You can see the glass as half empty or half full.
Yes, 2002 was another year of big-budget popcorn movies
(
But there were positive trends too. For instance, it was a
better year for families at the movies than in quite some time.
Despite some disappointments and failures (Spy Kids 2, Big Fat Liar,
There were also a couple of split decisions (Was Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron enjoyable or tendentiously politically correct? Was Spirited Away a family film at all?), and a pair of warm-hearted ethnic wedding comedies celebrating family (Monsoon Wedding and of course My Big Fat Greek Wedding) that weren’t exactly family films. In any case, there were more worthwhile family flicks in 2002 than in the previous two years combined.
2002 was also a remarkable movie year for religion. In the films The Count of Monte Cristo and Signs, Jim Caviezel (a devout Catholic in real life) and Mel Gibson (a member of a breakaway traditionalist group) play heroes whose faith in God is shattered after devastating personal crises, but is ultimately restored in faith-affirming resolutions. (Caviezel and Gibson also teamed up to make the religious movie event of 2004, The Passion, directed by Gibson and starring Caviezel as Jesus.)
Catholic novelist Nichols Sparks’s A Walk to Remember was brought to the screen with teen pop diva Mandy Moore as a squeaky-clean Fundamentalist girl who didn’t mind her peers mocking her for her faith, was a poster girl for sexual purity, and helped morally transform a disaffected classmate (Shane West). The Rookie prefaced its real-life story of baseball late-bloomer Jim Morris (Dennis Quaid) with a pair of nuns consecrating to St. Rita the ground on which Jimmy would practice his pitching, and suggests that his miraculous comeback may be due to her intercession. Finally, the VeggieTales movie proclaimed God’s mercy and forgiveness as well as his loving care for Jew and Gentile alike.
For thoughtful entertainment pitched at a
Then there were some that were well-wrought on their own terms, but morally problematic or objectionable (The Hours, Far From Heaven). And a few simply didn’t work, but had good intentions (John Q, Dragonfly).
Finally, some films actually succeeded as thoughtful, superior adult entertainment: Insomnia, Minority Report, Monsoon Wedding, The Pianist. These stratifications, of course, are personal and subjective; some readers will want to count one or more of the titles from earlier paragraphs as "successful" films, or perhaps discount one or more from this one. (I’m sympathetic to advocates of Changing Lanes, Signs, and Solaris, though I don’t ultimately quite buy any of these films.)
But however you rank them, compare the above list to comparable films from the last couple of years with aspirations as thoughtful adult moviemaking (e.g., the 2001 list might include A.I., Amélie, A Beautiful Mind, Black Hawk Down, Memento, Training Day, and Vanilla Sky). The year 2002 may have brought more failures than successes, but all in all it was arguably a more intriguing year.
I’ve always had misgivings about the time-honored critical tradition of the annual top-ten list. For the past two years, the Decent Films Guide has instead tried to identify the year’s top films in the categories of Art, Religion, and Values (the three categories of the Vatican film list).
This year, however, as a member of the Online Film Critics Society I no longer have the luxury of flouting convention; the annual top-ten list is an obligation. Rather than proceed with two different systems of recognizing the year’s best films, then, I will end my brief experiment with the "Decent Films Guide Awards," and present instead, with all the usual misgivings and subject to change without notice, the first-ever Decent Films Guide year-end top 10 list.
Some caveats: The ten films in the list below are not ranked; the order is alphabetical. Some are suitable for the whole family, others are adult fare; where possible, please check the full reviews for content advisory and ratings information, including appropriate-age ratings. (Unfortunately I don’t yet have full reviews for every title below, but I’ll seek to rectify that as soon as possible.)
Runners-up: About a Boy, The Count of Monte Cristo, Stuart Little 2
Insomnia
Al Pacino stars in director Christopher Nolan’s remake of a
Norwegian film about a sleep-deprived big-city detective trying
to solve a murder in a small town above the Arctic Circle where
the never-setting summer sun becomes a metaphor for the
inexorable light of truth. Stylishly directed by Nolan, the film
examines the moral ambiguities of its story in the harsh light of
day. Robin Williams, in the second of his career-reinventing
trifecta of bad guys this year, is effective as a self-aware,
creepily ingratiating killer, and Hilary Swank costars as an
inexperienced but sharp local cop.
Lilo & Stitch
Dean Deblois and Chris Sanders helm what is one of Disney’s
clearest breaks from the moribund formula of its 1990 cartoons,
and a one-of-a-kind success. Lilo (Daveigh Chase) is more
troubled and vulnerable than any Disney heroine to date, while
alien monster Stitch (Sanders) is downright nasty throughout
enough of the movie to make his eventual transformation
meaningful. Refreshingly, a Disney cartoon reflects honestly
about the drawbacks of life in a broken family, yet it remains
pro-family. The Hawaiian setting provides genuine creative
inspiration, and the jaunty watercolor backgrounds are
luminous.
The Lord of the Rings: The
Two Towers
Peter Jackson’s historic trilogy of epic mythopoeic adventure
continues in this sequel to The Fellowship of the
Rings, which is more spectacular and epic in scope than
its predecessor, but also departs more radically from the source
material. Triumphs include Gollum (brilliantly performed by Andy
Sirkus and astonishingly rendered by Jackson’s effects team), the
magnificent two-part resolution of the conflict that began at the
bridge of Khazad-Dûm, and the visionary sieges at Helm’s
Deep and Isengard. Tolkien’s Catholic themes continue to
resonate, boding well for the finished project.
Minority Report
Steven Spielberg directs Tom Cruise in a rip-roaring sci-fi
thriller set in a provocatively conceived near-future in which
skyscraper-climbing freeways overlook decrepit tenements,
billboards call to pedestrians by name and pitch them products
based on their purchase histories, and ubiquitous retina-scanning
technology offers convenience at the price of lost privacy.
Bravura action sequences with jetpacks and robotic assembly lines
jostle with moral questions about social and existential freedom,
and spiritual references and allusions appear throughout the
film.
Monsoon Wedding
Indian director Mira Nair’s art-house crowd-pleaser tantalizes
with its exotic sights and sounds while simultaneously offering
reassurance that relationships and family life in any culture
come with the same heartaches and the same joys. Father of the
Bride pandemonium proves an apt genre for hugger-mugger
Bollywood filmmaking with its disparate moods and tones. Many of
the characters are ennobled by redemptive moments of selflessness
on behalf of another, and morally problematic situations come to
sometimes painful but necessary resolutions.
The
Pianist
Holocaust survivor Roman Polanski, who once declined to direct
Schindler’s List, finally confronts the Holocaust in an
utterly different but equally masterful film, one that resolutely
avoids melodrama, polemicism, heroics, or sentimentality. The
Nazis commit ghastly atrocities, but aren’t demonized; the
protagonist, a classical pianist (Adrian Brody), survives, but
isn’t celebrated. The result is a powerful film that is not about
good and evil or cowardice and courage, but simply, starkly, life
and death, civilization and chaos.
The
Rookie
Root, root, root for the home team, and St. Rita, ora pro
nobis. John Lee Hancock’s sweetly inspirational, beautifully
photographed valentine to the national pastime tells the true
story of Texas southpaw Jim Morris (Dennis Quaid), who got a
second chance at his childhood dreams of Major-League glory after
recurring shoulder pain and a series of surgeries put an end to
his minor-league career. Real-life Texas southpaw Quaid is
terrific as Morris, supported by Rachel Griffiths as wife Lorrie
and giggly Angus T. Jones as son Hunter.
Russian Ark
Once the advent of digital video freed filmmakers from the
constraints of physical film, it was only a matter of time before
someone made the first feature film entirely in one take, without
a single edit or cut. Aleksandr Sokurov’s experimental art-house
meditation on Russia’s cultural heritage and current identity
crisis has the distinction of being that film. For 96 trance-like
minutes, Sokurov’s camera drifts from room to room in the
Hermitage, a St. Petersburg monastery turned art museum. Though
casual viewers with no special interest in either film history or
Russian history may be bored to tears, for serious film students
Russian Ark is a must-see.
Spirited Away
Japanese master animator Hayao Miyazaki’s beguilingly surreal
fairy tale draws on mythology, animist spirituality, Alice in
Wonderland, workplace dynamics, and environmental motifs,
crafting a dreamlike spirit world of shifting realities. The
imagination here as unbaptized as that of Homer or Sophocles -
and even more alien to Western Christian sensibilities — yet the
imaginative power and visual virtuosity of Miyazaki’s creations
are well worth appreciating.
Star
Wars: Episode II — Attack of the Clones
The dialogue is clunky, the romance flawed, but ah, for the
magical worlds in which it all takes place — the glorious
Flash-Gordon cityscapes, the breathless aerial car chases and
coliseum
Copyright © 2000– Steven D. Greydanus. All rights reserved.