Johnny Showtime: 10 Favorites from the Year 2000

 by JB

Oh, to be 38 years old again...

This month, in anticipation of F This Movie Fest on March 7, we are celebrating the year 2000. I remember... I had been teaching high school English for 15 years. I had been married for 13 years. My son had just turned ten. (singing) “Yes, I remember it well.” While looking through several lists of “The Best of 2000,” I marvel at just how many movies I saw that year. Here are some of my favorites. If you are “pre-gaming” the Fest, as I see on the social medias that some of you are doing, you could do worse than to see these ten films.

Almost Famous

This one has aged well. Cameron Crowe’s love letter to his misspent youth and his days as a nascent rock journalist contains career-best performances from Kate Hudson, Zooey Deschanel, Billy Crudup, Noah Taylor, and Jason Lee, and a sweetness we normally don’t expect to find in a movie about rock and roll groupies.

Best in Show

Christopher Guest’s streak of hilarious mockumentaries just makes me wish he had made more films. Sure, last year’s Spinal Tap II: The End Continues was very good, but isn’t it a fool’s errand to try and make a sequel (41 years after the fact) to one of the greatest comedies of all time? Still, we can be respectfully thankful for the Guest films we do have: the original Spinal Tap; Waiting for Guffman; this, the “dog show one”; A Mighty Wind; and For Your Consideration. That’s quite a streak. Parker Posey’s pet store meltdown is one of the funniest scenes ever put on film.

Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon

I still remember Steve Martin’s joke from the Oscar ceremony that year, ““I saw the movie Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, but I was confused because I didn’t see any tigers, or any dragons. And then I realized why: The tiger was crouching, and the dragon... was hidden.” I also remember the amazing original reaction to this terrific film. It became a huge success, grossing $128 million in the United States, the highest-grossing foreign film in American history to that point. Crouching Tiger was the first non-English language film to ever make more than $100 million at the US box office.

High Fidelity

Patrick and I devoted an entire podcast to this wonderful little film thirteen short years ago. You can listen to it here. Also, deleted scenes are available on the YouTube machine. Watch the one with Beverly D'Angelo. It’s a hoot.

Nurse Betty

Why doesn’t anyone remember or talk about this black, black comedy anymore? It’s the great, lost film of the year 2000. A diner waitress (Renee Zellweger) has a nervous breakdown after witnessing some very traumatic events and believes she is living in her favorite soap opera. Morgan Freeman and Chris Rock play hitmen. It was directed by Neil LaBute.

Shadow of the Vampire

What if Max Schreck’s performance as a vampire in the original Nosferatu is so uncanny and frightening... because Schreck was a real vampire? Discuss.

Unbreakable

M. Night Shyamalan’s batshit crazy paean to superhero comics is one-of-a-kind. I remember seeing it the day it opened and just sitting there, open-mouthed in the theater, wondering just what the fuck this was. Then, the film explains itself. Whoa. A stealthy, dark masterpiece.

Wonder Boys

A profound little comedy/drama from Curtis Hanson about a burned-out college professor (Michael Douglas) and his students/minions. One of the few non-Marvel movies to feature both Iron Man AND Spider-Man. Highly recommended.

X-Men

Rogue: “When they come out...Does it hurt?”
Wolverine: “Every time.”

You Can Count on Me

The film that first revealed to the world the acting prowess of one Mark Ruffalo, this terrific family drama was written and directed by Kenneth Lonergan. It also features Laura Linney, Matthew Broderick, and Rory Culkin. It was released as a 4K Criterion Collection title last summer. Go get it.

This list is making me sadly nostalgic. Remember when EVERY year had dozens of great films? Yeah, I do too. Comment below with your favorites from Y2K!