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Spyder Darling's Picks for Best and Worst Movies of 2002
January 2, 2003 — Whether your cinematic tastes run towards big-studio blockbusters or you're an eclectic aficionado of Sundance Festival fodder, 2002 was a big fat year for movie goers and movie makers. More tickets were sold and more Milk Duds scraped off of theater floors in the past twelve months than in any year since 1959. Chalk it up to impending war(s), the imploding stock market, or a not-so-superb fourth season of "The Sopranos," but people just didn't want to stay in their home box offices this year.
Since it isn't fair to pit shoestring-budget independent features that come and go faster than you can say "Thank you for coming to Loew's" with blank-check productions that had enough backing to cure the common cold and keep Leo DiCaprio off the streets for six weeks, included below are a few titles which, while not quite as titillating, are equally deserving of your attention. After all, directors shouldn't have to compete with one another anymore than Cameron Diaz should have to take on Rebecca Stamos, outside of a mud pit of course.
So without further ado, for better or perverse, from art-house to Imax, here are the kudos for the last four seasons in the cinema....
10 Best:
- Gangs of New York
- Catch Me If You Can
- Auto Focus
- ivans xtc.
- Insomnia
- 24 Hour Party People
- The Bourne Identity
- 8 Mile
- Road to Perdition
- Red Dragon
Best Directors: Martin Scorsese (Gangs of New York), Paul Schrader (Auto Focus), Bernard Rose (ivans xtc.).
Best Actors: Daniel Day-Lewis (Gangs of New York), Greg Kinnear (Auto Focus), Danny Huston (ivans xtc.).
Best Actresses: Cameron Diaz (Gangs of New York), Franka Potente (The Bourne Indentity), Jill Clayburgh (Never Again).
Best Supporting Actors: Jude Law (Road to Perdition), Michael Constantine (My Big Fat...), Willem Dafoe (Auto Focus).
Best Supporting Actresses: Lanie Kazan (My Big Fat...), Stockard Channing (Life or Something Like It), Jennifer Beals (Roger Dodger).
Best Screenplays: Jay Cocks (Gangs of New York), Frank Cottrell Boyce (24 Hour Party People), Burr Steers (Igby Goes Down).
Best Foreign Films: 24 Hour Party People, Y Tu Mama Tambien, Me Without You (actually a terrible movie but, sacre bleu I only saw three imported flicks this year!)
Best Documentaries: Standing in the Shadows of Motown, Boom - The Sound of Eviction, Space Station.
Best Cinematographers: Michael Ballhaus (Gangs of New York), Conrad Hall (Road to Perdition), Rodrigo Prieto (8 Mile).
Best Animation: Not applicable, adults shouldn't watch cartoons and besides I'm holding out for "King of the Hill - The Movie."
Best Breakthrough Performance - Actor: Eminem (8 Mile).
Best Breakthrough Performance - Director: Curtis Hanson (8 Mile).
And as a public service, here are the top-ten movies to avoid by any means necessary. There are enough bombs below to take care of our troubles in Iraq, North Korea and have enough left over to throw a dilly of an Independence Day display:
10 Worst:
- Narc
- Femme Fatale
- Truth About Charlie
- Blade II
- The Tuxedo
- Life or Something Like It
- About a Boy
- Me Without You
- Bad Company
- Scorpion King
— by Spyder Darling
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