Top Ten 1999

with a minimum of fuss...

  1. Les Amants du Pont-Neuf (Leos Carax, 1991)
  2. Being John Malkovich (Spike Jonze, 1999)
  3. American Movie (Chris Smith, 1999)
  4. The Blair Witch Project (Daniel Myrick & Eduardo Sanchez, 1999)
  5. After Life (Kore-eda Hirokazu, 1998)
  6. La Vie revée des anges (Erick Zonca, 1998)
  7. Rosetta (Luc and Jean-Pierre Dardenne, 1999)
  8. The Hole (Tsai Ming-liang, 1998)
  9. My Name is Joe (Ken Loach, 1998)
  10. Election (Alexander Payne, 1999)

Runners-up, in order: Fight Club (David Fincher, 1999), Dr. Akagi (Shohei Imamura, 1998), The Iron Giant (Brad Bird, 1999), Conte d'automne (Eric Rohmer, 1998), Mr. Death: The Rise and Fall of Fred A. Leuchter Jr. (Errol Morris, 1999), The End of the Affair (Neil Jordan, 1999), Topsy-Turvy (Mike Leigh, 1999), Toy Story 2 (John Lasseter,1999), The Limey (Steven Soderbergh, 1999), Magnolia (Paul Thomas Anderson, 1999)

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Here's my ballot for Mike D'Angelo's 1999 rec.arts.movies.*+ Critics Circle Awards. Like the Village Voice's venerable "Pazz 'n' Jop" music poll, voters allot exactly 100 points to 10 choices in each category, giving between 5 and 30 ponts to each entry. Results of the poll are available on Alex Fung's web site.

Note that Les Amants du Pont-Neuf and The Hole were not elegible for the poll, and that when I turned my ballot in, I had not yet seen Rosetta.

Picture

  • Being John Malkovich 17
  • American Movie 14
  • The Blair Witch Project 13
  • After Life 11
  • The Dreamlife of Angels 10
  • My Name is Joe 9
  • Election 8
  • Fight Club 7
  • The End of the Affair 6
  • Topsy-Turvy 5

Director

  • Kore-eda Hirokazu, After Life 14
  • Erick Zonca, The Dreamlife of Angels 14
  • Chris Smith, American Movie 14
  • Spike Jonze, Being John Malkovich 14
  • Steven Soderbergh, The Limey 10
  • David Fincher, Fight Club 9
  • David Lynch, The Straight Story 8
  • Neil Jordan, The End of the Affair 7
  • Mike Leigh, Topsy-Turvy 5
  • Shohei Imamura, Dr. Akagi 5

Actress

  • Cecilia Roth, All About My Mother 15
  • Elodie Bouchez, The Dreamlife of Angels 15
  • Beatrice Romand, Autumn Tale 14
  • Natacha Regnier, The Dreamlife of Angels 11
  • Marie Riviere, Autumn Tale 10
  • Kate Winslet, Holy Smoke! 9
  • Isabelle Huppert, The School of Flesh 8
  • Heather Donahue, The Blair Witch Project 7
  • Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio, Limbo 6
  • Julianne Moore, The End of the Affair 5

Actor

  • Peter Mullan, My Name is Joe 18
  • Jim Broadbent, Topsy-Turvy 18
  • Om Puri, My Son the Fanatic 14
  • Kevin Spacey, American Beauty 14
  • Richard Farnsworth, The Straight Story 8
  • Allan Corduner, Topsy-Turvy 7
  • Sean Penn, Sweet and Lowdown 6
  • Russell Crowe, The Insider 5
  • Daniel Auteuil, Lucie Aubrac 5
  • Matthew Broderick, Election 5

Supporting Actor

  • John Malkovich, Being John Malkovich 19
  • Philip Seymour Hoffman, The Talented Mr. Ripley 16
  • Alain Libolt, Autumn Tale 15
  • Nigel Hawthorne, The Winslow Boy 10
  • Philip Seymour Hoffman, Magnolia 9
  • John C. Reilly, Magnolia 8
  • Tom Cruise, Magnolia 7
  • Timothy Olyphant, Go 6
  • Chris Cooper, American Beauty 5
  • Timothy Spall, Topsy-Turvy 5

Supporting Actress

  • Chloe Sevigny, Boys Don't Cry 19
  • Reese Witherspoon, Election 17
  • Shirley Henderson, Topsy-Turvy 12
  • Lesley Manville, Topsy-Turvy 11
  • Melora Walters, Magnolia 10
  • Sarah Polley, Go 9
  • Agnes Jaoui, Same Old Song 6
  • Sabine Azema, Same Old Song 6
  • Catherine Keener, Being John Malkovich 5
  • Cameron Diaz, Being John Malkovich 5

Screenplay

  • Charlie Kaufman, Being John Malkovich 25
  • Alexander Payne & Jim Taylor, Election 14
  • Hanef Kureishi, My Son the Fanatic 10
  • Neil Jordan, The End of the Affair 10
  • Jim Uhls, Fight Club 9
  • Kore-eda Hirokazu, After Life 8
  • Erick Zonca & Roger Bohbot, The Dreamlife of Angels 7
  • Eric Rohmer, Autumn Tale 6
  • Stanley Kubrick & Frederic Raphael, Eyes Wide Shut 5
  • Paul Laverty, My Name is Joe 5

Scene

  • "Wise Up", Magnolia 16
  • Whaling, Dr. Akagi 11
  • "Look away...", Being John Malkovich 11
  • Ted orders the special, eXistenZ 11
  • Kitty's idea, Topsy-Turvy 11
  • Heather's apology, The Blair Witch Project 11
  • "TELL HIM I'M COMING!!", The Limey 11
  • The ADR Session, American Movie 6
  • Mochizuki's last memory, After Life 6
  • Malkovich Malkovich, Being John Malkovich 6

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Underrated: Eyes Wide Shut, Hideous Kinky, Ravenous, The Emperor and the Assassin, Ride with the Devil, The Loss of Sexual Innocence

Overrated: American Beauty, All About My Mother, The Straight Story, Boys Don't Cry, Run Lola Run, The War Zone, Buena Vista Social Club, The Cider House Rules

The Void: Happy, Texas, Never Been Kissed, Twin Dragons, Payback, Stir of Echoes, In Dreams, The Hurricane, Lake Placid, Dogma

Worst Performances: Kevin Smith, Dogma and Faye Dunaway, The Thomas Crown Affair

Best Performances in Shitty Movies: William H. Macy, Happy, Texas and Annette Bening, In Dreams

Best Production Design: Rick Heinrichs, Sleepy Hollow

Best Cinematography:

  1. Jean-Yves Escoffier, Les Amants du Pont-Neuf
  2. Dante Spinotti, The Insider
  3. Emmanuel Lubezki, Sleepy Hollow