I knew, when I began this project of documenting the finest films of the sound era, that the decade I would find most difficult was the first of the new millennium. It's not a problem of quantity or quality - there have been many great movies released in the past several years - but of distance.
A classic stands the test of time and will be a favorite years after box office receipts and regular rentals have fallen off. They are the films whose mere mention is met with appreciative nods and smiles.
Such recognition takes time, and the films made after Y2K have not had enough time in the vat. That's the reason they are not often reviewed in the Reel Releases column.
Still, there are some real (reel?) winners out there. Only time will tell whether they turn out to be classics:
ALMOST FAMOUS (2000): Sweet, sentimental and rockin', this semiautobiographical film draws from director Cameron Crowe's early days as a writer for Rolling Stone. It's as fine a film about music and why people love it as you're likely to find.
TRAFFIC (2000): This sprawling epic from Steven Soderbergh about the narcotics trade never loses sight of the fact that it's the people, not the powder, that make drug tales so affecting. The connecting stories of addicts, advocates, dealers and the DEA work because they tell the story of the narcotics industry with an unbiased eye.
THE LORD OF THE RINGS (2001, 2002, 2003): Fine, lumping these three movies together is cheating, but you would be hard-pressed to find a more impressive feat of prolonged storytelling. Peter Jackson's trilogy was released as separate films, but it probably would have worked just as well as one.
AMELIE (2001): Part fantasy, part romantic comedy and part love letter to the city of Paris, this enchanting film unfolds with such beautiful buoyancy that it's hard to watch it without a smile. Amelie is an interesting blend of the boldly visual and the carefully composed.
THE ROYAL TENENBAUMS (2001):In a rare combination of a style coupled with real substance, Tenenbaums director Wes Anderson embraces the artificiality of film, super-styling his vision of New York but populating it with very human characters who, despite their eccentricities, are easy to embrace as human.
ADAPTATION (2002):Willfully odd, this film from Spike Jonze began as an adaptation of the nonfiction book The Orchid Thief and quickly morphed into a fictionalized tale of a desperate screenwriter trying to adapt the book for film. In a true twist to the Hollywood standard, the characters have changed and only the names remain the same. It is smart, stylish and unique.
LOST IN TRANSLATION (2003):Proof positive that a quiet screen whisper can speak as loudly as any blooming orange fireball, this simple story from Sofia Coppola of two souls meeting, connecting and then parting during a few short nights in Tokyo imagines the city as an alien landscape and the two main characters as somewhat unwilling explorers. Funny, charming and beautifully rendered.
MASTER AND COMMANDER: THE FAR SIDE OF THE WORLD (2003): This seafaring epic leaves nary a single buckle unswashed. Although a simple enough story - two ships play cat and mouse off the coast of South America, this Peter Weir film succeeds because the characters - the battle-tested captain (Russell Crowe), the scientific doctor (Paul Bettany) and the loyal crew - are complex, charismatic and very, very human.
COLLATERAL (2004):Effective because it dares to cast against type - Tom Cruise plays a killer - and bears a slick sense of style, this thriller from Michael Mann is a full-package crime drama. It's well-written and well-acted, and it maintains just the right level of anxious energy throughout.
BROKEBACK MOUNTAIN (2005):Putting the politics that continue to swirl around this movie aside, Brokeback Mountain is a beautifully shot and courageously acted drama. There is the whole cowboys-in-love thing to contend with, of course, but it's surprising how much of the movie is about being human and how little is about being gay.
Movies that just missed the list include Gladiator, Memento, Snatch, O Brother Where Art Thou, Shrek, Ghost World, Pirates of the Caribbean, Finding Nemo, Seabiscuit, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, King Kong, Road to Perdition and Capote.
Reach Steven Uhles at (706) 823-3626 or steven.uhles@augustachronicle.com.
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