Top Ten 2004May 27 '05 Write an essay on this topic.
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The Bottom Line 2004 is mostly a year to forget, but there are some films worth your time.
It’s come to that time again, and I’m late as usual. 2004 was a low-key year for movies. With no Lord of the Rings or Star Wars to rule the box office, art films were all the rage. The lack of big blockbusters and famous names made for a lackluster year, though, as there were not a lot of really great movies that came out. With 2005 already underway with Star Wars 3, and War of the Worlds, Batman, Harry Potter, and Narnia still to come, it seems 2004 was a year to forget. But that shouldn’t stop us from looking at a few of the films that were worth seeing. ::The Runners Up:: 15. The Aviator (4 ½) 14. Mean Creek (4 ½) 13. House of Flying Daggers (4 ½) 12. Spider-Man 2 (4 ½) 11. Million Dollar Baby (4 ½) THE TOP TEN 10. SIDEWAYS (4 ½) Sideways is a movie about wine, where wine is a metaphor for the feeling and actions of its characters. Alexander Payne builds a tragic and hilarious film on two equally flawed but very different men, who you can never really like, but you can feel for. Tomas Hayden Church is great in his Oscar nominated role, but it’s Paul Giamatti, who, as always, steals the movie. 9. THE TERMINAL (4 1/2) Steven Spielberg’s incredibly underrated The Terminal is a fantastic feel-good film with a cast and crew that shine. Tom Hanks’ Victor Novorksi is loveably out of place in a New York airport terminal (a stunning achievement in set design) where he becomes a hero to the airport staff and a thorn in the side of the manager (Stanley Tucci). The supporting cast is great, the humor is warm and genuine, and the love story between Victor and a stewardess (Catherine Zeta Jones) is handled well, so as not to overshadow the true heart of the film, which is Victor and his effect on the lives of the people he meets. 8. COLLATERAL (4 ½) Michael Mann is masterful at creating dark, moody films and squeezing his actors for all they’re worth, even when his subject matter is terribly uninteresting (Ali). In Collateral, he returns to the suspense genre he works best in (Heat). Jaime Foxx plays Max, a slave-to-routine LA cabbie whose life is changed when his fare turns out to be a calculated hitman named Vincent (Tom Cruise in a rare and wonderful villain role). The movie balances action with dialogue so well, that we are as caught up watching Cruise and Foxx converse as we are when they are running, jumping, and shooting (but that also works). Their banter is realistic, even philosophical, but it’s Mann who carries the film in the moody atmosphere of the way it’s shot and how he’s so impassioned that the LA nightlife becomes a character in itself. 7. HERO (4 ½) Jet Li has always proved to be better in his Hong Kong movies than he has in his bloated American ones, and Hero may be his best yet. Li plays a nameless assassin who wins favor with the Emperor, and the film plays out a la Rashomon, retelling different versions of the same story. Not only is the fight choreography brilliant, but also director Zhang Yimou’s visually stunning art-film approach and vibrant use of color makes Hero an ambitious film that transcends the genre, putting the ‘art’ in ‘martial arts’. 6. GARDEN STATE (4 ½) Garden State, the debut film from Scrubs star Zach Braff is a rare gem. Braff wrote, directed, and starred in it, a mix that could have been a studio’s nightmare, but worked. He shows immense promise, with a screenplay to inspire young writers. The movie is a story about family relationships thinly veiled as a romantic comedy. It weighs heavily at times on themes of death and estrangement, but never parodies them, and it succeeds in its lighter side, thanks to Braff’s unique brand of humor, and the fantastically cute and bubbly Natalie Portman as Sam, who plays opposite Braff’s completely numb Andrew. It was nice to see a movie about young people where its’ characters are human, and not just concerned with doing coke and getting laid. It has a soft, unique charm, and the year’s best soundtrack, handpicked by Braff. 5. ETERNAL SUNSHINE OF THE SPOTLESS MIND (4 ½) When Charlie Kauffman writes a new film, one thing you can guarantee is that it will be unique. Eternal Sunshine follow characters who undergo a procedure to have their memories of certain people erased, and what happens when they meet again for the first time after already breaking each others hearts. It’s a great setup for an original love story and a series of mind-bending visuals set inside Jim Carey’s head. The film won Kauffman a best original screenplay Oscar (finally), and Jim Carey and Kate Winslet play against type as the well-cast leads in the year’s best romantic comedy. 4. RAY (5) I was apprehensive about giving this film such a high spot, given that it succumbs to biopic clichés (like the ‘rags to riches-fall from grace and back again’ formula), but Jaime Foxx’s stunning portrayal of the late Ray Charles (which won him the best actor Oscar) justifies the praise. Ray Charles, unlike the subject of some biopics, actually has an interesting life to watch, and Foxx who plays the piano in all the scenes (and practiced with Charles himself before his death) embodies him completely. Consider a scene late in the film where Ray removes his glasses and we are suddenly shown the face of Jaime Foxx and realize that for the past two hours, we haven’t been watching Ray Charles, but just an astoundingly good mimick. 3. THE MOTORCYCLE DIARIES (5) Che Guevarra was a fascinating and talked about (and depending who you talk to either revered or despised) public historical figure, but not a lot is ever said about his younger years. Gael Garcia Bernal plays the young Guevarra as a timid and asthmatic youth, searching for his place in a work much larger and crueler than he grew up in. The film is based on Guevarra’s journals of his journeys across South America, published as a memoir of the same name. He is affected in an important way by the poverty and tragedy he sees, and the people he meets. Granted, had the film been about anyone besides Che, it might not have been as interesting or impacting, but there’s something about a true story that gets people. And someone as well known as Guevarra makes for an important biopic, with excellent performances, touching scenes, and a bit of gentle humor. 2. HOTEL RWANDA (5) Perhaps even a more socially important film than The Motorcycle Diaries, Hotel Rwanda tells the true story of Paul Rusesabagina, a hotel manager who used his managerial skills and quick thinking to protect his family and hundreds of refugees during the 1994 Rwandan genocide that rocked the small country. The film shies away from melodrama, instead opting to depict real human tragedy. Don Cheadle plays the lead character in, arguably, his best performance to date, but the supporting cast are equally impressive, especially Nick Nolte who defies orders to follow his conscience. Hotel Rwanda is the most powerfully moving human drama of the year. KILL BILL: VOLUME 2 (5) The best film of the year was also the most underappreciated, going completely unrecognized at the Oscars. Kill Bill 2 is a magnificent film, that not only deepens its predeccessor, but surpasses it. It's Tarantino's best film since Pulp Fiction, and has more depth and focus than most of his previous work. Uma Thurman's continued quest for revenge gets more driven and intense ans the series' tone moves from Kung Fu Far East to Wild West. There's more from Daryl Hannah and Michael Madsen, and the full emergence of one of the coolest villains in recent years, Bill (for whom David Carradine was Oscar worthy). He's a villain that is a horrible person, but still convinces us to feel some kind of pity for him. Uma makes us believe in her revenge, but Tarantino takes the film out of that narrow focus and provides a deeper story of broken relationships and regret, without losing track of what it was about in the first place. Volume 2 is an ambitious, more character-driven move for QT, and the only truly original and great movie in a mostly mediocre year.  |
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