Sure, most other sites have their Top Ten lists for the year up by New Year’s Eve, but not us. It’s not that I’m lazy; it’s just that the first week of the year is filled with frenzied catching up to the movies of 2001 I wanted to see. And still I didn’t get to them all. Amelie and Donnie Darko would probably be on my list if I had.
The movies below comprise a personal list based on a simple criterion: would I not only recommend them to someone but be willing to go see them again myself? You know you’ve seen movies that you thought were great but really couldn’t bring yourself to sit through a second time. (This year’s most likelies: In The Bedroom and Monster’s Ball.) My number one film indeed has the number one slot on the list, but all the others fall more haphazardly.
For variety, the Planet’s other film critic, Jordan Rosa, kindly threw in his two cents with a list of his own.
Not everything here got a Fanboy Planet review. In a few cases, it’s because we simply didn’t exist. In some others, it’s because we didn’t have time to write one. (Could someone please perfect the 36 hour day?)
Derek’s List:
1. Moulin Rouge
Baz Luhrmann’s shot at reinventing the movie musical assaulted the senses. It begins like a seizure but eventually calms down. By then it’s too late: you’ll be hooked. And then Jim Broadbent sings “Like a Virgin.”
Don’t go looking for anything approaching historical accuracy; just enjoy the compression of 100 years of pop culture into two hours. Then try to live your life for Truth, Beauty, Freedom, and above all, Love.
2. Spy Kids
They’re like real spies, only shorter. Having stuck a lot of cool things that he liked as a kid into a blender, Robert Rodriguez poured the result into a nifty movie. All the male undercover spies wear false moustaches, the villains are all thumbs, and children’s television gets exposed for the evil we all knew it to be. Better yet, it’s a family film that manages to entertain kids and adults in the same places.
3. Ghost World
One of the best films ever derived from a comic book, Ghost World perfectly captures that terrible summer after high school when you really don’t know what you want to do with your life. One thing’s for sure, you don’t want to fit in. It’s funny, painful, and true. It also gives Steve Buscemi his best role in years.
4. The Others
The secret to The Others becomes apparent fairly early, but that doesn’t keep it from being a tense, eerie film. Nicole Kidman mothers the two creepiest children in cinema this year. Director Alejandro Amenebar never rushes, taking his time in telling this old-fashioned ghost story that, as Jordan Rosa pointed out to me, is completely cool because it would have been just as creepy told from the other point of view.
5. Mulholland Drive
A rejected TV pilot retooled to travel David Lynch’s dreamscape, Mulholland Drive is just the right kind of disturbing. Some critics have hailed it as Lynch finally getting his obsessions right, but I hope not. Instead, he’s just figured out a way to help some of us slower people along.
6. Monsters, Inc.
Steve Buscemi gets his second best role in years as the lizard-like Randall Boggs, rival to the loveable John P. Sullivan (John Goodman). Perhaps it could have been a scarier film and still gotten by with a G, but the route taken by Pixar still has heart. It’s also a nice homage to the work of Chuck Jones and the rest of the Looney Tunes gang at Termite Terrace. (One whole sequence comes right out of Jones’ “Feed The Kitty.”) Even Randy Newman’s snappy score lifts huge chunks of Carl Stalling. And it all adds up to something new and fun.
7. Ocean’s 11
Without a doubt, the coolest film of the year. Some decry tampering with the Rat Pack’s memory, but babies, don’t worry about it. They can still be cool, too. Marred only by an unnecessary coda to the ending, Ocean’s 11 confirms that George Clooney has excellent taste in films, and that Batman and Robin was not his fault.
8. Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Rings
It’s pretty much like The Hildebrand Brothers always told us it would be. Only more so. This movie made me forget that I was tired, that I had to pee, and that I had to work in the morning. Who cares about Attack of the Clones? We need The Two Towers. (Just kidding, Mr. Lucas, we still want to see Episode II. Really.)
9. Vanilla Sky
Psycho-sexual thriller? Excuse to show off Cameron Crowe’s collection of music memorabilia? Or just plain weird? All of the above, actually, and the result was trippy and gripping. In addition, Tom Cruise plays half the film with a disfigured face, and a lot of guys would pay to see that alone.
10. The Man Who Wasn’t There
The unlikely Billy Bob Thornton plays a classic noir character in a film with all the right grace notes out of the works of James M. Cain. Slyly literate but with the usual Coen Brothers modern twists, this film serves to remind us that good people can still get caught up in murder.
And the runners up for the year:
Shrek
Entertaining and fun, but the ending copped out, and I can’t help but be annoyed that everyone’s falling all over themselves for Mike Meyers’ Scottish accent – the same accent that everybody hated when he was on SNL.
Memento
If it played out chronologically, it might not be as cool. But in a really bad few months, it stood out as fresh and exciting as it played with convention.
Sexy Beast
The usually unthreatening Ben Kingsley works wonders as a dogged thug determined to bring a buddy out of retirement for one last score. This ain’t Gandhi.
Brigham City
A highly personal work from Mormon writer/director/star Richard Dutcher, wrapped in a story about a serial killer preying on a small town.
Jordan’s List
Although you wouldn’t know it as of late I am the foremost proponent of the double feature and once I looked at my list of faves for the year I saw that they could fairly easily break down into five great double features. Here they are.
Two pictures about magical girls:
Ghost World may be the most personal raw picture of the year.
Amelie fills the screen with more magic than Harry Potter and Lord of the Rings combined.
Grab the money and run:
Heist shows Mamet in top form with flawless filmmaking and one of the most crisp scripts of the year.
Ocean’s 11, on the other hand, shows Soderbergh in full vacation mode. What else would one of the best directors working today do on vacation, but make a fun breezy movie? Not a film, but a movie.
Old fashioned movies from the modern age:
The Man Who Wasn’t There lets the seemingly infallible Coens knock another one out of the park with a classic noir featuring Tony Shalhoub in a role that better get him at least a best supporting nomination.
Moulin Rouge may not have saved the musical, but it did at least remind us that they don’t all have to be The Sound of Music.
Films as dreams:
Mulholland Drive takes even the seasoned Lynch fan on a ride the likes of which we haven’t seen since Eraserhead.
Vanilla Sky is sure to stymie some, but shows Cameron Crowe to be a filmmaker on the threshold of greatness.
You know, for kids:
Spy Kids, not Harry Potter, will be the picture that kids will watch over and over in twenty years, like The Wizard of Oz and Chitty Chitty Bang Bang.
Recess: School’s Out shows that clever writing and simple old-fashioned cels can top the coldness of computer animated pop-culture references any day.
Honorable Mention:
The Royal Tenenbaums
The Fast and the Furious
Joy Ride
The Score
Michael’s List:
Every movie featuring Bruce Willis and/or Brad Pitt and/or involving a heist. Ocean’s 11 gets top honors for having two out of three of those elements.
