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Recent releases recommended by Times film critic Steve Persall
By STEVE PERSALL
© St. Petersburg Times, published March 15, 2001
1. Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon -- Ang Lee's martial arts fable was the best film of 2000, a dreamy saga of flying warriors, feminist politics and the sheer joy of making fantasies become real on-screen. Golden Globe winner for best foreign language film and best director.
2. Traffic -- Steven Soderbergh's engrossing biopsy of the cultural cancer of narcotics, from the lowest dealers to Washington lobbying parties. An excellent cast includes Michael Douglas, Benicio Del Toro and Don Cheadle. One of the 10 best films of 2000.
3. The House of Mirth -- Gillian Anderson (TV's The X-Files) plays a tragic heroine in this lavish adaptation of Edith Wharton's novel. Times correspondent Phillip Booth gave it an A grade. Tampa Theatre only.
4. O Brother, Where Art Thou? -- George Clooney, John Turturro and marvelously dumb Tim Blake Nelson escape from a chain gang and become Depression-era country music stars. Another weird, wonderful comedy from the Coen brothers.
5. Pollock -- Ed Harris and Marcia Gay Harden are Oscar-nominated for this occasionally brilliant biography of abstract painter Jackson Pollock.