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These
films aren't arranged in order of superiority, but they are the 10 best.
Almost
Famous (Director: Cameron Crowe, Score: Nancy Wilson)
Best in Show (Director: Christopher Guest, Score: Jeffrey C.J.
Vanston)
Chicken Run (Directors: Peter Lord and Nick Park, Score: John Powell
and Harry Gregson-Williams)
Erin Brockovich (Director: Steven Soderbergh, Score: Thomas Newman)
Girl on the Bridge (Director: Patrice Leconte)
 High
Fidelity (Director: Stephen Frears, Score: Howard Shore)
Mission to Mars (Director: Brian De Palma, Score: Ennio Morricone)
Not One Less (Director: Zhang Yimou, Score: San Bao)
O Brother, Where Art Thou? (Director: Joel Coen, Score: T-Bone
Burnett and Carter Burwell)
Traffic (Director: Steven Soderbergh, Score: Cliff Martinez)
And:
The Opportunists, You Can Count on Me, American Psycho,
The Filth and the Fury, What's Cooking?
Great
1999 films that I didn't see until they were released here in the South
Bay in 2000: The Emperor and the Assassin (this Chinese epic makes
the witless Gladiator look like a Steve Reeves Hercules flick —
its love triangle, similar to the triangle in Gladiator, is much
more intriguing, and it boasts superior battle sequences), Topsy-Turvy,
All About My Mother
Barely
released films I always wanted to see but never got the chance to: Judy
Berlin, Wonder Boys, George Washington, Yi Yi
Best
pieces of film criticism: a couple of pieces defending Mission to Mars,
by Salon.com's Ray
Sawhill and the New York Press' Armond White
 1.
Ghost Dog: The Way of the Samurai (The RZA)
2. The Virgin Suicides (Air)
3. Chicken Run (John Powell and Harry Gregson-Williams)
4. Mission to Mars (Ennio Morricone)
5. Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (Tan Dun)
6. Shaft (David Arnold)
7. Girlfight (Theodore Shapiro)
8. Gladiator (Hans Zimmer, Lisa Gerrard and Klaus Badelt)
9. O Brother, Where Art Thou? (T-Bone Burnett and Carter Burwell)
10.
Erin Brockovich (Thomas Newman)
Also:
Dancer in the Dark (Björk), Requiem for a Dream (Clint
Mansell), High Fidelity (Howard Shore), Dark Days (DJ Shadow),
The Patriot (John Williams)
 1.
Freaks and Geeks
2. Action
3. Whose Line Is It Anyway?
4. Now and Again
5. Late Night with Conan O'Brien
6. Futurama
7. The Corner
8. The Sopranos
9. The Chris Rock Show
10.
Buffy the Vampire Slayer
Also:
Wonderland, The West Wing, Angel, Law & Order
(before it lost Steven Hill), The Daily Show with Jon Stewart,
The Simpsons (just when I thought I was out because the show was
fading, it pulled me back in with its Behind the Music spoof),
Late Show with David Letterman, Gideon's Crossing (uneven
yet much more tolerable than the sensationalistic soap-operatics of ER
and the cancelled City of Angels), The X-Files (the Robert
Patrick episodes), Resurrection Blvd.
And:
King of the Hill, Farscape, Everybody Loves Raymond,
Oz, Turner Classic Movies
Favorite
rerun: The Larry Sanders Show (tape as many episodes as you can
off HBO Plus before Bravo picks up the reruns and butchers them)
Showing
signs of improvement: Ed
A
show I watch every week even though it continues to frustrate me, as well
as other
viewers: Boston Public
FAVORITES OF 1999
Films
1.
Election (Director: Alexander Payne, Score: Rolfe Kent)
2. Three Kings (Director: David O. Russell, Score: Carter Burwell)
3. Being John Malkovich (Director: Spike Jonze, Score: Carter Burwell)
4. The Straight Story (Director: David Lynch, Score: Angelo Badalamenti)
5. Metroland (Director: Philip Saville, Score: Mark Knopfler)
6. Galaxy
Quest (Director: Dean Parisot, Score: David Newman)
7. The
Iron Giant (Director: Brad Bird, Score: Michael Kamen)
8. The Limey
(Director: Steven Soderbergh, Score: Cliff Martinez)
9. Office Space (Director: Mike Judge, Score: John Frizzell)
10.
Open Your Eyes (Director: Alejandro Amenábar, Score: Amenábar,
Mariano Marín)
Also:
Toy Story 2, South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut, The
Thomas Crown Affair, Black
Cat, White Cat, Run Lola Run,
Princess Mononoke,
Three Seasons, Dogma, The Insider, Summer of Sam
Film
Scores
1.
(tie) The 13th Warrior (Jerry Goldsmith)
South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut (Trey Parker and Marc Shaiman)
2. The Red Violin (John Corigliano)
3. Fight Club (The Dust Brothers)
4. The General's Daughter (Carter Burwell)
5. The Legend of 1900 (Ennio Morricone)
6. Princess Mononoke (Joe Hisaishi)
7. The Talented Mr. Ripley (Gabriel Yared)
8. Sleepy Hollow (Danny Elfman)
9. The World Is Not Enough (David Arnold)
10. American Beauty (Thomas Newman)
Also:
Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace (John Williams), Metroland
(Mark Knopfler), The Insider (Lisa Gerrard and Pieter Bourke,
Graeme Revell), Man on the Moon (R.E.M.), The Thomas Crown Affair
(Bill Conti), Being John Malkovich (Carter Burwell), Toy
Story 2 (Randy Newman)
Television
1.
The Sopranos
2. Freaks and Geeks
3. Action
4. Cupid
5. Buffy the Vampire Slayer
6. Late Night with Conan O'Brien
7. Whose Line Is It Anyway?
8. King of the Hill
9. The Simpsons
10. Law & Order
FAVORITES OF 1998
Films
1.
Rushmore (Director: Wes Anderson, Score: Mark Mothersbaugh)
2. The General (Director: John Boorman, Score: Richie Buckley)
3. Fireworks (Director: Takeshi Kitano, Score: Jo Hisaishi)
4. The Truman Show (Director: Peter Weir, Score: Burkhard Dallwitz)
5. The Butcher Boy (Director: Neil Jordan, Score: Elliot Goldenthal)
6. Elizabeth (Director: Shekhar Kapur, Score: David Hirschfelder)
7. Touch of Evil (Director: Orson Welles, Score: Henry Mancini)
8. Wild Things (Director: John McNaughton, Score: George S. Clinton)
9. Love and Death on Long Island (Director: Richard Kwietniowski,
Score: The Insects and Richard Grassby-Lewis)
10. The Mask of Zorro (Director: Martin Campbell, Score: James
Horner)
Also:
Ronin, Out of Sight, Henry Fool, Sonatine, Gods and
Monsters
Television
1.
Cupid
2. Whose Line Is It Anyway?
3. The Simpsons
4. The Practice
5. Late Night with Conan O'Brien
6. Buffy the Vampire Slayer
7. NewsRadio
8. Buddy Faro
9. Homicide:
Life on the Street
10. Law & Order
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