December 2000, marked the end of Election Day in the United States.
Most election years, it gets done, more or less, on the first Tuesday of November; by dawn, we know who the next President of the United States is. The 2000 race between Vice President Al Gore and Texas Governor George W. Bush was a special one. An especially close one, one whose results are still discussed and debated to this day. They even made an HBO Film out of it, actually shot in Tallahassee, the state capital of Florida, where the main controversy was centered.
Many of my friends and teachers - then and now - were true blue Democrats. My family was and is mostly Republican. What I remember from then is this: the news pundits at the time erroneously called Florida for Gore before all ballots were in, then had to call it for Bush, then had to admit it was too close to call; Gore conceded to Bush personally, then retracted it; initial recounts narrowed the margin but still in Bush's favor. I also remember the photos of volunteers closely scrutinizing a ballot to differentiate a Legitimate vote from dimples or hanging Chads. You have to remember, too, though: I was eleven years old, whatever news I was getting was filtered through the biases of those around me...and by sketch comedy shows. Each side accused the other of conspiring to "steal" the election, which we would later see echoed in the 2016 and 2020 elections. Recounts were demanded county by county, including my own Broward and neighboring Miami-Dade, both pretty heavy on Democrats. There was the Brook Brothers riot, where well-tailored Republicans got nasty in a campaign of harassment against independent vote counters in Miami-Dade (I remember that, too, and how suspiciously those vote counters were greeted - one of the three wasn't independent at all but a Democrat). Finally, the US Supreme Court made its historic decision in Bush's favor on December 12, 2000, a decision which people still scrutinize and object to.
It was a circus. It was thought the 2000 Presidential Election might help us to move on from the Monica Lewinsky scandal and impeachment proceedings - certainly that was why President Clinton was kept at a distance from the Gore campaign. And yeah, I guess in one sense we did move on, but just from one scandal to the next. People said they were sick of the story, but they kept tuning in, and the news cycle kept pumping us with every detail, some vague and contradictory, making things seem more or less sinister than they might actually have been. Politics became sports: we weren't electing leaders or representatives, but supporting our team! News became entertainment, not uncovering the truth but presenting a new twist to the tale, tune in, buy now! Where's our sense of reality? Where's our sense of shame? Where's our sense?
When national news made us sick, tired, and depressed, here's what the multiplex could offer:
Snatch
release: December 6
dir/scr: Guy Ritchie
pr: Matthew Vaughn
cin: Tim Maurice-Jones
Watched with Mom during lockdown, then again with Mom and my sister at the latter's, possibly just after lockdown. I don't know, it was either for a wedding or a funeral. Maybe it was the night I flew in to North Carolina, then we went to a wedding in North Georgia?
Crime comedy that asks you to laugh at violence and brutality, to chuckle at unusual accents and cultural differences, to luxuriate in the poetry of the streets, and to perhaps identify with Dennis Farina's Jewish-American mob boss: "Don't go to England." Every scene, every performance, somehow more hilarious than the last. Jason Statham and Brad Pitt, whose nigh-incomprehensible Irish Traveler accent must be heard, are standouts, but my favorites are the aforementioned Farina and Alan Ford as the sadistic Brick Top. Breathless editing and storytelling somehow never overwhelm, they know just when to take a beat and when to bang-bang-bang with rapidfire jokes, visual and otherwise. Big fan, would watch again.
Chocolat
release: December 15
nominations: Best Picture, Best Actress (Juliette Binoche), Best Supporting Actress (Juliette Binoche), Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Score (Rachel Portman)
dir: Lasse Hallström
pr: David Brown / Kit Golden / Leslie Holleran
scr: Robert Nelson Jacobs, from the novel by Joanne Harris
cin: Roger Pratt
Watched with Mom from Hollywood Video while eating Belgian dark chocolate with hazelnut. Watched again with my high school girlfriend's family, I think - at least, I remember her mom used to take night swims while playing the soundtrack over the back patio speakers.
For a while, this movie was used as an example of Miramax strong-arming the Academy and awards season movers and shakers to get their way. Well, I say example, more of a punchline - that was nominated for Best Picture? people would exclaim, sure that it was only the late release date and Harvey Weinstein putting his thumb on the scales that led to its significant presence during the season. I've seen it four times, and I understand perfectly why it was nominated. We'll get into it more in the coming weeks, but I will say to you here and now that I adore this movie!
The Emperor's New Groove
release: December 15
nominations: Best Original Song ("My Funny Friend and Me")
dir: Mark Dindal
pr: Randy Fullmer
scr: David Reynolds, story by Chris Williams & Mark Dindal, additional story material by Stephen J. Anderson & Don Hall & John Norton and Doug Frankel & Mark Kennedy & Mark Walton, from an original story by Roger Allers & Matthew Jacobs
cin: Thomas Baker
Watched in theaters with friend Tony.
The role of Yzma in this and the Disney Channel prequel series earned Eartha Kitt three Annie Awards and three Daytime Emmy Awards; she was also nominated for Best Supporting Actress at the Black Reel Awards, though she lost that to Bring It On's Gabrielle Union. All you need hear is that first line: "It is no concern of mine whether your family has...what was it again?" That famous purr is masterfully used for camp villainy, but it works doubly well because of her scene partner, Patrick Warburton as himbo henchman Kronk, as lowkey as she is high-strung, as naive as she is conniving, and as open-hearted as she is self-serving. They are not just perfect foils for each other, but perfect mirrors of the "heroes": the titular Emperor Kuzco, as self-serving as the villain who pursues him, and the farmer community elder Pacha, who works hard to see the good in everyone. Another South American spin on the Road movies (what's that all about?), though this one more successfully embraces that series' absurdism and fourth wall breaking. Clever, self-aware, but not so much to undercut the sincerity of its lessons about community and caring for others, using one's powers for the good of all and not for one's own gratification. Wrong song nominated.
What Women Want
release: December 15
dir: Nancy Meyers
pr: Susan Cartsonis / Bruce Davey / Gina Matthews / Nancy Meyers / Matt Williams
scr: Josh Goldsmith & Cathy Yuspa, story by Josh Goldsmith & Cathy Yuspa and Diane Drake
cin: Dean Cundey
Watched on Bravo, later encouraged to keep watching by cousin John, who loved the soundtrack.
Whatever one may think about Mel Gibson the man, Mel Gibson the actor is as stellar as few others when he's on. He's moving in The Patriot, and hilarious and warm here, even as he ably sells (gee, what a stretch) the sexist, chauvinist pig of the first two acts. What would a man do with the ability to read women's minds? Abuse the power, of course...though the more he connects with them, the more empathetic he becomes. He is matched in energy by Helen Hunt, whose great talent remains an ability to live in fantasy worlds while grounding them in reality, unfussy naturalism at its finest, and perfect comedic timing. They are wonderful together. Nancy Meyers made her directorial debut here (and, no doubt, an uncredited pass at the script), and you know she's a master at romantic-comedy. How does she do with the gender politics? Humanly: imperfect, but so are we, and everyone is better off by the end of the movie than they were even thirty minutes before. Perhaps the subplot with the suicidal assistant is one wrinkle too many, one scene too long, but otherwise, oh, what a breezy, delightful film!
Finding Forrester
release: December 20
dir: Gus Van Sant
pr: Sean Connery / Laurence Mark / Rhonda Tollefson
scr: Mike Rich
cin: Harris Savides
Watched at a friend's, then later in class.
Waved away at the time as another Good Will Hunting, kind of silly when you consider how robust the mentor-apprentice school subgenre is. Later became an early meme thanks to "You're the man now, dawg," but what do you want an old man trying to relate to a young man to say? The two leads work great opposite each other. Sean Connery made his last film appearance in 2003's The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, but this feels like a true final performance: for the scene on the baseball field alone, this should have been his cinematic swan song. Rob Brown, in his debut, holds his own against Connery and F. Murray Abraham and Busta Rhymes. It is an inspiring tale about talent being natural or nurtured or a mixture of both, about how people are forced into the low expectations we have for them and sabotaged when they dare do what we say is necessary and apply themselves, about professional resentments, and about, sorry, the power of friendship, the importance not just of having a mentor, but having someone who believes enough in you to want to be a mentee. Moving, and not at all condescending towards the lead's friends or origins - it's not about "getting out" of his station, but about realizing his own potential.
Miss Congeniality
release: December 22
dir: Donald Petrie
pr: Sandra Bullock
scr: Marc Lawrence & Katie Ford & Caryn Lucas
cin: László Kovács
Watched with family.
Slight premise, obvious mystery, killer star vehicle. It is at first laughable to try to pull the ol', "This gross tomboy can be a babe?" about, of all people, Sandra Bullock (besides which, after middle school, most guys in my experience love a girl who can chill with the boys and be hot). But it is Bullock who brings off the effect, a perfectly calibrated comedic performance, the kind that made and kept her a star - who else could pull off a series of self-defense maneuvers while dressed like a German biergarten hostess and come off as both bad-ass and classy, all without overdoing the funniness of it? And oh, why didn't she do more movies with Michael Caine, brilliant as the bitter pageant coach. Fun visual gags, well-observed costuming, and a soundtrack that is as appropriately over-produced dazzle as a televised beauty pageant requires.
O Brother, Where Art Thou?
release: December 22
nominations: Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Cinematography
dir: Joel Coen
pr: Ethan Coen
scr: Joel Coen & Ethan Coen, from The Odyssey by Homer
cin: Roger Deakins
Maybe watched with friends first, then watched on TV, then watched at the Student Life Cinema, then...
Well, I've seen this one countless times. I've seen it countless times because I love it. I love the writing, I love the performances, I love the soundtrack - which, by the way, won the Grammy Award for Album of the Year, of all things! - I love the costumes and the sets, I love the cinematography, I love the little episode focusing on Baby Face Nelson, who only wants to have a good time and be considered a real man under his name, George, not that condescending nickname. I love Charles Durning's little dance at the end, I love Lee Weaver as the blind seer and the squeak-squeak of his handcar, I love Tim Blake Nelson bellowing about toads, I love the choreography in the KKK sequence, and I love "O brothers, let's go down / Let's go down, come on down / Come on brothers, let's go down / Down to the river and pray." T Bone Burnett was the man behind this soundtrack and the one for Cold Mountain three years later, and they are both perfect.
Tomorrow, Oscar hopefuls and a stoner comedy...
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