2002 Cinema Year in Review
Earlier this year I spent a lot of time trying to build out more details in my movie lists, which means that my lists for 1996 through 2002 are probably as accurate as they are ever going to get unless I build a time machine.
As far as I can tell, I saw 42 movies in 2002. You'll note that there are only three movies prior to May. That's not a mistake - I was in boot camp for a big chunk of that time, and after washing out due to a knee injury I was temping back home in North Dakota until May, when I came back to Cleveland. I saw a few mainstream films at that time, but mostly I just temped and rehabbed my knee. As for the rest of the year, my sister returned to Cleveland for her senior year of college in the fall, and from there we saw a lot of movies together. At the time I also hung out a lot with a woman named MJ, and I saw many other films with her.
Highlights looking back from 18 years later, in chronological order.
- I have no idea if Spider-Man has held up with all the superhero films that have come out since, but at the time the vast majority of comic book nerds, including myself, were pretty pleased with it.
- Amelie was by far the longest running film in the history of the Cedar Lee. I believe it ran for almost a year, which was unheard of then and I suspect would be impossible now. I really enjoyed it at the time that I saw it, and saw several other films featuring Audrey Tautou because of it.
- I had no idea who Alfonso Cuaron was when I saw Y Tu Mama Tambien. I remember enjoying the movie, but also that MJ was pretty horrified by the explicitness of the sex in it.
- When I first saw The Bourne Identity, I was really excited that Franka Potente from Run Lola Run was in it. While I think that this style of action movie is overdone nowadays, at the time all the fast cuts and frenetic shots seemed new and novel, and I really enjoyed it.
- Minority Report may be my favorite Tom Cruise film. Really.
- My Big Fat Greek Wedding was for many years the highest grossing film never to be number one. I remember enjoying the film, but it wasn't that great. I think it just really happened to catch some of the zeitgeist, in an era when films could still run in theaters for a long time. Nowadays it would have disappeared after two weeks, tops.
- Atanarjuat: The Fast Runner was the first movie filmed in the Inuit language Inuktitut. This movie also proves that being first is not the same as being good, although there are some gorgeous shots of the landscape of the far north that mostly make up for that.
- The Believer was the first time I can recall seeing Ryan Gosling. It's based on the true story of an Orthodox Jew who became a Nazi skinhead. It's also one of the very best films that I've ever seen about Judiasm, ever. It also has possibly the most disturbing view of what might be an afterlife that I've ever seen on film. To quote an acquaintance who I saw the film with "That film perfectly encapsulated why I stopped being an observant Jew and why I still feel guilty about it." It would have been a great candidate for B'nai Pizza back in the day. Of all the movies that I saw in 2002, this is the one that left the strongest impression, which is some of equivalent to "The best", right?
- For the record, the only one of these movies that I didn't remember even a tiny bit was the anime version of Metropolis. Everything else, I at least remember that I saw it.
- For all that I enjoyed Amelie, at the time I thought that Read My Lips was arguably a better French Film. My sister and I saw it together. It features a deaf secretary teaming up with an ex-con (the reliably good Vincent Cassel to rob a gangster.
- My sister and I saw Mostly Martha at the Cedar Lee. It involves a stressed out chef who is forced to adopt her niece and then watches her life fall apart. I remember really enjoying this at the time. It was remade in English as No Reservations, which I did not see.
- I remember Brotherhood of the Wolf mostly for Monica Belluci. I saw a number of other terrible movies just because she was in it. See (or rather, don't): Tears of the Sun.
- I like to tell people that I've seen two ABBA movies. They quickly guess Mamma Mia! but never guess ABBA: The Movie, which was a fine excuse for a concert film. I regret nothing. ABBA is pretty great.
- I saw The Powerpuff Girls Movie on a date. I don't remember anything else about the date, so I assume it didn't go well. Fun movie though.
- Jesus Christ Vampire Hunter is a strong contender for the best bad movie I've ever seen at the Cinematheque. It's got the son of God. It's got vampires. It's got a luchador. It's a thinly veiled satire in favor of gay rights. It's mostly not very good. I really enjoyed it. You can do a lot worse.
- I saw Standing in the Shadows of Motown on the strength of one of the best trailers I'd ever seen. The day after seeing it I bought the soundtrack and two Joan Osborne CDs just because of Osborne's vocals on What Becomes Of The Brokenhearted. I've seen both the Funk Brothers and Joan Osborne on the strength of this film, as well as reading the book the film was based on. It combines a decent documentary with a fantastic concert film.
- My family saw The Two Towers together in New York City in December. We got to see it in the largest single screen in that Loew's (and maybe in Manhattan, who knows), directly in the middle and 2/3 of the way up with a packed theater that day after it opened. In other words, it was pretty much the ideal place to see it. Fun fact: before the movie they did one of those student film Coke commercials ("Hi, I'm John Doe and this is my film") and the people in the row in front of us erupted in cheers, because it turns out that particular John Doe was sitting in that row with all his friends.
- I was in Cincinnati to visit Jenny when she home from LA and we saw XXX together. It's not a great movie, but it's the finest distillation of the term Eurotrash that I've ever seen. Well, that or Blade.
Here's the full list:
A Beautiful Mind - GF
Blade 2- GF
The Scorpion King - GF
Spiderman (original Raimi) - GFK Carmike, S 5/04
Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones - VV, S 5/18
Spirit: Stallion of the Cinmarron - Severance, S 6/08
Amelie - CL, T 6/17
Y Tu Mama Tambien - CL, M 6/24
The Importance of Being Earnest - CL, M 7/01
The Bourne Identity - SS, R 7/04
Men in Black 2 - Severance, R 7/04
Lilo & Stitch - SS, M 7/08
Minority Report - SS, M 7/15
2001 A Space Odyssey - C
My Big Fat Greek Wedding - Centrum, F 7/26
Atanarjuat: The Fast Runner - CL, M 8/05
Monsoon Wedding - CL, M 8/19
The Believer - C
Casablanca - CF, Su 8/25
Metropolis (anime) - CF, S 8/31
Read My Lips - CL, M 9/02
Mostly Martha - CL, M 9/16
Singing in the Rain - CF
Brotherhood of the Wolf - CF, F 9/27
The Producers - C
Abba: The Movie - C
Some Like It Hot - CF, S 10/12
Beauty & the Beast (cocteau) - C
Welcome to Collinwood - CL, M 10/21
Spirited Away - CL, R 10/24
The Powerpuff Girls: The First Movie - CF, F 10/25
Metropolis - C
Ghostbusters - CF, S 11/02
Jesus Christ Vampire Hunter - C
Bloody Sunday - CL
Die Another Day - Severance, F 11/22
Bowling For Colombine - CL, T 11/26
Standing in the Shadows of Motown - CL, W 11/27
The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers - NYC Lowes, R 12/19
Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets - Severance, W 12/25
XXX - Cincy
Rabbit-Proof Fence - CL, M 12/30
Screen Guide:
GF unknown - probably the Midco 10 that opened when I was in high school, but I can't confirm = 3
GFK Carmike = 4 screen theater back home = 1
CL = Cedar Lee = 14
C = Cinematheque = 7
SS = Shaker Square = 3
CF = CWRUFilm = 7
VV = Valley View Cinemark = 1
Severance = 4
Centrum = Short lived Coventry movie theater = 1
NYC Loew's = the huge theater in NYC = 1
As far as I can tell, I saw 42 movies in 2002. You'll note that there are only three movies prior to May. That's not a mistake - I was in boot camp for a big chunk of that time, and after washing out due to a knee injury I was temping back home in North Dakota until May, when I came back to Cleveland. I saw a few mainstream films at that time, but mostly I just temped and rehabbed my knee. As for the rest of the year, my sister returned to Cleveland for her senior year of college in the fall, and from there we saw a lot of movies together. At the time I also hung out a lot with a woman named MJ, and I saw many other films with her.
Highlights looking back from 18 years later, in chronological order.
- I have no idea if Spider-Man has held up with all the superhero films that have come out since, but at the time the vast majority of comic book nerds, including myself, were pretty pleased with it.
- Amelie was by far the longest running film in the history of the Cedar Lee. I believe it ran for almost a year, which was unheard of then and I suspect would be impossible now. I really enjoyed it at the time that I saw it, and saw several other films featuring Audrey Tautou because of it.
- I had no idea who Alfonso Cuaron was when I saw Y Tu Mama Tambien. I remember enjoying the movie, but also that MJ was pretty horrified by the explicitness of the sex in it.
- When I first saw The Bourne Identity, I was really excited that Franka Potente from Run Lola Run was in it. While I think that this style of action movie is overdone nowadays, at the time all the fast cuts and frenetic shots seemed new and novel, and I really enjoyed it.
- Minority Report may be my favorite Tom Cruise film. Really.
- My Big Fat Greek Wedding was for many years the highest grossing film never to be number one. I remember enjoying the film, but it wasn't that great. I think it just really happened to catch some of the zeitgeist, in an era when films could still run in theaters for a long time. Nowadays it would have disappeared after two weeks, tops.
- Atanarjuat: The Fast Runner was the first movie filmed in the Inuit language Inuktitut. This movie also proves that being first is not the same as being good, although there are some gorgeous shots of the landscape of the far north that mostly make up for that.
- The Believer was the first time I can recall seeing Ryan Gosling. It's based on the true story of an Orthodox Jew who became a Nazi skinhead. It's also one of the very best films that I've ever seen about Judiasm, ever. It also has possibly the most disturbing view of what might be an afterlife that I've ever seen on film. To quote an acquaintance who I saw the film with "That film perfectly encapsulated why I stopped being an observant Jew and why I still feel guilty about it." It would have been a great candidate for B'nai Pizza back in the day. Of all the movies that I saw in 2002, this is the one that left the strongest impression, which is some of equivalent to "The best", right?
- For the record, the only one of these movies that I didn't remember even a tiny bit was the anime version of Metropolis. Everything else, I at least remember that I saw it.
- For all that I enjoyed Amelie, at the time I thought that Read My Lips was arguably a better French Film. My sister and I saw it together. It features a deaf secretary teaming up with an ex-con (the reliably good Vincent Cassel to rob a gangster.
- My sister and I saw Mostly Martha at the Cedar Lee. It involves a stressed out chef who is forced to adopt her niece and then watches her life fall apart. I remember really enjoying this at the time. It was remade in English as No Reservations, which I did not see.
- I remember Brotherhood of the Wolf mostly for Monica Belluci. I saw a number of other terrible movies just because she was in it. See (or rather, don't): Tears of the Sun.
- I like to tell people that I've seen two ABBA movies. They quickly guess Mamma Mia! but never guess ABBA: The Movie, which was a fine excuse for a concert film. I regret nothing. ABBA is pretty great.
- I saw The Powerpuff Girls Movie on a date. I don't remember anything else about the date, so I assume it didn't go well. Fun movie though.
- Jesus Christ Vampire Hunter is a strong contender for the best bad movie I've ever seen at the Cinematheque. It's got the son of God. It's got vampires. It's got a luchador. It's a thinly veiled satire in favor of gay rights. It's mostly not very good. I really enjoyed it. You can do a lot worse.
- I saw Standing in the Shadows of Motown on the strength of one of the best trailers I'd ever seen. The day after seeing it I bought the soundtrack and two Joan Osborne CDs just because of Osborne's vocals on What Becomes Of The Brokenhearted. I've seen both the Funk Brothers and Joan Osborne on the strength of this film, as well as reading the book the film was based on. It combines a decent documentary with a fantastic concert film.
- My family saw The Two Towers together in New York City in December. We got to see it in the largest single screen in that Loew's (and maybe in Manhattan, who knows), directly in the middle and 2/3 of the way up with a packed theater that day after it opened. In other words, it was pretty much the ideal place to see it. Fun fact: before the movie they did one of those student film Coke commercials ("Hi, I'm John Doe and this is my film") and the people in the row in front of us erupted in cheers, because it turns out that particular John Doe was sitting in that row with all his friends.
- I was in Cincinnati to visit Jenny when she home from LA and we saw XXX together. It's not a great movie, but it's the finest distillation of the term Eurotrash that I've ever seen. Well, that or Blade.
Here's the full list:
A Beautiful Mind - GF
Blade 2- GF
The Scorpion King - GF
Spiderman (original Raimi) - GFK Carmike, S 5/04
Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones - VV, S 5/18
Spirit: Stallion of the Cinmarron - Severance, S 6/08
Amelie - CL, T 6/17
Y Tu Mama Tambien - CL, M 6/24
The Importance of Being Earnest - CL, M 7/01
The Bourne Identity - SS, R 7/04
Men in Black 2 - Severance, R 7/04
Lilo & Stitch - SS, M 7/08
Minority Report - SS, M 7/15
2001 A Space Odyssey - C
My Big Fat Greek Wedding - Centrum, F 7/26
Atanarjuat: The Fast Runner - CL, M 8/05
Monsoon Wedding - CL, M 8/19
The Believer - C
Casablanca - CF, Su 8/25
Metropolis (anime) - CF, S 8/31
Read My Lips - CL, M 9/02
Mostly Martha - CL, M 9/16
Singing in the Rain - CF
Brotherhood of the Wolf - CF, F 9/27
The Producers - C
Abba: The Movie - C
Some Like It Hot - CF, S 10/12
Beauty & the Beast (cocteau) - C
Welcome to Collinwood - CL, M 10/21
Spirited Away - CL, R 10/24
The Powerpuff Girls: The First Movie - CF, F 10/25
Metropolis - C
Ghostbusters - CF, S 11/02
Jesus Christ Vampire Hunter - C
Bloody Sunday - CL
Die Another Day - Severance, F 11/22
Bowling For Colombine - CL, T 11/26
Standing in the Shadows of Motown - CL, W 11/27
The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers - NYC Lowes, R 12/19
Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets - Severance, W 12/25
XXX - Cincy
Rabbit-Proof Fence - CL, M 12/30
Screen Guide:
GF unknown - probably the Midco 10 that opened when I was in high school, but I can't confirm = 3
GFK Carmike = 4 screen theater back home = 1
CL = Cedar Lee = 14
C = Cinematheque = 7
SS = Shaker Square = 3
CF = CWRUFilm = 7
VV = Valley View Cinemark = 1
Severance = 4
Centrum = Short lived Coventry movie theater = 1
NYC Loew's = the huge theater in NYC = 1