I'm nothing if not not-timely so here's my
Best Films of 2003
Usual rules: Anything is eligible if seen for the first time from January
1 to December 31, 2003.
1. Donnie Darko (Richard Kelly 2001)
2. Spirited Away (Hayao Miyazaki 2001)
3. Winstanley (Kevin Brownlow 1975)
4. Les Destinees Sentimentales (Olivier Assayas 2000)
5. Waking Life (Richard Linklater 2001)
6. video for Johnny Cash "Hurt" (Mark Romanek 2003)
7. Finding Nemo (Andrew Stanton & Lee Unkrich 2003)
8. Russian Ark (Aleksandr Sokurov 2002)
9. Pistol Opera (Seijun Suzuki 2001)
10 Gozu (Takashi Miike 2003)
11. Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl (Gore Verbinski 2003)
12. Gohatto (Nagisa Oshima 1999)
Honorable: the first two-thirds of Adaptation (Spike Jonze 2002), Audition (Takashi Miike 2000), Battles Without Honor and Humanity (Kinji Fukasaku 1973), La Belle Noiseuse: Divertimento (Jacques Rivette 1991), video for "Ben" (Crispin Glover 2003), Beware of a Holy Whore (Rainer Werner Fassbinder 1971), The Blood Drinkers (Gerardo de Leon 1966), Buffalo Soldiers (Gregor Jordan 2001), The Cat's Meow (Peter Bogdanovich 2001), Comedian (Christian Charles 2002), CQ (Roman Coppola 2001), Daredevil (Mark Steven Johnson 2003), The Devil's Backbone (Guillermo del Toro 2001), Dog Soldiers (Neil Marshall 2002), Giants & Toys (Yasuzo Masumura 1958), 8 Femmes (Francois Ozon 2002), In Praise of Love (Jean-Luc Godard 2001), Kill Bill, Vol. 1 (Quentin Tarrantino 2003), The Lord of the Rings: The Two
Towers (Peter Jackson 2002), Lost in Translation (Sofia Coppola 2003), Pale Flower (Masahiro Shinoda 1964), Pioneers in Ingolstadt (Fassbinder 1971), video for The Notorious B.I.G.'s "The Sky's the Limit" (Spike Jonze 1997), S.W.A.T. (Clark Johnson 2003), Timecode (Mike Figgis 2000), Touchez Pas au Grisbi (Jacques Becker 1954), X-Men 2 (Bryan Singer 2003).
Crimes: the final third of Adaptation (Spike Jonze 2002), Amores Perros (Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu 2000), Bringing Down the House (Adam Shankman 2003), Bruce Almighty (Tom Shadyac 2003), Bruiser (George Romero 2000), The Castle (Rob Sitch 1997), Chicago (Rob Marshall 2002), The Comedy of Terrors (Jacques Tourneur 1964), Eugenie (Jesus Franco 1970), The Haunted Mansion (Rob Minkoff 2003), Head of State (Chris Rock 20030, Homework (Jaime Humberto Hermosillo 1990), The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen (Stephen Norrington 2003), A Mighty Wind (Christopher Guest 2003), The New Guy (Ed Decter 2002), Novocaine (David Atkins 2001), Scream and Scream Again (Gordon Hessler 1969), Secret Ballot (Babak Payami 2001), Shanghai Knights (David Dobkin 2003), Terminator 3: The Rise of the Machines (Jonathan Mostow 2003), Visitor Q (Takashi Miike 2001), Wendigo (Larry Fessenden 2001).
Worst of the Decade (so far): Bad Boys II (Michael Bay 2003)
Best Revival: the "restored" The Good, the Bad & the Ugly (Leone 1966)