2003 Rank 'em as you see them

I didn't mean to say that the director's choice of the book was out of character or that choosing the book was "ill conceived". It's the resulting adaptation that's "ill conceived": I may have not said this clearly.

I think there are things in the book that keep it from seeming the conventional serial slasher murder mystery, but the movie falls back into the stereotype, despite the great effort to make it visually unique, etc. Point of view deviates from the "portrait of a lady". There are those of us, by the way, who think that, with the present example in mind, Ms. Campion has been too hard on her women and ought to give them a break.

One of the films I added recently to my list is The Barbarian Invasions. I was really impressed by this film from writer/director Denys Arcand (Jesus of Montreal), a favorite to win the Oscar for best foreign language film (from Canada, in French). The film is a follow-up to Arcand's The Decline of Western Civilization. The central character is a gregarious, leftist college professor, now in his 50s and dying of cancer, and how his family and friends help him to die with dignity. By the way, it's primarily a comedy, with no trace of contrivance or cheap sentiment. The main tension is generated by the hedonist, counter-culture Remy butting heads with his conservative, practical son Sebastien. Arcand's screenplay is full of wit and bite.

I will have to see it. I already knew I should: see below for my 2003 Best Lists. I've seen these--except for one: I am assuming LOTR 3 will be worth listing, but am holding off seeing it till I've prepped with some further reading. This was a great year for documentaries and not so good for foreign films--though City of God was one of the best ever. As usual, I've listed Ten Best US and Ten Best Foreign--except that I couldn't come up with quite ten foreign bests. I didn't list the year's "Worst" this time, leaving that to those who seek out junk more assiduously than I do. Note that being "most overrated" doesn't mean a movie isn't a good one. "Shortlisted" means runners-up to the 'best' lists.




TEN BEST OF 2003 ( U. S. )______________________________________________

AMERICAN SPLENDOR (BERMAN AND PULCINI)
BETTER LUCK TOMORROW (JUSTIN LIM)
CHARLOTTE SOMETIMES (ERIC BYLER)
CONFESSIONS OF A DANGEROUS MIND (GEORGE CLOONEY)
ELEPHANT (GUS VAN SANT)
KILL BILL: VOL. 1 (QUENTIN TARANTINO)
MYSTIC RIVER (CLINT EASTWOOD)
NORTHFORK (MICHAEL POLISH)
RAISING VICTOR VARGAS (PETER SOLLETT)
SEABISCUIT (GARY ROSS)

BEST FOREIGN __________________________________


CIY OF GOD (CIUDADE DE DEUS (KATIA LUND, FERNANDO MEIRELLES, 2002)
DIRTY PRETTY THINGS (STEPHEN FREARS, 2002)
DIVINE INTERVENTION (YADON ILAHIYYAH, ELIA SULEIMAN, 2001)
L’IMBALSAMATORE, (THE EMBALMER, MATTEO GARRONE, 2002)
THE MAN ON THE TRAIN (L’HOMME DU TRAIN, PATRICE LECONTE, 2002)
MORVERN CALLAR (LYNNE RAMSEY, 2002)
THE SON (LE FILS, JEAN-PIERRE DARDENNE, LUC DARDENNE, 2002)
SPIDER (DAVID CRONENBERG)
SWEET SIXTEEN (KEN LOACH 2002)


BEST ANIMATIONS_____________________________________

FINDING NEMO (ANDREW STANTON, LEE UNKRICH)
THE TRIPLETS OF BELLEVILLE (LES TRIPLETTES DE BELLEVILLE,
SYLVAIN CHOMET)



BEST DOCUMENTARIES____________________________________________

BUS 174 (ONIBUS 174, 2002, FILIPE LACERDA, JOSE PADILHA)
CAPTURING THE FRIEDMANS (ANDREW JARECKI)
CHARLIE: THE LIFE AND ART OF CHARLES CHAPLIN (RICHARD SCHICKEL)
MY ARCHITECT (NATHANIEL KAHN)
POWER TRIP (PAUL DEVLIN)
THE FOG OF WAR (ERROLL MORRIS)
THE REVOLUTION WILL NOT BE TELEVISED (CHAVEZ: INSIDE THE COUP,
KIM BARTLEY AND DONNACHA O’BRIAIN)
SPELLBOUND (JEFF BLITZ)
STOKED: THE RISE AND FALL OF GATOR (HELEN STICKLER)
TO BE AND TO HAVE (ÊTRE ET AVOIR, 2002, NICOLAS PHILIBERT)


SHORTLISTED, ALL CATEGORIES___________________________

GERRY (GUS VAN SANT)
GIRL WITH A PEARL EARRING (PETER WEBBER)
LORD OF THE RINGS: RETURN OF THE KING (PETER JACKSON)
LOST IN TRANSLATION (SOFIA COPPOLA)
MADAME SATÃ (KARIM AINOUZ, 2002)
MONSTER (PATTY JENKINS)
NARC (JOE CARNAHAN, 2002)
SCHOOL OF ROCK (RICHARD LINKLETTER)
SHATTERED GLASS (BILLY RAY)
SPUN (JONAS ÅKERLUND)
THE STATION AGENT (THOMAS MCCARTHY)
SYLVIA (CHRISTINE JEFFS)
YOSSI AND JAGGER (AYTAN FOX, 2002)

ONES I WISH I'D SEEN BEFORE I MADE THIS LIST___________

THE BARBARIAN INVASIONS (DENYS ARCAND)
LORD OF THE RINGS: THE RETURN OF THE KING (PETER JACKSON)
OWNING MAHONEY (RICHARD KWIETNIOWSKI)

YEAR'S MOST OVERRATED____________________________

COLD MOUNTAIN (ANTHONY MINGHELLA)
LOST IN TRANSLATION (SOFIA COPPOLA)
IN AMERICA (JIM SHERIDAN)
21 GRAMS (ALEJANDRO GONZÁLEZ IÑÁRRITU)
THE STATION AGENT (THOMAS MCCARTHY)

If I could just name one film that was heavily overrated in 2003, it would have to be Elephant. I think I'm gonna post tomorrow in that forum about why.

I would put Chris Knipp's overrated movies:

Cold Mountain (serious important subject matter).
Lost in Translation (serious and real).
In America (serious important subject matter and uplifting).

up against with two of his top ten movies

American Splendor (cute good but overrated). There was alot of style, flash, and independent flare but it was missing the content substance component.

Kill Bill Vol. 1 (different good but overrated). Again there was the fascinating satire without substance motiff.

Lots of films on Chris' lists that I haven't seen.

I work too damn much!

Even though I have apprehensions about Lost in Translation, I am looking forward to it because apparently you see Scarlet's bare bum and Sofia took inspiration from Jarmusch. (I read that in a film mag at the public library)

Better Luck Tomorrow
Charlotte Sometimes
Confessions of a Dangerous Mind
Northfork
Raising Victor Vargas
Dirty Pretty Things
Divine Intervention
The Embalmer
The Man on the Train
Morvern Callar
The Son
Sweet Sixteen
Bus 174
Capturing The Friedmans
Charlie
My Architect
Power Trip
The Fog of War
Spellbound
Stoked
Gerry
Girl With a Pearl Earring
Madame Sata
Narc
Shattered Glass
The Station Agent
Sylvia
Yossi and Jagger
Cold Mountain
In America

Over 30 films I haven't seen!

Thanks Chris for making me seem like a hillbilly who sees a film once in a blue moon..... *big wink*

Originally posted by Chris Knipp
YEAR'S MOST OVERRATED____________________________

COLD MOUNTAIN (ANTHONY MINGHELLA)
LOST IN TRANSLATION (SOFIA COPPOLA)
IN AMERICA (JIM SHERIDAN)
21 GRAMS (ALEJANDRO GONZÁLEZ IÑÁRRITU)
THE STATION AGENT (THOMAS MCCARTHY)


Indeed, I like these films more than you do. The first two will likely enter my Top 10 English language list, which I'll post at the end of the month. I would agree that some critics have used the word "masterpiece" in their reviews of these films and it's a bit much. But I felt In America earns the tears, 21 Grams sustains dramatic intensity with superb perfs, and The Station Agent entertains effortlessly, like Finding Nemo or School of Rock.

If I wanted to have a pleasant, agreeable chat with you I'd bring up two films from your list that I love: David Cronenberg's SPIDER and THE SON, the one film I saw all year that made me feel I was a better person after watching it.

I live in New Zealand, so some important US films still have to see release down here yet, and others, such as Monster, Lost In Translation and Cold Mountain are ones I still have to run out and see.

Heres my 2003 scorecard, using the basic four star scale, ala Leonard Maltin, etc.

Return Of The King ****
Master And Commander ***1/2
Kill Bill Vol 1 ***1/2
Whale Rider ***1/2 (yay! New Zealand again!)
The Last Samuari ***1/2 (I can forgive the cliche, Dances With Wolves-wannabe story)
Daredevil ***
Terminator 3: Rise Of The Machines ***
Phone Booth ***
X2: X-Men United ***
The Italian Job ***
The Runaway Jury ***
Big Fish ***
Finding Nemo ***
28 Days Later *** (or 2002...depends on which country you're in)
Mystic River ***
The Recruit **1/2
Charlies Angels: Full Throttle **1/2
Down With Love **1/2
The League Of Extraordinary Gentlemen **1/2
Pirates Of The Caribbean: Curse Of The Black Pearl **1/2
Just Married **1/2
The Hulk **1/2
The Core **1/2
The Rundown **1/2 (titled Welcome To The Jungle in some countries, including New Zealand)
Intolerable Cruelty **1/2
Matrix Revolutions **1/2
The Matrix Reloaded **
Bruce Almighty **
Anger Management **
Freddy Vs Jason **
Identity **
Dreamcatcher **
Gothika **
View From The Top *1/2
Torque *1/2
The Real Cancun *1/2

Sometimes my "most overrated" category includes movies I actually like; I just think the critics and the public have gone overboard. This is the case with "Lost in Translation". And I couldn't say that "21 Grams" is crap, with such good actors working so hard -- a little too hard, in a dissheveled, pretentious effort by the previously outstanding Mexican director. "Station Agent" might be seen as a nice, sweet little indie film, but it's an exploitation of underdog status and ridden with cliches, and again, it's simply overrated. "In America" has moments, and again some excellent acting, but we're in fantasyland, a world of sentimentality and falsehood. These are all movies by directors who've done excellent stuff. As for Minghella, I've always found him overrated. I could not see why people swooned for the overwrought, pretentious, overlong "English Patient." "The Talented Mr. Ripley" had one or two good moments -- the director's lavish efforts at atmosphere pay off occasionally and the jazz scene is a hot moment. But the filmmakers misread the Ripley character -- he shouldn't turn out to be gay; and the casting was off: Jude Law would have made a better Ripley than Damon. The Blanchett character was unnecessary and the background was too elaborate -- Minghella tinkered too much as usual, and wound up with a piece of glossy fluff, which is the direction he is usually going. In "Cold Mountain" he has taken an overrated (really very badly written) novel and blown it up in so many ways that you don't know where it is going. He is a master of overkill and overproduction, which bowls people over. His pretention is nauseating. I always hope he'll come up with something -- he tries so hard -- but I'm about to give up on him. This movie got tons of publicity but bombed with the critics, justifyably this time.

Many movies are underrated, too. Some of the conoscenti acknowledge "The Son" to be a classic, but it sure isn't a household word in the USA, is it? And how many people saw "Spider" in theaters? Yet those blow away the others we're discussing here, which don't deserve to be mentioned in the same paragraph.


EarlXX: Welcome aboard. I hope you get to see some better, hipper stuff. Some of your items in this list look like turkeys to me, not even worth a ** rating if one had more choices, and the list is heavily weighted toward the usual cineplex blockbuster stuff.

Cold Mountain didn't "bomb" with critics. It received very good reviews from the following publications: Time, The New York Times, The New Yorker, The Chicago Reader, The Washington Post, Variety, The Boston Globe and many others. Along with Charlotte Sometimes, perhaps our biggest difference of opinion in 2003. Cold Mountain is my favorite film from Mr. Minghella.

Spider certainly did not break b.o. records. I was surprised our little internet community awarded the film two "Wurldies". Clearly a select group if I may say so. The Son will be available on dvd on May 25th. It's a film that will work well on tv screens.

Okay: I'm sorry I said Cold Mountain "bombed with the critics." I can't say that. It got mixed reactions. After all, it was riding in on a mountainous tidal wave of hype. (Hype-prone chap that I am, I was excited about seeing it, and rushed to finish the book in time for its opening in Christmas week.) But when the smoke cleared and the movie had been seen and mulled over, there were some pretty negative evaluations by some pretty perceptive critics. David Denby of The New Yorker, who seems to suffer from severe mood swings nowadays, went way overboard. I'm surprised you cite the NYTimes. A.O. Scott there called the movie "a mountain of honest, nourishing corn." Which indicates the fact that a good many critics hedged their bets, as they will do when the hype is large and the response is lukewarm. You cite some major papers. Okay; and the movie was rated poorly by the LA Times, the Village Voice, the Chicago Tribune, the Washington Post, the Wall Street Journal, Slate, Salon, and the Baltimore Sun. And the usually positive Roger Ebert wrote,

Quote:

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"By the end of the film, you admire the artistry and the care, you know that the actors worked hard and are grateful for their labors, but you wonder who in God's name thought this was a promising scenario for a movie. It's not a story, it's an idea."

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The often astute Walter Chaw of Film Freak Central speaks for me. He wrote that,

Quote:

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"What Minghella seems best at is recasting edged, emotionally tumultuous novels into sun-kissed temples to the cinematographer's craft, the more dappled sunlight in the eye with which to bedazzle awards-season voters. The strength of Charles Frazier's National Book Award-winning source material lies in its socio-political details of America's Civil War period, but Minghella has focused his picture unerringly on the overrated novel's weaknesses instead: its dialogue, its clumsy Homeric riff. "

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What Minghella gives us always, when he adopts his good, or sometimes as in this case overrated, novels into movies, is lots of gloss, too much naked ambition, and not much punch; not much clarity of direction, not a very perceptive reading of the book. That's the trouble with Cold Mountain. Or rather, those are the troubles.

This is your favorite Minghella film? Sure, why not; but that's the problem: it's not much of a choice that his body of work offers us. But you would hardly know that from the hype.

I think both Spider and The Son have a strong following among the real film buffs, like us. . .

I know I'm gonna piss somebody off but I think Quentin Tarantino is over-rated. I cannot for the life of me see what everyone else sees in his work. "Pulp Fiction" to me is a series of scenes filled with ventosity. It is an exercise in sado-masochism. It's like watching a train wreck and enjoying it.

Now we have "Kill Bill"; an ultra-violent story where east meets west and then west goes west. What is the plot? Where is the story? I don't understand rap either. I think I have this age thing going on. I must, because I watched "Pulp Fiction" and walked out thinking - crap! Then everyone says it's the greatest thing since sliced toast and it gets nominated for this "Best of" and that award.... I believe in what Woody Allen said about Freud and the subconcious, and I'm paraphrasing here... it's not what our society has become, its what our society turned out to be. Even a blind man can see that.

Like a lot of original, strong filmmakers, Tarantino is either loved or hated. There's not much of a middle ground if you have a pulse. You've shown that you have one. And if you don't like Pulp Fiction, you don't like Tarantino, but you deserve credit for seeing Kill Bill: Vol. 1. Now, if you could just figure out "what everyone else sees in his work," we could have a discussion. Otherwise, there's not much to talk about, and it's just opining.

Can't find any mention here of this film by John Sayles that came out last year. It's a low-key film about six American women in an unnamed Latin American country, hoping to adopt a baby and return to the States. The performances by all six women are superb, but Marcia Gay Harden stands out above all. She plays a mean, rather racist woman who believes she can bribe or bully her way into getting whatever she wants. It's also unclear whether she's telling the truth about her family situation back home. In my opinion, Harden's performance here is equal to her one in Mystic River, for which she was nominated for an Academy Award.

The women are all staying at a hotel that the locals have nicknamed "Casa De Los Babys". The film also focuses on a maid that works at the hotel, the owner of the hotel, an unemployed construction worker who has dreams of someday living in Philadelphia ("the city of freedom"), several homeless boys that interact with the women, and a 15-year old girl in the town who has become pregnant. Sayles describes it as partly a story about desperation: the desperation of the American women to be mothers, the desperation that rises from the poverty in the third world country, and the desperation of the young pregnant girl whose family forbids her to do anything besides carry the baby through to birth and then give it up for adoption. It's quite a powerful story, and as usual, Sayles doesn't over-dramatize or give us any easy answers.

Did anyone else see this film, or am I just perhaps overreacting to its importance? I thought it was one of the better films I've seen that came out in 2003.

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Originally posted by Chris Knipp
Like a lot of original, strong filmmakers, Tarantino is either loved or hated... Now, if you could just figure out "what everyone else sees in his work," we could have a discussion. Otherwise, there's not much to talk about, and it's just opining.

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I thought that was what we were doing here Chris, giving our opinions on what we like or dislike and why. I feel that others see something artistic in his work. However, I have trouble seeing art in the work of Jackson Pollack, and he's an old timer in the art world. Therefore, I must be either be intellectually stubby, or see art differently that the "experts". That makes me also appear "uninformed" and lacking a thorough educational background in art. I also know bullshit when I wade through it.

Film is the "art" or business of storytelling for a profit and a certain amount of pleasure we derive from it. That's what we pay for, isn't it? This then gets back to the arguement of getting pleasure from violence on a different level... one Tarentino and a few others live on. I would challenge this as "the emperor's new clothes", or as I so lovingly put it, bullshit. Tarentino's "Reservoir Dogs" is a perfect example. What more is there to see. Enlighten me. I'm dying to know why I must sit through his endless series of ever more gross bloody killings for the sake of telling a story? Bullshit! He appeals to that quality in people they say they loath, yet secretly desire... seeing someone else (not them, of course) get it... and get it good. I don't need a Ph.D. in art to know what kind of person enjoys that kind of story.