Ghost World

Kimberley Jones

1. Amélie

It feels like falling in love.

2. Ghost World

Black comic sublimeness about that itchy, vulnerable place in between high school and whatever comes after.

3. The Others

A spare, chilly spook show in which Kidman channels Kelly and comes out with a grace all her own.

4. The Royal Tenenbaums

Wes Anderson make-believes a world of majestic, impish dysfunction carefully dogeared from the pages of The New Yorker. A melancholy almost-masterpiece.

5. Amores Perros

Alejandro González Iñárritu’s searing, stunning feature film debut vaults the “it’s a dog-eat-dog world” maxim to its most anguished conclusion.

6. Waking Life

Does Richard Linklater dream in color? Do you have to ask?

7. In the Bedroom

A remarkable debut from Todd Field that cuts to the very core of love, loss, and retribution.

8. Gosford Park

A British class comedy that filters Altman’s usual saber-toothed sensibilities through the rumply whodunnit charm of an Agatha Christie.

9. Vertical Ray of the Sun

Ang Hung Tran’s gorgeously filmed family drama is proof that Chekhov translates into any language.

10. Black Hawk Down

Unsentimental, unforgiving portrait of modern-day warfare that bleeds a truer red, white, and blue than the star-spangled hokum of Pearl Harbor or The Majestic.

This article appears in 2001.

A note to readers: Bold and uncensored, The Austin Chronicle has been Austin’s independent news source for over 40 years, expressing the community’s political and environmental concerns and supporting its active cultural scene. Now more than ever, we need your support to continue supplying Austin with independent, free press. If real news is important to you, please consider making a donation of $5, $10 or whatever you can afford, to help keep our journalism on stands.

SUPPORT US

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...