CINEMASCOPED CRITICS & READERS POLL RESULTS - The summer movie season officially ends this weekend -- according to the current double-issue of Entertainment Weekly, anyway, which starts its Fall Movie Calendar on Sept. 6 -- so now seems like the perfect time to post the results of the first CinemaScoped Critics & Readers Poll. Just over two weeks ago I e-mailed 34 newspaper, magazine, and online movie critics and asked them to tell me 1) their favorite film of the year so far and 2) the movie they are most looking forward to. I'd be lying if I said I wasn't a bit disappointed with the response. Only 11 of those 34 wrote me back, and two of them are former colleagues of mine from The Daily Iowan. Alas, only 2 readers felt compelled to submit their votes. However, CS understands that everyone, professional critic or otherwise, has busy schedules. I would sincerely like to thank all of the critics and readers who took the time to respond. If you missed your chance to vote but still want to voice your opinion, e-mail me at CinemaScoped@hotmail.com. I'll publish all of the late responses sometime in the next week or two.

Before jumping to the results, I suppose I should share my picks. Like many of the respondents, I was unable to narrow down my answers to just one movie. But hey, it's my poll and I'll cop-out if I want to.

Best Film(s): In alphabetical order, my favorite films of the year so far are: About a Boy, Signs (reviewed 8/6), and Thirteen Conversations About One Thing (scroll down for review).
Most Looking Forward To: Also in alphabetical order: 8 Mile, Confessions of a Dangerous Mind, Gangs of New York, and Punch-Drunk Love. (I'll highlight each of these films in more detail in the coming weeks.)

CRITICS

Jeffrey Anderson, San Francisco Examiner
Best Film(s): My favorites so far (in order): I'm Going Home, Werckmeister Harmonies, Spirited Away, Last Orders, Possession, Spider-Man, What Time Is It There, The Rookie, and Minority Report.
Most Looking Forward To: Brian De Palma's "Femme Fatale", Martin Scorsese's "Gangs of New York", Paul Schrader's "Auto Focus", Francois Ozon's "8 Women", Paul Thomas Anderson's "Punch Drunk Love," Spike Jonze's "Adaptation," George Clooney's "Confessions of a Dangerous Mind," and, of course, the new Bond and Star Trek flicks...Also David Cronenberg's "Spider," but I don't think that has a distributor yet. Same with Roman Polanski's "The Pianist."

Eric Baker, The Daily Iowan/CinemaScoped contributor
Best Film: Thirteen Conversations About One Thing
Most Looking Forward To: The Two Towers

Rob Blackwelder, SPLICEDwire
Best Film(s): 1) Lagaan: Once Upon a Time In Inida 2) The Rookie 3) Italian for Beginners 4) waydowntown 5) Igby Goes Down
Most Looking Forward To: Secretary, Invincible, Heaven, Frida, The Weight of Water, Die Another Day, Solaris, About Schmidt, Adaptation, Punch-Drunk Love, The Two Towers, Gangs of New York, Confessions of a Dangerous Mind, The Pianist

Chris Hewitt, St. Paul Pioneer Press
Best Film: Frailty
Most Looking Forward To: N/A

Glenn Lovell, San Jose Mercury News
Best Film: "Frailty" in a walk
Most Looking Forward To: N/A

Lou Lumenick, New York Post
Best Film(s): Minority Report
Most Looking Forward To: Gangs of New York

Rick McGinnis, Movieblog
Best Film(s): The best film I've seen all year was Jia Zhangke's "Platform". I've made two big discoveries so far in 2002 -- Bollywood and Sixth Generation Chinese cinema. Of course, "discovering" them was like suddenly noticing the Rocky Mountains or the Mississippi, but "Platform" was a real highlight for me, all the more impressive since it wasn't exactly short, and hardly a thrill-a-minute action film, so it had to be good to keep me rapt from beginning to end. I like a film that tells me a bit about the world that I couldn't have imagined, and Jia's film was like a history lesson on China through the post-Mao period, told from a distant spot in the provinces, not from the centre, in Beijing or Shanhai.
Most Looking Forward To: I'm looking forward to the remake of The Four Feathers -- an epic adventure tale set in British colonial north Africa -- and Michael Moore's Bowling for Columbine. I'm curious how well Moore will deal with the "changed" America after 9/11. Will people have any patience for his brand of patriotic skepticism any more? We'll see. As for The Four Feathers, I'd be a bit less interested if it weren't directed by Shekhar Kapur (Bandit Queen, Elizabeth); a colonial tale directed by a citizen of a former colony -- it's got to have something going for it, right? Anyway, those are my answers, and I'm sticking to them.

Bruce Newman, San Jose Mercury News
Best Film: Road to Perdition
Most Looking Forward To: Confessions of a Dangerous Mind

Steven Rosen, Denver Post
Best Film(s): As far as Hollywood movies go, the best this year for me is Insomnia. For foreign, there have been numerous good ones -- Y Tu Mama Tambien, Fast Runner, Late Marriage.
Most Looking Forward To: I'm especially looking forward to The Hours.

Philip Wuntch, Dallas Morning News
Best Film: Road to Perdition
Most Looking Forward To: N/A

Nate Yapp, The Daily Iowan/Classic Horror
Best Film: Spider-Man
Most Looking Forward To: Confessions of a Dangerous Mind

READERS

Joe Horaney, Iowa City, IA
Best Film: 1. Signs 2. About a Boy
Most Looking Forward To: The Two Towers

Kymm Zuckert, New York, NY
Best Film: Favourite movie so far this year is tricky, because though I have liked many movies this year, there hasn't been one that I have become obsessed with, like Moulin Rouge and Ghost World last year, or Gladiator and X-Men the year before. I can easily tell you the one that I hated the most -- that was the loathsome Chelsea Walls, which had me praying for death about five minutes into it. I think I'll go with About a Boy, which I thought was simply marvelous.
Most Looking Forward To: Just one? I am looking forward to many movies, Solaris and Ghost Ship and Red Dragon and Welcome to Collinwood and and and (see me cheating by mentioning more than one?)... but the one that I am most looking forward to seeing, the one that I will see on opening day is: Secretary. James Spader AND bondage in the workplace? Life doesn't get any better than that.

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