Top Ten of 2002

BigFlax.com Top Ten Films of 2002

Honorable Mention
Insomnia
The Rookie
Spider-Man
Thirteen Conversations About One Thing

10. Full Frontal
All right, so it doesn't look good. That's not the point. Steven Soderbergh's use of digital video makes the film look like a Dogme 95 experiment, but this didn't need to be shot on film. It's a movie about relationships and usually feels realistic. There are some oddly-written stretches (Catherine Keener's character is usually present in them, for some reason), but while they hold the film back a bit, they are powerless to ruin it. Its commentary on Hollywood takes aim at everyone, right down to bringing David Fincher in for a cameo just so Soderbergh can make fun of all the takes Fincher does, but the more effective and best parts of the film deal with the relationships between the characters - particularly the end scene where the couple who met, and lied to each other, online meet on a plane and strike up a conversation. It's a touching end to a funny if quirky film.
Best Reason to See It: Nicky Katt, as a rather committed actor playing Hitler in an off-off-off-Broadway production. His scenes onstage, particularly when his pager goes off, are hilarious.

9. Rabbit-Proof Fence
A very straightforward story doesn't always make for the world's most entertaining movie, but this story needed to be told. A depiction of the "Stolen Generations," Aborigines removed from their families in the apparently sincere belief by the white establishment that being trained to live and work in white society was the best thing for them, the film contrasts the ivory tower of Mr. Neville (Kenneth Branagh), a government official overseeing the removal, with the lives of sisters Molly and Daisy and their cousin Gracie, who escape the Moore River camp and embark on a hazardous 1200-mile journey back to their home in the north. The naturalistic charm of the child actresses is impressive given their limitations - none had ever acted or even seen a film before being cast. Branagh, meanwhile, is disturbingly effective as the "chief protector," an icy man whose conviction that he is in the right motivates him every step of the way. Touching but ultimately heartbreaking, Rabbit-Proof Fence is not an easy story to take, but it's an important one to be heard.
Best Reason to See It: Director Phillip Noyce's stark visuals remind the viewer just how empty most of Australia is, and therefore how dangerous this long trek through the desert was.

8. Chicago
It seems like a story with at most one likable character wouldn't make for very good watching, but the problem rarely comes up in Chicago, which in many ways is an anti-musical. Dark and cynical at heart, Chicago tells the story of Roxie Hart (Renée Zellweger), who will do anything to get famous - including cheating on her husband with a man she thinks has connections into the entertainment world. When he turns out to be lying, she kills him, then must use sleazy lawyer Billy Flynn (Richard Gere) to escape hanging. When two murderesses can become big stars, that's not your nicest ending, and Chicago doesn't have the nicest characters. Why isn't this a problem? The musical numbers, which keep things bouncing along (and which are logically placed inside characters' heads rather than the usual musical tactic of people just bursting into song during their daily routine), and Rob Marshall's camera and choreography, which keep everything nice to look at. While it's not a perfect film, Chicago is about the best screen adaptation of a musical one could ever hope to see.
Best Reason to See It: Velma's infuriatingly catchy rendition of "All That Jazz," and Roxie and Velma's final dance in front of a huge grid of lights.

7. The Quiet American
A thriller with a distinct political agenda, this Graham Greene adaptation is brought to the screen by the very busy Phillip Noyce (also Rabbit-Proof Fence). Michael Caine stars as Thomas Fowler, a correspondent for the London Times who rarely sends stories home and only starts doing real reporting to avoid being sent home and away from his Vietnamese mistress. Enter Alden Pyle (Brendan Fraser), an American who has what appears to be a medical interest in the region. Fowler's reportage gets him close to a big story which may involve Pyle and other Americans as well, at the same time casting serious doubt on the future of Vietnam. Noyce's direction is stunningly atmospheric; he makes the entire film seem claustrophobic and gloomy, but is able to do so with subtlety. The plot is easy to figure out, one of the few problems with the film, but the predictability of the political plot is moderated by the uncomfortably realistic awkwardness of the romantic subplot, which acts as a microcosm of the film's politics.
Best Reason to See It: Michael Caine's Oscar-nominated performance, which carries the film.

6. Gangs of New York
While not the outright masterpiece a lot of Scorsese fans were hoping for, the film's positives far outweigh its negatives. Amsterdam Vallon (Leonardo DiCaprio) saw his father killed at the hands of Bill the Butcher (Daniel Day-Lewis) years ago; now he has come back for revenge, but first he is drawn into the Butcher's inner circle, creating a conflict. DiCaprio and Cameron Diaz are an iffy lead pairing (particularly playing Irish), but Day-Lewis (the only actual Irishman of the three, playing an Irish-hating New Yorker) delivers a searing portrait of Bill. Set at a turbulent time in New York's history, the film often seems disjointed and meandering, but Scorsese wants to paint the historical picture before he sets his characters smack down into it. At its heart a celebration of the city's diversity, the stunning final shot is made even more powerful by its retention of the Twin Towers on the Manhattan skyline.
Best Reason to See It: Day-Lewis' powerful, ferocious performance, confirming that when he is working, he is probably the best actor working today. He also crafts a villain both malicious and hauntingly sympathetic.

5. Catch Me If You Can
Frank Abagnale wins the battle of DiCaprio performances; Leo delivers a better performance in this somewhat true film about con man Abagnale, who masqueraded as a pilot, lawyer, and doctor over several years in the 1960s. While DiCaprio is almost too convincing for his own good as the mature 16-year-old, Tom Hanks is delightful as the stereotypical G-man, stuck in the 1950s with his black suit, thick glasses, fedora, and Boston accent. The key to the movie is a strikingly subdued outing by both director Steven Spielberg and his chosen composer John Williams. Williams' jazzy score is his best in years and probably his most laid-back in history. Spielberg takes a familiar theme - failure by a father - and manages to keep it fresh as well as not beating the audience over the head with it. The scene in which Frank asks his father - played with a managed weariness by a strong Christopher Walken - to tell him to stop his cons and Frank Sr. tells his son "you can't stop" is truly heartbreaking. Another of the film's great subtleties is the way in which Frank is aged; he looks convincingly older and yet there's no exact way to characterize what has done it - he just looks lived in. It's Spielberg's least ambitious film in more than a decade, yet in that respect it's his most ambitious, and the fact that he pulls it off so well is reassuring.
Best Reason to See It: Aside from the trio of solid performances at the film's heart, the great payoff scene at the Miami airport, one of the funniest moments of the year.

4. Lilo and Stitch
Who could have imagined that dumping the musical would be the best thing Disney ever did? First came The Emperor's New Groove, and now Lilo and Stitch, both of which are funnier and more adult-friendly than any of the musicals ever were. Lilo and Stitch, though, is also a warm, convincing portrayal of a broken family in Hawaii and their encounter with an alien life form programmed to destroy everything he sees. The parallels between the title characters are obvious; the former is an often obnoxious little girl seemingly determined to make life as hard as possible for her struggling older sister, while the latter was created with the intention that he have virtually no feelings. The friendship formed between them is at first one-sided, as Stitch sticks with Lilo mostly for the shelter while Lilo, thinking Stitch is a dog, wants to take care of him. A bit slow to get started, the film pays off in a big way once Stitch's creator Jumba and the Galactic Council agent Pleakley make their way to Earth. With a rousing climax and touching moments throughout, Lilo and Stitch is one of the best animated movies ever made in addition to being one of the year's finest films.
Best Reason to See It: The final montage, as touching as any few minutes of animation Disney has ever churned out.

3. The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers
Everything that the first Lord of the Rings installment, The Fellowship of the Ring, did wrong, The Two Towers does right. No longer needing to bog down the first third of the film with a ton of exposition and character introductions, Towers gets rolling right away and doesn't let up for three hours that never drag. Instead of FOTR's story, which follows one plot for the entire running time, one that is not always that interesting, TTT breaks things up into three distinct plots, all of which hold interest. There's still no real conclusion, but two of the stories have satisfying resolutions, even if the main story of the Ring is still an entire movie from being resolved. But with the Last March of the Ents and the Battle of Helm's Deep, at least the ending doesn't have a feel of "Was that it?" More fun than FOTR, with better character development (particularly with the friendship between Legolas, Gimli, and Aragorn) and more reasonable conflicts, The Two Towers is the energetic blockbuster Fellowship only wanted to be.
Best Reason to See It: In case you needed a reason besides the epic nature of the story and Jackson's large-scale direction, the few moments in which Gandalf actually appears are among the most watchable in the movie.

2. Adaptation.
What do you do when you have writer's block trying to adapt a book that doesn't have much of a story? Why, you adapt your struggle to adapt the book, of course! The latest twisted creation from Spike Jonze and Charlie Kaufman, the director and screenwriter behind the inspired insanity of Being John Malkovich, Adaptation is the year's funniest film and its most creative. While failing to adapt the book's story, Kaufman crafts a not-quite-real world where he is an overweight, sweaty serial masturbator whose inability to write without a struggle is thrown in his face by the ease with which his twin brother Donald thrusts himself into Charlie's screenwriting world, crafting Hollywood-cliché trash which receives praise from Charlie's associates. While rubbishing Orlean's plot, Adaptation is still filled with her themes of obsession and loss, and Kaufman closes the film by letting his writing fit not only Orlean's themes but Donald's style, as the ending devolves into a mess of clichés. While wholly intentional, it doesn't quite work, leaving one bitter spot on what otherwise might have been the year's best film.
Best Reason to See It: The outstanding acting of both Chris Cooper (playing amazingly against type as John Laroche) and Nicolas Cage, who plays twins so well you'd think there were actually two of him on the set during the filming.

1. 25th Hour
Spike Lee's latest film, 25th Hour carries more power than some entire years' worth of movies. The best movies dealing with criminals are effectively able to make the viewer sympathize with the criminals by making them sincerely repentant. The Shawshank Redemption is one classic example; 25th Hour is now another. Monty Brogan (Edward Norton) was preparing to get out of drug dealing, but then he was nailed by the Feds. Now he's one day away from going to prison for seven years. Without ever making the film drag, and certainly without expanding it over an unreasonable amount of time, Lee is able to show us what feels like every minute of Monty's last day. Characters hold conversations just like real people might, with the best exchanges coming between Monty's friends Frank (Barry Pepper) and Jakob (Philip Seymour Hoffman); at one point, the two discuss Monty's future by Frank's window while Ground Zero lurks in the background, out of focus. It's yet another bold move by Lee, directing the first mainstream film to deal with 9/11 since it happened. The film is a tribute to the resilience of New Yorkers and a love letter to the city itself, with Norton's explosive "fuck you" diatribe one that could only be delivered by a director who loves New York as much as Lee does. Filled with terrific performances, particularly from Norton, Pepper, and Hoffman, 25th Hour is powerful, emotional, and haunting.
Best Reason to See It: The film's final ten minutes. Brian Cox (as Monty's father)'s what-if sequence is the most emotional piece of film in years; it will stick with you long after the credits roll.