THE 3 BEST FILMS:
1.
The Lord of the Rings: the Fellowship of the Ring
Directed by: Peter Jackson
Genre: Drama; Action/Adventure; Fantasy;
Starring: Elijah Wood, Sean Astin, Ian McKellen, Viggo Mortensen, Sean Bean, Cate Blanchett, Hugo Weaving, Liv Tyler, Orlando Bloom, John Rhys-Davies and Christopher Lee
"And I follow quickly by saying that The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring is thrilling -- a great picture, a triumphant picture, a joyfully conceived work of cinema that (based on this first installment, with two more ready for release in the next two years) would appear to embrace Tolkien's classic with love and delight, and rewards both adepts and novices with the highest compliment of all: an intelligence and artistry as a movie independent of blind fidelity to the page. The Middle-earth of this ''Fellowship'' -- as directed by Peter Jackson with all the graceful inventiveness hoped for from the maker of ''Heavenly Creatures'' -- is vibrantly, intricately alive on its own terms. This is what magic the movies can conjure with an inspired fellowship in charge, and unlimited pots of gold. One of the ''Fellowship'''s most exemplary attributes is the ease and good instinct with which Jackson regularly shifts perspectives, both structurally and visually, from the epic to the intimate and back again: Thousand-year-old, thousand-creature battles (depicted with of-the-moment computerized assistance) really do look and feel as awesome as such mythological battles ought to but rarely do -- and then the focus shifts to the tenderness expressed in the close-up half smile of a gentle wizard."
by Lisa Schwarzbaum in Entertainment Weekly
"The large ensemble cast is flawless, though special mention must be made of Wood, McKellen and Mortensen. As for the way the film looks (both actual locations in New Zealand, where it was filmed, and computer-generated special effects), no matter how you imagined Tolkien's detailed fantasy world would look, Jackson has somehow rendered it exactly as you imagined. Just as the One Ring waited for thousands of years for the right time to become known again,"The Lord of The Rings" trilogy seems to have waited as well, until the movies' technological magic could match Tolkien's visionary words. The second and third installments are due Christmas 2002 and 2003. The thought of waiting a year to experience more wonders from Jackson and Tolkien is excruciating. My advice: go see "The Fellowship of the Ring" again. And again."
by Eleanor Ringel Gillespie in Atlanta Journal-Constitution
2.
Moulin Rouge!
Directed by: Baz Lhurman
Genre: Musical; Drama; Comedy; Romance;
Starring: Nicole Kidman, Ewan McGregor, Jim Broadbent, Richard Roxburgh and John Leguizamo
"There's been a lot of blather over the years about how the movie musical is a dead genre, deader than the Western or the private-eye picture. We are supposed to be a culture that has lost its innocence; we can no longer sanction watching people suddenly break into heartfelt song. And meanwhile, music videos are the lifeblood of MTV, and on Broadway, The Producers is beginning to dwarf Fort Knox. (It will probably come full circle and end up as a movie.) Two of the greatest musicals ever filmed, Yentl and Pennies From Heaven, came out in the eighties, which is not exactly the Ice Age. If not much has been done in the movies since then, surely that is more a consequence of commercial cowardice than of audience antipathy. There is certainly no lack of singing stars from the worlds of rock and rap or Broadway or cabaret. Luhrmann is not wrong in believing that new ways have to be dreamed up to connect the musical with a new moviegoing generation, but what he's done in Moulin Rouge is to scavenge all the old ways and then turn up the heat, burning away any honest feeling. He gives you way too much of what you didn't really want in the first place: soulless high jinks. Jim Broadbent's impresario is fond of saying "The show must go on," but must it go on and on and on?"
by Peter Rainer in New York Magazine
"But the great star, of course, is behind the red curtain. That's Luhrmann, who also made the inspired "Strictly Ballroom" and "Romeo + Juliet." Working with music director Marius DeVries and many of his regular collaborators (including cinematographer Donald M. McAlpine and production manager/costume designer Catherine Martin), he has created a wonderful cutting-edge opera. He nods at cinema itself with glimpses of silent movie irising techniques, a beaming man-in-the-moon (straight out of the turn-of-the-century films of Georges Melies), and salutations to great screen divas from Dietrich to Minnelli. Musically, you can hear strains of almost everything, as the colorful bohos at the Moulin sing, dance and vamp. There's a cafe waltz based on Marc Bolan's "Children of the Revolution." Another song segues from Jule Styne and Leo Rubin's "Diamonds Are a Girl's Best Friend" to Madonna's "Material Girl." And here's my personal showstopper: "El Tango de Roxanne," a darkly voiced rendition of Sting's ethereal pop song, replete with tango dancers and a scheme that might be called "sepulchral gloom and doom." It's a wonderful postmodern hug of a movie, and never once do you not know you're watching a movie. But that's the point: Not to lose yourself in the movie, but to be brightly aware of your participation as a viewer. In Luhrmann's vision, that's what the movies are about."
by Desson Howe in The Washington Post
3.
Le Fabuleux Destin d'Amélie Poulain
Directed by: Jean-Pierre Jeunet
Genre: Comedy; Romance; Drama;
Starring: Audrey Tautou and Mathieu Kassovitz
"Jean-Pierre Jeunet's ''Amélie,'' a sugar-rush of a movie, has what could be called meticulous clutter, a placement of imagery that covers every square centimeter of the screen. Mr. Jeunet's sense of humor gives the movie heart; his real affection for the medium can be seen in all the funny little curlicues and jottings around the action. ''Amélie'' offers Mr. Jeunet a chance to show some flair without the brittle chill of his previous films like ''Delicatessen'' and ''The City of Lost Children,'' in which his imagination and heartlessness combined for the film version of felonious assault. ''Amélie'' has a hypnotic sense of romance; it's a fable filled with longing, with a heroine who constantly flirts with failure. Just because the movie has the reflexes of a predatory animal doesn't mean it lacks a heart. (Or an audience. The picture is one of the biggest hits ever in France and will probably do well in the United States before its probable Oscar nomination -- that is, if its American distributor, Miramax, has anything to say about it."
by Elvis Mitchell in The New York Times
"Years ago, while watching Delicatessen (in 1992) and The City of Lost Children (in 1995), I wondered which of the co-directors, Jean-Pierre Jeunet or Marc Caro, was more responsible for the films' quirky tone and striking visual style. Although Caro hasn't made a film since The City of Lost Children, Jeunet has continued in the business, accepting the Hollywood offer to helm Alien: Resurrection, then returning to his native France to direct Amelie. With the release of this movie, which has won critical accolades across the world, become one of the most popular home-grown films of all time in France, and captured the audience award at the 2001 Toronto International Film Festival, I have learned the answer to my question. Amelie makes it clear that the primary creative force behind the earlier films' stylistic uniqueness was Jeunet. Like Tom Tykwer's Run Lola Run, Amelie is energized by instances of fast-cutting and unexpected inserts. We learn more about secondary characters than we need to know (a tongue-in-cheek voiceover, for example, lists their "likes" and "dislikes"), and are the richer for the experience. Amelie works not just because it tells an interesting story about an affable character, but because it does so in an involving and energetic manner that incorporates the right amount of comedy into the overall mixture. This motion picture proves that two hours can pass very quickly in a movie theater if what's being projected on screen truly deserves its running time"
by James Berardinelli in ReelViews
BEST ACTING PERFORMANCE BY AN ACTOR
Russel Crowe for A Beautiful Mind
BEST ACTING PERFORMANCE BY AN ACTRESS
Halle Berry for Monster's Ball
BEST ACTING BY AN ENSEMBLE CAST
Russell Crowe, Jennifer Connelly, Ed Harris, Paul Bettany, Christopher Plummer, Josh Lucas and Judd Hirsch
for A Beautiful Mind
BREAKTHROUGH PERFORMANCE
Ryan Gosling for The Believer
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