IT’S JUST A POPULARITY CONTEST: THE BEST MOVIES OF 2002
The Friday & Saturday Night Critic picks his Dozen-or-So Favorite Movies of the year, as well as singling out a few movies that he doesn’t think are as good as everyone keeps telling you.
To quote Richard Roeper of the Chicago Sun-Times:
"Every one of the nation's 45,823 film critics, from leading prose stylists at the top mainstream publications to 32-year-olds who live in their parents' basements and wear "Gollum Rules!" T-shirts as they bang out 6,000-word reviews for an audience of three (including two imaginary friends), is releasing a list of the best movies of 2002...you'll be unfamiliar with at least three titles on any given list. That's because the full-time film writers get to see the best foreign films and the independent gems and the movies that were given limited releases--and also because some critics love to flaunt their acute abilities to appreciate films that are too obscure, elusive and challenging for you, the unwashed moviegoing slob, to really appreciate."
That about sums things up. Well, it’s tax time and that means finally putting 2002 behind us, despite what we’ve done, and what we have failed to do. My first year with this website ends without me having seen several of 2002’s most important movies—“City of God,” “Adaptation,” and “Talk to Her” among them. I intend on seeing them in the future but, as of now, this list of Favorite Movies will have to do.
HONORABLE MENTION
(listed alphabetically)
Insomnia
Al Pacino and Robin Williams are in top form in director Christopher Nolan’s (“Memento”) remake of a Scandinavian thriller about a murder investigation in the Arctic Circle. Pacino is the embodiment of weary but resilient justice, Williams is a poet gone wrong, and the white-blue photography of Alaska is perfect.
Minority Report
The ever-thrilling Steven Spielberg joins Tom Cruise in a first-rate thriller about cops who employ psychics to catch murderers before they strike. The system goes awry, Cruise is framed, and a chase ensues through a terrifically-realized future world. Screenwriter Scott Frank emphasizes the ethical dilemmas of Philip K. Dick’s short story, and Colin Farrell and Max Von Sydow join in the chase.
Signs
The suggestion of monsters is far more frightening than their actual appearance in M. Night Shyamalan’s tale of a potential alien invasion in a small Midwestern town. Mel Gibson and Joaquin Phoenix are two brothers with children to look after and problems of their own, but the real star is writer-director Shyamalan who, like Hitchcock, is gleefully willing to manipulate his audience.
Y Tu Mama Tambien (And Your Mother Too)
Two shamelessly amoral teenage boys go on a road trip through Mexico with a beautiful older woman. The question is: who’s leading whom down the garden path, and just how far are these three willing to go? Virtuoso direction by Alfonso Cuaron uses Mexico’s poverty and beautiful scenery as a backdrop.
Because no one pays him to do it, the F&SN Critic cannot possibly afford to see every worthwhile movie that comes out in a year. The following is a list of films from 2002 he would very much like to see when he finds the time or the funds:
The world through the skewed and comic eyes of a group of barbers, as well as the owner’s (Ice Cube) decision to sell the barbershop.
City of God
A look at the narcotics industry in Brazil, told from the inside out in the style of “Goodfellas,” over the course of three decades.
Confessions of a Dangerous Mind
Is it true, or is he just delusional? In George Clooney’s directorial debut, the host of “The Gong Show,” as played by Sam Rockwell, claims to have killed dozens as a CIA assassin during the 1970s.
The Crime of Father Amarro
Intrigue and infidelity plague a young priest in 1850s Mexico. Oscar-nominee for best foreign film.
Diamond Men
Oscar-nominee Robert Forster (“Jackie Brown”) plays an aging diamond salesman who trains a replacement, finds a new love, and ponders thievery.
Femme Fatale
Director Brian De Palma’s (“The Untouchables,” “Carlito’s Way”) highly-stylized thriller about sex and jewel thieves is an in-joke for fans of film noir, vaguely similar to last year’s terrifically twisty “Mulholland Drive.”
A fiction film with a documentary approach to the frantic early days of the London punk rock scene.
About Schmidt
Jack Nicholson plays a retired office functionary whose trip to a daughter’s wedding makes him wonder if his life has been a complete waste.
Adaptation
The creators of “Being John Malkovich” once again combine reality and fiction in this tale of a screenwriter (Nicolas Cage) obsessed with the author (Meryl Streep) of the novel he’s trying to adapt, who is herself obsessed with the real-life protagonist (Chris Cooper) of her novel.
All or Nothing
Fresh from the 1890s London of “Topsy-Turvy,” writer-director Mike Leigh returns to the working class London of the present for another story of families trying to find hope amidst poverty and mistakes.
Antwone Fisher
Actor Denzel Washington’s directorial debut is the inspirational, real-life story of a sailor (Derek Luke) coming to terms with his troubled past.