THE BEST FILMS OF 2002
For some mysterious reason, 2002 was a great year for films. Not since 1993 has there been such a strong selection of great movies from which to compose a ten best list. Usually, I have trouble coming up with enough films worthy of a top ten list, this year I had to leave so many off it hurt.
01. PUNCH-DRUNK LOVE (9.5/A)
First, forget everything you know and expect from Adam Sandler. Then forget everything you know and expect from a romantic comedy. Then forget everything you know and expect from a dark comedy. This film is none of these, all of these, and more than these. It’s simply unlike anything I’ve seen in a long time. Every line of dialogue, every plot point, every story development, every character, every visual design, every use of sound and music is so fresh, so original, so creative that it’s no wonder Anderson won the best director award at Cannes. Indeed, there is scarcely a moment in the film that is devoid of some element of genius. For Anderson not only re-invented the romantic comedy, he re-invented Adam Sandler’s persona, turning him into a tragic romantic hero while proving to the world that Sandler can act. But more importantly, this film proves that no matter how big movies get, there will always be room for smaller films with inspired genius to leave all those supposedly bigger movies in the dust.
02.BOWLING FOR COLUMBINE (9.5/A)
Documentary is not one of my favourite genres and so it’s a miracle that one made it onto my top ten list, let alone this high. But I’m not overstating it when I say this is probably the best documentary I have ever seen. Michael Moore takes the topic of gun control in America and creates something so disturbing, so compelling, so thought provoking, and yet so fun and entertaining that it rarely felt like a documentary. Indeed, I might as well have been watching Raiders of the Lost Ark; and yet at no time did the haunting power of the film’s insight and message escape me. This is simply one of the best documentaries of all time and it’s easy to see why it was the first one admitted to the Cannes Film Festival in many a year (where it received a standing ovation) and easy to see why it’s the first documentary ever to receive a Writer’s Guild nomination.
03.CHICAGO (9.0/A)
This year’s front runner in the Oscar race, Chicago, is a marriage made in Hollywood heaven; as dark comedy and social satire wed dazzling musical numbers and dance sequences – giving birth to one of the best live action musicals of all time. But apart from the fact that Chicago is great fun and great entertainment, it’s also very smart and insightful, and works delightfully well as social commentary; providing one of the most perfect cinematic critiques ever on the nature of modern media.
04.ADAPTATION (9.0/A)
From the same writing and directing team that brought us 1998’s Being John Malkovich, comes a brilliant blend of Hollywood satire and self-reflexive cinema that would have made Jean-Luc Godard envious. This is a wonderful dark comedy whose chief strength is one of the most ingenious screenplays ever devised – one that merges the elements of fantasy, reality, and satire together so perfectly and so seamlessly, that it’s difficult to determine where one element begins and where the other ends. In fact, the entire film feels strangely eternal, much like a circle, as there is no clear-cut point of origin, departure or conclusion. It even manages to be self-reflexive about being self-reflexive. Equally as amazing is the fact that while it satirizes Hollywood clichés, it’s still able to employ them successfully as clichés. When you merge all this with three great performances, the result is a comic milestone.
05.GANGS OF NEW YORK (8.5/A-)
I think the main reason this film received such luke-warm responses is the fact that this is Scorsese’s attempt to do something Titanic-esque. Basically, this is Scorsese’s Titanic – a melodramatic love story set against the back drop of a reality based historical epic. It seems that whenever Scorsese sets out to do a period piece, with some kind of love story involved, it’s met with mixed responses – remember 1993’s The Age of Innocence? But since I had no problem with either The Age of Innocence or Titanic, this was right up my alley, as Scorsese successfully transforms a mediocre story into a powerful and haunting cinematic tribute to the great City of New York.
06.THE PIANIST (8.5/A-)
It’s hard not to draw comparisons between this and Schindler’s List, but after Spielberg’s masterpiece, this is the second best narrative film on the Holocaust I've ever seen and one of Roman Polanski’s very finest. And although it’s not nearly in the same league as Schindler’s List, this compelling true life account of one musician’s struggle for survival during the unimaginable evil of the Holocaust, resonates with a power that is truly frightening, haunting and disturbing. True, the film’s form is not quite as remarkable as it’s content (as is the case with Schindler’s List); but nonetheless, Polanski does a good job of bringing this story to the screen, drawing us completely into the protagonist’s miraculous story of survival.
07.FAR FROM HEAVEN (8.5/A-)
Writer/Director Todd Haynes successfully takes our image of the fifties, as seen through the rosy coloured lenses of Douglas Sirk films, and shatters the illusion that the decade was a magical one. The sad truth is, that the fifties were anything but magical if you were any kind of minority, visible or otherwise – and this becomes tragically and painfully clear as the story unfolds. Julianne Moore plays a fifties housewife, whose world starts to crumble, when she discovers that her husband is a homosexual. Not since 1993’s The Age of Innocence, have I seen a piece that so perfectly communicates the hell of being trapped by social conventions. The real strength of the film is Moore, who takes us on a heart-wrenching, emotional roller coaster ride as her character’s world disintegrates and realizes how much she is imprisoned.
08.DOGTOWN AND Z-BOYS (8.0/A-)
All I can say is that 2002 was a great year for documentaries, as miraculously, another documentary makes my top ten list. For Dogtown and Z-Boys is one of the most exhilarating movie going experiences of 2002. This story, about a group of youths from California who were instrumental in turning the sport of skateboarding into a national obsession in the seventies, is a very unique documentary in that it’s one of the very few I’ve seen where style takes precedence over content. Usually documentaries are all about the content, and style is hardly ever a consideration. With Dogtown, this is not the case, as its visual, narrative and editing styles are so fresh and so thrilling, that the entire experience of the film feels like you, yourself are riding a skateboard. In fact, so strong is the style, that it makes the content fascinating whether you’re interested in skateboarding or not.
09.HAPPY TIMES/ a.k.a. XINGFUL SHIGUANG (8.0/A-)
This is a film that I’m almost certain very few got around to seeing, but I’m extremely grateful I did, as this is one of the freshest and most original comedy/dramas to come along in quite awhile. Famed Chinese director, Yimou Zhang, brings us a story sparkling with such originality, charm and wit, that’s it’s a sheer surprise and delight at every twist and turn. This is a film that I wish every screenwriter in Hollywood could see, as the script has enough clever and original plot developments to fill ten Hollywood screenplays. The story centers on Zhao, a man who has been unlucky in love and who wants desperately to be married. He finds a woman who he believes will stay married to him and he agrees to give her the kind of wedding he cannot possibly afford. The result is comic mayhem and compelling drama as the story takes us places we could not possibly predict. Combine all this with a powerful and moving ending and you simply have one of the best films of the year.
10.ONE HOUR PHOTO (8.0/A-)
This was the year’s best thriller – an unnerving portrayal of a one-hour photo shop employee who has just a little too much time on his hands. Robin Williams plays such employee, Seymour Parrish – a man who lives alone and who begins to develop an unhealthy attachment to one of the families who frequent the photo shop. Williams’s portrayal of Parrish is exceptional, and in any other year he would probably have received an Oscar nomination. So effective is Williams’s performance that he has you simultaneously cringing at and pitying the character. In addition, I loved how this film was photographed. Most of the scenes take place in a rather mundane looking Wal-Mart-esque store, but the cinematographer does a fantastic job of making the mundane look aesthetic – effectively giving us aestheticized banality. Perfectly paced, beautifully acted, and superbly written, with some genuinely surprising twists and turns, this is an extremely effective thriller that would have made even the legendary Hitchcock proud.
RUNNERS UP:
11.MINORITY REPORT (8.0/A-)
Despite its plot holes and over the top action sequences, this is a thoughtful and engaging futuristic thriller that also manages to be surprisingly moving. Cruise does a great job taking us through this wild adventure, but the real star of the film is its brilliant and breathtaking visuals. How this film did not get a nomination for cinematography is one of the great mysteries of our time.
12.JAN DARA (8.0/A-)
Here is another film that I’m almost certain escaped many in 2002, but this is a compelling and disturbing story about a household in 1930’s Thailand torn apart by sexual sins, sexual dysfunction and sexual exploits. With elements of Greek Tragedy, it painfully reminds us how our destinies are sometimes completely at the mercy of fate.
13.TREMBLING BEFORE G-D (8.0/A-)
This is a powerful and fascinating documentary about the conflict that Judaism creates for Jews dealing with homosexuality.
14.ABOUT SCHMIDT (7.5/B+)
This is a hilarious look at a man struggling to come to terms with life after retirement. The comedic elements of the film are far stronger than the dramatic ones, as it contains some of the very best laugh-out-loud moments of any movie of 2002.
15.THE HOURS (7.5/B+)
Anchored by four great performances, this is a moving and effective drama that tells three parallel stories about women coping with their disillusionment of life.
HONOURABLE MENTIONS:
01. PUNCH-DRUNK LOVE (9.5/A)
First, forget everything you know and expect from Adam Sandler. Then forget everything you know and expect from a romantic comedy. Then forget everything you know and expect from a dark comedy. This film is none of these, all of these, and more than these. It’s simply unlike anything I’ve seen in a long time. Every line of dialogue, every plot point, every story development, every character, every visual design, every use of sound and music is so fresh, so original, so creative that it’s no wonder Anderson won the best director award at Cannes. Indeed, there is scarcely a moment in the film that is devoid of some element of genius. For Anderson not only re-invented the romantic comedy, he re-invented Adam Sandler’s persona, turning him into a tragic romantic hero while proving to the world that Sandler can act. But more importantly, this film proves that no matter how big movies get, there will always be room for smaller films with inspired genius to leave all those supposedly bigger movies in the dust.
02.BOWLING FOR COLUMBINE (9.5/A)
Documentary is not one of my favourite genres and so it’s a miracle that one made it onto my top ten list, let alone this high. But I’m not overstating it when I say this is probably the best documentary I have ever seen. Michael Moore takes the topic of gun control in America and creates something so disturbing, so compelling, so thought provoking, and yet so fun and entertaining that it rarely felt like a documentary. Indeed, I might as well have been watching Raiders of the Lost Ark; and yet at no time did the haunting power of the film’s insight and message escape me. This is simply one of the best documentaries of all time and it’s easy to see why it was the first one admitted to the Cannes Film Festival in many a year (where it received a standing ovation) and easy to see why it’s the first documentary ever to receive a Writer’s Guild nomination.
03.CHICAGO (9.0/A)
This year’s front runner in the Oscar race, Chicago, is a marriage made in Hollywood heaven; as dark comedy and social satire wed dazzling musical numbers and dance sequences – giving birth to one of the best live action musicals of all time. But apart from the fact that Chicago is great fun and great entertainment, it’s also very smart and insightful, and works delightfully well as social commentary; providing one of the most perfect cinematic critiques ever on the nature of modern media.
04.ADAPTATION (9.0/A)
From the same writing and directing team that brought us 1998’s Being John Malkovich, comes a brilliant blend of Hollywood satire and self-reflexive cinema that would have made Jean-Luc Godard envious. This is a wonderful dark comedy whose chief strength is one of the most ingenious screenplays ever devised – one that merges the elements of fantasy, reality, and satire together so perfectly and so seamlessly, that it’s difficult to determine where one element begins and where the other ends. In fact, the entire film feels strangely eternal, much like a circle, as there is no clear-cut point of origin, departure or conclusion. It even manages to be self-reflexive about being self-reflexive. Equally as amazing is the fact that while it satirizes Hollywood clichés, it’s still able to employ them successfully as clichés. When you merge all this with three great performances, the result is a comic milestone.
05.GANGS OF NEW YORK (8.5/A-)
I think the main reason this film received such luke-warm responses is the fact that this is Scorsese’s attempt to do something Titanic-esque. Basically, this is Scorsese’s Titanic – a melodramatic love story set against the back drop of a reality based historical epic. It seems that whenever Scorsese sets out to do a period piece, with some kind of love story involved, it’s met with mixed responses – remember 1993’s The Age of Innocence? But since I had no problem with either The Age of Innocence or Titanic, this was right up my alley, as Scorsese successfully transforms a mediocre story into a powerful and haunting cinematic tribute to the great City of New York.
06.THE PIANIST (8.5/A-)
It’s hard not to draw comparisons between this and Schindler’s List, but after Spielberg’s masterpiece, this is the second best narrative film on the Holocaust I've ever seen and one of Roman Polanski’s very finest. And although it’s not nearly in the same league as Schindler’s List, this compelling true life account of one musician’s struggle for survival during the unimaginable evil of the Holocaust, resonates with a power that is truly frightening, haunting and disturbing. True, the film’s form is not quite as remarkable as it’s content (as is the case with Schindler’s List); but nonetheless, Polanski does a good job of bringing this story to the screen, drawing us completely into the protagonist’s miraculous story of survival.
07.FAR FROM HEAVEN (8.5/A-)
Writer/Director Todd Haynes successfully takes our image of the fifties, as seen through the rosy coloured lenses of Douglas Sirk films, and shatters the illusion that the decade was a magical one. The sad truth is, that the fifties were anything but magical if you were any kind of minority, visible or otherwise – and this becomes tragically and painfully clear as the story unfolds. Julianne Moore plays a fifties housewife, whose world starts to crumble, when she discovers that her husband is a homosexual. Not since 1993’s The Age of Innocence, have I seen a piece that so perfectly communicates the hell of being trapped by social conventions. The real strength of the film is Moore, who takes us on a heart-wrenching, emotional roller coaster ride as her character’s world disintegrates and realizes how much she is imprisoned.
08.DOGTOWN AND Z-BOYS (8.0/A-)
All I can say is that 2002 was a great year for documentaries, as miraculously, another documentary makes my top ten list. For Dogtown and Z-Boys is one of the most exhilarating movie going experiences of 2002. This story, about a group of youths from California who were instrumental in turning the sport of skateboarding into a national obsession in the seventies, is a very unique documentary in that it’s one of the very few I’ve seen where style takes precedence over content. Usually documentaries are all about the content, and style is hardly ever a consideration. With Dogtown, this is not the case, as its visual, narrative and editing styles are so fresh and so thrilling, that the entire experience of the film feels like you, yourself are riding a skateboard. In fact, so strong is the style, that it makes the content fascinating whether you’re interested in skateboarding or not.
09.HAPPY TIMES/ a.k.a. XINGFUL SHIGUANG (8.0/A-)
This is a film that I’m almost certain very few got around to seeing, but I’m extremely grateful I did, as this is one of the freshest and most original comedy/dramas to come along in quite awhile. Famed Chinese director, Yimou Zhang, brings us a story sparkling with such originality, charm and wit, that’s it’s a sheer surprise and delight at every twist and turn. This is a film that I wish every screenwriter in Hollywood could see, as the script has enough clever and original plot developments to fill ten Hollywood screenplays. The story centers on Zhao, a man who has been unlucky in love and who wants desperately to be married. He finds a woman who he believes will stay married to him and he agrees to give her the kind of wedding he cannot possibly afford. The result is comic mayhem and compelling drama as the story takes us places we could not possibly predict. Combine all this with a powerful and moving ending and you simply have one of the best films of the year.
10.ONE HOUR PHOTO (8.0/A-)
This was the year’s best thriller – an unnerving portrayal of a one-hour photo shop employee who has just a little too much time on his hands. Robin Williams plays such employee, Seymour Parrish – a man who lives alone and who begins to develop an unhealthy attachment to one of the families who frequent the photo shop. Williams’s portrayal of Parrish is exceptional, and in any other year he would probably have received an Oscar nomination. So effective is Williams’s performance that he has you simultaneously cringing at and pitying the character. In addition, I loved how this film was photographed. Most of the scenes take place in a rather mundane looking Wal-Mart-esque store, but the cinematographer does a fantastic job of making the mundane look aesthetic – effectively giving us aestheticized banality. Perfectly paced, beautifully acted, and superbly written, with some genuinely surprising twists and turns, this is an extremely effective thriller that would have made even the legendary Hitchcock proud.
RUNNERS UP:
11.MINORITY REPORT (8.0/A-)
Despite its plot holes and over the top action sequences, this is a thoughtful and engaging futuristic thriller that also manages to be surprisingly moving. Cruise does a great job taking us through this wild adventure, but the real star of the film is its brilliant and breathtaking visuals. How this film did not get a nomination for cinematography is one of the great mysteries of our time.
12.JAN DARA (8.0/A-)
Here is another film that I’m almost certain escaped many in 2002, but this is a compelling and disturbing story about a household in 1930’s Thailand torn apart by sexual sins, sexual dysfunction and sexual exploits. With elements of Greek Tragedy, it painfully reminds us how our destinies are sometimes completely at the mercy of fate.
13.TREMBLING BEFORE G-D (8.0/A-)
This is a powerful and fascinating documentary about the conflict that Judaism creates for Jews dealing with homosexuality.
14.ABOUT SCHMIDT (7.5/B+)
This is a hilarious look at a man struggling to come to terms with life after retirement. The comedic elements of the film are far stronger than the dramatic ones, as it contains some of the very best laugh-out-loud moments of any movie of 2002.
15.THE HOURS (7.5/B+)
Anchored by four great performances, this is a moving and effective drama that tells three parallel stories about women coping with their disillusionment of life.
HONOURABLE MENTIONS:
In any other year, these films would probably have made my top ten.
25th Hour
Antwone Fisher
Bollywood/Hollywood
Catch Me if You Can
City of God
Confessions of a Dangerous Mind
The Quiet American
Rabbit Proof Fence
Solaris
25th Hour
Antwone Fisher
Bollywood/Hollywood
Catch Me if You Can
City of God
Confessions of a Dangerous Mind
The Quiet American
Rabbit Proof Fence
Solaris
THE RICKTER-SCALE:
10 (A+) – extraordinary, a masterpiece
9.5/9.0 (A) – exceptional, a milestone
8.5/8.0 (A-) – excellent, a classic
7.5/7.0 (B+) – very good, a near classic
6.5/6.0 (B) – good
5.5/5.0 (B-) – fair
4.5/4.0 (C+) – poor
3.5/3.0 (C) – very poor, a near disaster
2.5/2.0 (C-) – terrible, a total disaster
1.5/1.0 (D+) – torture, a catastrophe
0.5/0.0 (F) – abysmal, the end of film as an art form
10 (A+) – extraordinary, a masterpiece
9.5/9.0 (A) – exceptional, a milestone
8.5/8.0 (A-) – excellent, a classic
7.5/7.0 (B+) – very good, a near classic
6.5/6.0 (B) – good
5.5/5.0 (B-) – fair
4.5/4.0 (C+) – poor
3.5/3.0 (C) – very poor, a near disaster
2.5/2.0 (C-) – terrible, a total disaster
1.5/1.0 (D+) – torture, a catastrophe
0.5/0.0 (F) – abysmal, the end of film as an art form
posted by Rix Flix at 12:16 AM
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