Best of 2000

40. Time Code (11 lists; 1 top spot)

“Surprisingly breezy to watch, because Figgis smashingly manipulates sound to focus our attention from one place to another.” — Stephen Rosen, Denver Post

39. Hamlet (11 lists; 3 top spots)

“Icy-cold in its palette and unwaveringly cool in its application of modern settings and gizmos to a text that stands up to endless reinvention, this is a Hamlet that brings imagination matched by thoughtfulness to its appeal to both eye and ear.” — Susan Stark, Detroit News

37. Girlfight (12 lists)

“While it wonderfully confounds our narrative expectations as a coming-of-age story and a romantic drama, it works on another level as a great sporting experience.” — Peter Howell, Toronto Star

37. Sunshine (12 lists)

“Legendary Hungarian director Istvan Szabo (who won an Academy Award in 1981 for best foreign film with “Mephisto”) has created one of the most powerful movies in years.” — Paul Clinton, CNN.com

36. A Time for Drunken Horses (14 lists; 1 top spot)

“The nonprofessional cast of Bahman Ghobadi’s remarkable, slow, rough edged feature reveals a simple, piercing grimness and determination framed by the gray, icy landscape of Iranian Kurdistan.” — Lisa Schwarzbaum, Entertainment Weekly

35. In the Mood for Love (14 lists; 2 top spots)

“In one sense it’s like an erotic dream that dissolves before fulfillment; in another sense In the Mood suggests that the lovers are remembering the fragmented incidents of this tale from the distance of time.” — Edward Guthman, San Francisco Chronicle

34. Ghost Dog: The Way of the Samurai (15 lists)

“Jarmusch has introduced historical references … that have opened up his imagination and extended his thematic and affective range well beyond that of his first five features.” — Jonathan Rosenbaum, Chicago Reader

33. Ratcatcher (15 lists; 1 top spot)

“Some may find such wrenching realities shocking, if not reprehensible. Others may glean meaning in their starkness — a meaning that transcends the film’s despair with the power of its truth.” — Bruce Westbrook, Houston Chronicles

32. The Color of Paradise (15 lists; 2 top spots)

“This is a transcendent film, deeply committed and beautifully wrought. It will make anyone who sees it look at the world with new eyes.” — Bob Graham, San Francisco Chronicle

31. Thirteen Days (16 lists)

“Bruce Greenwood is exceptional as JFK — quite a surprise after his smarmy villainous turns in Double Jeopardy and Rules of Engagement.” — Mike Clark, USA Today

29. Shadow of the Vampire (16 lists; 1 top spot)

“Wholly absorbing and inspired in parts, this carefully crafted curio dares to suggest that Murnau made a Faustian pact with an actual vampire to play the title role in exchange for the neck of the film’s leading lady at production’s end.” — Todd McCarthy, Variety

29. State and Main (16 lists; 1 top spot)

“Has the hermetic, vacuum packed atmosphere of all the films that David Mamet has directed, yet cleverness, heightened to a pitch of acid tongued amorality, is both its flavor and its meaning.” — Owen Gleibermann, Entertainment Weekly

28. George Washington (16; 2 top spots)

“It remembers a summer that was not a happy summer, but there will never again be a summer so intensely felt, so alive, so valuable.” — Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times

26. Best in Show (17 lists)

“…it’s always a pleasure to watch this ensemble of gifted talents do what they do best — be spontaneous and funny and surprising. What we get is a master-class demonstration of the distinction between comic actors and comedians who try to act.” — Mark Bourne, Film.com

26. Jesus’ Son (17 lists)

25. Chuck and Buck (18 lists; 1 top spot)

“What makes Chuck & Buck a brave movie is that it doesn’t attempt to sugarcoat or elevate childish qualities the way movies such as Disney’s The Kid and Forrest Gump do.” — Mark Caro, Chicago Tribune

24. Humanite (19 lists; 1 top spot)

“You probably won’t feel comfortable when Humanité is over, but as you leave the theater you will feel more alive than when you entered.” — Stephen Holden, New York Times

23. Nurse Betty (22 lists)

“In his third, most accomplished film, LaBute puts aside the inquiry of misogyny that dominated his previous work and immerses himself in a lighter romantic fable about the collision of fantasy and reality, with a terrific performance from Renee Zelwegger” — Emanuel Levy, Variety

22. The Virgin Suicides (23 lists)

“[Coppola] has the courage to play it in a minor key. She doesn’t hammer home ideas and interpretations. She is content with the air of mystery and loss that hangs in the air like bitter poignancy.” — Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times

21. Quills (25 lists; 3 top spots)

“It argues its case fairly, acknowledging the implicit dangers in its position, and dramatizing the price that inevitably will be paid for its cherished goal of untrammeled personal expression.” — Stephen Hunter, Washington Post

20. The Wind Will Carry Us (25 lists; 4 top spots)

“A film poem of sometimes humbling beauty: a movie that opens up a new world to us – in the mountains of Iranian Kurdistan – with an enchanting freshness and austerity of vision.” — Michael Wilmington, Chicago Reader

19. Before Night Falls (26 lists; 3 top spots)

“It’s a struggle not just to make art but to exist, which is itself an art. And to that goal, the cast members, led by the astonishing Bardem, allow themselves to be devoured by the roles they are playing.” — Michael O’Sullivan, Washington Post

18. Cast Away (27 lists; 1 top spot)

“A brave film, and a surprisingly absorbing and finally affecting one, partly because it’s about that least American of trinities — silence, solitariness, and the spiritual deepening impossible to achieve without both.” — Jay Carr, Boston Globe

17. The House of Mirth (30 lists; 3 top spots)

“Stick with the film, accept the rules of the time and the meditative rhythm of the language that Davies has woven into his story, and you won’t be disappointed.” — David D’Arcy

16. Beau Travail (32 lists; 8 top spots)

“A movie so tactile in its cinematography, inventive in its camera placement, and sensuous in its editing that the purposefully oblique and languid narrative is all but eclipsed.” — J. Hoberman, Village Voice

15. Billy Elliot (33 lists; 1 top spot)

“Julie Walters … is spirited and colorful as the ballet teacher, and Gary Lewis is somehow convincing as the dad even when the screenplay requires him to make big offscreen swings of position.” — Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times

14. O’ Brother, Where Art Thou? (37 lists; 4 top spots)

“This particular excursion into screwball madness is often heavenly, and frankly leaves critical explication somewhat unnecessary.” — Robert Horton, Film.com

13. Gladiator (38 lists; 2 top spots)

“Though the digital effects lack the weight and conviction of their equivalents in old Cecil B. De Mille movies, Ridley Scott’s sword-and-sandal epic has some of the intensity of old Hollywood in terms of storytelling, spectacle, and violence.” — Jonathan Rosenbaum, Chicago Reader

12. Yi Yi (39 lists; 15 top spots)

“It’s a delicate film but a strong one, graced with the ability to see life whole, the grief hidden in happiness as well as the humor inherent in sadness.” — Kenneth Turan, Los Angeles Times

11. High Fidelity (40 lists)

“Mr. Frears has managed for the most part to retain the velocity of the narrative without sacrificing the psychological coherence of the characters.” — Andrew Sarris, New York Observer

10. Chicken Run (41 lists; 1 top spot)

“It’s immensely satisfying, a divinely relaxed and confident film. Mr. Park and Mr. Lord brilliantly integrate everyday objects into the story.” — Elvis Mitchell, New York Times

9. Croupier (44 lists; 4 top spots)

“With its fascinating, multi-layered plot, intelligent screenplay, and subtle-yet-undeniable tension building, Croupier is an engrossing, stylish thriller that never threatens to wear out its welcome.” — James Berardinelli

8. Requiem for a Dream (45 lists; 5 top spots)

“Dream proves a number of things: the audacity of director Darren Aronofsky’s eye, the brilliance of Ellen Burstyn’s acting and an apparent poverty of discernment or intelligence on the MPAA ratings board.” — John Anderson, Newsweek

7. Erin Brockovich (48 lists; 1 top spot)

“From the opening to the perfect final shot, Roberts is in nearly every scene of Erin Brockovich, and there isn’t a second when we’re not on her side.” — Charles Taylor, Salon.com

6. Dancer in the Dark (50 lists; 7 top spots)

“Graced with a particular genius for absorbing the past to suggest an exciting cinematic future.” — Lisa Schwarzbaum, Entertainment Weekly

5. Wonder Boys (57 lists; 4 top spots)

“Michael Douglas gives the best perfromance of his career (to be remembered at Oscar time) in this screwball comedy about a college professor who’s pushed into maturity by forces beyond his control; a well-acted coming-of-age saga for adults.” — Emanuel Levy, Variety

4. Traffic (68 lists; 14 top spots)

“Traffic looks like the Oscar best-picture front-runner, and so does Soderbergh, for best director. But long after everyone has forgotten who won the statues, it will be remembered as one of film’s most stylish and electrifying wake-up calls.” — Jay Carr, Boston Globe

3. Almost Famous (73 lists; 12 top spots)

“As a director [Crowe] has an extraordinary gift for drawing out rounded, complex performances even in supporting roles and for indicating the fine emotional shadings in the relationships among his characters.” — A.O. Scott, New York Times

2. You Can Count on Me (90 lists; 13 top spots)

“The characters in You Can Count on Me have been freed from the formulas of fiction and set loose to live lives where they screw up, learn from their mistakes and bumble hopefully into the future.” — Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times

1. Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (113 lists; 44 top spots)

“Once in a great while, a movie engages us so thoroughly that we slip the surly bonds of Earth and experience a rare moment of transcendence. Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon is such a movie.” — Charles Ealy, Dallas Morning News