Album Reviews
Movies
Concert Reviews

Top 10
Resources
Contact Us

My friend Garth and I were comparing notes a couple weeks ago. Garth excitedly mentioned that he was having trouble paring his Top10 of 2001 down to the requisite ten films. My eyebrows arched, and I asked him if I had heard right as I was having the opposite problem. While 2001 was a good year for good films, there weren't that many great movies in my humble opinion.

So Garth ran down the movies that were competing for his list: Ghost World, Memento, Mulholland Drive, Donnie Darko, and Waking Life, among many others. Now I enjoyed all of those, except for the Lynch flick, but I wouldn't consider any of them top 10 material. As I made up my own list, however, I was struck by the differences between mine and my friend's--his list is full of audacious, flashy movies that scream out, "Look at me." My top ten is dominated by quiet, meditative films that speak to my heart more than my eyes. That's not to say one type of movie is better than another (there were at least 50 movies from this year that I would gladly recommend), but it's obvious that, this year at least, my favorite films fell into a similar pattern. As I've done in past years, I've included any movie that played in a Chicago theater and which I saw for the first time.

1. Werckmeister Harmonies
The last film to be released in Chicago ends up being the best. This gorgeous black-and-white tale of village life in Hungary is a masterpiece. Director Bela Tarr (Satantango) explores the nature of rationality (and its inverse) and community with a piercing vision of man's fallenness. Janos (played by Lars Rudolph), a young man firmly in the "holy fool" tradition, gets caught up in a mob-inspired ruckus, one that threatens the entire town. The film's ruminations on power and politics, particularly fascist oratory, seem prescient, and the allegorical implications of an enormous, dead whale are left for the audience to contemplate. The mood is somber and the pace stately, but cinematographer Gabor Medvigy's breathtaking pictures and Mihaly Vig's astounding score sustained my interest even in the slowest sections. Not many films aspire to art and even fewer succeed; Werckmeister Harmonies is an artistic achievement of the highest order. It opens at Facets on Dec. 28 for an exclusive two-week run. Absolutely a must see.

2. Ordet
The pinnacle of Carl Dreyer's work (and that's a great apex) showed at Doc Films this past summer, and I've been chewing on it ever since. A provocative sermon on the nature of faith, it concerns a woman who struggles through a night of childbirth while her husband, father-in-law, and brother-in-law each pray for her survival in his own way. Like all of Dreyer's work (Passion of Joan of Arc being the best example), the story is severe with black-and-white cinematography to match. But the passion is profound. And the film's final reel is one of the most intense and startling conclusions ever put to celluloid. If you're in the mood for a great discussion, invite some friends over and pop this into the VCR.

3. Yi Yi
When this decade (whatever it's called) comes to an end in 2010, we may look back at Yi Yi as one of the most important films of these ten years. Edward Yang's first film to receive distribution in the U.S. is a touching and beautiful story of a family in Taipei. Opening with a wedding and closing with a funeral, Yang so skillfully choreographs his various storylines (involving over a dozen characters) that we get a rich perspective of contemporary Taiwanese life. The acting, particularly that of Nien-Jen Wu as the father, is so natural and effective you feel like you're watching someone you've known for years. Though the film is three hours long, it breezes by with such grace you won't look at your watch once. Simply, a masterpiece.

4. George Washington
Back in January, when this film opened at the Music Box, I relayed an argument I had had with my friend Garth. I stated that I was tired of costume dramas that wept for the upper crust of 100 years ago, that I longed for movies that somehow speak to our culture and our problems and our hopes. Without realizing it at the time, I was asking for movies like George Washington. It's easy to make a beautiful film with beautiful actors and beautiful costumes and beautiful scenery. But to make a beautiful movie about garbage dumps and city swimming pools and an abandoned couch lying on the wrong side of the tracks, well that's greatness. A year later, that feels just as true. George Washington, a small little movie about a bunch of kids in a run-down section of town, is the best American movie of 2001.

5. L'atalante
My second classic discovery  of 2001 was this 1934 film by Jean Vigo. Set mostly on a barge going up and down the rivers of France, it features a sailor and his young bride sharing a home with an eccentric, old man. It's hard to describe exactly what happens, and yet the romantic tone is unimpeachable. A fixture on Top100-of-all-time lists, L'atalante is a film treasure.

6. In the Mood for Love
Director Wong Kar-wai (Chungking Express) is best known for his stylish (and stylized) takes on contemporary Hong Kong life. But in his latest film, he travels back 40 years to examine the mores of a different time. Tony Leung and Maggie Cheung star as neighbors whose spouses are having an affair. Wong Kar-wai's trademark themes of repressed desire and fate's hand in love are on full display, as are some of the most gorgeous costumes you're likely to see all year. The two leads are extraordinary (Leung especially), and the film's use of music (particularly Nat King Cole) is fantastic. This is a great introduction to one of the most influential directors working today.

7. The Devil's Backbone
Set at the end of the Spanish Civil War in a boys' orphanage, this movie from director Guillermo del Toro (Cronos) is a great ghost story with strong acting and beautiful cinematography. But it's also a film that speaks to our present and very human condition, that reminds us of the cost of violence but also the virtues of love and sacrifice, and that reminds us that the ghosts of history must be dealt with and not ignored. It is both a timely movie and a timeless one.

8. Vertical Ray of the Sun
The great renaissance of East Asian Cinema continued with the release in September of this Vietnamese film by director Tran Anh Hung. A movie that explores the lives of three sisters, Vertical Ray of the Sun is a sensual feast. Not in the sexual sense, though that part of life isn't overlooked. Rather, the film is obsessed with feeling, hearing, tasting, and seeing. Characters touch each other--sometimes in familial ways, other times erotically, and still other times with cold indifference. But those different moments of contact are tangible. As I watched various scenes unfold, I felt as I were in the humid, beautiful climate of Vietnam, listening to the crickets outside and sitting down to eat.

9. Jan Svankmajer shorts
The Czech surrealist filmmaker Jan Svankmajer (Faust and Alice, being his two best-known works) is famous (in certain circles) for his fantastic use of puppets and amazing stop-motion animation. Those were on full and wonderful display last June when Facets Multimedia presented two programs of his rarely-seen short films. These combined very funny moments with nightmare-inducing ones for a creative and exhilarating combination.

10. The Royal Tenenbaums
I'm somewhat embarrassed that you have to read to the end of my list to find one mainstream American movie. I've never liked critics who seem to make a point of championing obscure or difficult works, and yet my list feels strangely like that. Fortunately, I have no embarrassment recommending The Royal Tenenbaums.  Hilarious and melancholy, full of solitude and community, Wes Anderson's latest film is exactly what America needs right now. Add in one of the best soundtracks all year and fantastic acting from Gene Hackman, Luke Wilson, Anjelica Huston and Gwenyth Paltrow, and you have a very satisfying mix.

And in case you want to compare this list with other critic's Top 10's, my favorite 2001 films were, in order: 1) Werckmeister Harmonies, 2) In the Mood for Love, 3) The Devil's Backbone, 4) Vertical Ray of the Sun, 5) The Royal Tenenbaums, 6) Eureka, 7) Lantana (to be released in Jan. 2002), 8) Moulin Rouge, 9) Together, and 10) In the Bedroom.

Other films that just missed the cut include: Amores Perros, A Beautiful Mind, Crazy/Beautiful, The Day I Became a Woman, Donnie Darko, Ghost World, Italian for Beginners (to be released in Jan. 2002), The Man Who Wasn't There, Memento, The Others, Our Song, Ratcatcher, The Road Home, Under the Sand, and Waking Life.

Finally, I want to thank you for reading my reviews this past year. Writing about movies is a personal endeavor (at least it should be), and your willingness to give of your time to share in that experience is one for which I am grateful. I always appreciate any feedback you might have, and I look forward to 2002 being an even better year, both for movies and our country.

J. Robert Parks  12/21/2001

Our other writers lists