The Top Ten Films of 2002
Jul 01 '03
The Bottom Line sorry, i'm late. i'll be better next time.
Nothing like chiming in more than halfway through 2003 with (finally) my list for best films of 2002. For once, I wanted to try and see everything that I had heard good things about before compiling a list of the 'best' films of the year. Still, two films escaped me - that might have ended up on this list - though I plan to change that soon: Spirited Away and Talk to Her are still on the 'to see' list. I'll go ahead and start off with the honorable mentions (since no real true film geek can keep a list to just ten, after all), and just to make it a bit harder on myself, I will list them in order...
20. Far from Heaven
19. Road to Perdition
18. 8 Mile
17. 25th Hour
16. Sex and Lucia
15. Igby Goes Down
14. Catch Me If You Can
13. Lovely and Amazing
12. Secretary
11. The Pianist
Alright, with those honorable contenders out of the way, I now move on to what, I hope, will be the shortest one of these I've ever managed to actually write. Normally this would be the point where I waxed philosophical on cinema in the year 2002, but frankly, I don't wanna write it and you probably don't wanna read it. So, instead, I offer this: movies were released in 2002 - and these were the ten I enjoyed best, for various reasons.
10. The Hours: An undeniably sad, depression drenched tale of three women living in three completely different times. The performances are top notch across the board, the screenplay somehow manages to make sense of such a non-filmmable novel, and the end result is something truly special.
9. Gangs of New York: The best Scorsese film? Not even in the top five. Brilliant? At times. Flawed? Sure. Watchable? Imminently. Marty's dream project at long last made it to the big screen, despite numerous delays and Harvey Weinstein's tinkering fingers. What we as an audience were shown is a world completely removed from anything we knew before, a wonder of art direction, costuming, set design, acting (namely Mr. Daniel Day Lewis as the classic Scorsesean anti-hero, Bill the Butcher), and at times, direction. Martin Scorsese can not make a bad film at this point, at least not in my mind. However, I have to admit that my expectations were far greater than the final product that I saw - though that still doesn't mean it wasn't one of the finest ten films released last year.
8. May: A strange, beautiful, shamefully underseen little gem of a horror film, Lucky McKee's directorial debut was one of the best surprises of 2002. With an overwhelming lead performance by Angela Bettis and some great supporting roles by Jeremy Sisto and Anna Farris, this great little film about loneliness, identity, and isolation past over most movie theatres - meaning you'll have to keep an eye out for its release on DVD. It truly is a film to seek out.
7. Bowling for Columbine: As I admitted at some point earlier this year, this film would easily have claimed a spot in the top three, were it not for the final scenes involving Charles Heston and some painfully blatant, overly maudlin, take-you-out-of-the-movie closing shots. Had Moore not included himself shamelessly placing a picture of a little girl who had recently died from a handgun accident in front of Heston's home, this movie would have been ten times better. But Moore never was one for subtlety I guess. Still, for all the critics this film has, for all the false claims made against it, it was still one of the most entertaining and thought provoking films I saw in 2002.
6. Adaptation: A brilliant first two acts, followed by a decent enough final one. Ultimately, Kaufmann paints himself into an unresolvable corner with his cleverer-than-you script and ultimately has no choice but to let us down with the ending. Still, great performances abound (Cage times two, Streep, Cooper, Cox) and the film feels alive and dangerous in a way few films ever manage to.
5. About a Boy: I never wrote a review of this film because I was afraid I could never truly do it justice. You see, the set-up sounds less than brilliant and most people who like films are inclined to roll their eyes at anything featuring Hugh Grant these days (not that he hasn't given them ample reason to do so). How, then, to convince someone to watch this film? Well, I guess all I can tell you is that it is one of the best romantic comedies/coming-of-age films to hit theatres in quite awhile, that Grant actually shines (as does his much younger co-star), that the Weitz brothers actually seem capable of handling such precarious material, and that the music is great throughout. A truly enjoyable and frequently hilarious hour and a half with moments of sadness, fragility, and pain. A girls movie made for guys - how's that for a soundbyte?
4. Minority Report: Though there was a tendency among some critics, towards year's end, to proclaim Catch Me If You Can a return to form for Steven Spielberg (and the better Spielberg film of 2002), I simply can't see how one can overlook a film as powerful and entertaining as Minority Report. It might have been Ebert's gushing review of the film that got me into the theatre, but it was a truly amazing and inspired film that kept me glued to my seat the rest of the time. Filled to the brim with great performances, great writing (courtesy of one Mr. Scott Frank), and outstanding direction, this was easily the best film released all summer - and the most enjoyable 'blockbuster' in years. Though not as underappreciated as last year's A.I., this film was still met with some chilly reception by people I admire - but I'll say it again, I just don't get it. This is a great film.
3. About Schmidt: From the opening shot of Alexander Payne's tremendous film, it becomes quite clear that this is a movie that will take its sweet time. In an era of hyper editing and jump cuts, radio-friendly soundtracks and over-the-top performances, About Schmidt is a breath of fresh air. Featuring, in my book, the best performance of the year - turned in by Jack Nicholson as the title character, Warren Schmidt - the movie is honest, real, depressing, and funny as hell.
2. Solaris: Speaking of films that take their time...I heard it remarked several times that Solaris seems like 'the longest 90 minute film ever!' - though this seemed to be held against it as some kind of bad thing. For those of us who went with the film, into the fragile and delicate places that it took us, time was of no worry. Sure, the film moves slowly, but that's the point. Steven Soderbergh had the cajones to remake this film and promptly proceeded to direct it in the only possible manner in which it could work - slow, philosophical, beautiful and wonderfully eerie. George Clooney turns off every ounce of his star power and turns in a moving performance and the cast surrounding him does equally well. I know very few people that liked this film. Those that did, though, loved it.
1. Punch-Drunk Love: From the moment I saw Paul Thomas Anderson's fourth (and shortest) film, I knew it was the best movie I would see all year. A second viewing only confirmed the amounts in which I loved this crazy, jarring, beautiful, romantic film. Everything here works, from Adam Sandler's raw performance to Anderson's quirky writing and directing to Jon Brion's eclectic score, and the result is something truly unique, truly beautiful.
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Member: Chad
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