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Best of 2001
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by the PopMatters Film and Television Staff
When catastrophic events happen, U.S. tv gives up
advertising dollars for two days, irony dies, and
mass-media folks start saying that they will rethink
their livelihoods, well, you might be forgiven for
imagining that something might actually change. Maybe
it did, for a minute, but only a minute.
Glitter opened, Survivor survived,
Ashleigh Banfield was crowned a war-zone star, Russell
Crowe was not kidnapped, Gary Condit grimaced, Carrot
Top came back, and oh my goodness, Jackie Chan and
Chris Tucker were naked together. And poor Penelope,
whose recent blondishness won't help: everyone loves
Nicole!
Business tends to go on as usual. And, following the
trend of previous years, 2001 will go down as yet
another disappointing one in movies and tv. Even if
David Lynch's dark assault on the industry,
Mulholland Drive, critically outstripped
idiotic high concepts like Pearl Harbor and
even clever formula flicks like A Knight's
Tale, the fact is, most of the year's box office
came from less than stellar projects -- Planet of
the Apes, Lara Croft, Rat Race,
Scary Movie 2. And while it was the
monumentally marketed Shrek that won the
popularity/money sweepstakes, after all, it's I the
eye of the beholder whether that bodes well for future
filmgoers.
PopMatters critics herewith hold forth, on the best
and worse of the media year.
— Cynthia Fuchs, PopMatters Film & TV Editor
On to the lists.
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