|
"ZAPFFE'S LIST OF THE TOP 10 MOVIES OF 2001."
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
PERSONAL CAVEAT: MOVIES MISSED:
"Amores Perros" - Missed this one.
"Black Hawk Down" - Hasn't opened here yet.
"Ghost World" - Also missed this movie.
"In the Mood for Love" - I am really sorry that I missed this Chinese movie.
"Mulholland Drive" - This David Lynch movie just sounds too weird.
---------------------------------------------------------------
2ND CAVEAT: 2001 MOVIES SEEN IN 2002:
"LANTANA" - (***1/2*)
This highly regarded Australian movie lived up to its hype as an
outstanding foreign import of the noir variety. Brilliantly conceived
with the initial lush shots of a woodland during the summer heat slowly exposing the body of a dead woman. Who is she
and how did she get there? We don't know and the story unfolds of four very different women whose paths all intersect and
one of who will end up dead.
Very strong cast headed by Anthony LaPaglia as a burnt out police homicide detective with a loving wife who despairs of
turning him back on to life. This movie would have been on my Top 10 List had I seen it earlier.
------------------------
"MONSTER'S BALL" -
Halle Berry won her Oscar for her role in this movie as the widow of a man (Sean Combs) executed on death row. Although
hers was not the finest Best Actress role of 2001, I don't begrudge her win as she did a wonderful job as a waitress trying
to make a go of it without the help of a husband and a young son with an eating disorder.
There are actually two movies in this film. The first a long tract on her husband's last day of life on death row. This
part of the movie ends up being a propagandistic diatribe. The second half of the movie is much better with one of his prison
guards, played by Billy Bob Thornton, begins a halting, tentative relationship with Berry even though his family and his upbringing
have been racially bigoted through and through.
Plot holes and illogical inconsistencies abound to the point that this movie is not worth the many four star ratings that
our Chicago critics gave it.
This movie would NOT have made my 10 Best Movies of 2001 list.
-----------------------------------------------------------------
THE BEST MOVIES of 2001 and/ or MY FAVORITE MOVIES OF 2001:
1. "AMELIE"
"Amelie" has it all for a movie: Brilliant concept, original filming, great humor, a delightfully offbeat romance,
characters wonderfully conceived and fleshed out, and possibly the most fetching young lady in the world as the star. Audrey
Tautoo was made for this movie and she makes this movie glow with life and vibrancy. Pure joy and fun wrapped in a cinematic
work of art. Audrey Tautoo deserves an Oscar nomination for Best Actress and this movie should be a lock for an Oscar Best
Foreign Film award. This is one of the most inventive and original movies that I have ever seen! (In French with English subtitles.)
--------------------
2. "THE PRINCESS AND THE WARRIOR"
The German director Tom Tykwer again picks Franka Potente as his star after his earlier breakout film also starring her
("Run, Lola, Run!"). This film is considerably less frenetic than that earlier movie. Sissi is a nurse in a psychiatric
ward without a life of her own. Run down one day by a truck, her life is miraculously saved by a mysterious stranger. The
scene of theimeeting where he saves her life under the truck is one of the most powerful film sequences that I have ever seen.
After her recovery, Sissi charts a new course in her life, including searching for the man to whom she owes everything.
Who is he and why did he do what he did? Once again, an original story segues into an offbeat romance.
Franka Potente surely deserves an Oscar nomination for Best Actress for her work in this film. (In German with English
subtitles.)
---------------------
3. "MEMENTO"
Guy Pierce returns after his triumphal role as Lt. Edmund Exley in 1997's brilliant "L. A. Confidential," one
of my all-time favorite movies. Here he plays Leonard Shelby, an insurance investigator who has been severely injured by the
home intruder who also killed his wife.
Shelby searches for her killer even though he is severely handicapped by brain damage resulting from that accident.
Although he can clearly remember everything before the accident, he cannot remember anything afterwards for more than
fifteen minutes. He must constantly take notes, usually written in ink on his arm or on the Polaroid photographs that he always
carries with him, before the event disappears from his memory. To help the viewer empathize with his condition, the movie
is played backwards so you are just as confused and as clueless as he is. This is done flawlessly, which is no easy task to
accomplish.
"Memento" deserves a Best Picture Oscar nomination and Guy Pierce also deserves a Best Actor Oscar nomination
for his outstanding acting in this brilliantly complex mind game of a movie.
------------------------
4. "LORD OF THE RINGS: THE FELLOWSHIP OF THE RING"
This first major directorial effort by Peter Jackson is astonishing in its breadth, scope, imagination, and, especially,
the brilliantly conceived sets and action sequences. While about a half an hour too long, this movie otherwise gives you everything
you could ask for in an action adventure film, and more! Every scene just bristles with intensity and the evil of the enemies
is just palpable and frightening. This movie is truly the "Middle Earth" Star Wars for the New Millennium. What
a great cinematic trip!
Certain to be nominated for a Best Picture Oscar and Jackson may also wind up with an Oscar nomination for Film Direction.
In addition, Ian McKellen seems certain to garner an Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actor as the kindly wizard Gandalph.
-------------------------
5. "THE DEEP END"
The under viewed and underrated Tilda Swinton gives an astonishing performance in this movie about a mother and a wife
of an absent naval officer who will go to any length to protect her college bound son from harm after his homosexual lover
ends up dead on the shore of their Lake Tahoe home. Beautifully filmed in a gorgeous locale, this movie is a real visual treat
in addition to being very thoughtful and very intelligent.
Tilda Swinton deserves an Oscar nomination for Best Actress in her wonderfully complex and nuanced role of a mother who
pulls off the removal of the body but then finds herself being blackmailed by a mysterious stranger who somehow knows all
about everything she has done.
---------------------
6. "IN THE BEDROOM"
There is not a false note in this brilliantly acted film about how the
murder of an only son affects the parents who are left not only with their hopes and dreams shattered, but also with resentment
for each other lurking barely under the surface in a "would'a, could'a" after-the-fact blame game. Marisa Tomei
is a delight as a lonely near divorcee who is the catalyst for the tragedy and her ex-husband William Mapother is about as
slimy as they come. Tom Wilkinson is great as the bereaved dad and town doctor and Sissy Spacek deserves another Oscar Best
Actress nomination for the searing portrait of a mother whose life not only has been shattered but who also has to face the
possibility that the murderer may actually get away with murder. The camera wisely takes the luxury of silently studying her
angst ridden face. Your heart just breaks for the suffering that you know she is undergoing. This picture is sure to garner
multiple Oscar nominations.
------------------------
7. "GOSFORD PARK"
This film by Robert Altman is a true gem and is perhaps the most brilliant and realistic cinematic exposition ever filmed
of the interaction between the classes at a sprawling Scottish country estate during the early 1930's. More than 30 actors
and actresses star in the talented ensemble cast. It seems like every "A" list British actor must be in this movie,
to the delight of us all.
It must be said, however, that the Countess (Maggie Smith) steals the scenery every time she is on the screen with another
one of her droll quips. A Best Supporting Actress nod for her?
Michael Gambon stars as the self-made millionaire, Sir William McCordle, who manages to alienate just about everybody,
especially his wife, Lady Sylvia (Kristin Scott Thomas). She married him for his money and now has to put up with his frolicking
with the prettier members of the downstairs staff. And when he is upstairs, nothing matters more to him than the happiness
of his little mop of a dog, which he carries around with him constantly cradled in his arm.
His murder shocks everybody but surprises no one as everybody seems to have a reason for disliking him.
Surprisingly, the movie plays out less as an Agatha Christie-type detective story and more as a psychological study of
the personalities and the issues that arise with his passing, especially with those downstairs employees who turn out to be
more than what they seem.
A wonderful comeback for Robert Altman, who may garner both an Oscar Best Director nomination as well as an Oscar nomination
for Best Movie with this film guaranteed to please his many admirers.
--------------------
8. "SHREK"
This is about as good as cartoons can get. Crisp writing with many levels of humor in each scene and film personalities
that will not only delight the children but will also leave their parents in stitches. This movie also teaches a sweet lesson
about not "judging people by their covers." Mike Myers is a delight as the voice of the solitary but lonely ogre,
Shrek, and Eddie Murphy is a hoot as his sidekick, a donkey who just won't shut up. It will be interesting to see what happens
this year in the first ever Academy nominations for full length movie cartoons.
----------------------
9. "HEIST"
Snappy dialogue and Weldon characters envisioned by playwright David Mamet make this movie rise far above the tired genre
of heist movies. What a crime to have the admittedly fun and flashy "Ocean's Eleven" drive this far more intelligent
movie out of the theaters. "Heist" is about plot twists and character, and Gene Hackman is about as good as you
can get in this category. Delroy Lindo and Ricky Jay are more than convincing as his loyal assistants who trust him implicitly
to be able to plan and pull off the perfect heist without a hitch.
--------------------
10. "INNOCENCE"
How often do you get a movie about old people in the throes of passion for one another? This Australian movie is a surprise
and a delight about two septuagenarians who once again discover each other after having been parted for 50 years. Their unrequited
love finally becomes fulfilled in a moving story about a bored housewife once again meeting a retired music professor and
church organist and reigniting the passion they each had for the other many years before.
-----------------------
RUNNERS UP:
"MY FIRST MISTER"
LeeLee Sobieski and Albert Brooks give two excellent and nuanced performances about two lonely people who manage to come
out of their shells to meet and connect with each other. One is a tattooed, metal pierced, rebellious 20 year old girl (Sobieski)
and the other is an unhappy, repressed middle-aged clothing store manager (Brooks).
Surprisingly, this movie is not about sex between an older man and a younger woman, but a movie about reaching out in
love and respect between two very lonely and alienated people who before hadn't found themselves worthy of that respect and
love.
---------------------
"TORTILLA SOUP"
Americanized remake of Ang Lee's brilliant Chinese movie, "Eat, Drink, Man, Woman." I found this version to
be easier to identify with in its translation to an American Hispanic home. The dad is a domineering, old school master chef
who is trying to control his three Americanized daughters. The always wonderful Hector Elizondo is a delight as are all the
food scenes which are filmed to tasty perfection.
---------------------
"BREAD AND TULIPS"
Sweet-natured Italian film (that won virtually every Italian version of our Oscars) about a neglected housewife who suffers
the ultimate indignity of being left at a bus stop while on vacation with her family. She decides to finish out her vacation
by going on to Venice, where she discovers a new life, a new job, some new friends, and even a new love. (In Italian with
English subtitles.)
---------------------
"THE OTHERS"
Nicole Kidman gives an eerie performance (which might garner her an Oscar nomination) as a wartime housewife who returns
to an old home on the British Island of Jersey to wait out WW II and the eventual return of her soldier husband. The mansion
has a forbidding character all its own as it appears to be haunted. Thankfully, the hauntings are not the present-day slasher
variety but rather the old style, more intellectual film-noir variety. "The Others" also has a twist ending which
only serves to increase my admiration for this movie.
---------------------
"HARRY POTTER AND THE SORCERER'S STONE"
Okay, this movie has dropped down substantially after viewing all that a fantasy adventure movie really can be with "The
Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring," cited above. That being said, this movie still is an imaginative delight
and is also something that can start the little children in all of us off on a lifetime of love for fantasy adventure movies.
The three kids are delightfully convincing in their roles as wizards-to-be, and, besides, who among us wouldn't want to
go to Hogwart's? There is a sweetness to this movie that the more mature and far more intense "Lord of the Rings"
doesn't have, which makes it an awful lot of fun all the way around.
---------------------
"UNDER THE SUN"
A Swedish film about a shy, lonely, middle-aged farmer out in the boondocks of far Northern Sweden where the sun barely
sets each summer so shades must be drawn before going to bed. He places an advertisement in the newspaper for a "housekeeper,"
but what he really wants is a potential wife on audition.
Imagine his surprise when a gorgeous blonde shows up to apply for the position! What can she possibly want with him, and,
even more curiously, what is she doing there?
The two of them slowly "dance" around each other to find out whether or not there is the potential not only
for the romance that each so desperately needs, but also his desire for the necessary emotional and personal qualifications
needed in order for a potential wife to spend her life isolated in the far north country and still be satisfied with only
that. (In Swedish with English subtitles.)
--------------------------
|
