2003 Film List (1 Viewer)

[Adam_S]

I've seen
Matrix: Revolutions - :star::star: - too many words, it should not be a Terry Brooks novel in space!
Capturing the Friedmans - :star::star:½ - my, that was well edited, and lookit all the pretty B-roll footage!
City of God - :star::star::star::star: - dammit I've not room on my top ten list!
American Splendor - :star::star::star::star: - why do I discover two of 2k3s best films on the same day, poor top ten...
and now I've seen:
Whale Rider - :star::star::star::star: - an equal of the brilliant Peter Pan, dang I need a best fifteen list now! and what'll happen when I see some of the other big films I missed?!
Adam

 

[Jason Seaver]

Updated with Mystic River (:star::star::star:½) and House Of Sand And Fog (:star::star:½) as I cram for Oscars.

 

[Brook K]

In This World: Michael Winterbottom's latest is a neo-realist film about two refugees attempt to journey from Pakistan to London to being new lives in a country with opportunities to offer. Their journey includes encounters both harrowing (smuggling past border guards, not speaking local languages, packed into trucks and shipping containers) and touching (strangers willing to help, pickup soccer games). Jamal, the younger of the two, is our touchstone. It is his humor and spirit that carries them, and us, along the way. He grows up in this film, his eyes opened to a world of possibilities, both good and bad.
Shot on DV throughout the Middle East, just making the film was an accomplishment. It delights in little moments of pleasure amidst dangerous and uncertain environments. As we grow to know and like the characters, their predicaments becoming increasingly harrowing and life threatening. Here Winterbottom has done his job well. However he also chooses to have a narrator interrupt at times with various bits of info and statistics. These are meant to inform viewers on the plight of refugees, but include digs with no context given, like one that equates the US bombing of Al-Qaida in Afghanistan to the Soviet invasion.
Moments like these detract enough from the film that, while I can and do recommend it, it didn't make my top 10. B+
Next Up: School Of Rock

 

[Brook K]

School Of Rock: In a year that, for me, was very lacking in quality comedies, School of Rock is the best of the pack. The quintessential "feel-good" film, carried by Jack Black's performance but aided by the strong concept and yeomen work in the casting department in assmbling a fine group of kids. The first half of the movie is especially strong, with Black's love of rock & roll combining with the kid's thirst for knowledge to create many warm and hilarious scenes. Its unfortunate that the student-teacher dynamic takes a back seat in the 2nd half to purely formula situations like bringing Black and Joan Cusack together, Sarah Silverman's dastardly villain, and stereotypical American movie parents who don't support or understand their kids.
But it does salvage things by the end, and given how much I laughed and enjoyed myself, it earns a high grade. Not quite top 10, but top 15 or 20. A-
Next Up: Waiting a couple of weeks for Veronica Guerin and Shattered Glass

 

[Brook K]

Veronica Guerin: Pure laziness. Structured like 1,000 other biopics, not a single moment of inspiration or imagination in the entire running time. Shot in a completely plain and conventional "style". Cate Blanchett does what she can, but if the filmmakers are so clearly uninterested in the material, why should I be? The ending is the worst, a drawn-out 5 m slo-mo sequence of information we were already given in the opening moments of the film set to the most banal new age music imaginable. The Secret Lives of Dentists has competition for worst movie of the year. D-
Next Up: Demonlover

 

[Nick Sievers]

.

 

[Brook K]

Sounds like a fantastic film Nick, very minamalist.
I was probably a little harsh on ol' Veronica. I just have no patience for the simply average these days.
Demonlover is a difficult film to talk about, it exists mostly on the basis of theme - monolithic, faceless corporations that seek to control us with porn and comics or something like that, a coming apocalypse of amorality? Anyway, if you are fascinated by such things, this is your movie, if you're not, there isn't much of a reason to watch. The characters certainly offer no help. Aside from Gina Gershon's brief turn, I found them uniformly uncompelling. They are cyphers within a coldly unemotional film that is in some ways a conspiracy thriller with no thrills. While I found the bits about the profitability of porn and anime websites making them targets for corporate control interesting, I don't believe the writer has any clue how corporations really operate. C+
Next Up: Shattered Glass

 

[SteveGon]

I just have no patience for the simply average these days.

Ditto that.

Still, I'll probably rent it (only a buck anyway) just to watch Cate.

 

[Brook K]

Ok Steve, but you've been warned Celtic Dirge Alert!! Celtic Dirge Alert!! There's nothing like reinforcing that a movie set in Ireland is Irish than a good ole Celtic dirge. And the movie is so enamoured with the idea that it features two different dirges back-to-back.

 

[SteveGon]

Yeah, given the reviews, I'm not expecting much with VG (though I do like Celtic dirges). It's mostly a Cate thing.

 

[JohnRice]

Brook, I completely agree with the overdose of dirges in VG. It actually had me chuckling a little.

 

[Seth Paxton]

Matchstick Men
8 of 10
I saw this right when the DVD came out but I've been so busy that I forgot to add it.
It's well done, nicely acted by Cage, but the plotline is a bit predictable. Con-men films tend to have certain basic premises to them so I found myself guessing it rather early although I wasn't quite certain till the end. If it wasn't for it following a standard plotline I would consider it much stronger.
I also think I forgot to mention Confidence awhile back, but I give it a 7.5 for similar reasons. Good film, some interesting aspects to it, but a little too plain to warrant a great rating. I could even understand other people being harsher on it.
Tomb Raider 2
2.5 of 10
Well, it was better than the first one, for what that's worth. Still a pretty terrible waste of a great character and solid actress. The direction reeks and the script it utterly pointless most of the time. Not the worst film of the year for me, but it makes the bottom 10 no matter what else I see I predict.
I need to update my list since it doesn't include my latest additions still.

 

[Scott Weinberg]

Added a few: Carnage, The Fog of War, Alien Hunter, Dirty Deeds and Consequence

 

[Brook K]

Shattered Glass: An interesting and entertaining look at the New Republic scandal. The film is very good at portraying the innerworkings and office politics of a magazine and how Glass was able to work the system and get away with lying to so many people for so long. Who knew Hayden Christiansen could act? Peter Sarsgaard is strong as well. B+
Next Up: The last big week of 2003 releases - Texas Chainsaw Massacre, Something's Got To Give, & House Of Sand And Fog

 

[Jason Seaver]

Updated with Tokyo Godfathers, which did in fact get a miniscule Oscar-qualifying 2003 release before its miniscule 2004 general release. - :star::star::star:¼

 

[ZacharyTait]

Added the following to my list:

Swimming Pool
21 Grams
Cat in the Hat
Shattered Glass
Something's Gotta Give
Texas Chainsaw Massacre
Fog of War

 

[Brook K]

Still working on '03 with 2 more
Texas Chainsaw Massacre - did the creators even see the original film because they completely missed the point. It isn't about Leatherface chasing a hot chick around with a chainsaw. The filmmakers fail to create any sort of atmosphere save for revulsion at yet another crass cash in on an established name. Sort of enjoyed R. Lee Ermey but he has so much more presence than anyone else in the film that he unbalances it. C-
Something's Gotta Give - Occassionally funny, innocuous feel-good romance. At times I felt sorry for Nicholson and Keaton having to work with such poor and cliche material, but their enthusiasm comes right through the screen and won me over to view the film in a somewhat positive light. C+
Next Up: House Of Sand And Fog

 

[Seth Paxton]

The Rundown
6 of 10
It starts off good enough, The Rock is a great screen personality I think and the film showcases him well. The problem is that once it establishes the fun and interesting character dynamics of Rock, Seann W-S, and Walken, the film has nowhere to go with them in the 2nd half and falls into a terribly cliched rut for the ending. Rent it for the actors, don't expect a rewarding narrative however, though the initial premise was good enough for this to have been better.
Runaway Jury
7 of 10
Again, this is a film that features some nice acting moments, especially Hoffman and Weisz with Hackman and Cusak being typically good but with less rewarding roles. It's actually a semi-decent premise if you like Grisham films like The Firm. What makes it a little better than an average thriller is some of the moral issues that are discussed regarding the legal system. However, that's also the letdown here because if they chose to go for something greater than just "thriller" they could have had Oscar material off of this concept. Instead its a semi-tight but not intense thriller that only occassionally touches on the deeper morals underlying the situation.

 

[Brook K]

House Of Sand And Fog: Powerful acting and a gripping conclusion are the highlights of this well-made film. This is another case of Hollywood mis-marketing as it's much more of a character piece/morality tale than conventional thriller. The tension results from the unintended consequences of choices made out of fear, pride, and their insecurities and human weakness. Roger Deakins' cinematography effectively captures the character's self-imprisonment and the doomed atmosphere they inhabit.
My problem with the film was the Ron Eldard character's motivations were a bit murky and set against the powerful performances of the other actors, he doesn't come off as well. I thought this hurt the film in several spots as it lessens the emotional impact of some important scenes. Also director Vadim Perelman seems to have referenced specific Requiem For A Dream shots with Connelly at least 4 times. But in Connelly, Kingsley, and Agdashoo, the film has some of the year's finest acting and a film whose peaks are as emotionally draining as they are memorable. B+
Next Up: Ripley's Game, Case de los Babys

 

[ZacharyTait]

Updated my list with:

Big Fish (***/****)