I applaud you for having the courage to put Hulk on here. I agree that Ang Lee kind of sells out to the comic book crowd with that ridiculous third act, but up until then it's a surprisingly surreal, emotionally involving experience. And after that film, I knew that Eric Bana was an actor to look out for. History has proved correct!
Master and Commander and Lost in Translation have indeed endured. Ironically, I didn't immediately love either of the two films; with the former, I was initially disappointed at the lack of battle sequences until I realized that Weir was really going for a sort of Jane Austen approach (with men). And it took me an even longer time to appreciate the latter film, but as I got older, I did end up coming away a believer at Sofia Coppola's cinematic poem.
Maybe Bill Murray shoulda won that Best Actor Oscar? Although comparing him to Sean Penn in Mystic River is like comparing Brando's Last Tango performance to Lemmon's Save the Tiger performance- they're both awesome, lionistic performances by their respected actors.
Did you by any chance see Finding Nemo, Tony? I'd say that's Pixar's greatest film all decade. Though the plot is conventional, Andrew Stanton did a wonderful job at putting a unique spin on conventionalism.
Also, I know it wasn't a theatrical release, but I would personally put in a word for Angels in America. Best thing Mike Nichols has ever done, in my opinion (although it took the incomparable voice of Tony Kushner to get him up there). And nobody does a better Roy Cohn than Pacino.
I thought Return of the King was the year's best film, but of course I'm one of the last surviving breeds of LOTR fanboys.
I did see FINDING NEMO, and though I enjoy watching it, it still strikes me as aimed more towards children. Later Pixars seem to address universal themes and you'll see at least two that I can recall on the lists for upcoming years.
Haven't seen ANGELS IN AMERICA, yet. I do look forward to it since I've heard good things. But it has to beat CARNAL KNOWLEDGE for me to believe it is the "best thing [he] has ever done." And that seems unlikely.
I enjoy LOTR, but a lot of it is uneven. And I really hate those sweeping shots over battles that Jackson has a proclivity for. They remind me too much of video games.
Here's my list, Tony. I'm glad to see you appreciate Open Range, too. Such a classic example of why I love the western. Anyway...love your list (although we disagree on the von Trier), and I'm glad you mentioned X2, which was the only time that franchise was interesting. Here's my list:
Honorable mention (AKA “the other ten”): All the Real Girls, American Splendor, The Dreamers, Elephant, House of Sand and Fog, May, A Mighty Wind, Oldboy, School of Rock, Whale Rider
10. Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (Peter Jackson) 9. The Man on the Train (Patrice Leconte) 8. Open Range (Kevin Costner) 7. Northfork (The Polish Brothers) 6. Saraband (Ingmar Bergman) 5. Master and Commander (Peter Weir) 4. Shattered Glass (Billy Ray) 3. Kill Bill Vol. 1 (Quentin Tarantino) 2. Lost in Translation (Sofia Coppola) 1. The Son (Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne)
Good list again, though some of them i missed out again.
Some of my favorites, apart from the ones you mentioned.
1)LOTR-Return of the King
2) Finding Nemo- Have a personal attachment. It was released in the same year, i became a Dad myself, and to date love to watch it along with my daughter.
3) Pirates of the Carribean- Ok maybe a guilty pleasure, or maybe a fan of the series. Love watching Johnny Deep goof around, Geoffrey Rush having a go at it, and yes there is the luscious Ms.Knightley. For me it's perfect popcorn entertainment.
4) House of Sand n Fog: A bit too soggy, but Connely and Kingsley make it worth a watch.
5) Mystic River
6) 21 Grams: Again a bit uneven, but great acting from Sean Penn, Naomi Watts, Benicio Del Toro, and the plotting makes it one of my favorites.
Other than that, 2 Korean movies that year, i really liked
Spring, Summer,Fall, Winter & Spring: Very lovely, personal movie, that captures the stages of life in a young monk, along with the change of seasons. Some of the best cinematography ever.
A Tale of 2 Sisters: One of the best horror flicks, i have seen. Very pyschological, moody and atmospheric.
Big Fish: Quite different from the usual Tim Burton movie, but very personal
Osama: One movie not to be missed. Showing the real brutality of the Taliban regime. Young girl, dressing up as a boy to survive, taking up work, one of the most damning indictments of the Taliban rule.
Matchstick Men: For me the only Ridley Scott movie i liked this decade.
Quite good picks, although I completely disagree with Dogville, I hate that movie. I'm planning on starting a most overrated films of all time coloumn on my blog and that one will certainly be among them. I however like to see both Hulk and the Dreamers, two quite underrated films in my opinion.
Mike, Thanks for your comment. I'd be interested to hear more on why you dislike DOGVILLE so much. I've seen two von Trier films; loved one, and hated the other (ANTICHRIST).
Tony, I'll totally have to get on writing about Dogville soon. I haven't seen Anti-Christ, but actually did enjoy the Dogville sequel Manderlay slightly more (though not much). For my money the best Von Trier has ever done was Breaking the Waves, but I also did appreciate his comedy Boss of it All.
January 18, 2010 at 6:58 PM
by Tony Dayoub
[Image]
Happy New Year to all. Due to some childcare issues over the course of the holidays posts have been a little slower than usual, but they should be picking up some speed this month. Continuing my series of posts assessing the best films of the decade, today I spotlight my favorite films of 2003. This year was a particularly weak year for cinema in my opinion, so you might see some unusual entries. Some reminders: I cannot judge movies I haven't seen, so if you feel a film you like was unjustly left out, it might be that I never saw it; also, if I already wrote a review for it, I'll simply refer back to the original review. At the end of the month, I'll post my ten best for 2009. I will then follow up with my 10 best films of the past decade.
And now, in alphabetical order, the best films of 2003...
[Image] Dogville, director Lars von Trier - Nicole Kidman carries this movie in a performance I feel safe in calling brave. Here, she is put through the wringer by von Trier (Europa), who stages the story like a black box theater production, its set sparingly delineated with chalk and the bare minimum of props. The staging serves the dual purpose of detaching you emotionally from the harrowing treatment of Kidman's Grace and focuses your attention on the spectacular acting by the stellar ensemble cast: Lauren Bacall, Paul Bettany, Blair Brown, James Caan, Patricia Clarkson, Jeremy Davies, Ben Gazzara, Philip Baker Hall, Željko Ivanek, Chloe Sevigny, and Stellan Skarsgård. An indictment of America's small-town libertarians, it offended many at the time of its release but has only grown more relevant with the advent of Beck, Palin, the Tea-Partiers, and other populist movements that encourage ignorance and close-mindedness.
[Image] The Dreamers, dir. Bernardo Bertolucci - Review here.
[Image] Elephant, dir. Gus Van Sant - A disquieting look at a fictional school shooting inspired by the tragic events at Columbine in 1999. Van Sant (Milk) seems to stop time by keying in on several moments leading up to the shooting, playing and replaying them from different perspectives. What emerges is an empathetic look at the victims and the killers even while Van Sant manages to never excuse the murderers for their crime. While he implies that the teen killers' alienation from their schoolmates may have been a contributing cause, he also takes pains to emphasize that all the other teenagers suffer some form of alienation from one another, and they don't resort to the same act.
[Image] Hulk, dir. Ang Lee - This is the closest a movie gets to a superhero art film. Lee (Brokeback Mountain) focuses on the psychological underpinnings of the rage that fuels the green giant (daddy issues, which also plague his girlfriend Betty). Eric Bana is solid as Bruce Banner, as are the rest of the cast (Jennifer Connelly, Sam Elliot, Josh Lucas, and Nick Nolte) in their respective roles. Frederick Elmes (Blue Velvet) supplies the dark but nuanced cinematography. Lee reserves any comic-book flourishes for the inspired split-screen editing—simulating the layouts of Marvel's graphic novels—until... he nearly demolishes any critical good will with the third act and its cartoon histrionics. Flawed, with moments of greatness.
[Image] Kill Bill: Vol.1, dir. Quentin Tarantino - So there's this cinematic enfant terrible whose talent is fairly obvious despite what his detractors would have you believe. But while he's been out enjoying all of his accolades his output has been pretty thin. Six years after his last film, he comes with an exciting—if super-longish—samurai-western pastiche, and you think, I don't know when he'll do another one... Let's split this film into two and really get more bang for the buck. What could have been one lean, mean, epic film, is now two slightly bloated half-films. That's my problem with this Tarantino movie, but alas, 2003... not a great year. So this still rather entertaining film makes it on here for its clever genre-bending. And you'll definitely see Vol.2 on the next year's list because it is vastly superior to this first part.
[Image] Lost in Translation, dir. Sofia Coppola - Does it really matter what Bill Murray whispers into Scarlett Johansson's ear at the end of Sofia Coppola's love letter to Tokyo? Only in that it preserves the thin sliver of intimacy these two platonic soulmates share during the fleeting moments in which their travels intersect. Coppola (Marie Antoinette) perfectly captures the feeling of dislocation one feels as a stranger in a strange land, especially one as quirky as Tokyo, which—as portrayed here, at least—feels like a refracted Bizarro-version of the US at its most indulgent.
[Image] Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World, dir. Peter Weir - Weir (The Truman Show) gives us a humanistic take on war that, paradoxically, staunchly defends the concept of honor in battle. Russell Crowe is at his most charismatic as "Lucky Jack" Aubrey, captain of the HMS Surprise during the Napoleonic Wars. Just as in Patrick O'Brian's original novels, Weir gives plenty of time to the unique and insightful relationship between Aubrey and the ship's physician, Stephen Maturin (Paul Bettany), unlikely friends that bond over their shared love of music. The soundtrack is thus a prominent character in the film, and deservedly so. If ever a film demanded a sequel, it is this one.
[Image] Open Range, dir. Kevin Costner - Another genre offering that captures the subtle nuances of male relationships, Open Range is an elegiac western that takes its time to unfold and a surprising return to form for the actor/director of Dances with Wolves. Costner's chemistry with costar Robert Duvall is one of the pleasures of watching this film. In fact, the introspective quality of their friendship permeates throughout the rest of the character interactions, aided greatly by the atypical cast of Annette Benning, Michael Gambon, Diego Luna, and Kim Coates (as the most menacing but shortest-lived gunslinger in Western cinema).
[Image] Swimming Pool, dir. François Ozon - Where did all the erotic thrillers go? Once a staple of nineties cinema, it has virtually disappeared outside of the softcore direct-to-video realm. But Ozon capitalizes on the history of the former sex symbol, Charlotte Rampling (here appearing quite matronly), pitting her against French kitten Ludivine Sagnier in a sexual power struggle of a sort. Questions of identity are raised as Rampling is by turns repulsed, attracted, and fascinated by the nubile Sagnier. And most refreshingly, age and experience seem to trump youth and potency in the end.
[Image] X2, dir. Bryan Singer - What? Two superhero movies in the same year? Well, as I said, it was that kind of year. But Singer gets points here for achieving what many comics fans long thought impossible—fashioning a tight action adventure starring a team of super-powered beings that is coherent, exciting, and thoughtful. Singer delivers on the potential of the earlier, flawed X-Men, by playing up his own strengths with ensemble casts (The Usual Suspects) while spotlighting the mysterious background of the team's loner, Wolverine (Hugh Jackman), and bringing the allegorical allusions to homophobia to the foreground. One can only hope the upcoming Avengers[Image] film is anywhere near as good as this one, possibly the apex of its genre.
"The Best Films of the 00s: 2003"
8 Comments -
I applaud you for having the courage to put Hulk on here. I agree that Ang Lee kind of sells out to the comic book crowd with that ridiculous third act, but up until then it's a surprisingly surreal, emotionally involving experience. And after that film, I knew that Eric Bana was an actor to look out for. History has proved correct!
Master and Commander and Lost in Translation have indeed endured. Ironically, I didn't immediately love either of the two films; with the former, I was initially disappointed at the lack of battle sequences until I realized that Weir was really going for a sort of Jane Austen approach (with men). And it took me an even longer time to appreciate the latter film, but as I got older, I did end up coming away a believer at Sofia Coppola's cinematic poem.
Maybe Bill Murray shoulda won that Best Actor Oscar? Although comparing him to Sean Penn in Mystic River is like comparing Brando's Last Tango performance to Lemmon's Save the Tiger performance- they're both awesome, lionistic performances by their respected actors.
Did you by any chance see Finding Nemo, Tony? I'd say that's Pixar's greatest film all decade. Though the plot is conventional, Andrew Stanton did a wonderful job at putting a unique spin on conventionalism.
Also, I know it wasn't a theatrical release, but I would personally put in a word for Angels in America. Best thing Mike Nichols has ever done, in my opinion (although it took the incomparable voice of Tony Kushner to get him up there). And nobody does a better Roy Cohn than Pacino.
I thought Return of the King was the year's best film, but of course I'm one of the last surviving breeds of LOTR fanboys.
January 2, 2010 at 2:10 PM
I did see FINDING NEMO, and though I enjoy watching it, it still strikes me as aimed more towards children. Later Pixars seem to address universal themes and you'll see at least two that I can recall on the lists for upcoming years.
Haven't seen ANGELS IN AMERICA, yet. I do look forward to it since I've heard good things. But it has to beat CARNAL KNOWLEDGE for me to believe it is the "best thing [he] has ever done." And that seems unlikely.
I enjoy LOTR, but a lot of it is uneven. And I really hate those sweeping shots over battles that Jackson has a proclivity for. They remind me too much of video games.
January 2, 2010 at 6:05 PM
Here's my list, Tony. I'm glad to see you appreciate Open Range, too. Such a classic example of why I love the western. Anyway...love your list (although we disagree on the von Trier), and I'm glad you mentioned X2, which was the only time that franchise was interesting. Here's my list:
Honorable mention (AKA “the other ten”): All the Real Girls, American Splendor, The Dreamers, Elephant, House of Sand and Fog, May, A Mighty Wind, Oldboy, School of Rock, Whale Rider
10. Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (Peter Jackson)
9. The Man on the Train (Patrice Leconte)
8. Open Range (Kevin Costner)
7. Northfork (The Polish Brothers)
6. Saraband (Ingmar Bergman)
5. Master and Commander (Peter Weir)
4. Shattered Glass (Billy Ray)
3. Kill Bill Vol. 1 (Quentin Tarantino)
2. Lost in Translation (Sofia Coppola)
1. The Son (Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne)
January 3, 2010 at 2:57 AM
Hi Tony,
Good list again, though some of them i missed out again.
Some of my favorites, apart from the ones you mentioned.
1)LOTR-Return of the King
2) Finding Nemo- Have a personal attachment. It was released in the same year, i became a Dad myself, and to date love to watch it along with my daughter.
3) Pirates of the Carribean- Ok maybe a guilty pleasure, or maybe a fan of the series. Love watching Johnny Deep goof around, Geoffrey Rush having a go at it, and yes there is the luscious Ms.Knightley. For me it's perfect popcorn entertainment.
4) House of Sand n Fog: A bit too soggy, but Connely and Kingsley make it worth a watch.
5) Mystic River
6) 21 Grams: Again a bit uneven, but great acting from Sean Penn, Naomi Watts, Benicio Del Toro, and the plotting makes it one of my favorites.
Other than that, 2 Korean movies that year, i really liked
Spring, Summer,Fall, Winter & Spring: Very lovely, personal movie, that captures the stages of life in a young monk, along with the change of seasons. Some of the best cinematography ever.
A Tale of 2 Sisters: One of the best horror flicks, i have seen. Very pyschological, moody and atmospheric.
Ratnakar
January 3, 2010 at 11:23 PM
Some other favorites of mine
School of Rock
Big Fish: Quite different from the usual Tim Burton movie, but very personal
Osama: One movie not to be missed. Showing the real brutality of the Taliban regime. Young girl, dressing up as a boy to survive, taking up work, one of the most damning indictments of the Taliban rule.
Matchstick Men: For me the only Ridley Scott movie i liked this decade.
- Ratnakar
January 3, 2010 at 11:54 PM
Quite good picks, although I completely disagree with Dogville, I hate that movie. I'm planning on starting a most overrated films of all time coloumn on my blog and that one will certainly be among them. I however like to see both Hulk and the Dreamers, two quite underrated films in my opinion.
January 15, 2010 at 9:37 PM
Mike,
Thanks for your comment. I'd be interested to hear more on why you dislike DOGVILLE so much. I've seen two von Trier films; loved one, and hated the other (ANTICHRIST).
January 16, 2010 at 4:50 PM
Tony, I'll totally have to get on writing about Dogville soon. I haven't seen Anti-Christ, but actually did enjoy the Dogville sequel Manderlay slightly more (though not much). For my money the best Von Trier has ever done was Breaking the Waves, but I also did appreciate his comedy Boss of it All.
January 18, 2010 at 6:58 PM