The Top Ten Films of 2002
Repetition was the theme in many of 2002’s films, with few original ideas surfacing amidst the numerous studio remakes of past hits (Insomnia, Ring, Solaris), a slew of crappy sequels to films that were crappy to begin with (Analyze That, Harry Potter) and too many insightful and touching four hour musicals about exploitive British colonialism in 19th century India (Lagaan, Extreme Ops). With fewer mind-blowingly original ideas to choose from for the Top 10 films, those that made the list were films that took an invigoratingly fresh approach to conventional themes and genres.
1. Punch Drunk Love-And you said he was just that director who liked to have lots of sex and cursing in his movies. And you said he was just that actor who liked to beat stuff up and make stupid voices. It is fun to be proven wrong sometimes, and never more than with this pairing of P.T. Anderson and Adam Sandler. The former knocks his legendary running time in half, while Sandler gives an unbelievably sincere performance as a man without love who finds it in Emily Watson. Who can blame him, though, when she defines cute with sweater sets, wide eyes and crooked, unsure smiles. The film combines the perils of love today with the truth of love always: both scary and thrilling, enticing and repellent. It gives us non-sequiturs and pretentious color bars, but P.T. Anderson finally gets it down and throws a warm, heartfelt movie into this cold, dark world.-Gilbert Cruz
2. Habla Con Ella-Spanish director Pedro Almodovar’s latest is a wonderfully sick tale of love, obsession and loss. Javier Camara plays a sensitive nurse who relaxes by hanging out with the comatose Alicia. Dario Grandinetti plays an Argentinian travel writer who falls for a controversial and soon-to-be comatose bullfighter. Natch, they bond, and hilarity ensues. But beyond the twisted storyline, Habla con Ella somehow becomes a nice, pleasing romance. Other directors with Almodovar’s knack for plot devices could have easily turned this film into a sexual shock-fest. But he manages to use the film’s more fantastic sequences to ground it in reality. Despite sounding like what every romantic comedy ever has aspired to-the portrayal of the idiosyncrasies of love between everyday people—that shouldn’t be held against it. Instead, think of Habla con Ella as what romantic comedies could be if they were made by smart, funny people and didn’t star Meg Ryan. —Bill Cleveland
3. Adaptation-“Maybe he could be a former literature professor who cuts his victims into little pieces. He could call himself the Deconstructionist,” dryly quips screenwriter Charlie Kaufman (Nicolas Cage) to his brother Donald (also Cage) who is attempting to write a commercial thriller screenplay. A fitting joke, considering that Adaptation is a text falling apart that contains a story-within-a-story frame wherein the two narratives intersect and entangle. The protagonist of the film is the screenwriter himself, Charlie Kaufman, commissioned to adapt author Susan Orlean’s book The Orchid Thief into a screenplay. Realizing that the text is unadaptable, Charlie makes it into a film about his struggle to realize the task at hand and works his own life into the story, until the two narratives ultimately collide and veer off into the realm of fiction before the film’s conclusion. The second collaboration between Kaufman and director Spike Jonze, Adaptation is similar to its predecessor Being John Malkovich in that it takes one original idea and runs with it, resulting in a film that is both highly inventive and entertaining.-Scott Matthews
4. 24 Hour Party People-Erstwhile telejournalist Tony Wilson thought he was in a crucial locale at a crucial juncture in history, destined to do great things. It was the drab, post-industrial mid‘70s in far-flung Manchester, and his destiny was the enduringly influential, if not always lucrative Factory Records. By the end of Michael Winterbottom’s 24 Hour Party People, it’s hard to understand why no one believed him. The movie is part biopic, part history lesson, part scenester wist and wholly entertaining. Using a suitably slapdash approach to history (at one point, the real Howard Devoto of the Buzzcocks appears to deny what the fictional Howard Devoto just did), Party People parties nonstop through Factory’s rise and fall. History, however, certainly isn’t the point. It’s generally about the limit of what one man can accomplish by sheer force of personality while not caring a whit about anything besides. Comedian Steve Coogan’s winning performance as Wilson almost single-handedly propels the movie among 2002’s best.—Mike DeBonis
5. Y Tu Mama Tambien-The fifth film by Mexican director Alfonso Cuaron, Y Tu Mama Tambien (which means “and your mother, Tambien,” in Spanish) proves that rich kids in Mexico like to get drunk and fuck just as much as their American counterparts. The story focuses on two friends who take a road trip to a non-existent beach with an older woman who has just broken up with her unfaithful husband. Unlike most road trips, which usually end in disappointment and a sense of emptiness (see: Tom Green’s Road Trip), this voyage of discovery is filled with poignant life lessons about friendship, love and maturing (much like a fortune cookie). The film also contains a great deal of peripheral social commentary subtlely inserted around the film’s main plot. These digressions come courtesy of an omniscient narrator who provides little snapshot-like episodes dealing with problems such as the poverty, political corruption and search for a national identity besetting the production’s home country. All of this combines to make Y Tu Mama Tambien a film that is surprisingly substantial, despite having all the trappings of an empty teen flick.-Scott Matthews
6. Morvern Callar—Those who sit in a dark theater looking for plot inconsistencies will walk out angry at the many that plague this film, content with their own useless ability to nitpick. Toss the less-than-important plot to the side (they are never as essential as they seem), and focus on the feeling that Lynn Ramsey’s second film imposes. At a time when British cinema is under the horrific reign of Guy Ritchie’s faux-Mamet, over-explanatory shtick, Ramsey distances us from story, theme and character. Dealing instead with that old favorite-existential “man” in modern-day society, Samanta Morton gives off a wonderfully closed-off performance as the woman who finds her suicidal boyfriend dead in the kitchen. She does what anyone else would and takes all his money out of the bank and sends off his first novel with her name on it. As she heads off to a sex and drug-fueled holiday in Spain, it is hard to decide whether she is in shock or is just an empty soul. With long silences aplenty, Morvern Callar is most hypnotic when free of dialogue and in the end, the emotion’s the thing.—Gilbert Cruz
7. 8 Mile—Eminem just wants us to think that he’s a really nice guy who dotes on his little sister and thinks gay folk are just fine. That’s how cynics will immediately view 8 Mile. But whether you see the film as the main thrust in an Eminem image-rehabilitation campaign or not, 8 Mile tells a great story: Eminem is Jimmy “Rabbit” Smith, a prodigious rapper with a problem. Actually, a whole bunch of problems: he’s poor, lives in a trailer, and gets no respect at his factory job. But his biggest problem is that he can’t perform his brilliant (and potentially redemptive) rhymes. In the opening scene, given the chance to battle for the bigs, Rabbit pukes. Purple Rain, this isn’t. In fact, 8 Mile has more in common with sports movies than the typical music movie. Witness the superstar overcoming early adversity on and off the field, er, stage, to win the big game in the end, vanquish the former champ and get the girl. Formulaic, sure, but director Curtis Hansen twists Eminem’s celebrity in a surprisingly challenging way, while showing Hollywood’s keenest eye for urban poverty and decay. The key is that 8 Mile doesn’t get too ambitious—it succeeds in its modesty. Wait, Eminem modest? Maybe the cynics are right. —Mike DeBonis
8. Bowling for Columbine—The latest bit of documentary/social critique from director Michael Moore is a caustic look at America’s “culture of violence,” specifically the gun culture that is responsible for so many deaths in the United States. Moore’s odyssey leads him far and wide; from the Michigan militia to students of Columbine High School and even Marilyn Manson (who comes off sounding more intelligent and well-spoken than the shoddy journalists who blame every violent outburst and natural disaster on the counterculture) to getting thrown off of Charlton Heston’s property for asking too many pointed questions. Despite the serious nature of the film, Moore is able to temper his subject with enough humor in the form of short cartoon outtakes, a caustic deadpan and his ability to rip interviewees a new one without their knowledge, sometimes even with their help. And while Moore’s approach is far from objective (you see only what he wants you to see, after all), he deserves praise for making a film that touches on and inspires dialogue on issues of social relevance. —Scott Matthews
9. The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers—Your Lord of the Rings character count should be up to eleven by now, and this film resolves very little that it introduces. But this middle chapter is filmmaking on the grandest scale. Criticisms range from a simplistic divide between good and evil to an infidelity to the original text to a lack of proactive female characters. Bollocks to that. Peter Jackson keeps the best of the books and throws out the rest; battles on a Kurosawa scale, faux-medieval speak and, in CGI-driven Gollum, one of the best scenes of psychological-driven conflict of the year. Drag your “I don’t like fantasy” smack-talking friends to this movie-this trilogy is doubtlessly the movie saga of our generation. Lotsa characters, lotsa action, lotsa big shots of pretty mountains and Elfophilia to boot-you can’t go wrong.—Gilbert Cruz
10. Igby Goes Down-An updated take on Catcher in the Rye, Igby Goes Down follows the trials and tribulations of a young boy out to escape the trappings of the established life that drove his father insane, turned his mother against him, and made his older brother a dick. Igby finds Kieran Culkan-a perennial failure at school and an embarrassment to his refined, upper-class mother—dodging the system entirely by surviving on his own in New York, befriending a rag-tag group of junkies, performance artists and fellow outcasts along the way. The film boasts strong performances from leads Susan Sarandon, Jeff Goldblum, and Kieran Culkan for good reason. After all, it shouldn’t be difficult for Sarandon to portray an aging, frigid bitch; Goldblum a horribly rich asshole who you just wish would die; and McCulkan (younger brother to Home Alone II: Lost in New York star Macawley) a boy lost in the big city with only his wits to aid him. And it’s a refreshing change to see a film that, in keeping with its cynical tone, ends with no lessons learned or realizations achieved, and where no one grows as a character. Kind of like in real life. —Scott Matthews
The Top Ten Albums of 2002
The year in music was much better than both 2001’s albums and the movies for ‘02: Witness both a bevy of promising new artists in addition to established musicians doing what they do best, if not better. But at least they’re doing it. Uh. Yeah. This year’s Top 10 list for albums proves that good music is good music regardless of genre or category (except for jam-band rock, which can suck it sideways), with our favorites of the year ranging from melodic pop to forward-thinking hip-hop to flat-out rock that, well, flat-out rocked. Not to mention some of the hottest Gregorian Chant this side of the Pope’s goofy hat. In no particular order, here’s our list of favorites in the order that we liked them.
1. Interpol: Turn on the Bright Lights—Interpol is the breakthrough band of 2002. Its first LP, Turn on the Bright Lights lifted it out of obscurity and into the glowing praise of music fans and critics alike. Armed with matching suits and haircuts, Interpol transforms a bricolage of past influences into a cohesive rock album ultimately stronger than the sum of its parts. While not as joyful or exuberant as say, a funeral, the music is lushly produced and recorded. Singer Ian Banks intones melancholy lyrics over top of jangling guitar riffs and a rhythm section comprised largely of snare and cymbal shots wed to sinuous bass lines. This formula is most appreciated on songs like the sadly beautiful “NYC,” and more uptempo fare such as “Stella Was a Diver and She Was Always Down.” Like any emerging act that garners this much national attention upon its debut, it remains to be seen whether its follow-up will live up to the high standards set here, or if they emptied their bag of tricks all on the first effort. But for now at least, Interpol is on top of rock music with a masterful reworking of the past into a unparalleled sound. —Scott Matthews
2. Wilco: Yankee Hotel Foxtrot—Wilco’s Yankee Hotel Foxtrot could very well have been this high on last year’s list. But well-publicized record industry machinations interfered with the record’s official release, leaving it in a state of semi-official Internet-only limbo until last April. Since then it’s become a genuine phenomenon, spawning a fine documentary about its making (Sam Jones’ I Am Trying to Break Your Heart), fawning press and (not coincidentally) impressive sales. Cynics can yelp about the hype machine all they want, but Yankee Hotel Foxtrot delivers musically. Much has already been said about the album in these pages and elsewhere, but the superlatives are still well deserved. The album’s first half is breathtaking: From “I Am Trying to Break Your Heart” to “Ashes of American Flags,” each song is better than the one before. Pop gems “Heavy Metal Drummer” and “I’m the Man That Loves You” stud the middle. Things stray a bit toward the album’s end, but the lyrical and sonic ambition throughout is enough to propel this effort from Jeff Tweedy and company into a classic. —Mike DeBonis
3. White Stripes: White Blood Cells-Simple, powerful, unrefined, refreshing-all words that one could use in describing crack cocaine, or the latest White Stripes album. Where they differ is that Jack and Meg White will leave you bloody-nosed and staring at the ceiling wondering what hit you much quicker. With its combination of Meg’s stripped-down drumming and Jack’s guitar riffs ranging from melodic to jagged, the sound wavers throughout the album between softly sweet and melodic to harshly abrasive and rough, sometimes within the same song. This balance between pseudo-metal riffs and gently strummed melodies provides the backdrop for songs about love, betrayal, inspiration and elementary school. The Stripes have proven that it doesn’t take more than two people to make great balls-to-the-wall rock, and in the process have created one of the most unpretentiously fun and enjoyable albums of the year, or last year, or the last several years. —Scott Matthews
4. El-P: Fantastic Damage—By the time Brooklyn emcee El-P dropped his solo record last summer, he was already known both for fronting underground act Company Flow and running the respected Definitive Jux Records. But with the release of Fantastic Damage, El-P has eclipsed all his earlier accomplishments. Like many rappers, the man is a serious traditionalist. While innovation can get you somewhere in hip-hop, orthodoxy will usually get you further-witness the existence of Jermaine Dupri. But it doesn’t always have to be that way. With Fantastic, El-P demonstrates how much energy can be produced through the proper collision of tradition and evolution. The album opens with an earthquake stutter of percussion and soon climbs up to the headnodding gothic horror of “Deep Space 9mm.” Then its off to commentary on consumerism– “Dead Disnee”-more commentary on consumerism– “Stepfather Factory”-and freaky sex rhymes-“Dr. Hellno and the Praying Mantus.” If that sounds like well-worn rap territory, it is. But through the lens of Fantastic, it’s all disorientingly fresh. The beats are furiously dynamic compositions and the lyrics are dense, reflexive and earnest. El-P’s sound is so developed that you could almost believe he had spent his whole life rapping in isolation, oblivious to the crap being released around him. —Bill Cleveland
5. C.O.C.O.: The C.O.C.O Sound-The funkiest album of the year comes from Olympia, Wash., a scene known more for its depressive indie aesthetic than itsass-shaking. While Yume Bitsu and Ugly Casanova got more press, K Records’ best release of the year past was C.O.C.O.’s second full-length, The C.O.C.O. Sound. Composed of Olivia Ness and Chris Sutton (their name is a supposed acronym for “Chris and Olivia, City of Olympia”), the lineup might remind some of another one-man-one-woman team, the White Stripes. C.O.C.O., however, is most of a continent away geographically and musically. While the band’s sound is indeed raw like the dynamic Detroit duo, the bass-and-drums vibe is infinitely more soulful and danceable. The best tracks feature Ness’ sultry vocals and dulcet bass over inventive polyrhythms from Sutton. One standout track, “Supercool,” doesn’t even need the bass-just Ness’ jazzy growl and Sutton’s rough-hewn drumming. Minimal, sure, but maximally appealing to both ears and hindquarters. —Mike DeBonis
6. Sleater-Kinney: One Beat—Sleater-Kinney has been racking in the reviews since their debut album, Call The Doctor, but not until One Beat have fans and critics been in agreement. While their previous releases were definitely gems of the pop sort, this trio of talented women has finally developed an intense and mature level of creativity on One Beat. Though some might attribute it to the band’s aging, or the current state of events in our country, but it is much more probable that Sleater-Kinney, after five previous albums, have finally found their niche. On previous releases, guitarist Carrie Brownstein’s vocals were a bit too abrasive on the ears, but on songs such as “One Beat” and “Oh!” Brownstein and other guitarist/vocalist Corrin Tucker harmonize beautifully. Their complex cascading vocals, a signature trait of the band, raises the bar on One Beat, proving that Sleater-Kinney is not shying away from a challenge. The band could not have picked a more perfect title for their latest album: their sound, creativity and skill have eloquently cemented into one beat and, thankfully, it lasts for more than four counts. —Cindy Fisher
7. N.E.R.D. – In Search of…– This collaboration formed in early 2001 when Pharrell Williams and Chad Hugo, the duo that comprises hip-hop production team The Neptunes, grabbed their rapper-friend Shay to form N.E.R.D. The album, In Search Of …, was originally slated for a summer 2001 release but Williams and Hugo pulled it back when they decided it sounded too pedestrian. The change? Williams and Hugo replaced the drum machines with real drums and the synthesizers with real guitars and re-released the album in the spring of this year. The result? One of the most distinct and novel rap albums of the year. Heavy on their distinctive drumming, In Search Of … is one of the rare rap albums you can listen to from start to finish and not be bored by repetitive beats. The album blends classic rock and new wave with hard rap beats, blending them together with a smoothness that crappy rap/rock bands would kill for. It also helps that three of the strongest tracks are at the end: the single “Rock Star,” the teen-angsty “Bobby James” and the organ-powered “Stay Together.” Their presence on just about every single from pop, rap or R&B artist these days leaves the Neptunes in danger of being overexposed, but if they continue to make such sonically explorative, original music, that may not be such a bad thing. —Liam Dillon
8. …And You Will Know Us by the Trail of the Dead: Source Tags and Codes—Fuck sounding like Joy Division. The clunkily named … And You Will Know Us By The Trail of Dead have produced an album that doesn’t rock by association. It just rocks. Sometimes it does so via the well-worn but nonetheless effective methods of furious machine gun drumming and distorted three-chord seizures. Sometimes it ventures into more experimental post-punk veins via furious machine gun drumming and even more distorted no-chord seizures. Usually, Source Tags & Codes is somewhere in between—most tracks on this incredibly dynamic record involve a little bit of each approach. The noodlings at the beginning of “It Was There That I Saw You” segue perfectly into screaming guitar. Moments later, the storm clears and the band wanders through a steady build before dumping the entire mess on you once again. Complementary arcs of guitar and percussion on “Another Morning Stoner” spiral up out of reach, then drop to the floor in a flurry of headbanging. The album’s middle is more subdued, one rolling plea after another backed by those incredible guitars and the drummer’s twitching tom hits. The cry builds to a head as the warmth of “Relative Ways” threatens to overheat, but instead it all crashes down into the bass fuzz of the title track, which waltzes itself right into the wings and pukes its brains out. —Bill Cleveland
9. Spoon: Kill the Moonlight-Spoon’s Kill the Moonlight is not only one of the year’s best albums, but also one of the most eclectic. With their melodic pop sensibilities and varied musical styles, comparisons to the Beatles (think White Album), while somewhat overreaching, might not be too far off base. The album also gets by on a bare minimum of instrumentation-the tracks are kept fairly simple in favor of an uncluttered sound while concentrating on melody. Instruments fade in and out as needed, staying only as long as necessary before being replaced or simply disappearing-leaving more breathing room for the remaining elements to develop. It’s cheeky piano rock for the late night drive-around-with-your-friends-looking-for-something-to-do crowd.-Scott Matthews
10. Beck: Sea Change—A dramatic shift from 1999’s somewhat disappointing Midnight Vultures, Beck’s Sea Change represents an entirely new direction for the alt-everything rocker: personal songs. Simple, tight and country-fried, Beck spills his heart after a recent breakup without sounding self-indulgent or angry. Instead, the album examines his feelings with a sadness and emotional depth that anyone who has been through a painful breakup can relate to. Setting the tone with the spectacular opener “The Golden Age,” Beck and producer Nigel Godrich create a warm sound that comforts rather than numbs, consoles rather than embitters. The rest of the album follows suit. The lyrics on “Guess I’m Doing Fine” are some of Beck’s most heartfelt: “It’s only tears that I’m crying / It’s only you that I’m losing / Guess I’m doing fine.” The beautiful “Lost Cause” is the best track on the album, perfectly using simple guitar notes to accent Beck’s weariness. Still, the album’s greatest achievement is its ability to make 12 songs about one of the most familiar topics in music sound so original, penetrating and cohesive without lapsing into ostentation or conceit. —Liam Dillon
