Dan Krovich's Top Ten Lists for 2002

I really didn’t go into this looking for movies that made very little at the box office to put into my top ten, but I suppose it’s easy to see that my tastes tend to run outside the mainstream. Seven of my top ten have grossed less than $20M, and none were $100M grossers. At the top of my list is the lowest-grossing movie of the group, Morvern Callar. It’s not much of a surprise that Lynne Ramsay’s film isn’t a big money-maker. The film is light on plot, being more of a character study, and is very existential in nature, as it doesn’t bother to try to explain characters’ motivations. To top it off, the main and title character isn’t all that likeable. Still, Samantha Morton gives far and away the most compelling performance of the year as Morvern. Morton is able, better than any other actor or actress today, to express so much without saying a word. Her performance as a precog in the much more widely seen Minority Report is further evidence.

Films that don’t bother to answer all the questions they raise take several of my top ten slots, suggesting that I like a bit of ambiguity in my movies (which I wouldn’t have necessarily had said before making the list.) Solaris leaves its ending open to interpretation, Confessions of a Dangerous Mind doesn’t explicitly express whether its premise is fact or fiction (though it winks harder than the publicity would have you believe), despite the letters to Ndugu, we’re not completely sure what’s going on in the main character’s mind in About Schmidt, and even Jackass: The Movie, the flat-out funniest movie of the year, is likely to make you wonder why.

In the gimmicky category, Steven Soderbergh presented what was basically a giant in-joke that may not have been for those who discovered him with Erin Brockovich, Traffic, and Ocean’s Eleven, but the Russian Doll structure of film within a film within a film provided a very funny look at Hollywood. Todd Haynes used the style of Douglas Sirk to examine the mores of the time when those original films were made. Both films were able to ultimately be more than the sum of their gimmicks.

The world of subtitles is represented as well. Y Tu Mama Tambien has received a lot of deserved attention and was a box-office hit, relative to foreign language films. The Last Kiss was less seen, but the Italian film that looks at commitment from several angles with a style reminiscent of Paul Thomas Anderson’s Magnolia is scheduled to produce an English language remake from Lakeshore Entertainment. Finally, there is the straightforward, sentimental studio film, The Rookie, which showed that even the most conventional story can be told with such heart that it rises well above the ordinary.

Best Picture
Position	Film
1	Morvern Callar
2	Solaris
3	Confessions of a Dangerous Mind
4	Jackass: The Movie
5	The Last Kiss
6	Far from Heaven
7	Full Frontal
8	Y Tu Mama Tambien
9	About Schmidt
10	The Rookie

Best Director
Director	Film
Lynne Ramsay	Morvern Callar
Steven Soderbergh	Solaris
George Clooney	Confessions of a Dangerous Mind
Todd Haynes	Far From Heaven
Gabriele Muccino	The Last Kiss
Alexander Payne	About Schmidt
Mike Leigh	All or Nothing
Alfonso Cuarón	Y Tu Mama Tambien
Paul Thomas Anderson	Punch-Drunk Love
Francois Ozon	8 Women

Best Actor
Actor	Film
Campbell Scott	Roger Dodger
Jack Nicholson	About Schmidt
Benoit Magimel	The Piano Teacher
Sam Rockwell	Confessions of a Dangerous Mind
Nicolas Cage	Adaptation
Hugh Grant	About a Boy
Stefano Accorsi	The Last Kiss
Dennis Quaid	The Rookie
Gael Garcia Bernal	Y Tu Mama Tambien
Diego Luna	Y Tu Mama Tambien

Best Actress
Actress	Film
Samantha Morton	Morvern Callar
Julianne Moore	Far from Heaven
Maggie Gyllenhaal	Secretary
Isabelle Huppert	The Piano Teacher
Emmanuelle Devos	Read My Lips
Everlyn Sampi	Rabbit-Proof Fence
Lesley Manville	All or Nothing
Diane Lane	Unfaithful
Giovanna Mezzogiorno	The Last Kiss
Jennifer Aniston	The Good Girl

Best Supporting Actor
Actor	Film
Chris Cooper	Adaptation
Nicky Katt	Full Frontal
Eddie Izzard	The Cat's Meow
Alan Arkin	13 Conversations About One Thing
Claudio Santamaria	The Last Kiss
Dennis Quaid	Far from Heaven
Dennis Haysbert	Far from Heaven
Angelo Spizzirri	The Rookie
Jesse Eisenberg	Roger Dodger
Ralph Fiennes	Red Dragon

Best Supporting Actress
Actress	Film
Hope Davis	About Schmidt
Samantha Morton	Minority Report
Bebe Neuwirth	Tadpole
Emily Mortimer	Lovely and Amazing
Ruth Sheen	All or Nothing
Patricia Clarkson	Far from Heaven
Stefania Sandrelli	The Last Kiss
Rachel Griffiths	The Rookie
Catherine Zeta-Jones	Chicago
Meryl Streep	Adaptation

Best Screenplay
Writer(s)	Film
Dylan Kidd	Roger Dodger
Gabriele Muccino	The Last Kiss
Alphonso Cuarón and Carlos Cuarón	Y Tu Mama Tambien
Steven Soderbergh	Solaris
Alexander Payne and Jim Taylor	About Schmidt
Mike Leigh	All or Nothing
Liana Dognini and Lynne Ramsay	Morvern Callar
Jill Sprecher and Karen Sprecher	13 Conversations About One Thing
Nicole Holofcener	Lovely and Amazing
Fabián Bielinsky	Nine Queens

Best Use of Music
Position	Film
1	8 Women
2	Standing in the Shadows of Motown
3	The Last Kiss
4	Movern Callar
5	Solaris
6	Drumline
7	Confessions of a Dangerous Mind
8	Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood
9	Punch-Drunk Love
10	Far from Heaven

Worst Picture
Position	Film
1	Rollerball
2	My Big Fat Greek Wedding
3	Men in Black II
4	The Tuxedo
5	Rules of Attraction
6	Reign of Fire
7	Green Dragon
8	S1M0NE
9	Austin Powers in Goldmember
10	Master of Disguise

Best Trailer
Position	Film
1	Eight Legged Freaks
2	Adaptation
3	Swimfan
4	The Transporter
5	The Ring
6	Reign of Fire
7	Barbershop
8	Confessions of a Dangerous Mind
9	Bowling for Columbine
10	Bringing Down the House

Best Cast
Position	Film
1	Last Kiss
2	All or Nothing
3	8 Women
4	Full Frontal
5	The Cat's Meow
6	13 Conversations About One Thing
7	Lovely and Amazing
8	Y Tu Mama Tambien
9	About Schmidt
10	The Rookie

Best Overlooked Film
Position	Film
1	Morvern Callar
2	The Last Kiss
3	Full Frontal
4	Spirited Away
5	All or Nothing
6	8 Women
7	13 Conversations About One Thing
8	Bloody Sunday
9	Read My Lips
10	Eight Legged Freaks