I’ll always remember 2002 fondly as the year that I quit college. As strangely backwards as it may sound, it was one of the best decisions I’ve ever made. Accepting the fact that I just wasn’t happy where I was and taking off to regroup elsewhere proved to be a marvelously effective way of pulling myself out of a funk and getting back on track. Who says quitting’s for losers? My perpendicular path with the film world continued this year as well, as a very bleak 2000 and a bottom heavy 2001 finally gave way to a year that introduced me to a lot of great new films. What I find ironic is that looking over the list of movies that I really loved from this year, the themes are generally very dark, the humor pitch black, and there are some downright disturbing moments and images in a lot of the films that I loved from this year. Yet, I look back at it as a pretty encouraging, positive time in my life. Maybe there’s something very therapeutic and true about misery loving company. Or maybe good filmmaking is just dang heartwarming no matter what the subject matter.
10-Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones ***
The Star Wars prequels receive a lot of flack from a lot of people. If you listen to people talk about them on the Internet, you would think that they were the worst films ever made. Despite this, and despite the fact that these films are pretty universally talked about as failures, I think that these movies are looked at through revisionist lenses. If The Phantom Menace was really a terrible as people say that it was, then how did Attack of the Clones go on to do such record breaking, blockbuster business? And, for that matter, if Attack of the Clones was even worse than The Phantom Menace, as I’ve heard a lot of people say, then why on Earth would anyone have gone to see Revenge of the Sith after already being burned twice? No, I think that despite a lot of Internet hysteria, most mainstream audiences saw these prequels as visually amazing, fun filled blockbusters. You know, besides Jar Jar, I think everybody hated him. Me personally? I think they’re pretty bad in general. I like the pod race and the light saber battle from The Phantom Menace, but not much else. I didn’t really like Revenge of the Sith at all, and consider it to be the worst of the three. But Attack of the Clones is a film that I like a lot about, and I feel that it gets a lot of undeserved flack. Yes, there’s a lot of bad acting, a lot of clunky dialogue, and the romance scenes remain some of the most embarrassing things ever put to film; but there’s also some pretty great stuff in here too. I really enjoyed Ewan McGregor’s take on young Obi Wan Kenobi, and in a sea of wooden, awkward performances, his stands out as one of the truly bright spots of these films. His subplot here of going off alone and investigating the creation of a possible clone army doesn’t feel like anything we had seen in a Star Wars film before. It feels like a throwback to classic detective films, and it showed off a new, interesting side to the Kenobi character. In addition to this, the opening chase sequence through the streets of Coruscant is easily one of my favorite things in any Star Wars film, original or prequel. Add in a fun climactic battle against huge alien monsters in a stadium environment that worked well as homage to old school gladiator films and you have the foundation for a real solid adventure film. The huge cut back on Jar Jar Binks’ character and continued strong performances from McGregor and Ian McDiarmid further serve to elevate things. Yes, for every McGregor performance there is a Natalie Portman performance, and yes for every chase through an alien city there’s a cringeworthy monologue about sand; and that certainly keeps this from being an actual good film, but all of the talk about how terrible it is gets very overstated. Attack of the Clones is a wildly uneven, middle of the road adventure film that I like to revisit every now and again, not a sign of the Apocalypse.
9- Gangs of New York ***
And speaking of films that are wildly uneven, Gangs of New York is a film that I have very complex feelings about due to this very issue. At the center of what I like about the film, of course, is one of those iconic, unforgettable performances of Daniel Day-Lewis’. His portrayal of the film’s chief antagonist, Bill The Butcher, is like a case of acting wizardry. Every moment that The Butcher is on the screen your attention is drawn to him completely. His monologues are joyous and wonderful. His body language and affectations are somehow at the same time broad and cartoonish and nuanced and subtle. His is a layered performance that can be re-watched and enjoyed time and time again. Tag teaming with Daniel Day-Lewis to make Gangs a worthwhile watch are the lavish, inventive sets and costume design. Not just content to be authentic to the period, the costumes and sets of Gangs of New York rise above reality a bit to create a more fairy tale atmosphere than I’m sure 1800s New York had to offer. The vertical stripes of the characters pants and the length of their top hats gives everything an expressionist flavor, and throughout the whole film there is plenty, visually, to keep you engaged. Unfortunately, everything else about the film is a bit of a let down. This isn’t DiCaprio’s best work. He hadn’t quite figured out how to project a physical enough presence to carry these hard boiled lead roles like he did in The Departed and beyond, so his portrayal of Amsterdam Vallon seemed less like a coming of age tale and more like a kid playing dress up. Cameron Diaz was as annoying as ever playing the main romantic interest. The lengthy run-time of the film is a weight that it’s shoulders just can’t quite keep supporting after a while and the whole thing eventually crumbles around itself. By the time you get to the climax of the film you feel like you’ve spent so much time with these characters that there’s little more you want to see them do. Consequently, the plot brings in a deus ex machina to clean the whole mess up in record time and it feels a bit like a narrative cop out masked by an attempt at thematic depth.
8- Insomnia ***
After I was seemingly the only person on the planet who had issues with the gimmicky nature of Memento, Christopher Nolan, mensch that he is, seemed to go out of his way to address my complaints by making his next film a much more low-key, straight forward story. Insomnia is a film that contains noir plot elements, but turns the look of those classic mystery stories on their head by placing them in a setting where the sun doesn’t set for months at a time. There are a lot of good ingredients for a murder mystery stew here, a creepy but mysterious villain, a morally ambiguous protagonist, multiple, intersecting investigations, deception, danger, and they all come together in a competent, though not all that memorable manner. And that’s the rub here with this film. Memento annoyed me a bit by trying too much, but I still remember very clearly what it did. This film, which came out several years later, is kind of a blur to me. I remember the acting being good. I remember Pacino toning down his latter day career cartoonishness for the role. I remember Robin Williams being an evil weirdo both in this and One Hour Photo pretty close together. I remember Hilary Swank playing a local sheriff. But other than that, there’s not much there. Insomnia is a competent, solid film for sure. But, I just can’t give too much credit to something that stuck with me and got me thinking about it so little.
7-Irreversible ****
Despite being largely turned off by the backwards-moving plot gimmick employed by Memento, here in 2002 I was absolutely enthralled by a film structured almost exactly the same way. I think the difference is that Irreversible had enough other stuff going on, in addition to the backwards moving plot, to keep me interested throughout. With Memento, the whole point of the film was following along with its structure and figuring out its puzzles. Irreversible presents its plot the way it does for real, thematic reasons for sure, but it doesn’t hit you over the head with the gimmick. Many of the scenes are dreamlike and disorienting, but they’re never presented as a labyrinth that you have to navigate and figure out, they all work individually as well made little snapshots of interesting characters. We get glimpses into their lives that often feel voyeuristic, and at times it can be thrilling, but then at other times the film turns its perverse delights on their heads in horrible, grizzly ways that will affect you on a guttural level and stick with you for a very long time. There are shocking things in this film for sure, but they’re never played out merely for shock value. The camera documents them, unflinching, without judgment or flourish, and then you’re left to process what you’ve seen on your own. But that’s not to say that Gaspar Noé has filmed a static, mis-en-scene style film: far from it. Really far. Irreversible is a visually intoxicating, sometimes stunning, sometimes disorienting film. At every moment you will be challenged by its writing, its camera work, and its frank, raw performances. Many people come out of the film loving it, and some hating it, but I’ve never heard of anyone being bored by it. And my goodness, is Monica Bellucci just the sexiest creature on the planet, or what?
6-Love Liza ****
Love Liza was a very small film that kind of flew under a lot of people’s radars. I’m not quite sure how that is possible as it’s star Phillip Seymour Hoffman was an absolute titan in the indie film world at the time and this may very well be his very best performance. Okay, I guess a lot of the obscurity that this film toils in can be chalked up to the film’s limited appeal to mainstream audiences. The story here is bleak. Hoffman’s character, an absolute mess after the suicide of his wife, begins to partake in a smorgasbord of self destructive behavior, capped off with a newly acquired gasoline huffing habit. Kathy Bates, also playing a role that’s underappreciated when looking at her career, plays his mother in law, and try as she might, she can’t seen to get Hoffman’s character out of his funk. So, all else a failure, he sets off on the road for a journey of self discovery and not-quite-healing with the guy who played The Dude’s landlord in The Big Lebowski. Of course, this summary sells the film short a bit, and it can’t help but be that way, as the plot isn’t really the point or focus of the film. The dark humor, the character work, and the acting are; and they all more than deliver a worthwhile cinematic experience. Director Todd Louiso has only done one other film since, and I haven’t seen it. Looking at it’s IMDB entry now tells me that it’s got a lot of actors in it that I really like and is probably worth my time to check out. Why haven’t I seen this? Why doesn’t anybody watch Louiso’s films? This is a problem that we all need to come together and rectify.
5-Adaptation ****
After Charlie Kaufman and Spike Jonze collaborated on the delightfully unique and eccentric Being John Malkovich in ’99 I was more than ready to see if they could match the manic energy of that film with a follow-up, and Adaptation didn’t at all disappoint. Just as unique as Malkovich, and without feeling derivative, Adaptation is a complex bit of plotting that feels a bit more like puzzle solving than it does simple filmgoing. Full of great performances by accomplished actors like Meryl Streep and Chris Cooper, Adaptation is nonetheless anchored by Nicholas Cage’s performance as the screenwriter himself, Charlie Kaufman. Well, actually he plays a duel role as both Charlie and his twin brother Donald, but to go too much into the logistics would ruin the fun of discovering the film. My point being, Cage’s performance in this film is one of a small handful of his that I legitimately love in a real way and not just as an absurdist oddity. Couple that with Jonze’s visual flair and Adaptation winds up making my top five in a decently stacked year. People who are fans of filmmaking especially need to watch this film, as it’s satirical take on the screenwriting process is absolutely hysterical and gives all of the great actors that populate the film plenty of melodramatic scenery to chew up and spit out in delightful ways. Who knew that a film about orchids could be so entertaining?
4-The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers ****
The first installment of The Lord of the Rings trilogy blew me away as a perfect piece of filmmaking. This film, the second installment, while ramping up the action and raising the stakes, wasn’t quite able to match the sense of discovery, focus on character, and tight structure of the first. Despite this, I still found it to be a great watch and a worthy entry in what may be the strongest complete film trilogy of all time. Director Peter Jackson maintains his kinetic use of the camera in this one, pairing it with great sets, costumes, and digital effects to completely immerse you in the gorgeous, intriguing, and intricately crafted world of Middle Earth. The same strong actors reprise all the characters from the first film and each achieve greater depth and development due to the circumstances of this film’s plot. Some new characters, who are largely just as interesting and just as well cast as the originals, are introduced to further develop the story and flesh out the world. While it’s not quite as strong a stand-alone film as Fellowship of the Ring, I imagine that all three Rings films should be judged as parts of a whole, and this one certainly succeeds on that level. When you take in the whole trilogy, the breadth of it’s scope, the level of its achievement, it may just stand as the most important accomplishment of its decade. The Two Towers is an essential, well made part of that whole and should be celebrated as such.
3-Punchdrunk Love *****
PT Anderson is not a man who has made his career on making easily accessible, crowd-pleasing films. After wowing audiences with the flashy porn epic Boogie Nights he followed it up with the too long, too complex, dramatically heavy, sprawling, ensemble masterpiece Magnolia. I absolutely loved the film, as did most sensible audiences; but the general public was left behind. Anderson would further alienate audiences with his challenging take on the Adam Sandler movie. It doesn’t sound like much of a stretch to picture Sandler starring in a film about a rage fueled, emotionally retarded man child finding happiness through romance and scheming, but pair that familiar narrative with subtle humor, slow pacing, strange, whimsical music, stunning cinematography, and that certain PT Anderson je ne sais quoi, and suddenly you have a very unique, very hard to process film. For those of us blessed with the ability to appreciate entertainment that falls outside of our comfort zone, that’s a very good thing, but for people who know what they want in their Adam Sandler movie and this ain’t it; well they didn’t have a very good time with it at all, and I remember there being several walkouts in my theater. Haters be damned, Punchdrunk Love is a delightful dark comedy, a sugar sweet romance, and a harrowing tale of sex line calls gone bad, pudding, and vengeful mattress men. It’s the only good thing that Sandler has done since Happy Gilmore, and seemed like it might launch a new dramatic phase in his career. Of course that hope has since been dashed by head scratchingly bad films like Reign Over Me and Click, but the fact that Anderson made the notion seem possible at the time is a huge achievement. Also, Philip Seymour Hoffman is even more awesome than usual in this, and there’s an always-delightful Luis Guzman.
2-About Schmidt *****
Alexander Payne is one of my very favorite directors of the last decade, and one that I wish would work more often. That we haven’t got a feature length effort from him since 2004 is, quite frankly, unacceptable to me. In 1999 he made Election, one of my favorite comedies of all time, and here he followed things up by making a film that takes a more dramatic turn than Election and his debut film Citizen Ruth, but is no less skillful and effective in its crafting and execution. Payne has an amazing gift to set his film in bleak, completely real, completely authentic worlds that mirror our own but are somehow able to be hugely depressing without any embellishing of the details for added effect. He’s able to keep his mundane characters and their ugly lives from being a chore to watch through very sharp, dark humor, and usually once or twice in the film he turns his presentation on its head just enough to transcend the cynicism and aesthetic unpleasantness and create very beautiful, heartfelt moments. About Schmidt is no different, as a running plot thread where the protagonist Warren Schmidt (Jack Nicholson) writes letters to an orphaned village child named Ndugu turns from a humorous narration tool that makes fun of the ignorance and bullheadedness of it’s author into a cathartic, emotional monologue in the film’s dénouement. Maybe what’s most interesting in this film is Nicholson’s performance, the first where he seemed to acknowledge his advanced age, the first in a long time where he dropped his mask of charm and played a character different from his red carpet persona, and the first where he was paired with a leading lady his own age rather than a much younger starlet to help him look young and hip. The results of this very brave step for him are amazing to watch, and really prove his skill not only as a movie star, but as an actor. About Schmidt is at the same time a classic road trip film, a deep character study, a hilarious comedy, and an acting showcase for Nicholson; and I can’t think of a single aspect of the film that doesn’t deliver. The fact that you have to see Kathy Bates naked shouldn’t be enough to deter anybody from seeing this film.
1-City of God *****
City of God hit the film world like a bomb making it to the top of many critics’ top ten lists for the year, getting tons of press in the United States, being nominated for several Oscars, and getting a lot of people who don’t normally watch foreign film to try it out. The story isn’t anything revolutionary, it’s a typical street crime film detailing the rise of some young men from abject poverty to king pin status through a violent and destructive path of destruction. There’s drugs, there’s guns, there’s murders; you get the idea. What sets the film apart from the pack is pretty much everything else. Firstly, the heart of the film is its characters. The protagonist, an aspiring young photographer named Rocket is sympathetic and a great lens through which we can explore the crazy world that is Rio’s slums, but the film doesn’t stop with just developing him. This is a sprawling cast, and a large scale story. Most of the characters are violent, murderous criminals, but even the vilest among them is given ample development and motivation for their actions. The parts are played by an army of actors of all ages who universally do a tremendous job bringing their characters to life and can’t possibly all be professional, experienced actors. The film’s shots and editing come together to lend it an amazing kinetic energy that follows the action well and always keeps your eye interested in what’s happening on the screen. A great, high energy soundtrack also helps to keep the movie pushing forward at a breakneck pace. The film works as a crime story, as a coming of age tale, and as a supremely interesting travelogue and has spawned a pretty hefty genre of third world, inner city crime films that have come out since its release. None have come close, however, to reaching the level of achievement of City of God. The way that it is able to be both vividly cinematic and realist and authentic at the same time is astounding and wonderful to watch. It is one of the very best films of the decade, and one that I need to see many more times than I have. I’ve recently been dying to do a rewatch of this one, but have been trying to wait for a Blu-Ray release to fully appreciate the visuals. Well, the waiting just may prove to be too much, as trying to write about the virtues of this film and not remembering nearly as much about it as I should has really lit a fire under me to just break down and order the criminally bare bones DVD release from Amazon.
