the list of 9 for january 29, 2004:
THE NINE MOST OVERRATED FILMS OF 2003
After taking a year off due to nothing really being overrated in 2002, I'm happy to say that,thanks to an exceptionally dull year for cinema in which far too many ordinary movies wereheralded as near-masterpieces, the Great List of the Overrated is back. Mind you, most of thesefilms were actually pretty decent. But not great, and certainly not classics. I'm pretty certainall nine of these titles will become mere footnotes in cinema history before the decade closes. Myonly regret is that I never saw Cold Mountain or The Last Samurai, both of whichsound like they'd make this list easily.
- THIRTEEN. Despite a tense performance by Evan Rachel Wood,this "gritty" Sundance darling about a destructive relationship between two teenage girls islittle more than a predictable, moralistic After School Special drowning in MTV stylistics.
- AMERICAN SPLENDOR. An even bigger Sundance hit, thisbiopic about "comic memoirist" Harvey Pekar was kind of cute, but has little of the bite ofPekar's own comics. A real documentary would have been much better than this string of dramaticre-enactments.
- MYSTIC RIVER. The best thing about this film is not itsballyhooed performances but its detective story - which is, most unfortunately, railroaded at thelast minute by an unsatisfying "who really dunnit" plot twist. Even worse is the inexplicablymisogynistic epilogue, wherein Laura Linney's underwritten character suddenly becomes some sort ofLady Macbeth.
- THE COOLER. Despite its no-brainer casting of the greatWilliam H. Macy as a loveable loser and Alec Baldwin as a thuggish casino owner, The Cooleris amateurishly made, self-important and sloppily plotted.
- THE SHAPE OF THINGS. Little-remembered after its release,but still winding up on several critics' top ten lists (a sure sign of a slow year), Neil LaBute'sadaptation of his stage play feels like filmed theatre and isn't anywhere near as fierce or astroubling as his earlier work.
- LOST IN TRANSLATION. I must give some belated credit towriter/director Sofia Coppola after learning that the film was inspired by her own disintegratingmarriage to Spike Jonze. This adds personal depth to her story of two American lonely hearts inTokyo. Nevertheless, Lost in Translation is frankly kind of boring. Bill Murray andScarlett Johansson are fine, but their onscreen chemistry isn't strong enough to override thecreepiness of their ever coupling up.
- A MIGHTY WIND. Christopher Guest's forte - themockumentary - grows more stale with each passing film. I have the impression that the huge casthad a better time improvising their lines than audiences had watching the less-than-hilariousresults. Though there is a touching subplot about fading folk singers Eugene Levy and CatherineO'Hara, it's a poor fit with the rest of the film.
- BAD SANTA. Critics were falling all over Bad Santaas if they had been yearning for a mean-spirited comedy about Christmas for years, and finally gottheir wish. But there's nothing here to back up said mean spirit. Too uninspired to be trulyfunny, Bad Santa is just plain ugly.
- SWIMMING POOL. This was a popular art house hit during thesummer of 2003, which I think has more to do with Ludivine Sagnier's nudity than with the filmitself, which ruins an intriguing setup with a rushed, confusing third act and a final"shocker" plot twist that plays more like a dumb joke than anything approaching profundity.
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