Film Festivals 2000
A broad spectrum of films this year offered up Miyazaki's beautiful anime 'Princess Mononoke', kiwi comedy 'Magik and Rose', and also from a New Zealand director, Alison McLean's wonderful 'Jesus' Son'. Eric Bana piled on the pounds for his role as 'Chopper' and Christian Bale played a different kind of maniac in 'American Psycho'. The Dogme team brought us the deliciously disturbing 'Celebration' and from China came the sumptuous historical epic 'The Emperor and the Assassin'.
Chopper (2000)
7.2/10
Director: Andrew Dominik
Starring: Eric Bana, Simon Lyndon, David Field, Dan Wyllie
Standover man, unrepentant underworld executioner, inventive raconteur, and Australia's most infamous living criminal, whose deadpan wit and colourful... Read more
Dick (1999)
6.1/10
Director: Andrew Fleming
Starring: Dan Hedaya, Kirsten Dunst, Michelle Williams, Dave Foley, Will Ferrell
Good-natured Watergate satire stars Kirsten Dunst and Michelle Williams as high school students who become official dog-walkers for President Nixon af... Read more
An Autumn Tale (1998)
Director: Eric Rohmer
Starring: Marie Riviere, Beatrice Romand, Alain Libolt
Eric Rohmer's romantic comedy concludes his film cycle "The Tales of the four Seasons". Set in Southern France, where a lonely woman (Beatrice Romand)... Read more
Rear Window ( Blu-ray ) (1954)
8.5/10
Director: Alfred Hitchcock
Starring: Grace Kelly, James Stewart, Raymond Burr, Thelma Ritter, Wendell Corey
An injured magazine photographer, confined to his apartment because of a broken leg, suspects a murder has been committed in a neighbouring flat. Conf... Read more
The Emperor and the Assassin (1999)
7.3/10
Director: Chen Kaige
Starring: Gong Li, Zhang Fengyi, Li Xuejian, Sun Zhou, Lu Xiaohe, Wang Zhiwen
This lavishly produced, epic historical drama is set in the third century B.C. and tells the multi-faceted story of the man who became the first Emper... Read more
American Psycho ( Blu-ray ) (2000)
7.6/10
Director: Mary Harron
Starring: Bill Sage, Chloe Sevigny, Christian Bale, Guinevere Turner, Jared Leto, Reese Wi...
Bret Easton Ellis' infamous 1991 novel is turned into a darkly humourous horror show that slyly skewers 1980s values. Director Mary Harron ('I Shot An... Read more
The Book of Life (1998)
6.7/10
Director: Hal Hartley
Starring: Martin Donovan, Thomas Jay Ryan, P J Harvey
This French produced quirky offering tells of the Second Coming of Christ. Jesus (Martin Donovan) and his assistant Magdalena (P J Harvey) are sent b... Read more
Timecode (2000)
6.2/10
Director: Mike Figgis
Starring: Saffron Burrows, Salma Hayek, Jeanne Tripplehorn, Stellan Skarsgard, Holly Hunte...
Shot in real time on digital video and unfolding on four different sections of the screen, this experimental effort by Mike Figgis ("Leaving Las Vegas... Read more
Soft Fruit (1999)
6.6/10
Director: Christina Andreff
Starring: Russell Dykstra, Linal Haft, Genevieve Lemon, Jeanie Drynan
Following an auspicious career in short films, New Zealander Christina Andreff dives headfirst into the realm of family dysfunction in this brilliant... Read more
Tadpole (2002)
6.2/10
Director: Gary Winick
Starring: Sigourney Weaver, John Ritter, Bebe Neuwirth, Robert Iler, Aaron Stanford
Returning home from his posh boarding school for Thanksgiving, intellectual 15-year old Oscar Grubman intends to declare his love for his stepmother,... Read more