The Year in Film
Top 10s of 2001
Fri., Jan. 4, 2002
Curiously, however, this seems to have resulted in a greater unanimity among the Chronicle film critics than has been seen in quite a while. The top film, Ghost World, appeared on five out of six reviewers' lists and came in with a higher combined point total than any Chronicle No. 1 movie has received in a number of years. Also, many of the same titles recur throughout the individual lists, and differ only in their numerical rankings.
Lists, in addition to providing insight about the year in film, also tell us something about the tastes of the individual reviewers. In this regard, we must offer this caveat emptor: None of the reviewers who weigh in below has seen all the eligible films (some won't even open in Austin until January or later), and each reviewer is haunted by a list of regrets for the movies not yet seen and the changes they might make if they were to compile their lists again six months from now.
So, take these declarations for what they're worth: summaries of a moment in time. They are tip sheets, indices of taste, suggestions of things to view, and, hopefully, fun to read. Next week you will put them out with your recycling and we'll all move on to the movies of 2002.
'The Austin Chronicle' Top 10 Films of 2001 1. Ghost World
2. Waking Life
3. Moulin Rouge
4. In the Bedroom
5. The Royal Tenenbaums
6. (tie) Amélie, The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring,
The Others
9. Memento
10. Amores Perros
Marjorie Baumgarten
1. The Gleaners and I
This French documentary by the venerable Agnès Varda earns my No. 1 spot because it's the only movie that completely stole my heart from beginning to end.
2. The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring
Coming at this movie as neither a great fan of the books nor fantasy in general, I found myself thoroughly seduced and engaged.
3. Waking Life
Adventuresome technique, "affordable" budget, and inquisitive spirit make this experiment in cinema one of the most inspiring projects of the year.
4. Shrek
So much better than any cartoon actually needs to be to succeed, Shrek appeals to nearly all demographic groups through its wit, intelligence, and skill.
5. In the Bedroom
Rarely has grief been portrayed onscreen with such honesty and generosity of space -- and fortunately, this acting ensemble knew what to do with this gift.
6. Ghost World
If only for the shot of Thora Birch shuddering after squirting extra butter on a customer's popcorn, Ghost World wins this year's jackpot on the depiction of life's painful little moments.
7. The Royal Tenenbaums
While making a movie that's more focused and controlled than either of his previous outings, Wes Anderson has created a vivid family constellation that I can't shake from my daydreams.
8. The Others
It's the best haunted-house movie that's come along in many a decade.
9. The Man Who Wasn't There
From the luxuriant riches of its black-and-white cinematography to the perfect performance by Billy Bob Thornton, this movie shows the Coen Brothers as the mavericks they are.
10. A Beautiful Mind
Ron Howard tackles wonderfully ineffable subject matter, and with an amazingly adroit assist by lead man Russell Crowe, finds brilliant ways to render the unknowable known.
Steve Davis
1. Moulin Rouge
Overwhelming in its operatic fireworks, mesmerizing in its audacity.
2. The Others
An elegant ghost story with an impeccably refined terror.
3. In the Bedroom
The year's showcase for film acting and an auspicious directorial debut.
4. The Royal Tenenbaums
A sentimentally comic ode to family by an American original.
5. Hedwig and the Angry Inch
A compelling pastiche of gender politics and Seventies glam rock.
6. Memento
A Rubik's Cube of a movie that requires your total attention.
7. The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring
Grand-scale storytelling punctuated by moments of true emotion and feeling.
8. The Deep End
A gripping study of maternal love in the guise of contemporary film noir.
9. Amélie
Charming French whimsy that begins with a mysterious box.
10. Bandits
A surprisingly entertaining movie that fiddles with the Hollywood formula.
Marrit Ingman
1. Moulin Rouge
Like lovers, movies should fling themselves headlong, passionately. This reckless opus has real heart, not gimmickry. The Umbrellas of Cherbourg for the 21st century.
2. Ghost World
Terry Zwigoff's quietly broody, resonant drama defies easy categorization, offering genuine emotional investment instead of the usual hipster irony.
3. The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring
The rare event movie for everyone, from fantasy geeks and fanboy cultists to your mother. Suspenseful, gorgeously realized, and satisfying.
4. Memento
What? Huh? Wonderful.
5. Sexy Beast
This slow-burn nail-biter is 10 times more agonizing than your typical lame-ass thriller and inestimably better.
6. In the Bedroom
The ending feels inauthentic, but the rest of this character-driven sleeper rings painfully true as a portrait of a family's grief.
7. Gosford Park
Not the sprung mystery multiplexers may wish for, but a sophisticated parlor farce with the deftly managed web of storylines Altman fans expect.
8. The Day I Became a Woman
The best movie nobody saw. This triptych of stories about Iranian women is unexpectedly complex, honest but often humorous.
9. Me You Them
Human beings just don't get any sexier than Regina Casé, the star of this warm and deeply human comedy imported from Brazil.
10. Calle 54
This polished and loving tribute to Latin jazz is easily the year's best music film, thanks to its beautifully filmed studio performances.
Kimberley Jones
1. Amélie
It feels like falling in love.
2. Ghost World
Black comic sublimeness about that itchy, vulnerable place in between high school and whatever comes after.
3. The Others
A spare, chilly spook show in which Kidman channels Kelly and comes out with a grace all her own.
4. The Royal Tenenbaums
Wes Anderson make-believes a world of majestic, impish dysfunction carefully dogeared from the pages of The New Yorker. A melancholy almost-masterpiece.
5. Amores Perros
Alejandro González Iñárritu's searing, stunning feature film debut vaults the "it's a dog-eat-dog world" maxim to its most anguished conclusion.
6. Waking Life
Does Richard Linklater dream in color? Do you have to ask?
7. In the Bedroom
A remarkable debut from Todd Field that cuts to the very core of love, loss, and retribution.
8. Gosford Park
A British class comedy that filters Altman's usual saber-toothed sensibilities through the rumply whodunnit charm of an Agatha Christie.
9. Vertical Ray of the Sun
Ang Hung Tran's gorgeously filmed family drama is proof that Chekhov translates into any language.
10. Black Hawk Down
Unsentimental, unforgiving portrait of modern-day warfare that bleeds a truer red, white, and blue than the star-spangled hokum of Pearl Harbor or The Majestic.
Marc Savlov
1. Amores Perros
Flat-out knocked the wind out of me when I saw it in the theatre, then did the exact same thing last week on DVD. Nihilism as romance, or vice versa. Harrowing, just like the real thing.
2. Amélie
It's caused a cultural backlash back home in France, but this ooey-goey bonbon o' joy goes down like a throatful of pink honey, and Pixy Stix star Tautou is straight out of a fairy tale.
3. Waking Life
Any film that features those two great motormouths of our time -- Timothy "Speed" Levitch and Alex Jones -- is all right in my book. Yay, Bob Sabiston! Boo, Earthlink!
4. Ghost World
Even though my friend told me that I reminded her of Steve Buscemi's schlemieleon Seymour, damn her eyes, I still think it's the best comic-to-film adaptation ever made.
5. Moulin Rouge
If only the real world operated this way, we'd never have to go to movies in the first place. More tragic magic than any one film has a right to offer, and the luminescent Nicole Kidman to boot.
6. Black Hawk Down
Relentless, visceral, and horrifying in a way that few war films have ever managed, this should serve as a warning to the Men in Charge of Things right now. Hell in a handbasket all over the screen.
7. The Royal Tenenbaums
It lacks the angry spark of Rushmore (just barely), but nonetheless achieves something else: sublime familial dysfunction taken to a whole new, weird level. Owen Wilson's epic schnozz continues to impress and amaze.
8. Spy Kids
Absolutely no surprise coming from a guy who names his kids Rocket and Racer. Brilliant kid-happy fun.
9. The Devil's Backbone
Third time's the charm, obviously. Hypnotic, dreamlike poetry that gets better and better the more times you revisit Del Toro's blanched and dusty ghost world.
10. The Others
Alejandro Amenábar's follow-up to Abre los Ojos is the best ghost story of the past 20 years, no contest, and adeptly tackles the dual themes of loss and love with perfect, spooky panache.
Russell Smith
1. Ghost World
Acerbic, disturbing, hilarious, open-hearted, and ruthlessly satirical, with subtle undertones of magical realism. One of the more memorable outsiders' manifestos produced by an American artist.
2. Waking Life
An intoxicatingly original challenge to open ourselves up to -- as a late pop mystic would have it -- the life within us and without us.
3. Memento
Too-clever-by-half crime drama that nonetheless sets its hook early and consistently engages the mind and imagination. Formal experimentation at its most satisfying.
4. Sexy Beast
Reckless, bizarre, hyperkinetic, blithely grotesque -- and a stone rush to watch. Fabulous bookend performances by Ben Kingsley and Ray Winston.
5. Tape
Taut, brilliantly acted piece of claustrophobic (it all happens in a single grungy motel room) drama-comedy. Recommended for fans of prime Albee and Shepard.
6. With a Friend Like Harry ...
Perverse, understated French suspense thriller will scratch Chabrol, Hitchcock aficionados right where it itches.
7. Under the Sand
A meditation on the persistence of love underscored with discreet supernatural undertones. One that will haunt your thoughts long afterward.
8. Spy Kids
Suddenly those vasectomy-reversal ads look compelling ... If you don't have kids, get some, the better to justify repeated consumption of this exemplary children's entertainment.
9. The Score
An intelligent, quietly engrossing old-school heist drama that will (I predict) be cited in coming years as a minor classic of the genre.
10. The Deep End
Tilda Swinton, who in a just world would own at least as many Oscars as oh, say ... Mira Sorvino, is characteristically brilliant in this sublime suspense-thriller.
