The Best Films of the 00s

by Tony Dayoub

Oscar night has arrived. And with the Oscar recipients this year being all but a foregone conclusion, I post an alternative to the conversation happening throughout the rest of the film blogosphere.

Here are the best films of the 00s...

The Best Films of the 00s: 2000

We are fast approaching the end of the 2000s, and it's time to look back and assess what memorable motion pictures should be showcased as the best this decade has had to offer. I've contributed several posts to Ibe Tolis' Film for the Soul and his Counting down the Zeroes project. But in the lead up to the end of 2009, I want to take the time to give you my 10 best for each year. I'll probably tackle a different year every two to three weeks, list my ten in alphabetical order, and offer a few brief insights into why I feel each film belongs on my list (unless I already wrote a review for it, in which case, I'll simply link back to the review). For those who are just dying to know what movie I consider to be the very best for each year, just take a look at the photo I lead into each article with and that should tell you. In January, I'll post my ten best for 2009, culminating with a follow-up announcement of my 10 best films for the decade. And that list won't necessarily feature one picture from each year. And now, the best films of 2000... Before Night Falls, director Julian Schnabel Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, dir. Ang Lee - A departure for Ang Lee (Brokeback Mountain), for many Americans this film was an introduction to the beauty of the wuxia martial arts genre. Lush and romantic, the movie featured world famous actors Chow Yun-Fat (Hard-Boiled) and Michelle Yeoh (Tomorrow Never Dies), relatively unknown here until this picture, and introduced audiences to Zhang Ziyi (Memoirs of a Geisha), the deceptively delicate yet strong-willed actress. Extra points go to Lee for his insistence on presenting the story in Mandarin. High Fidelity, dir. Stephen Frears - Surprisingly relatable (never been that into John Cusack) film that connects because of its verisimilitude. Cusack stars as record-store owner Rob, who is dealing with the fallout of a major breakup from the wonderfully genuine Iben Hjejle as Laura. Features an actually hilarious Jack Black, as Barry, on the cusp of becoming a mainstream jackass. What guy of Rob's generation hadn't made a mix tape for the object of his love? What collector doesn't order and reorder their collection (in this case, record albums) based on any number of things beyond the easy title or artist? Or spontaneously try to put their life into quantifiable OCD-like lists like Rob's "Top 5 Most Memorable Breakups" or Barry's "Top 5 Records to Play on a Monday Morning?" And it's the only film ever to feature a cameo (with dialogue) by Bruce Springsteen. In the Mood for Love, dir. Wong Kar-Wai - One of the most romantic movies ever made, Wong's film picks up on the tiny details that make love soar, like the shared experience of pain whispered in the late hours of the night; the longing to reach out and touch the one you are in love with; the stolen glances between a couple who bond over the infidelities that their respective spouses have participated in, yet are unwilling to commit themselves. The ineffable quality of forbidden love wafts around this film with more potency than it ever has for the master of modern romance. Memento, dir. Christopher Nolan - I've gotta admit... when I first saw this film with its conceit that every successive scene actually takes place BEFORE the previous one, it didn't strike me as clever as much as it did gimmicky. But seeing it again and again has changed my mind. For one thing, it places you in the same frame of mind as its protagonist, Leonard (Guy Pearce), a man who suffers from a form of amnesia that only lets him remember things that happened in about the last ten minutes. Most impressive though is how the movie plays when seen in chronological order, a hidden feature on the Special Edition DVD. This gives you a whole new take on how sympathetic one should actually be towards Leonard. Now, that is clever. O Brother, Where Art Thou? dirs. Joel and Ethan Coen - In this tongue-in-cheek adaptation of Homer's The Odyssey with a great bluegrass soundtrack, George Clooney, John Turturro, and Tim Blake Nelson play fugitives from a chain gang hiding in plain sight as musical group the Soggy Bottom Boys. With well-placed references to cinema (title refers to a film within a film in Preston Sturges' Sullivan's Travels), Greek mythology (John Goodman's one-eyed Big Dan is a stand-in for Homer's Cyclops), and Southern legend (the Soggy Bottom Boys' guitarist is found standing at a crossroads, where he claims to have sold his soul to the devil in return for his musical skill, like the legendary Robert Johnson), this enjoyable romp has enough to entertain on many levels. Traffic, dir. Steven Soderbergh - Though flawed, Soderbergh's movie is an epic for our time. Focusing on the Mexican front in the war on drugs, it still also proves to be timely. A who's who of fine actors (Don Cheadle, Albert Finney, Michael Douglas, Luis Guzmán, Dennis Quaid, Catherine Zeta-Jones) isn't enough to distract from what is a spectacular breakout performance by that year's Oscar winner for Best Supporting Actor, Benicio Del Toro (Che), as an incorruptible Mexican police officer caught alone behind the lines. And any film that gives a role to the underappreciated Steven Bauer (Scarface) gets points in my book. Unbreakable, dir. M. Night Shyamalan Wonder Boys, dir. Curtis Hanson - Michael Douglas (Wall Street) at his most appealing, playing a quirky college professor struggling to regain the success that he had achieved early in his life. Now he faces a divorce, an affair with his boss's wife, and can't finish his second novel. Nice little movie by Hanson (8 Mile) that got lost in the shuffle after his success with L.A. Confidential (1997). You Can Count on Me, dir. Kenneth Lonergan - An actor's showcase for all involved (the ensemble cast includes Laura Linney, Matthew Broderick, and Jon Tenney), but most especially for Mark Ruffalo (Zodiac) as wayward brother Terry. His performance, if not his character's name, conjures up images of Brando in On the Waterfront (1954), and lives up to the comparison. Playwright Kenneth Lonergan's directing debut. Mr. Lonergan, where's your follow-up movie? For more of this continuing series, click here.

DVD Review: My Blueberry Nights - Singer Norah Jones Debuts in Wong Kar Wai 's first English Language Film

by Tony Dayoub



Wong Kar Wai's films live in the space between romantic daydreaming and obsessive longing. His films dwell in the ether that hangs over nostalgia for an ex-lover, where one idealizes all of that person's qualities and flaws fade away. Music that may have played in the background of a long ago encounter is never forgotten. It twists itself around melancholy images, tapping repetitively against memory until it is the memory that fades while the music and the feelings it evokes remain.


My Blueberry Nights, like most of his films, is a love triangle between a man, a woman, and their idealized romantic memories of an ex-lover. Wong's first English language film, it springs from the same domain as his other beloved films, Chungking Express (1994), and In the Mood for Love (2000), even though some of the charm may be lost in the translation.

Conceived as a vehicle for singer Norah Jones, after Wong had enjoyed a meeting with her, it is a reworking of one of his short films. Jones plays Lizzie, a woman who strikes up a friendship with Jeremy (Jude Law), owner of a cafe in New York, after she is dumped by a boyfriend. Every night she orders a blueberry pie from Jeremy, not because she likes blueberries, but because customers generally avoid the pie, and she pities the fact that it is thrown out every night. As their conversations deepen, Jeremy starts falling for her. But Lizzie goes on a cross-country trip, meeting other characters in various stages of loneliness, and writing letters to Jeremy along the way.

The colorful characters she meets are played by David Strathairn, Rachel Weisz, Frankie Faison, and Natalie Portman. In each she sees a reflection of what her loneliness could potentially lead her to be like. And each actor rises to the challenge of creating their roles with little to go on, as Wong frequently shoots with only an outline to guide him.

Some of the flaws? Well, Wong's propensity for shooting without a script works against him here, as English is not his first language. He relied on mystery novelist Lawrence Block to help with dialogue. But since much of his films are usually improvised on set, he is not up to the task of catching cliche dialogue, of which there is much of here. Wong also falls prey to the trap that many foreign-born directors do when filming in America for the first time. Fascinated by the diverse landscape, they usually have their characters visit iconic looking locales in their stories. This movie is all neon signs reflected on car windows, elevated trains, dingy diners, and other such cliches, as the story follows Lizzie from New York to Memphis to Vegas.

One of the charms of his Hong Kong films is how he occasionally references American pop culture in subtle, nuanced ways. In Chungking, his protagonist obsesses about the object of her ardor while addictively listening to The Mamas and the Papas' "California Dreamin'" repeatedly throughout the film. In Mood, it's Nat King Cole he fiddles with. Avoiding his overplayed American catalog, he instead places three of his Spanish language songs in the film, "Aquellos Ojos Verdes", "Te Quiero Dijiste", and "Quizás, Quizás, Quizás". Invoking that romantic singer, while choosing his less predictable Spanish songs, sets the proper ambiance while preserving the mystery for both his native and international English speaking fans. Here the references fall a little flat, as the iconography of America looks a little less bold outside the setting of Hong Kong.

But these flaws are easily overlooked and don't deter from one's enjoyment of the film. Contrary to rumors, Jones acquits herself decently in her first film performance, mostly because the role was created for her. She has little stretching to do, playing a wide-eyed innocent who nonetheless feels like someone who has lived, which is the persona one gathers from her recordings. Her sweet looks belie the smoky voice she performs with (one of her songs is used in the film), which is probably why Wong was fascinated by her in the first place. Her next role may prove to be more of a challenge.

The cinematography by Darius Khondji is lush and candy-colored. Every shot is impeccably staged and composed for maximum beauty. It befits the dreamy romanticism of Wong, and actually gives the beautiful In the Mood for Love a run for its money.

My Blueberry Nights is an interesting venture into American cinema by one of Hong Kong's premiere directors, with his sensibility staying intact throughout. Definitely recommended if you're a fan of any of the artists involved in its production.

This entry first appeared on Blogcritics on 7/1/2008.

Stills provided courtesy of Genius Products and The Weinstein Company.

14 films for February 14th

by Tony Dayoub

In recognition of Valentine's Day, here are some movies that present love in unexpected ways.

¡Átame! (Tie Me Up! Tie Me Down!) (1990) - Victoria Abril, Antonio Banderas; dir. Pedro Almodóvar - This Spanish language film was controversial at the time of its release for being part of a wave of films that ushered in a new era in cinematic sexual frankness. But at its heart, it is just a sweet story of a criminal who kidnaps a porn actress he adores and how she falls in love with him.