2001 movies: Reviewer Paul Tatara's 10 best

By Paul Tatara
CNN Reviewer

(CNN) -- Here are the 10 films that meant the most to me in 2001.

"Last Resort"

Directed by Pawel Pawlikowski
Starring Dina Korzun, Paddie Considine and Artiom Strelnikov
(BBC Films)

Korzun is Tanya, a Russian mother who, along with her 10 year-old son (Strelnikov), is trapped in a bureaucratic nightmare. Tanya's British fiancé never shows up to claim her when she and the boy migrate to England, so they're placed in a dilapidated seaside town that serves as a holding area for would-be immigrants. From there, she passes through multiple levels of fear and desperation, only to find love in the arms of a local arcade owner (Considine.) Unfailingly humanistic while retaining a tough edge, "Last Resort" is a quiet, intimate piece of filmmaking that's entirely free of digital effects. That's why you've never heard of it. In Russian and English.

"Memento"

Directed by Christopher Nolan
Starring Guy Pearce, Carrie Ann Moss and Joe Pantoliano
(I Remember Productions, Newmarket Capital Group, Team Todd)

"Blood Simple" told by a lunatic. Pearce plays Leonard, a tortured soul who's trying to find the person who murdered his wife. Unfortunately, a blow to the head has screwed up Leonard's short-term memory. He can't recall new experiences just a few minutes after he's had them, so he has to take notes and ink informative tattoos on his own body to keep track of the investigation. Nolan tells the entire story backwards -- from the final scene to the first -- so the audience is left repeatedly grasping for their bearings right along with Leonard. As great as it is, it could drive you crazy if you're not in the right mood.

"The Claim"

Directed by Michael Winterbottom
Starring Peter Mullan, Sarah Polley, Wes Bentley, Milla Jovovich and Nastassia Kinski
(BBC and Grosvenor Park Productions)

Winterbottom adapts Thomas Hardy's "The Mayor of Casterbridge" to the Old West. This snowbound tale of redemption slogs through the ice and mud on its way to a fiery, biblical finale. Mullan stars as the head of a mining town who's forced to confront his past when his long-lost wife (Kinski) and teen-age daughter (Polley) return for some unintentional payback. Polley isn't our best young actress -- she's one of our four or five best actresses, period. Stunningly photographed by Alwin Kuchler, "The Claim" is the most powerful Western to hit our screens since Clint Eastwood's "Unforgiven."

"With a Friend Like Harry"

2001 movies: Tales of Two Pauls Click on each link to see our two CNN reviewers' favorites and least favorites from the year in films. • Paul Clinton's best of 2001 • Paul Clinton's worst of 2001 • Paul Tatara's best of 2001 • Paul Tatara's worst of 2001

Directed by Dominik Moll
Starring Laurent Lucas, Sergi Lopez, Sophie Guillemin and Matilda Seigner
(CNC)

A film that's probably best seen solo, "With a Friend Like Harry" mates Alfred Hitchcock's paranoid plot mechanics with a low-budget, vaguely aloof art-house vibe. Lucas and Seigner play Michel and Claire, an embattled French couple who suddenly fall prey to Michel's annoying, half-remembered college chum, Harry (Lopez). Harry loves to meddle in other people's business, even if it means inappropriate flirting, a bit of stalking, or the occasional murder. The story is all the more entertaining because no one realizes exactly how bonkers Harry is until it's too late to get away from him. Disturbing, and bizarrely funny. In French.

"Ghost World"

Directed by Terry Zwigoff
Starring Thora Birch, Steve Buscemi and Scarlett Johansson
(United Artists)

Based on an underground comic book by Daniel Clowes, "Ghost World" follows teen-age malcontents Enid (Birch) and Becky (Johansson), as they traverse a great American landscape of snap-together fast food joints, tangled telephone lines, and interchangeable strip malls. What starts out as a snail-paced mocking of small-town conventions unexpectedly gives way to a tender attraction between Enid and Seymour (Steve Buscemi), a middle-aged record collector with bad posture and greasy hair. The characters all grow in surprising ways, and an open-ended finale refuses to tie things up in a nice bow. The soundtrack is terrific, too.

"Together"

Directed by Lucas Moodysson
Starring Anja Lundqvist, Gustaf Hammarsten and Olle Sarri
(IFC Films)

The members of a Stockholm commune ruin their theoretical good thing, circa 1975. Moodysson's characters dismantle accepted truths about love, sex and commitment as they careen toward a considerably less adventurous tomorrow. Alternating between warmth and scathing ill humor, "Together" turns the pursuit of enlightenment into an existential screwball comedy. Like the commune itself, the film is a little bit messy, but that's part of the point. None of the characters achieves sainthood, even if he or she thinks it's deserved. In Swedish.

"Sexy Beast"

Directed by Jonathan Glazer
Starring Ben Kingsley, Ray Winstone and Amanda Redman
(20th Century Fox)

As darkly hilarious as it is intimidating, "Sexy Beast" is a throwback to the rough British crime pictures of the early 1970s. Kingsley, now fully recovered from having played Mahatma Gandhi, is Don Logan, the meanest, pushiest cuss to ever slap an underling. Don basically forces a retired buddy (Winstone) into the ever-popular "one last score," but he receives extremely unpleasant comeuppance before it's all over. This cockeyed little movie definitely leaves an imprint. For reasons that are best left unexplained, you'll never look at a swimming pool the same way again.

"Amelie"

Directed by Jean-Pierre Jeunet
Starring Audrey Tautou, Michel Robin and Dominique Pinon
(Miramax)

Arguably the most labor-intensive "winsome" film in movie history, "Amelie" is like a bag full of yummy candy that makes you sick before you can finish it. Tautou delivers an enchanting, wide-eyed performance as Amelie, a beautiful Parisian woman who decides to do small favors for strangers in pursuit of a greater good. Jeunet has replaced his usual sense of the grotesque with a lovely, multi-hued lushness. The images are beautiful to behold, and some of the jokes have considerable bite. But be prepared -- you may run out of steam about 20 minutes before Amelie does. In French.

"Mulholland Drive"

Directed by David Lynch
Starring Naomi Watts, Laura Elena Harring and Justin Theroux
(Universal Pictures)

Although it contains doses of the usual Lynchian "dream logic" (i.e. infantile showboating that even Lynch's fan base wouldn't accept from another filmmaker), the dark imagery of "Mulholland Drive" haunts you. Ostensibly a story about a young woman (Watts) who ventures to Hollywood to become an actress, it quickly turns into a free-floating journey of doppelganger spookiness, with sexy blonde Watts and sexy brunette Harring seeking the key to their combined identity... or something like that. The glue that (almost) holds it all together is Lynch's newly-rediscovered warmth toward his characters; he even manages a lovemaking scene that doesn't turn into rape. Maybe he just forgot.

"Jimmy Neutron: Boy Genius"

Directed by John A. Davis
Featuring the voices of Debi Derryberry, Patrick Stewart and Martin Short
(Paramount Pictures)

It slows down a bit after a strong start, but this is still the most inventive children's film of the year. Jimmy and his buddies in Retroville, USA, are forced to battle a race of gelatinous green aliens who kidnap the town's parents. The look is a cross between hopeful 1950s futurism and modern-day computer chip technology; it's a far cry from the relatively photorealistic approach of "Toy Story." Although Jimmy is a charming character, the real draw is director Davis' obvious sense of wonder at the miracle of mass-produced plastic.