TBT #79: Top 10 films of 2005

I give up.

I’ve held off on this list for a long time. I’ve heard 2005 described as a good year for movies. Hell, I’ve heard it described as a great year for movies. For me, though, it kind of sucked. My problem was and is that nothing really grabbed me and as such not only was putting together this list something of a chore I also had trouble finding the desire to even watch a bunch of movies I only had fair-to-middling hopes for. That my more favourite directors either decided to take a year off (Wes and Paul Anderson) or released tremendously disappointing films (Crowe, most notably) did not help. Also — and I may get skewered for saying this — television’s much-heralded return to scripted programming served to dampen my enthusiasm for sitting through this year’s films. I maintain that the final episode of Six Feet Under was better constructed and more emotionally resonant than any of the movies listed below. And were I a big cheater I could definitely put select episodes of NBC’s The Office and Fox’s House on the list, as the writing on both those shows has at times been so fucking astounding I can barely contain myself.

But whatever. I need to do a list, if only to maintain a tradition that spans three glorious years (And yeah, I’ll still defend the Igby Goes Down choice). So here it is: meticulously prepared and tremendously overthought, this list will put that whole crazy year into perspective. Be advised, of course, that this is far from scientific and could in fact change because sometimes I totally forget things.

The following are the best films of 2005, presented on February 15, 2006.

Random Awards

Funniest Bad Film: Elektra

Funniest moment in Elektra: Okay. There is this part in the movie where Jennifer Garner is kissed by a woman who I think was supposed to be Typhoid Mary. Mary spreads disease by touching people so she kissed Jennifer out of hate and not because she totally couldn’t resist Garner’s very square jaw. In any case, whereas generally hot lesbian action garners arousal or at the very least polite applause, this moment resulted in the entire in-theatre crowd yelling “GROSS!” Seriously.

Most overwrought explanation: That one, right above this.

Biggest disappointment: Elizabethtown, by far.

Kinda overrated: Brokeback Mountain

Kinda underrated: Crash

Film that didn’t really deserve all that scorn: Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith

Film that probably deserved more scorn: War of the Worlds

Film I guess I scorned wrongly: Rent

Best pornographic concert film of 2005: Nine Songs

Best female-empowering movie featuring stars like Glenn Close, Dakota Fanning and Robin-Wright Penn: Nine Lives

Similarly titled films you must never confuse: Those two.

Most delightful montage: Eric Bana has sex with his wife while thinking about a bunch of hostages getting shot, Munich

Runner-up: The Four bond as a family as Johnny Storm plays tricks on Ben “The Thing” Grimm and Reed Richards finds comfort with longtime girlfriend Susan Storm, Fantastic Four

Things that should have happened in War of the Worlds:

• The son should have died!
• Boston should have been a smouldering crater in the ground!
• Tim Robbins should have been in a another movie!

Worst film of the year: Must Love Dogs

Worst thing in Must Love Dogs: Very few dogs.

Honourable Mentions

• Nine Songs
• The Girl in the Cafe
• Junebug
• Batman Begins
• Rent
• King Kong
• Walk The Line
• Proof
• Millions

The Top 10

10. Crash
This is probably the only release this year divisive enough to appear on both Top 10 Best lists and Top 10 Worst lists. I won’t argue that it’s not flawed, because it is, both in its heavy-handedness and its relatively simplistic examination of far more complex issues. What I will argue, however, is that director Paul Haggis managed to coax great performances from a very diverse cast and in doing so created a number of very powerful scenes. It may be that I’m just a sucker for ensemble casts, but recognizing that doesn’t do anything to dampen my enjoyment of this movie. As a supposed ‘message movie’ it is a failure, but taken as less than that it can be viewed as a successful film. That’s what I just did, anyway.

9. Primer
IMDB lists this as a 2004 release, but as it never opened beyond a very limited release then — and I saw it for the first time in 2005 — I feel right to include it on this list. Primer is a low-budget, bizarrely-constructed, confusion-inducing piece of filmmaking, taking the subject of — what else? — time travel to ridiculously convoluted ends. And I loved it for all its flaws. It’s very much in the tradition of ‘hard’ sci-fi, the kind I used to love as a kid, mixing established principles with the fantastic. The result isn’t a perfect film but instead something that at the very least leaves you thinking. It’s kind of like Back to the Future II if Marty were a sociopath and the Delorean were a rented storage unit.

8. Syriana
Fair warning: George Clooney appears twice on this list. Sometimes it’s hard to get over old crushes. Syriana has taken a lot of flack for being overly complicated and unclear in its plot, but I did not find that to be the case. In fact, this film probably would have ranked higher on the list were director Stephen Gaghan not so much like a flawed Steven Soderbergh clone. It’s a very good script and it works as a “message movie” far better than, say, Crash does. As it is, though, Syriana is a bit too loose and unfocused to rank any higher than this.

7. Me & You & Everyone We Know
I was a little iffy on this one, especially after first viewing. My initial reaction was that while I was charmed and impressed by a number of the scenes in Miranda July’s movie, I did not feel that overall it was equal to the sum of parts. It felt like a really great collection of vignettes rather than a fully-realized film. Then, I watched it again. And still I felt like it was a really great collection of vignettes rather than a fully-realized film. But for some reason I cared less about the whole the second time around, allowing me to more appreciate the individual parts. Knowing what to expect going into this isn’t a bad thing. The trailer indicated that it was kind of a quirky romantic comedy with artistic elements, instead there are things like teenage blowjobs, online poop antics and a whole load of performance art. Me and You and Everyone We Know is ridiculously inventive and creative — almost too much so.

6. Shopgirl
I don’t know why no one agrees with me. Jason Schwartzman, in this movie, gives not only the best performance of his career but also the best performance of the year. The lack of attention given to him as a result of this film was enough to convince me that all that stuff everyone says about comedic actors never getting enough accolades must be true. The guy works his ass off in this (seriously flawed) film and in doing so defines a character that is both complex but also immediately relatable. The rest of the film is not, objectively, great. It’s overlong and having Steve Martin play both a main character ANd the omniscient narrator was a bonehead decision of the highest order. Still, this stands as a sentimental favourite. I think Martin confronting Claire Danes’ character outside the art gallery and telling her that he did love her is my favourite scene this year.

5. A History of Violence
Until this movie by David Cronenberg, I do not think I had ever seen the sex act known in some circles as “sixty-nine” performed on screen in a mainstream production. For that reason, and that reason alone, this takes the fifth spot on this year’s list.

I am of course kidding. Though I saw this movie with a rather stupid audience who laughed way too often, I still came away thinking very highly of it. The reveal at the end of the second act is a definite challenger for favourite scene of the year, and throughout the film Cronenberg is able to take film violence to new levels of… disgusting. Overall, though, the biggest strength of A History of Violence is found in its characters. Cronenberg has always dealt with characters that carry with them contradiction, and that is especially true of his central characters here. They’re so far from two-dimensional that the actors aren’t just acting, they’re tesseracting.

4. Capote
We’ve been here before. Capote is all about Philip Seymour Hoffman’s performance. Yeah, Catherine Keener is nice and all as Harper Lee, but the movie was always going to live or die by Hoffman, and as his performance is so out-of-this-world affecting the movie obviously lives. But is one singularly strong performance enough to carry a movie? In most cases I would say no — particularly in cases like with last year’s Ray — but with this film I’m moved to contradict myself. Sure, my enjoyment of Capote is almost entirely driven by Hoffman, but the film itself is constructed in such a way that he is allowed to carry the film. Whereas with something like Ray I felt everything surrounding the championed performance was just kind of lame and uninspired, director Bennett Miller is competent enough to not only avoid such pitfalls but also to surround Hoffman with elements that allow his acting to appear even stronger.

Put simply: I really really like Philip Seymour Hoffman.

3. Grizzly Man
This was the first film I saw by acclaimed German director Werner Herzog. I knew literally nothing about the man before I watched Grizzly Man. Since then, I have come to regard him as a literal superhero. Whether he’s starring in a short film called “Werner Herzog eats his shoe”, saving Joaquin Phoenix after a car accident or getting shot but opting to let the shooter get away, Herzog is a man I admire. And if Grizzly Man is any indication, he is a spectacular documentarian, as well. The film follows the story of Timothy Treadwell, a noted lover of the Grizzly Bear, who had been living amongst them for a decade before, late one summer, he was eaten by one. What really impressed me about this film was not the subject matter — though with Treadwell Herzog has uncovered a fascinating story — but rather how organic Herzog is in the telling of Treadwell’s story. He was obviously surprised by the themes that arose from investigating Treadwell and the bears, and so the viewer shares in his surprise. We follow him as more and more themes are uncovered, some entirely tangential, some a little heavy-handed, but all fascinating. If you have not yet seen this, you should.

2. Match Point
I’ve got no love for Woody Allen. I’ve got nothing against him, either, having enjoyed several of his earlier works and also that time he voiced that animated bug. But generally modern day Allen is something best ignored. I don’t hold a grudge; if I were in my late sixties and had the power I’d write movies where I get to make-out with twenty-something starlets too. And I probably would not put a lot of effort into my work either because honestly what kind of old man wants to work past 4 p.m. anyway? That’s dinner hour.

Match Point is not a Woody Allen film.

I mean, it is. It must be. It says his name on it. But finding the Allen trademarks in this film is near-impossible. Where you’d expect Manhattan, Allen shoots London. Where you’d expect comedy, Allen writes gritty and surprising drama. Where you’d expect Woody Allen himself, Allen wisely bows out. He’s not in this film. To say too much else would be to spoil the experience, but needless to say this is two things for Woody Allen: a departure and a great success. Who knew he still had it in him?

1. Good Night, and Good Luck
I don’t like the comma in the title but I like everything else. After what I thought was a promising start in Confessions of a Dangerous Mind, George Clooney absolutely proves himself as both a writer and a director with this movie. Not only is it gorgeously shot, wonderfully acted — David Strathairn in particular is phenomenal — and perfectly paced, it also succeeds in a big way at being a “message movie.” Whether it’s because of the historical context or because it’s just very well-crafted, Good Night, and Good Luck is able to convey a very relevant message without running into the kind of heavy-handhedness that tinged Syriana and smacked the hell out of Crash. That is perhaps the most impressive achievement in a film that can boast about a dozen of them. In fact, whereas with every other film on this list I can quite easily recall flaws or unfortunate scenes, this movie is untouchable. I can’t think of one thing I’d change. For what it is, Good Night, and Good Luck is a perfect film.

And so I’ve done it. That always takes longer than I anticipate it will. Feel free to let me in on YOUR favourite film of last year! Also feel free to tell me why I suck! And feel free to feel free, because you should, baby — freedom’s all that matters. Yeah.

Matt