86. Maelstrom - (Quebec) The parts with the talking fish were alright. The parts without the talking fish were tedious. The parts without the talking fish outnumbered the parts with the talking fish.
85. Investigating Sex A group of surrealist thinkers led by Dermot Mulroney meet at Nick Nolte's House to discuss sex. Alan Rudolph directs. As usual, Jeremy Davies weirds out.
84. Silence ... We're Rolling - (Egypt) Brighteyed musical featuring characters I didn't like but who thought they were cool. Egyptian snoozefest indeed.
83. Swimfan A lot of good Jesse in the form of smiles, swaggers, forearms, and swimming. But a horrible story. Dan Hedaya is wasted. The vixen's cousin, Christopher Dante, is sublime.
82. One Hour Photo I don't like Robin Williams in drama. A lot of buildup to an awkward last reel. Always nice to see Michael Vartan.
81. Ring 2 - (Japan) Some of the original Ring's interesting peripheral characters lived to see the end of that movie. Now they get a second chance to die. The grad student love interest of the boy's father is now determined to get to the bottom of the troubles. Some good stuff. Too many twists. Meaning is lost.
80. My Sassy Girl - (Korea) Boy meets wild girl. Wild girl forces boy into various humiliating or dangerous scenarios, many of which grant him catharsis or ecstasy. A lot of scenes were supposed to be cute. Some were.
79. Sorum - (Korea) Glum thriller about the miserable inhabitants of a rundown apartment building. Could have been good. Too many twists. Meaning is lost.
78. Panic Room The scariness of walls, stairs and the distance from one side of a room to the other. Much worse than it should have been.
77. Late Marriage - (Israel) A group of middleaged folks are sufficiently modern to decorate their homes in bold and ugly ways but oldfashioned enough to ruin things for the next generation.
76. Sade - (France) I like Daniel Auteuil. I like his Sade, a good guy with an inquiring mind and an active imagination. But this movie was still boring. It was nice to see Jalil Lespert and Gregoire Colin.
75. Heaven - (Europe) Set in Italy. Directed by a German. Written by a Pole. Australian Cate Blanchett plays an Englishwomen who gets into trouble. American Giovanni Ribisi plays an Italian who sympathizes.
74. The Ring - (America) I'm glad they randomly altered some of the elements from the Japanese version to keep things interesting for us who'd already been down the well. I'm also glad they threw in handsome Martin Henderson. Brian Cox is good as always.
73. Derrida - If Jacques Derrida were the sun, then all of space between the sun and, say, the orbit of Saturn would be filled by fawning grad students, postdocs, and former postdocs, most of whom would be tall women - caring and cheerful, but without the good sense to stay away from expatriate Frenchmen.
72. ABC Africa - (Iran) Kiarostami travels to Uganda and contemplates orphans, poverty and disease. Not as intense as his movies with Iranian people.
71. Gangs of New York - Too may crappy lines. And smugly crappy. Americans DiCaprio and Diaz use lame Irish accents. British Islanders Day-Lewis and Broadbent use cool American accents.
70. The Hours - Ed Harris overacts. Nicole Goodman is good in the more restrained scenes.
69. Rabbit Proof Fence - (Australia) Kids with one Aborigine parent and one European parent have to contend with several Australian assholes. I liked the accents. I liked the tracker. I liked the way they said, "Tracker". Somehow the whole thing seemed small and not quite moviesize.
68. The Chateau - Paul Rudd is charming as one of two American brothers who inherit a mansion in France. Sylvie Testud (Murderous Maids) does a nice job as one of the mansion's staff.
67. I'm Going Home - (France) Michel Piccoli plays an actor. Half the movie is him doing his work, once on stage and once for the camera. Pure and substantial. An extra pleasure is watching Catherine Deneuve act, too.
66. Murderous Maids - (France) Well-made and serious 1930s period piece starring Sylvie Testud.
65. The Son's Room - (Italy) I like Nanni Moretti. A mellow naturalistic study of grief. Not particularly interesting.
64. Freeze Me - (Japan) Young woman is visited by violent young men from her past. Visceral study of trauma and survival.
63. Fast Runner - (Nunavut) I liked the igloo boxing.
62. The Good Girl - Too easy or something.
61. Sex Lies and Superheroes - Interviews with comic book writers and artists. Occasionally interesting. It was a revelation (disappointment?) to see what Bill Sienkiewicz is like.
60. Bang Rajan - (Thailand) Preindustrial war movie. Burmese armies are marching toward Bangkok. A village of plucky and skillful Thai fighters stand in their way. Not a lot of clothes are worn.
59. The Pinochet Case - (World) Twentyfive years after the coup, there may be a bit of justice when Pinochet visits England. It's intense when Thatcher comes by for a visit.
58. Kick the Moon - (Korea) Lee Sung-Jae (Attack the Gas Station, Even Barking Dogs Bite) is back - and hot - but is out-hotted by Cha Seung-Won. Two guys from the same high school. One grows to be a (nice) gangster. One grows to be a gym teacher. They compete over the minds of impressionable youngsters. They also compete over the ladies.
57. Spiderman - Didn't like Willem Dafoe. Didn't like the love story. Didn't like the battles. Liked the discovery of powers. Liked J Jonah.
56. Barren Illusion - (Japan) Umm, I can't remember what happened in this one. I remember that there were spores in the air that presented a health problem. I don't remember any ensuing suspense. I remember the apartment of Shinji Takeda (Taboo, Pulse, the son in Happiness of the Katakuris). I remember that a young woman visited him there. I remember that they didn't talk much. I remember that he had a roommate and then he didn't. I want to see this movie again.
55. Intacto - (Spain) The lucky compete to see who is luckier. Max Von Sydow is particularly lucky. The plot may just be a good excuse for a number of handsome set pieces.
54. Dog Days - (Austria) A few hot days of an Austrian summer. Various miserable people inflict more misery on each other.
53. Ararat - (Canada) David Alpay's chest is worth the price of admission. His skin is thick and luminous.
52. The Quiet American - (Angloworld)
51. Public Enemy - (Korea) Shower scenes are good. Shower scenes are especially good when they feature Lee Sung-Jae. But outside of the shower, Lee Sung-Jae's role as a physically and socially ideal, utterly evil psychopath isn't particularly interesting, and the glory of the movie is the unkempt and uncouth cop played by Seol Kyung-Gu.
50. Morvern Callar - (Scotland)
49. Attack of the Clones - I liked Jango Fett. I liked the ocean planet. I liked Christopher Lee.
48. O Fantasma - (Portugal) Softspoken kinky guy wanders the town at night. Cops. Stalking. Leather.
47. Ring - (Japan) One of many Japanese movies about contagion. This time, the contagion is a creepy video. Teens watch creepy video. Creepy things happen to teens. A television reporter gets involved. She has a cute little kid who can talk to dead people.
46. Far From Heaven - A stranger in a bar this week said that he doesn't really believe people when they say they like this movie. A lot of nice oranges, purples, yellows and greens. Julianne Moore posing by the fireplace is a thing of wonder.
45. The Dangerous Life of Altar Boys
44. Bloody Sunday - (Ireland) Impressively naturalistic. If it's hard to imagine what a post-World-War-Two First World country is like when there are big political problems, this provides the answer. But if you can already imagine it, this movie doesn't add much.
43. The Piano Teacher - (France) Isabelle Huppert and Benoit Magimel are good as the messed-up piano teacher and the student who gets caught up in said mess.
42. Home Movie - A good demonstration of the range of northamerican personalities and subcultures. I particularly liked the lady in Hawaii. Everyone should spend a few years starring in a Japanese sitcom.
41. City of Lost Souls - (Japan) A Brazilian man and a Chinese woman form what is considered to be one of Tokyo's coolest couples. The Chinese gangsters are after them. Great cockfighting scene.
40. Hell House - Documentary of a church in the heartland putting up a haunted house to demonstrate and caution against the many forms of sin. Shows that religion can be useful as a means for self-expression. These people pour their creative energies into the efforts and derive rewards of self-worth and identity. They also get to make sinners feel bad about themselves.
39. Harmful Insect - (Japan) A tough movie about a teen who's no longer within the gravitational field of the planet called Healthy Lifestyle.
38. Storytelling - Leo Fitzpatrick is a Cerebral Person.
37. Punch Drunk Love - With a nice turn by Mary Lynn Rajskub of the Girls Guitar Club of Los Angeles.
36. 25th Hour - Graceful
35. Visitor Q - (Japan) By Takashi Miike. A messed-up family is visited by a strange and violent young man and proceeds to become messed up in different ways. The most breast milk I've seen in a movie.
34. Spirited Away - (Japan) Clever depiction of a bath house for the spirit world. I liked the bouncing heads.
33. Russian Ark - (Russia) Hypnotic flow of text and camera from room to room, from Russia as part of Europe to Russia as something else.
32. Biggie and Tupac - Nick Broomfield (Kurt and Courtney) takes his curious mind and melodious accent on an investigation of the two murders. It was a pleasure to make the acquaintance of Biggie's graceful West Indian mother.
31. Sleepy Time Gal I was impressed that the moviemaker imagined Jacqueline Bisset's character. Then I found out that the character is really just the filmmaker's mother. I was less impressed. Then I became impressed again that he and Ms Bisset could show her to us like this.
30. Goldmember I liked Mini-Me's warm and tender affections toward Foxy Cleopatra.
29. Hey, Happy! - (Canada) Playful and airy. In semipostapocalyptic Winnipeg, the waters are rising but the records keep spinning and the kids keep dancing on the windswept hilltops. Aliens play Cupid.
28. Devils on the Doorstep - (China) Goodlooking movie about the events in one village during the occupation of China. The Japanese leader is awesome.
27. Lan Yu - (China) A thoughtful and responsible picture of the romance between a can-do businessman in his 30s and a quiet college student.
26. What Time is it There (Taiwan) - Loneliness made solid. In the Paris scenes, loneliness is a stadium-sized slab of granite.
25. The Trials of Henry Kissinger
24. Lovely and Amazing - Three daughters in Los Angeles, each with her problems. Satisfyingly meaty. Jake Gyllenhall is especially lovely.
23. The Two Towers - Gandalf v. Balrog was awesome. Saruman is great as usual. Gollum was right on. The people of Rohan were lame. The battle of Helm's Deep was badly scripted. Frodo and Sam got out of hand with that legend talk. It was nice to see Osgiliath.
22. Birthday Girl - (England) Ben Chaplin does a nice job as a lonely man who sends away for a bride and winds up with Nicole Kidman. Frenchmen Vincent Cassel and Matthieu Kassovitz play Russians.
21. Catch Me If You Can
20. Death to Smoochy - Edward Norton's clothes looked like they were very comfortable.
19. All or Nothing - (England) Three families in the council estates, each with its problems. Ruth Sheen is delightful.
18. Reign of Fire - A handsome film set in a semipostapocalyptic feudal future. I had a lot of fun. Sometimes Christian Bale and Matthew McConaughey took off their shirts.
17. Signs - I don't really know what Christian heartlanders are like, but this depiction of believers seemed unnaturalistic to me and made worse by Mel Gibson's acting. But my hands were clutched to my head most of the time and all the money shots had the intended effect on me. The rooftop. The dog. The swing. The cornfield. The veterinarian in his station wagon. The hammering of the boards. The video footage from Brazil. I was a wreck. I didn't mind the end. In this genre in general, the ingredients for the final scenes are carefully laid out by the writer. This movie's the same, it's just that the ingredients are laid out by, er, someone else.
16. Minority Report - Pretty
15. Talk to Her - (Spain)
14. Power and Terror : Noam Chomsky in Our Times - There is no work for the filmmaker to do. With Chomsky's pleasant voice and reasoned words, as long as the microphone is on, you're all set.
13. About Schmidt
12. Adaptation
11. Y Tu Mama Tambien - (Mexico) Jim liked Julio. I liked Tenoch.
10. The Happiness of the Katakuris - (Japan) Takashi Miike walks up to the wheel of fun and gives it a hearty spin. A family runs a countryside inn. Some people die. Anxiety and delight expressed through uninhibited, DIY song and dance.
9. Pistol Opera - (Japan) Seijun Suzuki goes to town with purples, greens, whites and playful editing in this tale of competition among Japan's most highky ranked assassins.
8. Dead or Alive : Final - (Japan) Another showdown between Sho Aikawa and Riki Takeuchi. This time Riki Takeuchi is the tough cop. Sho Aikawa is the cool and loveable outlaw cyborg. Good greens and yellows. Appropriately mindbending climax.
7. Songs from the Second Floor - (Sweden) A beautifully staged representation of Europe at the end of time. or at least at the end of the century. Long scenes like paintings where the figures move and say things. Great compositions.
6. Uzumaki - (Japan) Another Japanese movie about contagion. This time, the contagion is spiralness. I bet you hadn't realized that spirals could be dangerous. A wealth of ideas and the recklessness to leave half of them half-explored.
5. All About Lily Chou-Chou - (Japan) Chunks after chunks of teen alienation. Teens look peaceful standing alone in fields of green to listen to dreamy sad otherworld music on their headphones. The music the film used was alright but it should have been Sigur Ros. When they're not in the fields of green, the teens are less peaceful. The movie seems unconstrained by momentum, inertia, or other notions of physics and can shoot off in unexpected directions with surprising speed.
4. Pulse - (Japan) Yet another Japanese movie about contagion. This time the contagion is a vague musty evil that spreads via internet. Sho Aikawa is great in a small part as the construction guy who first encounters the vague musty evil. Reveals and displays the inherent sexiness of those college students whose job it is to help out at the school's computer labs.
3. Bowling for Columbine A hurtling spear of energy.
2. In Praise of Love - (France) The first half is in gorgeous black and white. The second half is in ravishing smeary color. Bruno Putzulu plays a prickly, irritable intellectual trying to get his brain to bear fruit. In the second half he meets a pretty, prickly, irritable and intellectual woman. In the first half he hunts Paris to see her again so they can meet by rivers or talk on phones and irritate each other in an intellectal way. It's proposed that American English accents are ugly. My best counterargument is the melodious Walt "Clyde" Frazier.
1. Ichi the Killer - (Japan) The heir to Pulp Fiction. Wild turns and startling absurd violence. By Takashi Miike (Audition, Happiness of the Katakuris, the Dead or Alive series, Visitor Q, City of Lost Souls)
2002 LISTS
dan
kevin
jeremy
alex
sujan
dave n.
sarah f.
juhi
genna
shawn
chris
larry
mitch
chris
m.
donovan
marc
jim
