TOP TEN
My Top Ten Movies of 2005
10...
Okay, starting at eleven actually...
11th PLACE
The Constant Gardener
This was a pretty decent film. It was uniquely shot in a strange hand-held/documentary type way, often with quick cuts and rapid movement. This, in my mind, although it was done for a clear purpose, took away from the art of making a film and cinematography. Nothing seemed really planned. The story was mildly compelling and half-confusing, and acting was okay.
10th PLACE
Batman Begins
Batman Begins was the darkest Batman movie that has ever been put out there, and I'll admit that the story kept me pretty well captivated. Kinda dumb though. Cillian Murphy is pretty creepy. I will say that I liked Nolan's Momento better, but hey, that had a lot to do with its concept.
9th PLACE
Capote
Biggest dissappointment of the year. I had huge hopes and expectations for this movie and almost none were fully met. I love 2001: A Space Odyssey, the king of dragging-on movies, but Capote dragged in a bad way. It felt like watching a drab two-hour Law&Order. What kept me going was Phillip Seymour Hoffman's brilliant performance, and maybe the last half hour of the film when things got really good.
8th PLACE
Everything is Illuminated
Stylisticly very interesting. A cross between Big Fish and Badwig's Bloom. Elijah Wood was alright, and the music was strange and good. Its bizarre fault was how it kept trying to switch from odd quirky humor to very serious Nazi liquidations, death, and suicide. It was also paced terribly, as it spent an hour and a half on a hokey "quest" and crammed the plot into the last thirty minutes.
7th PLACE
Good Night, and Good Luck
Although a little slow and thickly coated with confusing obscure name-dropping, plot over-detailing, and period commie slang, this film had a great style to it and made you feel cool just watching it. David Strathairn, who I'd never even seen or heard of before, pulls off a spectacular Murrow. This, like in Capote, undoubtedly carried the entire film.
6th PLACE
Millions
Nobody saw this movie. It was pretty good though. Parts of it were really cool visually, taking on a really surreal Tim Burton-esque look at times. Through it all it carried its mystical and magical mood, even during the annoying bible-smooching Christian parts. Had some touching and dramatic moments...a good family film. Amateur music.
5th Place
Me and You and Everyone We Know
I was surprised to learn that Miranda July wrote, directed and starred in this. Overall I liked it--it was sad, funny, off-beat, and honest. I had issues with some of the overboard attempts at symbolism and deeper meanings however. A lot of it was really idiotic. The whole ending resolution was completely dependent on gaseously vague symbolism. Great characters.
4th PLACE
Broken Flowers
It was constantly hard to know whether I was enjoying this film or not. In the end, I liked it. A lot, I'd even say. I know the twenty-minute silent car driving scenes were deliberate and for an effect and point and point blah blah blah, but it was just overkill. What hurt this film was its extreme value of message over compelling-factor. Whether Bill Murray was just being a characture of himself or giving a really uniquely brilliant subtle performance is debatable. Anyhow, in a matter of one scene, Christopher McDonald delivers one of the goddamn funniest performances in cinematic history.
3rd PLACE
The Weather Man
Nicholas Cage is so good in this. So is Michael Caine. This film did what so many others of its kind try and fail at. It was quirky, real, and it seamlessly transformed back and forth from hilarious to dramatic, powerful, and touching. This was both a very funny and very beautiful film.
2nd PLACE
Crash
Crash was nearly flawless. It was paced perfectly, and successfully intertwined a shitload of story and characters. I cared about each subplot and each character fully, and it was constantly forcing me to question who was "good" and who was "bad," based on status, actions, justifications, and morality. In the end, nobody was really all that bad--but mistakes were made. Human ones. It nearly skimmed onto melodramatic at times, but by the end I was blown away. Great film and script.
1st PLACE
Match Point
Wow. Wow, Woody. This was so dang good. And so dang painful. It was similar to having a sword slit your throat over the course of two and a half hours, a millimeter-a-minute. This pain, though excruciating, was beautiful. It built everything up so well, and always had you guessing what was going to happen next. Each act of the film flipped to a different "antagonist," if you can call it that, and you were always questioning what was "okay" for the characters to do, no matter how immoral. Every single piece of acting in the film was spotlessly genius, to the point of assumed improvisation. So real. So good. And Scarlett Johansson was so goddamn hott.
10...
Okay, starting at eleven actually...
11th PLACE
The Constant Gardener
This was a pretty decent film. It was uniquely shot in a strange hand-held/documentary type way, often with quick cuts and rapid movement. This, in my mind, although it was done for a clear purpose, took away from the art of making a film and cinematography. Nothing seemed really planned. The story was mildly compelling and half-confusing, and acting was okay.
10th PLACE
Batman Begins
Batman Begins was the darkest Batman movie that has ever been put out there, and I'll admit that the story kept me pretty well captivated. Kinda dumb though. Cillian Murphy is pretty creepy. I will say that I liked Nolan's Momento better, but hey, that had a lot to do with its concept.
9th PLACE
Capote
Biggest dissappointment of the year. I had huge hopes and expectations for this movie and almost none were fully met. I love 2001: A Space Odyssey, the king of dragging-on movies, but Capote dragged in a bad way. It felt like watching a drab two-hour Law&Order. What kept me going was Phillip Seymour Hoffman's brilliant performance, and maybe the last half hour of the film when things got really good.
8th PLACE
Everything is Illuminated
Stylisticly very interesting. A cross between Big Fish and Badwig's Bloom. Elijah Wood was alright, and the music was strange and good. Its bizarre fault was how it kept trying to switch from odd quirky humor to very serious Nazi liquidations, death, and suicide. It was also paced terribly, as it spent an hour and a half on a hokey "quest" and crammed the plot into the last thirty minutes.
7th PLACE
Good Night, and Good Luck
Although a little slow and thickly coated with confusing obscure name-dropping, plot over-detailing, and period commie slang, this film had a great style to it and made you feel cool just watching it. David Strathairn, who I'd never even seen or heard of before, pulls off a spectacular Murrow. This, like in Capote, undoubtedly carried the entire film.
6th PLACE
Millions
Nobody saw this movie. It was pretty good though. Parts of it were really cool visually, taking on a really surreal Tim Burton-esque look at times. Through it all it carried its mystical and magical mood, even during the annoying bible-smooching Christian parts. Had some touching and dramatic moments...a good family film. Amateur music.
5th Place
Me and You and Everyone We Know
I was surprised to learn that Miranda July wrote, directed and starred in this. Overall I liked it--it was sad, funny, off-beat, and honest. I had issues with some of the overboard attempts at symbolism and deeper meanings however. A lot of it was really idiotic. The whole ending resolution was completely dependent on gaseously vague symbolism. Great characters.
4th PLACE
Broken Flowers
It was constantly hard to know whether I was enjoying this film or not. In the end, I liked it. A lot, I'd even say. I know the twenty-minute silent car driving scenes were deliberate and for an effect and point and point blah blah blah, but it was just overkill. What hurt this film was its extreme value of message over compelling-factor. Whether Bill Murray was just being a characture of himself or giving a really uniquely brilliant subtle performance is debatable. Anyhow, in a matter of one scene, Christopher McDonald delivers one of the goddamn funniest performances in cinematic history.
3rd PLACE
The Weather Man
Nicholas Cage is so good in this. So is Michael Caine. This film did what so many others of its kind try and fail at. It was quirky, real, and it seamlessly transformed back and forth from hilarious to dramatic, powerful, and touching. This was both a very funny and very beautiful film.
2nd PLACE
Crash
Crash was nearly flawless. It was paced perfectly, and successfully intertwined a shitload of story and characters. I cared about each subplot and each character fully, and it was constantly forcing me to question who was "good" and who was "bad," based on status, actions, justifications, and morality. In the end, nobody was really all that bad--but mistakes were made. Human ones. It nearly skimmed onto melodramatic at times, but by the end I was blown away. Great film and script.
1st PLACE
Match Point
Wow. Wow, Woody. This was so dang good. And so dang painful. It was similar to having a sword slit your throat over the course of two and a half hours, a millimeter-a-minute. This pain, though excruciating, was beautiful. It built everything up so well, and always had you guessing what was going to happen next. Each act of the film flipped to a different "antagonist," if you can call it that, and you were always questioning what was "okay" for the characters to do, no matter how immoral. Every single piece of acting in the film was spotlessly genius, to the point of assumed improvisation. So real. So good. And Scarlett Johansson was so goddamn hott.