The Year After 9/11
We're now up (or down) to Jesse Walker's movie list for 2002. Doesn't seem that long ago.
https://jessewalker.blogspot.com/2022/12/the-year-i-moved-to-baltimore-on-monday.html
Here's his top ten:
1. The Wire
2. Talk To Her
3. Mai's America
4. The Office 2
5. Confessions Of A Dangerous Mind
6. Decasia
7. The Quiet American
8. Dirty Pretty Things
9. About Schmidt
10. City Of God
Looking over the list, I'm surprised how little I've rewatched (or just watched) any of these. Which means I'm mostly going on impressions I had twenty years ago.
I like, but don't love, Talk To Her and Confessions Of A Dangerous Mind. I like The Quiet American, Dirty Pretty Things and About Schmidt less, though they have their moments.
City Of God is one of the best films of the year, maybe decade.
I haven't seen Mai's America or Decasia. The Wire and The Office are TV shows (and the only things on the list I truly have rewatched).
Here are his honorable mentions:
11. Man On The Train
12. 25th Hour
13. Femme Fatale
14. In Smog And Thunder
15. Punch-Drunk Love
16. The Girl On The Train In The Moon
17. Chicago
18. 28 Days Later...
19. Hero
20. Nixon
Haven't seen 11 or 16, though I have to ask if the man and the girl meet on that train? Also haven't seen 14 or 20.
12 is Spike Lee's best. 13 has great visuals, but not much of a story. 15 has a fascinating look, but an impossibly stupid story. 17 won the Best Picture Oscar, but is pretty bad. 18 is a pretty good film from a director who tries lots of different things but is generally reliable. 19 isn't bad, though hardly the best the director has to offer.
Films from 2002 that would make my top ten:
About A Boy
Adaptation
Catch Me If You Can
Jackass: The Movie
Other films from 2002 I like:
24 Hour Party People, All Or Nothing, Bend It Like Beckham, Big Trouble, The Good Girl, The Kid Stays In The Picture, Whale Rider
Other 2002 films of note:
Clockstoppers, The Panic Room, My Big Fat Greek Wedding, Hollywood Ending, Spider-Man, Star Wars: Attack of the Clones. Undercover Brother, The Bourne Identity, Death To Smoochy, Lilo & Stitch, Minority Report, Men In Black 2, Road to Perdition, Signs, One Hour Photo, 8 Mile, Harry Potter And The Chamber Of Secrets, Die Another Day, Gangs Of New York, Lord Of the Rings: The Two Towers, Ali G Indahouse. Antwone Fisher, Auto Focus, Ballistic: Ecks vs.Sever, Better Luck Tomorrow, Bowling For Columbine, Bubba Ho-tep, Frida, Full Frontal, The Good Thief, The Guru, The Hours, House Of Fools, Igby Goes Down, In America, Infernal Affairs, Irreversible, The Magdalene Sisters, Morvern Callar, Narc, Phone Booth, The Pianist, Rabbit-Proof Fence, Ripley's Game, Russian Ark, The Salton Sea, Secretary, Sunshine State, Tadpole, Welcome To Collinwood
posted by LAGuy @ 3:37 PM
4 Comments:
I really do need to watch the Jackass movies. My contrarian cred may depend on it.
I always say one thing movies can do is take you places you've never been before. Jackass movies certainly do that.
Underrated: My Big Fat Greek Wedding, Minority Report, One Hour Photo, 8 Mile, Auto Focus, The Hours, In America, The Pianist, Russian Ark.
Can't complain about Jesse's inclusion of TV series (other than dating for serial narrative being a potential issue), because I have a video installation at the top of my 2012 picks. I also really like both of the series he mentioned and have included one on my list (though further down). As for the features, other than About Schmidt, all the movies that made his top twenty that I've seen are on my list as well.
1. Death to Smoochy
2. Infernal Affairs
3. The Two Towers
4. Femme Fatale
5. The Ring (liked this better than the original)
6. 24 Hour Party People
7. Dracula: Pages From a Virgin's Diary
8. Zhou Yu's Train
9. Sunshine State
10. 28 Days Later
11. Talk to Her
12. The Wire
13. My Left Eye Sees Ghosts
14. Heaven
15. Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (hits the sweet spot of being the first one that gives Hogwarts some actual texture and depth while not going overboard with the blue filter, also have fond memories of taking my 5-y-o brother to see it on my winter break from college)
16. Bubba Ho-tep
17. Gangs of New York
18. The Bourne Identity
19. Catch Me If You Can
20. Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance
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