Two thousand three was a great year for movies. From original action flicks like the first Pirates of the Caribbean movie and The Italian Job to guilty-pleasure chick flicks like Uptown Girls, that year had a movie for everyone.
I discovered the 2003 phenomenon when researching two particularly bad-but-hilarious movies that were both released that year – The Room, and Tiptoes.
Both of these movies deserve an article of their own about the caliber of movies that are so horrible they are fantastic, but a short description of them here will have to be sufficient for now. The Room, written by, directed by, and starring Tommy Wiseau, is a soap opera-style drama about characters Johnny and Lisa, a couple about to be married when Lisa begins an affair with Johnny’s best friend, Mark. The movie is so critically deemed as terrible that it has its own following of fans who go to screenings and have created viewing guides for making fun of the movie in large, drunken settings. It’s even more fun than it sounds. The mastery of this movie is that its absolutely abominable dialogue and unskilled filming techniques would lead the viewer to believe it was created in a long-lost era, when it was in fact released just 8 short years ago.
Tiptoes has a similar ridiculous dramatic plot, with slightly better cinematography. Also released in the magic year of 2003, this film stars Matthew McConaughey and Kate Beckinsale as a married couple about to have a baby, when McConaughey’s character’s secret is revealed: his family is made up of dwarves. In fact, he is the only regular-sized member of his family, his twin brother being a dwarf-inized Gary Oldman, and Beckinsale must deal with the reality that her baby might be little (but, like, littler than a normal baby). The plot literally could not be any more offensive toward little people. With a similar attraction as The Room, the lack of film quality in Tiptoes is compensated by its extreme randomness and unintended hilarity.
And then comes What a Girl Wants – a film that I consider today to be one of the greatest chick flicks ever made. There is a stereotypical costume-changing montage and makeover scene (both!), a stereotypical guitar-playing boyfriend (who is also intelligent!), a stereotypical plotline of girl-runs-away-from-home-to-discover-her-past (which includes a travel montage on a London Double Decker Bus!), and many other chick-flick staples, without which your movie-watching experience just would not be complete. But honestly, Oliver James and Amanda Bynes were a perfect couple and no one will ever convince me that the choreographed dancing scenes during which they solidify their love were not amazing.
Contrary to popular thought, though, good movies did actually come out in 2003. Finding Nemo, The Italian Job and The Matrix sequels were all released in this all-encompassing year of cinema. America fell in love with Jude Law again after he starred in Cold Mountain, a love story set in the Civil War era. Nerds everywhere were given cause for celebration when the Academy decided to honor the fantasy epic Lord of the Rings: Return of the King with 11 Oscars the next year. Sean Penn and Tim Robbins amazed movie-goers with their haunting performances in the greatly lauded Mystic River. It’s hard to imagine that every one these fantastic movies were released in the same year, along with Holes, Freaky Friday, Love Actually, and Kill Bill Vol. 1. My list could go on.
It is my personal belief that cinema has not experienced such an amazing run with such an eclectic selection of movies since 2003. In most recent years, only one or two (maybe five, at a stretch) movies really characterize the year and show off the talent of the movie-making industry. But every single movie named in this article, released in 2003, had its own personality and its own following — 2003 will never be forgotten.
This is why I pay tribute to this great year, when Avril Levine released her first album, Lizzie McGuire dominated our elementary school television screens, and we could curl up with our parents to watch as Marlin traveled the great ocean blue to find his son.
