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Rita (Laura Harring) reaches out to aspiring actress
Betty Elms (Naomi Watts) in Mulholland Drive.
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Creating the annual round-up of the year's best and worst films remains a critic's best chore. Tallying the year's worst films helps remind you that watching movies can sometimes be a tiresome job. Still, after sorting through the ample candidates for 2001's best pictures, it soon becomes clear that moviegoing is as joyful as ever. There are too many significant films, dazzling performances and creative directing efforts to be permanently cynical.
The lineups from each of CityBeat's three film critics emphasizes the diverse selection of art-house releases and studio blockbusters that opened in 2001. As a reminder, some of these films won't open in Cincinnati theaters until early 2001. By including these "upcoming" films in our annual round-up, Cincinnati gets a chance to momentarily shed its behind-the-times reputation.
-- Steve Ramos
Best Films -- Steve Ramos
1. Mulholland Drive A handgun, a pretty girl, a limousine and a head-on collision are the elements that jump-start director David Lynch's mind-blowing, starlet-in-Los Angeles story. Originally made for broadcast television, Lynch twists characters, time and space into an unforgettable puzzle.
2. The Royal Tenenbaums Director Wes Anderson confirms his status as one of Hollywood's 21st-century boys with this joyful comedy about a family of dysfunctional geniuses. There is more depth and richness in one Tenenbaums' scene than what's found in most movies.
3. Apocalypse Now Redux An additional 49 minutes of footage strip away much of the dramatic confusion from director Francis Ford Coppola's original film. In the re-edited Apocalypse, Capt. Benjamin Willard's (Martin Sheen) journey on a Navy PBR boat in search of American renegade, Col. Walter Kurtz (Marlon Brando), achieves a level of storytelling transcendence.
4. Moulin Rouge Director Baz Luhrmann rejuvenates the movie musical with old-fashioned melodrama, operatic staging and a Pop-influenced soundtrack. Boosted by Nicole Kidman's sultry lead performance, Moulin Rouge pushes cinema's storytelling boundaries.
5. Amores Perros Three separate stories connect below the rooftops of Mexico City in filmmaker Alejandro González Inárritu's dazzling debut. On the basis of the film's key dramatic scene, when two speeding cars collide into an explosion of broken glass and crunching metal, Inarritu assumes the status of a world-class director.
6. Ghost World Its cynical teen heroines, played by Thora Birch and Scarlett Johansson, make director Terry Zwigoff's smart teen comedy one of the year's best films.
7. Sexy Beast Ben Kingsley's vicious Cockney gangster Don Logan is the anti-Gandhi in director Jonathan Glazer's thrilling crime drama. Like many heist movies, the bloodletting in Sexy Beast splatters frequently. Still, its high-energy storytelling and smartly drawn characters boost Sexy Beast above its pulp movie peers.
8. New Iranian Cinema: A Time for Drunken Horses, The Circle and Baran Of all the films I watched this year, Iranian films continue to be the most humanistic. Iranian filmmaker Majid Majidi's Afghan refugee drama, Baran, addresses the political issues facing what has become a chaotic part of the world. Jafar Panahi's The Circle builds its woman-centered story around social commentary. Kurdish filmmaker Bahman Ghobadi's A Time for Drunken Horses is another poetic and transcendent look at childhood crippled by severe poverty. These films confirm what I've known for some time: Iranian films have become the world's leading cinema movement.
9. Too Hot for Cincinnati: Intimacy, Bully and Fat Girl The chilling effect of Esquire Theatre operator Gary Goldman's action to censor director Wayne Wang's unrated drama, The Center of the World is that three, acclaimed adult-themed art-house films -- Bully, Intimacy and Fat Girl -- have yet to play at the art theaters he operates, The Esquire and The Mariemont. In Bully, photographer-turned filmmaker Larry Clark adapts Jim Schultze's novel about a brutal murder into an unnerving teen drama. Intimacy tells a brutally honest story about a restaurant bar manager (Mark Rylance) who has a weekly tryst with a married woman (Kerry Fox). French filmmaker Catherine Breillat's Fat Girl is an intelligent look at adolescence and the uneasy world between adulthood and childhood. It might be difficult for some people to get past the subject matter, but Bully, Fat Girl and Intimacy are stunning works.
10. In the Mood for Love Heartache makes its impact silently in Wong Kar-wai's potent melodrama about missed opportunities and unrequited romance between two would-be lovers (Maggie Cheung and Tony Leung Chiu-wai) in 1962 Hong Kong. Dazzling photography by long-time Wong Kar-wai DP Christopher Doyle and Hou Hsiao-hsien collaborator Mark Li Ping-bing matches perfectly with the film's subtle and deliberate storytelling.
Honorable Mentions: Amélie, The Gleaners and I, Memento, Monster's Ball and Our Lady of the Assassins
Best Films -- Rodger Pille
1. Moulin Rouge Bold and beautiful. Baz Luhrmann's ode to the movie musical is singularly the most enjoyable film of the year. A breathe of fresh air.
2. Memento After a spate of good film noir over the last few years, it would take a special treatment to satisfy the true fan. Telling the story backward wasn't just clever; it was genius. Remember Sammy Jankis.
3. Snatch Guy Ritchie turns post-modern filmmaking up a notch with this kick-ass Euro crime tale. If John Woo choreographs violence as a ballet, then with Ritchie, it's a rave.
4. In the Bedroom Based on the book, The Killings, Todd Fields' film studies the affect death has on a once-happy family. The talented cast makes this complex drama a true must-see.
5. A Beautiful Mind Watching Russell Crowe as John Forbes Nash Jr. hold his crying baby, unaware of its screams, is perhaps the most heart-breaking moment in film this year. A touching movie.
6. Heist There's something really filling about a David Mamet film. It's like a steak dinner for the mind.
7. Serendipity It's about a love story in New York, but it is a love story to New York. Coming on the heels of the 9/11, it reminded us how great the Big Apple is.
8. Bridget Jones's Diary Comparisons to Four Wedding and a Funeral are justified. They're great comedies that work in both hemispheres.
9. Lord of the Rings: Fellowship of the Ring After the lackluster Harry Potter movie, this popular book adaptation manages to please (and amaze) fans and non-fans alike. An exciting start to a great saga.
10. Vanilla Sky Tom Cruise will get the props (and he deserves them), but it was great watching Cameron Crowe insert his style and his tastes into the film. By doing so, he didn't just remake; he re-thought the film.
HONORABLE MENTIONS: The Pledge, A Knight's Tale and The Others
Best Films -- TT Clinkscales
1. Memento Twisty and rewarding upon repeat viewings, thanks as much to the sly performances of Guy Pearce and Joe Pantoliano as the inventive storytelling.
2. Lord of the Rings: Fellowship of the Ring The best epic, possibly the best picture, at least the most daring and complete film for attempting so vast an undertaking. Thank you, Peter Jackson.
3. Mulholland Drive The less said about this Hollywood fever dream the better, because it should just be seen and experienced, preferably more than once.
4. The Deep End The makers of Suture (an all-time personal favorite) join forces with Tilda Swinton (another all-time favorite) and present the mother of all soccer moms in this melodramatic noir-tinged sleeper.
5. A. I. Despite many failings, the much-anticipated Spielberg-Kubrick project provided a summer's worth of discussion and deserves to be considered a success for that, if nothing else.
6. Sexy Beast Because it shows Ben Kingsley off as the sexy beast he is -- I dare you to find a more charged and unexpected performance.
7. The Anniversary Party Jennifer Jason Leigh and Alan Cumming produce pure magic with the help of digital technology and an outstanding cast ready and willing to improvise.
8. Black Hawk Down Ridley Scott and Jerry Bruckheimer made me totally reconsider each and every other film on this list, and it doesn't even matter which ones got reshuffled or deleted. This needed to be here.
9. In The Bedroom Features a landscape at once beautifully stark and too full of dangerous assumptions. Welcome to the souls of human folks.
10. The Man Who Wasn't There Because less of Billy Bob Thornton is actually more, so much more than we deserve.
Honorable Mentions: Amélie, Vanilla Sky, Ali.
Worst Films -- Steve Ramos
1. 3000 Miles To Graceland Director Demian Lichtenstein's caper film is a monotonous pile of retro Rock tunes and quick edits. As the psycho leader of a gang of Las Vegas bandits, Kevin Costner ultimately shoulders most of the blame.
2. Say It Isn't So Dolt Chris Klein and sexpot Heather Graham are the unintended victims of director J.B. Rogers' laughless, incest comedy. I don't have a problem with Say It Isn't So's barrage of tasteless humor. The real issue is the film's failure to generate any laughs.
3. Crocodile Dundee In Los Angeles TV spokesperson, Aussie actor Paul Hogan dusts off his Crocodile Dundee outfit for a laughless sequel to a film series that nobody today seems to care about.
4. Evolution David Duchovny wallows in director Ivan Reitman's uninspired farce about alien invaders. Evolution dumps loads of extravagant special effects in search of one good gag.
5. The One Director Jim Wong makes kung-fu legend Jet Li look boring in this pulpy fiasco. An incoherent comic-book plot about multi-universes makes matters worst.
6. AntitrustDirector Peter Howitt's no-suspense-thriller wastes Tim Robbins copycat performance of Microsoft supreme honcho Bill Gates. This clunky, espionage tale fails to convince us that the digital revolution is a dark and scary place.
7. Down to Earth Comedian Chris Rock embarrasses himself in this tweak of Warren Beatty's 1978 romance Heaven Can Wait. Playing a Brooklyn bicycle messenger who dies and returns in a white-man's body, Rock is bamboozled by one awful comedy.
8. Valentine A masked murderer targets a group of pretty coeds in director Jaime Blanks' uninspired thriller. Blanks tries to be politically correct by avoiding the gratuitous T&A.; Instead, he allows every member of the film's cast to look stupid.
9. Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone Director Chris Columbus' extravagant adaptation of the popular children's book is void of taste, emotional honesty and storytelling. Spiritless, long and tedious, Harry Potter is just another one of Hollywood's vacant extravaganzas.
10. The Shipping News Director Lasse Hallstrom's star vehicle adaptation of Annie Proulx's Pulitzer Prize-winning 1993 novel turns out to be a lulling, sloppy melodrama. Considering all its talent -- Kevin Spacey, Julianne Moore and Judi Dench -- it's safe to say that the film is a bundle of missed opportunities.
Dishonorable Mentions: Pearl Harbor, Original Sin, Sweet November and Town And Country
Worst Films -- Rodger Pille
1. On the Line People think it's sad that this film only made $4 million. I think it's sad that moviegoers paid $4 million to see this insult to cinema.
2. Planet of the Apes A complete train wreck. Whoever thought that epilogue was clever should be shot into space with a monkey.
3. Tom Cats It would be a compliment to call this a descendant of Porky's. Instead, it's a descendant of Porky's very bad sequels.
4. Shallow Hal A great comedic concept spoiled. Worse, the brilliant Jack Black's talents were completely wasted.
5. Sugar and Spice While the premise, cheerleaders robbing banks, is fun and fresh, the script was tired and old. Forced, sophomoric humor ruins everyone's fun.
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A posse of crooks meet their fate in 3000 Miles to
Graceland.
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6. Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back Kevin Smith said he would retire the titular duo after this film. Psst, Kevin: They're fun characters, but they certainly can't lead a film. What were you thinking?
7. 15 Minutes Robert De Niro should fire his agent and Edward Burns should have his SAG card suspended for five years. Another interesting concept poorly realized.
8. The Musketeer A medieval Matrix for 12 year olds. For the rest of us, it was torture.
9. Driven Predictably bad, for the reasons we thought it would be. Writer/star Sly Stallone can't enunciate his love for racing with this movie, literally or figuratively.
10. The Forsaken Not to spoil anything, but the title refers to people who paid to see this hokie vampire flick. This one sucks more than blood.
DISHONORABLE MENTIONS: See Spot Run, Double Take, 13 Ghosts and Corky Romano
Worst Films -- TT Clinkscales
1. The Others Where others found suspense and chills, I struggled to remain conscious.
2. Town & Country This dose of adult comedy couldn't even put me to sleep. I blame the lapsed expiration date.
3. The Mummy Returns There wasn't a single beating heart to be found on-screen in this mess of CGI.
4. Saving Silverman Made me hate Jason Biggs and Steve Zahn; two guys I had a wealth of goodwill for. But now it's spent.
5. Pearl Harbor Let's be honest, this had no redeeming qualities other than $125 million of a major studio's cash. So what, it made money. That's no measure for success and artistic merit. It made money. Why is that all we care about?
6. Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone Chris Columbus, you spend the money making a film that will not inspire this viewer to ever go read the source material.
7. The Curse of the Jade Scorpion Memo to the Woodman: Get out of your head, man, or if you can't find your way, stop dragging us along.
8. Training Day Because people are making the mistake of assuming this contains great acting from Denzel. It does not. This is a stunt performance from a guy who needed a break from the monotony of righteousness. Without Denzel, Training Day is an off-season Swordfish.
9. Monkeybone A chaotic stink bomb that deadens the senses.
10. One Night at McCool's What was Michael Douglas thinking, producing and actually showing his face in this turd? It never had the potential to be anything but a turd.
Dishonorable Mentions: Summer Catch and Head Over Heels (See if you can spot the common denominator). ©
