Sixth Annual 

Paper Street Awards (2000)

1. Wonder Boys
2. Unbreakable
3. High Fidelity
4. Traffic
5. American Psycho
6. Timecode
7. Nurse Betty
8. Way of the Gun
9. Jesus’ Son
10. Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon

The runner up list (11-20)

11. Titan A.E.

12. You Can Count on Me
13. Sunshine
14. Ninth Gate
15. Cast Away
16. Final Destination
17. The Cell
18. Boiler Room
19. The Kid
20. Gladiator, Finding Forrester, and  Erin Brockovich 

1. Charlie’s Angels
2. Dude Where’s My Car, The In Crowd,The Skulls Whatever it Takes, , Road Trip and Loser. (6 way tie)
3. The Patriot
4. Coyote Ugly
5. The Beach
6. Supernova DVD edition saved it from #1 worst
7. How the Grinch Stole Christmas 
8. The Road To El Dorado 
9. The Replacements 
10. The Art Of War 
11. Eye of the Beholder 
12. Small Time Crooks
13. Body Shots
14. U-571 
15. Little Nicki (plan to hate it as soon as I see it)

As if anyone cares, click here for my ten best albums of 2000  

Top Ten essays
1. Wonder Boys
When selecting a film to call my favorite of a particular year, that film should cover to these two aspects: Is it exceptional from a technical standpoint? Directing, editing, acting, writing, these are all important things, all are hopefully perfect or damn well near. Second, the film must be memorable and intriguing in some way, did I truly enjoy the film more than any other that year? My past #1 films include pop masterpieces like "Pulp Fiction," "Fargo," "As Good As It Gets," "Out of Sight," and "Three Kings." Those range from drama to comedy to crime fiction but all (except As Good As It Gets) pushed the envelope in the year they were released.

I’m selecting "Wonder Boys" this year even though it was not cutting edge or gimmicky. "Wonder Boys" scored major points with me because it's rare that I get to witness a film whose sense of place and milieu is so utterly genus. This is a well conceived and thoughtful tale based on Carbon’s novel. Curtis Hanson skillfully directs Michael Douglas in his career topping performance (even better than Wall Street and The Game) who stars as a college professor that has lost his touch. He’s trying to write a new bloated 1000+ page novel but something is missing. Everything that can go wrong does, partially because Douglas takes future wonder boy and psychopath Toby Maguire under his wing as some sort of demented protégée. Douglas is slumming it here, his part works so well mainly because his lethargic looser of a character catches us off guard. Douglas isn’t his slick usual self here.  "Wonder Boys" is not a film that will be in the public's minds in the years to come, but there are a few people out there that respect what this picture did so much that it will never completely fade out.

2. Unbreakable
"Unbreakable" is the only big Hollywood film on my list. What’s funny is that "Unbreakable" is so far from mainstream that the only reason people went to see the film was its A-list cast, and  the director’s previously auspicious project, "The Six Sense." I feel that "Unbreakable" is ten times greater then Shyamalan last picture because its not a slave to its ending like "Sense" was. Every moment in that film existed to serve it’s brilliant coda. The virtuosity of "Unbreakable" lies not just in its good but timid ending, but rather, it is a film that is uniformly great, and I'll take that over a lopsided ghost picture any day.
Director M. Night Shyamalan and Eduardo Serra (cinematographer) create the years best looking and most moody film and they do that by just lingering in these multi-layered shadows and watching characters interact from afar. Just by watching the opening scene where Bruce Willis is on a train hitting on a comely passenger, you can tell this filmmaker has grown leaps and bounds since his last two efforts. Shyamalan peers in on Willis through a crack in the seats in front of him and its almost like were not supposed to be seeing what were seeing (which us just a simple conversation) and the whole film feels like that!. This film was storyboarded and shot and like a comic book, and that ties in well with the theme, which I am thankful to the P&A people for not giving away the whole plot. My mind and imagination was totally immersed in this brooding and laid back drama.

3. High Fidelity
"High Fidelity" gets my award for the most enjoyable  film of the year. Skillfully adapted by star Cusack and his writing partners from Nick Hornby’s witty novel, "High Fidelity" emits more innocent charm than an episode of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, not that I watch that show or anything. It exists to make us smile. When I read Nick Hornby’s novel, which was set in England instead of Chicago, I thought, "this is perfect" finally a romantic comedy from a males point of view. Cusack hones in on Rob’s imperfections and gives the one of the best performances of the year. Cusack, along with Michael Douglass’ performance in "Wonder Boys" showed me that loveable losers were more interesting and layered than any flawless hero from "Mission Impossible 2." 

4. Traffic
Directed by Steven Soderberg and written by Stephen Gaghan, "Traffic" is an accessible and stylish look at the drug trade in American and Mexican society (it sounds complex but the films gimmick works.) Traffic has no lead characters, instead tells its story by documenting all sides of the issue by use of a spectacular supporting players. The standouts here are Michael Douglas as a concerned dad who happens to be the new drug czar, and Benicio Del Toro as a morally ambiguous Mexican cop. Soderberg, who also did the films cinematography gives each location it’s own distance look. Mexico with it's yellow glow, and Washington DC has a cold blue glaze. Everything aspect of Traffic is effective.

5. American Psycho
"American Psycho" may not be worthy of a place on anyone’s top ten if judged solely on its cinematic merits. It’s a fine film but not a perfect one, it suffers from pacing problems and omits too much good stuff from Ellis’ superb but longwinded novel. But "American Psycho" more than any other film this year has resonated in my mind. Christian Bale’s cold vessel of a human being is so refreshingly chilling and culturally mocking that it avoids those usual serial killer clichés by making us believe that the killer's personality is so uncomplicated, "I simply do not exist." I’m fed up with the drab and shadowy look that the "Silence of the Lambs," and "Seven" emulators have used ("The Watcher"). Not a week goes by without some sort of thought to his performance or some facet of this film, directed by Mary Harron, whose feminism touch is precisely why "American Psycho" is so distinct. "American Psycho" is about materialism in the Regan 80’s. It's lead character hates women and craves stature, but offence shouldn’t be taken because what’s so cool about "American Psycho" is Patrick Bateman doesn't feel like a person, he’s more the embodiment of that era.

6. Timecode
This film is a noteworthy because it’s the best gimmick of the year, right above Sunshine. "Timecode" for those who haven’t heard of it (that’s just about everybody) is almost like a filmed experiment. Mike Figges (Leaving Las Vegas) directed the whole movie in ONE TAKE, just one, that’s it. And the screen is divided into four quadrants each containing a different character and their subplots. Supporting characters in "Timecode" are interwoven into all the quadrants and we can tell that all these things are happening in real time. The world created here is a bustling and organic, its like we're Big Brother being allowed to watching. Let the economics books be rewritten because the law of diminishing returns doesn't apply to "Timecode." This is the only film I’ve ever seen that if watched 1000 times would be different and enjoyable every time. Your eyes will browse through a slightly different film every time. "Timecode," along with "Return of the Jedi" would be the films I would want if I were Tom Hanks on a deserted island. For whatever kind of movie this is, its perfect. A real joy.

7. Nurse Betty
"Nurse Betty" was one of the biggest standout films of 2000 despite its few flaws. "Nurse Betty" is the kind of anti Hollywood film that dares to have a character scalped, AND IT’S A COMEDY. Its on my top ten because I feel that its wildly original story and wonderful performances by Morgan Freeman and Renee Zellweger had me captivated all the way through. I was never one step ahead of the filmmakers, I was at the mercy of LeBute's design. This film that will be remembered long after the filmmakers and actors die because its so wickedly fun and distinct. It's a rare movie about waking up and accepting life.

8. Way of the Gun
This is a story about awful people who do awful things. "Way of the Gun" is a film noir thrill ride for the nihilist in all of us. An apathetic crime yarn that understandably offend many critics and audience members alike (the scene involving a c-section during a gunfight was the breaking point for most nerves.) After much personal deliberation regarding the rounding out of my top ten, I just had to choose "Way of the Gun". It beat out "Titan AE," and even "You Can Count on Me" because it came out of left field and surprised me by being so stylized and uncompromisingly iniquitous. "Way of the Gun" ambitiously blends the best elements of "Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid," "Magnificent Seven," and "Reservoir Dogs," into this frenetic, anything but timid picture, and all the while director McQuarrie is winking at us.

9. Jesus’ Son
Judging from the title and the cover art I could see how this film registered under the cinematic radar. "Jesus' Son" looks like some pretentious indy film that didactically preaches about morality and religion. Its far from preachy though, "Jesus' Son" is a film about a drug addicted drifter who’s aptly called Fuck Head. I’ve seen plenty of druggy dramas before, but none quite as moving as this one. "Jesus' Son" which doesn’t get its message across by being graphic and kinetic like the great "Trainspotting," or this years "Requiem for a Dream." It’s actually quite humorous (Jack Black’s even in the film.) This film is a softer character study about a guy who happens to be addicted to drugs. The issue of drugs themselves is not a grand as it was in my third favorite film this year "Traffic," but this film quietly made me love it. And at the heart of any good drug film is it's lead performer, here Billy Crudup, one of Americas most interesting actors to watch is convincing and vulnerable in this gem of a role. The film also is full of choice supporting performances. Samantha Morton, who gave last years greatest performance of any man or woman in "Sweet And Lowdown" is just as dazzling in "Jesus' Son", and she gets to talk this time.

10. Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon
I didn’t think I’d get into a subtitled kung-fu flick where the filmmakers "cheated" by inserting bogus gravity defying special effects. I still standby my choice of Charlie’s Angels as the year’s worst picture of 2000. It told an utterly incoherent story, the acting sucked, and the effects took me out of the picture to the point of severe frustration. So how could I place a film on my top ten that utilizes the same distracting effects? Simple, the drama is what works here. The story is alive. Never before have I seen such a touching and sharp kung-fu film. The film’s convoluted plot became quite simple for me once I thought of the film as an allegory for the Chinese family rather then a political who-done-it. The wise and Yoda like Chow Yun-Fat represents the father, Michelle Yeoh could be seen as the order seeking mother and Xiyi Zhang who gives the best supporting performance of the year is the troubled but talented child. "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" is both beautiful and challenging, not recommended for the literal minded.

Fin

The Good Stuff

Director: Steven Soderberg (Traffic)
Runner Up: M. Night Shyamalan (Unbreakable)

Actor: Michael Douglas (Wonder Boys)
Runner Up: John Cusack (High Fidelity)
Runner Up: Bruce Willis (Unbreakable, The Kid)

Actress: Laura Linney (You Can Count on Me)
Runner Up: Renee Zellweger (Nurse Betty)
Runner Up: Joan Allen (The Contender)

Supporting Actor: (TIE) 
Mark Ruffalo (You Can Count on Me) and Benicio Del Toro (Traffic, Way of the Gun).
Runner Up: Morgan Freeman (Nurse Betty)
Runner Up: Russell (Cast Away)

Supporting Actress: Zhang Ziyi (Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon)
Runner Up: Samantha Morton (Jesus’ Son)

Screenplay: (Tie)
M. Night Shyamalan. (Unbreakable)
John Richards and James Flamberg  (Nurse Betty)
Runner Up: Jay Roach (Meet the Parents)

Adapted Screenplay: John Cusack (High Fidelity)
Runner Up: Mary Harron (American Psycho) (Note I don’t give best-adapted screenplay unless I actually read the book)

Art Direction: Gérard Viard and Dean Tavloulris (Ninth Gate) 
Runner Up: Guy Duyas (The Cell)

Editing: Dylan Tichenor (Unbreakable)

Cinematography: Eduardo Serra (Unbreakable)

Score: Hanz Zimmer (Gladiator)    Runer up: Howard Shore, (The Cell)

Visual Effects: Perfect Storm
Runner Up: Hollow Man

Best Animated Film: Titan A.E.

Best Villain: Ryan Phillippe and Benico Del Toro (Way of the Gun)

Best Mexican standoff: 
Way of the Gun

Movie that I came the closest to liking but hated: Pitch Black

Best Line: (TIE) "Shut that cunt's mouth up or I’ll come over and fuckstart her head." (Way of the Gun) 
and
"There’s a little Godzilla in all of us." From Duhh, (Godzilla 2000)

Best Scene: Christian Bale with axe in hand talking about Huey Louis and the News (American Psycho).

Misty eyed film of the year:  Return to Me and The Kid (I didn't say I cried damn it, I just had something in my eye both times) 

The "Al Pacino Worst Overacting Award" for 2000 goes to: The two dumb-fucks from "Dude Where's My Car."

Worst Director: McG (nice name)

Worst Editing: Peter Teschner Charlie’s Angels (what a jumpy mind fuck)

Worst Sequel: Highlander Endgame (I was going to put Charlie’s Angles here even though it was not a sequel)

Worst title: You Can Count On Me (but a good film)

Worst Screenplay: (Charlie's Angels) The seven, count them seven guys to write that movie!

Worst Box office Hit: Charlie’s Angels

Worst Critic Favorite: 
Almost Famous. Although it was not that bad.

• Wonder Boys: A+

• Traffic: A

• High Fidelity: A

• Unbreakable: A

• Fail Safe: A (TV)

• Timecode: A

• Nurse Betty: A

• Way of the Gun: A

• Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon: A-

• American Psycho: A-

• Titan A.E.: A

• You Can Count On Me: A-

• Sunshine: A-

• Cast Away: A-

• Final Destination: A-

• The Cell: A-

• Jesus’ Son: A-

• Rocky & Bullwinkle: A-

• The Perfect Storm: A-

• Shanghai Noon: A-

• THE B FILMS

• Ninth Gate: B+

• Boiler Room: B+

• Erin Brockavich: B+

• 6^th Day: B+

• Best of Show: B+

• Oh Brother Where Art Thou: B+

• Chocolate: B+

• Finding Forrester: B+

• Remember the Titans: B+

• Gladiator: B

• Meet the Parents: B+

• Chuck and Buck: B+

• X-Men: B-

• Frequency: B

• Mission Impossible 2: B-

• Keeping The Faith: B

• Joe Gould’s Secret: B

• Return To Me: B

• The Whole Nine Yards: B

• Panic: B (TV)

• Proof of Life: B

• Quills: B

• Crime and Punishment in Suburbia: B

• The Opportunist: B

• Scary Movie: B

• State and Maine: B-

• Rules of Engagement: B-

• Almost Famous: B-

• Droning Mona: B

• What Planet Are You From: B-

• 28 Days: B

• Virgin Suicides, The: B-

• Dropping out: B-

• Play it to the Bone: B-

• Lucky Numbers: B-

• Godzilla 2000: B-

• Under Suspicion: B-

• Thick As Thief’s: B-

• Me, Myself and Irene: B-

• THE C FILMS

• Hollow Man: C+

• Chicken Run: C+

• U571: C

• Mystery Alaska: C+

• Kings of Comedy: C+

• Pop & Me: C+

• Mission to Mars: C+

• Red Planet: C+

• Gone in 60 Seconds: C

• Pitch Black: C+

• Space Cowboys: C

• Blair Witch 2: C

• Big Mammas House: C+

• Romeo Must Die: C+

• Shaft: C-

• Where the Money Is: C

• Woman on Top: C

• Get Carter: C

• Last of the Blond Bombshells: C cable

• Battlefield Earth: C-

• The Watcher: C-

• If These Walls Could Talk 2: C (TV)

• Reindeer Games: C-

• Scream 3: C-

• The Closer You Get AKA American Something: C-

• Body Shots: C-

• Highlander Endgame: C-

• THE D MOVIES

• Eye of the Beholder: D+

• Bait: D+

• Road Trip: D+

• Small Time Crooks: D

• The Skulls: D

• The Art Of War: D

• The Surburbans: D

• Entrophy: D-

• B. Monkey: D-

• Jackie Chan’s Miracles: D

• Whatever it Takes: D-

• The Replacements: D-

• Ready to Rumble: D-

• How the Grinch Stole Christmas: D

• The Road to El Dorado: D-

• The Beach: D-

• Loser: D-

• The Patriot: D-

• Coyote Ugly: D-

• Charlie’s Angels: D-

• THE F's

• The In Crowd: F

• Supernova: F

• Dude Where’s My Car: F