Iraq War part 2: A look back at 2003

In 2003,

The space shuttle Columbia disintegrated on reentry into earth’s atmosphere;

The US and allied forces invaded Iraq;

The Human Genome Project was completed;

The Czech Republic, Estonia, Cyprus, Latvia, Lithuania, Hungary, Malta, Poland, Slovenia, and Slovakia joined the European Union;

Tesla was founded;

Robert Novak controversially identified Valeria Plane as a covert agent;

4chan was launched;

The Concorde made its last commercial flight;

Saddam Hussein was captured;

China launched their fist human spaceflight;

Greta Thunberg, Olivia Rodrigo, Suni Lee, Emily Carey, JoJo Siwa, Storm Reid, The Kid Laroi, Quvenzhané Wallis, and Jack Dylan Grazer were born;

While Maurice Pialat, Maurice Gibb, Curt Henning, Johnny Paycheck, Fred Rogers, Lynne Thigpen, Daniel Patrick Moynihan, Michael Jeter, Edwin Starr, Bing Russell, Nina Simone, Miss Elizabeth, Wendy Hiller, Robert Stack, Dave DeBusschere, June Carter Cash, Gregory Peck, Hume Cronyn, Larry Doby, Leon Uris, Lester Maddox, Strom Thurmond, Katharine Hepburn, Buddy Hackett, Barry White, Buddy Ebsen, John Schlesinger, Sam Phillips, Gregory Hines, Herb Brooks, Idi Amin, Charles Bronson, Warren Zevon, Leni Riefenstahl, Edward Teller, John Ritter, Sheb Wooley, Edward Said, Robert Palmer, Donald O’Connor, Althea Gibson, Elia Kazan, Robert Kardashian, Timothy Treadwell, Road Warrior Hawk, Jack Elam, Rod Roddy, Art Carney, Warren Spahn, Gertrude Ederle, David Hemmings, Jeanne Crain, Frank Sheeran, Otto Graham, Hope Lange, and Alan Bates died.

The following is a list of my ten favorite films released in 2003:

 

10. Oldboy

Oh Dae-su is kidnapped and kept in a hotel room for years. When released, he learns his wife has been murdered and his young daughter adopted by another family. In this despair, he begins a relationship with a young sushi chef.

He tries to locate his daughter, but, stymied, turns his attention to finding his captor and extracting revenge. When he finds his tormentor, Lee Woo-jin, the motive behind his imprisonment is revealed.

Anyone whose seen it will never forget the single shot fight scene, when Oh Dae-Su takes on a seemingly never ending army of thugs in a hallway. Inspired by countless video games, it’s exhilarating and the moment you know this film is playing for keeps.

It’s a haunting film about trauma and how casual cruelty reverberates for years.

This brutal homage to classical mythology focused on a tale of karma and revenge stays with you long after the credits rolls.

 

 

9. Finding Nemo

Dory (Ellen Degeneres) is one of the preeminent animated characters of all time. The non fish eating sharks (including one named Bruce in an homage to Jaws and voiced by Dame Edna) are hysterical.

The tank gang is delightful with William Defoe, Allison Janney, Brad Garrett and Stephen Root all perfectly cast.

Albert Brooks gets a much deserved chance to shine for another generation.

Geoffrey Rush is great as Nigel, the seagull who plays a pivotal role in reuniting Marlin with his son.

It’s an almost perfect family film. If you have a kid born since 2000, this is one of the staples and an instantly recognizable part of childhood for going on two generations.

Marlin’s paralyzing fear is eminently relatable and perfectly encapsulates the sometimes overwhelming anxiety of parenting.

 

 

8. The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King

The epic conclusion of Peter Jackson’s adaptation of J.R.R. Tolkien’s beloved fantasy series is a master class in creating a faithful adaptation of a beloved series.

Highlights include: Gollum’s greedy obsession saves the day, Sam’s defiant, “I can’t carry the ring, but I can carry you,” the Ents, Pippin and Merry, and the heartbreaking end of Frodo’s time in Middle Earth.

There’s war, intrigue, greed, friendship, love, and purpose. Sans the gratuitous violence and sex of Game of Thrones, it manages to craft a relatable fantasy world both kids and adults can enjoy.

 

 

7. A Mighty Wind

The children of famed music producer Irving Steinbloom organize a memorial concert and invite his most famous acts to perform: The Folksmen, The New Main Street Singers, and Mitch and Mickey.

This is Christopher Guest at the height of his gentle mockumentary powers. His freewheeling, improv-reliant comedy is perfectly suited to this material. The songs are top notch and provide a great structure for the huge ensemble of regulars to riff.

Fred Willard is a highlight as the former star of “Wha’ Happened?” Eugene Levy and Catherine O’Hara are great as former lovers Mitch and Mickey, foreshadowing the chemistry which would dominate the popular culture landscape twenty years later in Schitt’s Creek.

Harry Shearer, Guest, and Michael McKean are delightful as The Folksmen (which started as an offshoot of their seminal work as Spinal Tap). Remarkably, these guys have been working together on and off as a fictional band for nearly forty years.

The weakest link is the New Main Street Singers, but Jane Lynch is hysterical (when is she not?), and John Michael Higgins is very funny.

Everyone is clearly having a great time filming this, including Jennifer Coolidge, Parker Posey, Ed Begley Jr., Larry Miller, Bob Balaban.

The reason this works is because while the comedy effectively parodies the folk scene of the 1960s, the music is earnest and well crafted. The soundtrack has been a long staple in my family.

McKean (and his wife Annette O’Toole) scored an Oscar nomination for “A Kiss at the End of the Rainbow,” and the song was performed live at the ceremony by Levy and O’Hara.

Guest can arguably claim to have invented the mockumentary format with Spinal Tap, he can just as arguably claim to have perfected it here.

 

 

6. Matchstick Men

Con artist Roy Waller (Nicolas Cage) works with partner Frank Mercer (Sam Rockwell) on a long con of millionaire businessman, Chuck Frechette (Chuck McGill).

Frank recommends Roy see a psychiatrist to help with his numerous issues (including Tourette’s syndrome and obsessive compulsive disorder). During therapy, Roy mentions the failure of his marriage. His wife was pregnant during the divorce and he has no relationship with his child.

This therapist reaches out to Roy’s ex-wife and facilitates a meeting with his now fourteen year old daughter, Angela (Alison Lohman). As Roy and Angela bond, his anxieties diminish and his mental health improves.

However, when Angela gets involved in the con of Chuck, things begin to unravel for Roy.

Cage is perfectly cast. Ridley Scott is a chameleon. Few filmmakers are as capable of moving between such a wide variety of genres and styles.  Because of this, his career is hard to pigeon hole and he’s sometimes overlooked as one of the preeminent directors.

Rockwell often disappears so completely into his character you forget it’s him. Like Scott, this chameleon characteristic makes it harder to appreciate his artistry.

Cage’s career is, of course, legendary. In many ways, he has the opposite problem of Scott and Rockwell, few performers have as distinctive an acting style.

This is a great entry in the heist genre and like all good movies about a con, the audience is the mark. I’m a huge sucker movies like this.

 

 

5. Cold Mountain

North Carolina’s 1861 secession from the United States and the subsequent Civil War is examined through the lens of a love story between Ada Monroe (Nicole Kidman) and W.P. Inman (Jude Law).

After her father (Donald Sutherland) dies, Ada enlists the help of Ruby (Renee Zellwegger) to keep her family afloat during the war.

Meanwhile Inman is conscripted and, after fighting for several years in the Confederate cause, deserts his post to return to Ada.

Both are consistently harassed by the Confederate Home Guard, the men who stayed behind to supposedly maintain order during the war.

Kidman and Law are great. Jack White is surprisingly effective. Brendan Gleeson, Donald Sutherland are superb, and Renée Zellweger is incredible. Fresh off the heels of her phenomenal work in Chicago (2002), she was at the absolute peak of her talent. 

It’s a lovely look at the Civil War from a fresh perceptive. Director Anthony Minghella’s life was far too short, but his brief output showed a prodigious talent for sweeping epics with delicate romances at the middle.

 

 

 

4. Elf

When Buddy (Will Ferrell) finds out he’s not an actual elf, but a human who accidentally hitched a ride in Santa’s bag one Christmas eve, he sets out to find his birth father in New York City. To his frustration, his dad, Walter Hobbs (James Caan), is a workaholic children’s book publisher. Buddy works to ingratiate himself to Walter and teach him the value of family.

Ed Asner (as Santa), Bob Newhart, Marry Steenburgen, a delightful Zooey Deschanel, Peter Dinklage, Andy Richter, Amy Sedaris. Even the small roles in this film are perfectly cast and knock it out of the park.

It was an instant holiday classic and continues to delight families every year. Favreau launched his career into the stratosphere, Caan is delightful playing against type, and Ferrell has never been better.

I love everything about this movie.

 

 

3. 21 Grams

Paul Rivers (Sean Penn) is a mathematics professor who needs a new heart. Jack Jordan (Benicio del Toro) is a former convict whose relgious conversion helped him overcome his addictions. Cristina Peck (Naomi Watts) is a recovering addict enjoying a happier life as a suburban mom.

Their lives are intertwined when Jack kills Cristina’s husband, Michael (Danny Huston) in a hit and run, and Paul receives Michael’s heart in a transplant.

It’s a piercing exploration of faith, guilt, shame, and purpose. Penn is great, but del Toro and Watts absolutely shine and deservedly received Oscar nominations for their work.

I love Alejandro Iñárritu. He’s one of the most spiritual filmmakers (the title of this film is a reference to the famous “experiment” which purported to prove the weight of a soul), and his films speak to a lot of the same concerns I have about my own life and purpose.

I can see why some might call it pretentious, but I found it wonderful.

 

 

2. A Talking Picture

A woman takes her young daughter on a cruise around Europe, intending to visit the birthplaces of civilization and reconnect with the past in a grand, mysterious way.  John Malkovich is the captain, and various important famous women join their journey along the way.

The film’s end is a jarring reminder that despite our grandiosity, our lives are little more than window dressing. A sad, melancholic film which focuses our attention on how much of this world is ephemera, reminding us how little control we have of our lives and emboldening us to not take the life we have for granted.

 

 

1. Mystic River

In 1975, Dave Boyle is kidnapped while playing with Jimmy Markum and Sean Devine. After four days of captivity and sexual assaults, Dave escapes and returns home.

Thirty years later, Jimmy (Sean Penn) is an ex-con who runs a store, Sean (Kevin Bacon) is a detective with the state police, and Dave (Tim Robbins) leads an anonymous blue-collar life.

Their lives intertwine once again when Jimmy’s daughter is murdered. Sean is assigned the investigation, and circumstantial evidence indicates Dave is the murderer.

The movie builds suspense until the heartbreaking, inevitable ending, with the dawning realization their lives were spent playing roles they were randomly assigned thirty years ago.

Sean Penn has never been better than as Jimmy, who turns to a life of crime because it’s the only life he knows.

Tim Robbins is masterful as the pitiful Dave, who will never be anything but a scared, broken boy.

Kevin Bacon is not in the same league as Penn and Robbins, but he’s good as Sean Devine, torn between his duty as a policeman and guilt about not protecting his childhood friend.

Marcia Gay Harden and Laura Linney do yeoman’s work as the wives of Jimmy and Dave. Linney has become one of my favorite actresses; when she’s in a movie, I’ll have strong feelings about it.

Laurence Fishburne has had a fascinating career. After debuting in Apocalypse Now (1979), he’s been Cowboy Curtis and Morpheus, starred in CSI, played Perry White, and fought Hannibal Lecter. He’s decent as Sean’s partner, Whitey Powers, but the role is just background.

Despite succeeding John Wayne as a symbol of masculinity in the 1970s, Clint Eastwood is a better director than actor. Unbelievably versatile, he can handle westerns, war pictures, foreign language films, and musicals.  He won his second Best Director Oscar the following year, but this is his best movie.

Dennis Lehane’s novel is a hypnotic story about coincidence, fate, jumping to conclusions, and inadvertent consequences. This is a near perfect adaptation of a near perfect novel.