2002: Best Moments in Film

2003 presented a wide array of films that matches with some of the best of the decade. Some films that just missed my top 10 range from the audience pleasers Love Actually, School of Rock, and Kill Bill Vol. 1 to more “Oscar fare” like Seabiscuit and Mystic River; all pretty good films that I would recommend you rent some time.

2003 is also notable for a trio of atrocities: Kangaroo Jack, Gigli, and From Justin to Kelly. It’s pretty hard to beat those films in a worst of list, and from the minutes I’ve seen of each they don’t even have camp value.

One film I haven’t seen from 2003 that I’ve heard nothing but phenomenal things about is acclaimed South Korean director Park Chan-Wook’s Oldboy. Though, it didn’t premiere in the US until 2005 I thought I’d make note of it here (and if I watch it in the next 2 weeks maybe I’ll put it on that list if I like it).

Here are the films that rounded out my top 10 for 2003:

• 10. Lost in Translation
• 09. All The Real Girls
• 08. Pirates of the Caribbean
• 07. Elf
• 06. X2
• 05. Old School
• 04. Finding Nemo
• 03. The Last Samurai
• 02. Big Fish

Big Fish is one of the most thematically beautiful pieces of film I’ve seen and I think the last 30 minutes of The Last Samurai holds up with some of the best films, period. In most other years, Big Fish and The Last Samurai would take the top spot. Hell, Finding Nemo would win in at least 2000 and 2005. But in 2003 there was a juggarnaut in the field.

The Lord of the Rings: Return of the King

Right from the first time I saw Fellowship, I knew that what Peter Jackson was doing would be something for the ages. I had never read the books and barely knew the story at all going in, but after finishing Fellowship, I had the kind of giddiness only fanboys understand and this would only be heightened after watching each of the following films. Return of the King is of course the culmination of the trilogy, so take its spot as a representation of the entire series.

I could write a couple hundred words about everything I love about this series, and this film in particular, but its all stuff you’ve heard before. Honestly, this film embodies everything I think a film “epic” must have; giant battles, gorgeous visuals and imagery, a compelling love story, and a journey that twists and turns until a conclusion that not only pays off on everything preceding it, but transcends to speak to a greater meaning to all of us. Few “epics” are able to do this (The Empire Strikes Back, The Dark Knight, to name a few [imo]), and I would argue ROTK finishes better that any of them.

If you’ve never sat down and watched the series, for the love of god please find a big screen TV, a bounty of snacks, and a good chuck of time so you can enjoy something spectacular.

By: Ryan Hoffman

A Second Opinion

If you’re going to do a best of a decade list, it’s never really just about the movies themselves, it’s also about capturing the voices that have been the most important and defining in the decade. Being that I already included Charlie Kaufman, a voice that needs to be included is Pixar. (Full disclosure, I’m a super fanboy).

Pixar quickly rose to prominence in the mid 90’s with Toy Story in 1995, but only had 3 releases in the 90’s- Toy Story, A Bug’s Life, and Toy Story 2. All three were smash successes, proving that the studio wasn’t merely a fluke. To be fair, they only hinted at the promise the studio showed, as all three movies showed a considerable growth from each other (though A Bug’s Life is considered the studio’s weakest). Once the studio got bigger, they expanded to a level where they could release a new movie every year, and almost every single year of the 2000’s had a Pixar movie attached to it (save for 2005, 2002, and 2000).

It wasn’t until 2003 with Finding Nemo that Pixar really went from showing promise potential to proving they were here to stay. Nemo is unlike anything the studio had done up to that point, for several reasons. One was that this was the first film by Andrew Stanton, basically Pixar’s number 2, who wrote the screenplay for Toy Story, Toy Story 2, A Bug’s Life, and Monster’s Inc, as well as co-directing A Bug’s Life with John Lasseter. With Nemo, he was determined to do a film darker and more mature anything the studio had done up to that point. And in the first 5 minutes—spoiler alert—the death of Coral, Marlin’s wife, makes this very clear.

The second reason the movie is so different is because of the lush, demanding environment created for the movie, unlike anything that has been seen in CG before. For a lot of people, including myself, this was the movie where CG stopped becoming about what they could do, and it just became accepted that anything is possible. (For a lot of other people this was Gollum in the LOTR movies, which, to be fair, was around the same time). And as for the animation, it was absolutely incredible. It had to have taken a ton of studying to make those fish swim believably, but they pulled it off impeccably. Lest you take it for granted, see how the fish move about their environment in “other” CGI fish movies. But even besides the look, there’s something to Nemo that clearly made it so special.

The story is very emotional, yet still might rank up there with some of their funniest work. The characters are just as memorable as any in animation, and I’m sure characters like Dory and the Sea Turtles will be remembered as long as animated movies are shown. Probably the most interesting choice of the movie is that it’s a movie about a lost child that doesn’t lead you through the son’s journey. In something that seems very rare for movies, especially kid’s movies (Pixar doesn’t like to say they make movies for kids; they make them for themselves, which I sincerely believe, but they know who it’s going to be heavily marketed to) the movie took you through the journey of the father, which may have been what made it stand out from the pack. Overall, if you had to show one Pixar film to someone, I’m not sure this is their best (it’s tight competition among most of their films), but this one has everything that makes Pixar great. It has a great story, great characters, tons of emotion, and gorgeous visuals.

By: Dan Angelucci