And the winner is ... unclear. Nevertheless, here's a look at the year in film. (The Critics Film).

ONE LEAF FIBRILLATING ON an otherwise naked bough, and a wind that seems to stain the lungs with ice: It's that time of year, so let's start rounding it up, let's start making our lists.

Best films of 2002? Surveying the movie landscape of the past 12 months, it's hard to see the peaks and valleys. It's hard, in fact, to see anything at all. The movies are out there--the jostling mediocrities, the genuine disgraces, the occasional pockets of virtue--but a species of haze, a smog of indeterminacy, hangs over everything. What's going on?

One answer is that the old forms have ...

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