|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
TOP 10 - Best Films 2002 |
|
|
|
About Schmidt
(New Line Cinema) |
|
Resilient filmmaker Alexander Payne (“Election”) delivers a blistering account of alienation, isolation and silent grief in his bittersweet character study of Nebraskan career insurance man Warren Schmidt (Jack Nicholson) retiring from a job that has given him somewhat of a distinctive identity and purpose. Settling into the retirement mode hasn’t been all that easy considering Schmidt’s personal issues that force-fed his lingering anxieties. After his wife passes away, Schmidt must come to grips with his conflicted existence. Whether trying to stop his grown daughter from marrying a clueless waterbed salesman or fending off wacky forces that dare to disrupt his mental funk (refer to the hilarious Kathy Bates as a flirtatious ex-hippie chick), Warren Schmidt is in a downward spiral and uses a road trip to the West Coast to do some mighty soul searching. Payne reigns as one of the most effective social satirists in cinema today. And the Oscar-caliber performances by Nicholson and Bates reinforce Payne’s potent, cynically heartfelt narrative. |
|
Adaptation (New
Line Cinema) |
|
Collaborators Spike Jonze’s dazzling direction and Charlie Kaufman’s caustic screenplay has produced one of the most entertainingly bizarre and challenging films since their input regarding the exceptionally twisted Being John Malkovich. This story finds the talented writer Kaufman (Nicholas Cage) trying to adapt author Susan Orlean’s (Meryl Streep) treasured novel The Orchid Thief for the big screen while dealing with his shady fellow screenwriting twin brother Donald (also played marvelously by Cage) who’s not so ambitious creatively. Stingingly wry and off-kilter, Adaptation is delightfully devilish and absorbing thanks to the energetic tandem of Jonze and Kaufman’s artistic influence coupled by inspired performances from the top-notch cast of players. |
|
Catch Me If You Can
(DreamWorks Distribution LLC) |
|
A wickedly nostalgic spry cat-and-mouse crime caper from the imaginative mind of visionary filmmaker Steven Spielberg. Frank Abnagale Jr. (Leonardo DiCaprio) is a playful con artist that loves to impersonate professional people while swindling millions of dollars in the process. Meanwhile, it’s up to no nonsense square peg FBI Agent Hanratty (Tom Hanks) to put a stop to the roguish criminal’s elaborate illegal activities. This may be one of Spielberg’s lightest films in terms of content, but the celebrated moviemaker turns this frivolous premise of mischievousness into a durable and intriguing psychological chase picture. And casting the likes of DiCaprio and Hanks is a clever move in attempting to give this ditty a sense of complexity and universal appeal. |
|
Far From Heaven
(Focus Features) |
|
Todd Hayes does an exceptional job of capturing the essence of the Douglas Sirk social-minded melodramas that dominated the big screen in the mid to late 1950’s. Hayes craftily manipulates his narrative dedicated to the Golden Age of moviemaking. He does this by slickly piling up on the taboo subject matter of race, sexual identity, and pseudo-Eisenhower-era family values. Julianne Moore shines as Cathy Whitaker, a suburban wife and mother who tries to embody the ideal suburban lifestyle only to in fact shield against the blatant domestic lie she’s been living. Because of her marriage to an alcoholic, emotionally distant homosexual (Dennis Quaid), Cathy finds herself falling for the articulate, sensible, understanding and handsome black gardener Raymond Deagan (Dennis Haysbert) much to the dismay of her outraged colleagues. Far From Heaven is a savvy and intuitive satire that effectively utilizes its dramatic overtones. |
|
The Kid Stays in the Picture
(USA Films) |
|
Brett Morgen and Nanette Burstein deliver a shrewd and insightful documentary recalling the sometimes triumphant, sometimes tumultuous days of Hollywood heavy-hitter movie producer Robert Evans. In fact, the interesting tidbit behind this jolting showcase is that Evans is afforded the opportunity to provide narration for his own legendary exploits that range from his touted heyday as a notorious womanizer to the prominence and power as Tinseltown’s tanned titan of entertainment. As “The Kid”, Evans doesn’t disappoint (along with Morgen and Burstein) as we are introduced to the succulent details involving drugs, broken marriages, financial discourse, depression—in other words, the good sordid stuff! The Kid Stays in the Picture is an enticing look at the dominance and dysfunctional aura that is the number one fantasy-driven dream machine known as Hollywood. |
|
Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers
(New Line Cinema) |
|
Peter Jackson’s extravagant follow-up to the equally impressive predecessor The Fellowship of the Ring. Jackson’s impeccable direction and visual assault of breathtaking grandeur definitely brings robust life into J.R.R. Tolkien’s mythical utopia of hobbits, wizards, Middle-earth, war, romance, etc. The Two Towers is as defiant as it is passionate. This volatile yet whimsical story delivers an old-fashioned premise of good vs. evil. However simplistic that may be, Jackson captures the majestic and cunning spirit that translates effectively in Tolkien’s throbbing trilogy. |
|
Murderous Maids (Les Blessures
Assassines)
(ARP Selection) |
|
Writer-director Jean-Pierre Denis’s captivating and shockingly brutal account of France’s Papin sisters and their 1933 heinous act of murder perpetrated against their employer and her daughter. This absorbing, macabre tale is as provocative as it is uniquely unsettling. Both homicidal siblings were not only unassuming household maids turned into gradual unstable killers but also incestuous lesbian lovers to boot. Denis creates a moody and mundane period piece that is joyfully disturbing in its haunting cinematic skin. Try ordering these deranged domestic damsels to dust the furniture and see what you get for your trouble! |
|
The Piano Teacher (La Pianiste)
(Kino International) |
|
Writer-director Michael Haneke’s riveting and provocatively compelling look at sexual frustration in the complex person of Conservatory piano professor Erika Kohut (Isabelle Huppert) and her twisted psychological obsession with “visiting the dark side” of her otherwise passionless life. It doesn’t help that Erika, a forty-something professional woman, still lives with her overbearing mother thus reminding her how much she’s been missing both intimately and socially. Whether trying out her voyeuristic tendencies by watching others fornicate or cutting herself up with blades as a sense of perverse sexual gratification, Denis presents a revealing and complicated study of a desperate spinster looking to escape her drab, unfulfilling existence. Huppert delivers a brave and complex performance as the frigid middle-aged maiden looking to add spice to her absent romantic life even if it means sniffing used Kleenexes to give her erotic stimulation. |
|
Spirited Away
(Walt Disney Pictures [Studio Ghibli film]) |
|
I was rather quite surprised that the wonderfully intoxicating Japanese animated adventure Spirited Away didn’t make the magical impact with western movie audiences as it did back in the Far East. Anime genre giant Hayao Miyazaki (Princess Mononoke) is an extraordinary storyteller so the tale being told in Spirited Away is understandably vibrant and resonates with so much profound passion. Fragile heroine Chihiro is tossed into a lyrical world of nonsensical images in another dimension and in the process looses her pushy parents in this bizarre field trip. Chihiro must fend for herself and plot to reunite with her folks. As an animated feature, Spirited Away is lavish and visually soothing. Contemplative in its meditative state, Miyazaki’s radiant narrative deserved the acknowledgement from North American moviegoers who wouldn’t mind the thought of surrendering their senses to this engaging little gem of a movie. |
|
Y Tu Mama Tambien ("And Your
Mother, Too")
(IFC Films) |
|
Alfonso Cuaron’s alluring and spicy road picture that pits the hormonal emergence of a couple of teen studs (Diego Luna and Gael Garcia Bernal) with that of hot-looking 28 year-old babe Luisa (Maribel Verdu) who is stuck in marital stagnation. The boys urge Luisa to travel with them to a “relaxing destination” where they all can get away from their current routine. Of course the road trip serves as the catalyst for them embracing their self-discovery both sexually and emotionally. Cuaron not only establishes a lusty vital connection amongst his wandering protagonists but he allows us to take a roving eye to Mexico’s economic climate by contrasting the landscape of rags and riches, beauty and squalor, the advantaged and the disadvantaged, etc. This is an erotic and taut film that dares to dot the “I’s” and cross the “T’s” as we play willing passenger to the Cuaron’s profoundly risque’ road trip. |
 |
||
|
|
||
|
|
||
|
Copyrights are the property of their respective owners. The images displayed on this site are for newsworthy purposes only. All of the images on this site are either the property of CelebStar.net, used with permission of their respective copyright owners, or believed to have been granted into the public domain. |
||
|
All original content Copyright © |
|
CelebStar™ All Rights Reserved. |
|
|
||
|
|
