2000 in film. (The Willenium)

Top ten box-office films of 2000:

1. Mission: Impossible 2
2. Gladiator
3. Cast Away
4. What Women Want
5. Dinosaur
6. How The Grinch Stole Christmas
7. Meet the Parents
8. The Perfect Storm
9. X-Men
10. What Lies Beneath

What are your top three films for 2000? We will keep a running tally and eventually have some sort of bracket. For me it would be:

1. Werckmeister Harmonies
2. In the Mood for Love
3. Yi Yi

What are some of the forgotten gems from the year? What is overrated? What did you discover at a young age and what did you discover later?

YEARS IN FILM • forum.chorus.fm

 

My top three are as strong as any year since the 1960's. Just three breathtaking, incredible films, all in very different modes. There is so much I have to leave off: Songs from the Second Floor, Platform, Dancer in the Dark, You Can Count on Me, George Washington, The Gleaners and I, The Captive, Mysterious Object at Noon.

 

1. Yi Yi
2. In the Mood for Love
3. Battle Royale

Edward Yang is a contender for the GOAT and Yi Yi was my introduction to his work. I actually haven’t revisited it since my initial viewing, which was about 10 years ago, but I recall it so vividly and with such admiration. In the Mood for Love is another masterpiece that would contend for a high spot in my all-time list with Yi Yi, that one I watched again within a week of first seeing it. As far as repressed love stories go it and Brief Encounter are hard to beat.

The third spot was tough to pick but I went with Battle Royale for how many times my friends and I watched it as young teenagers. Gladiator, Best in Show, Almost Famous, American Psycho, George Washington, O Brother Where Art Thou, and Snatch are English language favorites from the year for me

 

Almost Famous but no Werckmeister Harmonies?

 

1. Requiem for a Dream
2. American Psycho
3. Snatch

4. Memento
5. Dancer in the Dark
6. Joint Security Area
7. Ritual
8. Gladiator
9. Amores Perros
10. Yi Yi

Also love In the Mood for Love, Cast Away, Vampire Hunter D: Bloodlust, Battle Royale, Code Unknown.

 

1. Yi Yi
2. In the Mood for Love
3. Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon

A banner year for East Asian cinema

 

Excellent. I need to finally watch Yi Yi. I watched In the Mood for Love a few years back but was distracted, so I need to revisit.

 

You should have used that time demanding that we start 2000.

 

I actually started Mysterious Objects at Noon. I can only really watch things on my laptop after the baby goes to bed, so I save the movies I have on BD for when I can watch them on a TV

 

I haven’t seen it yet!

 

Will post a full list when I have a mo , and I’m not on my phone, but In The Mood for Love is the most intoxicating, deceptive film.

It has a very Vertigo like affect, we see these beautiful and extremely likeable actors engaging in an unhealthy relationship, without it appearing destructive. Despite watching it dozens of times, you still go along with it, and allow it to feel romantic - which it really shouldn't be.

 

I’ll go with what I’ve seen, with the * that there’s classics on my list.

1. American Psycho
2. George Washington
3. Best in Show

 

Aside from American Psycho, Bring it On is probably my most watched from the year. A classic!

others:
Killjoy
Almost Famous
Snatch
Scary Movie
Love & Basketball
Final Destination
High Fidelity
Drowning Mona
Leprechaun in the Hood

 

1. O Brother, Where Art Thou?
2. In the Mood for Love
3. The Emperor's New Groove


I didn't see In the Mood for Love until last year and would have guessed it came out much earlier.

 

I’ve watched Snatch dozens of times and it’s always fun.

 

1. Gladiator
2. The Replacements
3. Snatch

 

In The Mood For Love
Memento
Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon

Still need to watch Yi Yi.

 

"Still need to watch Yi Yi" is a statement that applies to every single person on earth that hasn't watched Yi Yi

 

1. George Washington
2. O Brother, Where Art Thou?
3. Memento

Honorable mentions:

American Psycho
Best in Show
Snatch
Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon
Gladiator
Meet the Parents
High Fidelity
Almost Famous

Haven't seen Yi Yi or In the Mood for Love, but need to get to them soon. Non-American movies are admittedly a big blind spot for me - something I'm trying to fix.

 

Hard to Choose between YiYi and In the mood for love

3. Dancer in the dark

Watching Werkmeister Harmonies today

I really liked The Emperor's New Groove as a child, I remember doing a bit from it to impress a girl during tennis lessons. I rewatched it in 2019 on the overnight bus in Peru, I fell asleep and lost one of my wireless earbuds even though the nice bus attendant helped me look for it it was gone. This was the second worst bus trip event of the trip, the worst was when I sat on my juice in Chile. I finished watching it in semi stereo and it was still rather good.

Brother Where Art Tho is currently my least favorite Coen brothers' film. Its been over 10years so it could have been saying something I missed but from memory I just didn't find it very funny nor care for the Odyssey plot

 

This is probably my favourite top 3 from all the years. Others may have had a deeper selection elsewhere, but for a 1-2-3, this is pretty unbeatable.

1. In the Mood for Love
2. Joint Security Area
3. Yi Yi

As I mentioned above, In the Mood for Love is the most intoxicating and mesmerising film. Two beautiful actors with Maggie Cheung and Little Tony, dressed perfectly, and shot with Christopher Doyle's smoky, hazy style. It's just beautiful.

Joint Security Area is my favourite Park Chan-Wook film, a tragic story about a friendship between a pair of South and North Korean guards in the DMZ. Like all good films about civil war, it's nuanced and complex, never making the issues black and white, and is so even handed that noted movie buff Kim Jong-il was given a copy of it as a diplomatic gift. Despite the politics and conflict, it's still an incredibly human and personal story of friendship between two groups of men, who are more similar than they may care to admit.

Yi Yi is a perfect example of Edward Yang's mastery of characterisation, and of little moments that feel like nothing, but reveal everything. He can make these big ensemble films feel small and intimate by giving even the smallest characters that little something to differentiate them, or make them feel real. Once the camera stops rolling, we're in no doubt that the Jian family will go on, through their trials, tribulations and moments of joy.

Seeing as this is an East Asian heavy top three, to continue with that for the honourable mentions, we've got several great and different films that I enjoy from China. Zhang Yimou's slightly oddball but charming Happy Times, about a man who pretends he owns a hotel in order to impress his blind daughter in law. There's Lou Ye's Suzhou River, a very Wong Kar Wai esque film, full of loose narratives, and moments where you let the plot wash over you, and just enjoy the imagery. Finally, Ang Lee's beautiful Wuxia, Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon.

Battle Royale is brilliant, demented fun that hasn't lost it's kick, despite being imitated a bunch of times since.

The Isle is a proactive and controversial South Korean film, from the often unpleasant, but usually interesting Kim Ki-Duk.

From the UK, two great semi-gangster films, the very silly and funny Snatch, and the more thoughtful Sexy Beast, with a career best performance from Ray Winstone.

Some good mainstream American comedy this year, including O Brother Where Art Thou, Meet The Parents, American Psycho and High Fidelity. Considering the shit that David Gordon Green has gone onto direct, I was very pleasantly surprised by his debut, George Washington, and disappointed that he wasn't able to make more films like that.

Haneke's Code Unknown is like a lot of Haneke films, a few incredible scenes involving violence and confrontation (the long take opening, Binoche on the subway), and a lot of mundanity, but when it hits, it really works.

Amores Perros from Iñárritu, is a fantastic debut film, and also the debut of Gael García Bernal, who is always worth watching.

A Time for Drunken Horses is a very simple and tragic little Iranian film about the children living on the border of Afghanistan and Iran.

A dishonourable mention for Dancer in the Dark, which I absolutely loathe.

 

What did you dislike about it?

 

I thought that it was manipulatively cruel, and didn't do anywhere near enough set up to "deserve" the fate that Selma meets. Cruelty or tragedy in films need to be earned for them to have an impact, we need to feel that the fate that befalls the characters could be us, if we were unlucky, or born in a different time or place, and that the film hasn't tricked us into watching this tragedy, just to load on the horrible events with relish.

We don't get this with Dancer in the Dark, Selma suffers continually, for no reason, and no justification, the film just piling on misery, regardless of it's credulity or not. I may be slightly off on the exact plot points, but Selma is convicted of murder after being assaulted and robbed by a cop, and allowed to use the money that she "stole" (but was actually hers) to pay for her son's operation instead of a lawyer who could release her, and then hanged almost straight after being convicted.

It's the sort of thing where if the film would have gone on twenty minutes later, her son would have been hit by a bus, or her corpse defiled. It's just misery porn basically, leering in the squalor and pain.

For a much more minor gripe, the film does a terrible job visually of looking like it was set in America.

 

Yea Triers big on the misery porn, how did you feel about Dogville?

I Liked how Selma's beautiful and naive positivity was expressed in the musical scenes. Even as It is turned against her, blinded to the people taking advantage she keeps singing.

I don't think Selma was a character that could be us. This was an attempt to create someone who could take overwhelming injustices and persevere somehow. it's very Jesus

In the end she gets the money back but instead of paying the lawyer she pays for her child's operation.

 

Dancer in the Dark is one of the few Lars von Trier films I really like.