Why do so many good films slip by under the radar when bad films become huge hits? This peculiarity has plagued Hollywood since its inception, and these four releases from 2002 prove that things are business as usual.
• Punch-Drunk Love. This is the Adam Sandler movie that Adam Sandler fans hate. Can there be a better recommendation? What sets this film apart from his other films is its insistence on exploring his angry young man persona in a serious manner rather than for exploitative comic relief. Sandler is an entrepreneur, who deals in odd novelty gifts, with a complicated life. He’s hounded by his overbearing sisters, and harassed by a phone-sex service. Despite his problems he starts a relationship with a quirky woman, played by the great Emily Watson. Directing an Adam Sandler vehicle seemed like a strange career move for Paul Thomas Anderson, but he has created a brilliantly odd and surrealistic love story reminiscent of 1970s cinema.
• Roger Dodger. Campbell Scott (son of George C. Scott and Colleen Dewhurst) gives one of the most commanding performances in recent years as Roger, a pompous, womanizing windbag who claims he can score with women by following a simple set of rules, based on his advertising experience. His teenage nephew, Nick, comes to him for advice on the opposite sex, and Roger takes the underaged Nick on an adventure of bar hopping and party crashing. Debuting director Dylan Kidd also wrote the screenplay, which gives Scott some wonderfully loutish dialogue, and Scott utters it brilliantly.
• Welcome to Collinwood. Cosimo has a problem. He stumbles upon a bellini, but he needs a malinski to take advantage of it. Bellini is criminal lingo for a score of a lifetime, but Cosimo can’t get out of prison unless he finds a malinski, which is someone who will falsely confess to the crime. Cosimo’s girlfriend tries to get him out, but in the process she rounds up a gang of stupid and pathetic crooks (Sam Rockwell, William H. Macy, Isaiah Washington, Michael Jeter, Andrew Davoli) to rob the safe. Welcome to Collinwood, one of the funniest films in years, is a remake of the Italian classic Big Deal on Madonna Street. This is an excellent debut for the writing/directing brother team of Anthony and Joe Russo.
• My Big Fat Greek Wedding.I have often complained that contemporary
movies are dominated by special effects and explosions, with little attention
to the human element. And then along comes a simple romantic comedy that proves
there is a large audience for little films. Why did it have to be this dreadful
film, when there are so many better choices? A Greek-American woman falls for
a non-Greek man, and they must endure the usual family interference before getting
married. The courtship is completely bland, and the expected family conflict
drifts away into oblivion. The sad attempt at humor is represented by two flat
jokes, Windex and Bundt cake. Is this really the best they could do?
This article appears in Nov 20-26, 2003.
