Belated best of 2003: Movies



A lot of films have been talked up elsewhere already, so I only have comments on a few:



Top 5:

1. Lost in Translation

2. Spellbound - one of three great chronicles of obsession (see below for more), and the most suspenseful film of 2003.

3. American Splendor

4. Capturing the Friedmans

5. Bubba Ho-Tep - Aged Elvis and a black JFK fight a mummy. What business did this have being as sweet and good-natured as it was?



Honorable mention (in alpha order):

Bad Santa

Bend It Like Beckham

Cinemania - Obsession film #2, this one trailing five New Yorkers who've built their lives around seeing as many films as possible. At the very least, I'm grateful to this film for putting a friend's life in perspective.

Gigantic (A Tale of Two Johns)

Kill Bill: Vol. 1

Koi...Mil Gaya - You'd think Bubba Ho-Tep or Kill Bill would be the wildest genre pastiche in 2003, but that honor goes to this Bollywood import; a strange mishmash of Flowers for Algernon, E.T, and Close Encounters of the Third Kind, starring a leading man with two thumbs on one hand and given the traditional three-hour musical treatment. Why Preity Zinta isn't a superstar on these shores, I'll never know.

Stone Reader - Obsession film #3. The fate of Dow Mossman is not as interesting as its meditations on becoming an evangelist for a book (or a thing), and the nature of publishing's one-hit wonders. Too bad it never made me the least bit interested in reading The Stones of Summer.

The Triplets of Belleville

Twilight Samurai - An entry in the Chicago Film Festival, I hope this Best Foreign Film Oscar nominee gets a wider release in 2004. In a way, it's the mirror-image of Ikiru, in which a man finds his fulfilment, but in the menial, the family.

28 Days Later



The Chaff (in no order)

Underworld

Daredevil

Dreamcatcher

The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen

All Tomorrow's Parties



Never got around to:

Finding Nemo, the Matrix films, Cat in the Hat, Gigli, Kangaroo Jack, Master & Commander, Mystic River, Cold Mountain



Most underrated performances:

Joan Cusack in SCHOOL OF ROCK

Ossie Davis in BUBBA HO-TEP



The former added life to a character surely meant as a throwaway role. The latter added heart and depth to a film that, sadly, only a core audience of geeks like me will bother seeking out.



Most overrated:

Winged Migration - What can I say except I find bugs (as shown in the filmmakers' previous work, Microcosmos) inherently more compelling than birds? Initially fascinating cinematography wears on...and on. A documentary about how this was made would be more interesting than the product itself.



Doomed to disappoint:

A Mighty Wind



Best "Bad" movie

Bubba Ho-Tep



Worst "Good" movie

All Tomorrow's Parties