|
Entertainment
A year of plenty
|
In a roundup of Hollywood films for 2002, PRADEEP SEBASTIAN finds that no critic has a clear favourite. Two, however, figure on nearly every critic's `best' list.
|
Collage by T. S. Vijayanand.
WHAT WAS the best film of 2002? That's simple — there wasn't any. At the end of the year, critics still did not have a clear favourite for the best film. Only two movies crop up on nearly every critic's list of the year's best: Todd Haynes' "Far From Heaven" and Alfonso Cuaron's "Y Tu Mama Tambien."
The rest of the movies on each critic's list vary wildly. This is a good thing — it means there were several `best' movies. It also clearly demonstrates that all list making is personal. Which is why lists are so much fun. But even if I were to cull out a top ten 2002 list from all these various critics, it wouldn't make too much sense to us in India because many of these films haven't played here yet — and may never. (Thank God for the pirates — it's only because of those pirated VCDs that we'll even get to see some of the more offbeat stuff on these lists).
So, before we look at the best Hollywood (and the rest of the world) had to offer last year, here's a list of the 10 best films (in no particular order) that played in our theatres in 2002: "Monsoon Wedding", "The Count of Monte Cristo", "Insomnia", "Stuart Little 2", "Austin Powers in Goldmember", "American Chai", "Amelie", "In the Bedroom", "The Road to Perdition" and "About A Boy".
Going through the `best lists' of various critics is both educating and amusing: No one agrees on anything — on one critic's list the Spike Jonze — Charlie Kaufman film, "Adaptation", turns up as one of the year's worst, elsewhere it is ranked second on a top ten list.
One bunch of critics trashes Roman Coppola's "CQ" and Neil LaBute's "Possession", another bunch champions these films as underrated and ignored precisely because of such "knuckle headed reviews."
Brian De Palma's "Femme Fatale" found only two critics (very respected and admired, though) singing its praises; everyone else hated it. Or simply didn't `get it'. Not only do Martin Scorsese's "Gangs of New York" and Steven Spielberg's "Catch Me If You Can" not figure in the top ten — they don't even make it on anyone's list. (Peter Jackson's "The Two Towers" barely makes it). They are not the worst — they are simply so-so.
The worst seems easy enough to list: nearly everyone has "Death To Smoochy" on the top of the list but I think it ought to have been "My Big Fat Greek Wedding" and "The Guru" — two of the most contrived, calculated, `manufactured' movies I've had to sit through. (For an ethnic wedding comedy that really works see Dover Kosashvili's "Late Marriage"). Also on critics worst list were: "Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood," "A Walk To Remember," "Collateral Damage," "The Adventures of Pluto Nash," "XXX," "Dragonfly" and "Simone". To these may be added: every movie with Robert De Niro in it last year, particularly "Showtime" and "Analyse That".
Every year there is a handful of good films — both independent and studio backed — that almost goes unnoticed for various reasons. Critics take it upon themselves at the end of each year to crusade for these underrated films.
"Morvern Callar," starring Samantha Morton, a just released Scottish film directed by Lynne Ramsay, is one such great little movie that every critic is going out of the way to recommend. It shows a girl dealing very differently, even weirdly, with her boyfriend's sudden death.
Philip Noyce's deft and moving adaptation of Graham Greene's spy novel, "The Quiet American" is another underrated gem with a standout performance by Brendan Fraser and the best Michael Caine performance in 10 years. Then there's "Punch Drunk Love," Paul Thomas Anderson's offbeat love story with the first acceptable and likeable performance by Adam Sandler. It sort of died in the theatres (along with Soderberg's re-make of "Solaris") because it defied the expectations of an audience.
Alexander Payne's "About Schmidt", about middle age and failure features the best Jack Nicholson performance in years.
Also underrated: Stephen Daldry's clever adaptation of Michael Cunningham's book, "The Hours" with Nicole Kidman as Virginia Woolf. Perhaps the most remarkable film in this category — not that it went unnoticed (quite the opposite) — is Steve Shainberg's erotic comedy, "Secretary," about a boss (James Spader) who loves spanking and a secretary (Maggie Gylenhall) who enjoys being spanked.
Predictably — and deservedly — Michael Moore's "Bowling for Columbine" about America's growing gun culture is the documentary that features most on the `best lists'. But my favourite (it also figures on some lists) is "The Kid Stays in The Picture", the ultimate insider's Hollywood movie. Robert Evans, the producer of "Love Story", "The Godfather" and "Rosemary's Baby" talks non-stop about his life and times as Paramount's controversial Hollywood mogul.
The only musical to make it on these lists is "Chicago", a stylish, daring adaptation of the famous Broadway stage musical with unforgettable performances by Rene Zellweger and Catherine Zeta Jones.
The favourite foreign film of the year seems to be Curaon's celebrated "Y Tu Mama Tambien", about two horny teenagers who take to the road with a seductive older woman. Followed by Roman Polanski's "The Pianist," a black comedy about the Holocaust done in the Buster Keaton slapstick style.
But there were several equally good foreign films to choose from: "Nine Queens," a devious David Mamet-like thriller by Fabian Bielinsky about con games and con men; Anne Fontaine's "How I Killed My Father," which combines the intense drama of a Bergman film with the sly suspense of Hitchcock; Tsai Ming-Liang's magical "What Time Is It There?" which stops time and studies it in relation to love and yearning; Raja Amari's "Satin Rouge," about a middle aged Turkish mother who becomes a belly dancer; "All About Lilly Chou-Chou" by Shunji Iwai is about alienated Japanese teenagers and Laurent Cantet's "Time Out", a moving film about an executive who loses his job and, unable to tell his family, pretends to go to work every morning.
Alexander Sukorov's "Russian Ark" is fascinating, if gimmicky, because the entire film is just one, single 96-minute take! And "Atanarjuat" ("The Fast Runner") by Zacharias Kunuk becomes the first feature film to be made in the Inuktitut language.
I suppose we'll never get to see "Tambien" in our theatres because it's a foreign film but there's a good chance we might see "Far From Heaven". Starring Julianne Moore, Haynes' film is a 1950s style soap opera, the kind of melodrama that went out of fashion in Hollywood decades ago.
The daring thing about the movie is that it is not trying to be campy about its emotions. It isn't parodying the genre — instead it pays sincere homage to it. In particular the sophisticated Hollywood melodrama of the little seen and little appreciated 1950s director, Douglas Kirk. Maker of artful soaps such as "Written on the Wind" and "All That Heaven Allows".
Why does Haynes' grand melodrama work today? After all, there is no dearth of good soaps on television. Haynes' trick is to take two taboo subjects — homosexuality and inter-racial marriage — and place them in a 1950s context in conservative, suburban America. Watching the movie you feel spellbound, in a time warp, forgetting it is 2002, you believe the story and the predicament of these characters. Which is why it will work with an Indian audience as well — because it is about repression and yearning and secret fulfilment.
Printer friendly
page
Send this article to Friends by
E-Mail
Entertainment
|
