My Top Ten of 2005 (with explanations, so bear with me!)

[AceD]

Allright, I know it's incredibly annoying when people don't search to see if a thread has been started...but I think this is a little different than some of the top ten of the year threads since it's not just a list but is accompanied by some of my thoughts. If it helps, think of this as one of the top 100 countdowns, only just for this past year and I'm not going to post them one-by-one. Feel free to pass by, but comments and debates would be fine.

Remember, this is just my top 10. I'm not claiming I can make a list of the best of the year (who can, really?), but these are the films I appreicated the most this year. Thanks for checking them out.



#10 -- Hostage

Bruce Willis has managed to become, along with Kevin Bacon, one of the most underappreciated actors of his generation. We know them and see their movies, but rarely give credit to their thespian abilities. Willis is fantastic here, using his image as the action hero to present a complex and interesting character. The children in this film are also wonderful in their ability to not ever be cute but to react to an intense situation the way some kids actually would. And to the legion of film's most relentless and scary human villians (a list already occupied by DeNiro is Cape Fear, John Malkovich in In the Line of Fire, and Gunner Stahl), add Ben Foster playing Mars, the twisted leader of the young hostage-takers. This is both the best thriller and action movie of the year, packed with tension and surprisingly dark.


#9 - Broken Flowers

Bill Murray has gone from the loveable loser in films like Caddyshack and What About Bob? to a "serious actor" who gets ragged on for playing the same character in every movie. There's something to that argument, but the laid-back, lazy style is worked to perfection here, and the result is Murray's best film, far and away better than Lost in Translation. The movie is set up as a collection of set pieces with Murray's travel time slipped between them. The acting across the board is phenomenal. The movie is humanly paced and at times tragic, but the humor is real and uproarious. Director Jim Jarmusch isn't interested in punchy one-liners, but in the humor that actually comes out of life. My favorite piece is a mother and daughter who have no idea that the daughter's name, Lolita, has literary connections. Jarmush's movies have been considered by some to be slightly more grueling than watching white paint dry, but this is by far his most accesible film, rewarding and intricate.

#8 - Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit

A splendid and delightful claymation joyride, Wallace & Gromit is the funniest film of the year. While The Wrong Trousers will probably (and deservedly) always be the most revered of the Wallace & Gromit stories, the Were-Rabbit provides equally memorable sequences of slapstick humor and witty dialogue that are the staple of Nick Park's work. Apparently there was some cheating involved with the clay (a few sequences were aided by computer animation), but the spirit of the technique remains true and evident. The movie never relies on its medium to accomplish the humor, but the amount of time and precise energy that goes into creating a film such as this is breathtaking.

#7 - Cinderella Man

If you haven't seen this, it is mosy likely because you think you know how the story goes and that you've seen the movie before (indeed, the tagline is almost a direct repeat Seabiscuit). If that's what you believe, well, you are right and you are wrong. I must admit that I had little excitement for this movie. Ron Howard is fantastic, Crowe is wonderful, Giamatti is memorable; all of that I expected. However, not too long into the film, Crowe's Jim Braddock has a conversation with his son after the boy steals some sausage from a butcher. The scene is understated, but real, and from that moment on I was hooked. The story manages to be compelling and exciting even though we know where it is headed. To me this is Howard's best film (narrowly beating out Apollo 13), and without a doubt Crowe's best performance. In a crowded year and already damaged by some bad behaviour, he probably won't be honored at most award shows. No matter. The film will always stand alone as a major and effective piece of blockbuster filmmaking.

#6 - Munich

Another major film from the most major of directors, Munich would be a little higher than this were it not for some middle sequences that drag and annoyingly overused camera tricks (what's with all the reflections? It works a few times, but becomes redundant). Both of those faults can probably be attributed to the fact that Spielberg shot and cut this film in an extremely tight time frame. Nonetheless, the film works remarkably well on a number of levels: As a thriller is has Hitchcokian sequences of white-knuckle tension, as a drama it creates real and believeable characters, and as a political lightning rod it manages to take a decent look at both sides of a a conflict. Spielberg isn't preaching as much as he's simply gazing, and the last shot of the film is not nearly as heavy-handed as some would like you to believe; it is indeed the perfect end to an imperfect film. While the flaws mentioned prevent the film from becoming the unquestionable masterpiece that it perhaps could have been, it is easily the best that Spielberg has created in years.

#5 - Crash

The hype around this film is intriguing. Can anyone remember any movie that has divided not only critics but also the general public so starkly? People and critics that I respect have labeled it the best film of the year, and others have named it the worst. Personally, I think the film is a gorgeously shot and brialliantly acted fable. Yes, the characters are stereotypes. Yes, some scenes ring false. Realism is not a trait of this movie. Still, there are priciples that shine, and incredible moments of emotional honesty. A powerhouse of acting, this film won't change the world, but one has to admire its high intentions and refusal to take sides. This was the most invigorating and entertaining message movie in a year with a flock of them.

#4 - Hustle & Flow

Let's be up-front about this: Hustle & Flow is a film about a pimp who want to become a rapper. A project like this can go wrong so quickly and in so many ways, but somehow writer and director Craig Brewer manages to tell a compelling and believable story while never asking us to ignore the way that DJay (Terrance Howard) earns a living. Make no mistake: the film is Howard's, from the first frame to the last. It manages to rise above similar rags-to-riches stories, however, by surrounding him with a slew of wonderful and real characters. The standout is Taryn Manning as Nola, the only one of DJay's three "employees" who makes any money. She's fierce, scared, and struggling to hang onto hope in the role, and without a lot of lines causes us to speculate how she has ended up doing what she's doing. She is one of those rare supporting characters that is perfectly cast and beautifuly written. She could sustain her own movie. Howard performed his own songs, and thankfully we can understand why people would like them. They are all passable, and a few are better than most of the rap heard on popular radio. This is not a deep film, but it remains true to its characters and story throughout, and on a purely entertaining level, it was as good as any film I saw this year.

#3 - Murderball

A documentary about paraplegics playing rugby can so easily be syrupy and aw-shucksy, the type of thing you'd much rather watch on SportsCenter for 5 minutes than in a two hour long movie. The filmmakers knew that, and so they made their movie about athletes -- period. Yes, these guys have major physical ailments. But the story is compelling because these guys are not shy and insecure or loud and quirky, but just human beings: flawed and energetic, moody and arrogant. I know that documentaries scare some people, but the best ones catch moments of such truth that the emotion attached is almost unbearable. The movie is inspiring, certainly, and at times sad. However, the athletes here never allow the sadness to come out of our sympathy for their physical setbacks. So many movies like this are about people bravely facing their ailment in the face and taking it all. Instead, this movie shows people who don't suddenly change who they are when they are hurt, but continue to be the same person they always were: in this case competitive, fun-loving guys. If you can, pick up the DVD of Murderball and after the movie watch the extras (such as the Larry King Show appearance). A relentlessly compelling story, the movie leaves you wanting more time with these people.

#2 - Walk the Line

My expectations for this film were probably unreasonably high, and yet they were exceeded. Forget the casting, which was beyond perfect, and forget the music, which was incredible. Set aside all of that, and you have the sweetest, most emotionaly involving love story in years. You don't have to know that Johnny Cash and June Carter were real people to enjoy this film. That said, my affection for the real Johnny and his music made the film vividly entertaining; it was the type of film that made me feel silly for having a smile on my face throughout the entire running time. Witherspoon will probably win the Oscar and Phoenix probably won't, but it won't be because I wasn't campaigning for it. If you caught his acceptance speech at the Golden Globes, you caught a glimpse of how splendidly un-Hollywood he is. He'll get nominated, lose to Philip Seymour Hoffman or Heath Ledger, and go on making great films and giving fantastic performances. Stepping off my soapbox a little, none of this diminishes the accomplishment of this movie: it is the best major-release film in a long while.

#1 - Junebug

It has been said that all a film has to do to be great is to contain three good scenes and no bad scenes. Here, then, is a pretty perfect movie. Every scene is flawlessly executed, every acting nuance is detailed and true. The people in this movie talk like real people, and the story unfolds in the unpredictable, spur-of-the-moment way that life usually does. Watching it, I kept waiting for that one scene that would step wrong, that would be inconsistent with a character's beliefs, that would slap on a line of dialogue because it would suddenly remember that it is a movie and that movies need to have easy outs. That scene never came. It was the type of film that forced me to sit back and let in unfold again in my head. Understand: in any traditional sense, the movie is slow. But bear with it. The only known actor in the film is Ben MacKenzie of The O.C., but that is a good thing, as it allows us to accept each character as a person. In brief, the film is about a recently married man who brings his wife home to his family is middle-class Georgia. In reality, it is a film about love, hate, friends, family, the meaning of life, pain, insecurities, weaknesses, lies and truth and the things that go unsaid, art, intelligence, happiness and loss, hope and heartache, passion and meerkats. This is one of the finest films I have ever seen.