Best Movies of 2002

A personal global ranking of films first publicly released in 2002, comparing complete achievements across Brazilian crime cinema, Iranian conversation, European moral drama and ambitious American popular filmmaking. Festival premieres count. City of God offers propulsive storytelling; Russian Ark offers a very different experience of movement and duration. Talk to Her, The Magdalene Sisters and Lilya 4-Ever involve especially difficult sexual or institutional violence. Craft, performance and the experience each film creates guide the order.