The Year in Film: 2001

I’m a Lord of the Rings fanatic with a thing for Cate Blanchett. What were you expecting to see here?

My Top 20:

1. The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring
2. Moulin Rouge
3. The Fabulous Destiny of Amélie Poulain
4. Mulholland Dr.
5. Memento
6. Gosford Park
   
7. In the Bedroom
8. The Royal Tenenbaums
9. The Others
10. The Man Who Wasn’t There
11. Ghost World
12. Amores perros
13. Monster’s Ball
14. The Princess and the Warrior
15. A.I.  Artificial Intelligence
16. Vanilla Sky
17. Black Hawk Down
18. The Devil’s Backbone
19. Monsters Inc.
20. Harry Potter and the Sorceror’s Stone

 

Lecturing AFI: The 100 Best Comedies

Sterling Hayden explaining the way things are to Peter Sellers in Dr. Strangelove (1964).

You’ll notice I didn’t say the 100 Funniest Comedies. Because it’s the 100 Best. That was the problem with the way AFI did their Comedy list; they tried to make funniest mean the same things as best. Now the funniest films, in order from 1 to 5 for me would be: Monty Python and the Holy Grail, A Fish Called Wanda, Airplane, The Producers and Blazing Saddles. They’re not the 5 best (though all are on this list), but they’re definitely the 5 funniest. As for the best? Well, since I have so much a longer list to choose from for this category, I went with a top 100. I’ve attached a quote for each film. Some you may not find funny. Some won’t make sense unless you’ve seen the film. And I don’t include films I’ve already categorized in another genre’s list (like The Princess Bride or Almost Famous). So here they are – the 100 Best Comedies.