2002 Hindsight

With the January 2, 2003 viewing of Confessions of a Dangerous Mind under my belt, I now officially declare my 2002 review book closed. And I'd like to say the year has been a lot of fun. I saw more theatrically released movies this year than ever before in any past single year. To quote Queen, "I'm having such a good time, I'm having a ball."

And yet, I missed quite a number of movies I wish I had seen after hearing more about them. Naturally, I suspect this will be the case for any year. It's neither unavoidable nor lamentable -- I'm certain I will have plenty of chances to watch some 2002 movies on video in the following years, just as I have watched some 2001 videos over the course of this last year. I'll always be playing catch-up -- and with that thought in mind I've decided to implement something new for my site.

I'm creating sections called "After the Fact" -- one for each year I've previously covered. These pages will contain capsule reviews for movies I've watched outside of its release year. For example, "After the Fact 2001" will have capsules for Shallow Hal, Don't Say a Word, Bridget Jones's Diary, and other 2001 movies I happened to catch after 2001 was long over.

My ulterior motive for creating these pages is to have a place to revise my Top 10 lists. For instance, I loved Donnie Darko, and had I seen it before I wrote my "2001 Hindsight," it would have surely placed in my Top 10. Now I'll have spaces where my Top 10 lists can display their changes as I see more movies and, also, as my tastes evolve.

2002 will have its own "After the Fact" page once I see my first 2002 movie in 2003. For now, though, my major reviews are finished, and my Top 10 of 2002, as of this very moment, looks like this:

1. Spider-Man
Woo-hoo! I loved Spider-Man as a kid, but I had always been upset because he didn't have his own movie the way Superman and Batman did. And now finally, finally, we have a Spider-Man movie and it's just the way I would have wanted it. Thank you, Sam Raimi. This movie has energy, color, humor, menace, pathos, and gee-whiz fantastic-ness -- truly a comic book come to life. I wish I was nine-years-old when I saw Spider-Man -- then I would have it to cherish throughout my teenage years and on through the rest of my life. It's always wondrous to watch a movie you're certain to feel personally about deliver the goods. This was my number one movie of the year by a long-shot. 10/10.

2. The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers
Peter Jackson continues to tell Tolkien's tale with cinematic perfection. Subtle style is not as evident here as it was in The Fellowship of the Ring, but The Two Towers makes up for it with sheer story-telling skill. Jackson, Frances Walsh, Philippa Boyens, and Stephen Sinclair reportedly took more liberties with the second book than they did with the first in adapting it for the screen; the result is dynamic, mythic, and buff. The Two Towers assures us The Lord of the Rings series will be a multi-generation-inspiring fantasy-epic standard for decades to come. 10/10.

3. Far From Heaven
What an ironic name -- watching Far From Heaven is like being in movie heaven. A long-dead cinematic style is recreated vividly, flooding our eyes with satiating colors, washing our ears in a lush old-school score, and pulling our heartstrings with an earnest melodrama. Todd Haynes shows us how limitless the possibilities are when creating a believable, self-contained movie universe just by invoking a once accepted style no one uses anymore. A movie world is a beautiful place to be in, and Far From Heaven reminds us out how it best succeeds -- as a detailed dream we can re-visit again and again. 10/10.

4. Punch-Drunk Love
P.T. Anderson's exploration of Adam Sandler becomes pure emotion on celluloid. We are so absorbed into what this one character is feeling that the soundtrack is wholly a reflection of his state of mind, and the screen sometimes abruptly bursts into color waves to express his insides. I can't think of another journey from dysfunctional loneliness to the dizziness of love that was captured so well. Punch-Drunk Love's protagonist isn't really a smart guy, thus reinforcing the movie's emotional purity -- think about the story and you might scratch your head; feel the story instead and you'll be taken on a ride that leaves you punch-drunk. 10/10

5. Minority Report
Steven Spielberg creates a thinker's Raiders of the Lost Ark. He shows us he still has his movie-magic-making touch -- powered by imagination, with plenty of action and memorable characters -- and employs it in a story of ethics. It's a skillful act of seating the passenger of thought-provoking issues in the roller-coaster vehicle of the summer-thrill ride. All this, and it even contains the elements of a noir-style mystery. Minority Report's opening scene of Pre-Crime in action is the act of a master; its psychic mall-chase scene is evidence that the old hand can pull off spellbinding new tricks. That scene also gets the award for the "Whoa, that is so cool!" scene of the year. 10/10.

6. Spirited Away (counted as a 2002 release in the U.S.)
Alice in Wonderland is already on crack. Spirited Away is Alice in Wonderland on even more crack. Hayao Miyazaki remembers animation's greatest power -- the ability to realize pure imagination. These days, I find myself too often in awe of animation that looks real. Spirited Away reminds me that animation is more admirable when it shows us things that could never be real. Like a river god. Or paper flies. Or a bathhouse patronized by spirits. Or a sorceress with a giant head. And then it uses these crazy things to deliver a story of a girl maturing into a person of strong will and heart. And we don't have a problem believing any of it. That's masterful. 10/10.

7. Adaptation
The struggle to write is captured with both truth and humor in this crazy movie. Although I give recognition to the talents who made this film possible, from writer Charlie Kaufman and director Spike Jonze to actors Nicolas Cage and Meryl Streep, I really gotta hand it to Columbia Pictures for its willingness to even let this project see the light of day. Let's face it -- it's a failed adaptation of the book it was trying to adapt; it even features and pokes fun at the real people involved in trying to get the book adapted. That's where most studios would have stopped and said, "no way." But not these guys. What do you know? Movie execs do have a sense of humor after all. 10/10.

8. Lilo & Stitch
In the year 2002, I watched this movie five times -- twice in theaters. Lilo & Stitch has the coolest ensemble of characters to be found in any Disney movie, while matching the funniest of them in comedy. Its concepts, credited to writer/directors Dean Deblois and Chris Sanders, seem to be inspired by pure randomness -- Hawaii, Elvis, and aliens? -- and somehow that makes its world seem more comfortable to visit. It doesn't feel sterilized, its characters aren't angels, and the movie is more lively and fresh as a result. Where else in a single movie will you find a social worker named Cobra Bubbles, an alien who inexplicably rolls up into a ball, a little girl who lip-syncs to "Heartbreak Hotel," and two more aliens fighting over a wig? 9/10 -- its randomness doesn't allow its themes to wrap up neatly, but the more I watch it, the less this seems to matter to me.

9. Bowling for Columbine
I'm quite tired of America's penchant for scapegoating, so I'm happy Michael Moore has asked America to take a good hard look at itself with his painfully funny and disturbing documentary. Even if it doesn't give rock-solid reasons to explain gun violence in the U.S., at least it opens the door and asks us to look deeper to find the many factors comprising this ugly attribute of our country. And while we look for the reasons, we are asked not to forget the damage done to those who have been directly affected by the violence. 9/10 -- not exactly the most skillfully put together documentary, but it contains enough debate-fodder in it to make it worth watching for anyone.

10. Catch Me If You Can
I chose Steven Spielberg's light-footed caper to fill out my last spot because, out of all the final contenders, it's the movie I would most like to see again. The movies that tried to catch it if they could included Y Tu Mamá También, which somehow manages to be raunchy but not lewd, and the joyous culture-mixing Monsoon Wedding. I think what I really want to do is tie all these movies for 10th place, but I also don't want to "cheat" in that way. All are 9/10. Catch Me If You Can wins because I believe it is, on the whole, consistently solid in theme and entertainment delivery; my issues with it have mostly to do with atmosphere. With both Y Tu Mamá También and Monsoon Wedding, I have minor story issues.

Plenty of other movies this year made me happy to spend an evening in a theater, but I want to give a special mention to Chicago. I will inevitably see it again, and I may actually grow to love it -- it has this strong chance because, well, it's Chicago. If successive viewings somehow catapult it into my Top 10, you'll be sure to hear about it in "After the Fact 2002."

Good night, and happy new year.

©Jeffrey Chen, Jan. 4, 2003

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