Best since American Beauty and in some ways better

Rating: 10/10 (14 September 2001)

All good films have to be good on at least one level.
Gladiator was an epic, American Beauty ironic, Priscilla Queen of the Desert kooky, Delicatessan original, Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon beautiful, Kes sad, Chocolat romantic and Shrek plain funny.
Moulin Rouge manages to be all of these at the same time(maybe not an epic!). The scenery and characterisations are enchanting, the notion of displacing music could have been disasterous, but worked out just fine. In fact, it was what Topsy Turvy should have been (Jim Broadbent please note).
It won't be everyone's cup of tea, but after the nightmare of New York this week, Moulin Rouge was a terrific piece of escapism in the grand manner. 10 out of 10 without hesitation. Baz Luhrmann goes into my book with Sam Mendez and Stephen Poliakoff.