Waking Life: Best Animated Film

retirement for anybody—not even for Logan, who is such an intense and volatile person that it is difficult to say no to him. Kingsley is outstanding as Logan, portraying a man who cannot quite be comfortable as a human being; the only true emotion Logan can convey to other people is anger and Kingsley does it frighteningly and hilariously. The heist is actually sec- ondary to Logan’s visit to Spain: in reality, it is more like the denouement of the film, but there is some trickery with the chronology of events which makes the climax coincide with the heist. With beautiful cinematography, excellent editing, a great soundtrack and one of the best performances on film by any actor ever, Sexy Beast can’t help but being a great film— heist or no heist.

Best Animated Film: Waking Life

The most groundbreaking film that was released in 2001 was Richard Linklater’s Waking Life. The entire film was shot with digital video cam- eras using real actors (including Ethan Hawke), transferred onto regular home computers and “painted” over frame by frame. The stage is now set for independent filmmakers to make full-length animated films and to push the boundaries of animation. For too long, animated films in North America have been safe family films. Even the computer animated films from Pixar and Dreamworks, which tend to be more accessible to adult audiences, don’t take the risks that independent

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filmmakers will make. Although it is bright and colourful, Waking Life is not for children, with its long scenes of interesting characters discussing issues of life and reality. It is saved from being pretentious, however, because the characters are just so damn believable, despite the fact that they may just start flying away at any moment; A good dose of humour doesn’t hurt either.

Best Coen Brothers Film: The Man Who Wasnt There

Having seen both O Brother, Where Art Thou? and The Man Who Wasnt There last year, I felt compelled to give the Coen brothers a category all to themselves. O Brother has a lot of what one would expect from a Coen brothers film—it’s very funny, has great music and has beautiful cine- matography—but I felt that it was missing something. After seeing The Man Who Wasnt There, I realised that O Brother was sorely lacking in grue- some murder scenes. It’s not that I enjoy watching gruesome death scenes, but the best Coen brothers films show how life can spin out of control, and murdering someone is a good way to show the way situations can get out of hand. Billy Bob Thornton’s performance as the cuck- olded small-town barber named Ed is perfect: he is silent when he is around other people, but shows no sign of awkwardness. It takes a lot of courage to play a character so subtly. And finally, the Coens have made one of

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their films in black in white! Their style has always lent itself to the film noir look, and The Man Who Wasnt There just how close to a real film noir they can get.

FIFTEEN FILMS THAT I REALLY, REALLY LIKED

As if the ten films that I just discussed weren’t enough, here are fifteen more films that are worth checking out. Even though I don’t discuss them in as

much length as the previous ten, some

of them are actually better—I just couldn’t figure out any cute categories to fit them into. Watch. Enjoy. Discuss.

A.l. Artificial Intelligence — Steven Spielberg’s film is beautiful and haunting throughout, but it should have ended a lot earlier than it did.

The Center of the World — A film about the difference between love and sex starring sexy Canadian Molly Parker.

Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon — You will believe that Chow Yun-Fat can fly!

The Dish — A light comedy about people in an Australian town who play an important part in the first manned moon landing.

From Hell — Disguised as a Jack the Ripper story, this is a film about how

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Memento: Best Film with a Non-Linear Narrative _

late Victorian society influenced the 20th century—from conspiracy to media hysteria, it’s all there.

Heist — David Mamet’s take on heist films is filled with great dialogue and realistic characters.

Innocence — A love story about old people for a change!

A Knight’s Tale — The best. summer blockbuster of 2001, which isn’t say- ing much.

Requiem for a Dream — A frightening film that shows how drugs will fuck up your life up really bad.

Shadow of the Vampire — Funny and scary: Willem Defoe makes a great vampire pretending to be an actor pre- tending to be a vampire.

The Silence of the Lambs — Hannibal should have been a lot better than it was with Ridley Scott as its director and David Mamet as its screenwriter.

The Tailor of Panama — A mature yet funny spy film starring Pierce Brosnan without all the video game action of a James Bond film.

Traffic — Steven Soderbergh’s film shows how the drug war doesn’t work.

Unbreakable — A film about super- heros without all of that silly comic book action.

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