AP critics pick their 10 favourite films of 2001
About the article
This is a digitised version of an article from The Cayman Compass's print archive. Occasionally, the digitisation process introduces transcription errors, or other problems.
See the article in its original context from January 2002.
Brought to you by
2. "The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring" - All the wonder of "The Wizard of Oz", and 10 times the action and dark edge. As custodian of the film rendition of J.R.R. Tolkien's fantasy trilogy, Peter Jackson brings the tale to luminous life with stunning visuals, potent acting, riveting suspense, and both veneration for the text and wise choices in departing from it. Bring on parts two and three.
3. "Hedwig and the Angry Inch" - Question to Hedwig: Do you accept Jesus Christ as your lord and saviour? Hedwig's answer: No, but I love his work. Dripping with irreverence and sheer smarts, this cult rock-musical adaptation was one of the year's overlooked gems. Director and star John Cameron Mitchell is a marvel of whimsy and romantic longing as an East German transsexual rocker looking for her better half.
4. "No Man's Land" - A powder keg of a film that explodes in your face with a harsh exploration into the way war putrefies the souls of decent men. Writer-director Danis Tanovic has crafted a small satiric masterpiece about enemy Serb and Bosnian soldiers at the epicentre of a media farce when they become trapped together in a trench. A mercilessly uncompromising, sadistically funny achievement.
5. "A.I. Artificial Intelligence" - The Radio Shack interpretation of Pinocchio drew thumbs up, thumbs down and a lot of thumbs spinning confusedly in circles. Steven Spielberg - with a posthumous assist from Stanley Kubrick, who initiated the project - delivered something rare in Hollywood: a truly challenging film. Yes, the tale of a boy robot longing for human love is baffling - but brilliantly so.
6. "Mulholland Drive" - Speaking of baffling with brilliance, David Lynch's love story in the city of dreams is a cinematic Rubik's Cube that maddens and confounds even as it entertains. Naomi Watts and Laura Elena Harring render breakthrough performances as persona-swapping friends, foes and lovers meandering through mysteries on the dark fringes of Hollywood. This is your strangest dream, downloaded onto celluloid.
7. "Ghost World" - Thora Birch is queen of the kooks in Terry Zwigoff's insightful examination of cultural malaise. It pits a teen malcontent and her two pals (Scarlett Johansson and Steve Buscemi) against everyone else in a battle over all that is comfortable, cozy and bland about the American way of life. A subtly acted, artfully designed film that forces viewers to ask uneasy questions of themselves.
8. "Gosford Park" - Robert Altman is at his best since "The Player", maybe since "Nashville", with this class-war satire, murdermystery combo. Claustrophobic in its British manor setting, the deviously funny film is far-flung in scope as it examines the last cynical gasp of master-servant relations in the 1930s. The huge cast is outstanding, especially Helen Mirren, Clive Owen, Maggie Smith and Kelly Macdonald.
9. "Vanilla Sky" - Someone has to champion this joyous jumble of pop culture, Freudian symbolism and "Twilight Zone" cliché. It has been trashed as a Tom Cruise ego project and a steaming pile of style over substance. But Cameron Crowe has lovingly affixed his idiosyncratic vision to the Spanish film it is based on. Maybe it is just a glorified bumper sticker reading "wake up and smell the coffee". Still, it is manic fun.
10. "With a Friend Like Harry..." The spirit of Hitchcock is alive and well in this French thriller featuring one of the creepiest stalkers since Peter Lorre in Fritz Lang's "M". With droll humour, understated suspense and a twisted sense of voyeurism, director Dominik Moll creates an engrossing fright flick about a family confronted by an ostensible benefactor who is, in fact, their worst nightmare. Christy Lemire:
1. "In the Bedroom" - The best movie of the year because it packs the biggest emotional punch. Tom Wilkinson and Sissy Spacek provide achingly honest and Oscar-worthy - portrayals of parents whose marriage nearly collapses under the strain of their son's murder. The first feature film from director Todd Field depicts how people grieve in different ways. It also is a fascinating exploration of the steps ordinary people take under extraordinary circumstances.
2. "A Beautiful Mind" Russell Crowe continues to astonish with his versatility as an actor. His transformation into tormented Nobel Prize-winning mathematician John Nash is so thorough, he becomes unrecognisable. Jennifer Connelly stands equal as Nash's devoted wife, a role that will bring her the recognition she has long deserved. It is also the best movie from director Ron Howard, who has finally found a way to evoke emotion without relying on schmaltz.
3. "Memento" - Told backward, writer-director Christopher Nolan's revenge thriller will leave you stumbling from the theatre, reeling over what you just saw or did not see. Its narrative approach is ingenious, and it must have been incredibly hard to craft and make all the details fit. As a man seeking revenge for his wife's murder, Guy Pearce is dark and tormented. And in supporting roles, Carrie-Anne Moss and Joe Pantoliano are perfectly mysterious.
4. "Ghost World" - A truly original film for depicting teen-agers as interesting, complex, fully-developed people. Thora Birch and Scarlett Johansson make their characters feel so real, you will want to hang out all day with them, following weirdoes around and playing pranks on them. Steve Buscemi, as a lonely, introverted album collector who befriends Birch's character, makes the movie even more funny and heartbreaking. 5. "Moulin Rouge" - Either you love Baz Lurhmann's inventive visual style or you hate it. But you cannot ignore this movie. It is a relentless whirlwind, a colourful sensory overload from the opening credits until the very end. And who knew Nicole Kidman and Ewan McGregor could sing? Their renditions of contemporary love songs provide a funny, touching, bizarre juxtaposition with the film's turn-of-the-century French setting.
6. "The Royal Tenenbaums" - Maybe Wes Anderson is entirely too pleased with himself for the highly-detailed version of New York he has created. He should be. This story of a family of failed geniuses, which he co-wrote with frequent collaborator and friend Owen Wilson, is so funny and so strange, it is worth seeing more than once just to drink it all in. Gene Hackman should get an Oscar nomination as the scheming patriarch.
7. "Black Hawk Down" - Jerry Bruckheimer redeems himself from the debacle that was "Pearl Harbor". This gritty, in-your-face film, based on the botched US military mission in Mogadishu, Somalia, in October 1993, plays like a documentary of disaster. Director Ridley Scott is relentless - 90 minutes of the 2½-hour movie are non-stop gunfire. But the movie is so compelling, it is impossible not to be drawn in and emotionally drained.
8. "The Man Who Wasn't There" - Gorgeously shot in black and white with a stunningly subtle performance from Billy Bob Thornton as a 1940s barber. The Coen brothers have always shown an extraordinary eye for detail, but here they create a rich sense of place, with the help of Roger Deakins' lush cinematography. The movie strays a bit toward the end, but it is always haunting.
9. "Sexy Beast" - As a foul-mouthed, gun-toting, butt-kicking British thug, Ben Kingsley is unpredictable, impossible to stop watching. His performance alone would make the movie worth seeing, but it punctuates a stylish noir thriller that is totally addictive. The banter crackles between him and Ray Winstone, who plays a retired gangster living the high life. A mesmerising first feature from commercial and music-video director Jonathan Grazer.
10. "Amelie" - Even a cynical movie critic can fall in love with this charming, quirky tale of a shy, clever girl who makes sure everyone else falls in love, but does not look after her own heart. It is impossible not to smile from start to finish while watching this. The movie already made the doe-eyed Audrey Tautou a star in France, and it surely will do the same for her in the United States.
