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Tops and
bottoms
>> The fast,
the furious and the fierce of 2001
by MATTHEW HAYS
What an unusual year it’s
been in film. Here are my top 10, in no particular order:
1.Sexy Beast Ben Kingsley has rightly been getting raves for his performance
in this, one of those top-notch Brit gangster movies that belongs right
up there with The Long Good Friday and The Hit. But along with Kingsley,
the film is populated with an equally brilliant cast, all of whom are
victimized by his creepy, threatening charms. Don’t miss this one.
2.Hannibal Though Jodie Foster is missed, Julianne Moore does a solid
job here filling in as Clarice Starling, object of fascination by Hannibal
Lecter. What fun Anthony Hopkins has with this role. Ridley Scott, meanwhile,
sets the entire thing up as a Gothic soap opera. Intelligently, he doesn’t
take any of it too seriously. Some of the book has been lost here, but
it’s still a hoot. Especially considering it’s a movie with
a cannibal at its heart.
3.Mulholland Drive Some would argue filmic icon David Lynch let his
imagination run away with him, but despite all the loose plot ends and
cryptic characters and scenes, one has to admire the thing just for
its sheer audacity. Worth the price of admission for the hot and heavy
audition scene alone. The best Lynch flick since Blue Velvet.
4. Apocalypse Now Redux In a sense, this is merely a rerelease. But
Coppola has added some new key scenes, and this film stands as one of
the greatest anti-war statements ever created. Most films build to intense
moments during their climaxes; the opening moments, as you’ll recall,
have Martin Sheen completely losing it in a drunken stupor—and
that’s just the beginning.
5. In the Bedroom A smart, uncompromising film about family loss, revenge
and the inability to set some things right no matter what. Sissy Spacek
is simply amazing as the mother figure at the centre of it all. A harrowing
film that’s almost impossible to talk about without giving it away.
Try not to let anyone ruin it for you, just see it.
6. The Deep End Tilda Swinton’s performance is an astonishing achievement;
she’ll pull you into her anxiety with the depth of her range. In
The Deep End she plays mom to a closeted adolescent son who inadvertently
ends up killing his lecherous boyfriend. Then comes the inevitable coverup,
and the deceptive, convoluted plot she hatches.
7. Ali While not as awe-inspiring as I’d hoped (director Michael
Mann has so much to live up to after The Insider), Ali is still a great
movie, an episodic feature that is highly entertaining. Jon Voight has
so much fun playing Howard Cosell.
8. Promises A moving documentary in which a number of young Palestinian
and Israeli children are interviewed extensively about their feelings
surrounding the horrific ethnic and religious rift that now engulfs
the Middle East. Their confessions and reflections are startling and
revealing. An intelligent film that is as hopeful as it is despairing.
9. The Others Nicole Kidman is exceptional as a single mom moving into
a massive estate during WWII, only to find out it’s haunted. Or
is it just her mean and suspicious house servants, who want her gone?
The ending won’t come as much of a surprise to seasoned horror
buffs, but The Others, directed by Alejandro Amenabar (whose last feature,
Open Your Eyes, was remade with Vanilla Sky) is well worth sitting through.
It gave me the creeps.
10. Escape From Afghanistan (or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love
the Freelancer) This is a truly odd story that may challenge your suspension
of disbelief. Freelancer gets abducted by the Taliban as bombs are dropping
(and weekly newspaper he freelances for is reeling). A harrowing experience,
not one I’m sure I’d want to sit through again. Perhaps a
bit too surreal for my tastes. Gotta love that happy ending though.
Striking performances, in particular those parents—talk about star
quality!
The dogs, the leftovers,
the mishaps: Robert DeNiro was utterly wasted in both 15 Minutes (a
misguided reflection on the relationship between violence and the media)
and The Score. The Man deserves better than this. Pearl Harbor was nauseating,
for so very many reasons: bad performances, silly script, overblown
effects. For a real war movie, see Apocalypse Now Redux (No. 4 on the
above list). Osmosis Jones sounded like such a great idea—the Farrelly
Bros. taking on animation—but was a complete bust. They redeemed
themselves somewhat with the silly but funny Shallow Hal. Jurassic Park
3 left me hoping the dinos really would end up extinct. Enough already.
Close, but no cigar: Series 7 got more attention than it deserved for
its rather obvious send-up of reality TV. Memento was also wildly overrated.
(I like the idea of a story being told backwards, but really, did it
deserve this much praise?) Tim Burton’s “reimagining”
of Planet of the Apes felt strangely limp, even with gorilla Mark Wahlberg
on board. Too much yuks, not enough scares. And though Spielberg deserves
some credit for the first 40 minutes of A.I., the film became too maudlin
for its own good in its final moments.
Local chutzpah award: Goes to Karim Hussain and Mitch Davis for their
raunchy, in-yer-face Subconscious Cruelty. Daniel Cross also deserves
praise for making another thoughtful film about poverty in Montreal,
SPIT. <<
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