Several years ago I stated that the following 15 films were the best of 2000, and in this order:

Yes, Ridley Scott‘s Gladiator is a worthy, grand-scale film, but I don’t think it was good enough to include among the top 15. I’m sorry but I don’t. Mainly because I found Joaquin Phoenix‘s Commodus an absurdly overwrought villain…a ridiculous man…Snidely Whiplash times ten.

So here are the new rankings…time brings improved perspective…here we go…

1. Kenneth Lonergan‘s You Can Count On Me (contains Mark Ruffalo‘s finest-ever performance — he was playing my late brother Tony).

2. Steven Soderbergh‘s Traffic.

2. Cameron Crowe‘s Almost Famous (untitled director’s cut)

4. Alejandro Gonzales Inarritu‘s Amores perros.

5. Jonathan Glazer‘s Sexy Beast.

6. Stephen Frears‘ High Fidelity.

7. Christopher Nolan‘s Memento.

8. Soderbergh’s Erin Brockovich.

9. Curtis Hanson‘s Wonder Boys.

10. Lars von Trier‘s Dancer in the Dark

11. Julian Schnabel‘s Before Night Falls.

12. Wong Kar-Wai‘s In The Mood For Love

13. Karyn Kusama‘s Girlfight.

14. Dominic Sena‘s Gone in 60 Seconds

15. Jenniphr Goodman‘s The Tao of Steve