The State of Film 2002: Best of the Year
Jan 24 '03 (Updated Mar 22 '03)
The Bottom Line The title says it all. Read on...
[Guess what? This is going to be a long one. Read it as you choose. Feel free to skip ahead to my 10 Ten List. Feel free to skip to my lists of the year's top performances. It's like a Choose Your Own Adventure Book. Where the story takes you is in your hands. And thanks to Epinions allowing links to other reviews within the site, this review can now become totally interactive. Perish the thought.]
In Hollywood, there's a truism that's become a self-fulfilling prophesy. Oscar voters, the conversation goes, have short memories and only nominate films released in the film three months of the year. The truism ignores the fact that Silence of the Lambs, Unforgiven, Gladiator, and Forrest Gump are just a few films which, in the past 15 years, have won bucketloads of Oscars despite a pre-September release. And yet, studios continue to believe that those films anomalies and they keep holding their best films later and later.
Hollywood has changed the shape of the calendar year. January through March are now a dumping ground for trash and niche pictures. Summer now starts in April and goes until the middle of August, but by Labor Day, it's over. The next month is another dumping ground. But while mainstream products are being dumped, anybody who's anybody in Hollywood is up in Toronto at the Film Festival, where studios sneak and screen their Oscar hopefuls and mobilize for November and December, a two month orgy of quality cinema.
That has never been more true than this year. My list doesn't contain a single film released before the middle of May. As late as mid-October, I hadn't seen more than two or three films that were list-worthy even in desperation. And then the end of the year came and suddenly there were dozens of very good films in the theatres.
Note the choice of words there: "Very Good." If you go back and look at my reviews, it's easy to know how this list is going to shape up because I only gave five stars to two 2002 releases and one of them contained the post-script that it was actually closer to a 4.5 star review.
But before I start getting snobby, 2002 was finally a much better year than 2001. No question. The winter movie season rolled around and there were precious few major disappointments. Even if none of the films achieved unfettered greatness, the Oscar hopefuls lined up and mostly did their jobs. The problem, then, is that most lists of the Best of 2002 will boil down to the same pile of 20 movies mixed up in different orders. The gulf between the better films and the middling trash is fairly huge and the opportunities for quality esoterica are somewhat limited.
I further limit myself by removing foreign films from my equation. In the case of this year, it's because I haven't seen Y Tu Mama Tambien, Time Out, The Lady and the Duke, In Praise of Love and any number of other quality efforts. It just wouldn't be fair. Not that it's fair to me either, since if I were composing an all-inclusive list, Pedro Almodovar's Talk to Her, Jan Svanmajer's Little Otik, City of God, and Francois Ozon's 8 Women would make the list for sure. And Mira Nair's Monsoon Wedding, which I haven't reviewed, would have been my third 5-star movie of the year and would have been near the top of the list. But it's better to leave those films off than to open the door for "But where's..." questions.
The final interesting and confusing wrinkle to the foreign film question is the issue of Hayao Miyazaki's Spirited Away. Released in this country by Disney, with a brand new (and fairly effective) English-language dialogue track, the film is still a uniquely Japanese production and I'm counting it as a foreign film. That's especially easy because of how hideously Disney botched the release of the film. What were they thinking?!?!?! In any case, Spirited away was by far the most magical and inventive movie of the year. Probably at 125 minutes, it was a bit over-long, but if I were to combine foreign and American lists, it would join Monsoon Wedding in my top 5.
Regarding "American" 2002 releases (with the definition of "American" loose as always), the only major films I've yet to see are David Cronenberg's Spider and Julie Taymor's Frida. Eventually I'll see both and these lists are nothing if not malleable.
If you look at my reviews over the past couple months, I've had a lot of four star reviews and in the end, why one film made the list and other films didn't is arbitrary. But that's just how it goes. And many of the films I left off this list will still have performances or technical aspects praised at the end. That's why I'm not going to do a "The last films left off my list..." section here, because most of them will be given proper credit at the end.
So let's just cut to the chase, shall we?
THE TOP TEN (11, TECHNICALLY) MOVIES OF 2002:
10)CQ (Director Roman Coppola)
My Review: http://www.epinions.com/content_65335168644
You should know in advance that this is the "Hollywood Satire" slot that otherwise (or more predictably) would have gone to Adaptation (and I'm going to kill the next person who calls it "Adaption"). I decided to skip the obvious choice, a funny and erratic look at the screenwriting process, to honor Francis Ford Coppola's son's stylish and frequently hilarious meditation on the filmmaking process in general. Classic 1960s Mod sci-fi like Barbarella and Modesty Blaise have never had it as good as Coppola's film-within-a-film parody, Operation: Dragonfly. It's not enough to just appreciate those sci-fi films (as well as Fellini and the French New Wave), you've gotta love them to make a film that finds so much humor in the period and its European locations. Dean Tavoularis's production design is award-worthy. Jeremy Davies gives his least annoying performance of the year fronting a cast which includes youngsters like Jason Schwartzman, Billy Zane and Elodie Bouchez as well as legends like Giancarlo Gianni, Gerard Depardieu and Dean Stockwell. Finally for me, Coppola's embrace of cinema and his philosophical reverie on artistic ambition is just slightly more effective than Charlie (and "Donald") Kaufman's post-post-post-post-modern deconstruction of the insides of his own head. I, Gavin Fienberg, strongly disagree with this selection and wish Dan would just accept the brilliance of Spike Jonze's vision. After all, did anybody actually *see* CQ? Answer? No. But it's out on DVD, so give it a love. If you're just a casual movie fan, you might be bored, but if you're a cinema lover, I suspect you'll get a real kick out of it.
9)Chicago (Director Rob Marshall)
My Review: http://www.epinions.com/content_85250051716
If you went to Rob Marshall's Chicago as a Broadway production, you'd probably come away wondering why they cast a Roxie with such a thin voice and a Billy who can't really dance and when exactly Velma ceased to be the focus of the show. On the other hand, you'd probably be blown away by the pure star power that Rene Zellweger, Richard Gere, and Catherine Zeta-Jones brought to the three parts. None of them are top-notch musical theatre performers, but all three try so darned hard that they suck you into the proceedings. Since I saw Chicago, I haven't been able to get some of the songs out of my head, but rather than hearing the finely honed voices of a Broadway cast recording in my head, I've got Zeta-Jones purring "All that Jazz" as a nearly lewd come-on, and John C. Reilly's pleasant baritone expressing resignation over being "Mr. Cellophane," and only Queen Latifah can properly explain what happens "When You're Good to Mama." Rob Marshall as made a stylish adaptation of the classic Kander and Ebb musical and while I still wish Bob Fosse had lived to direct it, his spirit lingers over the choreography and the choppy editing. And credit Bill Condon's script with finding a way to transpose this extremely stagey musical onto the big screen. Unless I've missed my guess, Chicago has been anointed this year's Oscar front-runner and there certainly are worse choices.
8)8 Mile (Director Curtis Hanson)
My Review: http://www.epinions.com/content_80413363844
But while Chicago has taken all of the Oscar buzz, the best musical of the year remains the gritty urban drama from the director of L.A. Confidential and the self-titled most-hated-man-in-America. Curtis Hanson took Scott Silver's cliché-laden triumph-over-adversity script and gave it a stiff dose of urban realism filming in Detroit with cinematographer-of-the-moment Rodrigo Prieto. And Hanson also coaxed a performance out of rapper Eminem that may not be acting, but which comes from a place of emotional truth. Probably this is sugar-coated Eminem, an artist showing his unappreciated sentimental side, but then again 8 Mile doesn't claim to be a documentary or a bio-pic. It's clearly inspired by Eminem's life, but it doesn't claim to represent truth. And some viewers left the theatre annoyed that at the film's end, Rabbit (Eminem's blue collar factory worker character) is only slightly further along than when the film began. But that's the point, y'all. This isn't Krush Groove, where the Fat Boys can show up at a Brooklyn talent show, rap about loving to eat, and walk away with a big recording contract and the eternal respect of Kurtis Blow. For a trailer park kid from Detroit, simply finding your voice is a big first step. The rap battles are alive with energy and the soundtrack is superior. Throw in Mekhi Phifer's annoying dreds and a raunchy sex scene with Brittany Murphy and what more do you need? It helps to leave your Eminem-based baggage at the door when you go to see 8 Mile because if you go in hatin' the guy (or even go in worshiping him), you'll miss what's really just an inspirational coming-of-age story set against the mid-1990s hip-hop scene. And if Eminem's "Lose Yourself" isn't nominated for an Oscar, voters should check their heads.
7)About Schmidt (Director Alexander Payne)
My Review: http://www.epinions.com/content_83661721220
I've gotten into arguments with friends over whether or not About Schmidt is making fun of the conservative white denizens of the Midwest. I say yes, but that it's excusable because Alexander Payne treats his characters (in this film and his two previous efforts — Citizen Ruth and Election — with an equal measure of love. But then I have friends actually from Nebraska (or Kansas, or Oklahoma) who insist that not only is Payne not making fun of the characters, but he actually isn't even making a comedy. They insist that there's a near-documentary realism to the film. That's why some reviews I've read have gone on and on about how hilarious the movie is and others have pontificated just as heavily on how sad, dark, and depressing it actually is. This diversity of interpretation is what makes About Schmidt such a very good movie. Much of what I found funny grew out of a place of such deep melancholy (this *is* the story about a man trying to find himself after losing his wife of many years) that I couldn't laugh out loud, but which produced smiles of emotional recognition. Then again, there were also Warren Schmidt's self-absorbed letters to a little Tanzanian boy named Ndugo. They were laugh-out-loud funny. Ditto with Dermot Mulroney's mullet, water bed, and pyramid schemes. And the acting is perfect across the board, starting with Jack Nicholson's understated titular performance. But as calculatedly bland as he (and Hope Davis as his daughter) are, his colorful new in-laws, led by Kathy Bates, are just as loud. About Schmidt feels like a rich, character-driven novel, although Payne and Jim Taylor only barely based their script on Louis Begley's book. Perhaps a little slow and over-written, but that hardly matters what with the rewards.
6)About A Boy (Directors Chris and Paul Weitz)
My Review: http://www.epinions.com/content_64580456068
Vastly more than the sum of its parts. Based on Nick Hornby's decent (but slightly overrated) novel, adapted and directed by the geniuses behind American Pie and the Chris Rock dud Down to Earth, and starring the erratic Hugh Grant, About A Boy could have been a totally acceptable and still disposable social satire marketed as a date-night alternative to Star Wars 2: Tears of a Clone. Instead, the movie goes deeper and when I recently watched About A Boy for a second time on a plane, I was surprised by just how well it stood up and, moreso, by the way the Weitz brothers balance tones. It's the story of an egotistical prick who lies to get women in the sack and befriends a sad twelve year old boy whose mother is a suicidal looney. That's not necessarily funny. Or, if you choose to play it for laughs, it might not necessarily produce sadness. But About A Boy succeeds at both. The is the best performance of Hugh Grant's career and it's probably worthy of Oscar notice. Comedy is hard to do. As the "boy," Nicholas Hoult's performance is almost entirely unaffected and he's countered by the always-twitchy Toni Collette as his mom. The film's first (and funnier) half is much better than its second (more sentimental) half and the updating of the music from Hornby's Nirvana-obsessed book will become a bigger flaw as time goes along. But I loved the London settings, sharp writing, and performances. About Schmidt and About A Boy make a logical pairing on masculinity in different ages and they go together well on this list.
5)Bowling For Columbine (Director Michael Moore)
My Review: http://www.epinions.com/content_78590414468
Michael Moore knows that you might have problems with Bowling For Columbine. And he doesn't care. He knows that you might misinterpret its political message. But again, he doesn't care. He knows that he provides a dozen causes for gun violence in this country and no clear solutions. But he doesn't care. He knows that he doesn't offer oppositional views and that his film is the furthest thing from objective documentary and that all of his statistics could be interpreted in different ways. He doesn't care. And he knows that it was probably mean of him to pick on poor ol' Moses (Charlton Heston) and only-slightly-implicated Dick Clark. And maybe somewhere deep down inside, he feels a little bad now that he knows that Heston has the early stages of Alzheimers. But maybe not. All you need know about Michael Moore is that the dude is a filmmaker of the highest level. Few 2002 releases were as well conceived, directed, and edited as Bowling For Columbine. At every step of the way, Michael Moore knows the emotional effect he's going for and he doesn't care if 90 percent of the audience sees it coming, if it makes 10 percent cry. Or laugh. When Moore rushes back to put a picture of a dead five year old next to Heston's gate is it self-serving and manipulative? Darned tooting. But since I'm a cynical person and it *nearly* worked for me, I assume it must have worked for somebody else. Moore uses Columbine and 9/11 as mere backdrops to a portrait of American culture which is as disturbing as it is obviously true. Americans like violence. The media feeds off that need and heightens it. And violence begets violence. And as long as there's violence, the NRA will be there to claim that guns have *nothing* to do with gun violence. Moore mixes archival newsreel footage, security cams from Columbine, modern muckraking footage of himself, and a brilliant animated short to create a superior cinematic experience. Sure, it preaches to the choir, which is taking the easy way out. And sure, a little Michael Moore goes a long way. That doesn't make Bowling for Columbine any less hilarious and powerful.
4)Confessions of a Dangerous Mind (Director George Clooney [!!!])
My Review: http://www.epinions.com/content_83754258052
If a gun were held to my head, pointed by former Gong Show host Chuck Barris, I'm not sure that I could properly defend this choice. Or at least not its high placement on my list. I just know that I got sucked into the hyper-stylized world of graphic violence and absurdist humor that director George Clooney and writer Charlie Kaufman created. In his first time behind the camera, Clooney (with director of photography Newton Thomas Sigel and editor Stephen Mirrione) creates a demented period piece that uses ambiguity as the center of its cinematic argument. Was Chuck Barris a TV producer by day and a CIA killer by night? Sometimes the pieces seem to fit. Other times, Barris just seems like a whackjob, but Clooney and Kaufman never fully tip their hand. Already Confessions has produced strongly mixed reactions and it has yet to get a nationwide release. The acting, at least, should be confidently recognized — Sam Rockwell's ballsy performance as Barris and Clooney's suave assist as his handler, and sweet work from Drew Barrymore, and understated glamour from Julia Roberts. Will you laugh in the right places and shudder in the right places and be intrigued in the right places? No promises. But I was.
3) A TIE!!!
Minority Report (Director Steven Spielberg)
My Review:http://www.epinions.com/content_67638890116
AND
Catch Me If You Can (Director Steven Spielberg)
My Review:http://www.epinions.com/content_84972637828
Steven Spielberg had a pretty fine year. Two films within six months, both of which grossed over 100 million at the US box office. Minority Report goes down as a minor hit (higher costs and all), while Catch Me If You Can goes down as a major hit (but not really a smash). At the end of the day, Minority Report is a much more ambitious film and it hits high points that few films this year could approach, but it also continues for twenty minutes after it should have stopped. Catch Me If You Can lacks the sci-fi epic's highs, but also its lows and comes across as a slightly more satisfying whole. Regardless, both films are really the same things. In both films, a man goes on the run from the law, but really wants nothing more than a return to the simplicity of his now-destroyed family life. Both films are about desperate searches for father figures and a restoration of the natural order. Basically they're both just about Spielberg. Both films share Janusz Kaminski's versatile cinematography and Michael Kahn's editing and John Williams doing musical duty. And both films share Spielberg's more recent trend towards star-driven pictures, getting a typically strong action performance from Tom Cruise in Minority Report and a surprisingly deft comedic performance from Leonardo DiCaprio in Catch Me If You Can.
2)Gangs of New York (Director Martin Scorsese)
My Review: http://www.epinions.com/content_84377243268
Some people go and look for historical inaccuracies. And granted... They're there. Some people go and look for problematic shifting accents. And granted... They're there. Some people go just so that they can complain that the movie was wildly too long. And who can effectively argue with that? I went for the nearly out-of-control ambition that drives Martin Scorsese on every picture and that drove the director for thirty years to finally get this movie made. Is the story itself finally somewhat disappointing, a clunky love square featuring Leonardo DiCaprio, Cameron Diaz, Daniel Day-Lewis, and Henry Thomas? Yup. And is the central drive for revenge like Hamlet, or any other number of Shakespeare histories and tragedies? Well, duh, Brendan Gleeson's burly barber says as much. For me, it's all about the way that Scorsese created his own moral and ethical landscape for New York in the 1840s and 1860s and how he then tied that in with the shaping of our nation. Dante Ferretti's production design will only miss out on an Oscar (no mere nomination here) is every single member of the Academy is smoking crack. There's no other competition. His sets alternate between realistic and too-wonderfully-symbolic to be real, but every church and bar and Chinese opium den is stunning and every set is filled with Sandy Powell's stunning costumes and the whole lot is stunningly captured by Michael Ballhaus's camera. Like every film on this list, Gangs of New York has flaws up the wazoo, but I'll take the flaws in the service of filmmaking genius any time. Points also for Daniel Day-Lewis's compellingly human caricature of Bill the Butcher. In one miraculous scene in a rocking chair, draped in the American flag, Day-Lewis takes his character from cartoonish to epic-tragic. On the other hand, heaven help us if U2's generic anthem, "Hands that Built America" gets any more awards. Yuck!
DRUMROLL (THOUGH THERE'S NO DOUBT ON THE FINAL RESULTS)...
#1)Punchdrunk Love (Director Paul Thomas Anderson)
My Review:http://www.epinions.com/content_80626880132
Contrary to what I may have said, Punchdrunk Love isn't actually a film that sets out to punish Adam Sandler fans for their moviegoing complacency. It's a film that sets out to punish lazy moviegoers of all ilks. So people scratched their heads in confusion, boggled their eyes in disbelieve, snorted derisively at the inexplicable surreal touches, and then left the movie theatre without making any attempt to understand what the film was about, who the characters are, and the director was trying to make them feel. It's a 90 minute film, surely some of the film's detractors could have taken an hour afterwards to talk through the movie, rather than just joking about the things that seemed "weird" or that just "didn't make any sense." TRY MAKING SENSE OF IT! "But why should I have to work to enjoy a movie? Isn't that snobbery?" Well, if you call "thinking" unnecessary work and if you call "the expectation of a modicum of thought" to be snobbery, then darn-tootin'! Punchdrunk Love is a film that became better for me every time I thought about and became even better every time I discussed it with friends, both those who liked it and those who hated it because, like a new-ish wine, it required time to aerate. Paul Thomas Anderson's understanding of Adam Sandler's persona is flawless because he recognizes just how messed up it is for audiences to embrace his characters. So he depicts Sandler in this movie as a totally psychologically damaged freak who scares those around him, and then pairs him with a woman (Emily Watson) who may be just as damaged, but in different, harder to recognize ways. There's a harmonium, a phone sex line, several car crashes, and a frequently jarring soundscape by Gary Rydstrom. And don't worry, as with all great things, Luis Guzman is here as well. It's a comedy of nervous energy, violent outbursts, and wild romanticism. It's also alienating and flawed throughout. But if you work with it, it more than rewards the effort. Since I like putting in effort (sometimes), Punchdrunk Love takes its place at the top of my list of the Best Films of 2002.
SOME 2002 SUPERLATIVES:
[This section will honor some of the best performances and technical achievements of the year. It's partially to preview my "Perfect World" Oscars, but also partially to honor some films that got left off my list by only the slimmest of margins. Some of the lists are in evaluated order, others are not. And, in some cases, I've left off one or two obviously superior products to spread the wealth.]
4 BEST ORIGINAL SCREENPLAYS (EVERYTHING THIS YEAR WAS, INCIDENTALLY, ADAPTED):
4) Burr Steers, Igby Goes Down
Probably my favorite film that got left off the list, Igby is dark, hilarious, snobby, and melodramatic.
3) Todd Haynes, Far From Heaven
Only an original screenplay in name, Haynes should pay royalties to Douglas Sirk for this loving recreation of 1950s melodrama.
2) Pedro Almodovar, Talk to Her
I don't care if it violates my "American Only" rule, this was a romantic and emotionally complicated script only Almovodar could write.
1) Paul Thomas Anderson, Punchdrunk Love
His shortest script yet, but making sense of it takes the same amount of time as watching Magnolia.
5 BEST ADAPTED SCREENPLAYS (AND THIS LIST COULD EXPAND TO TWICE THIS LENGTH)
5) Charlie Kaufman, Adaptation
Too-smart-for-its-own-good, witty, frequently brilliant, and intentionally infuriating, it's tough to know how this counts as an "Adapted" screenplay, but I follow Academy rules.
4) Peter Jackson et. al. The Two Towers
This is more appropriate as a "most adaptation" novel, but except for the things that didn't work, I'm sure they did a nice job.
3 Tom Stoppard, Enigma
Vastly too intelligent for its own good, but I'm OK with that, if you are.
2) Bill Condon, Chicago
Sometimes the challenge of adapting something is in figuring out how you're going to adapt it in the first place and Bill Condon had the right vision for Chicago.
1) Jim Taylor and Alexander Payne, About Schmidt
A mix of broad caricatures and characters you grow to love and sympathize with, in addition to comedy and drama. It's got everything.
5 BEST FEMALE PERFORMANCES (BECAUSE I'M GETTING LAZY, I'M SQUISHING "SUPPORTING" AND "LEAD" ACTING CATEGORIES TOGETHER)
5) The entire cast of 8 Women
Isabelle Huppert, Virginie Ledoyen, Catherine Deneuve,
Danielle Darrieux, Fanny Ardant, Emmanuelle Beart, Ludivine Sagnier, and Firmine Richard. Take your pick. They're all great.
4) Emily Mortimer, Lovely and Amazing
Any actor who wants to see the personification of "vulnerable" should watch Mortimer's nude scene in this movie. Acting doesn't get much better.
3) Catherine Zeta-Jones and Rene Zellweger, Chicago
Zeta-Jones brings the screen to life and Zellweger gives the movie an emotional center. Kudos.
2) The Putty Nose, The Hours
Sure, Nicole Kidman is fine, but let's face it, the woman's probably going to win an Oscar almost entirely on the basis of a prosthetic nose. Go give props where props are due.
1) Maggie Gyllenhaal, Secretary
Far and away the best female performance of the year.
5 BEST MALE PERFORMANCES BEYOND PEOPLE NAMED NICHOLSON AND DAY-LEWIS, SINCE THEY'VE ALREADY GOTTEN ENOUGH PRESS (BECAUSE I'M GETTING LAZY, I'M SQUISHING "SUPPORTING" AND "LEAD" ACTING CATEGORIES TOGETHER)
5) Jeff Goldblum and Bill Pullman, Igby Goes Down
Unless I'm forgetting something, these are certainly the best two performances by Independence Day alums in 2002.
4) Anthony LaPaglia, The Guys
Universal Focus blew it on this one with a pointlessly hidden Oscar qualifying run and a negligible add campaign. They should be ashamed of themselves. LaPaglia, as a post-9/11 New York fire captain gives a remarkable performance.
3) Nic Cage, Adaptation
In a hilarious double role, this is Nic Cage's Cat Ballou. Cage's comedic brilliance is matched only by Chris Cooper in the same film.
2) Dennis Quaid, either The Rookie or Far From Heaven
A full-scale comeback for Mr. Quaid, showing he can act without the cocaine. Now if only Robin Williams and Dan Ackroyd could prove that they were funny without the white stuff.
1) Paul Newman, Road to Perdition
Paul Newman is to acting what Martin Scorsese is to directing: Just seeing him in top form is cause for celebration.
OK. Gotta quit sometime. Perhaps I'll add to this huge offering at some point. But maybe not. I've only been working on it in bits and pieces for a month.
Hope you enjoyed. And hope the HTML all works OK.
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