A Worthy Bunch That Offers Hope for Cinema

Because the act of reviewing is by definition an exercise in arbitrariness, it follows that:

(a) the selecting of a 10-best list is arbitrariness squared and,

(b) the picking of a top film of the year is arbitrariness refined to such a purity as to be almost meaningless.

Or does it?

It’s undeniable, of course, that subjectivity is part of these lists’ essential nature, something that becomes apparent when it’s time to rank the selections from one to 10. This year, more than any in the recent past, almost any one of this well-balanced group could have justifiably been the No. 1.

On the other hand, calling a particular film the picture of the year has objective value because it puts a spotlight not only on the work itself, but on what it stands for. I wanted to select a film so convincing that it haunted me, wouldn’t let me go, as well as a film that, frankly, gave me hope about the state of the peculiar fusion of art and commerce that is the movie business. I found it in “Ratcatcher,” Scottish filmmaker Lynn Ramsay’s glumly-named but altogether splendid feature debut.

When I first saw “Ratcatcher” at Cannes nearly two years ago, I would have put money on it never reaching this country at all. Though it contains happy, even transporting moments, the story of a difficult childhood is on the bleak side, and its authentic Glasgow accents are so thick it’s hard to believe at times that English is the language being spoken.

But miracles do happen, even in Hollywood. Ismail Merchant, half of the Merchant-Ivory filmmaking team, championed the film, a small company named First Look agreed to do the actual distribution--the film opened here in November and it’s no longer in theaters--and excellent subtitles were added to make the dialogue understandable and to reveal the extent of Ramsay’s exceptional gifts.

“Ratcatcher’s” power lies in its ability to combine two very different and usually mutually exclusive strands of filmmaking. Almost unheard of for a socially conscious film emotionally sensitive to the lives its characters, Ramsay’s debut has a remarkable visual imagination, a gift for putting vivid, poetic images on the screen that go right to the heart. Make no mistake about it, this is the work of a natural-born filmmaker, which is perhaps the most important reason why putting it at the top was as pleasant as it was inevitable.

The rest of this year’s list, more valuable as a whole than in its individual rankings, are:

2. “You Can Count On Me”

Playwright Kenneth Lonergan’s directing debut, this dramatic comedy about a brother-sister relationship, a double prizewinner at Sundance, shocks us for all the right reasons, by creating real people and allowing them to be themselves. Beautifully acted by Laura Linney, Mark Ruffalo, Matthew Broderick and Rory Culkin.

3. “Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon”

Only director Ang Lee could meld the character consciousness of his earlier “Sense and Sensibility” with a spectacular panoply of the kind of Hong Kong-style action sequences he loved as a boy. Starring superstars Chow Yun-Fat and Michelle Yeoh, this is the Asian martial arts film the West, all unknowing, has been waiting for. Also from Taiwan, and also worth a top 10 slot though completely different in style, is writer-director Edward Yang’s graceful and artistic dance to the music of time, “Yi Yi.”

4. “Wonder Boys”

Fastidiously directed by Curtis Hanson and written by Steve Kloves with an eye to preserving the rueful comic sensibility of Michael Chabon’s novel, this smart, literate film about a college professor’s disintegrating life is especially noticeable for its generosity of spirit and its compassion and warmth for people who don’t always receive them. The excellent ensemble cast includes Michael Douglas, Tobey Maguire, Frances McDormand, Katie Holmes, Rip Torn and Robert Downey Jr.

5. “Almost Famous”

Director Cameron Crowe has used his own fine writing and irresistible performances by Patrick Fugit and Kate Hudson to turn a dramatized version of his past as America’s youngest 1970s rock journalist into an intoxicating mixture of Hollywood and reality. By laying hands on his sentimental education, Crowe has made his life yours and your life his for the time this story is on the screen.

6. “Erin Brockovich”

Few things are rarer and more satisfying than crowd-pleasing star vehicles that display intelligence and restraint. Playing a woman who empowered herself by helping others gain justice turned out to be the role Julia Roberts has been seeking for years, and this feminist fairy tale is a career milestone for director Steven Soderbergh as well.

7. “Croupier”

Intense, hypnotic, assured, this taut journey into the world of professional gambling became the surprise art-house hit of the year. Written by Paul Mayersberg and directed by Mike Hodges, it crosses film noir traditions with modern anomie and gets results as cold and potent as vodka right out of the freezer.

8. “Chicken Run”

Claymation wizard Nick Park has put chickens front and center where they belong in this gleeful parody of prison and escape movies. Simultaneously understated and hang-loose, this film has the irresistible hallmarks of the charming and clever style that turned Park’s earlier Wallace and Gromit films into great favorites around the world.

9. “Jesus’ Son”

Director Alison Maclean transformed Denis Johnson’s celebrated short story collection into the sweetest, most punishing of low-life serenades, a crawl through the junkie wreckage created, one character explains, by people just like us, only unluckier. Bleak and comic, heartbreaking and affirmative, romantic and tragic, gimlet-eyed and sympathetic, it’s that rare film that’s almost impossible to pin down.

10. “Dark Days”

Remarkable for where it takes us and how it takes us there, this straight-ahead documentary about people who live in train tunnels beneath Manhattan was made by the residents themselves and, like “Hoop Dreams,” spent enough time with its subjects to allow for the kind of powerful ending that fiction would blush to imagine.

(The year 2000 was in general a strong one for documentaries, which were often more dramatic than their fictional brethren. Among the best were the very personal “The Ballad of Ramblin’ Jack,” and “The Life and Times of Hank Greenberg,” the smartly polemical anti-drug law “Grass” and two examinations of tragedies: “One Day in September,” which dissected the Munich Olympic massacre, and “Into The Arms of Strangers,” which looked at the pre-World War II Kindertransport.)

If this list had room for an 11th choice, I’d likely give it to one of two very different films about the problems young people face, Stephen Frears’ delicious John Cusack-starring “High Fidelity,” or “One,” Tony Barbieri’s rigorous and nuanced directorial debut.

Or, maybe because comedies that actually make you laugh are always in short supply, I might split that 11th spot between two of the funniest films of the year: “State and Main,” David Mamet’s shrewd take on Hollywood, and “Meet the Parents,” a riff on the generation gap with Robert De Niro squaring off against Ben Stiller, two falls out of three.

Funny in different sort of way and very much worth highlighting was Willem Dafoe’s priceless performance as a much-put-upon undead movie star in “Shadow of the Vampire” (opening Dec. 29). Also indelible was Ed Harris’ devastating portrait of Abstract Expressionist Jackson Pollock in “Pollock,” which also featured excellent work by co-stars Marcia Gay Harden and Amy Madigan.

Almost as little-seen as documentaries, foreign language films also had their fine moments. Worth special mention were Germany’s “Aimee and Jaguar,” and France’s “Human Resources” and “Venus Beauty Institute,” plus the unexpectedly powerful Indian film “The Terrorist.”

Speaking of foreign language films, 2000 was also notable as the year the late Krzysztof Kieslowski’s masterful 10-part “The Decalogue,” one of the great achievements of modern cinema, finally made it to theatrical and video release. Even if nothing else of significance happened, that would make it a year to remember.