The 100 Project: Top 10 Movies of 2002

In 2002, the residue of 9/11 was just starting to show up on big screens. In lots of ways, it was business as usual at the movies with a few exceptions. Sure, a number of films hit theaters only after being altered to remove visuals and/or references to the World Trade Center. Some were delayed, or never released due to potentially insensitive content. Therefore, most of what made it to theaters was as far removed from the dark cloud hanging over us. Of course, there were exceptions, films that dealt head on with the various predicaments we Americans found ourselves in. A couple of them stuck with me, as you’ll see below.

On a personal level, this was the year my youngest child was born. As of the time of this writing, she is mere days away from starting college. We’re excited, anxious, and afraid. We’re sending her off into the America Trump created, seemingly devolving on social, economic, and even biological levels. Wish us luck. Wish yourselves luck. Sorry. If I seem to be going down a dark path just know that what I’m doing while typing this doesn’t help. I turned on a movie that happens to be about a pandemic and it’s feeling way too real. Anyhoo, let’s get back to the reason we came.

My Top 10 Movies of 2002

• According to my Letterboxd account I've seen 81 movies that were released during 2002.
• I saw 9 movies in theaters. 2 make the top 10, 3 are honorable mentions.
• I've seen 3 of the 5 nominees for Best Picture. 1 makes the list, 1 is an honorable mention.
• For the second year in a row 3 non-English movies make the top 10, including a first-ever #1.

10. Bowling for Columbine

In case you somehow haven’t noticed, America has a gun problem. In the wake of the most infamous school shooting of them all, Michael Moore filmed this doc that brings it into sharp relief. As Americans, we often think that everyone in the world has the same problems as we do. Therefore, what struck me then and what sticks with me is how much out of whack we are in terms of gun violence. Like Moore and his tactics, or not, are an undeniable part of the image looking back at us from our collective mirror.

9. Frida

I was only vaguely aware of Mexican artist Frida Kahlo before seeing this. After it was over, I felt like I knew her intimately. It’s an epic portrait of an amazing and troubled woman. Salma Hayek, almost always better in her native Spanish, gives a career-best performance that kept me engaged from the very beginning. She was very deserving of her Oscar nomination for this role.

8. Auto Focus

Speaking of fantastic biopics, here’s another one. This one is about Bob Crane, star of TV’s Hogan’s Heroes. Like Hayek in Frida, Greg Kinnear turns in some of his best work. What puts this movie slightly above that one is the air of mystery surrounding Crane’s death, not to mention the seediness of his life.

7. 25th Hour

In arguably his most overtly mainstream movie, Spike Lee delivers a film about a man knowingly in transition while using the transition the nation was going through, and our collective grief, as the backdrop. As odd as this may sound, there is a beautiful sadness to it with the tiniest bit of hope visible at the end of its tunnel.

6. Gangs of New York

Martin Scorsese takes on a different era of New York’s history than ever before and give us another stellar film. I’ve been a fan of his for a really long time. However, there’s one person in this film I was late to the party on – Daniel Day-Lewis. This is really my introduction to him and he left me impressed by giving us an all-time great villain.

5. Hero

In 2000, Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon gave us an arthouse film wrapped around a kung fu flick. Hero is a kung fu flick wrapped in arthouse. That subtle role reversal is what makes me love Hero more. My brother asked me how it was since I saw it before he did (and in theaters). I told him it was beautiful. He was puzzled because I’ve never described a film to him using that word. To an action junkie like him, it seemed like a condemnation. I assured him it wasn’t. He went and saw it, called me, and said, “I see what you mean.”

4. 8 Mile

I’m a lifelong hip-hop fan. I’m also an Eminem fan. Therefore, a film about him centered around his rap battle roots and actually starring him was tailor-made for me. All they had to do was not screw it up for me to like it. They did better than that. They actually made it good. And I lose myself in the moment every time I watch it.

3. Blade II

I’m going to re-use the technique from my Hero entry for this movie. While the original Blade was a superhero movie built from horror elements, the sequel is a horror movie with a superhero in it. Guillermo del Toro puts some true nastiness on display to go with an intriguing story of enemies having to join forces against something greater than either of them. All of this makes it one of the most underrated comic book movies ever made.

2. Road to Perdition

Speaking of underrated comic book movies, how many of you even know that this was one? Neither did I the first time I watched it. It’s certainly no superhero flick. However, it is a gangster movie with a wonderful father/son relationship at its core. The gangster elements tickled my fancy. The father/son stuff touched my soul. And who knew Jude Law could be scary?

1. City of God

This is one of those films that blew me away as I watching it. Despite being set in Rio de Janeiro, it felt eerily familiar. The plight of the characters, the choices they made all felt like they could’ve happened around the corner from me. Any list of the best ‘hood movies is incomplete without this gem on the list. Lots of movie buffs will tell you the same. Unfortunately, outside of us cinephiles, it’s criminally underseen for one reason. It’s not in English.


Honorable Mentions (alphabetically): Austin Powers in Goldmember, Barbershop, The Bourne Identity, Brown Sugar, Cabin Fever, Drumline, Friday After Next, H, Infernal Affairs, The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers, Minority Report, One Hour Photo, Spider-Man