BEST MOVIES OF 2003

RON’s TOP TEN MOVIES for 2003*
* outstanding year for movies

1. Kill Bill: Vol. 1
>>pure cinematic style! (not for the faint of heart)
2. Dirty, Pretty Things
3. Mystic River
4. 21 Grams
5. Spider
6. (3-way indie tie) American Splendor / Shattered Glass / The Station Agent
7. Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King
8. In America
9. The Magdalene Sisters
10. Elephant
11. Dracula: Pages from a Virgin’s Diary
>>imagine a ballet filmed as if it were a silent movie--it works!!

Honorable Mention:
Cold Mountain / Finding Nemo / Girl with a Pearl Earring / House of Sand and Fog / Lost In Translation/ Master & Commander: The Far Side of the World.

Saw & enjoyed:
Bad Santa; The Cooler; Down with Love; The Good Thief; I Capture the Castle; Intolerable Cruelty; The Last Samurai; Laurel Canyon; Pieces of April; Pirates of the Caribbean; The Secret Lives of Dentists; Something’s Gotta Give.

Ambivalent towards: Le Divorce.

Saw & didn’t think much of:
Seabiscuit; Bend It Like Beckham; Big Fish; mona lisa smile; Veronica Guerin; Whale Rider.

Hated:
Matrix Reloaded; Swimming Pool; Sylvia; And now…ladies & gentlemen…

2003 -- Vivre le France! (Foreign & Docs)

TOP FIVE FOREIGN FILMS
* Vivre le France! [en bleu]*

1. He Loves Me, He Loves Me Not (France) with the lovely Audrey Tatou
2. The Cuckoo (Russia)
3. Nowhere In Africa (Germany)
4. Irreversible (France) [WARNING: unwatchably violent]
5. L’homme du train ("The Man on the Train") Patrice Leconte: France.

Honorable Mention:
The Barbarian Invasions (Canada) / L’auberge espagnole (France) / Jet Lag (France) / Vendredi soir ("Friday Night") Claire Denis: France.

Hated:
Eloge de l’amour ("In Praise of Love") Jean-Luc Godard: France.


TOP FIVE DOCUMENTARIES

1. Etre et avoir (“To be and to have”) France.
2. Bus 174
3. Spellbound
4. Fog of War
5. Winged Migration

Honorable Mention:
My Architect / Rivers and Tides / Absolut Warhola

Saw & didn’t think much of:
Capturing the Friedmans / Cinemania / Gigantic: The Story of Two Johns.