Character-Driven Movies I Loved: The Station Agent and Raising Victor Vargas
Both of these movies were charming, unpretentious and ultimately moving. And those adjectives describe just about every actor’s performance in them as well. If I had to pick an absolute favorite movie of the year, I’d say Raising Victor Vargas. So many great interactions between characters. Unbelievably convincing performances by non-actors. The grandmother is especially classic. Such a great, funny, sincere movie. Almost made me miss living on the Lower East Side.
The Station Agent, quite possibly my second-favorite film of 2003, featured three lead characters who were all very different from one another and different from any other characters I've seen on screen before. Writer/director Tom McCarthy deserves serious praise for his originality. The story was well crafted, the lead performances by Peter Dinklage, Patricia Clarkson and Bobby Cannavale were better than any others I saw all year (except for Bill Murray in Lost in Translation), the humor was idiosyncratic and genuine. One more thing: The Station Agent was by far the best original screenplay of 2003, but it didn't get an Oscar nomination. Finding Nemo did, however. What the fuck are these people smoking?
Best Comedy with "School" in the Title: Old School
I was never much of a Will Ferrell fan before, so this movie gave me a new appreciation for his genius. Luke Wilson was the same good-natured, handsome prop he’s been in all his non-Wes Anderson movies. Good enough for me, I guess. Vince Vaughn is a champion of comedy. From the overall concept to most of the individual jokes/funny moments, this movie was solid. School of Rock was good too, but it took a while to get funny and was uneven throughout. I did not dig the hairstyles or costumes of the kids at the end. They should have stayed with the classic school uniform look. Jack Black was great. I laughed hard, and even got choked up at the end.
The Two Most Ridiculous Movies of 2003: The Core and Paycheck
Both of these movies starred Aaron Eckhart. Both featured a combination of science fiction and action thrills. And from writing to acting to special effects, both were absurdly bad, yet succeeded as camp. Paycheck managed to be just enjoyable enough, while The Core was sublime in its awfulness. Stanley Tucci was the only actor in it who embraced the inanity. He was intentionally funny; everyone else was unintentionally funny. Except for that ugly scrawny kid from Road Trip who was, well, just ugly and scrawny. From Hilary Swank landing the space shuttle in the dry Los Angeles River to the invention of a metal called "unobtanium" to the silly orange hot magma surrounding the ship in the center of the planet, The Core was pure over-the-top action-melodrama brilliance.
Documentaries That Were Annoyingly Focused on the Filmmaker: Stone Reader and My Architect
A movie focused solely on Louis Kahn, the ostensible subject of My Architect, would have been preferable to sitting through the stupid conversations the director (Kahn’s illegitimate son) had with his mother, half sisters, and the man who found Kahn’s dead body in a Penn Station bathroom. I was intrigued by Kahn’s buildings, including the ones that were never built, but I wish his son had done his genealogical soul-searching off camera.
Stone Reader was about a guy searching for the author of a book he loved as a young man. The book had since gone out of print and the author had fallen into obscurity. (Thanks to the movie, the book, The Stones of Summer, is now back in print. Whether that’s a good or bad thing I’m not sure.) Too much of this movie focused on the director’s personal exploits and his masturbatory discussions about literature with various acquaintances.
(Note: I’m not totally opposed to autobiographical filmmaking. I just wasn't into these particular guys doing it.)
Worst Movie of the Year (and possibly of any year, ever): The Matrix Reloaded
I wish I had walked out the first or second time I considered getting up and leaving the theater. By the third time, this crapfest was far enough along that I figured I might as well stay until the end. But I shouldn't have. No, I really shouldn't have. I hereby solemnly vow to never see the third film of this trilogy.
Second Worst Movie of the Year: Bad Santa
In the commentary track on the Criterion Rushmore DVD, Owen Wilson talks about his and Wes Anderson’s general avoidance of mean-spiritedness in the characters they create. I guess that’s one of the many things I like about their movies. Mean characters can be fun sometimes, but there has to be a method to their meanness. Especially if they’re the protagonist. (You’re not generally supposed to identify with villains, so they can be cruel and ugly and it doesn't matter as much.) Billy Bob’s character in Bad Santa was a one-dimensional asshole. He had neither heart nor soul, and therefore I couldn't relate to him or find his unsavory antics amusing.
Pondering this issue led me to think about mean-spirited characters I've enjoyed watching on screen. The first two I came up with were both played by Malcolm McDowell: Caligula in the movie of the same name and Alex from A Clockwork Orange. Caligula’s cruel depravity is fun to watch because he’s gleefully insane and because it’s easy to attribute his behavior to the corrupting influence of absolute power. And although you don’t necessarily root for Alex as he’s beating, raping and robbing people, he does those things with a stylish confidence that’s undeniably compelling.
Billy Bob’s mean-spiritedness in Bad Santa was boring. Listening to him say "Fuck, shit, goddam kids, fuck, shit" in an unfeeling monotone, 50 or so times, bored me. Watching him stumble around drunk in a constantly predictable fashion bored the hell out of me. The whole thing was painfully unfunny. Then there’s the "character development"—he goes through the movie treating everyone around him with a complete lack of respect or consideration and then in the end, out of nowhere, he suddenly has a heart of gold? What a cop-out! I still wouldn't have liked the movie even if he had been consistently uncaring and jerky until the very end, but I would have had more respect for it.
Best Movie with "Fog" in the Title: The Fog of War
Hearing Robert McNamara talk about his career in warmaking is fascinating. He’s an easy target for criticism, but complex enough that I still can’t figure out what to think about him. I felt like The House of Sand and Fog tried to manipulate my emotions and intellect but failed on both counts. The ending was too Greek tragedy for me.
Movie That Was Awesome, But That I Would Have Cast Differently: American Splendor
Sometimes when I see a movie at the cinema, I’ll let the larger audience’s reaction influence the degree to which I’ll express my own. Most often this means stifling or internalizing my own laughter if no one else is laughing. But I laughed my ass off at this movie, busting loudly through the silence of all the uptight middle-aged WASPs sitting around me at BAM. The fictional Toby was incredibly funny, especially in the Revenge of the Nerds scene. The scene where Harvey first met Joy was pretty damn funny as well. I know there was other top-notch humor, but it’s hard to remember it all. I’m going to have to rent this DVD sometime soon.
In addition to its hilarity, the film’s narrative inventiveness really impressed me. I’m surprised that the filmmakers got the financial backing to put the story together the way they did. Paul Giamatti did a decent job, but I think a different actor could have been better. Maybe I wouldn't have noticed this if the real Harvey Pekar hadn't appeared in the film, but Giamatti failed to capture an important part of Pekar’s personality: the smile beneath the frown. You can see when Pekar talks that he’s got a sort of twinkle in his eye, a sense of lightheartedness about his own gloom-and-doom outlook. Giamatti played him as a downtrodden human slug with barely any hint of the dry wit that pervades Pekar’s personality (and his writing). The perfect casting choice to embody Pekar would unfortunately be impossible now: Peter Boyle at age 40 or 45. Couple decades too late for that. Not sure who could have pulled it off better than Giamatti. Maybe James Urbaniak, actually. (He played R. Crumb in this movie.) Maybe not, who knows.
I recently bought an American Splendor compilation and have been reading it for the past couple weeks. Amazing stuff. Pekar’s one of those people that I’d hypothetically love to meet and have a conversation with, but I fear I might not have anything worthwhile to say to him.
Movie I Saw More Times Than Any Other in 2003: X2: X-Men United
I think the only other movie I've seen in the theater 3 times was Star Wars back in ’77-78. I enjoyed the first X-Men quite a bit, but it had some minor problems (annoying lines in the script, couple of substandard performances). I loved everything about X2. I’m fascinated by, infatuated with and envious of these sexy movie-star mutants. Despite their supertastic powers, they’re all too human. Ian McKellen’s Magneto is both diabolical and charming, Rebecca Romijn-Stamos gets to show a full range of emotions while being blue on the outside, and Pyro was my favorite with his teen angst turning to fiery rage. And those are just the "evil" mutants. The personality conflicts that play out between the "good guys" make their camaraderie in times of need that much more believable. The plot came together spectacularly, the special effects were cool enough, and the humor-to-kickass-action ratio was right on. Also, I related all too well to Bobby’s coming out scene with his parents. (One of the many elements of homo-related subtext in both films.)
Although I was not into the X-Men as a kid, I probably should have been. During my youth I was always a fan of superhero-related television, including reruns of the black-and-white Superman TV series with George Reeves and the ’60s Batman with Adam West, Superfriends every Saturday morning, the ’70s live action Incredible Hulk and Wonder Woman, and the animated Spiderman cartoon that was on in my elementary school days. However, this fixation did not translate into comic book fanhood. I never got an allowance, and have never been good [even still] at independently coming up with interests to pursue, so I had few hobbies. Looking back now, I can say confidently that if I had been exposed to comic books as a kid, I would have totally been into them.
Spellbound I found something to identify with in almost all of the kids featured in this outstanding documentary. It would be a bit of a stretch to try and relate to the way-dorky kid who did that robot imitation, though. I was nerdy and socially awkward at that age, but nowhere near that kid’s league. I was impressed by the way the filmmakers subtly portrayed the differences in the American experience: for immigrants, you had the Indian family that was way too driven and obsessed with achievement vs. the Mexican family that was much more humble but still proud of their daughter; then you had the African-American D.C. girl whose mom couldn't help her study but was emotionally supportive vs. the rich Connecticut suburban people whose nanny accompanied their daughter to the National Spelling Bee; then there were the rural people and the working-class people and other kids I’m forgetting now. How did the filmmakers do such a good job picking their subjects?! I wonder how many other kids they were following who didn't make it all the way. Anyway, this film was intense, funny, and heartbreaking. How did it not beat Bowling For Columbine for last year’s Best Documentary Oscar? I guess people must like Michael Moore. But do they, really? Maybe it was just that no one had seen this movie a year ago.
In America Sentimentality shouldn't always be knocked. If it feels earned, as this film’s did, then I’m all for it. The younger sister wasn't Hollywood cute, she was Irish cute. Big difference. And the older sister did a remarkable job balancing youthful innocence, the burden of sadness over her brother’s death, and the curiosity and insight that go with carrying a video camera around and filming people all the time. The adult performances were also convincing, with their deft blending of desperation and hopefulness. The Sheridans did a great job portraying the difficulty and excitement of living in New York and the spontaneous moments of frivolity that enliven even the saddest families’ (and individuals’) lives.
Short Reviews of Other Movies I Dug
Lost In Translation Sad, funny, powerful. Murray and Johansson were the perfect pair to bring this story to life.
Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King I still like Fellowship of the Ring best, but this movie had some great moments. Gandalf taking charge and kicking ass, Eowyn killing that ringwraith dude, everyone kneeling down to the hobbits (I almost cried there). But the ending should have happened 10 or 15 minutes before it did.
Triplets of Belleville This grandmother was almost as likable as the grandmother in Raising Victor Vargas. I’m in awe of this film for being so funny and riveting with so little dialogue. The theme song is maddeningly catchy.
28 Days Later Scary maniacs with shaky hands, weird dynamics of human relationships in a contagiously apocalyptic environment, eerie silences, video-creepy look, handsome lead actor, enigmatic ending. Good stuff all around.
Pirates of the Caribbean I've never seen a Johnny Depp performance I didn’t like, and this was one of his most enjoyable. Not expecting much from this flick, I was satisfied with what I got: a fun air-conditioned distraction on a summer afternoon.
Stuck on You A return to form for the Farrelly brothers. Kinnear and Damon have the comedic skills to pay the bills. As a big fan of Adaptation, I was glad to see Meryl Streep in another humorous role (this time playing herself).
Step Into Liquid Most visually stunning film of the year. Glad I saw it on the big screen. Blown away by the waves and the surfers’ skillful maneuverings on them.
City of God This epic, shockingly violent, beautiful film transported me to a place and time I wouldn’t want to visit in real life but was damn glad to experience as a moviegoer. (Alternate review: City of God kicks ass!)
2003
LISTS
dan
sujan
sarah f.
mitch
marc
jeremy
jim
amy r.
matt b.
shawn
