Let’s catch up on the late 2002/Early 2003 flicks!
FIrst of all, my top ten point five movies of 2002 (w/ brief comment):
10.5 PUNCH-DRUNK LOVE - rooting for Adam Sandler’s character in this film was one of the most fun things to do in the cinema all year. And Paul Thomas Anderson continues his trend of bringing a very unique style to the screen that I can’t stop watching.
10. ROAD TO PERDITION - a powerful, extremely accomplished drama with towering performances. With Conrad Hall’s cinematography, each scene is a movie of it’s own.
9. THE SALTON SEA - an extremely underrated, stylish movie about all sorts of stuff - junkies, cops, revenge, redemption, friendship and pidgeons re-creating the shooting of JFK. Just see it. Best thing Val Kilmer’s done in years.
8. BLOODY SUNDAY - a documentary-style recount of the civil rights march in Ireland that ended in bloodshed. The documentary angle NEVER plays as a gimmick and no scene seems “stagey”. That’s testament to great direction AND acting.
7. THE PIANIST - Roman Polanski’s lifetime achievement. Top-notch in every performance and technical category, “The Pianist” is a great story.
6. NICHOLAS NICKLEBY - Absolutely lost in the shuffle unfairly, this Dickens fable is jam-packed with wonderful characters, and they’re all in a story that’s exciitng! I think snoozeville when I think Dickens - this is NOT the case here.
5. MINORITY REPORT - I love it when good sci-fi comes along, as it doesn’t come along enough. Now that “Minority Report” is here, so is good sci-fi. Smart, exciting, involving as a futuristic adventure, thriller and mystery. Spielberg is a genius.
4. FAR FROM HEAVEN - An ingenious blend of style and emotion. Todd Haynes’ masterpiece never loses it’s heart, even when portraying a time when the heart was wildly repressed. Dennis Quaid gives a career performance.
3. BOWLING FOR COLUMBINE - It’s ALWAYS good to see someone shaking up the system. And how great is it to see Moore actually PROVE one of his points (success at KMart). Bold (daring historical recap of America’s business overseas), harrowing (BRILLIANT re-creation of the Columbine shooting), and hilarious (Terry Nichols couldn’t have had better lines WRITTEN for him). Moore’s at the top of his game.
2. ABOUT SCHMIDT - a very real, very funny drama anchored by a masterful turn by Jack Nicholson. Alexander Payne knows the dreary midwest and he nailed it. Best ending of the year.
1. CHICAGO - the most dazzling movie of the year. Wonderfully imagined, with risky, creative direction that never lapsed. Great performances all around. And yes, it is LEAGUES better than “Moulin Rouge”. Brilliant.
Runners-up : “Auto Focus”, “Narc”, “One Hour Photo”
I haven’t seen: “Rabbit-Proof Fence”, “Y Tu Mama Tambien”, “City of God”, “Atanarjuat”, “The Kid Stays in the Picture”, “Personal Velocity”, “Spirited Away”, “Talk to Her”
Worst:
REIGN OF FIRE (would it kill you to put a DRAGON in that movie?)
STAR WARS, EPISODE II: ATTACK OF THE CLONES (looked more like Toy Story 3)
POSSESSION (BORING as HELL)
ENOUGH (this is really just a pile of dopey shit, isn’t it?)
THE TIME MACHINE (it’s a classic book. This made me never want to read it.)
Too bad to even see: “Scooby-Doo”, “Swept Away”, “The Adventures of Pluto Nash”, “Crossroads”, “Ballistic: Ecks vs. Sever”, “Rollerball”
On to the reviews! (there’s a mix of OLD flix from the fall and holiday holdovers):
CITY BY THE SEA (**) - I’m going to paraphrase a review I saw of this movie in Entertainment Weekly because I think it sums the movie up quite well. This film plays out like one of those “Channel 9 Theater” movies that plays Sunday afternoon or late, late at night that you might see while flipping through the dial, but is just interesting enough to stop and see what’s going on for a while. This film could also be referred to as “the obligitory DeNiro half-assed movie”. For every “Awakenings”, “Cape Fear”, “Analyze This” or “Meet the Parents”, this legendary actor tends to find himself in a “Guilty By Suspicion”, “Stanley and Iris” or “Night and the City”. These movies (and “City by the Sea”) aren’t BAD like “The Adventures of Rocky and Bullwinkle”, but they are middle-of-the-road and if a guy like DeNiro picked his projects more like Nicholson, we’d be left with JUST the really good stuff. In the meantime, we get “City by the Sea”, from non-stylized director Michael Caton-Jones. This movie is mainly about ghosts. The ghost of DeNiro’s character’s father haunts him in the form of a bad reputation, and that rep is now getting to his son, who is on the lam after a the murder of a drug dealer. DeNiro ponders the best way to bring him in. While doing so, his own lifestyle is in question as we meet Frances McDormand’s character, who is bedding DeNiro, but is not a fan of the way he’s dealing with his boy. Her character is underdeveloped, and that’s bad for McDormand. But she could be taken out of the movie entirely as far as I’m concerned, then there’d be NO development to even be concerned about. The most interesting part of the movie is DeNiro tracking down his son. That’s worth two stars, but the rest isn’t worth another two. James Franco, as mini-DeNiro, adds another page to his catalog of really, really dour dudes. This flick is the fall filler it was released to be. Serviceable and marginally entertaining, but nothing special.
POSSESSION (*) - What is it these days with stories of people scrambling and scrambling to find out information about dead people who were far more interesting than they are? Right on the heels of “Weight of Water” comes this snore-fest from Neil LaBute. Actually, come to think of it, the people in the flashbacks of this movie weren’t even interesting, they were a boring couple exchanging notes. These notes are discovered by equally boring and chemistry-less Aaron Eckhart and Gwyneth Paltrow. I have to admit that Paltrow is better here than she usually is (that’s about the only reason to give this movie one instead of NO stars). But the characters in the present have no reasons to become invested in them. They spend 90% of their time reading letters - not interesting. The secrets of the past that they uncover concern an underdeveloped subplot of the Victorian characters. Seriously, it’s a bore, and I long for LaBute’s bite.
RED DRAGON (***) - A taut thriller that serves as a fitting end to the Hannibal Lecter movies. “Red Dragon” is such a better story than “Hannibal”, that all Brett Ratner has to do is not TOTALLY screw up, and the plot will carry the film. Ratner is a signature-less director, in that he has no flair that Scorsese or even previous Hannibal directors Ridley Scott or Michael Mann would bring to a film. Ratner got insurance for the movie’s success by rounding up an ULTRA-WATT cast. Edward Norton takes the role of Will Graham, an unusual role for him in that Will’s a relatively regular guy (as opposed to the more troubled characters he played in “Fight Club”, “Primal Fear” and “American History X”). He’s very good. Ralph Fiennes is GREAT as the creepy Francis Dolarhyde - that’s good casting. Emily Watson gives us a fragile enough love interest to care for. And, as always, Anthony Hopkins is solid as Hannibal, and the tension and history between Lecter and Graham is palpable. Throw in Philip Seymour Hoffman, Harvey Keitel and Mary Louise-Parker and you simply can’t go wrong. So, story and cast simply didn’t allow Ratner to make a bad movie. I’m a big fan of “Manhunter”, the first version of “Red Dragon” to hit the screen. The book was changed extensively for Michael Mann’s film, and this truer return to the material is refreshing, and allows the film to avoid extensive comparison (unlike a dumbassed concept like a “Psycho” remake). The suspense was real and the ending was satisfactory. All good for Lecter’s big bow out.
THE QUIET AMERICAN (**) - This schizophrenic drama had me for about half of it (hence 2 out of 4 stars). Well, I suppose schizophrenic may not be the right word. Lemme ‘splain - I liked the political intrigue of “The Quiet American”, but was really disappointed in the romantic entaglements of the players involved. Here’s another drama that has interesting characters vying for the attention of someone who’s not worth it. “Unfaithful” suffers the same fate. Although it was dismissed (unfairly) as fluff, “Titanic” had a character worth at least rooting for in Kate Winslet. So when DiCaprio and Zane fight for her, you see why. She longs to break free of the class structure and she’s smart and pretty. The Vietnamese girl who owns Michael Caine’s heart in this film is not interesting at all. And even if Caine is an older, jaded journalist looking for solace in somebody younger, at least could it be someone young and VIBRANT? And someone like Brendan Fraser could do better, too. However, the story also deals with America’s involvement in Vietnam before the War there. I know quite little about that, and was always intrigued by the slowly developing plot that dealt with that. The production is not short on quality. Director Philip Noyce has employed impressive cinematography and great locations to tell his story, and at one point a bomb creates carnage in a town square that seems to really explore the destruction caused, from the pain and loss of the victims to debris everywhere. But overall, if the love story could pack the punch of the spy story, “The Quiet American” could’ve earned an extra star or two from me.
CHICAGO (****) - The best movie musical since “Cabaret”. And that Fosse classic is good company. Now, I don’t mean to slight Disney animated films, “South Park: Bigger, Longer and Uncut” or “The Blues Brothers”, all EXCELLENT musicals as well. But “Chicago” captures the old-school style of performance that hearkens back to “Cabaret” and even further back to the flash of “42nd Street” and the smart satire of “SIngin’ in the Rain”. First-time director Rob Marshall has fashioned a wonderfully imagined movie. I’m sure I would be disappointed if I saw the stage version of this show now that I’ve seen Marshall’s brilliant combination of burlesque stage production and the glitzy, fast-talking, fast-paced plot of Roxie and Velma. This is truly one of those succeed-on-every-level movies, a wonderfully imagined style of storytelling. Besides the risky and taut direction, the costumes are splashy and make the time period come alive with a love of all things showy. The production design is studied and eye-catching, from the powerfully visual imagery of the cell block tango to the lived-in burlesque feel of the cabaret space. The cinematography and editing add to the sweeping energy Marshall and the performers give to the movie 100%. As for those actors, Rene Zellweger is a good casting choice for the dim-witted Roxie, even though she misses a few moments to really crank up some other emotions besides mousy. Richard Gere gives a career performance as Billy Flynn, hitting all the right notes as a fast talker and a fast tapdancer. Catherine Zeta-Jones, however, is the TOTAL package. A blustery triple-threat who oozes charisma, attitude and humor. And now, the top 3 reasons why “Chicago” is better then “Moulin Rouge” (there will obviously be comparisons):
10. It has a superior sense of humor. The heady satire of the media and fame is leagues above the dopey (sometimes totally mental) humor of Baz Luhrmann that didn’t compliment the epic love story.
9. Better music. Kander & Ebb’s timeless showtunes are literally ‘show-stopping’. Each one brought applause when I saw the film. Luhrmann didn’t always succeed at bringing modern tunes to his ‘classic’ fable. And then, sometimes when a song seemed right for the moment, it’s presentation just lacked the punch of the music (“Smells Like Teen Spirit” sung by guys in tuxedos didn’t work for me).
8. The editing was more fair. I never felt that the editing robbed the dancers of a good performance. In “Moulin Rouge”, Luhrmann would often cut to someone WATCHING the dance instead of staying with the DANCERS!
So GO to this movie ASAP. It deserves all the accolades it can get at really succeeding after a long road to the screen.
CONFESSIONS OF A DANGEROUS MIND (**1/2) - I really wanted to like this movie more than I did. I’ve been a fan of Sam Rockwell for quite some time and looked forward to him taking on a lead role. As game show host Chuck Barris, he steps up and delivers as a leading man. Funny, charming, goofy and strange. But the movie around him leaves a little to be desired. Director George Clooney shows us his green underbelly as a first-timer with this film. He seems to over-direct the look and feel of the whole story. There is barely a scene in the film that doesn’t have some sort of filter, color splash, wash-out, grainy-look, etc. for reasons I couldn’t come up with. Paul Schrader put alot of those effects to great use in the underrated “Auto Focus” to show the decline of the characters. Here it just seems like ‘a cool choice’. Well, it’s distracting. I’m itching for Julia Roberts to follow up “Erin Brockovich” with another similar-size star outing. Since her Oscar turn, she’s had unmemorable bit parts (“Full Frontal”, “Ocean’s 11” - seriously, do you remember her or the guys, despite some decent dialogue), or been in a bad movie (“The Mexican”) or upstaged (by Catherine Zeta-Jones in “America’s Sweethearts”). In “Confessions of a Dangerous Mind”, Roberts fills in the ‘unmemorable bit part’ again. Her final scene with Rockwell is quite good as product of the writing more than anything else. Clooney is more memorable in a supporting part as a creepy government guy doling out ‘missions’ to Barris to complete while escorting game show winners in Europe. That concept alone is worth a star in this review. Funny. It also seems as if the concept is so out-there that Clooney has directed the film as rather out-there, with crazy larger-than-life characters. It probably doesn’t help that Charlie Kaufman wrote the script, but this story told straighter might’ve made a better impact with me. Less “movie”, more story.
TREASURE PLANET (**1/2) - The first of two movies that got a bad rap last year. I’ll say right off the top that “Treasure Planet” lacks something Disney holds to its heart as pride and joy - “Disney MAGIC”. The film is at times too coarse, too cold or too convoluted to reach the level of magic that something like “The Lion King” of “Beauty and the Beast” achieved. However, “Treasure Planet” succeeds in two departments that keep it watchable throughout. It’s dazzlingly drawn, with the animators stepping up to create detailed, fanciful images of futuristic spaceships and planets. Plus, it’s action packed. There are sequences in this movie that rival Aladdin’s carpet ride or Tarzan’s swing through the trees. When “Treasure Planet” first came out, it was universally trashed, and I don’t think it deserved a fate as harsh as it recieved. And it’s also one of the first Disney films to succeed without a mega-watt soundtrack. There’s on Johnny Reznick song, and that’s about it. I’m also surprised more young kids didn’t connect with the boy hero of the story. Maybe the past success of Disney is that they connected with young girls on the whole “princess” level with strong heroines in “The Little Mermaid” and “Pocahontas”. Boys are probably more inclined to switch over to “The Matrix” for connection at an earlier age than girls. I should stop singing “Treasure Planet”’s praises, ‘cause it certainly isn’t flawless. Despite the solid animation, I got a little bored with EVERY creature in this universe being some three-eyed or ten-legged thing. Were Jim and his mom the only humans? And most of the humor falls flat, as Martin Short tries hard to re-capture Robin Williams’ antics from “Aladdin”. By now this is nearing video release, and it’s a shame the best parts of the film require the big screen to make an impact.
STAR TREK: NEMESIS (***) - Wow, it doesn’t even seem as if the “Star Trek” fans came out to this movie. What happened? But again, here’s a movie that got unjustly denied at the box office. Most “Star Trek” ingredients are in place, and some are even pumped up a notch - there seems to be more action than usual, with “Mad Max”-esque chases on a desert planet and climatic fistfights. I’m sure I mentioned this when “Star Trek: Insurrection” came out, but I always refer back to a great quote from Mark Tucci (whose reviews can be seen on this site): “I’ll always like ‘Star Trek’ better than ‘Star Wars’ ‘cause ‘Star Trek’ won’t inflict Jar-Jar Binks on it’s fans.” It’s a statement on the general level of smarts that “Trek” holds over “Wars”. Well, in a year where both franchises released a new movie, that mantra holds true. Data had more life in him than human beings Anakin Skywalker and Senator Amidala. Picard can solve problems quicker than a Jedi, and the plotting is much smoother than the jumbled mess of “Attack of the Clones”. Detrements to the film include a villian that looks like a clone of Picard, but more resembles Dr. Evil on occasion. That’s not good. Also, there’s very little Dr. Crusher. Not that she’s “exciting lady”, but the ensemble took a hit there. I’m told that there is also a small discrepancy in the story in that Data has in fact seen a clone of him before, and it was treated as something new in “Nemesis”. Data remains the most interesting character in the film, and Brent Spiner’s performance is very good in a dual android role. There are moments borrowed from previous “Trek” movies (“Wrath of Khan” and “Generations” most notably), but the end result is rousing sci-fi fare that is done well.
THE PIANIST (****) - Roman Polanski’s Holocaust epic is a major return to form for the legendary director. After wallowing in some pretty nasty projects (“Ninth Gate” anyone?), “The Pianist” shows Polanski’s ability as a master storyteller. When Polanski was a young boy, he survived the Holocaust himself, and the film world has been wondering if he would ever tackle that most personal topic head on. There have been dozens of movies that deal with the Holocaust, and we’ve seen the brutal actions of the Nazis numerous times. Not that they aren’t ALWAYS horrifying, but the bar has been raised on making a film like this unique. One of the things “The Pianist” delivers that I found very interesting is a view of the war from a watcher’s perspective. The main character of the film, Wladyslaw Szpilman, is no doubt deeply entrenched in the abuse and chaos of the Holocaust, but there seems to be a considerable amount of the war shot through the windows, peep holes and doorways of the various apartments and abandon buildings where Szpilman was hidden from the Nazis. The onlookers perspective is our perspective and it’s fascinating. The scenes that play out on the street are well staged, well acted and frightening. In the center of it all is Adrien Brody as Szpilman, giving a very powerful perfomance as a piano player who’s social status is upended by the war. It’s a quiet acting job that resonates long after the film is over. A film about this subject matter lends itself to being a rather depressing trip, and there are scenes of total despair that are heart-wrenching, but the overall message is one of hope and survival. Throughout, Polanski has towering technical achievements supporting his story, and they’re worthy of all the Academy Awards they were nominated for - cinematography, editing and sound. I can only hope this film empowers the great talents of Roman Polanski and improves the projects he gets involved with in the future.
There are ALOT more movies to cover, and I promise more reviews soon!
Please write back with your comments and Top Tens of the year.
- Paul