NOW PLAYING reviews in brief.
THE BEST MOVIES OF 2003
Orlando Bloom and Viggo Mortenson return to the big screen as Legolas and Aragon for the last time in Lord of the Rings: Return of the King, one of Lindsey Ramsey's Top 10 movies of 2004.
BROUGHT TO YOU BY
STEPHEN SHUPE
1. Spider
David Cronenberg's spooky masterpiece links a boy's fascination with spider webs to a man's schizophrenia and a woman's mysterious murder. Ralph Fiennes creates his most chilling character since Schindler's List in this spellbinding examination of reality and the elusive nature of evil.
2. Mystic River
The year's most well acted and thematically edifying drama about the way childhood wounds seize upon the next generation in one fell swoop. Tim Robbins brings the walking dead rattling to life in a performance that never stops haunting you.
3. The Magdalene Sisters
For decades, the Irish Catholic locked up "wayward" girls in asylums to keep them from infecting the rest of the youth population. The outrage of Peter Mullan's grim account captures all of the conflicting emotions that made this historical atrocity possible.
4. Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World
Intelligent, sweeping and humane this seafaring epic marks Peter Weir's most stirring direction since Dead Poets Society. Beautifully scored and photographed, the film asks big questions that seem almost out of place in today's vacuous multiplexes.
5. Kill Bill, Vol. 1
Endlessly resourceful filmmaker Quentin Tarantino continues to challenge our notions of race, fantasy and the possibilities of moviemaking in his exhilarating fourth feature.
Capturing the Friedmans
Andrew Jarecki's shattering portrait of
an American family reveals a moral abyss beneath society's desire to turn private anguish into public spectacle. Few documentaries exhibit so much power or ambiguity.
7. All the Real Girls
8. Thirteen
A sensual midwestern romance bursting with the energy and joy of young love that so often gets streamlined out of Hollywood storytelling. Director David Gordon Green is going to be a major film artist.
Catherine Hardwicke's teen powerhouse takes an unflinching look at self-mutilation, sex and rampant drug use in a modern middle school. Thirteen suggests the mass media's obsession with youth has shaped a generation of terminally hip thrill-seekers.
9. Blue Car
This is another powerful, little-seen teen drama, with wonderful performer Agnes Bruckner (Murder by Numbers) as a sensitive girl who invests too much faith in her creative writing teacher. It's a
bleak film, but one that's too truthful to be ignored.
10. Lost in Translation
Bill Murray and Scarlett Johansson make sweet movie music in Sophia Coppola's uncommonly perceptive follow-up to The Virgin Suicides. The closing song sums up the warm feeling Murray and Johansson generate: "It's like honey."
Honorable mentions: Irreversible, Lost in La Mancha, Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl, Raising Victor Vargas and Swimming Pool
LINDSEY-RAMSEY
BROUGHT TO YOU BY
1. The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (Dec. 17)
If the trailer is any inclination, we're in for one of the most remarkable films ever created. With the Battle of Pelennor
fields, the giant spider Shelob and Frodo's final journey up Mount Doom, there is not one doubt in my mind that director Peter Jackson has indeed saved the very best for last.
2. Cold Mountain (Dec. 25)
An Odyssey-esque journey home toward the woman you love. Sounds good. Jude Law, Nicole Kidman and Renee Zellweger? Sounds very good. A trailer that brings tears to the eyes? Sounds amazing, and will give us an Oscar-worthy Christmas present in every way.
Gripping, gritty and dark. Intense and heart breaking. Mystic River was an emotional story between childhood friends: Sean Penn, Tim Robbins and Kevin Bacon. Penn is fantastic and the rest of the film follows in his haunting and poignant steps.
The tale of the little lost fish tugged heartstrings and made us laugh. Nemo, Marlin and lovable but forgetful Dory all made for a hilarious and touching story in a visually stunning film.
4. Finding Nemo
3. Mystic River
5. Love Actually
6. Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl
For all those hopeless romantics out there, all I can possibly say is that this movie made me laugh, cry and feel the happiest I have ever felt leaving a theater.
Johnny Depp pure and simple. His swagger and perfect comic timing made what could have been another Disney disaster into the most fun and funny popcorn flick ever.
7. Lost in Translation
Sofia Coppola's poetic tale of strangers is an understated work of art. The beauty of these two strangers' friendship brings a peace and elegance to a wonderfully imaginative film.
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thursday, december 11, 2003
jayplay
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