Traffic

This is the best film of 2000, a harrowing depiction of DEA agents and select individuals caught up in the drug war. Benicio Del Toro does his career’s best work as Javier, a Mexican law officer trying to make his nation safe for night baseball, and Michael Douglas is remarkable as America’s newly selected drug czar with major problems on the home front. Director Steven Soderbergh serves up his second excellent film in one year (he also directed Erin Brockovich). It’s an amazing achievement, bolstered by the fact that he acted as his own cinematographer. Balancing multiple storylines with an equal amount of attention and intensity, no film in 2000 contained as many incredible performances.