arenn's 2003 Film Year in Review

I guess finally putting this out in June makes me the winner of the better late than never award. Again, I saw approximately 30 films in the theater this year. I thought 2003 was much stronger than 2002, at least from what I saw.

Believe it or not, I am actually able to fill a top ten list of Chicago premiers this year.

1. 10 (****) Directed by Abbas Kairostami (Iran). Is this guy capable of putting out a bad film? It's shot entirely inside of a car driving around Tehran, and consists of dialogues between the female driver and her passengers. Sounds boring, but in fact highly engaging.

2. DEMONLOVER (****) Directed by Olivier Assayas (France). Basically had no distribution, and that's sad. This is a wonderful spy thriller cum Lynchian freak show. Delicious.

3. LOST IN TRANSLATION (***) Directed by Sofia Coppola (USA). Believe the press. Very enjoyable.

4. CAPTURING THE FRIEDMANS (***) Directed by Andrew Jarecki (USA). Documentary showing one sad chapter in the mass child molestation scares of the 1980's.

5. THE HAPPINESS OF THE KATAKURIS (***) Directed by Takashi Miike (Japan). The king of gross-out horror turns to comedy to great effect - and you can actually keep the contents of your stomach while watching.

6. SHANGHAI KNIGHTS (***) Directed by David Dobkin (USA). Irrestisble slapstick gags from Jackie Chan and Owen Wilson.

7. FULLTIME KILLER (***). Directed by Johnnie To (Hong Kong). It's about time JT put out a decent gangster flick. This is his best effort in some time.

8. PISTOL OPERA (***). Directed by Seijun Suzuki (Hong Kong). I didn't know this guy was still alive. Very experimental, abstract, lacking in narrative structure, but beautiful.

9. TEKNOLUST (***) Directed by Lynn Kerhsman-Leeson (USA). Other than the wonderful use of color, you can argue there's not much to like in this silly sci-fi comedy. But I thought it was fun, and that's good enough for me.

10. RUSSIAN ARK (***) Directed by Aleksandr Sokurov (Russia). One of the greatest technical achievements in cinema, the entire film consists of a single take as we explore the Hermitage Museum in St. Petersburg.

Here are the rest of the 2003 new releases / Chicago premiers and how they stacked up. In alphabetical order:

• AMERICAN SPLENDOR (**). Directed by Shari Springer Berman and Robert Pulcini (USA).
• COWBOY BEBOP: THE MOVIE (**). Directed by Shinichiro Watanabe (Japan). Basically just another TV episode in this anime series. Disappointing.
• FOLLOWING DESIRE (**). Directed by Tatsumi Kumashiro (Japan). A Nikkatsu "pink" film (i.e., softcore porn - think Cinemax) from the 70's. Not bad.
• KILL BILL, VOL. 1 (**). Directed by Quentin Tarantino. The biggest disappointment of the year for me. I was expecting a lot more.
• INNER SENSES (**). Directed by Chi-Leung Law. Leslie Cheung's last movie.
• THE MATRIX RELOADED (**). Directed by the Wackowski Brothers.
• THE MATRIX REVOLUTIONS (**). Directed by the Wackowski Brothers.
• A MIGHTY WIND (**). Directed by Christopher Guest (USA).
• ONCE UPON A TIME IN MEXICO (*). Directed by Robert Rodriguez. Ouch.
• THE PIANIST (**). Directed by Roman Polanski (USA). Not as good as popular acclaim would suggest, but worth watching. But please never forget that Roman Polanski drugged, raped, and sodomized a young girl.
• THE PRINCESS BLADE (**). Directed by Shinsuke Sato. The only thing to recommend about this film is the gorgeous Yumiko Shaku.
• THE RETURN OF THE KING (**). Directed by Peter Jackson.
• RUNNING OUT OF TIME 2 (*). Directed by Wing-cheong Law and Johnnie To (Hong Kong). I wish time had run out sooner on this stink bomb.
• SHATTERED GLASS (**). Directed by Billy Ray (USA).
• SPELLBOUND (**). Directed by Jeffrey Blitz (USA).

Here are the pre-2003 films I saw on the big screen and how they fared. I'm always glad when a great older film gets shown again on the big screen. In alphabetical order:

• DONNIE DARKO (****). Directed by Richard Kelly (USA, 2001).
• FAREWELL MY CONCUBINE (***). Directed by Kaige Chen (Hong Kong, 1993).
• IKIRU (***). Directed by Akira Kurosawa (Japan, 1952).
• RIFIFI (***). Directed by Jules Dassin (France, 1955). One of the greatest film noirs ever.

You can also read about what I thought of last year's films and about 2001.

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