In other news, I finally feel qualified to publish my list of the ten best movies of 2002. There are still a few films from last year that I haven't seen yet (Talk to Her and The Pianist come to mind), but I think that I'll feel pretty good about this list no matter what happens:

1. 25th Hour
2. City of God
3. Minority Report
4. Bowling for Columbine
5. Gangs of New York
6. The Bourne Identity
7. Spirited Away
8. Far From Heaven
9. Adaptation
10. Y Tu Mama Tambien

It wasn't quite the best year for movies since 1999, as I predicted on this blog a few months ago, but it was a solid one by any measure. No real patterns here, except that the shadow of 9/11 was predictably felt in many good movies, and that it was a great year for character actor Brian Cox, who does fine work in 25th Hour, The Bourne Identity, Adaptation, and also The Ring, apparently, which I didn't see. As for the worst movie of the year...well, as usual, the films that annoyed me the most were the ones that squandered splendid resources and talent to tell a story that left me cold on the inside. Nothing quite like Fight Club, of course, but Road to Perdition, One Hour Photo, and The Hours certainly qualify as disappointing.

The truly terrifying thing, by the way, is that Haiwen has seen many more movies than I have this year, given that I saw most of the above with him, and that he often goes off on his own excursions with his..."friends." (He also says that I can't compile a reasonable top ten list without having seen Barbershop and The Good Girl. He's probably right.)