Top Ten of 2005 and more

Gotta love posting top ten lists for a year that is not only 9 months ago, but also well out of the public consciousness by this point. Either way, this is how I roll. I can't in good conscience make a top ten list without having seen all the potential candidates so with that said, god bless Netflix and enjoy.

10) Grizzly Man - Possibly the most compelling documentary since Metallica: Some Kind of Monster as Werner Herzog demonstrates madness in a way that has never made the statement "truth is sometimes stranger than fiction" more true. While I appreciate and enjoy documentaries whose sole intention is to educate, I am even more compelled by documentaries that actually provoke. In the case of Grizzly Man, the truth may be presented before you, but the investigation only begins once the film has ended and reflection begins to take place.

9) The New World - Terence Malick has a reputation for such meticulous attention to detail that the fact he takes roughly a decade to make a new film has come to be expected. In the case of The New World, the wait is well worth it as history buffs will appreciate the rigid accuracy, those with an eye for photography will appreciate the gorgeous cinematography, and those who enjoy a bold narrative with a torrid romance (or romances) will all find something to savor as Malick manages to meld all these ingredients (and more) to make a completely engrossing and intoxicating picture.

8) Walk the Line - In general, I'm not a fan of the biopic because it too often has a tendency to have a trajectory that is far too predictable and boring. In the case of Walk the Line, the narrative does not tread any new ground, but it just goes to show what strong acting and a central story arc can do for a biopic. Joaquin Phoenix and Reese Witherspoon give two of the best acting performances of the year as WtL manages to be both relentlessly compelling and endearing. By mainly focusing on the love story between June and Johnny and the aforementioned stellar performances, WtL manages to rise above the mediocre standard set by recent biopics.

7) Mysterious Skin - Don't get me wrong, the Doom Generation films were entertaining, but if this is what Gregg Araki has been holding back all these years, then he has been wasting time. That may seem like an insult to his earlier work, but really, it's an accolade for how good Mysterious Skin is. I can't recall having ever seen a film that found such a unique way to tell such a tragic tale. Araki's vivid imagination serves him well as he depicts how two teenagers might deal with such a horrible history and Joseph Gordon-Levitt proves his Angels in the Outfield days are far behind him as an interesting/talented acting career apparently lies ahead.

6) Match Point - Woody Allen has long been a filmmaker who has always been able to transition between comedy and drama as well as anyone, but for the past decade, most critics have not been terribly kind to any of his work, whether dramatic or comedic. I'm in the minority in that I don't think Woody's work of late has been utter shit, but I'm also not about to put any of it into the same category as Annie Hall or Hannah and Her Sisters. With Match Point, we can all thankfully celebrate a glorious return to form for one of the best American filmmakers to ever live. Every aspect of this film is executed to perfection with the only drawback being the story itself, which is one that we've all seen before, but when all the elements (acting, writing, direction, etc.) are mixed perfectly, it just goes to show what a master can do when in peak form.

5) Oldboy - Similar to what Saw was for me in 2004, Oldboy arrived in 2005 as an unexpected shot of adrenaline. One of the advantages of Asian cinema in general is that there is no Hollywood formula. Risks are taken, storylines are unpredictable, and in more intense pictures, if there is a body limb that can be mutilated or done away with, rest assured it will be done in the most stomach turning way possible. That doesn't mean that shock appeal is what counts (because it doesn't, that's why the American Pie movies suck), but when you're making a film about revenge, you want the tension and the rage to be palpable so that you genuinely feel anything could happen. In the case of Oldboy, sit back and enjoy madness at its best. And here I thought Takashi Miike was the only clinically insane director working today, but it looks it's time to make room for Park Chan-wook.

4) 40 Year Old Virgin - The funniest film since Wet Hot American Summer. The encouraging thing about Judd Apatow's directing debut is that he seems to get 2 basic aspects of good comedy: 1) Story and characters worth giving a shit about actually ENHANCE the comedic effect, not work against it, 2) Working in different kinds of comedy is beneficial. Steve Carell gives a great performance and the supporting cast is more than up to the task as Apatow manages to incorporate smart humor, stupid humor, perverted humor, racial humor, and a "you know how I know you're gay..." improv exchange that immediately carved itself a spot on the short list for the year's best scenes.

3) Munich - I'm a firm believer that somehow, someway Spielberg continues to be underrated, but that's another story for another day. Munich is an amazing feat because it manages to be a taut, intense thriller of consequence that actually challenges its audience. Is the war on terrorism a futile undertaking? Of course that's rhetorical in the most depressing way possible, but its depiction here makes it all the more real. Oh and Eric Bana continues to fly under the radar for some bizarre reason.

2) 2046 - The extent of my love and appreciation for the brilliance of Wong Kar-Wai has already been well documented on this blog so I won't try to belabor that point, but the conclusion to his Days of Being Wild/In the Mood for Love/2046 tragic love story is about as heartbreaking as one could hope. One of the most appealing aspects of Wong's work is his clear understanding of dreams shattered and the drudgery of life post-heartbreak. It doesn't hurt that he has the luxury of utilizing one of the best actors alive in Tony Leung. But is there a more gifted visual filmmaker working today? Assuming you allow yourself to abandon the typical storytelling/narrative techniques of what modern day cinema has conditioned you to, you won't find a more compelling or palpably emotional filmmaker than Wong Kar-Wai.

1) Brokeback Mountain - Talk show monologue fodder it may be, but please don't ever dismiss this film as the Hollywood darling that merely brought the gay love story into the mainstream. The fact that it didn't win best picture is just even more evidence of the Academy's incompetence, but in some ways, their dismissal can be seen as a long term blessing as films like Raging Bull and Citizen Kane have proven. Regardless of this kind of baggage, Brokeback Mountain is an incredibly potent examination of love lost and the potentially perilous effects of a socially taboo relationship. Never in my darkest hour did I think I'd say Heath Ledger gave the best performance of the year, but I'll be damned if it didn't actually come true. Brokeback Mountain makes you care so much about its characters that you genuinely feel the pain and heartbreak that they feel. It's quite a feat and its indelible imprint on our collective conscience makes it more than worthy of being number one on anyone's top ten list.

Runners-Up: Cache, A History of Violence, 3-Iron, Good Night, And Good Luck, Elizabethtown, King Kong

Individual Awards:
Best Actor: Heath Ledger - Brokeback Mountain: What a shock. I've never liked Heath Ledger nor thought him to be a capable actor, so him giving such a nuanced, heartbreaking performance shocked me as much as the next person.
Runners-Up: Bruno Ganz - Downfall, Tony Leung - 2046, David Strathairn - Good Night, And Good Luck, Joaquin Phoenix - Walk the Line, Joseph-Gordon Levitt - Mysterious Skin

Best Actress: Reese Witherspoon - Walk the Line: If only I could convince her to stop taking on generic Julia Roberts-esque roles. The girl can act. She proved it before in Election and further proves that that performance was not a deal-with-the-devil kind of arrangement.
Runners-Up: Toni Collette - In Her Shoes, Keira Knightley - Pride and Prejudice, Q'orianka Kilcher - The New World

Best Supporting Actor: Paul Giamatti - Cinderella Man: Not a particularly strong category this year, but it is a nice excuse to give props to Giamatti who, with each performance, continues to make a case for being one of the best actors of his generation.
Runners-Up: Jake Gyllenhall - Brokeback Mountain, Ed Harris - A History of Violence, Jason Schwartzman - Shopgirl

Best Supporting Actress: Ziyi Zhang - 2046: I've never been a big fan of Zhang's considering up to this point, she's pretty much just a pretty face stealing Gong Li's thunder and I'm not down with that. However, leave it to Wong Kar-Wai to find a way to make her bare her soul and her performance in 2046 was a true eye-opener for me. Just stay out of Gong's way.
Runners-Up: Amy Adams - Junebug, Frances McDormand - North Country, Robin Wright Penn - Nine Lives

Other Miscellaneous Awards (or lack thereof):
Worst Film of the Year: What can one say about a year that included such worthy candidates as The Producers, The Aristocrats, Wolf Creek, Ong Bak: The Thai Warrior, etc.? That doesn't even include an utterly disgusting entry like Rob Zombie's The Devil's Rejects (I guess rape is something Zombie thinks makes a horror movie seem "cool") or the source of my Oscar misery, Crash. Nope, this year's most dreadful movie-watching experience was The Longest Yard. Cliches abound about as much as the homophobia and oh yeah, it's not funny at all. I went into this movie to get out of the heat, there were a lack of decent options, and Adam Sandley is usually good for at least a few good laughs. Shortly afterwards, I wished I had stayed out sunbathing nude on the asphalt parking lot.

Most Underrated/Underappreciated Film of the Year: Elizabethtown - I had a hard time understanding how this film went largely unseen and uncared for by both critics and the general public alike. To me, this had every element of a Cameron Crowe film. Likeable characters, hilarious sequences, excellent dialogue, and touching moments. He even managed to make Orlando Bloom tolerable. Crowe deserves a Nobel Peace Prize for that feat. Oh well, instead of lamenting the past, let's move forward and hope more people will discover this gem on video/DVD. Runners-up: Melinda & Melinda, The Beat That My Heart Skipped, The Weather Man, The Brothers Grimm, The Ice Harvest, An Unfinished Life

Best Performance Within A 10-minute Sequence: Robin Wright-Penn in Nine Lives. The film is composed of 9 vignettes with marginal relationship to each other, some are effective and some aren't. In Wright-Penn's sequence, her performance is so mesmerizing and you get so wrapped up in her character that it's almost impossible to believe the length of her segment is the equivalent to an interview on the Tonight Show.

Crappiest Film that Scared the Piss Outta Me: One Missed Call. For a film that had some of the most pedestrian writing this side of Friday the 13th Part 18: Jason Gets a Pension, I was amazed that I was scared shitless at times. Thank the lord for small blessings, kids.

Film that should have been so much better: Sin City. We all know how much this film rocks in the visual sense, but the film itself...not so compelling. Elijah Wood's character is pretty interesting in a Hannibal Lecter kinda way, but other than that, when you have a cast that includes Clive Owen, Benicio Del Toro, Rosario Dawson, and a broken down Mickey Rourke, then you really have no excuse for the film to not move at a Pulp Fiction-like momentum.