Top 10 Films of 2000

1. "In The Mood For Love" (Wong Kar-Wai, Hong Kong)

2. "Requiem For A Dream" (Darren Aronofsky, USA)

3. ''Traffic'' (Steven Soderbergh, USA)

4. ''27 Missing Kisses'' (Nana Djordjadze, Georgia)

5. "The Circle" (Jafar Panahi, Iran)

6. "The Emperor's New Groove" (Mark Dindal, USA)

7. "Blackboards" (Samira Makhmalbaf, Iran)

8. "Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon" (Ang Lee, Taiwan)

9. "A Time For Drunken Horses" (Bahman Ghobadi, Iran)

10. "The Isle" (Kim Ki-Duk, South Korea)

Other great films:

101 Reykjavik (Iceland)

Almost Famous

Amores Perros (Mexico)

The Art Of War

Baise-moi (France)

Beau travail (France)

Before Night Falls

Blood (UK)

Book Of Shadows: Blair Witch 2

Center Stage

Chicken Run

La Comunidad (Spain)

Cory szczescia (Poland)

Dancer In The Dark (Denmark)

Dinosaur
Duze zwierze (Poland)

Faithless (Sweden)

La Faute a Voltaire (France)

Freeze Me (Japan)

The Gift

Le Gout des autres (France)

Gouttes d'eau sur pierres brulantes (France)

Harry, un ami qui vous veut du bien (France)

History Lessons

Hochelaga (Canada)

Hollow Man

I Am An S+M Writer (Japan)

Maelstrom (Canada)

Maze

La Mécanique des femmes (France)

Monkey's Mask (Australia)

Mysterious Object At Noon (Thailand)

Naked Poison (Hong Kong)

Nurse Betty

O Fantasma (Portugal)

Psycho Beach Party

Quills

Road Trip

Sade (France)

Scarlet Diva (Italy)

Les Siamoises (Canada)

Small Time Crooks
Snatch (UK)

Songs From The Second Floor (Sweden)

Stardom (Canada)

Tender Age (Russia)

Tuvalu (Germany)

Une pour toutes (France)

Vatel (France)

waydowntown (Canada)

The Whole Nine Yards

Yi Yi (Taiwan)

Short Top 3:

1. "On Top Down Under" (Fridrik Thor Fridriksson, Iceland)

2. "A Word From The Management" (Don McKellar, Canada)

3. "Seraglio" (Colin Campbell, Gail Lerner, USA)

Other great shorts:

Bom! (France)

De l'origine du XXIe siecle (France)

Ladies Of The Night

Mettons-nous a table (France)
Pappa & jag (Sweden)

Plus que parfait (France)

Top 3 Music Videos:

1. "Stan" (Philip G. Atwell, Eminem)

2. "The Real Slim Shady" (Philip G. Atwell, Eminem)

3. "Bye Bye Bye" (Wayne Isham, NSync)

Top Commercial:

"Big" (Tony Scott, Barklays)

Other great commercials:

Dancing Monkey

TV Top 3:

1. "The Sopranos: Season 2" (HBO)

2. "Sex And The City: Season 3" (HBO)

3. "Oz: Season 4 Part 1" (HBO)

Other great TV shows:

Kabaret Olgi Lipinskiej: Czarny pech (Poland)

Kabaret Olgi Lipinskiej: Era Wodnika (Poland)

Kabaret Olgi Lipinskiej: Pralnia na skale kraju (Poland)

Kabaret Olgi Lipinskiej: Slodka dekadencja (Poland)

Cartoon Top 3:

1. "Le Chapeau" (Michèle Cournoyer, NFB, Canada)

2. "Rejected" (Don Hertzfeldt, USA)

3. "Village Of Idiots" (Eugene Fedorenko, Rose Newlove, NFB, Canada)

Other great cartoons:

John Henry

Weak films of 2000:

102 Dalmatians
2 hommes, 2 femmes, 4 problèmes (Germany)
42 Up (UK)
The Adventures of Rocky and Bullwinkle
Une Affaire de gout (France)
Aie (France)
American Psycho
Autumn In New York
Battlefield Earth
The Beach
Bedazzled
Best In Show
The Big Kahuna
Big Momma’s House
Billy Elliot (UK)
Bless The Child
Boiler Room
La Bouteille (Canada)
Boys and Girls
Cast Away
The Cell
Charlie's Angels

Chocolat
The Closer You Get (Ireland)
The Crew
Digimon: The Movie (Japan)
Down To You
Drowning Mona
Erin Brockovich
The Family Man
Les Fantomes des 3 Madeleines (Canada)
Une Femme d'extérieur (France)
Le Fils du Français (France)
Final Destination
Frequency

Full Blast (Canada)
Get Carter
Girl Interrupted
Gladiator
Godzilla 2000 (Japan)
Gone In 60 Seconds
Gossip
Grizzly Falls
Hanging Up
High Fidelity
Highlander: Endgame
The Highwayman (Canada)
How The Grinch Stole Christmas
I Dreamed of Africa
L’Invention de l’amour (Canada)
Isn't She Great?
Keeping The Faith
The Kid
Laura Cadieux... la suite (Canada)
Lea (Germany)
Liberty Heights
The Little Vampire
Lost Souls
Love and Basketball
Lucky Numbers
Me Myself and Irene
Me Myself I (Australia)
Men Of Honor
Miss Congeniality
Mission Impossible 2
Mission To Mars
La Moitié gauche du frigo (Canada)
Les Muses orphelines (Canada)
MVP
My Dog Skip
Né en Absurdistan (Austria)
The Next Best Thing
Next Friday
The Ninth Gate
O Brother, Where Art Thou?
Passionément (France)
Passion of Mind
The Patriot
Pay It Forward
The Perfect Storm
Le Petit Ciel (Canada)
Pitch Black
Play It To The Bone
Pollock
Promise Her Anything (Canada)
Quasimodo d’El Paris (France)
Ready to Rumble
Red Planet
Reindeer Games
Les Rivières pourpres (France)
The Road To Eldorado
Romeo Must Die
Rosie (Belgium)
Rugrats In Paris: The Movie
Rules of Engagement
Saint-Cyr (France)
Saving Grace (UK)
Scream 3
Screwed
The Sculls
Shaft
Shanghai Noon
Snow Day
Sugar Town
Supernova
Taxi 2 (France)
Tequila Body Shots
Thomas And The Magic Railroad
The Tigger Movie
Titan A.E.
U-571
Unbreakable
La Vie après l'amour (Canada)
Virgin Suicides
The Watcher
Whatever It Takes
What Planet Are You From?
What Women Want
Where The Heart Is
Wonder Boys
Wonderland (UK)
Zonzon (France)
Zycie jako smiertelna choroba przenoszona droga plciowa (Poland)

Weak shorts:

Uma Historia de Futbol (Brazil)
Kosovolove (Canada)

Weak TV shows:

Kabaret Olgi Lipinskiej: Entliczek petliczek (Poland)

Kabaret Olgi Lipinskiej: Piknik z premierem w tle (Poland)

Kabaret Olgi Lipińskiej: Opera kosmiczna (Poland)

Kabaret Olgi Lipinskiej: Usiadzmy i porozmawiajmy (Poland)

Kabaret Olgi Lipinskiej: Znikoma szkodliwosc (Poland)

Weak cartoons:

Du Big Bang à mardi matin (Canada)
Father And Daughter (Holland)
The Periwig-Maker (UK)

Top Musical of 2000

"Center Stage" (Nicholas Hytner, Columbia)

In The Mood For Love (2000) *****

Splendid melodrama about marital infidelity, but with a unique twist - we never see the adulterous couple, only their respective spouses and their grief. A rare film that is equally impressive for its formal qualities and its emotional content. Wong Kar-Wai's masterpiece.

Requiem For A Dream (2000) *****

Baise-moi (2000) ****

This French film, directed by Virginie Despentes and Coralie Trinh Thi (for sex scenes), can be seen, depending on one's point of view, either as the best porno movies ever made or as the most sexually explicit action movie ever made. Either way, it's stunning. "Baise-moi" is as violent as "Natural Born Killers", way more daring and exciting than "Thelma And Louise" and far more explicit than "Irreversible", "Romance" and other recent French sex films. An early scene, a gang rape, sets the tone for the rest of the movie. While the scene is explicit, the truly disturbing moment comes afterwards, when one of the victims explains to another that having half a dozen guys ripping off her panties and fucking her wasn't such a big deal for her. She didn't mind being gang raped because there was nothing precious inside her cunt. After that opening scene, the film becomes progressively more violent, while the sex scenes, ironically, become more consensual.

Faithless (2000) ****

Freeze Me (2000) ****

The Emperor’s New Groove (2000) ****

Directed by by Mark Dindal. With the voices of David Spade, John Goodman, Eartha Kitt. Easily the lightest and hippest Disney animated comedy since Aladdin. Fresh, taut and consistently delightful, it’s a masterpiece of cartoony nonsense, moving at outrageous speed, devoid of any sentimentality and packing a wallop of crazy entertainment. The plot concerns a selfish Inca Emperor who’s turned into a llama, but that’s just gravy. What counts here are the gags: verbal, visual, surrealistic, self-reflexive, clever and most importantly, screamingly funny.

A Time For Drunken Horses (2000) ****

Excellent, very humanistic Iranian film about smugglers.

Yi Yi (2000) ****

Tuvalu (2000) ****

Songs From The Second Floor (2000) ****

27 Missing Kisses (2000) ****

The plot of this unique comedy revolves around the romantic adventures of Sybilla, who falls in love with a middle-aged man, while being pursued by his son. Sybilla is a bit of a tomboy, but her raw, uninhibited sexuality literally burns the screen. This is a poetic film, with dream-like images of Sybilla sneaking out the window at night, pressured by her sexual urges into trying to seduce the man of her dreams. This is one of the most intensely erotic films of recent years, expertly directed by Georgian filmmaker Nana Djordjadze (best known for her previous, Oscar-nominated film, "A Chef in Love").

Traffic (2000) ****

Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon (2000) ****

Excellent kung fu movie from Taiwan.

The Circle (2000) ****

Daring Iranian film about the persecution of women.

Blackboards (2000) ****

Excellent Iranian film about smugglers in a remote mountain border area.

The Isle (2000) ****

History Lessons (2000) ***

Maze (2000) ***

Center Stage (2000) ***

Wonderful musical about ballet students in New York. Way better than "Fame".

Chicken Run (2000) ***

An excellent remake of The Great Escape, with chickens instead of Allied POWs.

Dinosaur (2000) ***

Directed by Eric Leighton and Ralph Zondag. With the voices of D.B.Sweeney, Julianna Margulies, Joan Plowright and Ossie Davis. It’s basically a kiddie movie, closer in spirit to Land Before Time than Jurassic Park. The story is simple (thirsty dinos looking for green pastures), little furry chimps (called lemurs) are cute, and the computer animation is (drumroll please) absolutely amazing. Most importantly, little children can learn the same valuable moral lesson their older brothers were taught in Gladiator: when attacked (by a Roman chariot or a Mesozoic T-Rex), stay close together.

Le Gout des autres (2000) ***

Directed by Agnes Jaoui. With Jean-Pierre Bacri, Agnes Jaoui and Brigitte Catillon. Co-winner of the Grand Prix des Ameriques at this year's WFF, Le Gout des autres is a clever comedy of manners, gently poking fun at the social naiveté of some and the cruel sophistication of others. Starring Bacri as a philistine businessman who falls in love with a snobbish actress (Catillon), this little French gem happens to be both entertaining and amazingly profound.

Small Time Crooks (2000) ***

Comédie de Woody Allen. Avec Woody Allen, Hugh Grant, Jon Lovitz, Elaine May et Michael Rapaport. Woody Allen est à son meilleur lorsqu’il est à la fois devant et derrière la camera. Et pour Small Time Crooks, ce comique légendaire abandonne l’humeur nuancé et sophistiqué de ses dernières réalisations, renouvellant avec son régistre loufoque d’autrefois, et nous faisant rire comme dans le bon vieux temps de Take The Money And Run et Bananas. C’est l’histoire d’une groupe de malfaiteurs assez maladroits. Leur plan est simple: louer une boutique de biscuit près d’une banque, creuser un tunnel et voler l’argent. Malheureusement, les travaux du tunnel n’avancent pas (apparemment, ils ne savent pas creuser); par contre, leur affaire de biscuits marche plutôt bien...

Une pour toutes (2000) ***

Directed by Claude Lelouch. With Anne Parillaud, Alessandra Martines and Olivia Bonamy. This might be an insignificant little comedy, with a needlessly complicated narrative structure supporting an absurdly banal story, and full of hilariously pretentious (and self-consciously artsy) touches. But it’s also a tremendously entertaining film, with no less than five gorgeous women leading a bunch of rich men by their noses and getting away with it. Sophisticated French fun.

Hollow Man (2000) ***

Almost Famous (2000) ***

Book Of Shadows: Blair Witch 2 (2000) ***

Scarlet Diva (2000) ***

Before Night Falls (2000) ***

waydowntown (2000) ***

Unique Canadian film set entirely indoors.

Snatch (2000) ***

Very original crime movie from Britain.

Nurse Betty (2000) ***

An eventful black comedy.

Duze zwierze (2000) ***

Excentric little film from Poland.

Dancer In The Dark (2000) ***

Bjork and Catherine Deneuve star in this tragic film directed by Lars von Trier.

The Art Of War (2000) ***

Excellent action thriller directed by Christian Duguay.

The Whole Nine Yards (2000) ***