2003 was a pretty weak year overall for movies. Of the five nominees for Best Picture the only one I walked out of thinking “Oscar nominee” was The Return of the King. Even more disturbing is that I don’t have a list of under appreciated movies I would replace the nominees with. The only movie that leaps to mind is City of God (to replace Seabiscuit), but even City of God, while an excellent movie, did not scream “Oscar”. There were some excellent documentaries, Fog of War and Capturing the Friedmans (also, the excellent, Spellbound, though technically a 2002 movie, mostly played in 2003), but documentaries cannot a year in movies. Granted I have not seen American Splendor or The Triplets of Belleville, which some have raved about, but there is no question that 2003 was a weak year.
Without further ado … [u][/u]