Our Top 10's of 2003: Time To Throw Down! (1 Viewer)

[Matt Stone]

I should be updating in a few days. I'll finally get a chance to see Big Fish, LiT, and The House of Sand and Fog.

 

[Dana Fillhart]

Ted, I sent you an email reply mentioning I'd add your list because I thought I overlooked it. Then I saw you didn't rank your list. I can't add them to the totals without a ranking from 1-10, as I can't just assume all of them are tied at 1st place.

 

[Brook K]

I've now seen Big Fish and Capturing the Friedman's. Neither cracks my top 10.

Seabiscuit still out of stock at Netflix. I stuck Matchstick Men on my coming soon list. I really doubt I'll make an effort to see Last Samurai or House of Sand and Fog until DVD.

 

[Nick C.]

Quite neat, looking over today's Oscar nod announcement and our top 30, 4 of the 5 best pics found their way into our top 9, with Seabiscuit close behind. This virtually mirrored last year's results, 4 of 5 BP picks in the top 8, with the Hours also close behind (this was, it appears, as far as Dana's tracker was available). From various HTF posts/cries denouncing AMPAS' selections over the years, bought votes and the such, there remains a discernible degree of consensus between AMPAS' and movie lovers' (HTFers') tastes

Also, during this mini-excursion over previous years, noticed that the number of posts in the annual Throw Down/Top 10 threads have decreased steadily every year the past 4 years, from almost 400 to 225, 170, and finally this year, presently at just over 100. Logically with more time to post in each subsequently older thread, the count gets inflated a little, but it remains that the mass majority of posts were made in the few months immediately surrounding the thread. I haven't been around the forum that long, but has the membership dropped, or perhaps, are folks just slowly losing interest?

 

[Adam_S]

I've seen some 35 films this year, give or take a few, but I've not been able to update my 2003 film list since mid november... :p

hopefulliy I'll be able to eventually output it and update
may go do that right now actually, I still have this weekends pics to add to the 2k4 list.
I also updated my list with House of Sand and Fog and Peter Pan, two films that surprised the heck out of me, and reordered it, as well as adding an academy rules top ten as well.

Adam

 

[Ernest Rister]

1. Mystic River
2. Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World
3. Finding Nemo
4. Lost in Translation
5. Open Range
6. Love Actually
7. Thirteen
8. 21 Grams
9. Matchstick Men
10. Monster

 

[Jason Seaver]

Okay, got a few more to see, but let's go with this for right now:

:star::star::star::star: movies:

#1: Cicade de Deus (City Of God)
Since I saw this back in September of 2002, at the Boston Film Festival, it's been the odds-on favorite for that year's best foreign language film, been snubbed, gotten a peculiar 2003 theatrical release, not come out on DVD, received several Oscar nominations, and had it's home video release delayed again. Whew. Making this list, it's hard to look back at a movie I saw sixteen months ago and see where it fits in with the rest. I'd like to review it, but I can't right now.

Still, what does stick in my memory is powerful stuff. That initial scene of the doomed chicken, the great camera work, the chilling cycle of kids become killers at a very young age... I can't think of any other movie that came out in the last year that blew me away like this one, so it gets the nod.

#2: In America
We've all got our little things that we love perhaps more than they deserve. Me, I like stories about people newly arrived to the United States, making a clean break from their own life and ready to take advantage of its opportunities; it's a welcome antidote to the cynicism about one's home that all of us are vulnerable to. In America also gives us two of the best pre-teen performances of the year in the Bolger sisters, and is one of the sweetest, most hopeful movies you will see without becoming trite or sappy.

#3: Finding Nemo
Though many aspects of this film are formulaic, they're the types of things that became formula by dint of working. Meanwhile, Pixar uses that formula to hang a bunch of clever bits - those seagulls killed me - and to create an environment that is beautifully realized. There's a tendency in film review, criticism, and discussion to elevate character above all else, and it is important - but film is a visual medium, and few movies look nearly as gorgeous as Finding Nemo.

#4: Northfork
I realize that this is not for everyone. It can come off as over-artsy and self-indulgent. I think it's also a beautifully filmed and quite poignant meditation on death and loss, on multiple scales, and I was quite surprised by how powerfully it hit me.

#4.5: Ying Xiong (Hero)
Bloody Miramax. I appreciate that they may do more to get foreign and independant movies in front of people than anyone else, but it always seems compromised or unnecessarily difficult. Even though this was nominated for an Oscar last year and Miramax had signed up for distribution even long before that, a bunch of needless battling over cuts to an award-winning/nominated film has delayed it insanely. Which is too bad, because it means few in the US have gotten to actually see this fine film, better in several ways than Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon.

#5: Intolerable Cruelty
We don't award comedies enough. The aphorism that "dying is easy, comedy is hard" is seldom disputed, but when ranking my films, I routinely find myself thinking that film A shouldn't be so high because even though it's hilarious, it's not as important as film B. But that's rubbish. So, let me just say this: I laughed pretty much continuously through this movie, and admire the hell out of the Coens' craft. The scene where Wheezy Joe exits the picture is probably the most well-directed scene of the year; anything being the slightest bit off would have made it fall flat.

:star::star::star:¾ movies:

#6: Lost In Translation
Bill Murray has spent the last few years doing suporting work and basically stealing every scene he's in. In Lost In Translation, it all comes together as he and Scarlett Johansson are confronted by how absurd and confusing life can be as they meet each other in a Tokyo hotel bar. For only her second film (though she's got celluloid in her blood), Sophia Coppola has created an assured, masterful work.

#7: Blue Car
This movie twists the straightforward "talented kid with an inspiring teacher" idea into a pretzel, as the talented kid's drive to win the scholarship contest actually messes her life up worse, and the teacher's interest winds up in creepy territory.

:star::star::star:½ movies:

#8: The Hulk
I loved, loved, loved what Ang Lee did with this movie. Like a good adaptation should, it gets to the heart of the work, finds what's important, and rebuilds it to fit the medium - no mean feet when the original work is a comic book that has run for 40 years, had dozens of authors, and as a result occasionally contradicts itself. That he found a way to use comic-inspired visual styles to keep a potentially slow story feeling urgent during a lot of exposition in the first half is icing on the cake. The Hulk is probably my favorite comic-book adapation yet.

#9: Irréversible
A raw, often terrifying film that I can't imagine ever bringing myself to watch again, which uses its reverse structure cannily. Showing the violent confrontations before what leads up to them underscores their randomness and barbarity, and keeps the audience from being able to follow common plot blueprints to what will happen next.

#10: Nirgendwo In Afrika (Nowhere In Africa)
Like In America, a sort of "strangers in a strange land" story, and one I greatly enjoyed. It doesn't necessarily have a whole lot to say, but it features characters who become real as you watch the movie, to the point where you leave hoping things went well for them after the part of their lives that you were privy to.

The other 3.5-star movies which didn't quite make the top 10:

Kill Bill Volume 1: It's a wonderful thing when someone as talented as Tarantino brings all his talents to bear on a pure action movie.
School Of Rock: It's formula, but it's formula at its best.
The Triplets Of Belleville: A kind of masterpiece of animation that uses pictures and motion and sound effects to the almost complete exclusion of words, and doesn't ape American or Japanese styles.
Master And Commander: The Far Side Of The World: Authenticity counts for a lot; it's the details that make this adventure movie so watchable.
Lilja 4-Ever: The most terrible kind of horror story, where thoroughly human evil completely breaks a strong person.
Dracula: Pages From A Virgin's Diary: Guy Maddin can be maddening, but also brilliant, as in this gothic, bloody presentation of ballet in a silent film style.
Better Luck Tomorrow: Once a year or so, MTV produces something intelligent for and about its teen audience. This year, it's Better Luck Tomorrow.

The Dregs

:star:¾ movies:

#n-9: Anything Else
Displaying none of the wit of his 70s comedies, Woody Allen made a movie with enough funny lines to fill a trailer. And once back in the context of the movie, they don't feel so funny any more.

#n-8: The Recruit
The year's most boring, but sleekly-produced, studio movie.

#n-7: Koroshiya 1 (Ichi The Killer)
I almost feel bad about putting this import that got its first official US release this year on the same list as the other turds - Takashi Miike is such a great director that even this displays flashes of genius. It's just too unpleasant to sit through, though.

#n-6: The Event
Even if I could stomach this film's advocacy of assisted suicide, I found it to be such a stereotyped, boring piece of propoganda that I'm convinced it would still make my worst-of-the-year list.

#n-5: Avalon
Respected anime director goes to Poland to make a live-action film, and it's no surprise that the end result is a muddled, tentative, pretentioius mess.

:star:½ movies:

#n-4: May
One of those frustrating movies where you can see that everyone involved has talent but they're wasting it on an uninteresting, repugnant story.

#n-3: Love Object
Some nights, going to film festivals isn't a rewarding experience at all; you wind up seeing something unpleasant that doesn't even have much to do with the theme of the festival at all.

#n-2: The Warrior
I don't know if Miramax ever gave this inaction movie I saw at the 2002 Boston Film Festival a release this year as they were scheduled to. If not, just ignore this entry.

:star:¼ movie:

#n-1: Darkness Falls
It's kind of funny; if this movie didn't have an actress I liked in it (Emma Caufield), I would never have seen it, and it wouldn't have made my worst list. There's some kind of irony in there which I can't quite lay my finger on.

:star: movie:

#n: Anger Management
I should know better. But, I thought, Adam Sandler was good in Punch-Drunk Love, and Jack Nicholson is in it; why not give it another chance? Wouldn't be the worst of the year, except for the extraordinary number of people who are better than this showing up for something painfully unfunny.

 

[Seth Paxton]

Okay Dana, I just posted my list back in my placeholder.

I have a few more films to see that could alter it, but I've seen all but 2-3 of the major contenders now.

 

[Seth Paxton]

PS - I love how 3 of the 4 guys who have seen more than 200 films from 2003 still haven't seen all 30 of the films listed in our top 30. What chance do I have for chrissake!?!

 

[Dana Fillhart]

Cool, Seth, thanks

That's a good point about the mega-listers. I know that some members' numbers are likely to be a little off from their actuals posted in the 2003 Film List because of non-2003 films, duplicates, etc. in their list, but most shouldn't be too far off. I haven't gone through everybody's list a second time to make sure everything is accurate (I have faith in my sk1llz ), but I'll take a stab at that today when I do my update.

[Edit: Actually, now that I look at the list, I see Jason Whyte has 29/30 listed here but I thought he claimed he's seen all the majors, so I'll definitely have to go back & verify the entries.]

[Edit #2: Well, at least for Jason the 29/30 is right -- he's not listed House of Sand and Fog.]

 

[Dana Fillhart]

Ok, here's the latest, including all updates through about 11am this morning. I went through those who've updated since last week (either here or the 2003 Film List thread) and made sure the items in the list were accurate, and they were, so I'm reasonably sure the stats are pretty accurate. I still may have missed a few members' lists if they posted in the 2003 Film List (Michael Perez is one I know of -- with 384 films seen, I decided to skip all that data entry for the moment -- sorry Michael ). And there are at least 2 members who have posted a Top 10 list here in this thread but have not ranked them (Ted Todorov is one), so they aren't figured into the stats (and their names don't appear in the table).

Anyway, without further ado...

The Top 30 of Our Top 10 of 2003
Contributing, Qualifying Members:[COLOR= gold]65[/COLOR]
Includes all member updates through:[COLOR= gold]01 Feb 2004[/COLOR] # Film Total Score Fractional Weighted Total Top 10 List Appearances : 2003 List Appearances Weighted Average Unweighted Average 1 The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King 395 43.37 47 : 56 8.39 6.07 2 Kill Bill: Vol. 1 278 34.33 41 : 52 6.78 4.28 3 Lost in Translation 216 26.44 33 : 43 6.53 3.32 4 Finding Nemo 175 21.62 27 : 46 6.48 2.69 5 Cidade de Deus (City of God) 135 17.26 20 : 31 6.73 2.07 6 Mystic River 132 19.32 24 : 38 5.50 2.03 7 21 Grams 114 15.07 18 : 29 6.33 1.75 8 Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World 107 14.81 20 : 38 5.33 1.64 9 The Last Samurai 102 14.57 18 : 35 5.67 1.57 10 Irréversible (Irreversible) 90 13.08 15 : 28 6.00 1.38 11 Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl 89 13.64 20 : 43 4.45 1.37 12 X2 87 11.29 20 : 46 4.35 1.34 13 The Matrix Reloaded 73 10.76 16 : 44 4.53 1.12 14 Elephant 71 9.20 10 : 14 7.05 1.08 15 American Splendor 65 8.61 10 : 23 6.50 1.00 16 Seabiscuit 59 8.95 12 : 34 4.92 0.91 17 House of Sand and Fog 53 8.00 10 : 22 5.30 0.82 18 28 Days Later 53 7.58 11 : 39 4.82 0.82 19 In America 52 7.56 10 : 22 5.20 0.80 20 Whale Rider 50 8.21 11 : 30 4.55 0.77 21 Capturing the Friedmans 47 6.70 7 : 13 6.71 0.72 22 The Matrix Revolutions 45 5.08 7 : 33 6.36 0.68 23 Big Fish 44 6.29 9 : 25 4.89 0.68 24 Gerry 40 6.66 7 : 13 5.64 0.61 25 All the Real Girls 39 6.22 7 : 20 5.57 0.60 26 Hulk 38 5.61 10 : 37 3.80 0.58 27 Open Range 36 5.77 9 : 24 4.00 0.55 28 May 35 5.50 8 : 25 4.38 0.54 29 Spellbound 34 4.34 5 : 16 6.80 0.52 30 Raising Victor Vargas 33 5.50 7 : 21 4.71 0.51 Columns:

1. Position Film Title Total Score: A summation of each film's position in each contributor's top 10, with points given as follows: 1st place = 10, 10th place = 1. 10th place ties get .5 points per tie, limit to 2. All ties above 10th place have the points averaged for the positions (i.e., a 2-place tie for first would give 9.5 points for each place: 10+9, divided by 2). Fractional Weighted Total: The total combined fractional weighted scores of each contributor's film. Fractional weighted scores are computed for each contributor by the position of the film against the total number of films seen -- i.e., if a contributor saw 50 films, 1st place is 50/50 (1.00), 10th place is 41/50 (0.82). This gives more weight to lists with higher film totals. Top 10 List Appearances : 2003 Film List Appearances: Ratio of a film's appearance in this thread to how many appearances it makes in contributors' lists in the 2003 Film List thread. This gives better value to the Weighted Average (and Total Score) numbers. Weighted Average: Total Score divided by Top 10 List Appearances. This is considered weighted because it only takes into account those contributors who have the film in the top 10. Unweighted Average: Total Score divided by total number of Top 10 contributors (currently 65).

Contributing members [Number of Films in Top 30 Seen/30 : Total Films Seen]; if your name is not on here, and you are sure your list is complete, email me. Grey numbers beside names denotes 10 or less -- if you have only those listed here in the Top 10 list, then you didn't post a list in the 2003 Film List.

 

[Chris_Richard]

Also, good work Dana.

I updated my top 11-20 films in this list. I finally saw M&C: TFSotW. This weekend. It made my 11-20 list just outside of the top 10. This brings me to only 6 of the combined top 30 that I haven't seen.

 

[MichaelPe]

Hey Dana,
Amazing job... as always!
Just a small note... I should have 28/30 films with 384 total. I'm hoping to reach 30/30 by the end of this week.

Edit: Whoops... I just re-read your post and noticed your note regarding my list. Sorry I missed that... so just ignore this post!

 

[Matt Stone]

Fantastic job, Dana.

Delayed some good film watching, but hopefully I'll have a chance to catch up this week.

 

[Brook K]

Woo-hoo, Matchstick Men fell off and was replaced by a movie I'd seen. Seabiscuit has changed from a "long wait" to a "short wait" at Netflix, but still not really plannning on seeing Last Samurai or House of Sand and Fog until DVD.

 

[Scott Weinberg]

Great job, Dana! Love the chart!

 

[Craig S]

Nice job as always, Dana. One note - you have me at 95 films watched. Actually my count is only 87 (hopefully to grow over the next few weeks as I catch up with a stack of 2003 DVDs). The 24/30 is correct.

 

[Dana Fillhart]

Thanks for all the compliments, everybody! They make my day.

Craig, your count is probably higher because of the Animatrix shorts -- I have them individually in my database instead of one, so since they count as 9, your total is 8 higher than you'd expect.

I myself have quite a few left to see, although I am catching up. I already have Open Range under my belt, and pretty soon Spellbound and Big Fish.

Yea, I like watching as the stats change from week to week as more people have a chance to provide input and others see more films and change their top 10's.

Some interesting things about the positions:

* Mystic River has a higher Fractional Weighted Total than City of God. That means that those who have seen more films have rated MR higher in their list than CoG. Conversely, Matrix Revolutions has a far lower FWT than many others below it, which implies that those who've not seen a lot of films had this one rated higher in their list than those who have seen a lot.

* All 5 of the Oscar Best-Picture nominees are in the list; only Seabiscuit isn't in the top 10. Actually 3 of the other 4 are in the top 6, and Mystic River and City of God are practical ties so really the top 5, so I'd say we're doing pretty good here. I'd suggest that we're implying (as a group) that Seabiscuit is the weakest contender, so if it actually takes the prize, it'd be quite an upset.

* Poor Cold Mountain, ain't nowhere to be found...

* At least half of the films in the list are either independents or films without a wide release.

* Only 4 members so far have seen all 30 in this list (Arman, NickNC, Scott Weinberg, Stephen R). Okay, Jason Whyte, you're slacking off!

* Last year had I think 87 contributors. This year so far there are only 65. Hopefully we'll see more members put up their lists -- for stats at least, the more participants the better the results.

* (Me personally) - All of my personal Top 10 are in the list except one (and it was my #2, so I'm bummed): À la folie ... pas du tout (He Loves Me, He Loves Me Not). However, unlike last year, my #1 of 2003 is also #1 here

 

[Stevan Lay]

Dana,

I've updated my 2003 list.

 

[Craig S]

OK, that makes sense. And hey! thanks for bumping my count!!