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Mondello's Film Picks for 2001
NPR's Movie Critic Lists His Top 10 (Plus 9 More)
 Full list of nominated films.
What's your view? Sound off and share your top 10 film picks in our online discussion board.
Feb. 11, 2002 -- The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences announces the 2001 Oscar nominees on Feb. 12 -- but NPR's Bob Mondello already has listed what he considers the best film offerings of the year.
Though 2001 was Hollywood's biggest year in box office history -- with movies bringing in more than $8.3 billion -- Mondello says there weren't very many high-quality movies among those blockbusters.
Still, he found more than enough other films to fill a 10-best list.
Bob Mondello's Top 10 (Plus 9) Movies of 2001
Shrek -- "In a year when observers not only can't find a front-runner in the Oscar race but can't even settle on a field of probable contenders, there is still one thing on which everyone can agree, from small children to the most jaded critics: Shrek was a hoot. A humane and very funny family film about a lovable ogre who sets out to make the world safe for fairy-tale characters, Shrek marked notable advances in computer animation."
Official Shrek Web site
Lord of the Rings -- "There may be a box office battle between the two big wizard franchises, but there's no question that Lord of the Rings is the better movie. Imaginative, well-acted and frequently thrilling, its three hours fly by in a whirl of adventure that leaves audiences panting for more. Alas, we'll have to wait a year for the second installment."
Official Lord of the Rings Web site
Memento -- "Smaller films also offered adventure, none more so than a movie that took the unusual tack of telling its story backwards as a way of putting the audience in the same predicament as its hero. Memento is about a guy who's trying to solve a crime but who has suffered an injury that keeps him from forming new memories, so every time he meets someone it's as if it's for the first time."
Official Memento Web site
Amores Perros -- "This Mexican film told three interlocking stories involving dogs, blending Tarantino-style action with a lively surrealism. Director Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu even used the film's structure to examine class issues, cramming everything he could into the movie as if he realized being a first-time director that he might not get a second chance."
Official Amores Perros Web site
Divided We Fall -- "Another foreign language film, Divided We Fall took a more measured, realistic approach to chronicling the efforts of a Czech couple to hide the son of a Jewish neighbor from the Nazis. By being carefully non-judgmental in its treatment of a host of complicated characters, the film worked new wrinkles on familiar subject matter."
Official Divided We Fall Web site
Amelie -- "If you don't like subtitles and are using that as an excuse not to see Amelie, you're depriving yourself of the year's sweetest romantic comedy."
Official Amelie Web site
L.I.E. -- "The haunting, low-budget film L.I.E. -- which stands for Long Island Expressway, but also obviously for what those letters spell -- watches a bond forming between an essentially parentless adolescent boy and an older man who enjoys the company of adolescent boys more than society allows. The film's strength lies in how it makes audiences as queasy about their own reactions as about those of the characters."
Official L.I.E. Web site
In the Bedroom -- "A tragedy about parents who sense trouble brewing in their son's romantic life but feel they shouldn't interfere. Sissy Spacek and Tom Wilkinson head a cast that never once strikes a false note."
Official In the Bedroom Web site
Black Hawk Down -- "This film tells the story of a tragic 1993 U.S. military mission in Somalia, a quick surgical strike that was supposed to take 45 minutes and that instead turned into a pitched battle on the streets of Mogadishu when a Black Hawk helicopter was downed by enemy fire. Eighteen American soldiers and hundreds of Somalis were killed, and director Ridley Scott puts you right at the center of the action. It is not an easy movie to sit through, but it's certainly visceral filmmaking."
Official Black Hawk Down Web site
No Man's Land-- "If Black Hawk Down takes a painfully realistic approach to establish that war is hell, No Man's Land is every bit as effective, taking an absurdist approach. It places three soldiers in a trench in the Balkans and marvels at how no one can figure a way to get them out -- especially not the United Nations. No Man's Land is a cross between M*A*S*H and Waiting for Godot, at once funny and wrenching, with an ending that'll send you out of the theater with nerves jangling."
Official No Man's Land Web site
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