2002 Film List - Page 9

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Busy weekend.

Alias Betty, which hit Boston for a weekend just in time for its video release. A good combination of thriller and character study, although the last act ties everything up too neatly.

I enjoyed Far From Heaven despite not having seen the Sirk films of which this movie is widely described as being a pastiche. It's a very good pastiche, but at times its formalism seems somewhat forced. Still, three pretty darn good performances and lots of bright colors.

::sigh:: I guess I really have to find some time to watch Chicago this week, don't I?

And, speaking of seeing Oscar contenders, I also saw (and added) several contenders in the shorts categories: All five animation nominees (I'd give the award to "Das Rad", but we all know "Mike's New Car" will take it), three live-action nominees (all cute but mostly slight; how could these be nominated while "The Remembering Movies" and "Ocha Cups For Christmas" aren't?), and "Mighty Times: The Legacy Of Rosa Parks". Reviews have been posted in the alterna-thread.

...And further updated with Chicago. I learned an important lesson here: A movie being up for a metric thwack of awards is not a good reason to see it, especially if every trailer has left you completely cold. Because, you've not only wasted two hours of your time and the cost of a ticket, all the recognition means you get to spend time wondering "what the hell are these people thinking?" even though the movie doesn't outright suck.

Jason, can't say I agree with you on Chicago.

Also, it sounds like Chubb-Chubbs might actually beat out Mike's New Car, despite neither being of the "best" quality to me. I'll see the other 3 on Friday to help me judge, and I expect at least one of those to be better than those 2 shorts.



Anyway, I've added 2 films

The Emperor's New Clothes
6 of 10
While their is nothing inherently wrong with the film, and indeed the idea of Napoleon escaping from banishment is a fascinating idea, the choices made in how to have this character live out this fantasy just don't work for me. It doesn't feel like Napoleon in the end as the film takes a turn for a feel-good romance. That just undersells and undervalues the premise the film had at hand and turns it into paint-by-numbers pop that you forget 10 minutes out of the theater.

The Salton Sea
7 of 10
Normally I'm a Val Kilmar fan, but I just found him miscast in this film. The script confounded me because at times I thought the dialog was outstanding, but often the story itself is rather sloppy and unbelievable, especially as the full story is unveiled. It also is a mix of previous done ideals, without focusing well on any of them. You get early moments that feel like Trainspotting knock-offs, other moments that be seen as 2nd rate Way of the Gun or Rush. It even slips into Real Genius sarcasm humor by Kilmer, which is totally out of place within this film.

One item worth noting from this film was the outstanding performance by Vincent D'Onofrio as Pooh-Bear. Dangerous and pyschotic done with the edges softened to believability. He felt like the kind of bad guy you could really meet, rather than cartoonishly bad as he could have been done based on the character design.

Updated my list with Tim Blake Nelson's The Grey Zone, an interesting morality play marred by some jarring anachronisms.

Movies like this always have a problem when the German speaking character claims not to be able to understand the character speaking Hungarian, but to the audience they're both speaking English. Takes you right out of the movie which is a big problem in a movie shot in an intentionally claustrophobic way.

Great (and important) story, awkward delivery. No change to the top ten.

Rob

Seth, how does your rating system work? Time after time you give so-so or even on the bad side reviews, and then score them a 7 or 8, which to me equates to a good, even very good film.

I liked Salton Sea quite a bit, I thought the tonal shifts were what was interesting about it, it wasn't just a run of the mill drugs/crime/revenge flick (like Way of the Gun for instance ) . Particularly the montages, which were funny and interesting. And far from miscast, I thought it was the best Kilmer had been in years.

When I get back from Cali I've got The Good Girl, Moonlight Mile, and Last Orders waiting for me. And hoping to be able to see something here on Friday. Found a theater that still had Quiet American though I'd rather finally see Adaptation.

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Brook, if a film does not work in a negative fashion more than a positive one, then it can stay above 5. Unlike Dana's list which has nothing but 65+ scores (maybe even 70+), my list does actually have many films at 5 or below. All my bottom 10 are well below the 5 range. xXx is in the 5 area, as an example.

I would consider my comments on Salton Sea to be a rather mixed review. I would consider a 7 to not be a very good score for an ambitious film, or in other words a film that is really trying to be creative and have an interesting voice rather than just be a paint by number crowd pleaser.

I will give crowd pleasers like Spidey a high rating, but I have to think the total product is tight. There is less slack for slop with the lower degree of difficulty.

So my 7 says that Salton Sea is worth a look because of an interesting idea, but don't expect it to really grab you like a great artistic film would (IMO of course). If I give a film a 5 or lower it's probably worth skipping and I would consider anything below a 4 to be something you shouldn't even be renting. 1-4 is a range of bad films, 6.5-10 is a range of good films.

Salton, to me, did have moments where it shined, which is much better than just being passable. Had it not had the flaws I listed I would have put it into the 9 range which would mark it as one of the best of the year. Had it not had D'Onofrio or some interesting scenes (such as the early meth junkie explanation) it would have fallen below 5 and into the "waste of time" region.

My list does feature many more "good" films than bad, but that's because I'm not a pro and I don't see films for free (except on a rare occassion). It runs at a 70-30 split in favor of the "above 5.5 scores".

I guess the problem might be that I often explain the review from a "why not a 10?" perspective, thus the negatives. Of course, when I look at the Salton review I do see things like "outstanding dialog", and to be honest I think many films (even top films) are often lacking that really great dialog. Salton had it at times, and that did impress me.


I should also say that some time ago I did rebalance some of my scoring because it had leaned too high in comparison to scoring for similar quality films from the last 2 years.


Finally, my understanding is that City of God is a 2003 Academy qualifying film based on how Miramax presented it. IIRC Miramax tried to play both ways with City of God, going for foreign film which resulted in it not getting released till 2003 for Oscar qualifying, but that it's attempted entry for 2002 FF has now nixed it's 2003 qualifying, or perhaps it's just that the early release for 2003 effectively kills any Oscar chances outside the FF that it already lost out on.

Anyway, I will put it in the 2003 list, but if I were to put it on the 2002 side it would be my #1 film of the year. I was amazed by the effort.

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The Quiet American, don't know what the big deal is about this movie. It's mostly a very mundane love triangle instead of the political hot potato it was billed as. It gets the politics out of the way in about 5 minutes and says nothing that isn't already widely known. It offers no insight, only tired "America bad" criticisms. There's nothing special about the technique. Even the vaunted Michael Caine performance doesn't seem particularly notable. He's certainly been more impressive in other films.
C+

Added 3 more so I'll just edit this post rather than adding another one.

The Good Girl - A tale of two movies, I liked the Jennifer Aniston/John C. Reilly problems with the realities of married life sections but I didn't care for the rote and trite Jake Gyllenhaal "troubled youth". So there were scenes that I quite liked and found moving, while others had me resisting the urge to fast forward. Also, while I generally like the use of voice-over as a story-telling device, it did not work for me in this film. I think it was a combination of too much of Aniston's accent and the feelings that the thoughts described seemed a little too together and advanced for the character as presented. C+

Last Orders - Given the cast I figured I'd like this movie, but was surprised by just how good it was using subject matter (after the death of a close friend, the remaining group of friends roadtrips to the sea to carry out his dying request, having his ashes scattered at the place of one of his happiest moments) that is awash in potential cliches. But the films performances and the sincerity in the writing help it steer clear of this road and tell a story of life's strange journey's better than many of this type. B+

Added American Psycho 2, a movie that begs 2 questions:

1. What's the POINT of this tiresome and pointless sequel?

and

2. How the HELL is Mila Kunis so damn cute??????

I'm editing here to point out the silliness of question #1. If something's pointless, why ponder if there's a point...right?

Updated my list with:

Atanarjuat, The Fast Runner (*** / ****)

Big Trouble (**1/2 / ****)

Moonlight Mile (***1/2 / ****)

One word. Fantastic. Just fell short of my top 10 for the year.

Mostly Martha (Bella Martha) (*** / ****)

Lowell

Also added Maid in Manhattan and A Walk to Remember...

The less said about each the better.

I Spy
5.5 of 10
I sort of liked this as a comedy, mainly Murphy and Wilson's character work. Story was mostly bad, even by comedy standards, thus the 5.5, but I still thought those 2 characters were often funny together, thus no 1 or 2 for the film.

Femme Fatal
6 of 10
I just didn't enjoy this as much as many people did. Typical recent DePalma, half genius, half stupidly silly. So many uneccesary logic gafs, and some pretty terrible acting by Stamos. Story was a great idea, the scenes as generally envisioned were great, but the scripting of those scenes was sometimes poor (some bad dialog, some goofy choices).

But I continue to love DePalma's vision as a director. He could have used some help touching up the script I think. After all, what private bodyguard watching 10 mil in diamonds stands and stares at a villain pointing something at him as if maybe, just maybe, that alarm going off didn't mean something criminal was going on in that bathroom.

Sweet Home Alabama
2 of 10
This film is truly awful, not so much in the sense that it features cliches and formula, but in the sense that the dialog is horrible at times (just a dreadful script) and much of the acting has come down to its level. For the first 30 minutes of the film we get what amounts to a cold script reading by Reese Witherspoon (this has to be considered her worst effort by far), and most of the supporting cast isn't much better. The film rises from a .5 to a 2 on the strength of some improved 2nd half performances across the board, but it never really excels.

This one borders on being a "walk out of" film. It's about as phoned-in as a film could be by all involved.

It makes #10 on my ten worst films of 2002 list at this point, just behind Pluto Nash.

Seth,
I was actually suprised that a few people around here actually had the words 'Guilty Pleasure' and 'not-too-bad for its kind' for Sweet Home Alabama. While it didn't make my worst list, I had similar feelings to yours.

Moonlight Mile - Liked this story of learning to live with loss quite a bit. Very well-rounded characters and Jake Gyllenhal is back to the potential he showed in October Sky rather than moping his way through stuff like The Good Girl and Donnie Darko. The emotions feel genuine and the writing seldom strays into the cliches of this type of film. B

Below - This was very passable. Cool idea with lots of potential, but the direction and execution of the idea seemed to just be going through the motions. Next to no character development. Doesn't deliver in the tension/thriller department which is damning for a submarine horror film. Worst of all, it felt oddly modern, particularly the dialogue. I didn't buy this crew as being WWII sailors. C- and that's only because I really like Bruce Greenwood.

Also have Autofocus which I'll probably tackle tomorrow. But Irreversible and Spider opened today so I may go to a theater instead.

Yeah Nick, I just don't get those sorts of comments.

It's not cornball dialog or sappy sweet that's the problem. This dialog is just like a C+ high school script dialog. Very stilted, often expository and unnatural as hell, and the delivery is unable (or unwilling) to go beyond that restriction.

Were it just goofy but delivered in a fun way or something, then a guilty pleasure might fit. Or if the film had something else to offer.

Example - I can enjoy Xanadu because of the music and OLJ and Gene Kelly, but the lead actor is wretched. If that film was all just stuff like he is doing (which SHA is) I sure as hell wouldn't be able to enjoy it at all.

So I get the "guilty" part, not quite sure what the pleasure is coming from. It's not a guy thing either because the fiancee walked out of the HT after 30 minutes vowing that she could "take no more". Only the hard-core film enthusiast in me rode it out in the spirit of "fair chance".

Loverboy, now there is a Patrick Dempsey film that could be described as a guilty pleasure, much better than SHA.

Updated with The Crime of Father Amaro, The Grey Zone, Elvira's Haunted Hills, and Welcome to Collinwood.

All good in their own way; nothing amazing anywhere.

Autofocus - ok, I liked some of it but would have to agree with most reviews that it doesn't get deep enough into the character and doesn't delve into potentially more interesting areas. And the director's decision to go hand-held at times is unfortunate, it serves only as a distraction and adds nothing in the realism department. Kinnear does an admirable job with what he has to work with. C+

Spirited Away
9.5 of 10
Hits number 11 on my 2002 list just behind Talk to Her and just above Spider-Man.

I'm a believer now. I really loved the characters, the setting, the art. It pulled me in pretty early on and had me interested in exploring this fantastic world the rest of the way. I would love to see a serious discussion of all the subtext in the film, who/what every character and moment represents. It plays VERY much like an anime Alice in Wonderland (the Boilerman reminded me of the Caterpillar, not only in how he sat up higher, but also in behavior, activity - being an alchemist - and attitude early on).

Sweet Home Alabama: OH GOD! I was dragged to see this last year; I tried to erase the memories of it, but seeing these posts brought it all back, ugh. The trailer was all I needed to see to KNOW that it would be bad, and I'm not one to judge anything by a preview. Now, by "bad" I mean in that cliched, sappy way; a trap most recent romantic comedies fall into. But this was far worse than that, because I expected at least credible acting from Reese Witherspoon and some of the other cast members. As Seth said, this was phoned in by everyone involved at best. It's not quite on my worst of 2002 list, but it's pretty darned close to getting on there.

I'm glad to see that you liked Spirited Away, Seth. I think if I had rated it from 1-10 after my first viewing, I would have given it a 9 or 9.5. But after seeing it 3 times, it slowly got better as the poetry of certain sequences really sunk in for me. It definitely worked its way up my top 10 list!

The train ride sequence is hauntingly beautiful, and probably my favorite sequence in the entire film. I don't understand how or why, but while watching it for the second time, I got a tear in my eye.

-Dennis

Secretary - Does a good job of establishing a character worth taking an interest in but I wish her behaviors had been more thoroughly examined, rather than often treating them in more of a "shock value" manner. The Gyllenhaal/Spader scenes have an electricity that really draws you into the film, but scenes without the two onscreen are at best not fleshed out enough, and at worst undermine or halt the narrative. We have a beautiful emotional scene of Maggie making her statement of love in a proud, even noble way and then this is undermined by needlessly throwing in reporters and some sort of bizarre "hunger watch" which are completely unnecessary.

The film is about Spader and Gyllenhaal, on the periphery are her family and the pseudo-boyfriend, there is no need to jarringly introduce the surrounding community at the 11th hour when it is going to be dropped just as quickly anyway.

Again, could have been much better, but I'll give it a generous B based on the strength of the performances.

I have About A Boy at home and The Emperor's New Clothes on the way.

Updated my list with:

Far From Heaven (***1/2 / ****)

Gorgeous. Just one word can sum up the look and cinematography of this film. Great performances all around by the cast, with a very good score by Elmer Bernstein. A very well done movie all around.

Lowell

About A Boy was a well done heart-warmer. However, thsi is also the kind of thing Hugh Grant can do in his sleep. The feelings were genuine, the story proceeds along a comfortable path and the viewer is entertained but the film never took that next step for me from "good movie" to "something truly special". Never reached the level of High Fidelity. B

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That's exactly how the film affected me. There were a few beauty shots or cool moments, but the power of the film is harder to point to than that. It just has an underlying tone that is very rewarding to the viewer, while at the same time remaining fun on a narrative sense with comic relief and action sequences.

It also has very interesting and watchable characters. A film can go a long way on that alone.



Since Arman just mentioned it I will add that Ferrell was very strong in Phone Booth IMO too.