During the past 12 months, Hollywood and other independent film makers have released a body of cinema of higher quality than I can remember in any other recent year.
Thus, there are a large number of movie releases this year that I could not fit into the following top 10 list that are still fine films: "The War Zone," the single most brutal look at incest in a film, was too difficult to watch for me to recommend to most moviegoers. "The Matrix" was the best action movie to be released this year. "American Pie" was the funniest. "Toy Story 2" boasted the best animation and was the wittiest children's film in years. Finally, "All About My Mother," "Magnolia," "The Hurricane," and "Angela's Ashes" have all been praised by my peer critics as some of the year's best films, but they haven't been put into wide release yet.
Regardless, here are the top ten movies of the year:
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"Fight Club": When Tyler Durden (Brad Pitt) screams the first and second rule of Fight Club -- "You do not talk about Fight Club" -- Tyler makes a statement more ironic than he could possibly know. David Fincher's adaptation of Chuck Palahniuk's book by the same name is so thought-provoking, frightening and confrontational that it is difficult to avoid discussing it at length. Through dark and gritty images, Fincher explores the dangers of fascism, the evils of corporate America and the lack of intimacy between men and women. And, like a number of other movies this year, he explores mid-life crises, but in this case, the film's narrator's crisis happens during his twenties. As usual, Edward Norton's Oscar nomination-deserving performance as the Generation X narrator steals the show.
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"Election": Alexander Payne's blistering satire depicting the American suburban mindset in a Nebraskan small town is simply brilliant. This film could not be any more cynical. Reese Witherspoon and Matthew Broderick both give subtle and complex performances that are second only to the movie's clever script and Payne's attention to cinematic detail. Visual jokes abound in the film, from the strange opening sprinkler shot to the use of fruit throughout to provide both laughter and meaning. Probably even more interesting than the movie itself is to hear others' reactions to the movie's characters -- people reveal a lot about their personality and hidden feelings in their discussion of this film.
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"Eyes Wide Shut": Stanley Kubrick's last film is a final masterpiece in an already mind-boggling body of work. Indeed, the film stars real-life couple Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman as a married couple who take a surreal journey into sexual temptation reminiscent of Adam and Eve, testing their fidelity and grasp on reality; however, Cruise and Kidman are only vehicles for Kubrick's sweeping and ambiguous script and masterful directing. When at the film's end Cruise's character says of his wife's dreamed infidelity, "A dream is not only a dream," Kubrick wants us to reevaluate our sexual values. How exactly he wants us to change them we may never know, but his "Eyes Wide Shut" certainly gives us something to make it difficult to go to sleep at night.
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"Being John Malkovich" is the single strangest and most unique movie I have ever seen, possibly topping the unusual nature David Lynch's "Eraserhead" and "Lost Highway" -- and that's what makes it genius. The fact that Gramercy Pictures allowed Spike Jonze to make this picture is a miracle in itself, and they should be praised for doing so. In the film's first thirty minutes, Craig Schwartz (John Cusak) discovers a portal in his office on the seven-and-a-half floor that allows him to see the world out of John Malkovich's eyes, so he partners with a friend and sells tickets to those who want to live as Malkovich. Unbelievably, the movie then becomes much, much more bizarre. Even more unbelievably, Jonze actually uses this plot to make some meaningful statements about identity, ethics, commercialism and America's infatuation with Hollywood stars.
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"The Insider": In Michael Mann's expose, the tobacco industry attempts to silence whistleblower Jeffrey Wigand because of his knowledge that a cigarette company used addictive additives in its cigarettes. Russell Crowe turns in one of the best performances of the year as Wigand, depicting a tortured man torn between his family and his conscience. While Al Pacino also impresses, "The Insider's" most valuable asset is its ability to truly frighten the audience, keeping them superglued to their seats. Neither "The Blair Witch Project" nor "The Talented Mr. Ripley" came close to being as frightening as "The Insider" " Mann obviously has learned that by not trying so hard to scare and by not over-promoting, movies can be surprisingly chilling.
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"American Beauty": Judging from "Election" and "Fight Club," American suburban social commentary and mid-life crises are an obvious, overriding theme in this year's movies. While this in itself may have some significance, "American Beauty" still manages to differentiate itself from both of these through its well-written script and heartfelt performances. Kevin Spacey's and Annette Bening's performances as a married suburban couple are almost too believable, and Thora Birch excellently portrays a confused teenager. If only Sam Mendes's direction had been less heavy-handed, this would have been a perfect film.
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"Boys Don't Cry": Like this year's inferior "Twin Falls, Idaho," Kimberly Peirce's painful and unmerciful true story takes a look at a person considered to be a freak by society. In it, Hilary Swank plays Brandon Teena/Teena Brandon, a young woman who wishes she were a man so much that she masquerades as one and wants a sex change. Like the recently released and brutal "The War Zone," "Boys Don't Cry" is difficult to watch and is not for those easily shocked; however, those who do see the film will receive a flawless portrait of a person utterly destroyed by society's restraints. The story of "Boys Don't Cry" is a powerful reminder that the fight against intolerance has not ended.
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"The End of the Affair": Tragic romance pours relentlessly from Neil Jordan's well-crafted period piece about an intense love affair in post-World War II London. While Ralph Fiennes reprises his tormented-lover character from "The English Patient," Julianne Moore bares all (literally, too) as a Sarah Miles, a religious but tempted woman bored with her tedious husband. The meat in "The End of the Affair" comes from its meshing an exploration of spirituality with an endless pit of lust and true love. The movie's insightful look at Sarah's love for both God and her lover results in a creatively touching and emotional love story.
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"Felicia's Journey": While Atom Egoyan's "The Sweet Hereafter" was good, his "Felicia's Journey" is a treasure of subtlety. Young Felicia (Eileen Cassidy) travels from Ireland to England to find her lost boyfriend, but old-fashioned caterer Joe Hilditch (Bob Hoskins) quickly intercepts her quest. "Felicia's Journey" is an ingenious psychological thriller so well-crafted that even during its final moments, the evil that lies in Joe's heart is ambigious. Because Joe's character is so troublingly likeable and disgusting at the same time, Egoyan's film haunts moviegoers for days after a viewing -- always a mark of a great film.
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"The Blair Witch Project": Daniel Myrick's and Eduardo Snchez's "The Blair Witch Project" completely changed the rules of moviemaking this summer. With only $22,000, two independent filmmakers created a horror movie unlike any other -- creative, innovative and most of all -- terrifying. The actors improvised many of the scenes, and even more groundbreaking, the movie was film entirely by one of the three. Then, without the help of a major Hollywood studio, the directors build a word-of-mouth network that major studio executives drooled over until the hype was bigger than Titanic's -- which cost literally 9000 times more money to make -- and many moviegoers believed the story was true.
