Year in Review: 1939

1939 is often referred to Hollywood’s greatest year - and it is easy to see why. There are so many films from this year that would go on to become among the most well remembered and beloved of all Hollywood films. So of course, I had to select a French film as the year’s best. C’est la vie!

10. Only Angels Have Wings (Howard Hawks)
While I cannot say that I agree with those who think that Only Angels Have Wings is Howard Hawks’ greatest achievement – I do have to say that the film is a delight to watch. Cary Grant is as charming as ever a pilot in South America who runs the mail service flying over the Andes to get the mail to where it needs to go. Over the course of a few days his entire life changes – first, a pretty American (Jean Arthur) arrives and becomes immediately infatuated with Grant and decides to stay. The two talk and flirt, but Grant doesn’t want to be tied down – he is a cynic and a fatalist. Things only get worse when they new pilot they hired arrives – bringing with him his wife (Rita Hayworth), who was once engaged to Grant. Hawks creates the wonderful atmosphere of Columbia in his idealized view of these professional flyers – and also does a great job with the flying sequences themselves. I may prefer Hawks either in his Western or screwball comedy modes, but Only Angels Have Wings is certainly an entertaining movie.

9. Wuthering Heights (William Wyler)
Although this film version of Wuthering Heights leaves out almost half the novel, and tacks on an ending with the ghosts of the two leads walking hand in hand, which pretty much goes against what the novel was about in the first place, this remains the best version of the novel for the screen that we are likely ever to see. Laurence Olivier was given his breakthrough role as Heathcliff, the orphan who is brought to the wealthy estate of Wuthering Heights and raised by a rich man alongside his two other children – including Catherine (Merle Oberon) and Hindley (Hugh Williams). The children have different reactions to Heathcliff – Catherine falling in love with him, and Hindley becoming his sworn enemy. But when Catherine decides to marry the wealthy Edgar (David Niven) instead of Heathcliff – he flees the estate, only to return a few years later – now wealthy himself, and hell bent on revenge. Although the second generation of characters has been eliminated from the movie (thus Heathcliff doesn’t fall as mightily as he does in the novel), the story retains its fascinating and its power. It is a film about destructive, passionate love – and how it can bring both joy and pain. I tend not to think that Heathcliff and Catherine were meant for each other – and that after her death, Catherine wouldn’t want to walk hand in hand with him anymore – but that’s just my own feelings, and doesn’t diminish this film in the least.

8. Stagecoach (John Ford)
Personally, I have always preferred Ford Westerns that were darker than this film – The Searchers, The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance, etc. Having said that, you cannot argue against the filmmaking, the storytelling or the acting in the film – and it is certainly among the most influential films ever made (Orson Welles was said to have watched the film 40 times while making Citizen Kane). The film is about a loose knit set of strangers who head out on a stagecoach through Apache territory. Claire Trevor is a prostitute being driven from town, Thomas Mitchell an alcoholic doctor and Louise Platt is a pregnant woman travelling to see her Calvary officer husband – and these are just a few of the people on board. On their journey, they run into the outlaw the Ringo Kid (John Wayne, in his breakthrough role) who has vowed vengeance against the men who killed his brother and father, and is a wanted fugitive. The film moves along at a wicked pace but always remains focused on the storytelling and the characters. Yes, I do find the film a little too simplistic in terms of its treatment of the Apaches, and yet Stagecoach remains today a entertaining Western – a prototype for much of the genre that would follow.

7. Le Jour Se Leve (Marcel Carne)
Marcel Carne’s Le Jour Se Leve is a marvelous film about sexual obsession and murder. Jean Gabin gives one of the most iconic performances of his career as a blue collar worker who falls in love with the young and innocent Jacqueline Laurent. He wants to marry Laurent, but while he is dating her, he is also sleeping with the more experienced Arletty. Laurent it appears is under the thumb of a magician – Jules Berry – who lies constantly to Gabin to try and get under his skin. Gabin is ever so slowly driven further and further by Berry – finally snapping and murdering him (although we see this in the first scene, we do not understand why until much later) – when Berry has implied that he may have corrupted Laurent before Gabin got there. The film is a dark depiction of Gabin, who is not able to get over the fact that his beloved Laurent may not be a virgin. This is a fascinating film – a precursor to film noir to be sure as it has the innocent girl and the femme fatale, and also a film that has probably inspired the work of Martin Scorsese. Carne was a great director – and he would go on to make the masterpiece Children of Paradise that touched on some similar ground – but Le Jour Se Leve stands as one of his best achievements.

6. Young Mr. Lincoln (John Ford)
I don’t think that John Ford’s Young Mr. Lincoln has much to do with the real Abraham Lincoln or historical fact, but that doesn’t mean it isn’t a wonderful film in its own right. Henry Fonda, who looks nothing like Lincoln by the way, does capture the nobility and small town folksiness associated with him however. He is a young lawyer in Springfield, who stops the lynching of two men accused of murder by telling the townsfolk that he needs them as his first clients. But Lincoln believes they are innocent and fights hard for them – eventually climaxing in a kind of Perry Mason like confession at the last minute. What I love about the movie though is that it is never quite as simple as its surface appears – Fonda’s Lincoln is more complex than he appears – a great man before he became great – a man with the ability still to be happy, before history will come crashing down on him and make the depressive he was in later life. The movie really isn’t about the court case at all – that simply provides a plot for Ford to allow him to explore Lincoln in more depth than we usually see people like him portrayed. John Ford made three films in 1939 – Drums Along the Mohawk, Stagecoach and this one – and while the other two are probably more famous, Young Mr. Lincoln is his masterpiece of the year. And it is a film that belongs near the top of any list of Ford’s best films.

5. Ninotchka (Ernst Lubitsch)
Ninotchka is one of the greatest comedies of the 1930s – a film directed by Ernst Lubitsch, who could always be counted on to deliver great comedies, and written by Billy Wilder and Charles Brackett, who of course would continue to make great comedies for decades to come. The film stars Greta Garbo is her greatest role as the title character – a super serious Soviet government worker sent to Paris after three of her colleagues, who went there to sell some jewels from the previous empire to support the Soviet state got sucked into the decadence of the West. Melvyn Douglas plays a Count, who has been hired by a former Russian Duchess to try and stop the sale of her jewels. At first, he is just playing her, but gradually the two fall in love. The film is a grand romance, but more than anything it is a comedy that pokes fun of Stalinist Russian mercilessly. The one liners run fast and furious (my favorite: “The last mass trials were a great success. There will be fewer, but better, Russians”). The film works because both Douglas and Garbo are at the top of their games – they play off each other brilliantly, Garbo showing a flair for comedy that few thought she had. One of my favorite comedies of all time.

4. The Wizard of Oz (Victor Fleming)
There are some movies that imprint themselves on your mind as a child and then never let go. The Wizard of Oz is a movie like that. It is a film that taps into some deeper seeded insecurity inside all children – the fear of getting lost, stranded away from home, with your parents unable to find you. It is about growing up and realizing that sooner or later, you’re on your own. It is, of course, also a glorious fantasy with wonderful musical numbers, great costumes, make-up, art direction and bold, bright colors that still look amazing today. The film is darker, scarier than most children’s movies today would even dare to attempt, let alone succeed at. And in Judy Garland it has the perfect heroine for the story – not because she is bold and brassy – but because she was exactly the opposite – vulnerable and scared. It is a film in which at least four different directors had a hand in shooting (among them George Cukor and King Vidor), but it feels like a solid, unified work. The film remains a classic not just because of its story and characters – although they have become as iconic as any screen characters in history – but because it taps into something deeper, darker and scarier – and yes more serious – than almost any other “kids” movie in history. That it retains that power over 70 years later is remarkable.

3. Gone with the Wind (Victor Fleming)
Gone with the Wind is one of the most popular films in movie history – beloved my pretty much every woman (including my mom) that has ever seen it. It is not a perfect film – you can tell that there were two different directors on the film, and that the first half directed by George Cukor is a little better, a little more intimate than the epic finale. But really, who I am to complain? Vivien Leigh gives one of the greatest of all screen performances as Scarlett O’Hara, the spunky heroine of the film who doesn’t quite realize that she should not be in love with the wussy Leslie Howard when she has the ultimate man’s man in Clark Gable’s Rhett Butler (Gable was never more charming by the way). The film still has the ability to sweep you up in its grand, epic Civil War romance – even if it has become dated it some of its attitudes (that Hattie McDaniel was able to create such a three dimensional character out of Mammy is perhaps one of the films greatest achievements. Gone with the Wind is beloved for a reason – it really is as good as everyone says it is.

2. Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (Frank Capra)
In our cynical times, especially when it comes to politics, Frank Capra’s Mr. Smith Goes to Washington is a movie shares at least a little of that cynicism, even if it gives a happy ending to the proceedings. James Stewart gives one of the best performances of his career as a Boy Scout leader who is picked by the governor of his state to fill their vacant Senate seat. The governor thinks of Smith as little more than a country bumpkin who will be easy to manipulate – and sure enough when he gets to town, he is immediately taken under the wing of another Senator – Claude Rains – who seems so nice, but is actually corrupt (although, he at least still has a conscience). But Mr. Smith surprises everyone – he is smarter, and more honest, than people in Washington are used to seeing. When Rains and his minions try and discredit him, he takes to the floor of the Senate for a filibuster – one of the most famous scenes in screen history. Politics may not actually work like this, but wouldn’t we all like to believe that it could?

1. The Rules of the Game (Jean Renoir)
Yes, in a year that has been referred to as the greatest in Hollywood history, I had to choose a French movie as the best. That shouldn’t be all that surprising since I am a huge fan of Jean Renoir, and The Rules of the Game is undoubtedly his masterpiece. The film was reviled upon its initial release in France, and banned when the Nazis invaded, but has gone on to become one of the most critically acclaimed films in history – in many polls it ranks second to only Citizen Kane. Renoir’s film is about the upper class, who spends all of their timing playing at being joyful, and the lower class that tries to do the same thing. It takes place at a country home over a long weekend – when many people play at having affairs, but don’t actually have them. They seem to take more joy in chasing the objects of their affection than actually getting them – more joy in sneaking off for secret rendezvous’ than what they may actually do when they do get away. The cast is massive, the subplots nearly countless, and it is all captured by Renoir’s seemingly weightless camera. The film is shot almost entirely in deep focus, and we can often see the subplots playing out in the background, and more important things are happening up front. Only a few of the people in the movie actually play by the rules – the rest seemingly ignore them, and that will lead to tragic consequences. It is easy to see why many French critics on the eve of war didn’t like the film – it portrayed its citizens as idiots who are ignoring the outside world as it comes crumbling down around them. The Rules of the Game belongs near the top of any list of the greatest films ever made.

Just Missed The Top 10: Drums Along the Mohawk (John Ford), Goodbye Mr. Chips (Sam Wood), The Roaring Twenties (Raoul Walsh).

Notable Films Missed: Dark Victory (Edmund Goulding), Love Affair (Leo McCarey), Midnight (Mitchell Liesen), My Apprenticeship (Mark Donskoi), Of Mice and Men (Lewis Milestone), The Story of the Late Chrysanthemums (Kenji Mizoguchi).

Oscar Winner – Best Picture & Director: Gone with the Wind (Victor Flemming)
It is nearly impossible to argue against Gone with the Wind winning the best picture Oscar – it is arguably the most popular film in history, and the best film of the year – The Rules of the Game – wasn’t released in America during the course of the year (not that it would have been nominated anyway, but that’s beside the point). It is perhaps the grandest American epic in history – a film that romanticizes the South sure, but also captures your heart. The win for Flemming as director is much less defensible however – not because the film isn’t well directed (it is), but because by most accounts George Cukor directed roughly half the damn film, and Flemming was little more than David O. Selznick’s lackey (that is why, even though he is the credited director of this and The Wizard of Oz, two of the most popular films in history, he is never mentioned amongst the best directors ever). But whatever – Gone with the Wind is a great movie, and it really did deserve the Oscars it won – even if I would have chosen something else.

Oscar Winner – Best Actor: Robert Donat, Goodbye Mr. Chips
Robert Donat was a wonderful actor, and he really is quite good in Goodbye Mr. Chips. But when you consider he beat out James Stewart in Mr. Smith Goes to Washington and Clark Gable in Gone with the Wind – two of the most iconic of all screen performances – you really have to wonder if he really deserved to win. Donat’s win in part came because the previous year they decided to give Spencer Tracy his second Oscar for his sympathetic priest in Boys Town, instead of to Donat for The Citadel, so they decided to make up for that snub this year (much like they did the following year, giving Stewart the Oscar for The Philadelphia Story, ignoring the fact that Cary Grant was the real male lead in that film). As far as the movie itself goes, I have always preferred the darker visions of English boarding school life – The Browning Version or The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie for example – the Mr. Chips’ sentimentality. That isn’t to say the film, or the performance, isn’t good – but neither are great.

Oscar Winner – Best Actress: Vivien Leigh, Gone with the Wind
It really is impossible to argue against this award. Vivien Leigh’s Scarlett O’Hara is one of the most infamous of all screen performances – defiant, sexy, sensitive, strong, Leigh played them all over the course of the 4 hour epic. The story is hers, and we rarely leave her side for the entire running time of the film – and she captivates us in every scene. I know that some women idolize O’Hara – but I’ve always seen her as a bit of a bitch – but in a good way (I certainly am not one of those people who believe that she’ll get back together with Rhett when the movie ends – he has finally stood up to her and walked out, and I don’t think he’s looking back). Leigh would go onto to play an even greater Southern belle in Blanche DuBois (at least in my opinion), and it’s these two performances that guarantee her immortality. As long as people watch movies, they’ll watch Leigh’s Scarlett.

Oscar Winner – Best Supporting Actor: Thomas Mitchell, Stagecoach
I for one am glad that Thomas Mitchell won an Oscar – and for a Ford western at that. Mitchell was part of Ford’s stock company of actors, making God knows how many films with him over the years. His performance as the drunken doctor in Stagecoach is hilarious, and at times more than that, but I don’t think it really constitutes his best work. Hell, considering he also played Scarlett O’Hara’s father in Gone with the Wind, and a pilot in Only Angels Have Wings, I’m not even sure if this was the best performance he gave this year! But Mitchell was a wonderful character actor at a time when they really were important, and yet too often overlooked. So I’m happy he won this one.

Oscar Winner – Best Supporting Actress: Hattie McDaniel, Gone with the Wind
Hattie McDaniel’s win for Gone with the Win was historic because she became the first African American to ever win an Oscar. But her win is more than just political – her Mamie is a life force in the movie – perhaps the only person who is not intimidated by Scarlett, and unafraid to tell her how she really feels. I will admit that I do find it a little strange that McDaniel is so damn happy to be a slave, but she played the part she was given, and did a wonderful job with it. More often than not, McDaniel was relegated to the background in her movies – you rarely take notice of her because she’s always playing “the help”. She has 96 credits listed on IMDB, and I bet you half of them she was billed as “Maid” or some other nameless servant. She built a solid resume during the 1930s, but after Gone with the Wind she rarely got any decent roles anymore. She left her Oscar to Howard University when she died in 1952 – but the Oscar went missing during the race riots of the 1960s, and has never been found. She was wonderful in Gone with the Wind, and I wish she had been given more a chance to act in her life. She truly did deserve this Oscar.

Year in Review: 2000

2000 kicked off the decade with a little bit of whimper after the great films of 1999 led us to believe that perhaps we were entering a new era of great American moviemaking. While it was American films that dominated this year, and some great ones at that, they were not as daring as their 1999 counterparts were. Still, when the film at number 10 on my list really does take some HUGE risks, it’s hard to complain that much.

10. Bamboozled (Spike Lee)
Spike Lee’s Bamboozled is the most criminally neglected film of his career. This is one of the smartest, angriest satires of the decade – a film that is both hilarious and incendiary that deserves to be mentioned alongside films such as Network and The Producers. Damon Wayans stars as a writer at a struggling TV network, who is sick and tired of his boss, Michael Rapapport, telling him that his shows aren’t “black” enough. So Wayans decides to pitch the most racist show possible to the network so that he will be fired, and walk away with money and start fresh somewhere else. He finds two street performers – the insanely talented tap dancer Savion Glover and his comedic sidekick, Tommy Douglas, and gets them to agree to be in a show entitled “Mantan: The New Millennium Minstrel Show”, that is to feature all black cast, wearing black face, doing tap dances and comedy routines that would make Al Jolson blush all to take place in a watermelon patch, with its own band called The Porch Monkeys. He is shocked when the network not only puts the show on the air, but when it becomes a critical and financial hit. Lee strikes out in all directions – at rap music, at Tommy Hilfiger, at malt liquor, at entertainers who degrade themselves to make money, at pseudo militant groups, at white people who want to be black, and at black people who want to be white (Wayans effects a ridiculous accent that sounds like nothing I have ever heard before). I don’t think he hits all of his targets, and I don’t agree with everything Lee is rallying against in the film, but I admire his courage in making the film, and find it fascinating from beginning to end. It’s funny, well made, well written, well acted and completely one of a kind. Why do I seem to be the only purpose who gets this, and thinks that the film easily ranks among Lee’s best?

9. The Virgin Suicides (Sofia Coppola)
The Virgin Suicides is about the Lisbon sisters in a Michigan suburb in the 1970s. These five sisters were all gorgeous, all blonde and were all over protected by their strict parents – James Woods and Kathleen Turner. You know from the title, and the opening narration, that the Lisbon sisters will kill themselves, but the movie remains fascinating and mysterious. In fact, it’s not really about the Lisbon sisters at all – all of them, except for Kristen Dunset, the most beautiful of the sisters, remains an enigma throughout the film. Instead, the film is about how the Lisbon sisters are perceived by the boys in their neighborhood – boys who were not quite teenagers yet, and didn’t quite understand their lust, but felt it just the same as they watched the sisters. What amazes me about Sofia Coppola’s debut film is how confident it is. Many first time directors try to cram in too much into their films – feel the need to explain everything away. But Coppola does not do that – she keeps the films mysteries to herself. Why do the Lisbon sisters kill themselves? We never really know, because we never really get to know them – just how they were perceived by outsiders. And that, in the end, is the entire point of the movie.

8. High Fidelity (Stephen Frears)
Some films feel like they were made just for you – and Stephen Frears High Fidelity is a movie like that for me. It stars John Cusack in his greatest role, except maybe Say Anything, as a Chicago record store owner. His store doesn’t make much money, but he doesn’t really care – he likes to sit around with his two employees (Jack Black and Todd Louiso) and make lists of the Top 5 anythings to do with pop music. His latest girlfriend, Iben Hjejle, has just left him for an aging hippie (Tim Robbins, utterly hilarious) and so Cusack decides to make a list of his top 5 most painful breakups, and track down his ex’s one by one to figure out where he went wrong. Cusack is so utterly likable and charming that you hardly realize just how tremendously self involved he really is, and neither does he, until late in the movie. The reason why I think this movie was made just for me should be obvious (how many top 10 lists have I made up anyway), but that’s only part of the reason I love it. The film is smart about modern relationships, with people like Cusack who are “professional admirers”, and is also hilarious and rather heartfelt. There is no deep meaning to High Fidelity – but there doesn’t need to me. It’s perfect just the way it is.

7. Dancer in the Dark (Lars von Trier)
Lars von Trier is a director who is constantly pushing himself, and his films, to further extremes. Sometimes, he fails miserably. But when everything comes together, he is capable of making brilliant films like Dancer in the Dark. Bjork gives a mesmerizing performance as Selma, a poor Czech immigrant in 1964 who is going blind, and works constantly in the hopes of saving enough money to get her son an operation to prevent him from also going blind. Von Trier shoots is deliberately melodramatic scenes in almost ugly looking digital video, drained of color. But at several points in the film, Von Trier smashes through all that drabness and allows Bjork to belt out songs like in an old fashioned Hollywood musical. These scenes are full of color and the joyous songs – which are at odds with the drab surroundings they take place in. Von Trier’s film is certainly not for everyone – it has a plot that is impossible to take seriously on realistic terms – it almost seems like a silent movie plot, and scenes play out that way repeatedly. But what the film is a bold artistic statement – Von Trier is rejecting modern movie making in all its realism, and instead giving us something altogether different. You may love Dancer in the Dark, you may hate it, and I would not argue with either opinion. But one thing that cannot be denied is that you will never forget the film.

6. O Brother, Where Art Thou? (Joel & Ethan Coen)
The Coen Brothers O Brother, Where Art Thou? is a gloriously demented screwball comedy. They used to make films like this all the time in the 1930s and 40s, but Hollywood seems to have forgotten how to do them properly – except for the Coens. George Clooney, Tim Blake Nelson and John Turturro play three convicts who escape from the chain gang in the South, and go on an Odyssey inspired by Homer. They meet a young black guitarist who has sold his soul to the devil to learn to play the guitar, sirens who lure them in with their song and a giant man with a patch over one eye (John Goodman). Along the way, they become recording stars and crash a Klan meeting as well. The film, like all of the Coen’s work, is brilliantly well made – the cinematography drained of color giving the entire film a sun burnt look. The Coens seem to know just who to cast in their films to bring out their quirky dialogue to life. Some will undoubtedly complain that the characters are more caricatures than anything else, and while to a certain extent that’s true, it’s also true of many screwball comedies. And O Brother, Where Art Thou?, which by the way takes its title from the movie Joel McCrea wanted to make in Preston Sturges’ Sullivan’s Travels, is one of the best of its kind.

5. Wonder Boys (Curtis Hanson)
Curtis Hanson could not have picked a more different film for his follow up to his masterful film noir, L.A. Confidential. That film was about a deepening mystery in the streets of 1940s Los Angelese, full of cops, criminals and prostitutes. Wonder Boys is a film about a writer and university writing professor (Michael Douglas) who is completely lost, and over one strange weekend, someone finds himself. His wife has just left him because she has discovered that he is having an affair with his boss’ wife (Frances McDormand), who is turn has told him that she is pregnant. His editor (Robert Downey Jr.) is in town for literary festival, and wants his new novel – he has been working on it for seven years, so it should be done soon. His rival (Rip Torn) is the guest speaking at the festival, and is filled with obnoxious ideas about writing. One of his students (Katie Holmes) lives in his house and tries to get him to let her read her book, and another (Tobey Maguire) has written a brilliant novel of his own, and is hanging around, compsulsively lying about everything. Wonder Boys could have been a wacky comedy – so many misunderstandings happen in the plot, so many accidents – but Hanson and his writer, Steve Kloves, wisely slows the pace down. In a strange way, they find the reality of these characters under all that wackiness. This could easily be the best performance of Douglas’ career. We are so used to him playing high powered men in three piece suits, and slicked down hair, that it is easy to forget what a funny, interesting actor he can be given the right role. In Wonder Boys, he is given the role of a lifetime, and delivers great performance.

4. George Washington (David Gordan Green)
Like Charles Burnett’s Killer of Sheep or Terence Malick’s Days of Heaven, David Gordon Green’s George Washington is not really about plot, but about long, hot summer days, about memories and regret. The film follows a group of kids – some black, some white – during a long, hot, lazy summer in their slowly dying, North Carolina industrial town. Adults move in and out of focus – they don’t seem to work very much if at all, and instead spend their time much like the kids do – sitting around, waiting for something to happen. Something does happen – and its tragic – but this is not a movie like River’s Edge or Bully about kids without morals, but rather a film about kids who really do not what to do. They aren’t teenagers yet, their bodies taken over by hormones, but they are not exactly children either. They exist somewhere in between. George Washington is a haunting film – a film that seeps into your memory and stays there, most likely forever. The cinematography by Tim Orr is amazing – giving the film a mood all of its own. Many audiences will watch the film and probably complain that nothing happens in it. But that’s just lazy film watching. Everything happens in George Washington.

3. Yi Yi (Edward Yang)
Edward Yang’s Yi Yi is one of the most perceptive films about family life I have ever seen. It focuses on an upper middle class family in Taipei, and how their lives are rushing past them. The father (Wu Nienjen) is a partner at a thriving company in financial trouble, but is haunted by his first love who he meets at a wedding, and demands to know why he “didn’t show up that day”. At the same wedding, another woman cries to the mother of the groom that it should have been her marrying her son, not the wife, who the family agrees they do not like. The mother falls into a coma, and comes to stay with the family. NJ’s wife, daughter to the woman in a coma, is overcome with grief that she cannot seem to talk to her mother, and ends up fleeing to the mountains with a self stylized guru. Their teenage daughter considers a relationship with her best friend’s boyfriend – they even go to a hotel together, but he flees saying “this is not right”, which considering his actions later in the film is kind of tragic. Finally, their 8 year old son is more open and honest with the world – he takes pictures of the backs of peoples heads because otherwise they could not see them. I realize that I have not done a great job in describing the movie, but that’s because the film, and its impact, can hardly be described. It is about the choices we make in our lives that shape them – even when things move so quickly we hardly realize the impact they have. The characters in this movie live in Taipei, but they could live anywhere.

2. Traffic (Steven Soderbergh)
Steven Soderbergh’s Traffic tells three interlocking stories that show the futility of the drug war. In Washington, the new Drug Czar (Michael Douglas) is trying to get a handle on his new job, oblvious to the fact that his daughter (Erika Christenson) is falling into drug abuse herself. In California, a wealthy, pregnant housewife (Cahterine Zeta-Jones) is dealt a shock when her husband is arrested for drug smuggling – but instead of giving up, she takes over the family business and is pursued by a cop hellbent on revenge (Don Cheadle). In Mexico, another cop (Benicio Del Toro) is trying to stop the drugs at the other end – before they even get to America – but is really little more than a pawn in the game. Soderbergh, who also functioned as cinematographer, uses three different color palettes to tell the story – a blue tint in Washington, an orange one in California and a brown one in Mexico. The stories intersect at different points and together they supply a complete view of the whole system and how corrupt and pointless it is. The screenplay by Stephen Gaghan is intelligent, the performances by everyone – particularly Del Toro – are brilliant, and Soderbergh’s keen pacing keeps the movie humming right along. Crime movies are rarely this intelligent – this well put together – so that they are both thrilling and meaningful. Perhaps Soderbergh’s finest achievement to date.

1. Requiem for a Dream (Darren Aronofsky)
Darren Aronofsky’s Requiem for a Dream is the best movie I have ever seen about drug abuse. It doesn’t merely portray the characters slow, steady descent into hell, but also portrays the headspace that addicts go into when they are on drugs. Aronofsky’s film is almost hyper realistic – close-ups of dilating pupils, frenzied editing, and a breakneck pace from beginning to end. The film revolves around three heroin addicts – Jared Leto, his girlfriend Jennifer Connelly and best friend Marlon Wayans – as they look for ways to score, and gradually degrade themselves more and more to get what they want. Then there is Leto’s mother – the brilliant Ellen Burstyn – who spends all day watching cheesy TV game shows, and envisions herself as a contestant on one. In order to get ready, she needs to lose weight and starts taking more and more diet pills – that are essentially speed – until she herself is also an addict. The film is a like a punch to the gut, portraying these lives in all their misery – until the finale of the film when all four of these characters meet an untimely end – even if they aren’t dead yet, they will be. And probably soon.

Just Missed the Top 10: Almost Famous (Cameron Crowe), American Psycho (Mary Haron), Before Night Falls (Julien Schnabel), Best in Show (Christopher Guest), Castaway (Robert Zemeckis), Chuck & Buck (Miguel Arteta), The Claim (Michael Winterbottom), Code Unknown (Michael Haneke), Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (Ang Lee), Pollock (Ed Harris), Quills (Philip Kaufman), Unbreakable (M. Night Shyamalan), You Can Count on Me (Kenneth Lonergan).

Notable Films Missed: The Gleaners and I (Agnes Varda).

Oscar Winner – Best Picture: Gladiator
For a while, it seemed like I was the only one who thought that Ridley Scott’s Gladiator was a bloated, over rated, would be epic. I disliked it from the first time I saw it, and although I have revisited the film to try and see what everyone else seemed to, I still cannot figure it out. Gladiator is a miserable film, about a man (Russell Crowe) who is so miserable from pretty much the beginning of the movie to the end; I had no real idea why he didn’t kill himself. Joaquin Phoenix is at least somewhat entertaining as the petty, sneering Emperor with incestuous feelings, but his performance is so far over the top that it is impossible to take seriously. Worse than that though is how junky the film looks – the special effects are among the worst I can recall seeing in a major movie this decade (they look like they are out of a very poor videogame) and the film has no flow, no rhythm. More and more people seem to be coming around to my way of seeing things about the movie – but I wish they would have realized this a decade ago, so we could have been spared this becoming a Best Picture winner. Easily my least favorite winner of the last decade.

Oscar Winner – Best Director: Steven Soderbergh, Traffic
The Academy did good to recognize that Steven Soderbergh’s achievement in directing Traffic was far greater than Ridley Scott’s with Gladiator. Soderbergh keeps three different, distinct story threads in the air for more than 2 and half hours, and yet the three feel part of a complete movie, not just vignettes. Also, they are all equally interesting, so that we are not waiting to get back to one storyline instead of all three. Soderbergh’s direction is assured from the outset – the distinct visual look and feel of each storyline well handled, as are the actors. So maybe the Academy didn’t realize that Gladiator was crap – but somewhere in the back of their minds I think they knew – and that’s why they gave this award to Soderbergh.

Oscar Winner – Best Actor: Russell Crowe, Gladiator
Russell Crowe was in the middle of three straight years of Oscar nominated performances, which is why they gave him this award. They should have given it to him the previous year for his remarkable turn in Michael Mann’s The Insider – where he disappeared into the role, and gave us a tragic portrait of a man struggling to the do the right thing. Hell, as much as I think A Beautiful Mind the follow year was mediocre, Crowe was far better in that film than he was here as well. Crowe, it must be said, plays his role in Gladiator exactly the way it was meant to be played – it’s just such a downer of a role in the middle of what should be an entertaining swords and sandals epic that I think it should have been completely rewritten. Part of the problem I think is that one of the other nominees – Tom Hanks in Castaway – had already won the award twice and the other three – Javier Bardem in Before Night Falls, Ed Harris in Pollock and Geoffrey Rush in Quills were from small movies that not many people saw. The sad thing is that all four of them were brilliant. It’s a shame that an actor of Crowe’s caliber had to win for one of his worst performances.

Oscar Winner – Best Actress: Julia Roberts, Erin Brockovich
Steven Soderbergh made history by being the first director in more than 60 years to be nominated twice in the same year for best director – winning for Traffic, and being nominated for this film. Erin Brockovich is a skillfully made example of its genre – an inspiring “true” story about a down and out single mother who gets a job at with a lawyer and fights endlessly for the little guy, against a big, mean, heartless corporation who poisoned them. I have never been a huge fan of Julia Roberts, but I have to say that in these types of “movie star” roles she is well suited. Her performance is Erin Brockovich is funny, charming, sassy and heartfelt. Do I think it was good enough to merit an Oscar? Not even close. Ellen Burstyn deserved to win, and they should have at least nominated Bjork and Rene Zellweger for Nurse Betty. But I understand why Roberts won – she is a major movie star, on her third nomination, in an audience friendly hit movie that felt important. She would not have been my choice, but I’m not overly angry with it either.

Oscar Winner – Best Supporting Actor: Benicio Del Toro, Traffic
Had Benicio Del Toro not won for his performance in Traffic, it would have been a travesty of justice. Far and away the best male performance of the year – and it remains Del Toro’s best performance – the actor conveys the weight and tremendous effort of his choices remarkably well in the movie. He is a cop who is trying to do the right thing, in a world where doing so can be dangerous. Unlike the stars of the other segments, all of whom have some heavy duty backup in terms of performances, Del Toro pretty much carries his part of the movie by himself. It is a remarkable turn, and I am extremely happy that the Academy gave him the Oscar – even though he speaks only Spanish in the film. There was some great work by some of his fellow nominees – Willem Dafoe in Shadow of the Vampire for example – but Del Toro was easily the best.

Oscar Winner – Best Supporting Actress: Marcia Gay Harden, Pollock
Marcia Gay Harden’s Oscar win for Pollock was a shock at that time. I remember almost everyone, myself included, thinking that the award would go to Kate Hudson for her charming performance in Cameron Crowe’s Almost Famous. Perhaps it was internal competition for Frances McDormand that did her in, but whatever the reason a very pregnant Harden won that night. It is a great performance – she plays Pollock’s long suffering wife who tries her best to support him and stand by him, but in the end just cannot do so. She is not quite like the other “supportive wives” who have won this award over the year – she is more strong willed than most. Personally, of the nominees, I probably would have gone to either Hudson or McDormand – and still think that Jennifer Connelly owes her win the following year for A Beautiful Mind to her gut wrenching, not nominated turn in Requiem for a Dream – but Harden is a fine choice. She is one of the best character actresses around, and too often they slip by unnoticed.

Year in Review: 1942

There is a little bit of everything in 1942 from big Hollywood films to animation to foreign films. But as strong as 1942 was, I don’t think it was quite as good as many other years from the 1940s - after all a bastardized film is the best of the year.

10. Yankee Doodle Dandy (Michael Curtiz)
To this day, most people think of James Cagney as a gangster. It’s easy to see why considering how many gangster movies he made – and how good he was in the best of them like The Public Enemy, The Roaring Twenties and White Heat. But Cagney could do more than simply play a gangster – as his Oscar winning performance in Yankee Doodle Dandy shows. Yes, the film was constructed and made to try and raise patriotism during the war, but that does not diminish its impact, or the great good cheer Cagney brings to his performance as song and dance man George M. Cohan – the man who owned Broadway. Cohan didn’t get much respect from critics for his musicals, or his highly patriotic, yet cheesy songs, but the public ate them up. Cagney gives it his all in the lead role, and delivers one of his most dynamic and memorable performances ever. He sings, he dances, he acts and does it all without missing a beat. If you’re ever feeling down, just pop this movie into the DVD player and instantly a smile will come to your face.

9. Bambi (David Hand)
You’d have to be pretty cold hearted not to love Bambi. The story of a young deer who is left an orphan when the cruel hunter guns down her mother (still a moment that brings a tear to my eye). He befriends Thumper, a playful rabbit, and Flower, a skunk, and finds a mate in Faline. But throughout the film man is an ever lurking, evil presence looking to take down the deer for sport. The film is heartwarming, especially the finale, but like many of the early Disney movies there is a dark side to Bambi – a side that could scare many kids. Most animated films today would not dare go there, but Bambi does and pulls it off. Out of their traditional narrative driven films, Bambi ranks right behind Pinocchio as my all time favorite – a timeless classic that will be watched by children forever.

8. The Talk of the Town (George Stevens)
With The Talk of the Town, you start to see the old George Stevens – director of comedies and musicals – transforming with the Stevens of later years – who made much darker films. There are elements of both comedy and drama in this film. Cary Grant gives an excellent performance as an activist accused of burning down a mill and killing the foreman – and is put on trial for his life. He escapes, and ends up at the home of his old school friend, who he has been in love with for years, Jean Arthur, just as a man renting the house, Ronald Colman, shows up at the same time. She passes Grant off as her gardener, and the two men become good friends, discussing the law from differing viewpoints, before Colman discovers the truth. All three actors are excellent in the film, but particularly Colman who gives the best performance in the film. The Talk of the Town is a film about small town morality, and the difference between the law as an academic pursuit, and how it is really practiced. Stevens is stretching himself a little here – and I think he pulls it off. The Talk of the Town is one of his best films.

7. Now Voyager (Irving Rapper)
Now, Voyager is a terrific soap opera of a movie. Bette Davis gives one of her best performances as an aging spinster who has spent her entire life under the thumb of her domineering mother (Gladys Cooper) and is on the verge of a nervous breakdown when she is sent to a sanitarium run by the benevolent Claude Rains. There she learns to be her own woman, and on a solo cruise, she meets and falls in love with Paul Henrid. But they cannot be together – he is also under the thumb of a domineering woman, his wife, and he stays because of his beloved children – especially his youngest daughter that his wife treats cruelly. Yet even after they part ways, they find a way to be a part of each other’s lives. Yes, Now Voyager is a soap opera – one hard to take seriously – but it is such a glorious soap opera that I didn’t care. The performances, especially by Davis, are spot on and I was surprised by how much I was moved by the film. Sometimes, even a soap opera can be great.

6. The Palm Beach Story (Preston Sturges)
Preston Sturges’ The Palm Beach Story is an utterly delightful, hilarious screwball comedy. Joel McCrea and Claudette Colbert are excellent as a married couple on hard economic times because his inventions never seem to go anywhere. She decides to divorce him, because she wants money, and heads to Palm Beach where divorces are quick, easy and cheap. He follows her down there to try and convince her to stay with him. On the way, she meets the impossibly rich Rudy Vallee, who is instantly taken with her, and when he arrives, he has to pretend to be her brother, and Vallee’s sister – Mary Astor (for once, not miscast) falls for him. The four principle actors are all great, the movie moves with a wicked velocity throughout, with whip smart dialogue, and Sturges keeping things humming. If I have one complaint about the movie, it’s the too fast conclusion, which is just silly, but other than that, The Palm Beach Story is one of the best comedies of its time.

5. Cat People (Jacques Tourneur)
The great Jacques Tourneur may have directed Cat People, but I think producer Val Lewton has to get much of the credit for its success. This was his first production, and perhaps his best. Like many of his productions, the movies surface makes it look like a low rent horror film – a story of a woman, Simone Simon, who becomes jealous of her husband and his affection for another woman, and literally transforms into a wild jungle cat and kills. We never see the actual cat – but this only makes it all the more scary, as the movie uses shadows and sounds to suggest a lot more than we actually see. What Cat People is really about though is sexual repression. Simon is disgusted by the lust she feels in herself, and cannot control it – thus turning her into a wild animal. Simon is given a nearly impossible role, and plays it to perfection – she is sympathetic, mysterious and creepy all at the same time. So many horror films try to scare us with what the show the audience, and as such, they lose all suspense. Cat People shows us next to nothing, but gets under your skin and stays there. It is a marvelous film.

4. Sullivan’s Travels (Preston Sturges)
Sullivan’s Travels is one of Preston Sturges’ best films. It stars Joel McCrea as a Hollywood director tired of making shallow comedies that he feels are beneath him. He wants to make a serious movie about the plight of the poor. To research this, he plans on living like a hobo, but somehow he always ends up back in Hollywood. On the road, he meets the beautiful Veronica Lake, a failed actress on the verge of quitting the business – and the two fall in love, but are held apart by circumstances beyond their control – like him getting beat up, thrown on a train, losing his memory and ending up in jail! The movie is slightly more serious than many of Sturges’ films – and can be read as a defense of himself always making comedies instead of serious dramas (the movie argues that escapism does more good to the downtrodden then being confronted by their everyday reality on the screen). Sturges was a master at making comedies – and while I think The Lady Eve is clearly his best film, Sullivan’s Travels is a masterwork in its own right.

3. To Be or Not to Be (Ernst Lubitsch)
Ernst Lubitsch’s To Be or Not to Be was a daring comedy in its day. Set in Warsaw just before and during the Nazi occupation of the city, the movie is about an acting trope who gets involved with the resistance. Jack Benny is the famed leading man, and his wife is played by Carole Lombard. Both are famed for their work on stage, but their marriage is faltering, as Lombard has begun an affair with a young Polish officer – Robert Stack. When Stack is shipped out to war, he becomes aware that one of the people he meets is really a Nazi spy – he comes back to Poland, and Lombard and Benny agree to help kill him. All of this could have been a serious war era drama – something like Fritz Lang’s Hangman Also Die – but Lubitsch and his cast turn it into a glorious, hilarious farce. Many people thought that the film was disrespectful, and the critics initially hated the film. But Lubitsch created a true masterpiece with this film – merging satire with the reality of the Nazis in Poland. The film takes lots of shots at the Nazis throughout, but it is also a film about acting. Sometimes a film reviled in its own time takes years to be able to see properly – that is certainly the case here, as To Be or Not to Be is one of the best films made by one of the cinema’s best directors.

2. Ossessione (Luchino Visconti)
Luchino Visconti’s debut film is often referred to as the first Italian neo-realist movie – which is a little odd considering that the film is a noir story. Visconti couldn’t get the rights to the book The Postman Always Rings Twice, so taking a page of F.W. Murnau’s book, he just decided to go ahead and make the film anyway. The story follows the James Cain pretty closely, with its tale of a wandering drifter who has an affair with the wife of a restaurant owner. The two lovers then decide to kill her boorish husband, and try to live happily ever after – but of course, this being a noir film, that cannot happen. The only real difference is in Visconti’s style – and how he made the film more realistic, and used it to comment on the everyday realities in Italy, rather than just be an escapist movie. The performances help a great deal – with excellent work done by Massimo Grotti as the drifter and Clara Calamari as his lover, and femme fatale. Visconti would go on to make a lot of great films in his career – the best probably being The Leopard – but I have a soft spot for Ossessione, because it brilliantly combines neo-realism and noir, something that is difficult to achieve. A stunning achievement by one of the greats of the cinema.

1. The Magnificent Ambersons (Orson Welles)
It is one of the great tragedies in cinema history that we will never get to see The Magnificent Ambersons the way Orson Welles intended it to be seen. After a rough couple of preview screenings, the studio took the film away from Welles, cut out nearly an hour of the running time and tacked on a happy ending. Apparently the excised scenes were destroyed, and a fabled print that was sent to Welles in Brazil, where he was working on another film, has never been found. Having said all of that, what remains of Ambersons is a masterpiece in its own right – and surely one of Welles’ great achievements. The film is about three generations of the wealthy Amberson family, and how they slowly fall apart. The main thrust of the story concerns George (Tim Holt), the youngest generation, who is horrified to discover that his mother (Dolores Costello) was once in love with a man he despises (Joseph Cotton), even as George is courting his daughter (Anne Baxter). The relationship between George and his mother is close – too close, and incest is certainly hinted at as the movie progresses. George is a spoiled child, who treats others cruelly, and grows up to be a rich kid who wants to do nothing but spend his family’s money. Everyone seems to be waiting for him to get his “comeuppance”. The film is wonderfully directed by Welles – his camera moving effortlessly, the cool tone of the film, highlighted by Welles’ detached narration. The studio sanctioned ending does indeed feel tacked on, and contrary to what came before. Having said that though, The Magnificent Ambersons still stands head and shoulders above anything else released this year. It is still a masterpiece, and it’s a shame we will never get to see it as Welles intended.

Just Missed The Top 10: Across the Pacific (John Huston), The Glass Key (Stuart Heisler), Mrs. Miniver (William Wyler), Saboteur (Alfred Hitchcock), This Gun for Hire (Frank Tuttle).

Notable Films Missed: Johnny Eager (Mervyn LeRoy), Kings Row (Sam Wood), The Pied Piper (Irving Pichell), The Pride of the Yankees (Sam Wood), Random Harvest (Mervyn LeRoy), Wake Island (John Farrow).

Oscar Winner – Best Picture & Director: Mrs. Miniver (William Wyler)
Mrs. Miniver is one of those patriotic films made during the war that the Academy felt they had to give the Oscar to. True, America wasn’t in the war at this point, but this film, about an English family affected by the war, seemed like a good way to give their allies support during their effort. William Wyler certainly made much better films in his career than this one – at times; the film is rather clunky and feels a little too false, too phony to really be believed. But it is a decent film from the era, and it is anchored by a great performance by Greer Garson. The Magnificent Ambersons should have won – but given what the studio did to that film it is a minor miracle that they even nominated it in the first place, so I guess we should just count our blessings.

Oscar Winner – Best Actor: James Cagney, Yankee Doodle Dandy
Obviously I felt there were 9 better movies this year than Yankee Doodle Dandy, but no matter how great they were, I don’t think there was a lead actor performance better than Cagney’s this year (although the two by McCrea in the Sturges movies and Jack Benny in To Be or Not to Be come close). Cagney carries this entire movie based on his charisma alone, and he really is called upon to do practically everything over the course of the movie. Without Cagney, I think the film would have long since been forgotten – with him, it is considered a classic, so no complaints from me.

Oscar Winner – Best Actress: Greer Garson, Mrs. Miniver
Greer Garson doesn’t really get her due anymore. She is mainly forgotten by most people, despite her beauty and her talent, I think because she really didn’t make as many truly great films as her more famous contemporaries. That really is too bad, because Garson was a wonderful actress. In Mrs. Miniver she plays the title character – the brave housewife who stays home as her husband and son go off to war and helps to keep the home front going. Yes, the movie is a cheesy in places, and phony in others, but Garson somehow keeps the whole thing moving along nicely. Out of the nominees, I do think that Bette Davis was better in Now, Voyager – but the best performances of the year were overlooked – Carole Lombarde in To Be or Not to Be (she couldn’t even get nominated for her role and she died tragically before the film came out!) and Claudette Colbert in The Palm Beach Story.

Oscar Winner – Best Supporting Actor: Van Heflin, Johnny Eager
I haven’t seen Johnny Eager, so I really cannot comment on Van Heflin’s performance in the movie – but I at least have to say it sounds interesting. Robert Taylor is a hood who falls for Lana Turner, and tries to use her to get the permit he needs to open a race track. Heflin is Taylor’s best friend – a drunk, philosopher who acts as his conscience, and apparently he gives the role some gay overtones in his feelings towards Taylor. Not sure why I never caught this one – perhaps because it’s only been available on DVD for less than a year.

Oscar Winner – Best Supporting Actress: Teresa Wright, Mrs. Miniver
Teresa Wright was a great actress, who delivered any number of Oscar worthy performances – think of her in Shadow of a Doubt, Pursued, The Best Years of Our Lives and the Little Foxes. With those performances on her resume, it is a little disappointing that she won her Oscar for this one. It isn’t that Wright is bad in Mrs. Miniver – far from it – she has perhaps never been more beautiful than she is here. But she is playing the kind of idealized woman during wartime that only ever existed in the movies – right down to her beautiful death scene. It’s fine work – but with Agnes Moorehead (who criminally never won an Oscar) delivering perhaps her career best work in The Magnificent Ambersons, it is hard to justify Wright winning this award.

Year in Review: 1989

There seems to be something about the final year of a particular decade that brings out the best in filmmakers. I have often noticed that lots of time, the best of the decade can be found in the final year. Probably no more than coincidence, but 1989 is certainly no exception – a great year where new filmmakers pushed themselves beyond where they had gone before.

10. The Seventh Continent (Michael Haneke)
Idiosyncratic Austrian auteur Michael Haneke made his debut film in 1989 with this icy cold film about a family who decides to “drop out”. Told in three parts – the first two detailing a day in the life of the family two years and one year before their departure from society, days that are remarkably similar and show a family becoming increasingly isolated from modern society. The third part has the family quitting their jobs, selling their car, emptying their bank accounts – and then just going around their home destroying everything they own – but even then they cannot work up much passion in their exercise. The Seventh Continent is a stunning debut from a one of a kind filmmaker – and in my mind the best of his early work (he would surpass this until Code Unknown a decade later). Despite the fact that this is his first film, his style seems to be all there – as well as his outlook on life. The film is disturbing and shocking – one that gets under your skin and stays there long after it ends.

9. Roger and Me (Michael Moore)
Personally, I think Michael Moore’s best film is Bowling for Columbine – where he brilliantly captured America’s obsession with guns and violence. But Roger and Me, his first film, is a close second. Here, he was still relatively unknown to his target – GM and their CEO Roger Smith – and as such got dealt with much more harshly than he would in his later films. As well, Moore’s ego hadn’t quite run away with him yet – he was pretty much what he seemed to be – a guy in a baseball hat fighting for the little guy. Moore’s look at what happened to his hometown of Flint, Michigan following the closing of a GM plant is harsh and unblinking. He follows around the one guy in town with a stable job – the guy who is responsible for evicting people from their homes. He tries in vain to get an interview with Roger Smith, and never can seem to find him. He is kicked out of pretty much everywhere he tries to go, and he paints of picture of corporate greed and its effects on the lives of the people in community that is unforgettable. Moore’s penchant for the dramatic, and the humorous, was there from the beginning. He has tried to tackle bigger issues since Roger and Me, but this is the film where everything kind of fell into place for him – and is one of the best documentaries of the 1980s.

8. The Killer (John Woo)
The Killer is probably John Woo’s best film – more thought out than his earlier films, which were little more than gun battles, and not as stylistically over the top as much of his more recent films, The Killer sits somewhere perfectly in the middle. The movie is about a hit man with a conscience, played brilliantly by Chow Yun Fat. He comes out of retirement for one final job – in the hopes of making enough money to pay to fix a girl’s eyesight, who was blinded in a previous job. A cop (Danny Lee) swears to bring Chow down, but ends up seeing himself in the hit man – both of these men are sick of the lives they are living, of being so easily bought and sold, and are now trying to stand up for themselves. The gun battles in the movie are brilliantly stylized – better than pretty much any American action movie I can name – and they serve as tension breakers, as the dialogue driven sequences constantly build the tension up. The Killer is the best of John Woo’s films because in it, you understand precisely why everyone does everything they do – including killing. These are not just the mindless robots we get in most action movies killing without feeling or reason – but real people who kill to try and save their souls.

7. My Left Foot (Jim Sheridan)
Jim Sheridan’s My Left Foot is usually the type of movie that wins a lot of awards, but I don’t warm to. It tells the story of Christy Brown, born to a poor Irish family in Dublin with cerebral palsy and had control only over one part of his body – his left foot. But Brown didn’t let that stop him, and became a painter and wrote his memoirs, of which this movie was based on. What separates his story from others of courage over adversary and handicaps (I’m thinking of someone like Helen Keller), is that Brown was far from a saint, and the movie makes no efforts to paint him that way. He is a drinking, smoking, swearing beast of a man. He was a genius in some ways, and like many geniuses, he was hard to live with. Daniel Day-Lewis is brilliant in the role of Brown – who plays him, flaws and all, and yet still manages to inspire us, and create a tremendous amount of sympathy for the man. Brown’s life was not easy, and although he was full of frustration and anger at times, he never let it get him down and he kept right on trying every day of his life.

6. sex, lies and videotape (Steven Soderbergh)
Steven Soderbergh’s sex, lies and videotape is a movie about sex, yes, but more than that is about conversation. It is film in which we very rarely actually see anyone having sex – but is erotic in a more profound, and disturbing way. The movie centers on a married couple – Peter Gallagher and Andie McDowell, who no longer have sex – but that doesn’t seem to bother McDowell who feels that sex is overrated. It doesn’t bother Gallagher either, because he is having a torrid affair with McDowell’s sister, Laura San Giacomo. Into their lives comes James Spader, Gallagher’s old college roommate, who is very quickly able to get to the bottom of these people and their lives. He confesses to McDowell that he is impotent, which disarms her a little. He explains how he gets off sexually – by videotaping women confessing their sexual fantasies and feelings to him. And soon all of their lives are in upheaval. Soderbergh’s screenplay and direction are just about perfect, but the movie really depends on the performances to keep the film interesting. If one of these performances went wrong, the movie would fail. But McDowell gives her best performance as the seemingly perfect Ann, Giacomo is perfect as her jealous sister and Gallagher is wonderful as the man caught between them. Best of all is Spader who somehow finds the right mixture of charm and creepiness for his character. Spader has made a career out of being this sort of twisted, sexual man who somehow makes you willing to follow him anywhere – consider his work in Cronenberg’s Crash or in Secretary. Here he delivers perhaps his best performance – in a movie that is certainly one of Sodebergh’s best.

5. Say Anything… (Cameron Crowe)
There have been countless movies made about two high school kids falling in love. A lot of them share a similar plot to Say Anything in that a rich girl falls for a poor boy, much to the chagrin of her parents. And yet Cameron Crowe’s Say Anything is so unlike the rest of the movies in the genre that it feels constantly fresh and original. In a way, John Cusack has been trying to play Lloyd Dobler for the rest of his career. Dobler is the honest, heart of the movie who falls in love with Ione Skye’s rich girl and unlike most teenagers in love, he doesn’t lie to her at all. He tells her the truth from the beginning – he has no career plans, no goal in his life except to love her. She falls for that honesty, particularly when she discovers that her beloved father (John Mahoney) is not quite as honest as he seems. Crowe’s dialogue sparkles in the film, and is delivered to perfection by Cusack and Skye (what by the way ever happened to Skye, who was so good in this movie, and River’s Edge?). This is a film that respects its teenage characters, doesn’t sink to vulgarity or cheap laughs. It could just be the best movie about teenage romance ever made. If that sounds like hyperbole to you, it’s probably because you’ve never seen the film.

4. Drugstore Cowboy (Gus Van Sant)
Drugstore Cowboy is one of the best movies ever made about drug abuse – in fact, I would say that it was probably the best until Requiem for a Dream came out a decade later. The movie is about two couples on the run. They move from one roach infested motel to another, constantly on the prowl to find more drugs. Their favorites are prescription drugs, and they have a system that they use to score them when they need to. When they need money, they also sell drugs – but only the ones they don’t actually want themselves. The center of the movie is Matt Dillon, in the best performance of his career. He is like the father of this loosely connected “family” – he makes the plans and the others follow. He is married to Kelly Lynch, but they love drugs more than they love each other, and have for years. They have a goofy kid as a sidekick (James Le Gros), who has a teenage runaway girlfriend (Heather Graham) who doesn’t really know what she is getting herself into. In his first major film, Gus Van Sant finds the perfect tone for the movie – detached, ironic, sometimes darkly humorous and offering only the slightest glimmer of hope in the film. It is a masterful film on every level.

3. Crimes and Misdemeanors (Woody Allen)
Woody Allen’s Crimes and Misdemeanors is one of the best films of his career – right up there with Annie Hall and Manhattan in my books. It is essentially a two pronged story. In one, a documentary filmmaker (Woody Allen) struggles to get his films made and is hired by his brother in law (Alan Alda), a success in TV to make a documentary about him – which Alda uses to patronize Allen with his “insights” into comedy. Allen falls in love with a production assistant, Mia Farrow, and proposes marriage – even though of course, Allen is already married, and perhaps Farrow has her eyes on Alda. In the other, a successful doctor (Martin Landau) has been having an affair with Anjelica Huston – who has started to become clingy. He never wanted to leave his wife and family for her, but now she’s threatening to tell his wife about them. He reaches out to two people for advice – his gangster brother (Jerry Orbach) and a patient – a rabbi who is going blind (Sam Waterson) for advice (even though the conversation with the rabbi is all in Landau’s head) on how to handle the situation. He finds that he can justify anything, as long as he doesn’t get hurt. The two halves of the movie make a complete film – Allen’s half a funny examination of adultery and affairs, and Landau’s half quietly shocking as we see this respected man sink to murder, while God turns a blind eye. That Allen not only knew these two halves would make the whole movie better, but was able to pull off the balancing act so brilliantly is a testament to his skills. This is one of his very best.

2. Born on the Fourth of July (Oliver Stone)
Born on the Fourth of July is the middle part of Oliver Stone’s Vietnam trilogy (his recent plan to make a film about the My Lai massacre, thus making it a quartet has been put on the backburner indefinitely). This film follows idealistic young soldier Ron Kovic as he enlists in the army right out of high school, goes to Vietnam where he kills a fellow American in a friendly fire incident, and comes home from the war paralyzed from the waist down – bitter and angry at the government who sent him over there. He drowns himself in self pity and alcohol for a while, before channeling his energy into protests against the war. In a perfect piece of casting, Stone gave the role of Kovic to All American superstar Tom Cruise. In the early scenes, he plays the Cruise we already knew – energetic, sympathetic and idealistic, but the real feet of Cruise’s acting comes as the film progresses, and he becomes almost unrecognizable behind the wheelchair, the long hair and beard. Cruise has, in my opinion anyway, too often coasted on his charm, but when he wants to be, he can be a great actor – and here he perfectly captures Kovic in all his struggles and contradictions. Stone’s direction is assured from the start, keeping the film moving from one scene to the next, and brilliantly visualizing the story. There are other inspired pieces of casting – like having Tom Berenger as a gung ho recruiter early in the film, and Willem Dafoe as a fellow paralyzed vet who helps Kovic – they play off their roles in Stone’s earlier Platoon. Hal Ashby’s Coming Home was in part inspired by Ron Kovic – but Stone’s film is an even better, even deeper exploration of coming home to a country that hates what you have done – and how a soldier can hate himself even more.

1. Do the Right Thing (Spike Lee)
Sometimes it feels like a filmmaker is put on the planet to make one film. No matter how great a career Spike Lee has, no matter how many great films he has made, his masterpiece will always be Do the Right Thing – the most incisive examination of race relations in America to ever make it to the screen. The amazing thing about Spike Lee’s film is how even handed it is – this is a film without heroes or villains, but about everyday people living one day of their lives in a Brooklyn neighborhood. The film ends with two shocking acts of violence – the murder of a young black man by two white cops, and the neighborhood blacks taking out their anger by burning Sal’s Pizzeria to the ground. The shocking thing about it is that you walk out of the film understanding precisely why everyone did what they did – you may not agree with it, but you empathize. Some have accused Lee’s film of being anger, and an incitement to riot, but none of that is actually in the film, which is thoughtful and masterfully written and directed. Lee spends most of his movie, which takes place over one extremely hot day, focusing on the characters, slowly building them up, so that we get to know each and every one of them. The casual racism – on both sides – is seething underneath and waiting to blow. Lee’s cast, including Danny Aiello as Sal the owner of the pizzeria, and the only white owner who has stuck by his business as the neighborhood demographic changes, his sons John Turturro, a more overt racist, Richard Edson, who likes the people in the neighborhood, Lee himself as Mookie, the delivery man, Giancarlo Esposito as the quick to anger Buggin’ Out, Ossie Davis as Da Mayor, who tries to keep everyone calm, Ruby Dee, as a old woman who spends her time out on the stoop and so many more that it would take too long to name them all. Lee captures them all in their joy and their pain, their happiness and their anger. Yes, the whole movie leads to two shocking acts of violence – but they do not come out of nowhere, they are ingrained in the film. Spike Lee is one of the best filmmakers in the world right now – and Do the Right Thing is, and always will be, his masterpiece. Other than the music, this film hasn’t aged a bit in the last 21 years.

Just Missed The Top 10: Batman (Tim Burton), Dead Poets Society (Peter Weir), Driving Miss Daisy (Bruce Beresford), The Fabulous Baker Boys (Steve Kloves), Field of Dreams (Philip Alden Robinson), Glory (Edward Zwick), Heathers (Michael Lehmann), Henry V (Kenneth Branagh), Jesus of Montreal (Denys Arcand), Violent Cop (Takahasi Kitano).

Notable Films Missed: A City of Sadness (Hou Hsiao-Hsien), Close Up (Abbas Kiarostami), Time of the Gypsies (Emir Kustrica).

Oscar Winner – Best Picture: Driving Miss Daisy
Driving Miss Daisy is an odd choice for Best Picture for a number of reasons. First, the film is considered a comedy, although it does touch on some serious issues as well. And second, for the first (and so far only) time since 1932, the Best Picture winner did not have its director nominated. But aside from those two things, Driving Miss Daisy is precisely the type of film the Academy always gives its Oscar to. I cannot complain too much – the film is certainly charming and entertaining – and both Morgan Freeman and Jessica Tandy are excellent in the lead roles. I do find it kind of sad though that in a year that saw Spike Lee’s Do the Right Thing – the best, most honest film about race relations in America ever made – that the Academy gave it to a film whose view on the same subject is just about as opposite to Lee’s as you could get. True, the Academy was never going to give Lee the Oscar for his controversial film (they didn’t even nominate it for Christ’s sake), but it feels like a slap in the face nevertheless. I think that they would have done better to give the prize to Oliver Stone’s Born on the Fourth of July – but perhaps coming just three years after rewarding Stone’s Platoon with the top prize, it felt too soon (something that would happen in the 1990s to Spielberg and his WWII epics).

Oscar Winner – Best Director: Oliver Stone, Born on the Fourth of July
With no Bruce Beresford for Driving Miss Daisy gumming up the nominees, Stone was perhaps the only choice that the Academy could truly make here. They couldn’t very well give the award to Woody Allen or Kenneth Branagh after they didn’t nominate their films for Best Picture, and they couldn’t really give it Jim Sheridan for My Left Foot, because two of his actors already won, and it would silly to give it all those prizes and not Best Picture, and they couldn’t give it to Peter Weir for Dead Poet’s Society, because, well, it just wasn’t quite good enough. So Stone was probably a compromise choice. And yet, I have to say that of the nominees, they gave it to the right guy – Stone’s control of Born on the Fourth of July is total, and he made far and away the best visual film of the nominees. Yes, it is a shame that the Academy didn’t nominate Spike Lee, but given their error in the nominating round, they gave it to the right one in the winning round.

Oscar Winner – Best Actor: Daniel Day Lewis, My Left Foot
While I think Daniel Day Lewis’ first Oscar was well deserved, it still would not have been my choice. In my mind, Tom Cruise gave the year’s best performance in Born on the Fourth of July – and I think that he would have won the Academy award if not for a few factors. After all, like Day Lewis, Cruise played a handicapped person – something the Academy loves. But the history of the Academy has shown a bias against handsome, young male stars – something that kept Cary Grant from ever winning an Oscar, and delayed Paul Newman’s win for more than 30 years. Having said all of that, Day Lewis was excellent in My Left Foot, never pandering to the audience for sympathy or trying too hard to get them to like his ornery character. It is a great performance, and a worthy winner, but it would not have been my choice.

Oscar Winner – Best Actress: Jessica Tandy, Driving Miss Daisy
I find it hard to argue too strenuously against Jessica Tandy’s win for Driving Miss Daisy. She is excellent in the movie – hilarious and touching in equal doses, and she has tremendous chemistry with Morgan Freeman, her co-star. She is also an actress who had a wonderful career behind her working for such directors as Hitchcock, Howard, Ivory and having a tremendous stage career where she was among other things, the original Blanche Du Bois. And yet Miss Daisy has become the role for which she will forever be remembered. To me, she was neck and neck with another of the nominees – the sexy, seductive Michelle Pfeiffer who came between The Fabulous Baker Boys, but I will not argue too hard against her.

Oscar Winner – Best Supporting Actor: Denzel Washington, Glory
Denzel Washington delivers a powerfully angry performance in Edward Zwick’s Glory as a former slave who joins the all black regiment of soldiers fighting for the North in the Civil War – and still having to face the racism of their so called heroes. The film itself is perhaps Zwick’s best – but it suffers the same problem I often find in his work – that is he tells the story of minorities from the point of view of white people, something I have always found patronizing. There is no arguing with Washington’s performance however (which oddly follows his Oscar nominated turn in Cry Freedom, a film that found the white man’s journey to smuggle the black characters memoirs out of Africa more compelling than the black characters story in the first damn place). Personally, I think Danny Aiello was the best in Do the Right Thing, and could argue that Martin Landau’s work in Crimes and Misdemeanors was also more worthy, but it’s still a good choice, even if it wouldn’t have been mine.

Oscar Winner – Best Supporting Actress: Brenda Fricker, My Left Foot
This was inarguably a weak year for this category – especially since the Academy felt the need to overlook the single best performance in the category – Laura San Giacomo’s in sex, lies and videotape. And yet, I find I have no real problem with Brenda Fricker winning for her performance as Christy Brown’s ever supportive mother in My Left Foot. Her key scenes are early in the film, when Brown was still a child, and her decision to raise Brown not as a coddled child, but someone who has to take his lumps like everyone else, is perhaps the key to him turning out the way he did. Like all the acting winners this year, this would not have been my choice – but I have a hard time arguing too strenuously against it either.