Our Top 10's of 2001 -- Time To Throw Down

Jason Whyte · 12-25-2001, 12:37 AM

[size=]Ok people here we go!

This thread is for posting your Top 10's and Bottom 10's of 2001. Please include anything you want, summaries, thoughts, small pictures (let's not fill up the place!)

Please post your list FIRST then go back and edit your list as you see future films, and simply add an update post to bump the thread.

AND, as a test to my formatting for the 2002 List, all participating members will have their name and choice of favorite film of the year in this post.

Any questions, feel free to IM or email me. Have fun!

Jay[/size]

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I would also like to recommend avoiding this thread if you have seen less than 25 films this year. The purpose of this thread is to share the feedback of members who have seen their fair share of films this year and to seperate the good from the bad. Posting any list by saying you only saw Lord of the Rings but thought it was the best of the year, for example, without having seen the other 250+ releases in 2001, is unfair to the other contributors. Thanks --JW

Jason Whyte · 12-25-2001, 12:41 AM

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Top 10 +2 of 2001 FINAL EDITION!
By Jason Whyte

Final Top 10:

1. Mulholland Drive "There is no band, and yet we hear a band." Strange things happen in David Lynch's masterpiece of film noir, his best work ever, and it had me hanging on every last frame that ran through the projector. It's so wonderfully refreshing to finally see a film that rewards you, that enjoys your company, that challenges you and wants you as a part of the ride. Everything in the film happens for a reason, but it takes patience and work to find it. And when you do find it, it's a job well done. "Mulholland Drive" will live on for years, in my mind and in my head.

2. Donnie Darko Ditto. Richard Kelly, a first time director and screenwriter, has already bolted out the gate and joined the likes of Darren Aronofsky, Paul Thomas Anderson and Wes Anderson in this ultra-weird tale of Donnie (Jake Gylenhaal), his family, a demonic bunny rabbit, the mass apocalypse, and Patrick Swazye teaching how to deal with fear and love. Some movies have only a few memorable moments, "Donnie Darko" has one in every single scene.

3. The Princess and the Warrior Ubergod Tom Tykwer has done the unthinkable: he's bettered his art-house classic "Run Lola Run" in this mesmerizing tale of fate and chance surrounding Sissi and Bodo (Franka Potente and Beno Furhmann) and features a wild creative story and an incredible romance. Featuring an outstanding music score, gorgeous cinematography, terrific performances by both Potente and Furhmann, and Tykwer taking his time developing the story, there's never a dull moment here. And like all the films in this top five, it has a finale that is challenging and unforgettable.

4. In The Bedroom Real, brutal, emotional pain is felt through and through in Todd Field's drama surrounding loss between a father and mother (Tom Wilkinson and Sissy Spacek) and how they handle it. But the structure is shockingly three-act: a love story, a story of loss, and a painful revenge story; to watch how Field balances all three of these themes is incredible. And although Sissy Spacek is wonderful here, the real star is Tom Wilkinson, an incredibly underrated actor who finally gets his chance to shine.

5. Black Hawk Down Ridley Scott's mesmerizing war film, which details a supposedly short operation that becomes larger, more violent and more horrific, is one of the best war films ever made. Scott only wants to show what happened, and why. He saves pointless character development in favor of deconstructing the horrors of war and the futility of man. It's his best film, his least flashy and his most responsible.

6. The Royal Tenenbaums And then you have Wes Anderson, who has already carved a niche out for himself as a literate director who wants his cake and eat it too. He loves the Tenenbaums, every last one of them, even the pithy, ostracized Royal (Gene Hackman) who wants nothing more to love his family again, but at what price? Featuring pitch-perfect performances, a brilliant soundtrack and winning dialouge, moment after moment, "The Royal Tenenbaums" is sweet and heartbreaking, funny and violent, rockin' and tearful, and Anderson wouldn't have it any other way.

7. Monster's Ball Marc Forster's brilliant writing is the core of "Monster's Ball," a film that shows the intracies, the strengths and the weaknesses of the human soul. Everyone here, from Hank (Billy Bob Thorton) to Leticia (Halle Berry), is flawed and have connections in their lives that root ugliness, but are presented by Forster with such honesty and insight that we can't help but be fascinated by them. The performance by Halle Berry is proof of this.

8. Amelie This is a rare delight -- a romantic comedy that is high on spirits and rife with originality --that even though it slows a little too much at the finale, I nevertheless fell instantly for Amelie (Audrey Tatou). She's a problematic cupid of sorts, that works wonders on all of those around her, but when it comes to herself, she is afraid of what may happen. Director Jean-Pierre Jeunet wonderfully shows a lighter side of Paris and has many visual tricks up his sleeve (fast cutting, visual effects, odd narration) that only adds to the overall wonders.

9. Bully The most stomach-wrenching film of the year, for it presents a realistic and horrifying look at teen life, in the Everglades in Florida, where all the characters drink, drug, smoke, fuck, swear and party all day and night long, to the point when a situation occurs, we're fascinated by their sheer lack of moral value and stupidity. Director Larry Clark has shot this film as if we're another character in the movie, his camera lingering around just like the characters are. Not recommended for anyone under the age of 16.

10. Moulin Rouge Crank up the sound, the Cinemascope frame and the editing to maximum. Here is Baz Lurhmann’s spectacular (spectacular) musical that exists in its own time and place. Not a second is wasted here, right from the story of a writer falling for a club singer, to the outlandish musical numbers, featuring old and new tunes to 1900 Paris. Although I do wish Lurhmann would have slowed down on the editing (some scenes have four cameras filming on two people TALKING), it's a light consequence to the overall fun and dazzlement of this rowdy and entertaining film.

11. Lost and Delirous Lea Pool, a director whom I have never heard of before, has the eye of Stanley Kubrick in this beautiful, haunting and yet ultimately sad film detailing the loss of love between Paulie and Tory (Piper Perabo and Jessica Pare) at a boarding school, and the new roommate Mouse (Mischa Barton) who has a sexual awakening of her own. There’s true moments here, of the sadness and despair the human spirit can endure, as well as some beautifully poetic imagery. Topping it all off is an unforgettable scene where the three girls read a test letter to their respective parents.

12. Ghost World This is one of the finest films on adoloescene I've ever seen (on par with "Say Anything" and "Dazed and Confused," even "Lost and Delirious"). Terry Zwigoff, adapting from Daniel Clowes' underground comic book, has a keen eye for the oddities and goofiness of pop culture, and certainly young people. This is the kind of film where the lead character (in this case Enid, played beautifully by Thora Birch) storms out of her graduation, throws her cap on the ground, stomps on it, and gives the school the middle finger.

Thirteen Runner ups:

A.I. Artifical Intelligence Steven Spielberg comes so close to Stanley Kubrick's vision of a robot child designed to love, but not close enough. There's a passageway to the end that does not feel Kubrickian, but more Spielbergian and not taking a chance. Which is too bad, because the rest of the film certainly does take risks, and is one of the most ambitious projects of the year.

The Anniversary Party Here we have a razor sharp portrait of a Hollywood Couple whose relationship is put to the test during their wedding anniversary. There’s one excellent performance and interesting characters here, but nothing tops the incredible climax, featuring the two leads Joe and Sally (directors Alan Cumming and Jennifer Jason Leigh) at their wits end.

The Deep End This is such an interesting and engaging thriller, that would have been nothing without one of the year's strongest performances by Tilda Swinton. As Margaret, a mother who has to cope with the death of one of his son's boyfriends, Swinton is remarkable here as a woman using all of her available powers available to alieveate the problem, from the simple task of getting rid of a car to fighting off a mystery bribseman.

Divided We Fall A fascinating war film that shows humanity, kindness to your fellow man, and yet somehow possesses a sense of humour. It takes place in Czechoslovakia during the final days of WWII, with a couple holding a Jewish man who is hiding in their basement. My only complaint is an editing effect that removes every other frame to highten action, which irritates more than makes us gasp.

Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone 152 of the fastest moving minutes of 2001. Despite some strong flaws (of which include some poor lighting, bad editing and the occasional lackluster visual effect), "Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone" was the closest I came to feeling like a kid again.

Hedwig and the Angry Inch Oddly enough, this slam-bang, rockin’ adaption of the hit Broadway drag musical would make one hell of a double feature with “Moulin Rouge”. The fact Hedwig (John Cameron Mitchell, giving an amazing performance) is a transvestite is irrelevant. It’s the music, baby, all the way from the rousing “Tear Me Down” to “Angry Inch” to the brilliant “Wig in a Box” (complete with sing along subtitles!) that goes hand in hand with the animation and weird live performances. Just go with it! “Ladies and gentleman, whether you like it or not…”

The Lord Of The Rings: The Fellowship Of The Ring Some may call it violent, some may call it long, I call it a visionary spectacle of J.R.R. Tolkien's classic stories, full of life and imagination.

No Man's Land Danis Tanovic's study of a Bosnian and Serbian soldier trapped between enemy lines is shocking, funny, sad and revealing. And it ends on a final shot that is purely unforgettable.

The Pledge - This powerful and haunting drama from Sean Penn is a testament to human despair and sadness, and features Jack Nicholson, as detective Jerry Black, in a performance so bold, so interesting and yet so sad that we care for him and yet want to tear his head off. He may have sworn to find the person who killed one's daughter, but what if he can't? This film is amazing in how it shows the lengths that Jerry will go to to find a serial killer.

Shrek The best kid's movie of the year, "Shrek" was also one of the year's biggest hits box office wise, but was also wonderfully funny and incredibly original, from the Ogre with a heart of gold, his best friend Donkey, the princess, even to Lord Farquaad, who is just a little obsessed with attention. And who can forget a gingerbread cookie, recently turned into a parapeligic?

Spike and Mike's 2001 Festival of Animation The third year in a row the animation festival has made my list, and for good reason: one year after another, the L.A. based company strings together a 90 minute program of short animated films from all over the world. This year, among very many strong additions, featured two perfect classics: a short on Italian versus Americans, and Don Herzfeld's "Rejected," which defies description, is one of the funniest things I have ever seen. Keep watching out for Herzfeld's DVD of this short, it's coming one of these days. "I'm a banana!"

The Taste of Others The setup may remind one of “The Five Senses” with the body’s responses belonging to its respective characters, however Anges Jaoui’s film from France shows so many different angles and styles of five completely separate friends that you’re amazed these people even know how to get along. There’s a big story here, but it comes out of the rich dialogue and performances, and has a good sense of reality.

Note: Italian For Beginners will be filled onto my 2002 Film List since the film has not been offically released in North America at this time; I saw the film at an invite screening in Victoria and their print was furnished by the good folks at Alliance Atlantis and the Vancouver International Film Festival. Had this film made the cut, it would be somewhere around #9 on my list.

Another Note: Apocalypse Now Redux is certainly ineligible for this year's list, but I found the restoration job outstanding, featuring an additional 50 minutes of material that may not all work, but it gave viewers a chance to see this film in a theater, where it always belongs. Had this been a 2001 film, it would be #1.

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Bottom 10 + 2

1 Druids The cinematic equivalent to drinking a bottle of drano and setting yourself on fire. It’s nearly impossible to watch a film like this, which doesn’t really have a form or reason to exist; at best I could describe it as a ripoff of Gladiator or even Braveheart, but what’s the point? Christopher Lambert (who is missing the second “R” out of his first name on the poster) looks half dead in his portrayl of Vercingtorix, who is so bloody sedated, that if he were like this in reality, we’d have a battle consisting of warriors on Nytol.

2 Freddy Got Fingered & Corky Romano (tie) The only difference between these two films is I still like Chris Kataan, but Tom Green’s career belongs in the 99 cent bin the cheapest video store in town. Both films feature complete morons who somehow make their way through a tedium of 90 minutes of bad plotting, over-obvious foreshadowing and slipshod filmmaking. Chris Kataan may be funny as Mango or even Mr. Peepers on Saturday Night Live, but not as Corky. And as for Tom Green, I don’t care how many boundaries he breaks with his “talent,” he is simply unentertaining and tired as an entertainer.

3 How High The only thing this movie is high on is ethnic slurs, black women with complementary shots of their butts, and two rap stars who don’t necessarily act but mumble their performances in. This is a noisy, racist film that ranks among the worst comedies ever made.

4 3000 Miles to Graceland Elvis impersonators, shooting at each other. And again. And again. This film is not only loud, but painfully loud, "Battlefield Earth" loud.

5 Bride of the Wind Alma Mahler deserved better than this. In Bruce Beresford’s laughably stupid and aimless bio of the composer in hiding for many years, Mahler’s portrayed here as Evita Redux, sleeping her way to the top and not really doing much else. Oh, the film’s a technical nightmare (we dream sideways?) but it’s real disaster is casting such a great actor like Jonathan Pryce as conductor Gustav Mahler, and reduces him to flailing his arms around like Bugs Bunny.

6 Fat Girl Two erections. A 15 year old girl, naked from head to toe, in the same shot as the erect man. A 12 year old girl topless in two scenes, raped. This could have been sophomoric material by Catherine Breillat, but she makes it ten times worse by including disgusting pornographic material that does no service to any aspect of the storytelling.

7 Pearl Harbor A lot of things blow up and we witness what may be the most poorly written love story in nearly a decade. This is Michael Bay for you. He’s always been a director of big action spectacles, so it comes as no surprise that he doesn’t know any better way to film a real event with characters who say things like “I’m going to give Danny my heart, but I don’t think I could ever look at a sunset again without thinking of you.” Now that’s said, I can’t watch a sunset ever again without thinking of this damn film.

8 The Art Of Woo Cheaply shot piffle. It’s dull and uninteresting story – two roommates (Soon Li-Yung and Adam Beach), he a professional painter, she an art dealer that are supposedly a match made in hell, but eventually discover each other. At least I think that’s what happens, there are so many dead patches in this film that there was a whole ten minute section where my mind completely floated away.

9 Scary Movie 2 A sequel to one of the most failed attempts at comedies I have ever seen. What were you expecting? Throughout, there's one dated joke after another that falls, fast, and then moves onto the next one, with the same effect, ad nauseum.

10 Bubble Boy This movie tries so hard to offend everyone that it never tries to please! I don't see what's funny with having a boy with immunities, trying to stop his girlfriend's wedding, on a road trip of sorts, running into every ethnic slur in the dictionary. I stand in awe, also, of a sequence featuring Bubble Boy running out of a building to the tune of "Disco Inferno!" I wanted the projectionist to "Burn, baby, burn!" the print.

11 Riding In Cars With Boys I'm sure the real Beverly has seen better days than this. Penny Marshall's cheap, slipshod adaptation of Beverly D'Onfrio's novella chronicles her life as a cheap, slipshod mother growing up in Dullsville, but what sets it apart is asking us to believe Drew Barrymore ages 15 to 34 years of age, but looks the same to us throughout (the fact they use Mika Boorem to play her character at age 12 is odd enough). Even further adding to the confusion are what seems like 5 different versions of Beverly's son.

12 Double Take The opposite-year equivalent to "How High," this was George Gallo's disastarous, loud, endless January movie with nary an original idea in sight, just a long string of idiot plots, "I'm not really who you think I am!" contrivances, and a long string of racism and ignorance. Somewhere, John Shaft is laughing...

Thirteen Dishonorable Mentions (not worth my time to comment on)
-American Outlaws
-Black Knight
-Down To Earth
-Head Over Heels
-Joe Dirt
-The One
-Out Cold
-See Spot Run
-Summer Catch
-Thirteen Ghosts
-Valentine
-The Wash
-The Wedding Planner

Guilty Pleasure of 2001 Award

The Fast And The Furious I gave this film

seeing it in the theater, but it was the same kind of

I slapped to Rocky Horror Picture Show. This is a great, great BAD film that is stooped in its own self-centerdness. The sound is extreme, the girls are hot, the cars fly down what appear to be the length of Vancouver Island. This the kind of film every person with a digital sound system WANTS on DVD, and only for the sound. I love it.

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Top Ten Memorable Scenes From 2001:

1. Mulholland Drive: "Sixteen Reasons."
2. No Man's Land: The final sequence and ending shot.
3. Donnie Darko: "Head Over Heels"
4. Amelie: The cut-and-paste (with zoom sound effect) sequence.
5. The Royal Tenenbaums: The "Crash" climax tracking shot.
6. Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone: Quidditch!
7. Ghost World Enid working at the movie theater. I have two friends who work at a movie theater and can't help thinking of them during this sequence.
8. Donnie Darko Jet engine.
9. Moulin Rouge "Come What May."
10. Bully Coda.

Top 10 Funniest Moments/Lines from 2001:

1. The Royal Tenenbaums: "He Has The Cancers!"
2. The Royal Tenenbaums: Talkin' Jive.
3. The Royal Tenenbaums: "Wildcat."
4. Amelie: "Fifteen!"
5. Hedwig and the Angry Inch "No, but I love his work.
6. Zoolander: "A centre for ants?"
7. Donnie Darko: Patrick Swazye.
8. Bridget Jones's Diary: Bridget's Bum on Camera.
9. The Taste of Others: Multiplying the amount of sex partners.
10. Monsters Inc. Put that thing back where it came from, or so help me!

Top 5 Movie Moments That Lifted My Heart and Made Me Feel Good to be Alive:

1. Amelie: Amelie Poulain in the movie theater.
2. Moulin Rouge: "How Wonderful Life Is..."
3. The Royal Tenenbaums: Prologue.
4. Donnie Darko: "Head Over Heels" (second mention)
5. The Majestic: Frank's return to the small city.

Top 5 Films That Show What We Need More Of:

1. Mulholland Drive, Donnie Darko and The Princess and the Warrior, Memento: Challening, original ideas with a director not afraid to make the audience put in a little bit of work.
2. Last Wedding: More films shot in Vancouver should actually have the story set in Vancouver.
3. Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone and Lord of the Rings The Fellowship of the Ring: Better adaptations of novels.
4. Amelie, No Man's Land, The Princess and the Warrior, Asoka, The Crimson Rivers, Amores Perros, With A Friend Like Harry, many more More foreign films to be released in North America!
5. Apocalypse Now Redux Bring back 70's films in reissue prints!

List finalized at 4:50pm, March 31st, 2002.
END
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Edwin Pereyra · 12-25-2001, 12:46 AM

2001 will be remembered by me as one of the best years for foreign language and independent films. With a lot of filmmakers still focusing their efforts on films that matter and those that challenge the mind, I have renewed confidence in cinema as an art form. Without further due, here are my top films for 2001:

10. DIVIDED WE FALL (Czech Republic) – A heartfelt story about courage and love and the lengths people would go through just to do the right thing. Set in the Second World War, the film, which also contains some dark humor, is full of unexpected twists and turns and some memorable characters.

9. IN THE BEDROOM - is an examination of human emotions and conditions surrounding a tragic situation. It is about love, secret resentments and painful choices told with the very least sentimentality and manipulation. Actor turned director Todd Field has made a very good debut film with shots delivering some quiet intensity, which are all the more important especially in character driven narratives. Tom Wilkinson, Sissy Spacek and Marisa Tomei all deliver powerhouse performances.

8. AMORES PERROS (Mexico) – No one would think that this import from Mexico is a first film from Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu. He achieves the kind of maturity both in story and direction most directors do not attain with their debut features. This is a film that is so down to earth stripped of any pretentiousness involving true and honest emotions.

7. MULHOLLAND DRIVE – David Lynch delivers a richly textured film that avoids the standard convention of straightforward storytelling by using fragmented narrative. Naomi Watts' breakout performance is this year’s best performance by an actress.

6. MEMENTO - Creatively crafted film with the use of flashbacks, flashforwards and everything else in between to tell its story. It also features one of this year’s best actor performances by Guy Pearce.

5. MOULIN ROUGE - While the story may not be completely original, it is the journey, artistic interpretation and acting that make this film excel from all other musicals in recent memory. Director Baz Luhrmann’s visual style is so original that he transports the audience to another world with the use of quick cuts along with some exhilarating camera work.

4. WITH A FRIEND LIKE HARRY (France) – Director Dominik Moll’s superb character study about the deep recesses of the subconscious and explores the possibilities of what life might have been had different choices been made. The film examines the human dilemmas between desire and fear, identity and illusion, freedom and passivity, and above all, making choices and compromise.

3. AMELIE (France) - The film touches on the theme of solitude and achieves it greatly by a surprisingly uplifting story and a very impressive visual style by Jean-Pierre Jeunet. It is a celebration of life in the most memorable fashion of them all – fun and spontaneous. Audrey Tautou in the title role is very charming.

2. A.I.: ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE – The year’s most complex film is also the year’s most misunderstood film. It is a film to be enjoyed at a metaphysical and analytical level rather than at an emotional one. A.I., in more ways than one, is philosophically enriching. It aims for the intellect instead of the heart. What a tremendous achievement by both Steven Spielberg and Stanley Kubrick.

1. BLACK HAWK DOWN – What it comes down to this year is a film that matters. With all the criticisms about factually based films being made rather carelessly, we finally have a film that actually gets it right. Other directors who continue to make films based on real people or real-life events should take notice of this Ridley Scott film. The events portrayed onscreen showed the harsh realities of what actually happened in Somalia in 1993 without the need to sugarcoat any of it. It is the least sentimental and manipulative combat film to come out of Hollywood for quite some time.

Beyond the Top 10:

11. The Deep End
12. Together (Sweden)
13. Monster’s Ball
14. Hedwig and the Angry Inch
15. The Road Home (China)
16. Enemy At The Gates
17. Shrek
18. In The Mood For Love (China) (temporary placement due to film being viewed on VHS format)
19. The Princess and the Warrior (Germany)
20. Ghost World
21. The Lord Of The Rings: Fellowship Of The Ring
22. The Pledge
23. Under The Sand (France)
24. The Royal Tenenbaums

~Edwin

Thi Them · 12-25-2001, 12:48 AM

1. Mulholland Drive
2. The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring
3. In the Bedroom
4. Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within
5. A.I.
6. Moulin Rouge
7. The Man Who Wasn't There
8. Waking Life
9. Ghost World
10. The Deep End

~T

Bill Harris · 12-25-2001, 12:57 AM

After a lighthearted conversation with Jason about the Pledge being #2 on his list..i submit this

NY/L.A Rule in the house y'all!

(1) Amelie
What can i say. The only film ive seen more than twice in the theatre this year. I made a stupid comment on another board saying this was the best film ive seen since Pulp Fiction. I was wrong. Best film since Malkovich

(2) Harry Potter

I could read the books over and over again. Damn near perfect translation. bring on the dvd!

(3) Memento

I saw this film really early , and talked about it for months. Finally a movie that lived upto the hype even after i pumped it up.

(4) Amores Perros

But its a 2000 film!...blah , blah , blah. The scene with the Dog in the floor still drives me to tears(right Jay?

) , but who cares!. How did Crouching Tiger beat this for the Oscar?.

(5) Lord of The Rings: Fellowship of the Rings

Sorry , but i still like Dead Alive better

. All kidding aside , Peter Jackson is a genious!

(6) Mulholland Drive

While i dont think its on par with Blue Velvet or Twin Peaks , its a damn fine movie.

(7) Series 7: The Contenders

Jason Whyte and I saw this together at UVIC. Not even torching a couple of frames could destroy my fondness of this flick. Sidenote: The DVD is great

(8) Moulin Rouge

Give props to Baz...he deserves it. I will say that Hedwig had better songs

(9) Ghost World

Crumb was a great movie that showed T.Z as an upcoming force in documentries. So what does he do for his next movie?.. a straight ahead black comedy

. I am worried that Thora Birch wont get a nod at oscar time though

(10)Lost and Delirious

did anybody in the US actually see this on the big screen after one of the stupidest film ratings ive ever seen!.

As of December 24th..im still missing a few movies. So expect some changes