2005 Year End Wrap Up
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Index
Top 10 Films of 2005
Honorable
Mentions
Good Buzz List
Worst 10 Films of 2005
Top
10 Films of the Year
What follows are Nathan's
picks of the best films of 2005.
1. Munich
Directed by:
Steven Spielberg
Premise: After the
massacre of Israeli athletes at the 1972 Olympics, a Mossad agent
(Eric Bana) leads a team that hunts down the people who planned
the attack.
Why it made the list:
Sometimes a filmmaker you know quite well can suddenly surprise
you with something new, something you did not think he or she
might be capable of. Spielberg has done that several times and he
has does it again with Munich. This film straddles the
genres of the spy thriller, historical film, and the revenge tale
and it manages to satisfy all the genre considerations and in some
cases use them to foil one another. This is a film about violence
and retaliation, and the cost of that retaliation on both personal
and national levels. Unlike many films dealing with terrorism, Munich
asks all the pertinent ethical questions. The intelligence behind
this film and the balance it employs in its political outlook
elevates it above any one of the genres it dips into. Eric Bana
gives a terrific performance as Avner, the Mossad agent, and as
the film progresses his paranoia and moral dilemmas increase.
Bana’s performance nails the conflicts of the film and deserves
recognition. Munich is one of Spielberg’s best films.
Among his historical films, this may be his masterwork.
2. Crash
Directed
by: Paul Haggis
Premise:
The film follows the lives of several people involved in car
accident and explores race relations in America.
Why
it made the list:
Films about race are never easy. Neither are films that balance multiple
storylines. Crash masterfully takes on both and is a great
example of narrative complexity and thematic maturity. The film
balances its character’s plot lines and features some really
excellent performances. Some of the standout performances are by
Don Cheadle as a police detective, rapper Ludacris as a car thief,
Terrence Dashon Howard as a sitcom producer, Sean Toub as a store
keeper, and Matt Dillon as a troubled cop. Sandra Bullock and
Brendan Fraser are surprisingly effective playing against type.
Fraser plays a politically-minded district attorney and Bullock
plays his overtly racist and irritable wife. Crash is a
very quiet film both audibly and visually but the lack of flair
works to the film’s advantage and makes it more intense and
cerebral. Crash
takes on very sensitive issues and successfully presents them to
the audience not through an overwhelming and patronizing sense of
ethos but through a real sensitivity and intelligence about the
subject matter.
3. Downfall
Directed
by: Oliver Hirschbiegel
Premise:
The story of the last days of Adolf Hitler (Bruno Ganz) and Nazi
Germany as seen through the eyes of his secretary Traudl Junge
(Alexandra Maria Lara).
Why
it made the list:
Downfall is a superb
film that puts a human face on the tragedy of Nazi Germany.
Although Hitler has been portrayed on film many times, Ganz's
portrayal is one of the best ever seen. He captures the collapse
of Hitler’s dream in a way that capitalizes on the tragedy and
makes a man out of the monster. The story draws out the collapse
of Berlin and the impending doom for those involved in away that
is dramatically satisfying but does not excuse the character's
responsibility for atrocities. Downfall
is not afraid to explore the minds of the Nazi leaders and films a
perspective on Word War II that has rarely been seen. The result
is one of the best World War II film ever made. It dares to
honestly explore the fall of the Nazi ideology and the emotional
and physical fate of the architects of that ideology. The
humanization of this evil might make some viewers nervous, but
that is precisely why Downfall is one of the best films of
the year.
4. Kingdom
of Heaven
Directed
by: Ridley Scott
Premise:
Orlando Bloom plays a knight charged with protecting Jerusalem
from invaders during the Crusades.
Why
it made the list: The
last couple of years have seen a number of sword and shield films
and Kingdom of Heaven is easily the best. Ridley Scott uses
many of the same cinematic techniques he employed in Gladiator
but in comparison to the sword and sandal films in the past year (Troy,
King
Arthur, and Alexander),
Kingdom of Heaven shows a lot more craft in its structure,
editing, and cinematography. This is a very topical film, full of
ideas about religion, and war. The film is not anti-Christian or
anti-Muslim but shows how the hierarchy of religion, mixed with
government, may be used to perpetuate and justify war. Kingdom
of Heaven is above average as an action film and as an epic.
The action sequences are satisfying and the romance is there, but
the film goes beyond the conventions of its genre with its
intellectual ideas.
5.
Capote
Directed by:
Bennet Miller
Premise: A
dramatization of the Truman Capote’s (Phillip Seymour Hoffman)
ordeal while writing In Cold Blood.
Why
it made the list: Occasionally
a performance in a biopic will come along, like Charlize Theron in
Monster
or Jim Carrey in Man
on the Moon, where a recognizable star is cast and then
disappears into the role. Hoffman’s performance is one of those
but in some ways it surpasses these other films. Capote is
primarily a character-study of the author and it portrays him in
an empathetic but brutal light. The film centers on the
relationship between Capote and Perry Smith (Clifton Collins Jr.)
and on Capote’s decent into depression he is slowly poisoned by
the subject matter of his book. Collins’ portrayal of the killer
strikes the kind of balance that Capote is attempting in his book:
simultaneously creating empathy for the man but not excusing his
crimes. The same is done with Hoffman’s portrayal of Capote and
story carefully structures and intertwines the destruction of the
two men, one physically and the other mentally. Capote is a
great film about writing and a brilliant character-study of the
man.
6.
Good
Night, and Good Luck
Directed
by: George Clooney
Premise:
The true story of CBS commentator Edward R. Murrow’s (David
Strathhairn) conflict with Senator Joseph McCarthy.
Why
it made the list: Who
would have thought that a film about 1950s television would be so
entertaining? Good Night, and Good Luck manages to turn a
CBS news broadcast into an exciting piece of film. By shooting in
black and white and inserting
commercials from the time period, the filmmakers achieve an
authentic 1950s flavor. One of the best creative decisions by the
filmmakers was to have McCarthy appear via stock footage from the
period, which avoids the critical landmines that having an actor
might bring, and it further blends this dramatic reenactment with
the historical event itself. Strathhairn’s performance as Murrow
is dead on and it captures the man’s intelligence and his dry
sense of humor. Good Night, and Good Luck is a great film
about the responsibility and function of journalism in society. It
has a contemporary urgency and an agenda but it never gets too
didactic and keeps the audience on its toes.
7. A
History of Violence
Directed
by: David Cronenberg
Premise:
A small town shopkeeper (Vigo Mortensen) gains national attention
when he foils two violent criminals. The fame attracts the
attention of underworld figures who believe he is a former
competitor.
Why
it made the list: The
year 2005 offered many films exploring the subject of violence and
many of them tended to be saturated in blood and sensation. One of
the year’s most effective films on the subject, A History of
Violence, has an understated approach that pays off. The
soundtrack does not use much music and the cinematography of the
film is very restrained, capturing scenes of brutal violence
without over the top flair. As a result the violence has a very
realistic dimension and a strangely beautiful quality.
A
History of Violence explores the tensions between nature and
nurture and between impulsive action and conscious action.
Mortensen is very good in his role and successfully plays the
character's multiple sides in ways that give him a rich texture.
The film is almost stolen by Ed Harris, who plays a scarred
gangster with a score to settle with Mortensen. A History of
Violence is a film that is artistically and intellectually
engaging but never loses sight of its dramatic center. This film
reaches new artistic heights for director Cronenberg, whose films
have often combined violence with intelligent inquiry.
8. Sin
City
Directed
by: Frank Miller, Robert Rodriguez, and Quentin Tarantino
Premise:
An adaptation of Frank Miller’s series of graphic novels. The
film is comprised of three short stories that take place in a
crime ridden, urban landscape.
Why
it made the list:
Sin City is a gorgeous film but in a very gritty and
grotesque way. This really is a true comic adaptation in the sense
that it blurs the line between animation and live action. Sin
City is an incredibly violent film but the violence is part of
the grotesque beauty of the picture and it is reminiscent of the
films of Mario Bava and other Italian horror films of the 1960s
and 70s. Within this violence is a strangely coherent moral
perspective, twisted as it may seem, that was largely
unappreciated by mainstream critics. The film's parts, although
created by different directors, do have a unified look and tone
that makes each story distinct and yet stylistically part of a
cohesive whole. Sin City is a landmark film, not just
within the comic book genre but also within American cinema.
Watching this film is like watching Tim Burton’s Batman
or the original Matrix.
There is a sense that this is something truly original and
artistic while being entirely entertaining. Sin City
cements Rodriguez’s and Tarantino’s reputations as some of the
most daring and visionary filmmakers working in American cinema.
9.
The
Constant Gardener
Directed
by: Fernando Meirelles
Premise:
A British diplomat (Ralph Fiennes) investigates the murder of his
wife (Rachel Weisz) and uncovers a conspiracy with ties to a
pharmaceutical company.
Why
it made the list:
In a year of films with heavy-handed political themes, The
Constant Gardener puts its story and its craft first and comes
out with extraordinary results. The mystery is well structured and
avoids the traps and clichés of the genre. The cinematography and
editing support the drama and enhance it by using grainy film
stock and appropriate lighting techniques; the African landscapes
are beautifully shot and the scenes of violence have a beauty that
other films of its kind lack. The story smartly combines the
character study with the detective story and Fiennes’
performance brings out the transformation in a very elegant way by
controlling the emotion and quietly and precisely structuring the
change in his character. The film is very sad but it has an
elegance that prohibits it from over the top sentimentality.
10. The
Devil’s Rejects
Directed
by:
Rob Zombie
Premise:
A follow up to House
of 1000 Corpses. In this film the sadistic members of the
Firefly family (Sid Haig, Sheri Moon Zombie, and Bill Mosely) go
on a killing spree while being pursued by the local sheriff
(William Forsythe).
Why
it made the list:
Just when it looked like the horror film had gone soft with PG-13
affair, Rob Zombie released The Devil’s Rejects, a throw
back to the Grindhouse films of the 1970s that has no bones about
getting its hands dirty. The Devil’s Rejects is a much
better film than its predecessor, House of 1000 Corpses. It
has a much stronger narrative and it abandons the semi-cartoonish
look of the original film in favor of a grittier style of
cinematography. The characters are colorful but now have a human
dimension that makes them much more engaging. Forsythe almost
steals the show in his intense portrayal of a law-abiding sheriff
who loses his way ethically and morally. This is the true strength
of the film; it starts as a conventional good versus evil tale but
over the course of the story this turns on itself and the film
muddles the distinction between good and evil to such a degree
that the two are indistinguishable. With this film Rob Zombie has
clearly demonstrated his promise as a filmmaker.
Index
Honorable
Mentions
Here
are some films that did not make the Top 10 but are worth
mentioning.
Batman
Begins—The return of the Caped Crusader was in some ways
superior to Tim
Burton’s 1989 film.
Brokeback
Mountain—A visually stunning film with great
performances; aside from the homosexual content, the story is a
little too formulaic to crack the Top 10 but it remains an
impressive film.
The
Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe
—The adaptation of C.S.
Lewis’ book exceeded expectations and was entertaining for
adults and for children.
Constantine—A
comic book adaptation that was better than it had any right to be
because of its creativity, vision, and humor. Tilda Swinton's
performance as the angel Gabriel helps too.
Corpse
Bride—Another Tim Burton produced stop motion feature,
this one with even bolder creations and a some great physical
gags.
Dominion:
Prequel to the Exorcist—Paul Schrader’s version
finally saw light this year and was an intelligent exploration of
faith and evil.
Harry
Potter and the Goblet of Fire—The best of the Potter
films with its more mature themes and its accurate portrayal of
adolescence.
High
Tension—A French bloodbath that could have been a
contender for the Top 10 if not for a problematic ending.
Hustle
and Flow—A picture that does for ghettos and pimps what Brokeback
Mountain does for homosexuality; it finds the human narrative
and explores the subculture instead of exploiting it.
Inside
Deep Throat—An irreverent but authoritative documentary
on the legacy of Deep
Throat and the limits of free speech.
The
Island—The one Jerry Bruckheimer film that did not
deserve to bomb. Despite being derivative of films like THX-1138,
The Island was also fun and thoughtful, even if the
thoughts were half-baked.
King
Kong—Peter Jackson’s retelling of the giant ape story
had some of the biggest action sequences of the year and the title
character set new standards in computer animation.
Kung
Fu Hustle—A Hong Kong film that combined martial arts
with Three Stooges-style slapstick.
March
of the Penguins—The surprise hit of the year, this
documentary was a unique and original film.
Memoirs
of a Geisha—This film captures the beauty of a now
defunct culture and featured insights into the extent women are
pushed to appease male desires.
Mr.
and Mrs. Smith—Despite a weak third act, this film was a
fun and allowed Brad Pitt to demonstrate his comic talents.
Pride
and Prejudice—A costume drama that has a modern sense of
fun and some expert camera work.
Star
Wars: Episode III – Revenge of the Sith—The Star
Wars saga wrapped up in a fun, dark, and satisfying final
chapter. Despite its faults, it is still one of the best in the
series.
Syriana—A
bold political thriller with multiple storylines. It does not edit
between them as skillfully as Crash, but it does paint a
sophisticated portrait of the oil industry.
Wedding
Crashers—A truly adult comedy that, at least for the
first two acts, was fun and original.
The
Woodsman—Technically a 2004 release, it never got a wide
release until 2005. This film about sin and redemption could rival
any of my Top 10 picks.
Index
Good
Buzz List
The following are films
that Nathan did not get to see, usually because they did not open
in this area but had a good critical reaction.
Match
Point—Woody Allen’s latest film.
Transamerica—Felicity
Huffman plays a man who has gotten as sex change operation.
Proof—Cast
includes Gwyneth Paltrow and Anthony Hopkins in a story about the
insanity.
The
Squid and the Whale—Story about child dealing with joint
custody by divorced parents.
Mrs.
Henderson Presents—Getting a lot of buzz for Judi
Dench’s performance.
The
Matador—Story about a hit man (Pierce Brosnan) who is
faced with life changing circumstances.
Broken
Flowers—Bill Murray’s latest Oscar bid.
Index
Bottom
10 Films of the Year
What follows represents
the very bottom of the cinematic heap of 2005.
1. Doom
Directed by:
Andrzej Bartkowiak
Premise: An
adaptation of the popular video game. A group of Marines, led by
former wrestler The Rock, are sent to a space station on a rescue
mission and encounter alien monsters.
Why it made the list:
Those looking for their fix of professional wrestlers using foul
language and big guns will be more than happy. The rest of the
film fails at nearly every level and is a walking cliché. The
scares are very predictable. The action is shot in such low
lighting and edited together so sloppily that it is hard to tell
what is going on. The story, which in the video game genre is
generally thin anyhow, makes no effort to create a dramatic rise
and fall or even make sense. The filmmakers also get an F for
their biology research; the crux of the story’s mystery is in
the assertion that humans have twenty-three chromosomes and the
aliens have introduced a twenty-fourth. In truth, humans have
forty-six chromosomes. What finally really sinks the picture is
that it apparently believes that it is a serious science fiction
film and the lack of humor kills any enjoyable elements. Doom
is rip off of films like Aliens
and Resident
Evil but it’s not nearly as entertaining.
2. Transporter
2
Directed by: Louis
Leterrier
Premise:
Jason Statham reprises his role as Frank Martin. In this film he
attempts to rescue a boy who has been kidnapped by a villain
(Alessandro Gassman) with a mysterious agenda.
Why
it made the list:
Although not a brilliant film, the original Transporter
had a character arc and an attitude that made it fun and a sort of
guilty pleasure. This film throws out the little bit of dramatic
substance of the original and tries to fill the space with action.
Unfortunately, the action sequences in this film are not very good
and are sub par for the genre. The editing is not very good and
they have very little rise and fall of emotion. When a sequence
begins it has no really apparent cause and when it ends it does
not have any effect. The villains are really pathetic, especially
Katie Nauta, who spends the entire film in a bikini, licking her
lips, sneering incredibly bad dialogue, and shooting two oversize
hand guns at close range but never hitting anything. Transporter
2 is one of those sequels that really begs the question, why?
The ending of the original did not lead anywhere and this film
does not attempt to solve that problem. It’s a waste of a film
and a talented actor.
3. Elektra
Directed by: Rob
Bowman
Premise:
A spin off of Jennifer Garner’s character in Daredevil.
In this film Elektra protects a father (Groan Visnjic) and his
daughter Abby (Kristen Prout) from a supernatural crime syndicate.
Why
it made the list:
There is no story here to speak of. Who the characters are and how
they relate to each other is never really explained or explored.
The introduction of a mystical element to bring Elektra back from
the dead comes off as a cheep hook to create a new franchise.
Elektra is 2005’s Catwoman,
which is to say a waste of a talent and a concept. Daredevil
was fun and had humor going for it, but this film is neither fun
nor humorous.
4.
Stealth
Directed by: Rob
Cohen
Premise:
An elite trio of navy pilots (Josh Lucas, Jessica Biel, and Jamie
Foxx) face off against an aircraft piloted by artificial
intelligence.
Why
it made the list:
The film is a patchwork of other sources. The characters and their
relationships are mostly cardboard cutouts from other action
films. The artificial intelligence storyline is a well-worn
convention of science fiction and has been done better in other
places. Stealth uses these old techniques but does not make
anything new out of them. Stealth will only be fun for
anyone who can’t get enough of the Iron
Eagle films.
5. Alone
in the Dark
Directed by: Uwe
Boll
Premise: Based on
the video game. Edward Carnby (Christian Slater) is a paranormal
investigator who aligns with a museum curator (Tara Reid) to
combat monster from another dimension.
Why
it made the list: The
first third of the movie is almost camp, and that is about as good
as this movie can hope to be. After that everything goes down
hill. The acting, especially by Tara Reid, is terrible and
exacerbated by dialogue that is laughably inane. The performances
might have been fun if the filmmakers were not taking themselves
so seriously. Virtually nothing happens throughout the second act.
The film closes with a large-scale gun battle that has completely
incoherent action and is disconnected from the first hour of the
film. Alone in the Dark is what an Ed Wood production would
be like made with today’s special effects but without the campy
humor. It’s further proof that video game films are cinematic
death.
6.
Last
Days
Directed by: Gus
Van Sant
Premise: A film
about the last days of a fictional musician (Michael Pitt) who
supposed to be an analogy for Kurt Cobain, the lead singer of
Nirvana.
Why
it made the list:
Last Days is ninety minutes of this fictional musician
walking around the woods, around his house, and around the woods
again mumbling to himself. There is no point to any of this, and
while that may be the point, punctuated by the suicide, it’s too
long of a way to go to get to nothing. Although it has art house
aspirations, Last Days is a failure of filmmaking.
7. Boogyman
Directed by:
Stephen T. Kay
Premise: A grown
man (Barry Watson) faces the ghost that abducted his father.
Why
it made the list:
The story never really goes anywhere. It has no emotional highs or
lows and is unable to create any sense of tension. Mystery and
disorientation are generally a part of the horror genre but this
film never achieves any sort of coherency. In an effort to be
scary, the film uses fast cuts and shaky camerawork but this only
frustrates the viewer. The action sequences are unable to maintain
any sort of narrative logic. Boogyman represents everything
wrong with the horror genre right now. It attempts to cover its
lack of substance with style but comes off as boring. This makes
me yearn for the good old days of Friday
the 13th Part VII.
8.
Four
Brothers
Directed by: John
Singleton
Premise: Four men
reunite when their adoptive mother is killed in a mysterious
shooting and begin a violent investigation.
Why it made the list:
Although the film starts out promising, it goes awry when it plays
on too many clichés of the revenge genre. Rather than building on
the irony between these men dealing with the consequences of
violence and then perpetuating it, Four Brothers lets an
action film mentality take over and ignores the consequences of
the character’s actions. It is also troublesome because, on the
one hand, the virtue of the dead mother was her charity and her
supposed rehabilitation these men in their youth, but in their
pursuit for vengeance they renounce the civility she has imbued in
them and embrace the life of crime that she had supposedly saved
them from. The film never addresses these problems. This is all
the more troubling coming from John Singleton, whose credits
include Higher
Learning and Boyz
in the Hood, films that condemned this kind of idiotic
gangsta posturing.
9.Cursed
Directed by: Wes
Craven
Premise: A brother
and sister (Christina Ricci and Jessie Eisenberg) are attacked by
a werewolf and begin to transform.
Why
it made the list:
Once the monster is revealed Cursed loses a lot of the
mystique it had going for it. The film is an updated version of a
very old formula and the film does not bring enough new material
to the genre, despite a screenplay by Kevin Williamson (Scream).
The film has a potential mystery element but this ends up in a
disappointing third act that feels as though it was ripped out of Buffy
the Vampire Slayer. Despite having a strong cast and one
of the best directors in the genre, Cursed simply cannot
deliver on its promise.
10.
White
Noise
Directed by:
Geoffrey Sax
Premise: A
recently widowed man (Michael Keaton) begins to communicate with
his dead wife (Chandra West) through the static and white noise of
his television.
Why it made the list:
The story does not make much sense and leaves a lot of the
important questions unanswered, such as the relationship between a
trio of mysterious ghosts and the Keaton’s wife and the reason
Keaton is able to see into the future through his television. The
ending really comes out of nowhere and feels very anti-climactic.
Index
