7. “Before Sunset”
Indie romances aren’t usually prime targets for sequels, but Richard Linklater and the stars of 1995’s “Before Sunrise” defied conventional wisdom to create the sublime “Before Sunset.” While most cinematic love stories end with the hook-up, the story’s continuation explores the aftermath of the one-night romance of Celine (Julie Delpy) and Jesse (Ethan Hawke) almost a decade ago, with the now-older-and-wiser pair spending an afternoon on the streets of Paris, rehashing their Vienna evening from nine years ago. The interaction between them is raw, revealing, and real, and the intimate script earned Linklater, Delpy, and Hawke an Oscar nomination and the affection of true romantics who aren’t swayed by Hollywood’s unrealistic output.
6. “Kill Bill: Volume 2”
While the first part of Quentin Tarantino‘s duo of revenge-driven films was bolstered by blood and battles and crisp forward narrative, the director downshifts for “Kill Bill: Vol. 2” and gives in to his devotion to chatter and tumbleweed-moody Spaghetti-Western-like tenors. For those who miss the epic action of “Vol. 1,” there’s an eye-popping match-up between The Bride (Uma Thurman) and Elle Driver (Daryl Hannah), as well as a magnificent kung-fu-tinged, coffin-bound flashback to The Bride’s training with Pai Mei (Gordon Liu) set to Ennio Morricone‘s “L’Arena” that is one of Tarantino’s most commanding, dialogue-less sequences ever (her triumph and rebirth from the entombment is an astonishing crescendo and confluence of music and picture). But it’s the film’s final soulful and patient third act that strikes the heart, revealing a lingering love between The Bride and her titular target, Bill (David Carradine). Discussions about a child’s discovery of death and the nature of Superman were a reminder that Tarantino — and his various mishmash of influences — can craft dialogue and even pathos just as well as dismemberments. “Kill Bill 2” might burn much slower, and it might also be more excessively talky than its predecessor, but these aspects only make its transcendent moments that much brighter.
5. “House of Flying Daggers”
Zhang Yimou‘s follow up to his candy-colored martial arts saga “Hero” has all of the scale and stunning majesty of its predecessor, but with a deeper emphasis on story. Taking place in the waning last days of the Tang dynasty, where a clandestine clan group goes all Robin Hood, stealing from the rich and giving to the poor, there is a ton of action, but with an accentuation on the poetry of rhythmic movement and the artistry of battle (and oh, how gorgeous it is). Shot in Yimou’s uncanny visual style, utilizing radiant color-coding, scenes such as a young woman unsheathing a sword using just her sleeves (and of course all those flying daggers, arrows, and warriors) elevate the picture to a striking painting of beauty way above a post-‘Crouching Tiger’ martial arts epic.
4. “Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind”
Michel Gondry and Charlie Kaufman’s what-if centers around a technology that allows wounded lovers to erase the memory of their past relationship. The premise is merely a stepping-stone, however, to a trip into the corners of memories where dreams and reality converge into a mishmash of experiences either imagined or real, but altogether universal. Kaufman’s script blends the unreal, where footraces through the subconscious occur regularly, and the intimate, where we are able to truly experience the loneliness and desperation of lovers Clementine (Kate Winslet, typically great) and Joel (Jim Carrey, never better). A testament to the film’s universal appeal is that it’s been adopted by both the heartbroken and the deeply-in-love.
