When the 2001 Oscars are running down...

More kickass than Nitro  

Gladiator (12 nominations) 

Do you remember the first time you did it? Remember turning all the lights off in your house, making sure your parents were sleeping, and just watching American Gladiators all night long? Now think about that wonderful, relaxed feeling you had afterwards. Try to remember that satisfying feeling of watching people getting their bodies thrashed violently by angry-looking guys named Sabre or Turbo while you remained safely in the confines of your own home. Well, that's the same feeling that I had after watching Best Picture nominee Gladiator, and I'm pretty sure that it's the same feeling you had too.

EUGENE WONG/YH

The film is more than just violence, though. As described on the back of the video box, it is a heart-warming story (literally—your heart is warmed when ripped from its chest) about a soldier who becomes an emperor and then a slave. With a plot like that and an actor like Russell Crowe, there is no doubt Gladiator deserves to win Best Picture. Can you think of a better way to spend almost three hours than watching a movie about a spoiled son who flirts with his sister, kills his father, and forces people to fight to the death? Even Sophocles couldn't have written it better!

Gladiator simply has to win. It's the perfect mixture of sensitivity and infrequent aggressiveness, exactly the phrase a guy needs to tell his girlfriend before they both watch it on the eve of their anniversary. But seriously, this film has the heightened special effects equivalent to those of Braveheart, 1995's Best Picture. Similarly, it has quality acting, a well thought-out narrative, and my admiration—more than enough to merit its Oscar win. Hopefully, with 12 nominations under its belt, it will be guaranteed to win Best Picture of 2000. If you still don't believe me, or you just haven't seen it yet, then I have a small favor to ask. Please do me the courtesy of closing this paper right now, turning your lights off and your television on and losing your Gladiator virginity, over and over and over—I'm sure you'll thank me later! 

—Jamal Caesar  

Erin's white-trash charm

Erin Brockovich (Five nominations) 

Though Freud might have delighted in Erin's (Julia Roberts) cleavage-assisted triumph over the big, bad Pacific Gas & Electric Company in Steven Soderbergh's cleverly titled Erin Brockovich, movie-goers looking for intellectual punch in the film may come up a bit short. To its credit, Erin Brockovich inventively tries to blend a factual and quite serious drama (the movie is based on a true story) with droll, vivacious characters. But that plan ultimately backfires when one asks just how charming the story of a twice-divorced, working-class mother of three and her fight to save a cancer-ridden town can be. Roberts brings oozing sexuality and charm to an otherwise down and out character—as she did for Pretty Woman's lovable hooker. Still, the movie begins to take on a markedly sitcom-like, predictable feel. "They're called boobs, Ed," Erin says to her employer Ed Masry (Albert Finney) halfway through the movie—at which point the audience inevitably begins hooting and shouting in characteristic laugh-track style. Erin becomes little more than a highly sexual character, even benefitting from the general frumpiness of the other characters. While Ed is a panting slob who always seems to have something in his mouth, George (Aaron Eckhart), Erin's on-and-off boyfriend, exudes Harley Davidson refinement. And most of the women in the film are either fat, snooty, or ill, so Erin soars above the other boobs in the movie, while prominently showing off her own. Since when has white trash been so charming?

Steven Soderbergh's slow-paced direction is in general commendable, but he hardly keeps up with his films such as Sex, Lies, and Videotape and Traffic, his other Oscar-nominated movie this year. Despite Soderbergh's efforts, Erin Brockovich is, unfortunately, a thoroughly mediocre film. For that reason, its number-three ranking is quite fitting. Though there are flashes of originality throughout, the movie ultimately sinks into shameless predictability. Soderbergh was certainly well aware of this, but it's not clear why he would still take the easy route so few of his previous films have taken. No matter, though—he's still got a shot with Traffic.  

—Jacob Blecher

'Tiger' style 

Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (11 Nominations) 

Given that epic has always been Hollywood's favorite genre, it is not surprising that Gladiator received the most nominations this Oscar year. What is surprising, however, is that Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon was nominated for Best Picture. Finally, Hollywood has acknowledged a departure from its style of filmmaking!

Instead of employing a linear narrative—with a clear development, climax, and ending—like the rest of the nominees in the category, Crouching Tiger works with a much looser structure. The development of the plot is somewhat confusing. It is not driven by a single theme, as in most conventional films. The theme of giving away the sword appears first. Then the hunt for Jade Fox (Pei-pei Cheng) seems to be driving the plot, but the theft of the sword suddenly jumps in, and then suddenly, a fourth theme, the love between Shu Lien (Michelle Yeoh) and Li Mu Bai (Chow Yun-Fat), intensifies the latter half of the story. When these disparate themes clash, an obvious and noticeable climax is muffled. Furthermore, the ambiguous ending adds to the confusion of most audiences.

However, it is this loose narrative—beside the spectacular choreography, the beautiful music, and breathtaking cinematography—that makes this film great, because the form harmonizes with the content of the film. When Jen (Ziyi Zhang), the rebel at heart, steals the sword, her explosively free spirit is ignited and she strives to be "free" ever after. Thus, the loose narrative, by allowing Jen to explore each of its different themes, stresses the flightiness and also the instability of her spirit (as does the fight scene in the bamboo forest, where she flies freely but cannot achieve Li's serenity and stability). It can even be argued that Jen, particularly when she steals the sword, curves and twists the hitherto linear narrative by the sheer force of her personality. But this impetuous and unrestrained spirit crashes, literally, at the end of the film, thus leaving the audience with a moral puzzle to digest and savor.

Despite Crouching Tiger's impeccable artistry, it is extremely unlikely that director Ang Lee's masterpiece will win Best Picture, but Hollywood's acknowledgement will serve as encouragement for such innovative and untraditional filmmakers. 

—Jing Wang

A near classic

Traffic (12 Nominations) 

Traffic, by far the better of the two Steven Soderbergh movies up for Best Picture, is nothing if not ambitious. The movie tries to give its audience an overview of the doomed and hopeless war on drugs in North America, and if its reach sometimes exceeds its grasp, at least it takes risks and challenges its audience, unlike the simplistic and emotionally manipulative Erin Brokovich (or, for that matter, Gladiator or Chocolat). This is an intelligent movie but not, for the most part, preachy—it neither condescends to its characters or its audience, nor does it pretend there are simple solutions or happy endings for the nation's drug problem.

Usually, Traffic's risks pay off; the divergent characters and plotlines are handled smoothly, and the movie makes its points with a minimum of pomposity and lecturing. Especially great are the sepia-tinted scenes set in Mexico, which have a haunting feel to them, and a great performance from Benicio del Toro. Del Toro, deserving of Best Supporting Actor as a Mexican cop with a troubled conscience, is the standout in an excellent ensemble cast, with surprisingly few stereotyped performances.

I only found one real flaw in the movie, but it's a glaring one: the entire contrived, overwrought story line involving Michael Douglas as the nation's new drug czar. Not content with the already too-neat device of having his daughter take drugs, the script has to turn her into a completely degenerate crack addict, and him into a vigilante. The entire subplot feels over-the-top and manufactured and gets worse as the movie goes along. Fortunately, there are other subplots to pay attention to, and they're good enough to compensate.

Soderbergh's direction and camerawork (most of which he did himself under the pseudonym Peter Andrews) are amazingly good, creative, and perfectly suited to the subject matter. Traffic's handheld shots, use of color, framing, pacing, and editing all point to Soderbergh as Best Director. Nevertheless, that pesky Douglas story takes up almost a third of the total screen time, and taken as a whole, the movie is too uneven to be better than the almost-flawless Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon. 

—Emma Span  

Graphic by Eugene Wong. 

Clockwise from top left, photos courtesy Dreamworks, Universal, USA Films, and Columbia.

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