Last Oscar post for a while - I promise.

I don't think the Oscars have had such a good year since 2000. Recently the best pictures have either won by a landslide with little or no competition (Million Dollar Baby, A Beautiful Mind...), were consolation prizes (Lord of the Rings 3), or only had one real opponent (Gladiator vs. Traffic, Chicago vs. The Pianist). 2000 was such an amazing year, and since I like to be nostalgic, here's a rundown.

American Beauty - amazing movie, and glad it won best picture. Beautiful directing, writing, acting, score... everything. Sure it kinda dominated the awards, but at least the other movies were amazing too.

The Cider House Rules - I'm so glad this won for writing, because it was truly a powerful movie. Michael Caine winning supporting actor was great as well. I love this movie.

Magnolia - Some people say this had a huge influence on 'Crash,' and I kinda see it. This movie, while a bit too long, was outstanding, both in writing and directing, and writing this up makes me wonder why the hell I haven't bought it yet. Maybe today...

Aside from those 3, there were plenty of other movies that were amazing in one way or another, unlike these days where it seems like there's maybe 2 or 3 movies per year that take most of the awards. The Green Mile, Sixth Sense, Being John Malkovich... Hell, even The Matrix came out this year. I miss 2000.