January 1, 2001

Hannibal (2001) *

Very disappointing sequel to "The Silence Of The Lambs" (1991).
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Artificial Intelligence A.I. (2001) *

A schizophrenic, but interesting clash of two very different artistic visions: Stanley Kubrick's, who prepared the film shortly before his death (and whose vision clearly dominates the first half) and Steven Spielberg's, who ended up directing it (and whose vision clearly dominates in the second half). The results are quite disappointing.
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Ali (2001) *

Conventional boxing drama.
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December 12, 2000

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:

Amores Perros (Mexico)
Beau travail (France)
Blood (UK)
La Comunidad (Spain)
Freeze Me (Japan)
Hochelaga (Canada)
Naked Poison (Hong Kong)
O Fantasma (Portugal)
Sade (France)
Scarlet Diva (Italy)
Les Siamoises (Canada)
Stardom (Canada)
Tuvalu (Germany)
Une pour toutes (France)
Vatel (France)
waydowntown (Canada)
Yi Yi (Taiwan)


Top 10 Guilty Pleasures of 2000:

1. "Faithless" (Liv Ullmann, Sweden)

2. "Maelstrom" (Denis Villeneuve, Canada)

3. "The Gift" (Sam Raimi, Paramount)

4. "Gouttes d'eau sur pierres brulantes" (Francois Ozon, France)

5. "101 Reykjavik" (Baltasar Kormákur, Iceland)

6. "Monkey's Mask" (Samantha Lang, Australia)

7. "Tender Age" (Sergey Solovyov, Russia)

8. "La Mécanique des femmes" (Jérôme de Missolz, France)

9. "Baise-moi" (Virginie Despentes, Coralie Trinh Thi, France)

10. "Maze" (Rob Morrow, USA)


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)

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:


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:

The Goddess Of 1967 (Australia)
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:

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Top Musical of 2000

"Center Stage" (Nicholas Hytner, Columbia)


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November 11, 2000

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

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October 10, 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.
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Faithless (2000) ****

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Freeze Me (2000) ****

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

Excellent, very humanistic Iranian film about smugglers.
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Yi Yi (2000) ****

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Tuvalu (2000) ****

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

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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").
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Traffic (2000) ****

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Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon (2000) ****

Excellent kung fu movie from Taiwan.
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The Circle (2000) ****

Daring Iranian film about the persecution of women.
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Blackboards (2000) ****

Excellent Iranian film about smugglers in a remote mountain border area.
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The Isle (2000) ****

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September 9, 2000

History Lessons (2000) ***

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