Sean Weitner | The best pictures

Oscars aside, what were your favorite movies of the year? I can't rank mine, but I can put them on tiers. At the top, Mulholland Drive and A.I.; then, The Fellowship of the Ring, The Man Who Wasn't There, Ghost World, Gosford Park, Memento, Monsters, Inc, The Royal Tenenbaums, Moulin Rouge, Donnie Darko, Amelie and Suzhou River; at the level below those, Series 7, Monster's Ball, The Gleaners and I, Hedwig and the Angry Inch, Ocean's Eleven, The Others, Spy Kids and maybe Ali; the jury's still out on that one. I also found much to like about The Anniversary Party, Heist, I Am Sam, Joy Ride, The Last Castle, Monkeybone, Osmosis Jones, Planet of the Apes, Rat Race, Shallow Hal, Wet Hot American Summer, and, yes, In the Bedroom and Vanilla Sky. (I could go one level lower, but I won't.)

But all those lists put together — and this is the danger of being a part-time film critic in a small-(movie-)town — may not be as long as the list of movies that I've heard are worth taking the time to evaluate on my own and might make one of those tiers, but that I haven't seen yet: Bandits, Bully, The Caveman's Valentine, The Center of the World, Crazy/Beautiful, The Curse of the Jade Scorpion, The Deep End, The Devil's Backbone, The Dish, The Fast and the Furious, Harry Potter, Heartbreakers, How High, Josie & the Pussycats, Legally Blonde, The Majestic, No Man's Land, One Night at McCool's, Our Lady of the Assassins, Pinero, Pootie Tang, Session 9, Sexy Beast, The Tailor of Panama, 3000 Miles to Graceland, Town & Country, With a Friend Like Harry, Zoolander, not to mention any foreign film or documentary except the three I lauded above. (Not that I might find "any" foreign film or doc worthy; just that I haven't seen any others.) I look at that list, and it depresses me, because I'll never see them all, and yet if I want to even begin to say I have a grasp on the year in film, I should see all of those and more.

Ugh. Let's not get into that. Hopefully seeing all of these titles has jogged in you your own best-of lists, and I look forward to seeing them.

Something that struck me about a lot of the movies I liked this year was that they were about movies. Not in the backstage-drama way, although that description would apply to at least Mulholland Drive and Moulin Rouge, but in the sense that, thematically, they dealt with how we deal with movies. Mulholland Drive is about reinterpreting your life as a Hollywood fantasia; the end of A.I. is, at one level, about the robots watching all of the movies in David's head, and how valuable they found them (there are more layers to that than I'm going to get into here); Lenny in Memento is like us in that he is constantly confronted with a new story to comprehend and apply to his life ("OK, what am I doing? Oh, I'm chasing him."); Monsters, Inc. addresses this in how it deals explicitly with themes of the storyteller's responsibilty; Suzhou River qualifies in ways that are really best explained by watching Suzhou River. I think that so many movies had a theme like this in 2001 makes it more than a lark or coincidence, but I'm not sure what to make of it.

Rasheed Newson | Un Memento

Memento was the tops for me in 2001. The film demanded that you pay attention, and the payoffs as the story reversed were sweeter than a cube of sugar. I'm shamelessly in love with this flick. I was praying it would be the dark horse in the Best Picture race. I could watch Memento again and again, which is more than I can say for the can-can prance of Moulin Rouge.

Andy Ross | My list

Here is my list of favorites, in somewhat descending order: Mulholland Drive, The Royal Tenenbaums, Hedwig and the Angry Inch, Amelie, Monsters Inc., Gosford Park, The Fellowship of the Ring, Donnie Darko, Bridget Jones's Diary, Memento, Ghost World, Heist, Ocean's Eleven, The Anniversary Party, The Tailor of Panama, The Last Castle, and Series 7.

I'll tell you what, this year I walked away from most movies much more satisfied than I have in previous years, and not just because I've grown older. I really think this year saw a lot of meaty, fully realized films. And, the puzzle movie trend? I love that! I think that Memento took the place of The Usual Suspects as the coolest puzzle movie, only to be totally trumped by Mulholland Drive. I got more satisfaction out of seeing that movie once, than out of watching other movies three or four times.

Sean Weitner | A great year for great movies

1999 was so widely regarded as a watershed year for movies that it seems unwise to talk about how great 2001 is — and the summer of 2001 loosed so many unconscionable dogs that they sully the very idea of making such a claim. So let me put it this way: 2001 was a great year for great movies. Instead of spreading the quality around, all of it collected at the top, and I think Andy is right in suggesting that 2001 provided some of the best theater-leaving afterglow I've ever felt.

I think the glory of 1999 was a bunch on young filmmakers taking risks and making interesting mistakes: Magnolia, Fight Club, Election, Three Kings, Being John Malkovich. (Which is not to say the old guard didn't succeed that year as well: Bringing Out the Dead and Eyes Wide Shut come first to mind.) 2001 is about established filmmakers taking risks and making fewer mistakes — Mulholland Drive, A.I., The Man Who Wasn't There, Gosford Park — but it's not without its exceptions, either (Memento, Moulin Rouge). At a level, it's reassuring that 2001 had, pound for pound, more satisfying films; it confirms that artists can grow and thrive in an industry that doesn't always respect its elders. (I hate to think of the Coens as elder filmmakers, but you catch my meaning.)

So: Memento. I found the movie less satisfying on second viewing; I had pieced it together pretty well after the first, down to catching the trick shot of Lenny at the sanitarium. I think many people would like Memento just as much if it was thematically weaker — they're responding to how clever the gimmick is. But all gimmicks get creaky quickly; I like Memento because I don't think you can ever be sure about whether Lenny killed his wife. The sucker-punch effect of this on the film's themes of love, family, memory and revenge is what gives this movie its staying power. If it didn't end on its accusatory note, it'd just be a tricked-up version of Clue. And Andy is right in suggesting that it beats The Usual Suspects, for just this reason. (The Usual Suspects only really told you about two things: The eternal nature of evil — not a bad theme, but it has to be presented more provocatively — and the cleverness of Bryan Singer and Christopher McQuarrie. Well, I guess it had a third lesson applicable to moviegoers: Watch out for unreliable narrators.)

Andy Stilp | The trick

… But did one trick get The Sixth Sense its accolade? I'm bending my mind around that one right now. Like Memento, Sixth Sense is nothing without the trick. Nor is Usual Suspects, I guess. Well, but it's … hm.

The debates about movies like these are well worth it. Take Memento, Sixth Sense and Usual Suspects. The denouement of Sixth Sense and Usual Suspects revolved around a fact-based trick (facts I hope we all know by now). Memento's trick was in the storytelling itself: the switch from Sammy Jankis to Leonard in the asylum, but that may have been missed by far too many people who were taken with the editing-based contraption of it all. I wish the Nolans had left it without Teddy's exposition at the end so that if you missed that slight surprise, you decode the movie one way — Teddy did it all, what a great little parable — and if you caught it, you see that the entire narrative is about every character, top to bottom (except Carrie-Anne Moss' boyfriend, who just gets jobbed) using Leonard — including Leonard. Everyone does — even the hotel manager.

Now, we've hit on a great point that expands this, though — Mulholland Drive is also a trick movie. The reason it deserves to be head and shoulders above Memento and the rest of that crop is because the trick doesn't make the film. The Usual Suspects and Sixth Sense are somewhat interesting before the BAM! endings, but nothing spectacular. (Please don't pounce — I enjoyed them, too.) Mulholland Drive is the journey, the great big story that you know you need a decoder ring for, but you also appreciate it without it. It has great performances, solid Lynch-like mise-en-scene (which is to say, it's good), and moreover, it makes you think real hard while at the same time appreciating it. The other three films spell everything out for you. Mulholland Drive should and probably did leave everyone thinking as they exited the cinema complex, debating the story while they were commending the film.

Atop that, while Memento does it with editing, Mulholland Drive does it with sheer artistry. I'll fully contend that the scene at the performance space ("There is no band!" I believe was the statement) was the best scene in movies last year. There's more in the package, but that scene alone was jaw-droppingly stunning enough to push it to Top Five. Again, another reason to lament the general undernomination of Mulholland Drive.

Rasheed Newson | The heart

Memento is more than a clever editing job. At its center, Memento presents a gripping story of a man consumed by a search for revenge and purpose. Lenny is so lost he has to manipulate himself to find meaning. And behind all the trick shots, the audience knows that his satisfaction will never last. No matter how many times he deludes himself into thinking he's found his wife's "killer" — the buzz will fade. And there's a lesson in all that, but what's more is that the portrait of this broken man is haunting.

The only other movie that I thought gave as compelling a character sketch was Hedwig and the Angry Inch. Hedwig is revealed so honestly — as a used boy, as a small talent, as a cruel diva, as a jilted lover, as a consummate performer — it's pathetic and endearing at the same time.

I'm not sure if one standout character can redeem the flaws of an entire movie, but the movies I love introduce me to characters that will take up permanent residence in my imagination. Memento introduced me to the man of the year and Hedwig introduced me to the … best internationally-ignored songstress.

Eric Wittmershaus | The shortlist

My list is gonna be really short because ever since I moved out of Berkeley and started working nights, I haven't seen more than two movies a week and a lot of weeks I haven't seen any. So here's how I break 'em down. I'm noticing I didn't really see many movies I thought were bad. Either it's because I'm not very discriminating or it's because I'm so discriminating before I go to the movie that I filter out movies I probably won't like. The Mexican I went to see because I felt like reviewing something. Swordfish was a date movie chosen by me and a girl whose tastes run counter to my own, and Shallow Hal was something I went to see with Aaron when he reviewed it. I plan to see The Gleaners and I in a month or so at a repertory theater, and I'm pretty stoked about it.

My three favorites: Amelie, Ghost World, The Princess and the Warrior

Almost that good: The Man Who Wasn't There, Mulholland Drive, Va Savoir

Slightly below that: Zoolander, The Lord of the Rings, The Royal Tenenbaums, Memento, Sexy Beast, The Devil's Backbone, The Closet, The Deep End

Below that: A.I., Vanilla Sky

Below those but still not unredeemable: Swordfish (not a good movie, but those first few minutes could have pulled in a technical nomination), The Score

Mildly entertaining: The Mexican, Waking Life

Terrible: Shallow Hal

Andy Ross | Yeah, watch your ass

I'd have to agree with Rasheed that Memento had more going for it than its trick and editing. It's easy to get bogged down talking about the technical aspects of storytelling, especially in those films that beg for a second viewing. When you (in the general sense of "you") figure out a movie like Memento or The Sixth Sense, especially on the first viewing, the natural tendency is to feel like you've beaten the movie. The challenge of these kinds of films is to make you understand the trick and then look at character and tone. I think the problem that Andy S. finds in Memento and The Sixth Sense is that the trick is so big. In a movie like Unbreakable the trick is very small and easy to get over on the second viewing. Then you can settle in and enjoy character and mood without playing the I-caught-that-foreshadowing-detail game.

Eric Wittmershaus | It's all about arcs

Great point, Andy, but I still had a problem with Memento because I found the story of Sammy Jankis to be more compelling/better acted than the story of the main character. As things heated up in the Jankis story, I really thought they took steam away from the main story arc and after Mrs. Jankis' suicide, it took me a few minutes to recover and get back to caring about the main story. And I still swear I saw a glaring continuity error in Memento, but I only saw it once, didn't have my notebook and forgot it, so that does little good. But you're right. If you go into a movie and you know it's a gimmick/trick movie right away, it's much harder to sit back and enjoy it. Maybe I need to revisit Memento.

Andy Ross | I'm no superfan

Don't get me wrong, I don't love Memento completely, as can be seen in where I placed it on my list. I think that the moving-backward gimmick was a little too easy, and not as exciting as the intricate chronology of The Limey. But, on first and second viewing, I found the ambiguity left over from the unreliable narrator fascinating. It was a very good, though not great, movie.

Eric, one note about your list: I know we shouldn't attack anyone's choices, and I like how you spread out your choices across genres and stuff. But, The Princess and the Warrior? Blecch! "I made a fast paced movie, so now I'll make a slow one." Oh, I thought that film was terrible. Please, defend your choice.

Eric Wittmershaus | Retraction

Andy, you're right about The Princess and The Warrior. I had forgotten how languid that movie was. The things I really liked about it were its characters and its setting. The patients at the mental institution and all the drama going on there was really interesting juxtaposed with the offbeat lives of the allegedly fit-to-function- in-society characters. That's what really got me. Still, it doesn't belong at the top of my list. Consider it downgraded to the next level.

Sean Weitner | Tweaking Twyker

I forgot about The Princess and the Warrior when I listed the paltry few foreign films I'd seen. There were definitely things to like about this film — it maintained my faith in Tom Twyker — but these were ultimately negated for me by the film's pacing issues. The last shot sums it up; there's not much to grasp in the shot, and a limited amount of sheer visual bliss to extract, so it's narrative purpose is totally subserviant by its artistic purpose. And what does Twyker do with the shot? Stretches it out infinitely as the camera slowly goes up, up and away — with the same lite techno loop repeated ad infinitum. I don't mind the occasional overture where you're just supposed to sit back, look at a pretty still image and just relish in the music, but Twyker almost ridicules that idea with this shot. It went on forever (and this comes from someone with a high tolerance for slow movies) reiterating the same not-particularly-moving measure of music. It confirmed my suspicions about the movie: Twyker was aware what a dog so many stretches of it were to sit through. He knew he was hammering away at the same note too frequently. It was also so unpleasant on its face — the incestuous handjob, the glass-eater — that I think Twyker relied too much on shock to shock. It worked sometimes — the tracheotomy scene — but I understood Franke Potente's character's plight plenty well without having to see her beat her dead off.