My Winners: The 2003 Retro Hollmann Awards

I watched 79 films from 2003. I nominated 33 of them. And now - 11 winners. Here they are:

The 2003 Retro Hollmann Awards Nominees

Here they are, 33 films across 18 categories - the nominees for the 2003 Retro Hollmann Awards:

My Top Ten of 2003

This was a tough field to narrow down, as this year was full of old favorites and new discoveries. Here’s to the ones that didn't make the final cut: 28 Days Later, Cold Mountain, Elephant, House of 1000 Corpses, The Last Samurai, The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King, and Phone Booth.

My Top Ten, in alphabetical order:

Best Supporting Actress, 2003

What a lineup, huh? We have Shohreh Aghdashloo giving a performance that made American critics and Hollywood sit up and take notice, Patricia Clarkson riding the momentum of 2002’s Far from Heaven and her other 2003 indie The Station Agent, Marcia Gay Harden returning in a Best Picture nominee after her shocking Oscar win in 2000, Holly Hunter back for the first time since her 1993 double-header, and Renee Zellweger on her third consecutive nomination after just missing out on a win the previous year (so we assume, anyway). Zellweger had the ol' "When are we giving it to her already?" going for her, and just like Tim Robbins, her win was considered "in the bag":

The performances, ranked from 5th to 1st:

A Third Costner: 2003, Day Three

We're in the thick of Summer '03 now, July 25-September 26. Two Best Picture nominees were released in this peiod, the studio sports drama Seabiscuit and the indie dramedy Lost in Translation. But as I said in 1990 and in 1997, we're here for Kevin Costner, so let's focus on that.

After a gap of only six years, Costner returned to the big screen with Open Range. Based on The Open Range Men, a 1990 novel by prolific Western author Lauran Paine, the film follows a group of men herding cattle across the land who are stopped in their endeavors by the powerful rancher of a nearby town who detests open range cattlemen, and is willing to kill, so, you know, our main duo elect to stay in town and prepare for the inevitable. 

Costner grew up reading the works of Paine, and I think it's interesting that the novel he went with came out the same year as his Dances with Wolves. He cast Duvall, who made his directorial debut with 1997's The Apostle, the same year as Costner's second film, The Postman. I'm sure these vague connections were not thought of at the time, but it always strikes me, the way lives are just always circling around each other, time constantly in conversation with itself.

Filming between June and September of 2002 on a, for Costner, modest budget of $22 million, the film opened to good reviews and good box office. Heck, I remember seeing the TV ads ("You're the one killed our friend?" BANG!) during every commercial break. Why it never managed to take hold in the Oscar race, I'm not sure. Just one of those things, I guess. It would be 21 years before Costner gave us another movie...which we'll discuss another time.

Of the thirteen discussed below, five were brand new to me: American Splendor, Freaky Friday, Matchstick Men, Open Range, and Thirteen. Of the rewatches, Party Monster and Freddy vs. Jason are the only ones I've seen more than twice (more than thrice!).