The Year in Movies: 2003

 2003

Number of Movies I've Seen: 58

Number of Movies from my original top 365:  16

Oscar Winner:
The Lord of the Rings: Return of the King - These movies are pretty close to perfect. The guts that New Line Cinema had to throw money at Peter Jackson to fulfill his trilogy is quite impressive. He went a little off the rails with the ending of this one in particular (and with the subsequent Hobbit movies), but for the most part Jackson created the greatest fantasy adaptation ever put to screen. I always found it odd that the Academy waited to crown the trilogy with this final installment. It was probably my least favorite Oscar night because everything was so inevitable. I try to throw these extended editions into the DVD player at least once a summer. 

Box Office Winner:
NEXT WEEK!

My Top Ten:
1. NEXT POST!

2. Touching the Void - Quite possibly my favorite documentary of all time. This movie tells of the journey of two mountain climbers in the remote Andes as tragedy strikes. The actual men narrate their story and the combination of interview and reenactment is harrowing. I said as much here.

3. Tokyo Godfathers - As much as Brian has tried, I haven't completely fallen into anime culture. I do, however, appreciate their feature length films. This is especially true of the master Hayao Miyazaki, and the gone-too-soon Satoshi Kon. Kon made this film along with three others before succumbing to cancer at 46. Godfathers is one of my favorite Christmas film and I actually talked about it out of order in 2010 to coincide with the holiday. 

4. Whale Rider  - Absolutely riveting film about the holding onto your culture set in modern day New Zealand among the Maori people. Keisha Castle-Hughes is brilliant and you should probably go see this film right now! Original take.

5. The Matrix Reloaded/The Matrix Revolutions - I know... I know. You've got to realize in 2003 I was locked in to this series. The sequels weren't perfect but they did deliver on the philosophical mythos that the Wachowski's promised. I'll definitely see the fourth. 

6. The Dreamers - Another thing I was discovering in the early 00's was how transcendent movies could be. This movie does so much with so little (3 characters in a Paris apartment who love movies). It also broke down barriers for me on how movies could deal with sexuality. Also, Eva Green and Michael Pitt are heavenly. 

7.  Cold Mountain- Another one I'd really like to rewatch. I know I dug it when it was released. I'm not really proud of this review though...

8. Kill Bill Vol. 1 - I have rewatched this one recently and it really holds up. Vol. 2 still drags a bit though.

9. The Corporation - A documentary outlining my distaste for capitalism. Watch at your own risk.

10. Dogville - I got really into Lars von Trier during this time. I'm not sure how I feel about him today, but he is certainly one of our most original filmmakers. Still waiting on the third installment to this series....  It'll probably never happen though.