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| CUT! PRINT IT! CineScene's best of 2001 |
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We rate our favorite films of
the year |
| Lovell
Mahan-Moutaw Top Ten - ten you say? I think not. There aren't ten...at least not that I've seen. But I'll give you my top eight. |
1. Amélie
(Jean-Pierre Jeunet) I'm big into fairy tales (see #4) and never tire of them, especially if they are told well. This little French gem wins the year. It brought laughter to my lips, tears to my eyes and hope to my heart. |
2. The Fellowship of the Ring |
| 3. Snatch (Guy
Ritchie) Funny, fast-paced and wild with a great soundtrack and a well-told, interesting story. 4. A Knight's Tale (Brian Helgeland) See #1. Making the old new again with rock and roll and a budding heartthrob. The story isn't original but somehow seems fresh, watchable and re-watchable. 5. The Royal Tenenbaums (Wes Anderson) Dysfunction made funny and touching and in the end everyone gets what they deserve. Wacky, strange and utterly charming. |
6. Bridget Jones's
Diary (Sharon Maguire) Would that every everygirl had a Mark Darcy to run toward, through the snow, in her ridiculous underwear. Oh boy, I sure hope the good boys kiss like that. 7. Ocean's Eleven (Steven Soderbergh) Slick, sharp and gorgeous fun at the movies. 8. Memento (Christopher Nolan) Finally, a movie where you not only have to pay attention, but you want to - and when you do, you like what you see. |
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| 5. The Man Who Wasn't
There (Joel Coen) Billy Bob Thornton's wonderfully understated performance, Roger Deakins' gorgeous black and white cinematography, and Tony Shalhoub's gloriously over-the-top support make this one well worth seeing...and that's before you get to the Coen Brothers' writing and direction. 6. Hedwig and the Angry Inch (John Cameron Mitchell) Despite a disjointed finale, Mitchell's virtuoso turn as writer/director/star of this tale of the glam-rock antics of a botched transsexual has an energy and exuberance that sticks with you long after it's over. |
7. The Pledge (Sean
Penn) Jack Nicholson's finest performance in years, directed with pitch perfect precision by Penn. 8. With a Friend Like Harry... (Dominik Moll) This darkly comic thriller boasts a likable cast and even-handed direction. Comparisons to Hitchcock aren't entirely without merit. 9. Memento (Christopher Nolan) A playful and intriguing film, with Guy Pearce's solid performance as a man with no short term memory anchoring some otherwise tenuous developments. 10. The Royal Tenenbaums (Wes Anderson) Although Anderson's latest quirky dramedy suffers from some tonal problems that keep it from being as good as it could have been, it's a marvelous bit of work just the same - visually and aurally stunning. |
| Also-rans: Amores Perros (Alejandro González Iñárritu) Iñárritu's bloody meditation on love and dogs intrigues while it flirts dangerously with cliché. Ginger Snaps (John Fawcett) An exceptional genre film about two sisters, one of whom transforms into a werewolf. A Beautiful Mind (Ron Howard) A masterful performance by Russell Crowe and unusual restraint by Howard (at least up until the final half hour) save this from falling headlong into maudlin sentimentality. Series 7: The Contenders (Daniel Minahan) A dark satire on reality TV that was too quickly eclipsed by the real thing. Still worth checking out. |
| Most overrated: Shrek : Not as clever as it thinks it is, and ultimately suffers from the same problems it tries so desperately to criticize. Black Hawk Down : Gives us just enough character development to make us aware that it desperately needed more. Moulin Rouge: Flash and dazzle direction may cause seizure without masking gaping flaws in maudlin narrative. Ocean's Eleven : The cast and crew obviously had a good time making it, which fails to explain why I didn't have one watching it. Steven Soderbergh takes the style over substance trend he started last year to the extreme. Training Day : Boom! Switching sides doesn't equal showing range. Denzel Washington's performance is more of the same, only...(gasp)...as a bad guy. |
Biggest Disappointments: Vanilla Sky : aka When Good Directors Go Bad. Cameron Crowe
seems painfully (or is that blissfully) ignorant directing Cruise's vanity
project. Do yourself a favor and rent the original - Amenábar's
Open Your Eyes. And, finally, the worst: |
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Some Honorable Mentions: Special Awards: Simple Competence Award |
Noteworthy Performances in Films I Haven't Already Mentioned: Hardest-Working Person in Movies: The Don't Get Around Much Any More Award: To the guy in back of me at
the theater, who, when the trailers started with an on-screen car ad,
said, "Uh, they have commercials at movies now?" |
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1. Monster's Ball (Marc Forster) |
2. No Man's Land (Danis Tanovic) |
| 4. Moulin Rouge! (Baz Luhrmann) Here is a film that may end up being the film of the Millennium, though many have not yet realized its greatness. It's a vibrant, wild dream - and the work of Baz Luhrmann, an artist who stuck proudly to his vision, no matter how weird. Nicole Kidman and the rest of the cast know no bounds when it comes to the director's requests, and that makes for desperately fabulous work. 5. The Deep End (David Siegel) Suture was a bizarre, underrated exercise in arsty fartsy cinema, but Siegel and co-producer Scott McGehee hit it on the head with this film, starring the wonderful Tilda Swinton as a tightly wound mom trying to cover up the crime she thinks her son has committed. The film is as perfectly contained as the water in the story that is always threatening to spill out. It is a film about symbolism and imagery as much as anything else. 6. Mulholland Drive (David Lynch) However it began, as a TV pilot or whatever, and never mind that it is thematically a rehash of Lost Highway, Lynch's last film, and forget that it's meant to be the beginning of a long story that goes nowhere - this is a great film. Even if accidentally so. With the supernova powerhouse Naomi Watts in the lead, how could it fail? But it also succeeds because it is a celebration of the numerous talents of Lynch, who, despite it all, has his own unique vision. Hollywood is a desperate, sad and haunting place - this film sums it all up in all of its glorious absurdity. And the runners-up: 7. A.I.: Artificial Intelligence (Steven Spielberg) 8. Memento (Christopher Nolan) 9. Ghost World (Terry Zwigoff) 10. Sexy Beast (Jonathan Glazer) |
| 10. No
Man's Land (Danis Tanovic) This acclaimed Bosnian film is a startling visceral comedy about the lunacy of war. 9. The Royal Tenenbaums (Wes Anderson) A film that flirts with greatness and becomes all the more touching by missing the mark. There is one great scene after another in Anderson's fairy tale about a family of failed geniuses. There’s a beautiful team spirit shown by its bevy of fine performers. 8. In the Bedroom (Todd Field)  Field's
studied debut may not be the masterwork some have claimed it to be, but
it's a damn good film nonetheless. Its most remarkable feature is honest
deceptiveness. You think it's a love story. Bang. It's not. You think it’s
a portrait of grief...no, wait, it's a thriller. Bang. It's not. It's not
that the film is lying, but that we are so accustomed to certain plot trajectories
that it's difficult to see the film's harrowing turns coming, or to immediately
understand how thoroughly it undermines traditional film notions of revenge
or catharsis. Bonus points to the cast for illuminating the emptying effects
of grief, and the rage of the broken.7. Together (Lukas Moodysson) The sweetest film of the year is also one of the smartest. Moodyson throws a broken family into a 70s commune and the resulting emotional, personal, romantic, and idealistic collisions that ensue expose, illuminate, and energize all involved. “Feel good” is a term often used to describe manipulative simple-minded happy endings and Hollywood style sugarcoating. This Swedish comedy has (thankfully) none of those attributes and actually feels good. |
And now,the six films
that lifted me highest...the “greats” of the year 6. Gosford Park (Robert Altman) 
No movie this year approaches it in terms of its nimbleness and fluidity
in mixing character, theme and wit. Wildly entertaining, and a return to
form for Robert Altman. 5. Mulholland Drive (David Lynch) This, the undisputed critical darling of 2001 (although In the Bedroom came close) was the year's most familiar complete stranger. We've seen all the Lynchian motifs, images, and characters before. But this time, the one-of-a-kind auteur fashioned something new and revelatory out of the used parts. This grand picture has tremendous “give” in it allowing for multiple correct intrepetations and thereby prompting the most fascinating critical discussions of the year. But all that aside, the truly smart way to watch Lynch's mindfuck is to just let go and give in to its undeniable and nonsensical pull. From the frenetic overexposed jitterbug opening sequence to the final silencing moment, its undeniably gripping. Just dive into the blue box. 4. Hedwig and the Angry Inch (John Cameron Mitchell) An enormously resonant and energized tale of a “slip of a girly boy” from East Berlin who becomes an “internationally ignored song stylist.” A triple threat triumph from writer/director/star John Cameron Mitchell. 3. In the Mood for Love (Wong Kar-Wai)  Wong
has outdone himself. This year's greatest foreign film (by far) has the
year's best cinematography and weaves a hypnotic spell/meditation on memory,
emotional stasis, and romantic yearning. The luminous coupling of Maggie
Cheung and Tony Leung astonishes. They're nearly as erotic as Mulholland
Drive's "Nancy Drew" lovers - yet without a sex scene - and
nearly as glamorous as Moulin Rouge's doomed bohemians - without
as many costume changes. In the end they're more emotionally affecting than
either of those sensational couplings. The film is glorious. Unmissable.
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2. The Fellowship of the Ring (Peter Jackson) 1. Moulin Rouge! (Baz Luhrmann) |
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1. The Fellowship of the Ring |
Movie That I Enjoyed More Than I Expected I Would: Movie That Didn't Suck as Bad as I Expected It Would: Movie That Shouldn't Have Sucked as Much as It Did: Biggest Disappointment: Most Overrated: The Travel Channel Award for the movies that made me want to visit their locations: The Score (Montreal) and The Fellowship of the Ring (New Zealand) The Anti-Travel Channel Award for the movie that made me never want
to visit its location: |
| Do you think we're done? No way. Go to |  |
1. Mulholland Drive (David Lynch) 
2. Amélie
3. The Fellowship of the Ring (Peter Jackson)
Bridget Jones's Diary (Sharon Maguire) 
Shrek (Andrew Adamson & Vicky Jenson) 
This cleverly designed, unexpectedly great film reaches its heights not
by its examination of racism in the deep south, but rather by its unconventional
love story - which takes place between a southern white prison guard and
the black wife of the prisoner he just put to death. The film stars Billy
Bob Thornton and Halle Berry, who give easily the two best performances
of the year. Forster's work is so remarkable because he sets up the film
to be predictable -- 
yet
it ends up completely surprising. It treats its audience with respect.
A Bosnian war satire that is as tightly written as the best Mamet play.
It's brilliantly funny, yet horribly sad at the same time. Tanovic has
said that he wanted to use the colors of Van Gogh, which he does to beautiful
effect: so much war and pain in such a lovely place.
Russell Crowe is to acting what John Nash was to mathematics - he studies
the specifics, then expresses the whole. His portrayal of Nash's battle
with schizophrenia is a wonder to behold. And Ron Howard has finally come
into his own as a director, learning how to trust his instincts - which
manifests as an ability to hold back from the audience what they may discover
on their own.
The Gleaners and I (Agnès Varda). This moving and
unexpectedly riveting documentary on the scavenging culture in France
becomes a fascinating personal essay on aging and filmmaking. One of the
finest docs I've ever seen. 
The Body / Once More With Feeling (Joss Whedon). Over in
TV land, there is one television series that continues to be as good as
the best motion pictures. The final WB season of Buffy the Vampire
Slayer climaxed emotionally in the formalistically daring and harrowing
episode The Body which found Buffy and her friends mourning the
death of her mother. And just when you thought Joss Whedon could never
top himself, along came the UPN debut season with an all musical episode
Once More With Feeling. Buffy and her gang kept singing/asking
“Where do we go from here?” Nobody connected with the series that’s most
in love with constant evolution knows the answer, not even Whedon, its
principal creator/writer/director. But one thing you can count on is that
wherever this show takes you, you'll be glad you went. 
Pure magic. The first review I considered posting was just one word long:
“Wow” This film sets the bar high. Released just one month prior to it,
Harry Potter looks even more factory-like in comparison. This film
recalls the grand Star Wars magic, minus the bad acting. The
Fellowship can be compared to many films, but the one it looks prettiest
sitting next to is Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon. In just two
short years, two signature adventure epics for The East and the West have
arrived that dwarf everything the genre has offered for years. Both films
will likely inspire future filmmakers who are now but starry eyed children
discovering the enormous power of the cinema while watching them. 
This final film in Luhrmann’s red curtain trilogy (following 1992’s Strictly
Ballroom and 1996’s Romeo + Juliet) - all of them celebrating
"real artificiality" - is his masterpiece. I could (and have)
talked for hours about this one-of-a-kind revolution of a film, but the
picture sums itself up quite well and accurately in one of its first songs:
“Spectacular Spectacular, no words in the vernacular can describe this
great event. You'll be dumb with wonderment.” More than any film in 2001
this film hit my nerve center of cinephilia: I got completely lost in
the beautiful and daring production values, inspired performances, music,
dance, and romance. I was stunned, flabbergasted, thrilled, moved, entertained,
and drained all at once. When it was over I could only applaud, buy the
soundtrack, and return to the theater repeatedly. To paraphrase another
song from the film: Come What May...Come What May, I will love this film
- until my dying day. 
Memento
(Christopher Nolan)
Pitch
Black (David N. Twohy)
One of the rare book-to-movie translations that keeps all of the magic
and emotion of the written word intact. A superb cast and amazing effects
make the story truly come to life. The movie could have gone wrong in
so many ways, but Jackson was able to create an incredible cinematic saga
that is nearly perfect on every level. 
I will never understand why Disney spends so much time and effort on its
Pixar collaborations while not imposing the same standards on its traditional
animated films. Once again, the Disney-Pixar team has created a funny,
smart, original movie that is entertaining for adults and children.