Contents

Editor’s Foreword by jim colvill

Introduction by jim knipfel

1991–1995

GODFREY CHESHIRE

High Styles: My Own Private Idaho; The Rapture

Silence of the Wolves: Cape Fear

Hollywood Square: Naked Lunch

Deeper Roots: Daughters of the Dust

Three Women and a Little Murder: The Player

Parting Shots: Unforgiven

Zhang Yimou’s Funny, Low-Budget Latest Looks More Real Than Reality—and It Almost Is: The Story of Qiu Ju

Scorsese’s Symphony on Celluloid; an Old Age New: The Age of Innocence

Taipei, Film Capitol of Taiwan, Is No Hollywood East

The Cemetery of Good Taste: Natural Born Killers

Quentin’s Second Coming Is All About Second Chances: Pulp Fiction

No Redemption: Bresson’s Pleasure in Despair: The Devil, Probably

Germany Year 90 Nine Zero

Bring Me the Head of Sam Peckinpah: The Wild Bunch

Phantoms. The Movies Were Born on Lower Broadway

The Cure For What Ails Us: Safe

Big-Screen Tabloid TV: To Die For

1995–1997

GODFREY CHESHIRE, MATT ZOLLER SEITZ

Dreams So Real: Wild, Indiscreet & Nightmare Alleys: Wild Bill [MZS]

Dark Nixon: An Unimpeachable Masterpiece: Nixon [GC]

Frankenheimer’s Flame [MZS]

Mayberry BFD: Zero Visibility at Sundance [GC]

Jean Seberg Gets the Rock Hudson Treatment From the Journals of Jean Seberg [MZS]

Rearview Mirror. What’s Really Driving Travis Bickle: Taxi Driver [MZS]

The Coens Loiter with Intent: Fargo [GC]

Iran, the Art Film’s Last Stand [GC]

Tom Is Tight: Mission: Impossible [MZS]

Busting Rocks: The Rock [MZS]

Livin’ Lars: Breaking the Waves [GC]

So Great He’s Forgotten [GC]

DAH-Da. Da-Da-Da-DAH-Da [MZS]

Just Sundance Kidding [GC]

Double Identity: Donnie Brasco [MZS]

Nights in Tehran [GC]

Heart of Palme d’Or [GC]

1997–2000

GODFREY CHESHIRE, MATT ZOLLER SEITZ, ARMOND WHITE

Bleeding Heartiness: For Ever Mozart [AW]

Darkness, Darkness [MZS]

The Deadpan Stare [MZS]

Happy Together [AW]

Boogie Nights [GC]

Gummo [MZS]

Deconstructing Harry [AW]

The Rainmaker [MZS]

Amistad [GC]

Titanic [AW]

Sphere [MZS]

The Big Lebowski [GC]

Taste of Cherry; Frozen [GC]

He Got Game [MZS]

Bulworth [AW]

Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas [MZS]

Call It Cosmopolitan: Last Days of Disco [AW]

Gone With the Wind [AW]

The Truman Show [MZS]

It’s Always Fair Weather [AW]

Out of Sight [AW]

Saving Private Ryan [AW]

Saving Private Ryan [AW]

When Trumpets Fade; Saving Private Ryan; Regeneration [MZS]

Happiness [GC]

La Sentinelle [GC]

Nashville [AW]

Affliction [MZS]

To the Walls [MZS]

The Thin Red Line [GC]

The Thin Red Line [AW]

Days of Heaven [MZS]

A Man Escaped [GC]

The Matrix [MZS]

Election [AW]

Alfred Hitchcock at 100 [MZS]

France’s Generation Vexed: Lovers on the Bridge [AW]

A Dream Bestirred: Those Who Love Me Can Take the Train [AW]

Kubrick—The First Film Nerd: The Killing [AW]

The Photographer’s Final Frames: Eyes Wide Shut [GC]

Witch Reality: The Blair Witch Project [GC]

A Cinematic Wedgie: The Blair Witch Project [AW]

A French Harvest: Autumn Tale [GC]

Culture’s End [AW]

The Death of Film/The Decay of Cinema [GC]

The Venice Film Festival [GC]

Ready, Set, Cinema: Three Kings; Beau travail [AW]

The Year’s Best Film: The Straight Story [GC]

Men in Decline [MZS]

Raging Bulldykes: Boys Don’t Cry [AW]

The World Is Not Enough [MZS]

Beyond the Clouds [GC]

Symphonies for the Bedeviled: Rosetta; The Silence [AW]

Film in the Mirror: A Moment of Innocence [GC]

Close-Up [GC]

The 1990s in Film [GC, MZS, AW]

American Holocaust: Waco: The Rules of Engagement [GC]

Topsy-Turvy [MZS]

Magnolia [MZS]

The Magnolia Syndrome [AW]

A Brighter Summer Day [GC]

Rear Window [GC]

Supernova [AW]

Mission to Mars [MZS]

Wonder Boys [MZS]

Ghost Dog: The Way of the Samurai [AW]

The Filth and the Fury [GC]

American Psycho; This Is Not an Exit [MZS]

Time Code; The Idiots [GC]

Hamlet [GC]

Film Going Digital [GC]

Barry Lyndon [MZS]

Nutty Professor II: The Klumps [AW]

Gimme Shelter [GC]

Almost Famous [AW]

Yi Yi [GC]

George Washington [AW]

George Washington [GC]

Iran 2000 [GC]

Traffic [MZS]

Pushing Mother Down a Flight of Stairs [MZS]

2001–2006

MATT ZOLLER SEITZ, ARMOND WHITE

Hannibal [MZS]

Last Resort [MZS]

A Summer’s Tale [AW]

Memento [MZS]

Moulin Rouge! [AW]

A.I. Artificial Intelligence [AW]

Intelligence Quotient [AW]

A.I. Artificial Intelligence [MZS]

Pauline Kael [MZS]

Requiem for the Twins [MZS]

On Guard [AW]

Mulholland Drive [MZS]

The Man Who Wasn’t There [AW]

Lola [AW]

Wes Anderson [AW]

Ocean’s Eleven [AW]

The Year in Pictures [MZS]

Gosford Park [AW]

Black Hawk Down [AW]

Domestic Violence [MZS]

Star Wars: Episode II—Attack of the Clones [AW]

What is It? Crispin Glover on Bartleby, Spielberg & His Unmade Films [MZS]

Songs from the Second Floor [AW]

24 Hour Party People [AW]

The Pinochet Case [MZS]

Far from Heaven [MZS]

Femme Fatale [AW]

Adaptation [MZS]

Russian Ark [MZS]

Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers [AW]

95-Minute Rape: Irreversible [MZS]

Lost in Translation [AW]

Scarface Remakes Movie History [AW]

A Few of His Favorite Things: Kill Bill Vol. 1 [MZS]

P.S. AK-47: Elephant [AW]

Their Souls For a Freebie. The New York Film Critics Circle Is Killing Movie Culture [AW]

The Man Who Shot JFK [MZS]

Raising the Barre: The Company [AW]

Eye of the Critic [MZS]

Freedom and Death: Battle of Algiers [AW]

First Tango in Paris: The Dreamers [AW]

Red-State Deicide: The Passion of the Christ [MZS]

Digital Video Dogpatch: Dogville [AW]

Kubrick Is Dead! Kubrick Is Dead! Long Live the Coen Brothers!: The Ladykillers (2004) [MZS]

Ribbons of Revenge [MZS]

Forget-Me-Nots: Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind [AW]

America’s Best Friend: The Terminal [MZS]

Polyester Pimp Daddy: Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy [MZS]

Paranoia for President: The Manchurian Candidate ; The Village [AW]

Killers: Collateral [MZS]

Bright Lights, Funny Bunnies: The Brown Bunny; Bright Leaves [MZS]

The Black Natural: Mr. 3000 [AW]

Last Chinese Picture Show: Goodbye, Dragon Inn [AW]

The Aviator [MZS]

Yellowy Submarine: The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou [AW]

The Flickering Flame: Histoire(s) du cinéma [AW]

Get It, Then Beget It: Masculine, Feminine [MZS]

They Call Me Jackie: Kung Fu Hustle [AW]

A Darth Is Born: Star Wars: Episode III—Revenge of the Sith [MZS]

Bat Dung: Batman Begins [MZS]

The Welles Run Deep: F for Fake [AW]

Theme Park Planet: The World; Tropical Malady [MZS]

Supersonic Strap-On: The Island [MZS]

Cronenberg’s Revenge Thriller: A History of Violence [MZS]

Not Just Another J-Horror Film: Pulse [MZS]

Spielberg Climbs Another Mountain: Munich [AW]

A Genius View of Jamestown: The New World [MZS]

Re-Imagining History: The New World Re-Edit [AW]

Thickets Among Tombstones: The Fallen Idol; The Ister [MZS]

Young Again: Neil Young: Heart of Gold [AW]

Welcome to the 9/11 Show: United 93 [MZS]

Western Matters: Down in the Valley; The Proposition [MZS]

Angel of America: Superman Returns [MZS]

2006–2011

ARMOND WHITE

The American Character: World Trade Center

Black Book

Eye-Catching: The Diving Bell and the Butterfly; Control

A Guilt-Soaked Epic: There Will Be Blood

Opiate of the Lasses: Sex and the City

Knight to Remember: The Dark Knight

High-Grade Shit: Pineapple Express

Mean Lean Filmmaking Machine

Scene of the Time: Of Time and the City

Capuccinos and Gitanes: 35 Shots of Rum

Blue in the Face: Avatar

Bad Bitcharama: Resident Evil: Afterlife

Discourteous Discourse

The Bland and the Bonkers: Jackass 3D

Gritty and Good: True Grit

The Middle-Aged Network: Another Year

Unintelligent Design: The Tree of Life

Indecent Exposure

Appendix: Year-End Top Ten Lists

Index of Film Titles

Thanks