The Railway Children

Lionel Jefferies, 1970 (9.0*)
Catherine Morshead, 2000 (miniseries) (9.2*)

Edith Nesbit's wonderful 1906 novel about one English family's children thankfully has two wonderful film adaptations to recommend. They are both faithful to the novel and provide lovable cinematic tributes to her popular work, which is touching and humane without pretension or sentimentality. [see note below about Nesbit herself]

The original is the 1970 film from character actor turned director Lionel Jefferies. A happy family in Victorian London has everything change one night when some strange men come to their home, argue with the father, then leave with him. As a result these new financial hardships, the mother takes the kids and relocates in the countryside, where she barely earns enough for food by writing stories for magazines.

There's not a lot of activity in their new neighborhood, so they take daily walks down the railroad tracks, waving to the train's passengers from a nearby hillside. This somehow seems like a appropriate method of maintaining contact with the outside world, now relegated to nothing but newspaper stories.Some of the passengers always wave back, and include one important railroad man. This unique method of friendly conversation stirs his interest in the children, and the relationship proves mutually beneficial.

Jenny Agutter is wonderful as the oldest child, Bobbie, a young teen, almost a surrogate parent to the other two, Sally and Gary being pre-teens; all are surprisingly independent and risilient. Dinah Sheridan plays the mother, not onscreen nearly as much as the children.

The trains and station are as alive here as human characters, and provide a valuable literary metaphor. In fact, everyone in town gets to know the children through the railroad itself, which is a lifeline to their village. For me, this novel and film said a lot about the passage of time sadly removing our relationships to trains and a gentler, more leisurely time, one without the modern rush of autos and planes, which has removed the social interaction of the bygone era of steam, when most travel was on trains and ships.

The second version is a tv miniseries from 2000, directed by Catherine Morshead. In this version, Richard Attenborough plays the railroad man, Mr. Perk, and Jenny Agutter (Bobbie in the original), plays the childrens' mother, while Jemima Rooper has her original role. I think I may prefer the length of this longer version more, but both are excellent adaptations and make wonderful G-rated family films.


Note: Edith Nesbit's was a British socialist who wanted conditions improved for the impoverished workers of her country, and wrote over 60 books, mostly for or about children (over 40), the ultimate victims of poverty, as due to malnourishment many don't reach adulthood. She and her husband co-founded the socialst organization The Fabian Society, the precursor to the modern Labour Party.

Nesbit wrote about children without writing down to them. They are treated as intelligent, caring, and almost adult in maturity when having to deal with harsh life circumstances. This is likely why her writings are still popular today. In fact, she's considered the first author for children in dealing with the real world and it's problems rather than a fantasy world.

her page at Wikipedia

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Almost Famous

Cameron Crowe, 2000 (8.8*)
When he was a 15-year old teen, Crowe convinced Rolling Stone magazine through some letters that he was an adult rock music critic. Surprisingly, he was selected to follow an up-and-coming rock band on the road and report on the tour. This film humorously documents that period in Crowe's life, and Crowe himself won an Oscar® for the screenplay.

Patrick Fugit plays the teen, William. Frances McDormand is terrific, as usual, as his mom, Mrs. Miller. Kate Hudson, daughter of Goldie Hawn, was a breakthrough as groupie "Penny Lane" (obviously named after the Beatles song); she steals the movie, and garnered an Oscar® nomination for supporting actress as a result. [photo rt, w Fugit]

Jason Lee and Billy Crudup are the singer and guitarist in the band. This is a funny and at times touching take on the lifestyle of rockers, from the band to the fans to the critics. This is one of the more fully realized rock music films, which should make it of interest to all film fans, not just rockers. If you like this, check out his earlier (and even funnier) grunge rock comedy Singles, from 1992.

Overall, the film won 44 awards and got 120 nominations (awards page at IMDB), making it one of the biggest critical successes of any rock film. Both Kate Hudson and Frances McDormand won multiple acting awards for this, and Crowe won several for his screenplay, several for film.

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Vatel

Roland Joffe, 2000, France (8.6*)

Based on a true story, King Louis XIV (Julian Sands) of France visits a bankrupt prince, who happens to be France's best general and Louis needs him for a planned war with Holland. The prince spares no expense, all from creditors, to entertain him for three days, all planned by his steward Vatel, played by Gerard Depardieu, a master of illusions, who can create a vase of flowers out of sugar and food dye.

The king's mistress Anne de Montausier is attracted to Vatel's honest dignity, played by Uma Thurman in a role almost a sequel to her's in Dangerous Liaisons, so we are treated to musical beds at night as nearly everyone is after the fair madame, including the king's Marquis, played by Tim Roth.

But the real star of this film is Depardieu, and the illusions Joffe creates with the sets. In one scene, painted plywood outside creates the illusion of being in Versailles; they drop to reveal a tropical tableau with man-made golden palm trees. Since this is based on history, one wonders if these are the exact set pieces designed by Vatel for King Louis. Entertaining costume and historical drama throughout, and one of the more opulent French films.

Quote: My brother hates tulips, he'll be delighted if we war with Holland

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Devils on the Doorstep

aka Guizi Lai Le
Jen Wiang, 2000, China, bw (9.6*)
Absolutely terrific anti-war satire from China, is one of that country's best films ever, a grand jury prize finalist at Cannes. Wiang proves himself the consummate artist, writing the screenplay, then directing himself as the lead actor, putting himself on a level with Clint Eastwood and Woody Allen.

The story is simple on the surface: in a Chinese coastal village occupied by Japanese naval reserves during WW2, a peasant farmer whose prime concern is making love to his dead brothers' widow, receives a knock in the night (while fulfilling his goal) and is given two Japanese prisoners: a Japanese infantry soldier and his Chinese translator, by a resistance fighter, who instructs him to take care of them until New Year's, and to interrogate them, or he will kill all the villagers. When he doesn't return by that day, the villagers are faced with confusion and a major decision - what follows is a satire of war and moral dilemna, with much humor until the films concluding scenes. Watch for a hilarious scene where the translator has taught the p.o.w. how to curse the ancestors of his guards, as "the Chinese hate insults of their ancestors".

Wiang wisely shot this, beautifully, in black and white, recalling Kurosawa's masterpiece, Seven Samurai. Ironically, this film was banned in China, some say because the Japanese aren't shown as brutal enough, others because Wiang entered the film at Cannes without the government's consent. Whatever the reason, the entire world deserves to see this war mastepiece - there's no other film quite like it from inside or outside of China. Certainly one of that country's best films; only master director Zhang Yimou (Hero, To Live, The Road Home) has equalled this artistry.

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Longitude

Charles Sturridge, 2000 (9.1*)
Longitude is a tv miniseries dramatization of the life of British inventor John Harrison, a carpenter and amateur clockmaker, brilliantly portrayed by veteran actor Michael Gambon. In the early 1700's, ships at sea could not calculate their longitude due to the motion of ships which prevented pendulum clocks from operating accurately. Navigators estimated speed and current drift and estimated their positions on charts, and just one degree of error resulted in many shipwrecks and deaths. Queen Anne offered a prize of 20,000 lbs to anyone who could solve the problem, so in order to save lives, John Harrison, who made wooden clocks more accurate than metal ones, took up the challenge.

Juxtaposed with his story in perfect synchronicity is the modern story of Rupert Gould (Jeremy Irons), who is attempting to restore Harrison's clocks (to his neglected wife's frustration) and get them operative again so they can take their proper place in a museum of history. Director Charles Sturridge does a masterful job of not only integrating the two stories, but of also keeping us engrossed in a history lesson for nearly four hours. Only the British could pull this off, making what reads like a boring story of clock invention into a riveting drama upon which thousands of lives depend. Based upon the history book by Dava Sobel, one of the best history films ever made.

Quote: The watch beats five to the second, a slight recoil being perceptible at each beat, and goes for 30 hours. The plates are of brass, polished but not gilt. The pivot holes are jeweled as far as the third wheel, that is to say, those of the balance, staff, detente, contrate wheel, fly, fifth, fourth, and third wheels. The jewels are rubies, and the end stones diamonds. It is a masterpiece, weighing only slightly less than the brain that conceived it. (Irons, as Rupert Gould)

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The Contender

Rod Lurie, 2000 (7.8*)This is one of those rare political dramas that can hold your interest until the end, like Advise and Consent and Mr. Smith Goes to Washington. It came out in 2000, yet somehow seemed to ancitipate the campaign of Hillary Clinton, as it's a movie about the first female nominee for vice-president, played by Joan Allen with her usual professional and on-target performance. Jeff Bridges is perhaps the most amiable President put on film, young and with enough charisma that even his politics sound like homespun wisdom.

Allen's candidate is a Senator, Laine Hanson, and she's opposed by right-wing Republican senator played by Gary Oldman, who comes across as a neo-McCarthyite whose agenda is keeping women out of the White House; apparently it may be a personal feud with the President, a campaign holdover. Even though this film has attracted debate as being "too liberal", the opponents end up sounding a lot like Oldman's character, who was willing to stoop to just about any means, reminiscent of Nixon's "dirty tricks" campaign tactics. Funny how the patriotic films like The Right Stuff and Saving Private Ryan don't get attacked as "too right wing", but if you favor equal rights for women and minorities in life, somehow that's a "liberal agenda" instead of just basic human rights and part of the Constitution.

If people can watch this movie without their politics interfering, they might enjoy a finely crafted adult political thriller with top-notch performances all around.

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Malena

Guiseppe Tournatore, 2000, Italy (8.2*)
From the director of the classic Cinema Paradiso (Oscar® winner for Foreign Film), if you enjoyed that film you should also like this one. Tournatore again returns to his childhood for inspiration. In this, a young teenage boy in a small Sicilian seacoast town named Renato, excellently portrayed by Guiseppe Sulfaro in his first role, begins the film by getting his first bicycle. To the other boys, this bicycle represents manhood (for Renato, it’s long pants!). On the same seminal day, he discovers the beautiful married woman (whose husband is at war in Africa for Italy), Malena, whom his friends watch walk to town daily (then the whole town watches her shop). Melena is beautifully played in her first film by former model Monica Bellucci, and luckily for us, we get to see just about all of her beauty, as Guiseppe realizes that he is now becoming a man, and begins to spy on Malena, even in her private moments. He later defends her against the town gossips, which is just about everyone, as all the women are jealous of her beauty and the attention she garners from all the men.

The truthful pain of this story is that the boy cannot make himself older (she’s twice his age) and be the man Melena might need, as her husband does not return, so we feel Guiseppe’s helpless torture. Tournatore said that “the greatest love is all is unrequited love”; it’s a theme that also dominated Cinema Paradiso; the first love is almost always unrequited in Tournatore’s films, and it shapes his characters lives. The film starts as a romantic comedy, then turns serious as the war affects all these residents of the town, perhaps the story’s biggest shortcoming, the shift in mood and tone. The towns of Siracusa and Noto looked stunningly like the Renaissance paintings of Caravaggio, apparently untouched by war or time for centuries, as we see in many beautiful shots (the cinematography received and Oscar® nomination). We also hear another beautiful Oscar®-nominated score by Ennio Morricone (who has scored six of Tournatore’s seven films). Another rewarding and nostalgic film by Tournatore, whose fans won’t be disappointed.

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Best in Show

Christopher Guest, 2000 (8.6*)
Former SNL writer and actor Guest has made a series of small comedies, some funny and some not, but Best in Show is definitely his best, a hilarious spoof of the big Westminister dog shows that we can now see on cable. The story follows five dogs to the big show. Four are owned by couples: two married hetero couples, one gay couple (over the top but hilarious), and one lesbian couple. The last is a Tennessee bloodhound owned by bachelor Guest, a southern gentlemen who seems to have stepped out of a forgotten era. His low key style sometimes undermines the comedy, as he did in A Mighty Wind, but it works better here.

Most of the owners treat their dogs better than people; the film even starts with Parker Posey explaining a sexual incident to what we first think is a couples psychologist, but it turns out to be a dog psychologist being consulted because her Weimeraner (sp?) is depressed after witnessing its owners making love in some wild kama sutra position(!) Former SCTV comedians Eugene Levy and Catherine O'Hara play the funniest couple, with a little Scottie from Florida, who have a hilarious road visit with her former beau, standup comedian Larry Miller, now a hostage negotiator, who tells his son, "Come down off that garage or I'll gouge your eyes out with my thumb."


All the actors are perfectly cast, and funny in their own ways; however, it's Fred Willard who nearly steals the movie as the naive tv announcer who obviously knows nothing about dog shows. If you like SNL and SCTV, and something a little more cerebral than Adam Sandler, this comedy will likely tickle your bones, and your dog's as well.

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Nine Queens

Fabian Bielinsky, 2000, Argentina (7.6*)
The title of this Argentinian con artist story refers to a sheet of nine stamps of Queen Wilhemina of Germany, now worth a small fortune, and a small-time con artist who has a chance for a big score. He runs into a street criminal after losing his own partner in crime (who disappeared) and the two pair up "for a day". Suddenly each is contributing their time and some of their own money in a high stakes game to sell some expertly counterfeited stamps to a millionaire. Gorgeously sexy Leticia Brédice provides some romantic interest, but the story here is the intricate plot, reminiscent of David Mamet's con artist films House of Games and The Spanish Prisoner. So if you like heavy plotting with little action, this is for you.

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Requiem for a Dream

Darren Anorofsky, 2000 (10*)

This film is without doubt the most intense movie I've ever seen – in fact, I had to take a break halfway and finish it later, one advantage of dvd over the theater. It’s a total work of art, but one that will leave you emotionally drained. It’s a story of addiction of all kinds: drugs, tv, food, hope. Ellen Burstyn, who is mind-blowing in this (and spent 4 hrs a day in makeup), her greatest performance (Oscar-nominated, it should have been her 2nd after Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore), plays Sarah Goldfarb in Brooklyn, whose only son, played by Jared Leto, routinely pawns her tv to buy drugs, and Sarah buys it back each time. She dreams of being on tv, and may get her chance on a motivational program where huckster Tappy Tibbons sells optimism that he calls "juice" for one easy payment (a thinly disguised variation of Tony Robbins?), well-played by Chrisopher MacDonald. Before that she wants to lose weight, so she finds a doctor to give her diet pills.

Her story begins to parallel her son’s, who spends time with girlfriend Jennifer Connelly, in her most demanding and best performance (I now believe her Oscar for A Beautiful Mind was due to her snub for this), and friend Marlon Wayans, who is surprisingly effective in a rare dramatic part. Anorofsky uses machine-gun fire editing, odd camera angles, blurred fast-motion sequences, and a special actor-mounted camera to create a nightmare world of dreams blurring reality for all involved. For some this was distracting, for me it totally involved the audience in a world where reality is a vaporous vision, constantly shifting until you don’t know what’s real and what is imaginary.

This film may be too shocking to watch; it likely deserves an X-rating for emotional trauma. I’m sure it scared the heck out of Hollywood; it was made with the assistance of Sundance. Traditional movigoers and filmmakers wouldn’t go near this subject, based on major American author Hubert Selby’s novel from 1978. Selby is best known for this 1964 classic Last Exit to Brooklyn, which shocked the nation, but wowed book critics, and caused an obscenity trial in England. (see below for some Selby quotes from an interview on the dvd). Director Anorofsky’s only previous film was the engrossing intellectual drama in black and white, Pi (review upcoming), about obsessed numerologists hunting for the “key to the universe” hidden in the Bible in the numeric values of Hebrew letters (!) This is major art for a second film effort, for anyone’s film effort actually. This is more intense than Tarantino, Scorsese, or Cuckoo’s Nest, and likely too intense for the average movigoer - if you enjoy Adam Sandler, or Lethal Weapon movies, you probably won’t like this. But a film this visually stunning will be studied by cinema students for decades, and is a treat for the serious film connoisseur.

Here's Roger Ebert's longer and more descriptive review in the Chicago Sun Times, he agrees that it's "adults only", unless you know a kid doing drugs:
Roger Ebert's Requiem Review

[Note: I’m giving it a 10 for its mind-blowing visuals, overcoming any story faults. The scene they’ll discuss for years is Burstyn cleaning her apt from end to end in 25 seconds of film, in super-high speed, while the camera slowly tracks past each room. This took 40 minutes and was one take; when done, Ellen was disappointed with herself and wanted to do another take. The dvd will show you how it was done. I’ll have to admit that when the film was over, I needed a drink and a walk outside, I was shaking for half an hour.]

Hubert Selby Quotes (Selby has a brief part in this as a prison guard)
“About age 8, I discovered that the world was full of pain and suffering, and I decided I had to try to end that suffering.”

“I had tb after world war two; a doctor looked me and said, ‘there’s nothing we can do for you’, walked away and sent me a bill. Man, do I love the AMA.”
(This almost killed Selby, he had a lung and 10 ribs removed, but survived. He also had brain damage during childbirth, yet has become one of the most important American authors, compared to Dostoevsky)

“The Sanskrit and Hebrew word for eye is ‘fountain’, they say we project our souls onto the world through the eye, not perceive the world outside projected inward.”

“Suffering comes from the fact that life is pain, and we refuse to accept the pain that all must experience; the worst pain will be losing one’s mother, hence ‘I feel like a motherless child.’”

“I had a spiritual experience once; during that I knew that as I’m dying I’ll think two things: first that I wasted my life, then that I’d like to live it all over – and then I’ll die.”

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Frequency

Gregory Hoblit, 2000 (8.4*)
This terrific SciFi film is also a murder mystery, and it’s hard to believe it gets overlooked on SF film lists with a plot this involving. Jim Caviezal listens to short wave radio as a hobby, and has had his entire life altered by a tragedy. One night he picks up what he thinks is his deceased father’s voice, played by Dennis Quaid. His father may or may not be in an alternate reality or time period, that’s part of the mystery; there's also a potential murder in the works, yet another part of the complex plot. The beauty of good science fiction is that just about anything is possible and if well written, seems natural to the plot. This is hard to describe without any spoilers, so just make sure you watch this film!

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Boiler Room

Ben Younger, 2000 (7.7*)
Ranking right up there with Wall Street, this is another expose of stock market scams and capitalist ripoffs commonly employed. The term refers to a stock brokerage that pressures its clients to buy stocks they want to push, some of which don't even represent real companies. Some are nothing more than signs stuck on doors of empty warehouses. We are reminded of the electronic sales company Crazy Eddie's, which had government auditors counting empty boxes as valid inventory when it went public as a 'high flying stock'.

Giovanni Ribisi stars with some buddies who are new to the industry, and soon find that the stock market isn't exactly what they thought it was. Rather than real investment deals like the big boys, they are constantly pressured to sell hot air to naive investors who don't have a lot to lose, and certainly no extra capital. Not big budget like Wall Street, this small indie film is still a must for stock traders.

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Not One Less

Dir: Zhang Yimou, China, 2000 (7.8*)

This is one of the slower Yimou films, but still worth seeing, as are they all. The story involves a 13-yr old girl who must substitute in a rural mountain school when the teacher has to go on personal leave for one month. He offers her an extra 50 yuan if there is "not one less student" when he returns (due to kids dropping out), so it becomes the girls guiding principle in running the school, full of students not much younger than her. When one student goes to a nearby city to work to pay his family's debt, the girl, brilliantly portrayed by Wei Minzhi, is determined to bring him back. This is a more touching story for the fact that Yimou used not professional actors but actual real life people to portray their own "fictional" roles in the movie; that is, the head of a tv station was played by a real tv station manager, the teacher was a real elementary school teacher. The performances he elicits from children and the message of this almost propogandist statement make this film a must-see.

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Chocolat

Lasse Hallstrom, 2000, France (8.2*)
Unique and eccentric fantasy romance, about an outsider, Juliet Binoche, who comes to a small town in France and opens a chocolate shop. She is generally shunned by the locals, being an outsider and a beautiful woman, but manages to cook a special chocolate for each person that has magical qualities for that person alone. Johnny Depp, Lena Olin, and Judi Dench are all part of the terrific cast.

Hallstrom (My Life as a Dog) always makes interesting and quirky films, each one is worth seeing. This reminded me a little of Woody's Alice, another in which magic comes to those in need through ingestion of the right concoctions. All three actresses above (Binoche, Olin, Dench) were BAFTA nominees for this film. Five Oscar® nominations, including Best Picture.

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The Road Home

Dir: Zhang Yimou, China, 2000 (8.5*)

Zhang Yimou (Hero, To Live, House of Flying Daggers) scores big again with this Sundance award winner that covers a love story from beginning to end, lasting several decades. The story is told in flashback after a young man’s father dies and he goes home for the funeral, and his mother insists that since the father died in another village, his body must be carried home by friends and relatives, "or the spirit can’t find its way home". In the flashbacks, the mother is played by Ziyi Zhang (her first starring role) as she meets and loves a new schoolteacher in the village who came there from a city. This is a simple romance, and a beautiful blend of scenery with Chinese folk traditions. Zhang was stunning in her first film.

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Gladiator

Ridley Scott, 2000 (8.9*)
Best Picture (AA, BAA, GG)
After seeing this in the theater, I told people it would win some Oscars and everyone laughed. Well, it won 5, including Best Picture and Best Actor for Russell Crowe, who plays a Roman general named Maximus in his best film role. This is the best gladiator film of all time (not hard!), using special effects to show the Roman Coliseum filling up from above, leopards fighting gladiators, a major Roman battlefield scene, with the special effects and sound winning Oscars. The story is surprisingly good, and Joaquin Phoenix as Emperor Commodus was also nominated, for supp. actor. Although it lost some Oscars to the excellent Soderbergh film Traffic, it was still one of best epics of all time, with large-scale action and perfect craftmanship throughout. 5 Oscars

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Traffic

Dir: Steven Soderbergh, 2000 (9.1*)
Best Director Oscar
Based on a European tv miniseries, this rewrite tells several intertwined stories of people affected by drugs and smuggling. Michael Douglas is a Senator and anti-drug czar, whose daughter is dabbling in drugs, Benecio del Toro (Oscar for Supp Actor) is an anti-drug detective in Mexico, Catherine Zeta-Jones is the wife of a drug kingpin. The star is director Soderbergh, who uses color tinting to connect the different stories together visually, and wrote the script that is basically a flawless integration of all these stories. The film won every Oscar nomination it got except Best Picture, losing to Gladiator. 4 Oscars

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Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon

Ang Lee, Yuen Woo-Ping, 2000, China (10*)

Best Foreign Film (AA, BAA)

A poetic and mythical masterpiece from China, an epic about a stolen sword. Chow Yung-Fat is perfect as the martial arts master who has the sword stolen, and dimunitive Ziyi Zhang (the world's most popular actress) is the likely suspect, only she remains an elusive quarry.

Many magical cinematic moments and acrobatic martial arts make this a visual treat, as master Taiwanese director Ang Lee (Sense and Sensibility, Brokeback Mountain, Eat Drink Man Woman) got directorial help for the martial arts from action director Yuen Woo-Ping. Classical cellist Yo-Yo Ma provided a beautiful soundtrack score, which won an Oscar®. 5 Oscars® overall, second only to Gladiator's 6 that year.

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Memento

Dir: Christopher Nolan, 2000 (9.1*)
Indy Spirit Award, Best Picture
Director Nolan (Following, Insomnia, Batman Begins, The Dark Knight) has created one of the most challenging crime mysteries in cinema as the hero has suffered short-term memory loss from brain injuries and we experience the story in reverse chronological order. Guy Pearce has his strongest performance as a man who takes polaroids of each person in his life and also tattoes important facts on his body as he searches for the perpetrators. This is a tough movie to describe, cuz every time I see it I forget it. Winner of 5 Indy Spirit awards including Best Picture, Best Director, Best Screenplay.

Note: If you've seen the film first, the Limited Edition of the film has an egg on Disk 2 that allows you to view the film forward chronologically.
1) Insert Disc 2, then select the clock.
2) Select "c" 5 times for the questions that come up.
3) Select the pictures of the woman changing a tire in this order: 3,4,1,2

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