2001: A Year in
Review
by
Ian Waldron-Mantgani, December 31, 2001
It was a curious year at the movies. I awarded
three stars or more to pretty much the same amount of titles I gave
two-and-a-half or less, meaning I recommended just as many as I didn't. And
yet this did not feel like twelve months of riches. Peruse the archives of
this website and you'll notice a number of lacklustre titles with positive
ratings, which didn't so much do things impressively as avoid doing things
wrong. "The Wedding Planner", for example, did not transcend formula, but
merely presented one with efficiency.
MGM sure missed the boat by not unveiling a
high-profile re-issue of "2001: A Space Odyssey". The BFI released a remastered
print which received a scattered release on a handful of UK screens, and
that was it. They blew it.
We should be glad, I suppose, that 2001 was not
as disastrous for cinema as it was for the world in general. This was not
only the year of the largest-scale terrorist attack in history and the resurgence
of conflict between India and Pakistan, but also the inauguration of George
W. Bush and the surge in popularity of Linkin Park. Things can only get better.
I hope.
The best films of the year:
1. "Requiem
for a Dream"
Drug users fall into addiction because they think
their situations are temporary, and the grasping of their dreams is right
around the corner. Their habits help them wait for other things to happen,
and then destroy the chance that they will. Along the way hallucinations
turn nasty and body and soul get shot to hell.
Darren Aaronowsky's great film is a visceral and
shocking depiction of the above, cutting between the lives of three heroin
addicts and the mother of one of them, who herself gets driven to madness
by amphetamine diet pills. Jared Leto, Jennifer Connelly, Marlon Wayans and
Ellen Burstyn give absorbing performances and create real lives, and we watch
in horror as they ponder heaven and fall to hell.
The movie is cunning in the way it penetrates
the subconscious through subtle use of music, lighting, split-screen, and
daring editing techniques. It is also merciless in its payoff, ending with
a 20-minute climax of frenzied anguish and suffering whose effect cannot
be shaken. "Requiem for a Dream" not only exposes "Trainspotting" as a shallow
pop video, but eclipses "Less Than Zero" and "The Lost Weekend" as the best
movie ever made about addiction.
2. "Harry Potter
and the Philosopher's Stone"
What a joy! Defying all expectations and silencing
those who said they were sick of the hype around J.K. Rowling's bestsellers,
the Harry Potter movie evoked the same gut reaction as "Raiders of the Lost
Ark" and "Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory", and deserves to go down
as one of the classic fantasy pictures. The story of the young Surrey wizard
has been pulled off with surprising skill by director Chris Columbus and
a fabulous young cast, mixing spunky personality and sensational imagination
with terrific production values and music that rings of
Tchaikovsky.
3.
"Traffic"
Steven Soderbergh was not expected to win the
Best Director Oscar, but boy did he deserve it. This is a staggeringly ambitious
piece of work, concurrently telling several drug-related stories to present
the definitive overview of the drug issue. From the political war on drugs
to several levels of trade and use, "Traffic" surveys all relevant avenues
with skill -- it does not offer an overriding view of things and yet does
not lack character; its threads are shot in different styles and yet feel
seamless; it features big stars but does not feel conventional; and its impact
is so exhaustingly strong that American lawmakers called for a special screening
on Capitol Hill.
4. "The
Contender"
Here is a political movie with plenty of
sentimentality but even more guts. Its sympathies are proudly Democratic,
while most movies containing statesmen maintain the bizarre policy of never
mentioning issues or parties.
The story takes place in the aftermath of the
U.S. vice president's death, when a female senator played by Joan Allen is
nominated to fill the position and a bitter Republican confirmation committee
determine to destroy her reputation with sleazy lies and innuendos. Allen
simply refuses to dignify accusations with responses, in a story that
demonstrates the kind of principle and dignity that we should hope and fight
for in real-life public officials. The crucial line in the movie is "Principles
only matter if you stick by them when they're inconvenient," which is a stunning
piece of dialogue in context and an important, if difficult,
truth.
5. "You Can Count
On Me"
Laura Linney and Mark Ruffalo play siblings from
upstate New York reunited in their thirties for a few interesting weeks,
in a charming film about the way life goes that manages to capture the
fascinating rapport of family. Kenneth Lonergan, who also features in the
supporting cast, has written and directed a touching and lively little film
that involves us so much we come to know and love the imperfect people
onscreen.
6. "The
Pledge"
A haunting and soulful piece of storytelling,
one that kept surprising me as it developed from drama into thriller, character
study and tragedy. Jack Nicholson, in one of his great performances, stars
as an ageing cop who gets obsessed with a terrifying case that he made a
holy promise to solve, and every time we think we know where the film is
going it reveals new layers of depth, right up to the devastating final minutes.
Cleverly adapted from the novel by Friedrich Durrenmatt, and Sean Penn's
first masterwork as a director.
7. "Ghost
World"
One that will be a cult classic in years to come,
this has many little moments of perfection and is the kind of film that just
keeps growing in the memory. Director Terry Zwigoff found a surprising and
wonderful tone for this adaptation of a Daniel Clowes comic book about a
disgruntled teenage girl named Enid, moving from vignettes of sarcastic humour
to low-key character studies, sharp dramatic threads and even bits of symbolism.
Thora Birch and Steve Buscemi give wonderful performances, and Scarlett Johansson
becomes a star of independent cinema, displaying wonderful screen presence
and tackling a challenging supporting role without drawing attention to
herself.
8.
"Girlfight"
Stories of inner-city kids finding dignity and
victory through boxing have been done to death in the years since "Rocky",
so I figured that this would at best be a solid formula picture. I was wrong.
Michelle Rodriguez gives a performance of amazing reality in a film that
creates the rhythm and texture of real life better than we have any right
to expect.
9. "Almost
Famous"
Breezing along with a sweet mixture of humour
and profundity, Cameron Crowe's autobiographical tale of a 15-year old music
critic going on tour with an early 70s rock group features truthful, charming
adventures and characters, and simply drips with texture. This is the kind
of movie that brings a smile to your face without even trying, with an acute
sense of time and place, wonderful music and the powerful humanity of any
great memoir.
10.
"Quills"
An adaptation of the Doug Wright stage play about the incarceration of the
Marquis de Sade, featuring chilling scenes of brutality and hilarious cuts
of banter and satire. With strange, daring performances by Geoffrey Rush,
Joaquin Pheonix, Michael Caine and Kate Winslet, this is a creative piece
of filmmaking and clever denunciation of authoritarianism that really should
have gotten more attention.
As always, there were movies I was desperate to
squeeze into the top ten for which I simply could not find space. My five
reserve players are:
"Audition", a penetrating Japanese
hybrid of drama, thriller and all-out horror. It didn't get a nationwide
release date, and so I didn't review it, but despite the bad distribution
it managed to build an audience and has been doing good business as a video
release. Brace yourself for the climax.
"Cast Away",
with its great performance by Tom Hanks as a man trapped on a desert island.
This could have popped up near the top of my main list had it not been for
the unnecessary final third, which throws off the rhythm and poetry of everything
which precedes it.
"Hedwig and the Angry
Inch" will turn out to be the kind of crazy little gem that people
discover on TV and video and embrace as their own. It's a musical comedy
about a transsexual East German glam-punk whose band is touring the diners
of Middle America -- and if you think that sounds odd, you ain't heard the
half of it. Off-the-wall, inventive, charming.
"Osmosis Jones"
takes an insane journey into Bill Murray's body, cross-cutting the live-action
story of a fat slob with his cartoon internal organs. With the voices of
Chris Rock as a germ-busting cop and that of David Hyde Pierce as a painkiller
capsule, and trips to Cerebellum Hall and Bowel Street.
"Thirteen
Days" is an excellent depiction of the Cuban Missile Crisis from
the point of view of the White House, telling a story of great leadership
and skilfully imparting the issues that emerged over the world's tensest
fortnight.
And here are ten more runners-up, none of which
2001 would have been the same without: "Asoka",
"Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon",
"Bridget Jones's Diary",
"Legally Blonde",
"The Man Who Wasn't There",
"Moulin Rouge",
"Riding in Cars with Boys",
"The Score", "Shrek",
"Storytelling".
COPYRIGHT©
2001 Ian Waldron-Mantgani
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