I've yet to see The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers. As soon as I do, I'll add it to the appropriate part of the list.
1. The Dangerous Lives of Altar Boys - There's no reason in the world this should be my favorite movie of 2002. When you leave a theatre in the middle of the summer and say "that was the movie I enjoyed most so far this year" you expect the 'so far' part to come into play when you're figuring out your year end list. Sure, there are better made films - films that manage to put all the pieces (acting, direction, photography, story) together in a more interesting and skillful way. But when it comes to favorites, I have to be subjective and no movie grabbed me like The Dangerous Lives of Altar Boys. I'm still a sucker for the coming of age film, especially when it's not done in a pandering, appeal to the teen masses kind of way. Yeah, this film has a Culkin in the lead. And Jodie Foster gives far from the best performance of her life. I walked into the theatre at the right time and just felt like this captures that time of life so well - when you're not sure of what's next - when you know you're not going to be a kid forever. The Todd McFarlane animation may not work for some, but I think it adds a depth and a sensitivity to the notion of youth and hopefulness that wouldn't have been there otherwise.
2. Sunshine State - Anyone who knows Robert Altman's films can't help but feel like John Sayles has just done his best Robert Altman impression. But John Sayles isn't doing Robert Altman in this story of interconnected lives and families on a small stretch of land in coastal Florida. It's a relationship movie set against the larger story of big development vs. small town "charm." I wanted Altman to do this story - I wanted the little Altman-esque touches. In the end, though, I'm fine with not having those zooming cameras and tiny visual tricks he loves to play. The story is strong and Edie Falco is amazing. Why is there no Oscar buzz for her performance? A few times this year I've walked out of a movie and Dan and I have discussed that the movie we just saw was a movie for adults. Why aren't there more movies for adults? Sunshine State is funny and heartwarming and real and just the kind of thing that I imagine filled cinemas across the land twenty or thirty years ago.
3. Morvern Callar - Sure, Y Tu Mama Tambien is the movie that makes everyone long for a road trip across Mexico, but what about Morvern Callar? Doesn't it make you want to call someone's novel your own and head out for a vacation in Spain? Somehow Samantha Morton makes a crazy character likable and sympathetic. Music and beautiful photography collide in just the right way to make every little impulse Morvern has seem like the right one as she follows her urges from the UK to Spain and then off to wherever she ends up. Lies and deceit and nights spent staring at strangers as they enjoy their drug fueled dancing nights. And the bugs? What's her fascination with death and decay? With Morvern Callar I was in the middle of the theatre and I felt like I was watching a piece of art. Lynne Ramsay has overcome the reality of collaboration required for filmmaking and made a very personal, introspective and ultimately real picture. It's weird and depressing and yet alive with hope. But I thought it was "weird" when I walked out, so what do I know?
4. Catch Me If You Can - It's rare to have such fun at a movie these days! Watching this Spielberg film is just like a friendly trip through the history of the past few decades. Leonardo Dicaprio plays a con man who can't stop what he's doing! He's on screen living out our fantasies...and Tom Hanks is the guy who tries to catch him! Catch Me If You Can is just cute enough to have won me back to the side of major Hollywood motion pictures (not that I ever really went away).
5. 40 Days and 40 Nights - This isn't in my top ten, I swear.
6. Y Tu Mama Tambien - There's about 70 minutes of pure pleasure in this movie. We are the audience and we are just along for the ride. It's gorgeous filmmaking and this is a film that I should've spent the summer recommending to everyone I know.
7. Monsoon Wedding - Families. Relationships. It seems that that's what all the movies I watch these days are about. Is it sisters? Or parents? Or friends? Monsoon Wedding brings together all those issues about loneliness and finding the right person to understand you. I don't know. It's not perfect and watching it wasn't as tumultuous as I thought it would be. Parties do seem like a lot of effort to plan.
8. Talk to Her - This is another one of those "adult" movies. Almodovar's most recent is funny and fun and weird and creepy and altogether too good at getting under the skin of a really strange guy. The film looks at issues of loneliness and friendship and relationships between men and women. Talk to Her is everything everyone says it is and it made it so that I have no interest in seeing a modern ballet at all. What in the world was going on during those ballet scenes?
9. About Schmidt - While the story doesn't reach out and grab me, Kathy Bates did. Wow! What a performance! I was so into her and her character even before she got into the hot tub! And, then, then! Oh My! I didn't really laugh during this movie and I need to see it again. With Alexander Payne setting this in Omaha I couldn't get past the location... and the way he makes movies. He makes movies like they're set in the real world. People drive over curbs because that's just what happens sometimes. The houses look like real houses. The backdrops along the roads are real backdrops. It's like there's no art director cleaning up the mess of a million strip malls. And the weather isn't perfect for the mood. Everything just is. And I want more movies like this. Because it's so distracting to always be looking in the background of his frame for reminders of what it's like to be somewhere that isn't New York.
10. Spider-Man - How perfectly cast was Tobey Maguire? And that costume? And the origin story? And the special effects - sort of video game like? The herky-jerky web-slinging through the city of New York? If there hadn't been three annoying fights with the Green Goblin, this would've been my favorite film of the year. I guess that was always my problem with comic books - I liked the characters and the origin stories but I just didn't care that much about the battles. And pitting the same two guys against each other so much during the second half of the film just made things boring. Let's get more MJ in here. More flirtation. More of her calling Spidey "tiger." Ahhh, it's nice to be reminded of those moments when you'd spend hours and hours on a Sunday reading through the The Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe Deluxe Edition.
11. About a Boy - How perfectly cast was Hugh Grant? How much of a surprise was that? Who knew that giving the guy a haircut was the perfect thing to make him work in this movie? And some cool clothes? And, yeah, it's a movie about wearing/not wearing the right clothes. But, all in all, I like this movie for the surprise factor. Going in you just don't expect to like it once the credits roll. And against your better judgment, you do!
12. Far From Heaven
13. Human Nature
14. Minority Report
15. Secretary
16. Paid in Full
17. Panic Room
18. Adaptation
19. Storytelling
20. Punch-Drunk Love
21. Blue Crush
22. Frida
23. Rabbit-Proof Fence
24. Gangs of New York
25. The Son's Room
26. Lovely and Amazing
27. Star Wars: Attack of the Clones
28. Girls Can't Swim
29. Auto Focus
30. The Road to Perdition
31. Full Frontal
32. Orange County
33. Igby Goes Down
34. 8 Mile
35. The Quiet American
36. Comedian
37. Me Without You
38. Undisputed
39. xXx
40. Satin Rouge
41. The Rules of Attraction
42. Naqoyqatsi
43. Pokemon 4Ever
44. Waking Up in Reno
45. Swimming
46. Atanarjuat: The Fast Runner
47. Reign of Fire
*Criteria - For the most part theses are movies I saw in movie theatres during Jan-Dec 2002. I've included a fewMiramax films I saw through work - technically viewed on film, but in a screening room without a paying audience. Doing so probably changes my perception, but I figured I should include them.
2002
LISTS
dan
kevin
jeremy
alex
sujan
dave n.
sarah f.
juhi
genna
shawn
chris larry
mitch
chris m.
donovan
marc
jim
