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For someone so prone to extremes (the Gemini in me) I am remarkably levelheaded in my opinion of each given 'year' in film. I rarely feel that something is "the best year in decades" or "the worst year ever" for movies. 1999, was not, contrary to popular opinion the greatest year since the 70s . A good year it was, but still overrated -perhaps it was the optimistic new millenium outlook. 2000 was not, as you may have read elsewhere, the worst year since the 80s. It was just bizarrely dismissed -perhaps it was the inevitable new millenium hangover?
Well, that old familiar "worst year ever" death knell has begun again for 2001. This time perhaps it's the prevailing pessimistic and troubled mood. So before we get to the best that 2001 had to offer... let's wallow in the disappointments along with everyone else.
(For frequent readers of this site... I hereby give fair warning that the old Shrine Room denizens (Pfeiffer, Law, Moore, Jolie) suffered spectacularly -----what is up with that?)
Most Overrated Films of the Year
#5 Ghost World
A critical darling that did nothing for me. The script was good, if unspectacular, the performances ranged from adequate (Birch, Renfro) to very good (Johanssen, Balaban) to excellent (Buscemi, Douglas) but overall it struck me as a case of people relating to it and consequently elevating it to "great film" status.
#4 Harry Potter and the Sorceror's Stone
A classic of sure fire product, merchandising opportunity, and corporate synergy. A good movie? No. That critics dared to invoke the holy name of The Wizard of Oz and compare this commercial favorably to it is another appalling reminder that corporations have taken over the minds of the public and that film criticism continues its descent towards irrelevancy.
#3 Shrek
This breezy box office phenomena so dominated the summer and the critical groupthink (just look at the year end top ten lists) that it holds a very good chance of securing itself a best picture nomination at the Oscars -Something that seemed unthinkable when the picture first opened in the year when a best animated feature category was added to the Oscars. The strange green fever was in fact such an epidemic that almost no one seems to recognize its numerous and obvious flaws (uneven storytelling, relentless reliance on montage to build a soundtrack, badly muddled message ("don't judge a book by its cover" in a film where the principal villian is routinely ridiculed for his...) It's not even the best in its own genre: Monsters, Inc is far more original and more consistently funny. Waking Life is more intelligent and accomplished.
#2 A Beautiful Mind
#1. A.I. Artificial Intelligence
Number two is a glossy studio whitewash on a fascinating real man: John Forbes Nash. Number one is the overtly ambitious but deeply flawed Kubrick homage from Spielberg. What both films serve to demonstrate is that if a mainstream filmmaker attempts to stretch himself with material that has some veneer of respectability to it (#2 through biography and #1 through pedigree) both serious, respectable critics and gullible audience members will fall for it hook, line and sinker. What both films also amply illustrate is that some filmmakers are not the least bit aware of the limits of their own sensibilities.
A Beautiful Mind could never have been the redemptive triumph that it assumes itself to be because Howard was unwilling to go through hell to get there. He didn't have the stomach for it. In triumph over adversity stories, at least those that hope to be at all transcendent or special, some time in the trenches is required for survival to seem noteworthy. Mind turns the very real threat of degenerative schizophrenia into something as harmless as a little girl who just wants a hug (Howard's image, not mine.) It's nothing more than a Lifetime TV movie of the week masquerading as an Oscar bait motion picture. But that's just a minor quibble. What's more disturbing is the potentially dangerous message that mental illness can be conquered through willpower alone.
A.I. Artificial Intelligence is a more complicated failure. It starts off really well, gloriously well, in fact. But it's one of those strange pictures that piles on different themes and shifts focus so often than in the end it amounts to much ado about nothing: As if the filmmaker himself couldn't settle on anything, or bit off more than he could chew. Many accomplished and fine critics took this abundance of theme and contradiction for deep ambiguities and profundities. They offer valiant and well written convince pieces to support its "masterwork" status. But in the end, this boils down to hero worship. Nobody wanted the last Kubrickian effort to be botched or to shoot down the world's most popular filmmaker when he's attempting to grow (certainly an applaudable goal). The ambiguity that many have struggled to reward strikes this discerning moviegoer as something closer to confusion. Either Spielberg didn't know what he wanted to say or he was deeply conflicted about saying it. A.I. Artificial Intelligence starts off as dark and promising as Schindler's List, but by the end we're firmly in mawkish Hook territory. It goes from brilliant to dreadful as the film wears on. See it for what it is: A missed opportunity extraordinaire.
Dishonorable Mentions
(Not absolutely horrid but I didn't enjoy them):
The Curse of the Jade Scorpion dir Woody Allen
It didn't quite make my bottom ten, but boy did it suck! And this from my favorite writer/director?!? The man responsible for Annie Hall, Manhattan, The Purple Rose of Cairo, Husbands and Wives... ahhhhh, how did it come to this?
The Score dir. Frank Oz
The heist film really needs a hiatus. (Oceans 11 and this one were only the two most popular examples this year of the overdone and underbaked ubiquitous genre) DeNiro, who last challenged himself a little over a decade ago, really needs a hiatus. Edward Norton really needs to put his "look-I-can do characters-within-characters" shtick on hiatus if he doesn't want to end up as overpraised and typecast as DeNiro. Brando really needs to go back into retirement if he's only going to do stuff like this. The film's greatest crime is that it's just not fun. And who wants a depressed, lazy heist film? You're better off at Oceans 11 or Sexy Beast or nearly anything.
I am Sam dir. Jessie Nielson
How? Why? What the f#%*?The Devil's Backbone dir. Guillermo Del Toro
Maybe I just didn't get it, but I found it very hokey, not even the least bit scary (and I scare easily) and a waste of my time.
Worst Films I Saw This Year
Thankfully there's many stinkers I got to skip.7. Vanilla Sky dir. Cameron Crowe
Sort of like the crass Hollywood answer to Mulholland Drive. Surreal and weird as a style device with no inherent feeling behind it, which quickly gives way to complete exposition so you won't have to think. At all. (Anyone else kind of freaked by Cruise's unraveling psyche of late... the masks, the sexual content, the obsession with his own charisma? Magnolia, Eyes Wide Shut, MI-2, Vanilla Sky. Yikes, the man has issues. Anyone?)6. Jurassic Park III
Aside from the intro of the pterodactyls (the film's only bright spot -and even that's being generous) what did this really have to offer? While the sight of dinosaurs will generally send anyone with a bit of the chid in them soaring, this film, flying dinosaurs and all, is always earthbound.
5. Soul Survivor/Forsaken directed by -oh who cares...
I don't usually watch this type of film and there's a reason for that. It's perhaps a little mean spirited to throw B pictures onto a worst list... I mean, how much are they really aspiring to after all? But in both cases the viewing was an unpleasant, frustrating one and I shall steer clear next time.
4. Blow dir. Ted Demme
The most bored I've been in a theater all year. The storyline is one we've seen thousands of times. Rise and fall, rise and fall biopic zzzzzzz. And worst of all the simple and linear plot is explained over and over to you in droning narration -as if it were difficult for you to understand that George was a drug dealer. Got rich. Got married to someone just like his mother. Fell apart. Got disowned by his parents. Loved his daughter. Ended up in prison.
3. Lara Croft: Tomb Raider dir. Simon West
The year's stupidest film. And after A.I. the most shocking of wasted opportunities. There was so much here that could have made for a fun popcorn flick. Angelina Jolie in all her diva glory strutting about was a good start but the production ended there. It could have been a great action/adventure flick, but in the hands of the untalented Simon West it is little more than, well, a filmed video game. But without the audience participation part. There's just nothing here for the audience.
And unfortunately the great Julianne Moore took quite a dive this year appearing in the two worst films on display (God, what were the chances of that happening???)
2. The Shipping News. dir. Lasse Hallström. Miramax.
The year's soggiest drama. Full disclaimer: I went in with bad attitude. My expectations were low. I am by no stretch of the imagination the right audience for a Halström flick. But his latest film couldn't even live up to my lowest expectations of it. Halström is possibly the only A list director alive who could bring out so little from such a stellar cast. They each somehow manage to give their most lackluster or unmodulated performance. It's the first time I've ever seen Cate Blanchett give a bad performance. And Kevin Spacey should have been nominated for the Razzies -not the Globes. While it didn't have Chocolat's condescending moral superiority or anything as laughable as the scene where Alfred Molina gourges on chocolate (the recreations of historical/fabled events come close) it is completely lacking in that previous films' adequate to beautiful production values. Halström gets worse and worse. He has the sensibility of after school specials and he directs "prestige pics."Lasse is continuously responsible for horrid film. That's no small feat. What's Eating Gilbert Grape was the last time he showed any promise. That was 8 years ago. He continually devolves (perhaps suggesting that he really needs a vacation and some artistic rejuvenation) His films now exhibit zero subtlety and zero aptitude for storytelling. No shape, no substance, no rhythym, no resonance. No reason to see them.
1. Evolution dir. Ivan Reitman.
The year's least funny comedy. I think I laughed twice. I think. No. I'm being too generous.e that's being too generous.
Praise, love, slavish devotion, and even respectful disagreement with my list accepted here
-Nathaniel
To see the cinematic shame awards in full, go here.
Or if you need to cheer up -see the TOP TEN LIST!
2001
Year in Review