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THE TOP MOVIES OF 2001 The Aftermath of 911 Made 2001 A Record Year for Escapist Cinema By Greg Walton Review Film Critic Most "best of" lists are destined to be downplayed this year. It still doesn't feel right to celebrate the petty pleasures in life when the nation as a whole had its priorities set straight in one tragic moment. But if there's one thing Hollywood knows how to do well its escapist cinema. And Americans lined up in droves for some short-term memory loss following the September 11th attacks. the movies didn't change after 9-11, but our perception of them did. And our appreciation for some homegrown pop culture seemed to energize the entertainment industry as a whole. Musicians sang for a cause, actors answered phones (what else were they gonna do, wait tables?). Even by the-numbers star vehicles like "Ocean's Eleven" seem to be putting in some extra effort. But putting together a "best of" for the tri-cities isn't as easy as it looks. Big city critics get to toss in foreign films no one saw simply to pad their list. Saginaw & Bay City are meat and potatoes towns that occasionally enjoy a rare hors d'oeuvre like "The Deep End" or Joel Coen's "The Man Who Wasn't There." But good filmmaking is good filmmaking no matter how big the budget or how wide the release. And 2001 had more than a few to be proud of. #1 MOULIN ROUGE OK, you saw the "Lady Marmalade" video and thought Christina Aquilera was an anorexic skank. That's a given. But to pass up the best movie of the year just out of spite...well, that's just plain wrong. "Moulin Rouge" is a pop-culture masterpiece that plays out on the most vibrant visual canvas since Terry Gilliam's "Brazil." Both an invigorated tribute to musicals past and a ritalin-edged riff on MTV videos, Nicole Kidman and Ewan McGregor play against type and sing their little hearts out to hits from the 70's, 80's and 90's. If there was any justice in Hollywood they'd cancel the Oscars and just Fed-Ex director Baz Luhrmann a crate full of gold statues. #2 MEMENTO How does a movie that makes your head hurt still get a vote for movie of the year? The masochistic joy of Chris Nolan's film comes from the backward chronology that makes you solve a mystery in reverse, just like its main character, Leonard, (Guy Pearce) who's afflicted with a rare case of amnesia that prevents him from making new memories. Covered in sticky notes and tattoos, Leonard tries to pluck the identity of his wife's murderer out of the mess that is his mind. Clever, subtle, and surprisingly funny, "Memento" is like watching someone solve a Rubik's Cube without breaking a sweat. Superb filmmaking. #3 THE OTHERS There's nothing groundbreaking here - other than the odd coincidence of Nicole Kidman showing up in this list twice - and that's precisely what makes this horror film so elegantly accomplished. Lifting the foggy photography of classics like "The Innocents" and favoring a story that "suggests" rather than lays on the CG like a thick layer of frosting, "The Others" is the kind of movie I could watch every day for the rest of my life. Every performance is perfectly in sync with the film's eerie style as director Alejandro Amenabar pulls off the layers of his story like a sheet from an old ghost. #4 HARRY POTTER & THE SORCERER'S STONE How do you fulfill the dreams of millions of fans and silence the jeers of heartless cynics? Simple, make a good movie. Actually, Chris Columbus beat some pretty steep odds in delivering such an entertaining extravaganza like "Sorcerer's Stone." It's easy to make something big, loud, and colorful; the trick is to fill that hollow shell of special effects with the spirit of J.K. Rowling's prose. And there was so much wonderment crammed into Harry's big screen debut, the most wonderful thing of all is audiences will actually be anticipating the next chapter rather than dreading it. #5 MONSTERS, INC. "Shrek" was funny, yes, but it also had an icky entertainment insiders feel that left the impression it was a project made for some executive's amusement rather than a child's wide-eyed enjoyment. Pixar, on the other hand, can always be counted on not to talk down to its audience. "Monsters, Inc." spends as much time delivering a first-class script as it does designing a unique computerized look. It's the wildly imaginative plot that wins out over "Shrek's" booger-obsessed body humor. Oh, and if you can name a better animated villain than Steve Buscemi's killer chameleon I'll pay for your postage. YEAR IN DVD With special editions, director commentary, and extra features, watching a movie on DVD can be a very different experience from what you saw in the theaters. Here is some of the best of 2001. GODFATHER TRILOGY: It took a while but Paramount finally put out a classy package with memorable extras like rare screen tests of the parade of stars who tried out for the role that eventually went to Al Pacino (including future Coppola collaborators Martin Sheen and Robert DeNiro). PLATOON/SALVADOR: While most documentaries produced for DVD are pointless fluff jobs that toot their own horn, these MGM discs are two of the best - precisely because they show director Oliver Stone at his worst. THE PHANTOM MENACE: Bad movie. Good DVD. 'Nuff said? MANHUNTER: Perfect example of the rediscovery of a great movie. No extras necessary in this first outing for Hanibal "the cannibal" Lecter, just stare in awe at Michael Mann's super-saturated photography. MONTY PYTHON & THE HOLY GRAIL: The peculiar Python personality is stamped all over this DVD from the first false start to the last catapulted cow. Oh, and the transfer's not bad either. CARRIE - Everyone but Travolta puts in their two cents about one of the less appreciated horror films of the 70's. APOCALYPSE NOW REDUX- Hallucinogenic, psychedelic, and now even longer than before! Coppola's revised Vietnam epic might not be as mysterious as it was in its original form, but the DVD is an enlightening way to discover how powerful an editor can truly be. JURASSIC PARK TRILOGY: Everything the budding computer animator needs to know to kickstart his career. For fans of old-school effects, the bonus disc even has abandoned stop-motion T-Rex footage before Spielberg decided to take a chance on CG.
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