What was the state of cinema? Oscar-wise, in 2001 the Academy Awards made some bold nominations, but of course awarded the safer “Gladiator” before Steven Soderbergh’s far superior, “Traffic.” Still, Soderbergh did pull off the feat of being nominated twice in the same directorial category for his drug trade drama and “Erin Brockovich” (he would win for “Traffic” and Julia Roberts would take Best Actress for ‘Brockovich). At Cannes Michael Haneke’s devastating “The Piano Teacher” would dominate (Best Actress, Actor and the runner-up prize), but the Palme d’Or would elude him (Italian picture, “The Son’s Room” took the top award that year). Globally, George W. Bush was elected into office, which would of course bring us 9/11 and the beginning of the Afghanistan invasion (and all kinds of other garbage), but those affects on cinema would obviously not be felt immediately. Perhaps the coolest cultural moment all year? In January, a black monolith measuring approximately 9 feet tall appeared in Seattle, Washington’s Magnuson Park, placed by an anonymous artist in reference to Stanley Kubrick’s “2001: A Space Odyssey.”
10. “The Devil’s Backbone”
While Guillermo del Toro won over the hearts and minds of audiences and critics with his similarly themed and styled “Pan’s Labyrinth” (both fantastical with political overtones) it was this Pedro Almodovar-produced Spanish-language ghost story that cemented him as a filmmaker of unbridled imagination and thoughtfulness. Set at a boys’ halfway house during the Spanish Civil War, with an unexploded bomb in the courtyard serving as a reminder of the peril they all face, del Toro crafted a tender melodrama about the ghosts (literal, historical, and emotional) that torment us all. Though some of the visual effects lack sophistication in retrospect, the sentiment is just as clear and rich as ever.
9. “No Man’s Land”
This 2001 Academy Award winner for Best Foreign Film is a pitch-black ironic tragicomedy set during the 1993 Bosnian war about opposing wounded soldiers (Serbian and Bosnian) stuck in a trench between enemy lines, with a Bosnian comrade who comes to and finds himself immobilized on a spring loaded bouncing mine. Serious stuff, but director Danis Tanovic uses the dilemma to scathingly illustrate the utter absurdities of war (bureaucratic or otherwise) and the squabbling among different players who descend on the scene — journalists attempt to exploit the situation for their own gain, which in turn draws the U.N., which begets its own kind of handicapped red tape. While the soldiers find common ground, and everyone works towards the goal of getting them out alive, the film concludes with stark bleakness (though there’s nothing ambiguous about the outcome), leaving the viewer despairing despite the demonstration of brotherhood among enemies, and as conflicted about the message as the desperate situation within no man’s land.
8. “Memento”
Credit goes to Christopher Nolan’s second film for keeping us interested once the final revelations occur, not only in the actual truth but as well as the characters’ own warped version. Guy Pearce’s everyman panic helps ground the haunted and afflicted vigilantism of the main character in a reality that Wally Pfister’s sun-soaked cinematography helps illuminate, one of shoddy, paint-worn backroom dealings, dank hotel rooms and hopeless dead-end diners. Using the plot device of anterograde amnesia, Shelby (Pearce) is forced to constantly re-imagine the events around him every fifteen minutes when his memory vanishes. The film uses an ingenious backwards narrative that carefully places clues at the right spots to allow for the viewer to participate in solving what we know is essentially an unsolvable mystery: a man out for revenge against the man who killed his wife, leaving him dazed, confused, and… well, he’s got this condition, see?
7. “Fat Girl”
Provocateur Catherine Breillat certainly has a lot to say about female sexuality, but fans of her work would agree her most abrasive, confrontational film appears to be this tale of two sisters, one a sexually active nymphette awash in thoughts of true romance, and her far more cynical and more rotund sibling. As the older seductress pines for her much-older male paramour, the younger can only think in inflexible terms regarding the bonds between her and family, knowing that the end of adolescence means the beginning of loneliness. “Fat Girl” traces the connection between the emotional disassociation of youth and the loveless call of passionless, selfish sex, creating a lacerating tale of the truth behind our darkest sexual thoughts — it’s as if Breillat is saying, “Come to my film for the cheap thrills, and I will scar you beyond belief.”
6. “Sexy Beast”
Before his directorial debut, Jonathan Glazer was only known for some ghostly music videos (Radiohead, Massive Attack, Blur) and staggeringly inventive commercials (Levi’s, Guinness, Nike), but that would all change with his gangster-trying-to-go-straight tale, “Sexy Beast,” a picture that ironically (and perhaps wisely) would let the visual flair take a backseat in favor of performance, sweltering mood and well, Ben Kingsley. While Ray Winstone is superb as Gal, the gone- lazy and fat ex-criminal trying to retire in his posh Spanish villa, it is Kingsley as the perennially apoplectic, raving lunatic former partner who is sent to fetch his colleague, who is a frightening force of nature (he was Oscar nominated, but never took the prize). The tense, tightly wound drama is also supremely buttressed by UNKLE’s claustrophobically throbbing electro score and the appearance by Ian McShane as a chilling crime boss.
5. “Amélie”
Launching the international acting career of Audrey Tautou and vaulting cult director Jean-Pierre Jeunet into A-list status, “Amelie” was the rare foreign film sensation that both packed theaters and pleased critics. Premiering in North America at TIFF on September 10, 2001 and released in theaters just a few months later, “Amelie” harkened back to a more blissfully uninformed time that seemed lost forever in smoke and fire of that early fall morning. The whimsical, sweet tooth of a story about a charmingly naive and innocent girl who quietly tries to help those around her and stumbles into love was the perfect dose of escapism the world needed. The fact that it’s an enchanting film, with a wondrous sense of comic timing, lovely set decoration and seared with earnest, unaffected hope and optimism is why it continues to endure.
4. “The Werckmeister Harmonies”
Comprised of only 39 shots, many of them in colossally-long 11 minute takes, Hungarian filmmaker Béla Tarr’s enigmatic masterwork about a strange circus sideshow — which includes a giant whale and a mysterious and unnatural ideologue named “The Prince” — that produces social unrest, fear and ultimately panic in a decaying provincial town is beautifully grim and unforgettable (and also a challenging film for those that can’t hang or go the distance with the slow-burning pace and bombed-out atmosphere). A young man (Lars Rudolph) hopelessly tries to assuage the restless town’s tensions, but it is to no avail and the moral consequences of the fait accompli self-implosion climaxes with one of the most heart-stirring sequences ever put on film (and corresponds sublimely with Mihály Vig’s dolorous score). Tarr once joked that the 11-minute reel was Kodak’s implicit form of censorship and either way, you can blame his mesmerizing and hypnotically graceful films (and sustaining sequences) for all of Gus Van Sant’s experimental work of the decade; the director named him as a key influence on “Gerry” and every abstract work that followed.
3. “The Piano Teacher”
Leave it to the contemptuous and implacable minister of fear, Michael Haneke, to deliver one of the decade’s most scorching portraits of human suffering and emotional incarceration bordering on a psychic breakdown. Known for his psychologically disturbing works, the misanthropic filmmaker renders yet another austere tale about a submissive piano teacher (a spectacularly emotionally ravaged Isabelle Huppert) who still lives at home, systematically damaged by her malevolent mother. Dignity and humanity practically buried under years of mental abuse, her only reprieve to feel something is ventilated by acting cruel to her students or brutal moments of self-inflicted genital mutilation (“Antichrist” has nothing on this). Things get even worse (if you can even imagine) when she becomes obsessed with one of her 17-year-old students. Abhorrent, yet fascinating, the picture is like a blunt-instrument to the head and something we carefully admire from afar, but never want to be forced to watch again.
2. “Mulholland Drive”
David Lynch’s puzzle box narrative seems to be about a hopeful Hollywood newcomer (Naomi Watts) who stumbles wide-eyed into a haunting mystery to which there are no straight answers. However, the hallucinatory nature of the story gives way to a deeper plumbing of the dreamscape, Lynch inviting you farther down the rabbit hole than you previously thought possible. In the end, the fable, originally created as an ABC pilot, diverges into two distinctly different narratives, one real, and one imagined, but not always in that order. Keep a scorecard handy for Lynch’s scariest film yet.
1. “The Man Who Wasn’t There”
The Coen Brothers’ achingly beautiful neo-noir (filmed in velvety black-and-white) was the polar opposite of their previous film, the jubilant “O Brother, Where Art Thou?” Dour, smoky, and draped in period atmosphere (it takes place in the late 1940s), this tale of a barber (Billy Bob Thornton) who gets embroiled in a convoluted scheme involving murder, blackmail, UFOs, and the burgeoning technology of dry cleaning is one of the Brothers’ most inscrutable and underrated films this decade, and one of their most powerful and deeply felt. It’s a movie whose characters are hollow (hollowed out by suburbia, by the war), and the visual texture, enriched by those long, inky shadows, echo this marvelously. It’s a movie whose gorgeous starkness haunts you long after you finish watching.
Honorable Mention:
Perhaps what many will see as a glaring oversight is Wes Anderson’s “Royal Tenebaums” which was a bone of contention amongst some of the staff, but the prevailing Playlist wisdom is that this film isn’t the masterpiece many think it is and suffers from enough caricature-ness (one-note performances, costumes and an ungainly slathering of music) that was enough to keep it off this list, but yes, it does have some heart and is very watchable. Other pictures that didn’t quite make the cut were Baz Luhrmann’s gaudy, yet entertaining musical, “Moulin Rouge,” Alejandro Amenábar’s spellbinding ghost story, “The Others,” starring a strong performance by Nicole Kidman (when you look at the overall decade you realize she’s been in several great films), Kiyoshi Kurosawa’s psychological-j-horror film, “Cure” and Todd Fields’ harrowing family drama, “In The Bedroom.”
If you’re wondering where average-to-just-ok-to-overrated films like “Ali,” “Donnie Darko,” “Black Hawk Down” or “Vanilla Sky” are, for example, you’re probably looking at the wrong website as they were intentionally left off this list. Thoughts? Your 2001 picks? — Kevin Jagernauth, Gabe Toro, Astrud Sands, Drew Taylor, Katie Walsh and RP.
whither 2000 ?
Mulholland Drive is one of the most frightening films, probably because I didn't expect it to be.
I watched in on a whim by myself and couldn't believe how suspenseful it was. Definitely deserves its spot.
I love these lists. Without sounding like a fan boy (alright maybe I am), I [almost] always agree with your reviews/tastes.
FYC: Robert Altman's Gosford Park.
Nice list. Would've included 'In The Bedroom' myself, but overall can't complain.
By God, I love this website.
Werckmeister Harmonies and Jean-Pierre Jeunet make a top 10 list?
<3's
Nice list. I personally was bored to tears with The Man Who Wasn't There but to each his own.
Thanks for mentioning man who wasn't there. They made the best movie of 07 and 09 in my opinion as well.
Jesus — try finding 10 films that good this year.
@Jonathan
Coraline
Thirst
Hierro
Accident
District 9
Moon
Das Weiss Band(The White Ribbon)
Madeo(Mother)
Antichrist
OMG AVATAR pew pew pew laserz!
Good choices, but what about…
Lantana
Hedwig and the Angry Inch
L.I.E.
and foreign flicks like
Late Marriage
The Princess and the Warrior
Sex and Lucia…
and the documentary Promises
Nice to see Werckmeister Harmonies get some recognition. Rented it blindly because I was intrigued by the cover, tucked in amongst a lot of crap was that of a man staring into the eye of some weird, beautiful thing.
It's a great film.
Werckmeister Harmonies is awesome but I 100% disagree with you about Royal Tenenbaums. The "one note" performances are just on the surface. Wes Anderson created an incredibly unique and hyperreal portrait of a family in that movie, and yes that included making them a bit like cartoon characters with expected costumes and reactions but there is so much more going on in them beyond what meets the eye, especially (and surprisngly) in the Wilson Brothers and Ben Stiller.
I would beg to disagree on your analysis of Amelie. I'm glad you think it's worthy of the list, but it's a lot more than just a light little tale of a girl who helps people and falls in love. It's just as much about loneliness, isolation, and depression as it is about whimsy.
And I know people love to rip on The Royal Tenenbaums, but I will forever maintain that it is excellent. And I actually really love the idea behind the costumes–wearing the clothes of the era of their prime. They're supposed to feel one-note; the characters are trapped, static, unable to move on. I think this applies to all the performances really well, too.
1.The Royal Tenenbaums
2.Black Hawk Down
3.Mulholland Drive
4.The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring
5.A Beautiful Mind
6.Waking Life
7.The Man Who Wasn’t There
8.Memento
9.Vanilla Sky
10.No Man’s Land
Fuck, I was expecting to complain in the comments about the oversight of The Man Who Wasn't There. The lack of a Supporting Actor win for Shaloub's career best and cinematography trophy for Deakins is perhaps one of the most damning indictment of the Oscar's irrelevance there is.
Kudos also goes to not pretending Waking Life is remotely watchable.
Though, Memento needs to be swapped with In the Bedroom–and then kicked off the list and replaced with The Believer as an honorable mention.
A-ha. I misread that first post. Nice placing of Mulholland Drive. The Man That Wasn't There is certainly an incredible film, too.
I always find it so baffling that Vanilla Sky takes so much flack. The major criticism seems to be that it's difficult to understand/follow. However, nearly everything is elucidated by the end of the film (also, heaven forbid you have to watch a film twice). Personally, I think Vanilla Sky is a spectacular and heartbreaking work of science fiction with some charming performances and one of the greatest soundtracks ever. Sure, it's not easy to follow, but neither are Charlie Kaufman's masterpieces.
I would think the main criticism of Vanilla Sky is that one character comes by and simply explains the whole thing for you in some sort of lecture. The original had that problem, too.
Yeah, Vanilla Sky isn't hard to understand at all. It's just too on the nose and pretty garish in spots.
The original wasn't a great film to begin with (i hated it) so I was kind of shocked it was remade.
Cruise, Diaz and Cruz don't exactly help out either.
Lantana! Any of your writers like that one? That's pretty high in my 2001 top ten. Certainly a better melodrama than In The Bedroom.
Gabe, I see what you mean. I suppose the film actually necessitates a second viewing (so you can go back and see where the dream began and whatnot), which I guess would bother people.
However, I don't see that as an inherent weakness. We basically see the film from Tom Cruise's character's eyes. We're in the same boat as him, so just like him, we have no idea what's going on. This is the point! None of this bad stuff was suppose to happen to the protagonist, and he wasn't suppose to know the truth! At the end, the protagonist needed the tech support guy to explain everything, as did the audience.
Vanilla Sky (and Abre Los Ojos) also has the oldest, lamest twist ending in the book (essentially "it was all a dream").
Plus, Crowe overdoes it with his usual strengths — the music and the dialogue. There is so much pop music it hurts the film, and the thing is just overwritten and overlong.
That being said, there are some really great images, and a few supporting players (Diaz, Noah Taylor, Jason Lee) do nice work. Not one of the best of 01 by a long shot, though.
Btw, I agree the performances by Diaz and Jason Lee were pretty weak, but Penelope Cruz, really? I realize Tom Cruise is rather polarizing, but I think these sort of modern roles are perfect for him (also great in Collateral and Magnolia, but keep him out of WWII movies, thanks).
Ha, Anon, you just said the exact opposite of me. I think Cruz and Cruise give the weakest performances in the film. Cruise goes way over the top, and Cruz has never been as good when she acts in English (she's far better in the original).
I think Diaz's performance is the highlight of the film. It may be her best ever. Shame she disappears a third of the way in.
The music choices in Vanilla Sky are pretty bad. A lot of cool indie music does not= excellent use of music.
The Radiohead song seems plastered on their cause Crowe happened to like it at the moment. It feels mostly like a forced mixtape, as if he made the movie cause he wanted to use those songs in a movie, not the other way around.
I'll give it up for the great use of the Sigur Ros song at the end and the Spiritualized song, but that's it (i love that Monkees song too, but can't say I remember its use being particularly remarkable).
Alright, my last post, I hope. It's funny how we disagreed on Diaz and Lee. Anyways, I don't see it as a 'it was all a dream' cheap trick. It wasn't simply a dream, it was far more complicated than that. It was basically a coma with an induced 'dream,' which Cruise elected to be part of to suspend himself in an immortal and perfect state. Not your typical 'character knocks himself on the head and the rest of the movie is all a silly dream.'
Wet Hot American Summer is at least better than Memento. Recognize.
@Alex. Believer is technically 2002 by U.S. rules, it will have some representation though probably not as high as you like (Gosling is amazing, but the entire movie itself isn't quite as stellar).
Ha, a movie made to a mix tape, sounds more like Cameron's awful Elizabethtown to me. While a don't think all the songs in Vanilla Sky necessarily matched up with the movie lyrically, they all felt just right to me. That's really more a personal point, though, I don't have much of an argument there. Anyways, I don't think Vanilla Sky should necessarily make the top ten (honestly I haven't seen most of the films on this list), but I do think the last paragraph in the post comes off as mildly insulting.
Vanilla Sky gets a lot of flak because it is a terrible movie.
Royal Tenenbaums was overrated when it came out, and is still overrated today. It's a good movie that is worthwhile in many respects, but I'll stick with The Playlist on this one. I'm guessing these guys have seen the movie multiple times, so arguing that their critique is only taking into account "the surface" of the film is probably not justified. It's a pretty stifling movie (that a lot of times doesn't let you move past the surface). It tries too hard to hit the notes it's trying to play, and in the end doesn't really succeed. (And I'm not saying that this isn't unfortunate, because I'm in no way a Wes Anderson hater…Rushmore trades places with a few others for probably my favorite movie ever.)
I also agree with whoever mentioned Gosford Park. That probably deserved an honorable mention at least, I would think. A million times better than Black Hawk Down, Donnie Darko and other boring junk that was cut but still got a pity mention.
I personally have seen the Royal Tenenbaums about almost 10 times and actually flew to one of the first U.S. screenings in LA where the version screened had actual Beatles songs in it.
It's good film, but I personally find it incredibly frustrating because it could have been amazing. There's so many good moments to it, a lot of value, but overall… it keeps you emotionally at bay thanks to all the near-asphyxiating diorama-style (which yes, isn't as bad as it get on Life Aquatic which squeezes all the life out of it's characters its so hermetically-sealed).
Are these arguments on his work becoming predictable? Sure, doesn't make them invalid.
I could easily write a long-ass essay while this film falls short of the perfection many bestow it.
Also? Read the screenplay and then see the film? Your heartbroken at how good it could have been. It could have toppled "Rushmore" in its emotional weight.
Also? Too many forced musical moments. Pop music is great and all and it's nice to feel something to feel personally connected to in a film, but pop music also works as a crutch, an emotional shortcut to dial up an emotion that isn't there on the screen and that's a big problem with RT.
no mention of spirited away 🙁
Spirited Away US release date = 2002. Good chance you'll see it tomorrow.
Y TU MAMA TAMBIEN
Where is it? By far my favorite film of 2001.
jjjjjonathan. it came out in the U.S. in 2002. Definitely look for it tmw.
Y Tu Mama Tambien US release date = also 2002. Sorry for hijacking the comments, Playlist! I'm just a release date stickler.
While we're on 2001 films that should have been mentioned, where the heck are Ghost World, Hedwig, and Together?
Man Who Wasn't There wasn't filmed in "velvety black and white". It was filmed in color and made B&W in post. It was released as such in a few foreign markets, just FYI. Still, great film and so happy to see it get some love.
good call on 'Ali' and 'Black Hawk Down', i thought they were both terrible movies.
I'm disappointed in this blog's total dismissal of A.I.: Artificial Intelligence. It's one of the most thoughtful and ambitious science fiction movies ever and at least worthy of an honorable mention. If you hate the movie watch it again with an open mind and consider the ending is anything but sappy and sentimental.
Non inclusion doesn't mean dismissal. Don't get it twisted. I can't speak for the others, but there's things i love about A.I. and things I detest. It's not bad overall, but not a particular favorite for me.
Donnie Darko as an average film?C'mon guys, you must be joking. It's one of my favourites of all time. But Vanilla Sky surely is a crap
Not including Ghost World is a big oversight in my opinion.
Vanilla Sky was bad if you were scanning the plot out of a more conservative approach – for plot making sense, for dramatic thrills etc. But it was great as a semi-sci-fi fantasy revolving about personal disorientation, lost intimate relationships, identity problems. The Radiohead song never occured to me as some "indie poseur" inclusion, it captured the whole mood of the movie (and my personal 2001 era) pretty well. Some may disagree out of good reasons, I don't care. Even Cruise was surprisingly bearable in that one.
I think all the dismissal of "The Royal Tenenbaums" is a classic example of hipster snobbiness and not really "honest" in the evaluation of this movie's artistic merits. The Wes Anderson movies seemed to be fit in so very well with sophisticated youth culture at first, that it's not surprising this very youth culture couldn't forgive any mainstream appeal of "their" movies in the end. I'm certainly no Anderson fanboy, as Rushmore and Life Aquatic didn't really do anything for me, but there is not much to complain about this fine piece of work, if you aren't (unconciously) biased against the whole "Wes Anderson" phenomena right from the beginning and start intentiously looking for mistakes or anything else to whine about.
Wet Hot American Summer should have got some honorable mention love