This year, Entertainment Insiders spent a great deal of time reviewing films on DVD. We also met some cool people at film festivals and discovered that the some of the best films never make it to your local multiplex. Although watching the best movies of the year in the courtesy of your own home is a wonderful luxury, watching them in the theater is always more memorable. I mark events in my life, at times, by referencing films I’ve seen remembering where I saw the film and with whom.

2002 was not as good a year for theatrical releases as 2001. While it may have been hard to find the smaller edgier movies at the crowded box office, films like Spiderman and Minority Report sandwiched around the solid film noir displayed in Road To Perdition, made it hard for the most discerning of movie-goers to resist the allure of big box office fare.

And, 2002 gave us another helping of Harry Potter (this time a bit more mature and entertaining) followed by an improved (depending on your paradigm) and even louder Lord of the Rings sequel. In Punch Drunk Love, Adam Sandler, showed a little range by spending some time with writer/director Paul Thomas Anderson in one of the two somewhat widely released small films this year that included top box office talent. The other worth mentioning, Full Frontal, was directed by another fine director, Steven Soderbergh, and misfired even with Julia Roberts taking on a sizeable role.

The list below includes big and little films all worthy of consideration. If you missed them in the theater, catch them on DVD; the winter is upon us and curling up with a good movie might just hit the spot.

1. Far From Heaven

In reviewing Far From Heaven, Rusty White of EI wondered “if director Todd Haynes intended the film to be a serious drama, a ‘queer cinema’ homage to the films of George Cuckor or one of the darkest, camp movie in-jokes of all time. “Whatever his intentions,” White observed, "Far From Heaven works…. Like David Lynch's Blue Velvet, Mr. Haynes takes the viewer on a tour of the hidden life below the surface of an ideal suburban family circa 1957.”

White commented that “if you were to watch Far From Heaven without any sound, you would swear you were watching a big budget, Technicolor film from the 1950s.” White went on to say in his review, “I haven't seen such lush photography and art direction on the big screen except when older films have been re-released after being restored. Todd Haynes' eye for detail is amazing in this film.”

Far From Heaven’s star is Julianne Moore, always good and working a lot lately. 2002 saw a great number of films featuring women on lead roles. Far From Heaven may have been our pick for the best of the bunch but others close behind deserve honorable mention including The Hours, Real Women Have Curves (directed by Patricia Cardoso), Chicago, Unfaithful, and the surprise hit of the year My Big Fat Greek Wedding.

2. Gangs of New York / Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers

EI’s Chuck Boring hails Gangs as a success, “the striking sets and garb (especially the varying looks signifying differing gangs) dares viewers to avert their eyes for even a millisecond.”

Boring predicts an Oscar nomination for Daniel Day-Lewis taking on the role of William “Bill the Butcher” Cutting whose “glass-eyed figure … evokes feelings of horror, disgust, and reprehensibility topping even that of Hannibal Lector.”

Another epic film released this year was the second installment of the Lord of the Rings trilogy, Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers. Rusty White called this film, "a spectacular achievement in fantasy filmmaking ... a dark masterpiece of epic proportions." Comparing it to "The Empire Strikes Back, The Two Towers deals with ordinary heroes struggling with seemingly hopeless obstacles." I agree heartily with Rusty that "Peter Jackson's film overwhelms the viewer with sweeping vistas, intimate moments and frightening battles. CGI technology has never been put to better use."

3. Charlotte Sometimes

I called this Sex, Lies & Videotape for a new generation. Charlotte Sometimes caught me in the right mood, remembering the cluttered turmoil of my twenties longing for a partner and wanting it all, now. Charlotte Sometimes is about being alone with the one you love living beneath you taunting you without meaning any harm and feeling bad about it all the time, not being able to do anything but feel bad, hurt. This was the best small film I saw this year.

4. Adaptation/About Schmidt

I liked Adaptation more for a couple of choice lines of expertly written and spoken dialogue than for the screw-ball off-kilter story-line. A terrific performance by Nicholas Cage (playing two parts of one half—twin brother opposites that are complete when together) and another by Meryl Streep (who looks absolutely fabulous even when covered in mud and lost in a swamp orchid hunting) make Adaptation a worthy candidate for a best picture Oscar nomination. Alas, writer Kaufman’s commitment to the zaney damages what I thought may have been the best drama of the year and turns it into something that actually attempts to be marketable to more than just the “cool kids.”

Hopefully, Jonze’s and Kaufman’s next adventure will be less Cohen brothers and more introspective drama. Don’t these guys realize that what they have to say about the depression of the human condition can be told effectively without car chases, violent exchanges involving guns, and lunatic fringe dwellers emerging from otherwise normal and likeable characters? Of course, we might not have as much fun. Still, Adaptation’s real market is the narrow Ghost World crowd (you know who you are and you are getting more numerous).

About Schmidt contains the best performance of the year packaged within a film that wants to be clever and real at the same time. The performance is by Jack Nicholson playing the title character as a retiree filled with much angst. I did not like Schmidt the movie as much as most of you, but I adored Nicholson who will undoubtedly garner an Oscar in a year dominated by better films featuring women in lead roles.

5. Minority Report

Minority Report was the most entertaining and well-constructed film of the year consistently entertaining audiences in the classic Spielberg tradition (he’s back to the genre that may suit him best). I wished that the whole chase storyline could have been upgraded or ditched altogether with more focus on life in the future. The future think employed in creating this film is amazing. That being said, Minority Report was certainly the best chase film since The Fugitive. Spielberg almost had another chase film crack our top ten with Catch Me If You Can which gets an honorable mention and proves that Leonardo DiCaprio can act.

6. 8 Mile

Forgotten from most top 10 lists, this Rappin’ Rocky was an impressive achievement. Eminem (Marshall Mathers) is remarkably excellent and surrounded by good performances including a barebacked beautiful Kim Basinger. A shoe-in for a best song Oscar nomination with “Lose Yourself,” 8 Mile smartly told us that real rappers don’t read Shakespeare, they aren’t brought up made familiar with classic works of literature, their reading material can be found on city walls and their education is the street. I was troubled by the large amount of 10 year olds who managed to get into this adult film many brought by their parents who should know better.

7. Bowling for Columbine

EI’s Stephen Wong is a big fan of this documentary observing that Michael Moore’s films “have a way of totally infuriating an audience while at the same time eliciting passionate reflection on the status of our society.” According to Stephen, Moore “runs the gambit quite frequently in … Bowling for Columbine, a journey into the horrific but occasionally humorous land of gun violence in America.” Surely, this will be mentioned at Oscar time.

8. City of God

Maryanne Ciaccia took in a few films for us this year and fortunately one of them was City of God, a film she described as having the “intensity and violence of a gangster movie and the grittiness and realism of a documentary.” A likely best foreign film Oscar nominee, this Brazilian film was an Official Selection at the Cannes Film Festival 2002, and the screenplay won an award from the Writer’s Guild of America in 1999. Maryanne told us that “City of God will charm you at the beginning, compel you in the middle, and sadden you at the end.”

9. Y Tu Mama Tambien

Another potential Oscar nominee in the best foreign film category, this little flick from Mexico got Americans talking and raised a few eyebrows in the process. According to EI’s Rusty White, “Y Tu Mama Tambien is yet another example of the realistic and straightforward way foreign filmmakers deal with the topic of sex. Y Tu Mama Tambien is a serious coming of age film disguised as a teen sex romp.”

In an interesting turn, Y Tu Mama Tambien’s director, Alfonso Cuarón, has been tapped to helm the next Harry Potter film entitled Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban.

10. The Pianist

Roman Polanski is back in the USA once again, well, sort of (he hasn’t been physically back in these parts since 1978). Still, he may have another Oscar contender on his hands, his first since his film Tess had him in the running for best director in 1981.

The Pianist, according to EI contributing film critic Scott Mantz, is “an incredibly moving and devastatingly brilliant film that will ultimately be hailed as the director's near masterpiece.” Recognizing that Polanski has one masterpiece already with Chinatown, Scott comments that The Pianist is “a true story that celebrates the triumph of the human spirit” with “a bravura performance from Adrien Brody,” The Pianist is a powerful achievement that will leave you speechless.”

Honorable Mentions (in addition to those referenced above):

About a Boy

Chicago

Horror

Igby Goes Down

Lovely and Amazing

Moonlight Mile

Narc

Solaris

Spirited Away

Robot Stories

The Kid Stays in the Picture

Jonathan W. Hickman