BEST FILMS OF 2001

It was a good movie year. So good that it needs a catchy nickname. (Doesn’t every movie year need a catchy nickname?) You could call it the “Year of the Heist Film,” since four outstanding such films hit screens this year (The Score, Heist, Sexy Beast, and Ocean’s Eleven). Better yet, with movies like A.I., Vanilla Sky, Waking Life, Memento, and Mulholland Drive, you could call it the “Year of the Incomprehensible and Intellectually Pretentious Film In Which Everything Was Only a Dream Anyway.” In fact, that’s a perfect way to sum up this particular year, since the quintessential intellectual yawner film is, of course, 2001: A Space Odyssey. (And spare me the nasty e-mails, Kubrick fans.)

Okay, enough of that crap. Here are the year’s 10 best films.

TOP TEN FILMS OF 2001:

1. Waking Life
Directed by Richard Linklater. Starring Wiley Wiggins et al.

2. Amores Perros
Directed by Alejandro González Iñárritu. Starring Gael García Bernal, Emilio Echevarría, Goya Toledo.

3. In the Bedroom
Directed by Todd Field. Starring Sissy Spacek, Tom Wilkinson, Marisa Tomei.

4. Monster’s Ball
Directed by Marc Forster. Starring Halle Berry, Billy Bob Thornton.

5. Ghost World
Directed by Terry Zwigoff. Starring Thora Birch, Scarlett Johansson, Steve Buscemi.

6. The Royal Tenenbaums
Directed by Wes Anderson. Starring Gene Hackman, Anjelica Huston, et al.

7. A Beautiful Mind
Directed by Ron Howard. Starring Russell Crowe, Jennifer Connelly, Ed Harris.

8. Diamond Men
Directed by Dan Cohen. Starring Robert Forster, Donnie Wahlberg.

9. Mulholland Drive
Directed by David Lynch. Starring Naomi Watts, Laura Elena Harring.

10. The Pledge
Directed by Sean Penn. Starring Jack Nicholson, Robin Wright Penn.

11. The Deep End
Directed by David Siegel. Starring Tilda Swinton, Goran Visnjic, Jonathan Tucker.

12.  Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back
Directed by Kevin Smith. Starring Jason Mewes, Kevin Smith, Matt Damon, et al.

13.  Lost and Delirious
Directed by Lea Pool. Starring Piper Perabo and Jessica Paré.

14. The Score
Directed by Frank Oz. Starring Robert DeNiro, Edward Norton, Marlon Brando

15. Heist
Directed by David Mamet. Starring Gene Hackman, Danny DeVito, Rebecca Pidgeon, Delroy Lindo

16. Tape
Directed by richard Linklater. Starring Ethan Hawke, Robert Sean Leonard, Uma Thurman

 

SPECIAL AWARDS

Best Ensemble Acting: The cast of The Royal Tenenbaums

Best Actress: Thora Birch, Ghost World

Best Actor: Gene Hackman, The Royal Tenenbaums

Best Supporting Actress: Emma Watson, Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone

Best Supporting Actor: Emilio Echevarría, Amores Perros

Best Supporting Album Cover: “The Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan” in Vanilla Sky 

Best Cameo Appearance: Steven Soderbergh in Waking Life 

Hepburn-Tracy Citation for Best Acting in Tandem: Sissy Spacek and Tom Wilkinson, In the Bedroom 

Truman Show Award for Best Movie Poster Design: The Royal Tenenbaums (at right)

Bill Paxton Memorial Award for Worst Acting Performance: Elijah Wood, Lord of the Rings

Passenger 57 Award (Worst Film of the Year): From Hell

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Best Director: Richard Linklater, Waking Life

Best Writing (original screenplay): Wes Anderson and Owen Wilson, The Royal Tenenbaums

Best Writing (adapted screenplay): Robert Festinger, Todd Field, and Andre Dubus, In the Bedroom (adapted from the short story by Dubus)

Worst Writing (adapted screenplay): Frances Walsh, Philippa Boyens, and Peter Jackson, Lord of the Rings

Most Ingenious Concept for a Movie: Waking Life

Most Dimwitted Concept for a Movie: The Mexican

Best Song: Paul McCartney, “Vanilla Sky”

Special Citation for Best Use of Music in a Film: Vanilla Sky 

 

View last year’s list: Best Films of 2000

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