The Best Individual Film Achievements of 2002

So now you know the ten films that I thought were the best achievements of 2002, which will go down as one of cinema's greatest recent years. To conclude this week of presenting my own personal opinions on 2002, I will now present my choices in the individual film categories. If only I were an Oscar voter, these would be the individual performances and technical achievements that I would be voting for, and sincerely hope get at least nominations from the Academy in just a few short weeks.

You already know that I would vote the Best Picture prize of my own ballot to Paul Thomas Anderson's brilliant film, Punch-Drunk Love. The other four nominees I would have for Best Picture (again, these are my own personal choices, NOT my predictions) would be About Schmidt, Chicago, Gangs of New York, and Unfaithful.

But what about all the other categories and individual areas of film achievement? Here are my personal choices for what I thought were the best individual film achievements in 2002.

BEST ACTOR IN A LEADING ROLE
Daniel Day-Lewis in Gangs of New York

While Jack Nicholson in About Schmidt and Nicolas Cage in Adaptation were just as extraordinary and would have been my personal choice in almost any other year, I couldn't see putting them on top of what Daniel Day-Lewis accomplished with his stunning portrayal of Bill the Butcher, one of the most complex villains ever to be portrayed on screen, in Martin Scorsese's incredible film. Day-Lewis shows us what true acting is ... populating a role so well that you are lost within the character. The character is completely real, and this particular character manages to be a loathsome villain, but at the same time, we somehow understand what he is fighting for. He has some truly powerful scenes, but I especially admired the quieter scene when he is rocking in a chair draped by an American flag, as he talks with Leonardo DiCaprio about who he is and why he fights. It's superb acting, and I hope he wins another Oscar this year.

BEST ACTRESS IN A LEADING ROLE
Diane Lane in Unfaithful

I can think of no better reason to explain why Diane Lane would clearly be my choice for the best actress of 2002 than to simply have you watch a couple of scenes. One is of course the well known and much discussed sequence when she is on the subway, remembering back to the first sexual encounter of her affair, and all the emotions she expresses on her face. That is truly a great example, and it was even my choice for the best motion picture sequence of the year. But also watch later in the film when Lane is burning spy photos taken of her lover, after so much has happened. Just watch how real Lane's Connie Sumner is in this powerful portrait of a woman so lost in what she wants, and finding the strength to build again. Her performance is so great because you can clearly sense that this is a real woman on screen, not just an actress giving a good performance.

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