MovieChat Forums > L'homme du train (2002) Discussion > NEWSWEEK'S top 10 for the year...

NEWSWEEK'S top 10 for the year...

posted 20 years ago by Eightythreeyearoldguy
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1. ‘AMERICAN SPLENDOR’

This oddball indie movie about cranky Cleveland cartoonist Harvey Pekar was the most original movie of the year: a sweet-and-sour American wonder.

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2. ‘THE RETURN OF THE KING’

The final chapter of the ’Lord of the Rings’ trilogy doesn't disappoint. It's the jewel in the crown. A triumph of epic storytelling.

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3. ‘LOST IN TRANSLATION’

Sofia Coppola's exquisitely observed brief encounter was subtle, funny and heartbreaking. Bill Murray's never been better.

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4. ‘FINDING NEMO’

Pixar triumphs again. Its luminous, witty undersea adventure had wit and heart to burn.

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5. ‘SCHOOL OF ROCK’

No movie gave me such simple pleasure as this hilarious Richard Linklater comedy. Can Jack Black ever top this dynamo performance?

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6. ‘MYSTIC RIVER’

Director Clint Eastwood and a superb ensemble turn a Boston thriller into an authentic American tragedy. Bruisingly powerful.

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7. ‘MAN ON THE TRAIN’

The unlikely friendship between a teacher and a bank robber becomes a meditation on mortality and regret in this lovely French gem.

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8. ‘IN AMERICA’

Jim Sheridan's lyrical, deeply personal story of an Irish family in Manhattan is one from the heart.

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9. ‘DIRTY PRETTY THINGS’

From Stephen Frears, a thriller about exploited immigrants in London as chilling as it is cheeky.

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10. ‘THE BARBARIAN INVASIONS’

Old friends and family reassess their lives in Denys Arcand’s smart, funny, moving elegy to a dying man with a lust for life.

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[–] 20 years ago

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[–] Eightythreeyearoldguy 20 years ago

That was a rather surprising list that NEWSWEEK came out with. It was for 2003. Actually, I found SCHOOL OF ROCK to be a surprisingly enjoyable movie, although I wouldn't have put it on a best 10 list. Jack Black usually turns me off of a movie, but he had some good scenes in this. Now I'm interested to see how he does in Peter Jackson's KING KONG. His role is actually a serious one, or was in the original, but one which could easily be played by an actor with comedic talent.

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[–] 20 years ago

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[–] Eightythreeyearoldguy 20 years ago

Actually, ABOUT SCHMIDT was the year before when the old timers including Jack Nicholson were high in the competition. And I think there are more good movies out right now than there were at this time last year. SEABISCUIT and FINDING NEMO were the only ones I can immediately think of that were out yet...I could be wrong on BIG FAT GREEK WEDDING. I don't remember when that came out for sure. And OLD SCHOOL was out but wasn't one that really grabbed me. The main ones were yet to be released. ETERNAL SUNSHINE is the main movie I'm going to have to rent along with THE LADYKILLERS since neither got to my cineplex.

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[–] 20 years ago

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[–] Eightythreeyearoldguy 20 years ago

I did see both LOVE ACTUALLY and BAD SANTA. I did quite enjoy LOVE ACTUALLY, but didn't think much of BAD SANTA although I do often like Billy Bob Thornton. Not in this one though. And I could get into a battle royal with you on THE GRADUATE. I especially enjoyed how Mrs. Robinson was so thoroughly humiliated and quite possibly destroyed as far as her social position was at the end.

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[–] Eightythreeyearoldguy 20 years ago

I did see both LOVE ACTUALLY and BAD SANTA. I did quite enjoy LOVE ACTUALLY, but didn't think much of BAD SANTA although I do often like Billy Bob Thornton. Not in this one though. And I could get into a battle royal with you on THE GRADUATE. I especially enjoyed how Mrs. Robinson was so thoroughly embarrassed and quite possibly destroyed as far as her social position was at the end.

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[–] 20 years ago

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[–] Eightythreeyearoldguy 20 years ago

I thought of him as being just incredibly innocent and naive. I felt for the character though because he was being so completely used by everyone, especially by his parents who wanted him to marry the gal just to enhance his dad's status, and by Mrs. Robinson who set up her plan to foil any romance there so that she could use her daughter to enhance her social position. It was very much a film of the times portraying the parents as manipulators of their kids for their own purposes and the kids as waking up to what was going on and doing their own thing. And when one thinks about what would have had to happened to those sets of parents....Ben's dad undoubtedly lost his job, and of course Mrs. Robinson's social position was crumbled into ashes. Beautifully poetic justice.

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[–] 20 years ago

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[–] Eightythreeyearoldguy 20 years ago

Ah, the Simon and Garfunkel songs were great in that. Paul Simon made one of the biggest goofs in his career though. He didn't get around to submitting "Sounds of Silence" for the best song Oscar category. That would have been a cinch to have been the winner that year if he had only entered it.

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