Dry your eyes. The year 2000 wasn't that bad. Sure, it didn't offer anything as oddly outstanding as Being John Malkovich, but then again, if we got movies that oddly outstanding all the time, we'd be less grateful for them. The best films of 2000, here in alphabetical order, were a nicely varied and richly pleasurable lot, and the runners-up eminently worthy of attention. In the interest of full disclosure, though, I have to admit that I've put this list together before seeing Dude, Where's My Car? That film could change everything. . . .

Almost Famous: Writer-director Cameron Crowe's sweet, intimate coming-of-age fable is as heartfelt as the '70s rock its characters create or live for — but not nearly as bloated.

Before Night Falls: Painter Julian Schnabel's film biography of persecuted Cuban writer Reinaldo Arenas has an epic sweep and a compelling emotional pull — and that's just on the surface. It is multileveled, allusive, and passionate, and its occasional missteps — e.g., Sean Penn's jarring cameo — strangely enhance the film's rich texture.

Chicken Run

Chicken Run: Wallace and Gromit fans might have been disappointed that their creator, Nick Park, didn't enlist the dog-and-inventor duo for his first stop-motion clay animated feature, which he codirected with Peter Lord. The team instead gave us a roster of characters who were almost as endearing — a group of captive hens applying their, er, pluck in a quest for freedom — and they did it with an awesome display of wit, warmth, and craft.

The Claim: Boasting great performances by a top-notch cast (Peter Mullan, Wes Bentley, Sarah Polley, Nastassja Kinski, and Milla Jovovich), Michael Winterbottom's film is a beautifully wrought, quietly devastating story of a man who gets everything he thinks he wants but can't get the one thing he needs: redemption. One note: There is the disquieting factor for film critics of a certain age that Kinski plays Polley's mom.

Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon: If you haven't seen it yet, do your part: Make this wonderful, stirring martial arts romance the Star Wars of this millennium.

Erin Brockovich: The onetime whiz-kid director Steven Soderbergh creates an entirely apt and credible context for mega star Julia Roberts and proves that crowd-pleasing blockbusters don't have to be dumb.

Forest Whitaker in Ghost Dog: The Way of the Samurai:

Ghost Dog: The Way of the Samurai: Dark, deep, twisted, and often howlingly funny, Jim Jarmusch's movie megamix, the story of an old-school assassin in a cartoon world, is beguiling and eerily haunting.

Time Regained: You don't have to know Proust to be seduced by this endlessly imaginative cinematic casting of the final part of his epic Remembrance of Things Past. Cult director Raoul Ruiz doesn't make the mistake of trying to film Proust's words; he boldly configures his ideas into filmic form, using his exquisite cast (including Catherine Deneuve, Vincent Perez, Emmanuelle Béart, and John Malkovich) to stunning effect.

Traffic: Not since the heyday of Robert Altman has there been an occasion when two films by one director warranted inclusion on a single year's ten-best list. Steven Soderbergh, take a bow — and keep working.

Wonder Boys: With L.A. Confidential, director Curtis Hanson leapt from competent journeyman to inspired storyteller; here, with an adaptation of Michael Chabon's fine novel, he takes his progress further. The antic, poignant comedy of a dissolute writer's long dark night of the soul, Boys is an instant classic of classical moviemaking.

Honorable Mentions:

• Billy Elliot
• Quills
• Girlfight
• Ratcatcher
• Jesus' Son
• Two Family House
• Nurse Betty
• You Can Count on Me
• O Brother, Where Art Thou?