Top Ten of 2005
Apr 11 '06
The Bottom Line The Bottom Line keeps staring at me.
It seems that I continue to post my top ten list later and later with each passing year. It's to be expected in a way, I guess, since life requires a lot more of me at 28 than it did when I first joined this site at 22; I have far less time to get out to movies in the theatre, and spend far more time watching them at home on DVD. Thus, by the time the calendar year concludes at the end of December, I've probably only seen half the films I feel I need to see to compose a "best of" list. Which would be why, closing in on halfway through April 2006, I'm finally ready to draw up a list of my favorites of 2005. And even then, I still haven't seen a couple that might well have made the list (Munich, Paradise Now, The New World).
But before we get started, a few quick honorable mentions, films which almost made the list, or probably would have made the list on another random day (listed here in no particular order): Thumbsucker, Junebug, Cinderella Man, Capote, Batman Begins, Nine Lives, Sin City, The Baxter, The Aristocrats, and Broken Flowers.
And now, the final list (or as close as I'm gonna get it anyway)...
10. The 40 Year Old Virgin
Between this and his wonderful role in the American version of The Office, the comedy world has definitely fallen in love with Steve Carrell. In Virgin, Carrell takes what could easily have been a one or two note performance that gets a few easy laughs and winds up ultimately forgettable, and turns it into a character we are actually able to care about. His disarming sweetness and innocence (and, of course, Catherine Keener) propelled this raunchy comedy into a romantic one, and managed to be one of the funniest theatrical releases of the year along the way.
9. Crash
In the interest of full disclosure, Crash was actually much higher on this list a few months ago. As it started generating Oscar buzz, I began to care less and less about it, and by the time it actually won Best Picture, I found myself guilty of getting caught up in its backlash. As such, it's hard to determine exactly what I truly think of the film at this point. I know I liked it, I know I walked out of the theater feeling like I'd really seen something important, but as time went on, I just remember how it felt important, rather than if it actually was important. Several months later, I'm still not sure...but out of respect for the fact that I would have ranked it so highly for so many months of 2005, I decided I had to find a way to include it here. It will probably be a few years, and another viewing, before I decide if that's too harsh (or too kind).
8. Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room
I followed the Enron scandal and implosion only peripherially for the past few years - I knew it was going on, I just couldn't figure out what was going on. Every time I tried to read about the details or catch myself up with the story, I'd get a bit confused or bored. All of which made me feel rather terrible, because I'm a news junkie and a story like this was seemingly right up my alley. Thankfully for me (and other confused but curious citizens), Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room was made. In two incredibly informative (and entertaining) hours, the good folks behind this documentary piece together the whole sordid tale of Kenneth Lay and company, from powerful rise to scandalous collapse. I didn't see a better documentary the entire year.
7. Brokeback Mountain
Perhaps not quite as good as everyone has been proclaiming it, but a nonetheless gorgeous and well-crafted film with much to recommend it by. Far more than just "the gay cowboy movie", Brokeback touched me with its simplicity, its frustrations, and its timelessness. Forbidden love will be the subject of great art for as long as great is being made, and Ang Lee was able to add to this tradition - not to mention his already diverse and impressive filmography - with this quietly devastating film.
6. Match Point
It delights me to no end to be able to legitimately place a Woody Allen film in my top ten list. While I've never attempted to hide my fondness (okay, massive love) for Allen's films, Match Point is truly a picture that deserves to make this list no matter what you may feel of Allen and his past work. It's a strong, confident, intriguing, and (gasp) sexy film that is decidedly unlike anything the legendary writer/director has made in many years (if ever). Clever and intriguing, suspenseful and gorgeous, this London-based tale of class, love, and death was a welcome surprise in nearly every way.
5. Good Night and Good Luck
Thank God we have people like George Clooney in this world, making movies like Good Night and Good Luck, a powerful film about Edward R. Murrow's public challenge of McCarthyism, at the very time when the country needed it the most. Shot in black and white, with strong performances and a perfect jazzy score, Good Night and Good Luck is both an important history lesson and a stirring reminder of the necessity to speak truth to power - a lesson we could stand to learn all over again in today's America.
4. The Squid and the Whale
Every now and then a film comes along that is so subtly perfect, so intimately accurate in its portrayal of one of life's more common events, that it makes you realize just how often other films get it all wrong. Noah Baumbach's The Squid and The Whale is exactly that kind of a film. Divorce is a traumatic event, a bombshell that explodes quietly over a long period of time, forever erasing or changing a million things. The thing most films often miss, though (and which this one most decidedly doesn't), is just how messy the whole thing can be, how it touches every single corner of your life, and how difficult the notion of assigning blame often turns out to be. All this, and it manages to be really funny, too.
3. The Constant Gardener
A film which absolutely blew me away the second I saw it - and which has grown even more impressive to me ever since - Fernando Meirelles' adaptation of John Le Carre's novel, The Constant Gardner, is the kind of movie that film lovers like myself tend to complain they don't really make any more. This politically charged and superbly crafted picture tackles hot button issues such as poverty and disease in Africa, corrupt corporations, and the downside of free-market globalization in a way that is never preachy or plodding, but rather able to remain haunting and personal, thanks largely to the artistic vision of the writer and director as well as the strong lead performances from Ralph Fiennes and Rachel Weisz.
2. Syriana
A messy picture of the best kind - with bravura performances, a daring and complicated script, jarring cinematography, and an ending which offers far more questions than answers - this meditation on the role of oil in our modern world (based, in part, on a book by former CIA agent Robert Baer) is the kind of film that every American should sit down and watch as soon as possible. Some critics attacked it for its complexity, but I wouldn't have had it any other way.
1. Me and You and Everyone We Know
In the end, though, despite all the "important" and topical films released in 2005, it was writer/actor/director Miranda July's poignant comedy/drama about the smaller moments of daily life that easily topped this list. The enormously talented July has lovingly crafted a unique, audacious, delicate, hilarious, off-beat and moving debut picture that deals with the difficulty of true connection in our modern world, while at the same time managing to highlight just why such connections are so valuable to all of us. It was an amazing feat, completely unexpected, and easily the happiest surprise - not to mention the best film, in my book - of the entire year.
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Member: Chad
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