By Teddy Durgin
tedfilm@aol.com

Happy New Year, everyone! Before we move on to 2002, let's take a last look back at the year just ended and appreciate the fine works of cinema that the movie biz gave us. All in all, I think 2001 was a very good year for movies. Of course, I haven't made out my 10 Worst list yet. Hey, why give ya the bad news first?! Tom Green, Jack Black, and Lara Croft can wait until later in the week.

I feel like celebrating!

Why? Because this past year, more than any other in recent history, showed that there was an overwhelming need for movies. Movies that entertained us, movies that spirited us away, even movies that touched us and made us cry all over again.

So, without much fanfare, I humbly give you my picks for the 10 Best Films of 2001, along with a few special mentions at the end:

1) The Lord of the Rings: Fellowship of the Ring - This movie is my cocaine, and director Peter Jackson is my pusher. It's becoming a habit, I tell ya. A habit! If I go more than seven days without seeing it, I start to feel it. I start to ... to .. to NEED it! I walk up to the theater box office and say to the pimple-faced teen working the register: "I need my 'Rings' boost, man! Gimme my 'Rings' boost!" The kid, of course, looks at me like I'm insane. I am. I truly am. I'm insane in the brain for this instant classic. I love it with all my heart. The only real criticism I have heard of it is that it does not have an ending. I strongly disagree. The ending is the disintegration of the Fellowship and the choice Frodo (Elijah Wood) makes at the most pivotal moment of his life. Can't wait for the next two!

2) Moulin Rouge - I reiterate that I am a straight, heterosexual male who watches football every Sunday. But Moulin Rouge made me wanna burst out into showtunes! A brilliant kaleidoscope of passion, romance, color, and creativity, this Baz Luhrman-directed masterpiece took big-screen musicals to soaring new heights. The film, which starred Nicole Kidman and Ewan McGregor as star-crossed lovers, succeeded by combining the best qualities of the classic musicals of yesteryear with the throbbing immediacy of MTV. And it had real heart! Far too many people are discovering this movie on video now. If you didn't see it on the big screen (which I implored people to do back in early summer), you really missed an experience.

3) The Others - Boy, did Nicole Kidman (a.k.a. "My Dearest") have a great year! Not only did she shed the marital baggage that was Mr. Teeth, she starred in two of the finest (and most different) films of the year. The Others was a creepy, gloomy, expertly cast reverse ghost story that disturbed me for days after seeing it. Director Alejandro Amenabar knows that the secret to scaring people is not digital effects, but mood. Tense and unrelenting mood! This is perhaps the quietest haunted house film ever made. Amenabar gave his film a real and palpable sense of dread from the opening frame to the final shocking revelation.

4) The Pledge - The most underrated film of 2001 was also one of the first to be released back in January. I have never forgotten this Sean Penn-directed police procedural that took Jack Nicholson's retiring Homicide detective down to the depths of despair like few stories would dare. This slow, yet highly absorbing film centers around Nicholson's character, Jerry Black, solving one final child killing. A suspect is caught, but Jerry is unconvinced. The case becomes his obsession in retirement. At one point, he even uses an innocent little girl to bait who he believes is the killer. The film ends with one of the cruelest
twists of fate you will ever see.

5) A Beautiful Mind - I said this movie would rank high on my Top 10 list, and it does. A Beautiful Mind has taken its fair share of hits for not being a completely true account of the life of Nobel prize winner John Nash (Russell Crowe). Who cares? This ain't the story of Lincoln. Director Ron Howard uses Nash, a paranoid schizophrenic with a keen mind for mathematics, to tell a surprisingly emotional story of love, acceptance, genius, and triumph. The fact that he tells it with gentle understanding and humor, yet doesn't shy away from the realities of Nash's affliction, earns this film its rightful place among the top
motion pictures of the year.

6) Monsters Inc. - I have a lot of love for this movie. Most people prefer "Shrek" over Monsters, but I think Pixar's animated effort is more clever and original. Every frame is filled with fantastic color, detail, and wit. As much for adults as for kids, Monsters Inc. maintains a high level of whimsical invention for its entire running time. And the newly added gag reel is worth a second viewing.

7) Ghost World - Terry Zwigoff followed up his brilliant Crumb documentary with this droll and emotionally honest portrayal of a disaffected teen (Thora Birch) forming a spiritual bond of sorts with an equally disaffected fortysomething record collector (Steve Buscemi ... think me in about 10 years). Zwigoff's dark comedy is alternately cynical and hopeful, as its misfit characters struggle to find their place amid an urban landscape of interchangeable chain restaurants, convenience stores, and gas stations.

8) Black Hawk Down - This harrowing war film is now open in New York and Los Angeles for Oscar consideration, and will be released nationwide on Jan. 18. See it! It is one of the most brutally realistic depictions of armed conflict ever, centering around a U.S.-led mission in Somalia 1993 that goes horribly wrong. It's like being in a firefight for more than two hours.

9) Memento - One of the most original thrillers in years, and definitely one that commands your complete attention for its entire running time. Guy Pearce stars as a man who suffers from short-term memory loss who is on a quest to avenge his wife's death. To help him keep his own story straight, he tattoos his body with messages (kind of like living Post-it notes) and scribbles details about people and places on hastily shot Polaroids. By telling the story in reverse order, writer-director Christopher Nolan forces us to use all of our skills and senses to unravel a mystery that actually begins where it should end. And, yes, I'm still trying to figure it all out, so it must be brilliant!

10) Startup.com - Deciding on No. 10 for my annual list is always tough, because it means I leave several worthy movies off.
This time around, it was a little easier than in previous years. Startup.com is the best documentary of 2001, chronicling the
rise and fall of an ambitious dot-com (OUCH!) started by two friends from childhood. There is no way filmmakers Chris Hegedus
and Jehane Noujaim could have known the twists and turns the story would take when they began filming. Startup.com proves
that real life is frequently more riveting than anything a Hollywood screenwriter can dream up.
 

HONORABLE MENTION (in order of preference): Ocean's 11, Hedwig and the Angry Inch, Waking Life, Bandits, The Shipping News.

TWO MOVIES I HAVE YET TO SEE: 1) Gosford Park, a Robert Altman film that has received several Golden Globe nominations; and 2) Monsters Ball, which Roger Ebert named as his Best Film of the Year.

MOST UNDERRATED FILM: Enemy at the Gates

MOST OVERLOOKED PERFORMANCE: Samuel L. Jackson in Caveman's Valentine.

ACTOR I WANT TO SEE MORE OF: Paul Bettany, A Knight's Tale and A Beautiful Mind.

ACTRESS I WANT TO SEE MORE OF: Scarlett Johansson, Ghost World and The Man Who Wasn't There.

BEST RE-RELEASE: Apocalypse Now Redux

BEST CAMEO: Mark Hamill as the villainous Cock-Knocker in Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back.

BEST SOUNDTRACK: Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back

BEST POSTER: The Royal Tenenbaums

BEST OPENING CREDITS: Shrek

BEST CLOSING CREDITS: Rush Hour 2

BEST LINE OF DIALOGUE: "Eat me!" exclaimed by the Gingerbread Man, while being interrogated by Lord Farquaad in Shrek.

BEST ACCENT: Don Cheadle's Cockney in Ocean's 11.

SPECIAL KUDOS GO TO: The opening explosion in Swordfish; the race-car chase through downtown Chicago (actually Toronto) in Driven; Jude Law's make-up in A.I.: Artificial Intelligence; Thekla Reuten giving her captor a haircut in Everybody's Famous; the paintings in Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone; what Vin Diesel has under the seat in The Fast and the Furious; the extra 20 lbs. Renee Zellweger put on for Bridget Jones' Diary; and Zhang Ziyi repeatedly face-kicking Chris Tucker in Rush Hour 2.

THE GONE BUT NEVER FORGOTTEN AWARD: Your eyes search the screen for them, but they are no longer there. Twin giants that once stood resolute amidst the tallest of the tall. Directors for the last 30 years had used them to show grandeur, to create mood, to inform audiences that "This is a New York story." The Twin Towers of the World Trade Center fell on Sept. 11, 2001. Now they only exist in our memories and in the movies they co-starred in. They were the ultimate background extras in everything from Superman to Wall Street to Vanilla Sky. May they and those who perished along with them rest in peace.