 4 times now and love it dearly. I wish the alleged trilogy was going to happen, but alas it seems evil forces beyond the control of Mr Glass or Poncho Man have gathered to defeat the would be classic trilogy. Sigh….

14 TRAFFIC

The final version of TRAFFIC is a glorious almost GREAT film. The various stories seem a bit abbreviated. Everybody seems to feel the Benicio Del Toro section is the best, I agree and he should be nominated for Supporting Actor, and Erika Christensen should be nominated for Supporting Actress. But unfortunately not all the pieces are equal or fit as perfectly as some. The film just feels less personal and more ponderous than it should. When it works, it works brilliantly. Unfortunately it isn’t a brilliant two hours and twenty-seven minutes…

15 TWO FAMILY HOUSE

I adore Raymond De Felitta’s film about a man with a little dream in a place where dreams don’t mean squat. Only a heartless bastard could refuse to love this film!