The sun is setting on 2003, and that can only mean it’s recap time. Let us begin with those few, precious moments I spent in 2003 sitting in the dark and being quiet….

As I look back on the year and struggle desperately to remember what I did with it, one of the easiest ways for me to measure how much time has passed is by looking at a list of the movies that I saw. I find this is also a good way to gauge how the year went, since moviegoing has typically been such a huge part of my social life over the years. The movies are like some kind of electromagnetic force shaping everything around them. How often I went, whether I saw the movie alone on a Sunday afternoon or on a Friday with friends, where I ate that night… I have an above-average command of those facts and their implications, but the movies themselves are the organizer and the trigger.

So what have I learned looking back at the movies of 2003?… Before I looked at the list, I’d have told you that I spent all year getting dragged to crap, but I see now that that’s not true. Now I see that I actually just got dragged to two or three of the worst movies I’ve ever seen and then never went to the movies again. Like a lab rat shocked too many times by the pellet dispenser. As a result, there were a number of my friends who I didn’t see a whole lot of as the days grew shorter. On the plus side, when I look at the feculent dreck I did not end up seeing that I was sure would somehow snare me (Cat in the Hat was a close call) it looks like I put my foot down and trusted my own judgement a lot more this year.

The fact that I ended up seeing over 50 movies does not mean that I actually saw a movie a week, which would not have been unusual in years past. All it really means is that I met a girl who shares her Netflix with me.

I missed out on as many good movies as I saw this year. That’s a symptom of spending much of the year looking for work and feeling guilty about spending money while not feeling that guilty about sneaking into School of Rock. (et al.) It’s also a symptom of a group of friends who sneak the art films on quiet, reflective Tuesdays alone while clamoring to take everyone with them to see goddamn Underworld the very moment it comes out. But I have no one to blame but myself; 2003 as represented by movies was a year when the highs were okay, the lows were absolutely infuriating, and what could have been an excellent year was not taken full advantage of by me.

And now, the most important part of 12/31: the lists. I compiled these the way I do a lot of other things; I looked at the big picture, picked at the stuff I didn’t like, and whatever was left was determined to be okay. The lesser of two weevils, if you will. Therefore, I can with only a little shame present

1 the lukewarm de facto top 15 of the year
Alien: Director’s Cut
Bend It Like Beckham
Comedian
Elf
Finding Nemo
Gigantic
Kill Bill
Lost in La Mancha
Lost in Translation
Master and Commander
Pirates of the Caribbean
Rivers and tides: Andy Goldsworthy Working With Time
School of Rock
Winged Migration
X2: X-Men United

1 i’m not sorry… i guess i could have been reading
25th Hour
28 Days Later
Bad Santa
Better Luck Tomorrow
Bruce Almighty
The Dancer Upstairs
Daredevil
Haunted Mansion
Hulk
Lord of the Rings: Return of the King
Mystic River
Phone Booth
Seabiscuit

1 got bored, left
Anger Management

1 pissed that i missed
American Splendor, Bubba Ho-Tep, Divine Intervention, Elephant, Ghosts of the Abyss, Intolerable Cruelty, A Mighty Wind, Once Upon a Time in Mexico, Out of Time, Party Monster, Robin Hood, The Secret Lives of Dentists, Shattered Glass, Station Agent, Thirteen

1 pissed that i saw
Confidence, League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, Terminator 3, F***ing Matrix Reloaded

1 goddammit.
The Medallion, Underworld

1 are you sure that was this year?
Bend it Like Beckham, Confessions of a Dangerous Mind, Down With Love, Head of State, Identity, Old School

1 there’s still time! there’s still time!
Big Fish, Cold Mountain, House of Sand and Fog

1 rentals, actually
He Loves Me, He Loves Me Not, In the Bedroom, The Ladykillers, Kandahar, The Majestic, Max, The Ring, Russian Ark, Starwoids, Uncle Saddam

1 the shady oak award for longest viewing time per movie
A Simple Plan, rented in October, watched in three-minute intervals, and returned yesterday

1 thank sweet god, no: the neo awards for pointless bullets dodged by a filmgoer
2 Fast 2 Furious
Bad Boys II
Charlie’s Angels 2
Legally Blonde 2
Tomb Raider 2
Matrix 3: The Sleepmaker
American Wedding
Dreamcatcher
The Core
Gigli
Swimming Pool
Timeline
Cat in the Hat
Last Samurai

Number of movies seen: 51
Number of good/OK/painless movies: 35

Number of movies in top 10 that were actually several decades old: 1
Ratio of good movies missed to good movies seen: 1:1
Number of people I blame for this who are not me: >3
Number of discs on Netflix list as of 12/31/03: 139
Number viewed in 2003: 10
At current rate, Netflix list will be completed: May 2011