My Top Ten Films of 2003
(film comments by Mark R. Leeper)
I always resist a little the task of making up a top ten list of
the best films I have seen over the year. I tell myself that I
have a preference for entertainment films over artistic
independent films. To me that makes my list seem a less than
serious. This year I stood back and looked at the list and found
somewhat to my surprise that there are really only three or so
studio films and even those have a sort of independent film feel.
In any case these are the films that I most enjoyed over the past
year.
- SHATTERED GLASS
Journalistic integrity is a concept that is a little abstract and
the story involves no guns, chases, or explosions. Billy Ray has
written and directed a surprisingly exciting film very different
from just about anything else out there. He gives us a very nuts-
and-bolts explanation of what is not really a nuts-and-bolts sort
of business, the writing of opinion. SHATTERED GLASS also looks
at the question of how do we know what we know is true. This is a
surprisingly intriguing film.
Rating: +3 (-4 to +4) or 9/10
- HOUSE OF SAND AND FOG
What is probably the best-written film of the year functions as a
thriller and as a human drama. Two people from different
backgrounds struggle for ownership of the same house. The film
plays with our expectations and our prejudices but also touches on
some very serious issues.
Rating: +3 (-4 to +4) or 9/10
- PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN: CURSE OF THE BLACK PEARL
This is almost certainly the most exciting pirate film ever made.
This fast-paced confection of an adventure has wit, a good story,
and imaginative visuals. Johnny Depp gives what is probably his
best performance as a grubby yet stylish pirate captain.
Rating: low +3 (-4 to +4) or 8/10
- WINGED MIGRATION
This documentary follows many species of birds as they go through
their lives and especially as their migrations. We see it almost
literally "up close and personal." Much of the film is jaw
dropping and more than a little is genuinely funny. Give this one
a chance and almost certainly you WILL like it.
Rating: low +3 (-4 to +4) or 8/10
- THE FOG OF WAR
Inspired by reading the memoirs of Robert S. McNamara, Errol
Morris made THE FOG OF WAR. McNamara was the Secretary of Defense
from 1961 to 1968. In this film McNamara offers some extremely
surprising opinions about American foreign policy from the Second
World War to the present, but especially during his term as
Secretary of State.
Rating: high +2 (-4 to +4) or 8/10
- MONSTER
Charlize Theron proves herself capable of Oscar-worthy
performances in the story of a real-life serial killer and
prostitute who has a lesbian relationship with a runaway. The
plot is familiar, the direction is only mediocre, and the
photography is flat, but the acting is really top notch.
Rating: high +2 (-4 to +4) or 8/10
- MASTER AND COMMANDER: THE FAR SIDE OF THE WORLD
In 1805 Jack Aubrey, captain of HMS Surprise, is obsessed by the
mission to capture or sink the French ship Acheron. More so than
in any previous film we are brought aboard a fighting ship from
Britain's war against Napoleon. The story may be slow except for
some really exciting action scenes, but the historical detail is
probably the best for any film about the period. If you enjoy
Aubrey (or even Hornblower) stories this film from director Peter
Weir is a must.
Rating: high +2 (-4 to +4) or 8/10
- MYSTIC RIVER
Clint Eastwood directs Sean Penn, Tim Robbins, Kevin Bacon, and
Marcia Gay Harden in a powerful drama about three friends haunted
by an incident in the past that still looms heavily over their
lives. This is a film with great performances and a strong feel
for its Eastern Massachusetts setting. The film builds to a
powerful conclusion that is reminiscent of a certain respected
western film.
Rating: high +2 (-4 to +4) or 8/10
- WHALE RIDER
Though this story of New Zealand's Maori people is set in the
present and told with some realism, it is still enchanting. WHALE
RIDER is the mythic story of a girl chosen by the gods to lead her
village. Pai seems to have a spiritual destiny, but the tale is
told as if it happened to people with real 21st century problems.
Though some of the material is familiar and cliched, it is still
an affecting story.
Rating: high +2 (-4 to +4) or 8/10
- BIG FISH
Tim Burton directs this study of a troubled father-son
relationship with a dying father whose fairy tale stories of the
major events of his life have always been a major barrier between
himself and his son. The story has long fantasy sequences that
pull the viewer into the stories studded with giants, werewolves,
circuses, huge fish, Siamese twins, and more. The subject is
really the upside and the downside of a strong imagination.
Rating: high +2 (-4 to +4) or 8/10
In addition I would like to call attention to the following films
that would be on my top ten list except for technicalities.
THE LORD OF THE RINGS: THE RETURN OF THE KING perhaps deserves to
be on this list. Bringing THE LORD OF THE RINGS to the screen is
an impressive feat in this nine or ten hour film released in three
parts. It deserves to be the best of a year. It does not deserve
to be the best of the year for three consecutive years. I gave
THE LORD OF THE RINGS: THE FELLOWSHIP OF THE RINGS my best of the
year for 2001 with instructions that it should share that honor
with its two siblings.
I would also like to call attention to three other films that are
appearing at film festivals, but not getting general releases.
These were films I would have put on my top ten list (probably)
had they become available to the general public. I say "probably"
because I would add them to the top ten list and then would have
to take three films off. I am not sure which films would come
off. In any case the films are:
OSAMA
No, it is not about THAT Osama. It is about a young woman in
Afghanistan in the days of the Taliban. Extreme Islamic religious
restrictions prevent her mother and herself from any legal way to
earn a living so she masquerades as a boy to get a job. This
leads to tragic consequences.
CYPHER
While nominally not based on the writings of Phillip K. Dick, this
is one of the best science fiction adaptations of Dick's ideas.
Director Vincenzo Natali (CUBE, and the upcoming NOTHING) has a
sure hand and could be a major talent. Jeremy Northam plays a
nerd who becomes an industrial spy and the key player in a world
war between two mega-corporations.
ROSENSTRASSE
This is the true story of highborn gentile women in Nazi Germany
who had married Jewish husbands. The husbands are arrested and
imprisoned preparatory to sending them to death camps. The wives
organize and demonstrate for the release of their husbands,
attempting to make themselves a serious embarrassment for the
Third Reich.
Mark R. Leeper
mleeper@optonline.net
Copyright 2004 Mark R. Leeper