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Well movie fans, apparently another lengthy filmmaking season has passed us by so noticeably in 2003. It seems like only yesterday since we were contemplating what the screened goodies were during a solemn movie-going year in 2002. In any event, it’s that time to review and reminisce about the exceptional cinema selections that I consider were the top of the crop for this notable year gone by. In retrospect, this was an exciting year where a middle-aged, washed-up actor found some intimate meaning in a youthful and lonely married gal while carrying on a lifeless existence in the Far East. Or how about enduring a grand showcase of technical wonderment concerning ring bearers, hobbits, wizards, dwarfs, elves and humans as they all search to eradicate evil from Middle-Earth? Whatever your escapist pleasures were while attending the cinema houses this past year, there was certainly something for everyone to cherish with giddy acknowledgement. So now, in alphabetical order, I’ll present what I thought were the top ten best films of 2003. Believe me, there were numerous considerations that were worthy of cracking my elite listing so in general that’s a favorable thing to consider, right? American Splendor [ click for review by Daniel Berman ] Resilient character actor Paul Giamatti skillfully brings to life the dull existence of Cleveland-based comic book artist Harvey Pekar and turns this drab Everyman into the unlikely icon whose creative works turned this ruffled shlepper into a dynamic pop cultural force. Documentary duo-turned-first time feature filmmakers Shari Springer Berman and Robert Pulcini have crafted a project that has surprisingly captured the eccentric spunkiness of the pioneering Pekar and his inexplicable panache for injecting a dosage of animated vigor into his artistic works. Pekar is not the expected heroic genius that one would imagine but in his own drab and inconsequential skin, this nebbish nerd is probably one of the most engaging and intriguing protagonists you’ll ever run into with unexplainable joyous results. American Splendor is weirdly captivating in its offbeat intimacy. Capturing The Friedmans Director Andrew Jarecki delves into the caustic chaos surrounding a dysfunctional upstate New York family and their heated bouts with child molestation accusations. Patriarch Arnold Friedman was a likable and well-respected award-winning high school physics instructor who was drawn to the titillating spell of appreciating and desiring young boys for which this obsession spilled out of control. His youngest son Jesse, 18-years old at the time, was also accused of fondling youngsters at the Friedman’s home-based computer classes. In watching Jarecki’s disturbing account of a family at odds with the outraged community as well as with themselves, we see this scandal grow into its own as an on-going perverse mystery where the finger-pointing of guilt seems quite evident. However, Jarecki is able to take a sensitive and shocking subject matter and apply it resourcefully in such an instance that the viewer will feel a combination of disgust, bewilderment, amusement and resentment. Capturing The Friedmans is difficult to swallow as an entertaining feel good treat but one comes away with a sense of angered sensationalism that you cannot help by being mesmerized by this emotionally draining material. Clearly, this odd and probing documentary is affecting in its seedy uncertainty. Charlotte Sometimes [ click for review ] Imaginative filmmaker Eric Byler concocts a meditative and moody psychological gem that is uniquely calming and quiet in its fierceness. Charlotte Sometimes centers on a quartet of Asian-American adults and the secrets and desires that they keep wrapped up in their fragile consciousness. The frustration with being able to express love and lust while catering in deception and despair is sharply played out in Byler’s quaint but provocative portrait of intimacy. This is a small film that deserves a big recognition for its shrewd ability to emote pain and pleasure with its effortless, stirring element of mystique. Byler hopefully will represent the new wave of progressive Asian moviemakers that cater to their cinematic projects smoothly much like a surgeon does to a sensitive life-saving operation. The Cooler [ click for review ] Another Las Vegas-related tall tale that waxes poetics about lost souls in Sin City aimlessly trying to gamble on the one important thing that ultimately matters—love and companionship. The Cooler is one of the better offerings that shows a desperate and delightfully cynical side of Las Vegas as a cunning façade where buying into the illusion can be costly if you don’t bail out of your numbing existence. William H. Macy gels excellently as Bernie Lootz, a walking bad luck signal whose job is to “cool down” the hot high rollers by giving off the disagreeable vibes hence discouraging any more winning streaks at the expense of the casino. Alec Baldwin is electric as Bernie’s casino boss and longtime friend Shelly Kaplow—he has no problem exploiting his cooler so long that it benefits his dinosaur-aged empire the Shangri-La. Maria Bello plays sultry cocktail waitress Natalie who’s “hired” to cool down cooler Bernie at the selfish request of Baldwin’s self-centered casino controller. The performances in this ribald romancer are solidly inspired and Oscar-worthy, particular for Baldwin and Bello. The Cooler is truly a fantasy that cleverly promotes emotionally crushed dreams and financially high expectations amid the busy and deceptive gleeful lights of Las Vegas’s profitable playground. In America [ click for review ] Irish filmmaker James Sheridan (“My Left Foot”, “In the Name of the Father”) offers an uplifting and absorbing semi-autobiographical account of a loving but somewhat emotionally distant foreign young family escaping to the rough and rumble bowels of New York’s Hells Kitchen. Their travel to America via Canada was a deliberate effort to start a new beginning after a personal tragedy invaded their lives forever. Sheridan, always the masterful storyteller, is very effective in the way he conceives his conflict and the conflict of his treasured protagonists. Perhaps he has had much experience in overcoming the painful obstacles that makes him a resilient and reliable social observer, particularly when hailing from a political hotbed that is his native Ireland. In America is about starting fresh and seeking opportunity while exploring a path of sorrow and regret that will always linger on in the tainted psyche of a family unit hurt by a discomforting loss. This is a personal drama that’s lyrical and thought-provoking in its tenderness. The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King [ click for review ] Peter Jackson’s monumentally whimsical and ambitious spectacle is a mind-boggling technical achievement that concludes the majestic trilogy of J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Lord of the Ring movie series. The highly spry and expressionistic storytelling of Jackson’s cinematic flourishes definitely defines how spectacular filmmaking can be at its impeccable best. In showcasing the exploits of the struggle to rid evil and fear from Middle-Earth, Jackson—with the assistance of Tolkien’s colorful and timeless imagination—creates a universe that’s filled with riveting images and an odyssey that will have movie audiences enthralled for years to come. Memorable characters, cunning special effects and the conviction of the creative minds of Jackson and his extensive collaborators have all contributed to the breathtaking experience that is the awestruck The Return of the King. Falling victim to the charms of an assortment of hobbits, humans, elves, wizards, beasts or powerfully functioning rings will never be the same if it’s not in the capable hands of movie mastermind Peter Jackson. This “King” will rule for the ages. Lost in Translation [ click for review ] Writer-director Sophia Coppola shows a brilliant knack for serving up a sure-fire cinematic surge in the wondrous and compelling comedy-drama Lost in Translation. Ms. Coppola certainly is worthy of her honored, legendary movie industry family surname. The ability to add a three-dimensional punch to her May-December romancer involving a couple of lonely Americans (Oscar-worthy Bill Murray and Scarlett Johannson) stationed in the lush Japanese landscape is indeed quite revealing. Coppola has the instinctual knack for reinforcing her exotic film with flattering colors that add a zesty mood and spirit that enhances the union of the bonding couple as they come to the liberating realization that their treasured company is what sparks them out of the prolonged disenchantment. Murray is Bob Harris, an American box office has-been past his prime trying to ignite his stillborn career by being a slave to Japanese-produced whiskey commercials. Johannson is a young wife of a flashy photographer (Giovanni Ribisi) who’s left alone for long periods of time while her hubby prances off in the Japanese sunset with his trusty camera. Together, the tandem eventually meet up at the hotel’s lounge and discover how compatible and vulnerable they are with their present uneventful circumstances. It’s a refreshingly witty and poignant study of stagnation concerning two strangers who find vitality in a strange but alluring foreign land that unknowingly stimulates their neglected livelihood into meaning and purpose. A Mighty Wind [ click for review ] Christopher Guest is the master behind spinning mockumentary ditties that are inherently outlandish and cleverly subversive. I was clearly surprised that his riotous but under-appreciated satirical gem “A Mighty Wind” didn’t register as much as it should have in its humorous skin. Some may argue that “Wind” may not have had the outrageous moxie that its glorified predecessors “Waiting for Guffman” and “Best in Show” possessed so convincingly. I beg to differ: “A Mighty Wind” was certainly a suitable third installment for a Guest trilogy that knows no bounds when it comes to skewering the finer things in human lunacy. Guest marvelously focuses his silly-minded spotlight on folk singers as they prepare themselves for a reunion concert. As expected, Guest and his regular assortment of players (Michael McKean, Eugene Levy, Fred Willard, Catherine O’Hara, Harry Shearer, etc.) manage to carry out the lunacy in hysterical fashion. It’s a gutsy call when one feels compelled to ridicule the unsung importance of folk singers and their contributions as a way of mocking this forgotten art form. Suffice to say that Guest and company pulled off this loopy-minded laugher with a savvy and saucy manner. This funny-boned farce may not jump at you in the same hilarious way that “This Is Spinal Tap” attacked your ribs in reference to spoofing incoherent rock ‘n roll hair bands but these flawed Peter, Paul and Mary wannabes in “Wind” are just as appetizing to the wacky musical ear. The Station Agent [ click for review ] Writer-director Tom McCarthy’s quirky-driven companionship drama about a self-conscious dwarf who inherits a train station from a deceased co-worker only to find himself easing back into the judgmental society he’s been distrusting against for the longest time is invigorating, moving and devoutly heartfelt. Peter Dinklage is sympathetic and fascinating as the three-foot Finbar McBride, a loner whose only excitement in life is to cherish the hobby of collecting trains or reading about them for that matter. Finbar has no expectation for searching for friendships; he’s an island onto himself that settles for his isolated world of trains and psychological turmoil. Once Finbar arrives at his dingy train station, he’ll soon discover how the place eases him into caring and relating to people, particularly when he forms a connection with a talkative Spanish hotdog stand owner (Bobby Cannavale) and a ditsy but saddened woman (Patricia Clarkson). Watching Dinklage’s angst turn into gradual confidence as he finds out that his intimate world of eccentrics is indeed a needed psychological release for him is nothing short of riveting. The Station Agent chugs along the tracks in thought-provoking, endearing fashion. Whale Rider [ click for review ] Niki Caro makes for an explosive impact with the involving “Whale Rider”, a coming-of-age exploration into a youthful New Zealander girl (Keisha Castle-Hughes) trying to gain respectability and love from a restrictive and distant Maori grandfather. The conflict: Pai’s (Castle-Hughes) grandfather Koro, as chief of the Maori tribe, feels that she’s not good enough to carry on the traditional ways of a male-dominated ritual of riding and communicating with the treasured whale. Because Koro has no son (Pai’s disillusioned father left the scene and wanted no part in “the tradition”) or grandson to bear the responsibility of his tribal lineage, he’s in danger of forfeiting his family’s claim to the Maori throne. Pai wants to step in and assume the role of continuing the family honor as a potential leader but she’s a girl and this goes against Koro’s old-fashioned belief system that males have the specialized privileges, not tomboyish females who look to fulfill such a void. Caro’s narrative is absorbing and culturally engrossing. This is one children’s tale that is richly potent and sentimentally stinging. As a feminist feature, Whale Rider propels the audience into a slight rant about the unbalanced commentary of how the genders, despite whatever the cultural crossover may be, still experience the distinctive unfair differences in equality. Caro’s exposition is courageous, intelligent and thoroughly spellbinding. HONORABLE MENTION: 28 Days [ click for review ] Danny Boyle’s colorfully hardened and nightmarish horror opus helped bring some needed respectability to the genre of the usually laughable B-movie gross-out session. Convincingly suspenseful and entertaining in its gritty and ghastly mayhem, Boyle is able to lend some raw heft to a creepy and crawly showcase that could have been needlessly cliched and played for intentionally mawkish and over-the-top kicks. But the messy material is viscerally stimulating and the poetically subversive approach to scaring up the thrills and chills brings this flesh-eating zombie fable its calculating kudos. 28 Days, for what it’s worth, is surprisingly intelligent, joyously moody and mundane, and celebrates a chest-pumping spectacle of gore that glamorously translates well on the big screen. Boyle’s brand of depravity is artistically challenging and to helm a bloody scarefest with such overt confidence and skill while maintaining a respectability for the surreal and sinister hedonistic overtones is indeed a fascinating feat onto itself. Click here to comment on this list or post your own top list. Frank Ochieng © TheWorldJournal.com |
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