2002 Redux

I was recently thinking about how I compose these Top Ten Lists every year and that when I look back at them, I realize they're more snapshots in time than definitive lists. It's difficult to make anything definitive/final when it comes to opinions on things like film, music, literature, etc. simply because tastes are always shifting and perspectives changing (and in theory, hopefully evolving). Nonetheless, I wanted to compare and contrast how I would formulate those same lists now while viewing what they were when I initially wrote them. As a result, I'm going to post my top ten films of the year from each year in recent memory and then I'll post what my list would be now. Unfortunately, I could only find them as far back as 2002, even though I know I've done them since 1999. Oh well, this should be just fine for my purposes here, a good time shall be had by all. All that being said, I now present to you the first edition in a series of several (?), starting with 2002.

2002 (Original List):

10) Blade II
9) Spirited Away
8) Y Tu Mama Tambien
7) Minority Report
6) Punch Drunk Love
5) The Pianist
4) 25th Hour
3) Spider-Man
2) About a Boy
1) Gangs of New York

Now here's my 2002 List if I were to write it today:

10) Roger Dodger
9) Spirited Away
8) Y Tu Mama Tambien
7) Spider-Man
6) 25th Hour
5) Signs
4) About a Boy
3) Minority Report
2) Punch Drunk Love
1) Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers

Observations:

- I guess the biggest change is the fact that Gangs of New York went from being el numero uno to not even on my current list. I chalk this up to the fact that at the time, I was expecting the greatest Scorsese film ever made considering how much I had heard about the film up to that point and how it was his big labor of love/lifetime dream project and on and on. As a result, while I still think it's a very good film, I think my excitement with the fact that I liked it a lot made me overstate how truly great I thought it was. Now, despite all of its successes and a typically brilliant performance from Daniel Day-Lewis, it's a pretty forgettable film. Nearly 7 years later, it hasn't been one of those films that sticks to your ribs. It's a lot more like Chinese food, in and out baby.

- Minority Report and Punch Drunk Love both made significant leaps forward as the former has turned out to be not only one of the best sci-fi/action films in recent memory, but also one of the most prescient (Patriot Act, anyone?) and the latter, I've found to be one of the most bizarrely disarming "rom-coms" I've ever seen. Although calling it a "rom-com" is not really fair, nor does it do it justice. Like D.J. Justice.

- Interesting that both Spirited Away and Y Tu Mama Tambien retained their exact same positions both times around. I'm sure there's something insightful or witty to draw from that, but I don't know what it would be. Or maybe there isn't.

-Signs and The Two Towers were the two films that asserted themselves on the new list and to say I would never give those two films the benefit of the doubt back in 2002 is an understatement. I finally came to my senses with LOTR and ultimately found that entire trilogy to be the best trilogy ever made. In the case of Signs, I've always held a special reservoir of spite just for Shamalamadingdong, but this was a case of putting a good story ahead of his typical parlor tricks and it worked out well for him.

- Finally, The Pianist fell off the list simply because I only saw it once and that was during its initial theatrical run, so in theory I could see it again and it could vault back into my coveted top ten.

- One final observation. I notice that film buffs and critics alike usually like to bemoan any given year as a "terrible" year for cinema or whatever other snippy adjective you wanna throw in there because let's face it, it's always more fun to complain. Nonetheless, I've noticed that most years are pretty similar. I'll have a very solid top ten featuring a couple of excellent films that sit above the rest and then maybe some more other very good ones that didn't quite make the top ten. Even in years when it seems like there just isn't much to get excited about, the top ten list usually turns out solid even if 80% of everything else pretty much sucked. 2002 is a perfect example of this. Not a banner year by any stretch of the imagination, highly forgettable really. Yet at the end of the day, I'm left with a solid top ten and a few others who just barely missed the cut. My point is, while there will always be plenty of shit to go around, there's usually a solid collection of the good stuff to make it all worth it.