Five Easy Choices

It’s the Top 10 time of the year, and if these lists have any purpose (aside from the inevitable one of infuriating readers aghast at choices made and unmade) it’s to serve as a kind of gospel in the original sense of the word, to spread the good news about what’s happened in the 12 months past. The chance to highlight positive trends, to give deserved credit, makes these lists worth doing and--hope springs eternal--worth reading as well.

This is also the college bowl time of the year, and anyone who watches football is aware of another way of spreading credit around. When teams go out to midfield for the pregame coin toss, there are three, four or even five co-captains per side, each player representing some aspect of the squad worth commending.

Though tradition dictates that 10-best lists be ranked, the nature of 1997 made this especially difficult. Instead of a single film standing out, five of them did, each representing a different positive facet of the business and any one of which could have made it to the top of the list. So consider these as the five co-captains of the film year:

1. The Sweet Hereafter. This remarkable film about the aftermath of a school bus crash in a small town does so many difficult things so well it’s close to miraculous. It enables an excellent director, Atom Egoyan, to move from cult status to the mainstream without loss of impact. It serves as a textbook example of how to adapt a novel, preserving the essence of the Russell Banks original while being completely its own work. And it is able to honestly treat powerful, emotional material without sentimentalizing the results. The more other films reveal their weaknesses, the more welcome this success seems.

2. L.A. Confidential. The ability to reinvent genre material is what keeps the movie business vibrant. With an exceptional ensemble cast directed by Curtis Hanson, this reworking of the James Ellroy novel about been-around guys and femme fatales looks more and more like the definitive noir for this particular time and place.

3. As Good as It Gets. Director James L. Brooks and star Jack Nicholson show the virtues of experience. Starting from some of the most unlikely romantic comedy premises, these two, plus co-stars Helen Hunt and Greg Kinnear, come up with a wise and unexpected fantasy that is as shrewd about relationships as it is generous with laughs. (Opens Tuesday.)

4. Boogie Nights. Director Paul Thomas Anderson and star Mark Wahlberg are the exciting new kids on the block. A nervy, assured film about the most unlikely subject matter, the pornography business in the San Fernando Valley in the 1970s and ‘80s. The film, starring Wahlberg, Julianne Moore and Burt Reynolds, is most welcome as the coming of age of a young directing talent, 27-year-old Anderson, precocious in his ability to be empathetic, nonjudgmental and gently satiric.

5. La Promesse. The best foreign film of the year, this French-language effort from Belgium illustrates the cinema’s always-surprising ability to make gripping and unforgettable entertainments out of profound issues. The story of how a 15-year-old liar and sneak thief discovers the existence of morality proves that compelling personal dilemmas make for the most dramatic cinema.

The other half of 1997’s Top 10 are as follows:

6. The Apostle. A personal project for star Robert Duvall, who also wrote and directed, this years-in-the-making story of a Pentecostal minister’s spiritual crisis gives one of America’s preeminent actors his best role since winning an Oscar for “Tender Mercies” nearly 15 years ago.

7. Fast, Cheap & Out of Control. A one-of-a-kind extravaganza by Errol Morris, the most original talent now working in documentary film. Using fluid juxtapositions of image and sound to link profiles of a quartet of eccentric but unrelated personalities, Morris is intent as always on pushing nonfiction filmmaking as far as it can go.

8. Deconstructing Harry. A scathing look at marriage, adultery and the literary life, Woody Allen’s 28th feature is his most compelling and accomplished in years, psychologically acute, biting funny and willing to make audiences writhe in fury.

9. A Self-Made Hero. Precisely thought-out by co-writer and director Jacques Audiard and beautifully acted by Mathieu Kassovitz, this stylish and cinematic film about the nature of deception shows how a young Frenchman passed himself off as a hero of the French resistance. (Also noteworthy from France is the just-opened “Will It Snow for Christmas?”--an assured and deeply felt examination of the nature of a mother’s love.)

10. Wag the Dog. What is rarer than deft political satire combined with a spoof of Hollywood, made on the cheap with some top stars (Dustin Hoffman, Robert De Niro, Anne Heche)? Director Barry Levinson and co-screenwriter David Mamet make it look simple. (Opens Thursday.)

If there were an 11th slot, it would be amusing to divide it among two of the most disparate films of the year. Action maestro John Woo’s “Face/Off” is as deliriously cinematic as big-budget movie making gets, while Victor Nunez’s quiet, reflective “Ulee’s Gold” is a career-capping triumph for star Peter Fonda.

Though they are traditionally the least-watched of movies, 1997 turned out to be a very strong year for documentaries. In addition to the Morris film, attention should be paid to “East Side Story,” a mind-bending selection of clips from musicals made behind the erstwhile iron curtain; “Licensed to Kill,” Arthur Dong’s troubling and surprising look at anti-gay violence; and “Four Little Girls,” Spike Lee’s wrenching examination of Birmingham Sunday and the bombing deaths that galvanized the civil rights movement.

It was also a good year for humor that was off the beat but consistently amusing. Unsentimental Australia contributed “Love Serenade” and “Love and Other Catastrophes,” Kevin Kline exploited his genius for farce in “In & Out,” and the John Cusack-starring “Grosse Pointe Blank” and the Christopher Guest-starring “Waiting for Guffman” proved to be as funny as they were indefinable.

Last and quite possibly least, 1997 also was a high point for films involving the biggest bugs anyone’s ever seen. Both Guillermo del Toro’s chilling “Mimic” and Paul Verhoeven’s over-the-top “Starship Troopers” would qualify for the Exterminator’s Trophy, if there were such a thing. By this time next year, there probably will be.

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KEVIN THOMAS’ TOP 10 LIST

1. “L.A. Confidential”

2. “The River”

3. “Hamsun”

4. “The Sweet Hereafter”

5. “Underground”

6. “La Promesse”

7. “Capitaine Conan”

8. “Up / Down / Fragile”

9. “Waco: The Rules of Engagement”

10. “Bang” and “Family

Name” (tie)

Honorable Mentions: “Eve’s

Bayou” and “Ma Vie en Rose”