Jonathan Foreman

You won't see any film this year as beautiful, and plain thrilling as Apocalypse Now Redux. Watching it after sitting through this summer's record number of dumb, dreadful movies is almost a painfully good experience. [3 Aug 2001, p.30]

It ranks among Robert Altman's best work ever, and that its many satisfactions derive in large part from a superbly written screenplay by Julian Fellowes that has no equal this year.

An extraordinary experience: an original and brilliant combination of comedy, action and sophisticated political comment -- the best American movie of the year thus far.

The latest episode of this ongoing masterpiece of reality TV -- which every seven years revisits a group of English people first interviewed as 7-year-olds in 1964 -- is every bit as enthralling as the earlier ones.

Its superb performances, music, photography, dialogue, its rhythms of tone and theme all complement each perfectly.

Rapturously elegant and deeply sexy in a deliciously restrained way. One of the most romantic movies I have ever seen, right up there with "Brief Encounter"and "Casablanca."

Sheer delight. An ensemble comedy-drama that recalls Robert Altman's best work.

Essential viewing not just for those fascinated by adventure, exploration and survival, but for anyone interested in the magic of leadership.

It's hard to remember a film that mixes disparate, delicate ingredients with the subtlety and virtuosity of Sofia Coppola's brilliant The Virgin Suicides.

A powerful fable about love and addiction that manages to be darkly humorous when it isn't graphic or harrowing in the extreme.

East Is East is "The Full Monty" of 2000, a fresh, funny and poignant film filled with sparkling performances.

Gripping, smart and moving, without falling prey to sentimentality, it shows what can be achieved when mainstream filmmakers like Howard and Goldsman are genuinely inspired and determined to be honest.

An exhilarating, sweeping epic that begs to be seen on the largest possible screen.

Toy Story had a simpler, stronger story and the advantage of being the first of its kind. But it's quickly apparent that TS2 represents a major step forward in computer-animation artistry.

Atriumph on almost every level. It is breathtakingly stylish, wonderfully acted and its three interrelated tales of the "war" on drugs are brilliantly structured to form a cohesive, powerful whole.

At first, it seems stagy and slow and even to verge on the pretentious, but the film steadily accumulates dramatic power as its carefully sketched characters reveal their internal lives. By its end, After Life has developed into one of those haunting movies whose scenes can pop back into your consciousness hours or days after you have seen it. [12 May 1999, p.56]

You can tell this is a smart take on Hamlet from the first wordless opening shots.

The most effective moments in Taymor's gorgeous, surprisingly romantic Frida are those that evoke the visual world from which Kahlo's work was formed or the paintings themselves, often using clever animation and other special effects.

The final result, shaped by the brilliantly nimble, pitch-perfect direction of Spike Jonze, and blessed by superb acting, is an extraordinarily clever comedy that falters only in the last 20 minutes.

Vulgar and lewd and raunchy like you wouldn't believe, and absolutely hilarious from beginning to end.

The marvelous Burtonic gothic/nightmare production design -- scenery, weaponry, costumes, etc. constantly pleases the eye without ever distracting you from the plot.

A visually stunning film.

Magnificent if overlong and oddly structured surfing documentary.

This bizarre, original and brilliantly crafted documentary about the Sex Pistols is funny and at times moving -- despite all the ugliness and stupidity it depicts.

Refreshing and surprising, the way independent movies are supposed to be.

May be the creepiest and most original horror film since John Carpenter's classic "Halloween."

For some reason, the people who make modern musicals don't like to let you watch dancers dance -- there are still too few moments when you get to enjoy choreography from a dancer's hands to her feet.

An ideal antidote to the big-budget bores that studios put out in late summer, The Tao of Steve is a charming, funny and refreshingly smart Gen-X romantic comedy in the tradition of "When Harry Met Sally" - with the bonus of an engagingly laid-back Southwestern flavor.

Lacks the humor and charm that fills the book and makes it so much more than a catalog of suffering.

The movie that deserved to win the Oscar for foreign-language film, and one of the best movies ever made about life behind the Iron Curtain.

Isn't just scary, charming and delightfully unpredictable - it's also smarter and subtler than any new movie out there.

Uses the compelling true story of the triumph of the Enigma code-breakers as background for an invented but believable story of love, betrayal and heroism.

A remarkable accomplishment. It takes one of the century's vast tragedies...and makes it heart-rendingly real and intimate.

A crowd-pleasing ensemble piece, whose story goes exactly where you want it to.

A reminder of just how good Hollywood storytelling can be.

Powerful, provocative and often surprisingly funny, this may be the year's outstanding documentary.

A delightful, fresh dark comedy.

A terrific work of political and social satire set in a Nebraska high school that has the intelligence of (the less coherent) "Rushmore," while painting a much darker picture of politics and human relationships.

Vastly superior to the small and independent films that have come out during the last six months.

Cheerful, slightly cheesy entertainment that uses the latest special-effects techniques to breathe life into a venerable film tradition.

Revels in the sensual pleasure of music while capturing brilliantly the tension that grips any theater company before the curtain goes up.

A haunting, superbly made film. But it's also an unrelentingly sad and depressing experience.

An affectionate, often clever and unflaggingly funny satire.

It is not only an amazing technical accomplishment, it's also the wittiest and best-voiced animated movie to come along in years.

It's an even rarer pleasure to see a film that combines exciting action with a smart, well-informed script and vivid yet restrained performances.

A stunning achievement, every bit the equal of the classic moun taineering book which inspired it.

Far more interesting and intelligent than anything coming out of the studios. It fairly brims with superb performances by a terrific cast - you simply can't take your eyes off the female leads, Edie Falco and Angela Bassett.

Longwinded, slow-starting but moving film.

It's often hilarious, and there is lots of the zippy, apparently improvised dialogue that made "Swingers" such a pleasure.

But it's more than a crowd-pleaser shot at spectacular Rocky mountain locations -- it's almost revolutionary.

A clever, funny, extended joke about ruthless directors, method actors and the power of the cinema.

Despite many flaws...Romance is unquestionably an important film.

Compelling but self-undermining documentary.

Visually accomplished and wonderfully acted.

Hilarious, acidic Brit comedy.

It's clever, cool fun and it looks great.

Shaft is what summer action flicks should be... thanks to superior writing, acting and direction.

A triumph of intelligent adaptation. It shows again how well the great Victorian storyteller translates to film, and makes enjoyable use of a generally first-rate cast.

Downbeat and at times strangely slow-moving despite all its beautifully shot high-speed ambulance rides.

Bowfinger's terrific set-pieces... more than make up for the odd weak moment or thin performance.

It's frightening enough, to be sure, but too often it feels like a well-executed but rote exercise.

Powerful, important and refreshingly straightforward documentary.

So filled with amusing, idiosyncratic touches and unexpectedly charming characters that you mostly don't mind its excesses.

An unusually well-written and satisfying multilayered drama that conveys the feel of urban India with more vivid accuracy than anything made in the subcontinent in recent years.

As a horror movie, even one inspired by the kitschy Hammer horror films of the 1950s, it's disappointing.

Crimson Gold has been likened to an Iranian "Taxi Driver," but it's nothing of the sort, though it is powerful in a quiet, minimalist way.

The thing that makes Haneke’s Code Unknown so enjoyable and effective is that that he says it in such a wonderfully restrained and light-handed yet suspenseful way.

A witty, well-acted, visually gorgeous ensemble drama.

The result is a remarkably beguiling documentary, on a number of levels.

Culkin is superb - he makes you forget that Igby is a spoiled brat who actually deserves the beating he gets.

A poignant, graceful little film.

So beautifully made (everything in it is understated except the gorgeous good looks of its stars) and turns out to have such real cumulative power that it is worth holding out to the end.

Structurally flawed, occasionally shlocky, but written with unusual intelligence and subtlety.

Slight but affecting triptych.

An uplifting, crowd-pleasing film in the tradition of "The Full Monty" that could easily win Oscar nominations for both its 11-year-old star, Jamie Bell, and first-time director, Stephen Daldry.

The film is almost worth seeing just for the extraordinary scene in which a stark naked Mortimer has her movie star lover (Dermot Mulroney) deliver an exhaustive critique of her body's flaws.

But it is Thurman who stands out, with a marvelous, full-blooded performance, her best in some time, as tragic Charlotte.

Intelligent, moving and often beautifully photographed, Aberdeen boasts superb performances.

A sweet, lushly photographed but occasionally slow film.

Though Human Stain is sometimes too chaotic and sometimes too neat, it boasts some of the best acting of the year.

A real pleasure, a sweet, funny, ensemble comedy...utterly authentic.

Essential viewing for anyone who cares about American popular music and its roots.

This oddly cheerful, decreasingly dark comedy actually works and can boast some of the most enjoyable performances of the year.

Isn't Allen's finest work by a long shot, but an undeniable part of its fascination is trying to figure out what -- if anything, even unconsciously -- he's trying to say about how he treated Farrow.

It's a slow, exhaustive and exhausting process that takes a toll on the viewer, despite the intrinsic power of the underlying material.

May well be the first film ever to show people having sex while wearing gas masks.

That it is such a powerful and indeed beautiful film is simply extraordinary.

Surprisingly charming and even witty match for the best of Hollywood's comic-book adaptations.

The smartest movie to come out this year, and it could hardly be better cast.

Easily one of the most enjoyable big-budget Hollywood movies to come along in a while, Rock Star is an unexpected pleasure.

It's actually the surprisingly compelling plot and the often hilarious dialogue that keep you watching this tale of passion and murder in a Samurai militia unit - not the beautiful scenery or the elegant color palette.

A unique, priceless portrait of the now legendary leader, and of his beautiful country when it was in the grip of a disastrous civil war.

A beautifully shot, well-acted movie that manages to make a complicated, real-life story without much drama feel like a thriller.

Lighthearted and smart enough to be one of the best Altmanesque ensemble comedies of the last couple of years.

A deeply pleasurable, old-fashioned blood-'n'-guts adventure film.

An elegant, quietly comical but slightly constricted period piece whose stately pace is all but offset by several impressive performances.

A sometimes glorious, sometimes disastrous folly.

A formulaic and predictable movie that combines minimal characterization with some irritating implausibility.