Movies of 2002

I wouldn't think that Pedro Almodovár could outdo his previous masterpiece [i]Todo sobre mi madre[/i], but I was wrong. This movie is much better than his other films and the most original, also. Almodovár knows how to handle his female cast beautifully and works so well with the women's emotions.

The story goes like this:
After an encounter at a theater, Marco (Grandinetti) and Benigno (Cámara) meet at a private clinic where Benigno works. Marco is there because his girlfriend, Lydia (Flores), who is a bullfighter and has just been gored by a bull and put into a coma. It so happens that Benigno is looking after a woman (who he is in love with) who is in a coma, also. Her name is Alicia (Watling) and she is a ballet dancer. The lives of these four characters flow in all kinds of different directions, past, present and future, dragging all of them towards an unsuspected destiny.

The cast is terrific and they work together perfectly, especially Cámara and Grandinetti in their scenes. The story is brilliant, one of the best I have heard in recent years. This film won the Oscar for Best Original Screenplay of 2002. Before I had seen this movie I would have thought that it's competitor in that category, also a foreign film, would have won (Y tu mamá también). I bet that after anyone watches this they will have no doubt that it is the best story of the year.

The ending of this movie is tragic... actually, the whole movie is tragic, but the ending will shock you and probably sadden you, too. You get to know these characters well and what ends up happening to them is very sad. Like most of Almodovár's other films, this movie has tragic results with slight comic relief and some creepiness, also.

Almodovár as a director is a visionary. He earned an Oscar nomination for this film for Best Director and I completely understand why. He is a brilliant man with a passionate flare for filmmaking. His films can be labelled many things such as inspirational, heartbreaking and provocative. They'll suck you in and spit you back out with such force that you won't know what just hit you.

A brilliant movie from a brilliant director. Nothing more you need except an astounding cast, and with this film, you get that, too. Go rent this today and be amazed by its captivating story.

This film is flawless in every aspect. The animation is absolutely PERFECT. I hesitate usually when I want to call things perfect because they usually aren't, but here, "perfect" is the only word that suffices. Hayao Miyazaki is one of my heroes. He blends together his imagination with the most vivid and colourful animation you have ever seen and comes out with masterpieces. This film won an Oscar (2002) for Best Animated Feature Film and beat out four other films which were all American (Treasure Planet, Ice Age, Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron and Lilo & Stitch). I am not saying Japanese animation is better than American animation (look at all the works of art Pixar has come out with), I just think that Hayao Miyazaki is a genius and in my books he is the father of animation and imagination. This movie is one of my favourites. People can criticize all they want saying how can an animated film be one of your favourite movies of all time, but if you've seen it, I am sure you can understand. Watch it. It's absolutely perfect.

Dark and gloomy, but reveals the true sides of humans. It is a genuine movie with a strong ending and moral.

Michael Haneke is one of the best directors of modern day cinema. He understands how to make films that affect the audience on a deep, humane level like no other auteur. The relationship between the cinema and the audience is important to him and he tends to exploit it to make his films poignant. He seamlessly incorporates subtlety, but it's his daring approach to filmmaking that makes his films so relatable and memorable. The Piano Teacher is the prime example of how Haneke works.

His film Funny Games (1997) also strongly exhibits realism, bridges the gap between movie and moviegoer and eschews from conventional narrative. It was his breakthrough and it's also downright brilliant work that conveys a message that has yet to be topped by any other artist, in my opinion. However, Funny Games lacks the subtlety that The Piano Teacher has and that's the key element in its poignancy. Subtlety wasn't exactly the approach Haneke was going for when making Funny Games, but the fact that it plays to the advantage of The Piano Teacher's message is what makes the film Haneke's best and most realized work.

Adapted from the acclaimed novel by Elfriede Jellinek, The Piano Teacher tells the story of forty-something Erika Kohut, a suppressed piano teacher. She lives with her overbearing mother and their relationship, or lack thereof, is the catalyst for all of Erika's problems. Her mother forced her into piano, has sheltered her from the world and disallows her from having a social life. Erika has grown up in a secluded environment and is devoid of any emotion. She has never learned how to express herself emotionally and more importantly, sexually. Erika yearns for emotional freedom, but is so lost in the world that she wouldn't even know what freedom would feel like if it even happened to her. This leads Erika to begin hating herself which in turn leads her to hurting herself. She practices genital mutilation just so she is allowed to feel something. Now associating sadomasochism with what emotion should be, Erika's relationship with her young student, Walter, develops grossly into sexual mayhem. The key scene where Erika finally explains to Walter, via handwritten letter, what she would like him to do to her is both highly disturbing and intriguingly human. Although Erika's sadomasochistic ways are twisted, there is still that glimmering hope of humanity that issues forth from Erika's facial expressions at all times.

The final scene is one of the most tragic scenes I have ever witnessed. Erika, after being savagely beaten, raped and tortured by Walter, has to play a recital. She is ready and greets everyone in the lobby before the show. The guests take their seats, but Erika remains in the lobby knowing the audience is waiting for her. She takes a kitchen knife from her purse and stabs herself in the left shoulder (obviously aiming for her heart). For a brief second, we see the pain in her face and this is a moment of relief for her and us. She does indeed feel something, but it took a death blow to her heart for that moment of realization. She staggers out of the recital hall, onto the street and ultimately out of frame. The film ends here and we are left with a great sense of pity, but also with a morbid happiness. At least I was.

Isabelle Huppert has given us one of the greatest film performances. Her portrayal of Erika is tragic and incredibly nuanced. She won the Best Actress prize at Cannes where the film first premiered in 2001. The performances from Magimel (Walter) and Girardot (her mother) are also incredible and the three of them take acting to a new plateau.

Michael Haneke has given us a masterpiece that has gone unappreciated by most. His intentions are, as they were with Funny Games, to challenge the audience. He's feeding the machine that is voyeurism; it's been instilled in us, the audience, that violence and sex is something we want to see in movies. Haneke takes our request to a new level and shocks us with subject matter that almost wards us away from the film. Clearly he is not a fan of the mindless violence that is popular in Hollywood films so he challenges the audience with violence that will make us question why we like watching this after all. It's his way of empowering the viewer.

We may feel empowered after watching his films, but it certainly was an uncomfortable ride.

Edward Norton is one of, if not the best, actor of today. He makes this movie work. This is a Spike Lee "joint" so it's automatically good. I enjoy all of Lee's films and this one didn't disappoint me. It was stunning... so real. Rosario Dawson, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Brian Cox and Anna Paquin had good supporting roles, but the one who got me the most was Barry Pepper. He is a very underrated actor. His performance was gripping especially his last scene. Such a sad movie. The plot doesn't make it sound that sad, but once you get past the outer shell and get into the core of this plot, you realize how terribly sad this movie truly is. Edward Norton can pull off anything, although this movie reminded me of American History X a little bit. Overall, a good movie. I recommend it to all. It's a good story with good morals. Watch it. You'll think about the gift of life that much more.

When going into this movie not knowing what it is about (like I did), you'll probably come out of it shaking your head in awe. This movie is surprisingly risqué, yet works. It's about a young woman (Gyllenhaal) who was just released from a mental institution and is looking for her first ever job. She finds a job as a secretary for a very demanding lawyer (Spader) and begins to develop a crush on him. This crush turns into something very strange over time. Their employer-employee relationship has now turned into a sadomasochistic one. Maggie Gyllenhaal delivers one of the best female performances of 2002. She was nominated for the Golden Globe and could have very well been nominated at the Oscars with her terrific in-character portrayal. The character development in this movie is outstanding. We get to know the characters' lives, obsessions, fears, lusts and personalities in this very original screenplay. Steven Shainberg, who, to be honest, I have never heard of before this, directed. I congratulate him for bringing a terrific script and terrific actors together to make this dramatic comedy (or comedic drama if you so please) a hit. I recommend this to everyone who has no problem with strong and graphic sexual content.