Sometimes in life you make a mistake that is so bad that its effects take you to your knees and set the perfect conditions to make a series of even worse ones. In 2003, I was divorced, my band had broken up, and I was in debt and working every day of the week to try to pay my parents back for having bailed me out. I worked at the Shop for my parents during the week and then at my parents’ property in Saint David to help clear the land for the house to be built. There is still a stack of wood there that never ended up getting used that was what I was working on when I decided I needed to get the fuck out of Tucson no matter what.
I was as broken as I had ever been at that time, ashamed that I was divorced before 30 and I had nothing that even approached hope. I felt completely trapped and I couldn’t see past the pain I was in. Also, I had met someone through a friend online and I had latched on to her, convincing myself that desperation was love and that escape was worth anything.
She lived in North Little Rock, Arkansas and because of the custody agreement with her ex-husband regarding her son, she couldn’t move out of the state and no one could live with her unless they were married. So we got married and in April of this year, I left the only place I had ever lived since I was three years old in the hopes of starting something new and I could be free of the pain and shame that lived with me in Tucson. Of all the decisions I have made in my life that I regret, this is probably the greatest one.
I packed up my stuff, and my cat Hermione, and after getting married at the courthouse on Earth Day, I drove a Uhaul with my car on a trailer to North Little Rock. In Globe, AZ, the transmission died in the middle of an intersection and my parents came to help unload the truck and reload the new truck. We stayed the night in Saint David before setting off the next morning. If there was ever a sign I should have called it all off, this was it. As it was, my mom fell in love with Hermione and tried to talk me into letter my mom have her, which I obviously wasn’t going to do. It did set the stage years later for my mom to keep two kittens, Laverne (Vernie) and Shirley, who had fallen into the grease trap at the shop. This would create a cat ripple effect that would continue on for many years to come.
Once I got to Arkansas, I was hit with a massive amount of culture shock. I didn’t know anyone aside from my wife and the friend who had introduced us, although we weren’t speaking at that time. My wife’s family were accommodating but upset they weren’t included in the wedding and upset that she had done something so quick and impulsive. Things were bad with her ex and he wasn’t happy that now his son was around someone he didn’t know. My wife’s cat didn’t like Hermione much. Two weeks into getting there I realized just how badly I had fucked up but I had no money and my parents had spent all they could at the time to help me move out there. I was stuck.
I got a job as an assistant manager at Hollywood Video, which turned into a store manager gig in the absolute worst part of Little Rock. I made some friends at the first store, in Sherwood, a suburb of North Little Rock, which itself is kind of a suburb of Little Rock. I made some friends, one of which I am still friends with today, but it was also a horrifyingly bad time that was full of drama and horseshit. When I went to manage the store on Asher and my wife got a job at my old store, things got way worse.
The store I was managing was terrible, with insane theft/shrinkage, conflict amongst employees, and an assistant manager who was (rightfully) upset to have been passed over for the store manager job. That there was a fair amount of racial tension from the decision was of no help whatsoever.
The area was also terrible with violence and murder happening constantly. In my time there I found two dead bodies in the parking lot. The bank we used was robbed at gunpoint with fatalities 10 minutes after we dropped off the deposit. The gas station across the street had an armed robbery with a fatality. A guy who worked at the Colton’s Restaurant in the same parking lot as us was dragged out and shot execution style. It was horrible. Then one night, one in which I traded shifts with another key holder so I could pick up my parents from the airport when they came for Christmas, our store was robbed at gunpoint. The robber put all of his focus on the guy I had traded with, who was also white. He reassured the other employees that only the white boy had anything to worry about. The detective in the store in plain clothes didn’t take him at his word and opened fire.
There is a lot of speculation about what that night was really about, and the consensus was that Chase was targeted because the robber thought he was me since I was supposed to be working that night. I have no idea if that is true or not. I don’t want to further speculate about who would have set that up to ‘scare’ me away but the net result was that I demoted myself and went back to my original store and the assistant manager took over as store manager. This serves as a lesson that if someone recommends you to take over a store because you have a black belt and wouldn’t be scared to take it, that is a huge red flag.
Working at Hollywood video kept me in the movie game and in addition to watching a lot of movies in theater, I rented movies constantly. I started writing DVD reviews for my friend Jim Darko’s website (Jim Scampoli from the Jim and Them podcast), Real Kid Productions. I put a web cartoon version of Searching for Fun and Trim on the site as well. This was my first real run at writing about movies online. It wasn’t a paid gig but since I could watch DVDs the weekend before they came out, I could get the reviews up before they came out. I reviewed the movies but also the special features. This led to me watching a shit ton of movies this year good and bad. There were a lot of movies that I didn’t care for this year. Part of that is because there were a lot of bad movies but also, I was in hell.
The things that I loved became much more important to me during this time as I didn’t really have a lot of joy during this year. I latched on to things that I loved like a life preserver and I haven’t let go of them since. I reconnected with my friend that I had a falling out with because she rented from the Asher Hollywood Video and that unlocked a lot of movies that my ex-wife wasn’t up for because Chastity and I had similar taste in movies. We had met in a movie chat room when I was in college and she went to NAF and FOS when I did as well. I was very grateful to be able to reconnect with her there because she felt like part of my old life and became a refuge for me there. We went to movies and music shows and if we hadn’t reconnected, I don’t know how I would have gotten through my time in Arkansas.
As I mentioned last time, these next few years are going to be rough. Luckily, the movies are pretty rad.
Runners up in roughly release order: Final Destination 2, Shanghai Knights, Dreamcatcher, House of 1,000 Corpses, a Mighty Wind, Identity, Daddy Day Care, Matrix Reloaded, Bruce Almighty, Finding Nemo, The Room (big asterisk on this one), Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines, Bad Boys II, American Splendor, Jason Vs Freddy, Cabin Fever, Once Upon a Time in Mexico, Out of Time, School of Rock, Kill Bill Vol 1, Mystic River, Matrix Revolutions, Loony Tunes: Back in Action, Timeline, and Cheaper By the Dozen.
If you have not read the introduction to this exercise, I recommend you do so for context regarding what this all is. In short, be nice, these are my favorites based on how I encountered them in my life and what they mean for mean to me. This is not a list of objective best movies in their respective years and if a movie that you love or is considered great does not appear, it does not mean that I think it is shit or that I don’t love it. These are just my favorites for particular personal reasons. Feel free to let everyone know your favorite five for 2003 and why as well. It is also worth mentioning that there will be spoilers here for what are now 23-year-old movies. Let’s dig in!
1. Pirates of the Caribbean: Curse of the Black Pear-Gore Verbinski
The sort of movie that everyone says is a terrible idea before release, Pirates of the Caribbean is a filmed adaptation of the Disneyland ride of the same name starring Johnny Depp, Kiera Knightly, Orlando Bloom, and Geoffry Rush and it fucking rocks.
The story follows blacksmith Will Turner (Bloom), rescued as a boy from the wreckage of a ship, who falls in love with the Governor Swan’s (Jonathan Pryce) daughter Elizabeth (Knightly) who has been guarding his secret that he was wearing a pirate medallion when he was a boy. Elizabeth keeps the medallion and, after she is proposed to by Commodore Norrington (Jack Davenport), falls into the bay wearing it. The medallion creates a shockwave under the ocean and summons the Black Pearl, a pirate ship captained by Barbossa (Rush) hell bent on getting that medallion. Elizabeth is rescued by Jack Sparrow (Depp) an absolute mess of a pirate who once sailed with Barbossa and claims to be the true owner of the Black Pearl and is in Port Royale to try to commandeer a new ship.
Barbossa captures Elizabeth thinking she is a Turner and Will and Jack set off to rescue her, unaware of the curse on the ship rendering the crew pppppirate ghosts! It is all a bit complicated with a lot of moving parts and it is equal parts funny, exciting, and engaging.
The movie’s tone was informed by director Gore Verbinski’s reaction to the Pirates of the Caribbean attraction when he was a kid as it both scared him and made him laugh. He wanted that to be the tone of the movie. Johnny Depp having read about pirates being ‘the rockstars of their day’ made the choice to play Jack Sparrow with a broad Kieth Richards impression which also added to the humor and quirkiness. These things coupled up with genuinely exciting action scenes and great special effects, made the movie the fourth highest grossing film of the year.
The writing here is very clever with snappy dialogue and the twists and turns of a good crime story. The production design and attention to detail elevate it out of some cheap Disney ride tie-in (See: the Eddie Murphy Haunted Mansion and the failed Country Bears) and gave us a much more effective pirate movie than something like Cutthroat Island from 1995 (Although I really dug Cutthroat Island).
Pirates of the Caribbean spawned four sequels and there are current talks to revive the series now. To my mind, none of the sequels did proper justice to this first movie and while the second two are not terrible, the first movie remains the best of the series. It is the perfect blend of all the things they were going for with a high level of fun, swashbuckling melodrama and creepy ghost story flavor.
The performances sing across the board with everyone in the cast completely committing to the bit. Depp, who up to this point eschewed commercial success for quirky acting choices, is the best he had ever been as Jack Sparrow. When looking at other actors considered for the part including Hugh Jackman, Heath Ledger, and Robert DeNiro (???), and it is hard to imagine what the movie would have been without him. Orlando Bloom, in the final Lord of the Rings this same year, offers a Will Turner that eschews the cool of Legolas with a much less cool blacksmith trying to keep up with Sparrow. Keira Knightly, 17 at the time of filming, absolutely kills as Elizabeth Swann, a fact that was clear enough to everyone that she was front and centered in the subsequent movies.
Geoffry Rush’s Barbossa is my absolute favorite part of this movie and all subsequent entries. He is having so much fun in this movie that it is infectious and I could watch a series following just him. He is a great counterpoint to Sparrow and his performance is delightfully broad.
The movie also led to an uptick in pirate stuff and we got some pirate shows like Black Sail that I doubt we would have had without it. Further, video games benefitted from this resurgence in pirate interest, not the least of which Assassin’s Creed: Black Flag which is a blend of mysticism and real pirate history that owes a great debt to this film.
There are some things that have come from the movie that I care for less. The overhaul to the ride at Disney now being completely centered around Jack Sparrow really annoys me. I understand some of the changes like not showing slavery and attempted sexual assault in a kid’s ride, but centering Sparrow in a way that he wasn’t in the movie is irritating. Further, the continuation of the series led to a diluted product with diminishing returns. There is a part of me that is excited for a potential return to the series but I am also concerned that it will be another weak entry that doesn’t pan out.
I saw Pirates of the Caribbean in Little Rock in a Rave theater, which became my favorite theater in the city. I went to that theater all the time and it was one of a few places that I genuinely loved when I was there. As it happens, Rave is owned by Cinemark which gave some continuity to the theaters that I go to here in Tucson so it was another bit of continuity that kept me sane. I was absolutely in love with the movie upon first viewing.
I love pirates and pirate lore, which is interesting given how often my Dad used to try to read Treasure Island to me when I was a kid and I eventually hid it from him because I thought it was boring. Pirates of the Caribbean was my Mom’s favorite ride at Disneyland so it was always a must ride when we went there. In a place where I was feeling alone and cut off, this movie was a refuge of things I loved that married things that my parents loved as well.
When Pirates came out on DVD I bought it right away and watched it over and over. It always made me feel better. In a time when movies, music, and video games were like life blood to me and keeping me from slipping further into despair, this movie was one that kept me going in that first year. No matter what happened with the sequels or may happen in the future, I will always love this movie deeply for keeping me going during a time of great despair.
2.Lord of the Rings: Return of the King-Peter Jackson
The conclusion of the Lord of the Rings trilogy, the Return of the King is exactly the ending it needed, even if it had about five of them.
Covering the gathering of armies, Frodo and Sam getting closer to destroying the Ring, Aragorn accepting his role as King, the Ents joining the fray, and the destruction of Sauron, Return of the King has everything that made the previous films great and gives (several) satisfying conclusions to the insanely long series. It also finally claimed the Academy Awards that had been denied to previous entries.
Return of the King was the highest grossing movie of the year with 377,027,325 million domestic and over one billion worldwide. It won 11 Oscars including Best Picture, Best Director, and Best Screenplay. Altogether it had 215 other award wins and 124 additional nominations. Needless to say, it was the biggest movie of the year and dominated the conversation for years to come.
As much as been said and written about this movie and the series, I don’t feel like I need to rehash it all here. Suffice it to say that it was amazing and the perfect way to end the series. Granted, Jackson filmed the movies back to back and there was a continuity of quality across all of the movies, but it is still fairly impressive that the quality was maintained across all the films. Once again, Jackson’s taste and curation is impeccable and he is able to carry his vision to fruition.
Chastity and I saw this in Little Rock. My ex-wife hated the series and did not want to go. I went early and waited in line for it to get the best seats. It was exciting but bittersweet as well. I had seen the previous two with my friends back home and now I was seeing it in an unfamiliar place in hostile territory. I had a friend there which was great but I missed my friends at home and it made me a little sad even as I loved the movie.
Return of the King is probably the one I have seen the fewest time of these movies and a lot of that owes to when I saw it and what it represents. It is kind of the opposite of the Black Pearl insofar as it makes me feel sad and uncomfortable as opposed to feeling solace and comfort. Still, it is my second favorite of the series for me which is a weird position in which to be. Perhaps I should some day try to rehabilitate it, to take it back so that it is not infested with bad memories. I am nor really sure how, but it is worth it. Some day maybe. For now, I just acknowledge its greatness but keep it at an arm’s length.
3.X2:X-men United-Bryan Singer
An improvement on the first X-Men movie in just about every way, X2 is a loose adaptation of the classic comic run God Loves, Man Kills, which follows William Stryker (Brian Cox) and his crusade to eradicate mutants by kidnapping Professor X (Patrick Stewart) and attacking Xavier’s School for Gifted Mutants. The X-Men who escape must team up with villain Magneto (Ian McKellan) to stop Stryker and get the professor back. This leads to the death of Jean Grey (Famke Janssen) and the first hints of the Dark Phoenix.
With better effects, a bigger budget, and more general confidence, X2 ups all the available antes with more mutants including introducing Nightcrawler (Alan Cumming), Pyro (Aaron Stanford), Lady Deathstrike (Kelly Hu), and, to a much smaller degree, Colossus (Daniel Cudmore), Jubilee (Kea Wong), and Kitty Pryde (Katie Stuart). Wolverine steps up in a more mentor role here and we get to see the first real berserker rage from him that goes as hard as PG-13 would allow at the time. The opening Nightcrawler sequence remains one of the coolest action scenes in X-Men movie history.
X2 was another step in the right direction for super hero movies and the future looked very bright. Unfortunately, director Bryan Singer, (alleged) piece of human shit that he is, went on to leave the franchise and direct Superman Returns for Warner Brothers leading the third X-Men film to be directed by another super problematic guy, Brett Ratner and the series was set back until X-Men First Class. But I am getting ahead of myself.
Despite Singer’s problematic past, this is a hell of a movie and remains one of the best X-Men movies to this day. It was exactly what we needed from an X-men sequel. That the bulk of the cast appear in this year’s Avenger’s Doomsday is a testament to the enduring legacy of this iteration of the X-Men. I suspect Doomsday will be the last we see of them but they left their mark on history and X2, much more so than the original, is responsible for it.
I saw this in the theater shortly after getting to Arkansas and it may very well have been the first movie I saw after moving there. This had the comfort effect and I think a lot of that had to do with my continued engagement with comic books and the very early establishment of X-Men in my life. They presented here as friends who had been with me for a long time and it felt good to be with them in the theater. This in addition to it being a rad movie. My ex-wife was not very into it and kind of put up with it for me, if ‘put up with’ means complaining loudly about how stupid it was after. But even still, I loved it and watched it a lot. It is still a movie I will dip into from time to time and it feels very much like home.
4.Poolhall Junkies-Mars Callahan
An independent movie about pool hustling, Poolhall Junkies did not get a lot of attention at the time of release, and honestly doesn’t get much attention now, but I discovered it on DVD and fell in love with it. I have evangelized for this movie for years, which has not found a lot of traction but that does nothing to dissuade me from loving it.
Written, directed, and staring Mars Callahan, Poolhall Junkies is a fairly standard sports/gambling movie that centers around a pool hustler, Johnny (Mars Callahan) largely raised by a pool shark, Joe (Chaz Palminteri) to be his ringer who decides to turn his back on the life for his girlfriend, Tara (Alison Eastwood) who disapproves of his unseemly lifestyle. When his brother Danny Michael Rosenbaum) falls into trouble with Joe’s new protégé Brad (Ricky Shroder) Johnny has to come back to the table in a winner take all battle against Brad.
Poolhall Junkies is more or less a Pool focused take on Rounders (1998) with some extra hustling moves put in for good measure. The descriptions so far sound dismissive but what Callahan brings to the table in terms of humor and style along with the killer cast including Christopher Walken, Rod Steiger, Anson Mount, and Philip Reyes Jr, elevates this from standard hustling movie into something special.
As mentioned, I saw this on DVD and what really grabbed me was Johnny’s attitude. I was in a bad mental place and I felt trapped so watching a slick and talented character who knew how to make moves even when the walls were closing in was just what I needed at the time. I don’t know that I will ever be as good at anything as Johnny is at pool in the movie and I am certainly not slick or cool but the energy is what I needed at the time and it became somewhat inspirational and aspirational, if not to be a pool hustler than to be a survivor. A lot of the movies that really caught me at this time of my life are like this. It was about motivation and will to keep going and this movie always feels inspirational to me. Your mileage may vary but I love it.
5.Old School-Todd Phillips
Basically a mixture of Fight Club and frat culture, Old School follows newly divorced guy Mitch (Luke Wilson) trying to put his life back together after he comes home early from a trip to find his wife (Juliette Lewis). Mitch rents a house near the college campus he went to and after friends Beanie (Vince Vaughn) and Hank (Will Ferrel) throw him a party, the dean of the college Dean Pritchard (Jeremy Piven), an enemy from their college days, declares that the house can only be used for college housing. This leads Beanie to convince Mitch to start a fraternity so that he can stay and they can continue partying. And hilarity ensues.
While some of Old School hasn’t aged super well, it is ridiculously funny. Before Todd Phillips started making questionable genre dramas, he was an amazing comedy director and this is probably my favorite. Most people cite the Hangover as his best, and while that is great, I love this one more. It might be that it introduced me to the Dan Band. It might be that I identified a bit with Mitch and his divorce. It might be that Hank realizing that his marriage was a massive mistake was equally relatable. It might just be that it is just funnier.
This was a theater watch for me and I have seen it dozens and dozens of times subsequently. It also kind of felt like a movie I would have liked to have made at that time. I was really into bad relationship comedies at the time and I was writing stories like that in the cartoon strip. I am not really proud of my sensibilities at the time but this kind of thing was right up my alley.
It really bums me out that Todd Phillips has gone the way he has. After Hangover 3, I have not cared much for his output. War Dogs was alright but I absolutely hate Joker and Joker: Follie a Deux. I would like to see him go back to comedy but I am not sure there is much hope there. Oh well. I will always have is pre-Hangover 3 movies. That is not too bad.