Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind

Kimberley Jones

1. Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind

The one film this year that broke my heart and, more miraculously, put it back together, again and again.

2. House of Flying Daggers

Two words for Zhang Yimou’s operatic tale of Tang Dynasty lovers double- and triple-crossing each other: wowee zowee.

3. Before Sunset

Literate, soulful, yearning. And Julie Delpy’s last-reel shuffle and sway to Nina Simone? Sexiest thing I saw all year.

4. Closer

Mike Nichols and Patrick Marber’s impeccably put-together, vicious little romantic roundelay was enough to turn me off to love altogether. Which, I think, is a compliment.

5. The Incredibles

Family entertainment at its smartest and slyest.

6. Hotel Rwanda

As a clear-eyed guide through genocidal hell, Don Cheadle is extraordinary in this true-life story of survival in war-ravaged Rwanda.

7. Tarnation

The almost-improbably damaged Jonathan Caouette rewrites his own history with this astonishing movie-as-memoir.

8. Maria Full of Grace

Or: How to dramatize the plight of Colombian “mules” without being pious or preachy, while simultaneously announcing the arrival of a tremendous acting talent.

9. Bad Education

Gael García Bernal makes a wicked femme fatale in this stylish, uneasy film noir. Not Almodóvar’s best, but a master class in mood and manipulation nonetheless.

10. Garden State

Scoff at the so-called quarter-life crisis all you want – Zach Braff’s lyrical first film nails it but good.

This article appears in 2004.

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Marjorie Baumgarten is a film critic and contributing writer at The Austin Chronicle, where she has worked in many capacities since the paper's founding in 1981. She served as the Chronicle's Film Reviews editor for 25 years.

Steve Davis has written film reviews for The Austin Chronicle off and on since the early years of its publication. He holds a B.S. degree in Radio-Television-Film from the University of Texas, and a J.D. degree from the University of Texas School of Law.

A graduate of the Michener Center for Writers at the University of Texas, Kimberley has written about film, books, and pop culture for The Austin Chronicle since 2000. She was named Editor of the Chronicle in 2016; she previously served as the paper’s Managing Editor, Screens Editor, Books Editor, and proofreader. Her work has been awarded by the Association of Alternative Newsmedia for excellence in arts criticism, team reporting, and special section (Best of Austin). The Austin Alliance for Women...