2001 Year-End Round-Up
The Year of September 11th is over, and so is one of the most eventful movie years in recent memory. From sure things Harry Potter to The Lord of the Rings to out-of-nowhere triumphs like The Fast and the Furious, the multiplex certainly had a few busy seasons, while the art-houses were abuzz with the likes of Memento and In the Bedroom. Personally, I can't complain: two masterpieces and no outright atrocities make for, all things considered, a pretty decent 12 months at the movies. In this yearly column, I present one critic's opinion of the year's highlights. As always, feel free to drop me a line.
Picking a final list of ten best movies is a convenient convention that I like to follow; unfortunately, there are always films I regret leaving out of the year's pantheon. This year's bunch is particularly strong.
Hannibal
Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone
In the Bedroom
A Knight's Tale
The Last Castle
One Night at McCool's
The Others
Planet of the Apes
Spy Kids
Startup.com
Underrated
If you listened to the dire reviews and skipped these diamonds in the rough, see them. If you saw them and didn't like them, well, a pox on you. (This list is limited to films not on my honorable mention or top ten lists.)
The Caveman's Valentine
Evolution
John Carpenter's Ghosts of Mars
Jeepers Creepers
Jurassic Park 3
Lara Croft Tomb Raider
Monkeybone
Overrated
Atlantis: The Lost Empire
A Beautiful Mind
The Deep End
From Hell
The Pledge
The Royal Tenenbaums
Sexy Beast
Bottom of the Barrel
This year, the "Bottom of the Barrel" returns to its (hopefully) regular Bottom Five format (last year, I had to make a bottom ten to accomodate all the stinkers). In any case, avoid these films at all costs.
5. Say It Isn't So: Though this comedy of embarrassments claimed to be from Peter and Bobby Farrelly, their sense of humor was sorely missed, as their film was directed by their misguided protege. Nobody here has any idea what's funny and what's just humiliating. Even the usually-charming Chris Klein couldn't save it from complete and utter failure.
4. The Forsaken: Don't remember this installment in the teen horror genre, released with no fanfare back in the dog days of April? That's not surprising, because it disappeared just as quietly as it arrived. This overedited, tedious horror thriller -- really just a sub-par vampire movie hidden under a post-modern disguise -- deserves to lie in the grave it dug for itself.
3. Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back: Easily Kevin Smith's worst effort, a spin-off that is so self-involved, so completely about itself that it becomes unwatchable, never mind unfunny. The title characters' schtick becomes tiresome after about three seconds, and the barrage of big-name guest stars does little to either amuse or detract from the movie's ineptitude.
2. Thirteen Ghosts: Another horror movie, this one an unabashed Hollywood mass-product. The barrage of loud noises and lurid, dumb special effects is made more painful by the presence of the great Tony Shalhoub, who must have been drugged to get anywhere near this thing.
1. The Musketeer: The year's most boring, insipid movie wants to combine the swashbuckler with the Hong Kong martial arts extravaganza, but succeeds only in putting everyone within a ten mile radius into a deep, peaceful slumber. It has the distinction of having some of the worst fight scenes I've seen in the age of special effects. Genuinely excruciating.
If you haven't seen the top two on this list, you haven't seen much. As always, enjoy disagreeing.
10. Shrek: Surprising, subversive and riotously funny, this computer-animated smash hit from Dreamworks is as good as everyone says it is, and better. Touching in all the right moments but never, never saccharine, it deserved every dollar it earned at the box-office.
9. Memento: 2001's big sleeper, Memento couldn't have been twistier, but intertwined with the labyrinthine plot and baffling, clever storytelling is real poignancy and a powerful human center. The ending (the beginning?), which left many scratching their heads, does the movie and its protagonist absolute justice. If you thought this was confusing, head down yonder to #2.
8. Zoolander: Comedy is tremendously difficult to pull of, and comedy as original and hysterical as Zoolander almost never gets filmed. Ben Stiller pulled it off, though, and the result is as offbeat, as gloriously random as I've ever seen a comedy have the courage to be. Worth watching for Mugatu's superagent training video alone; the sight of Will Ferrell wearing a wig and eating a lollipop is priceless.
7. Moulin Rouge: It is rare that a studio lets an artist's Id truly run wild, but Baz Luhrmann's Moulin Rouge is exactly that: an auteur whose financeers gave him free reign and probably regretted it later. The rest of us should be delighted that this miracle occured: this is a grandiose musical that's uplifting in its grandstanding ridiculousness, interesting in its fearless absurdity.
6. Ghost World: Possibly the most genuine film about teens that I have ever seen, Ghost World presented us with the year's most human, sympathetic pair of characters. In the stories of Enid and Rebecca, two sarcastic, intelligent, misanthropic teenagers, we all, in one way or another, found ourselves.
5. Monsters, Inc: I still believe that the meaning of life is buried beneath the humorous, dazzling shenanigans of James Sullivan and Mike Wazowski. From its whimsical opening, to its jaw-dropping climax to its powerful ending, Monsters, Inc is Disney-Pixar at its magical best. The movie left me in a good mood for at least a week, and then did it again after a second viewing.
4. The Man Who Wasn't There: The movie that proved that the Coen Brothers have hearts, this intense, sad character study may also be responsible for a resurgence of the film noir. Ed Crane the barber is a brilliant creation -- a man who's gotten dealt life's worst possible hand without ever having a tragedy befall him -- and the cinematography is almost indescribably gorgeous. Billy Bob Thornton starred in three 2001 films, and this was his best.
3. The Lord of the Rings: the Fellowship of the Ring: And after years -- and I'm not exaggerating -- of breathless anticipation on my part, and on the parts of millions of Tolkien fans all over the world, the first part of Peter Jackson's epic adaptation is here, and the word for it is "Wow." I sat for three hours and could have sat for six more right then if I could have the chance to watch the next two installments. Truly epic.
2. Mulholland Drive: Strange, scary, surreal and bewildering, David Lynch's Mulholland Drive made some people recoil in horror from a labyrinthine plot structure that, at first glance, makes no sense. But look again and you'll find a solution to the film's central mystery, and it will be rewarding. Features amazing breakout performances from Naomi Watts and Laura Elena Harring, but the real star is Lynch, who has given us a difficult, unforgettable spectacle.
1. A.I. Artificial Intelligence: I can't even tell you how many arguments I have gotten into with people who seem to think that this movie -- Spielberg's best -- is a nonsensical, overlong piece of pretentious claptrap. It is, in fact, nothing of the sort. A profound meditation on what distinguishes humanity from its lifelike creations, the Spielberg-Kubrick pseudo-collaboration will, like 2001: A Space Oddysey, be considered a classic a decade after its release, and you heard it here first.
©2002 Eugene Novikov