1. "Almost Famous"
Huckleberry Finn as 15-year-old rock critic, in one of the best coming-of-age movies ever made. Writer-director Cameron Crowe based the film on his own experiences, when he was 15, convinced a Rolling Stone editor he was an adult, and was assigned to accompany the Allman Brothers on a road trip.
In the film, Patrick Fugit is perfectly cast as the young, bright, earnest kid who talks himself into a magazine assignment and goes on the road with a band named Stillwater. One performance after another is performed with uncanny accuracy: Billy Crudup as the rock-god lead guitarist, not as fearsome as he looks; Kate Hudson as the groupie Penny Lane, who adores the Crudup character but takes sympathy on the kid; Frances McDormand as the hero's mother, trusting him on this first step into adulthood but laying down the law about drugs and lecturing Crudup over the phone in a classic scene; and Jason Lee, as the lead singer, who wants better billing on the T-shirts.
2. "Wonder Boys"
Another film about a writer--this one a 50ish college professor played by Michael Douglas, who wrote one very good novel and has been working on a second for much too long. We follow him through a winter weekend on a chilly campus in Pittsburgh, as his life comes crashing down. He drinks too much, is stoned on pot, wanders forlornly in a shabby bathrobe, is facing the end of his affair with the chancellor (Frances McDormand), is hiding from his editor (Robert Downey Jr) who has been promised the long-delayed manuscript, and deals uncertainly with two of his best students. "Wonder Boys" is the first movie by Curtis Hanson since "L.A. Confidential." It's as sure-footed. but more tender about its characters, more sympathetic to the way their dreams elude them. At its center is Michael Douglas' best performance.
3. "You Can Count on Me"
Laura Linney plays Sammy, a single mom, in a film filled with Oscar-caliber performances. She has an 8-year-old son, is a bank loan officer, is doing okay financially, is dating a guy who doesn't excite her, and hates her new boss. Then her brother Terry (Mark Ruffalo) shows up in town. He's a charmer who drives her nuts because she loves him but can't trust him.
"You Can Count on Me," a film of great tender truth, begins as they meet again after one of Terry's long, unexplained silences. The movie, written and directed by Ken Lonergan, avoid soppy payoffs and looks at these people with an affectionate but level gaze; one of the joys of the film is the way it avoids steering the plot into neat resolutions, but shows its characters dealing with life in all its baffling contradictions.
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