Top 10 Films of 2004
1. Collateral
Directed by: Michael Mann
Premise: A hit man named Vincent (Tom Cruise) makes Max (Jamie Foxx), a hapless taxi driver, chauffer him through a night of murders.
Why It Made the List: This film belongs to Jamie Foxx and he gives one of the best performances seen this year. Tom Cruise, in his first role as a villain, uses his charisma to turn Vincent from a straight villain into a very enamoring, wolf-like character. All the elements of film, including the sound design, cinematography, and editing, work together to create a very exciting but also very emotional cinematic impact. Michael Mann proves once again that he is one of the most underrated American directors working today. Collateral is an exciting, unique film that, like Se7en, explores the lack of humanity or community in metropolitan areas.
2. Ray
Directed by: Taylor Hackford
Premise: A biopic of musician Ray Charles. The film charts his career from his first jobs in bars to his major success in mainstream record labels but also his struggles with drug abuse.
Why It Made the List: The film is a very balanced portrait of Ray Charles life, giving us the good and the bad. We see him as a very loving father but also as a drug addict. Similarly, we see his generous creative side but also his ruthless business sense. Like Will Smith’s role in Ali, Jamie Foxx’s performance of Ray Charles is dead on. Unlike Ali, the story has been well structured and paced out to create a sense of narrative unity. This film is constructed as a personal story about addiction and overcoming chemical dependency and a physical disability. On that level, Ray is very good and one of the best pictures this year. Along with his work in Collateral, Jamie Foxx gives one of the strongest performances of the year. The movie will be fun for fans of jazz, blues, and R&B but also for general audiences as well.
3. Closer
Directed by: Mike Nichols
Premise: A story about two couples whose love lives are intertwined.
Why It Made the List: This is a great story with some very difficult and yet engaging characters. On one hand, the characters act is very reprehensible ways, especially Larry (Clive Owen). Yet, the characters achieve a humanity that keeps the audience from hating them and taking sides. The dialogue is very sharp and witty, adding humor and humanity to what is very a difficult film. Closer is also able to achieve an air of extreme sexual intimacy without actually showing any intercourse. This makes the film’s discussion about the role of sex in relationships more pointed because it keeps the film focused on the emotions of the characters. Closer is a film about sexual relationships and achieves an honesty and truth about those relationships without being sentimental or pornographic. It is a heartbreaking film to watch and deserves recognition for its smart script and superior acting.
4. Friday Night Lights
Directed by: Peter Berg
Premise: The true story of a high school football team in rural Texas and their road to the state championship.
Why It Made the List: The cast of young actors does a very impressive job. Often times in these kinds of films it is fairly obvious that older actors are cast in the roles of seventeen year olds, but in this film the cast feel as though they really are in high school. The film captures the pressures put on this team by the community and how it affects not only their game but also their personal lives. The cinematography and editing are very well done, especially in the final game. Friday Night Lights could have been passed off as a documentary film, if not for the presence of Billy Bob Thornton, who proves once again that he is one of Hollywood’s best (and most underappreciated) acting talents. Friday Night Lights may go down as one of the best sports films ever made. It captures the ferocity and violence of football, but also the personal heartache of the athletes and their families.
5. Hero
Directed by: Yimou Zhang
Premise: A nameless assassin (Jet Li) recounts how he defeated three other assassins.
Why It Made the List: This is a beautiful looking film. It is heavily formalistic and its fight scenes are incredible. The story design is very interesting as well; the stories are told multiple times and with each telling the audience learns something more about the characters and about the nature of war and heroism. There is a huge scope to the look of the film but it has a strong emotional center based on interesting human relationships. Hero is a gorgeous looking film that is done on the scale of some of Hollywood’s biggest event pictures, but it never loses sight of the intimate human relationships.
6. Finding Neverland
Directed by: Marc Forster
Premise: The story of author James Matthew Barrie (Johnny Depp) and the influences from his life that inspired him to write Peter Pan.
Why It Made the List: The performances by Johnny Depp and Kate Winslet as Sylvia Davies are very strong. There is a love triangle between them and the Ansell Barrie, James’ wife, but the film does not simply turn its story over to a simple love story and keeps complicating it with the relationships between Barrie and Davies’ children and Sylvia’s mother (Julie Christie). The film has a great message about the value of being playful and using your imagination and how the grown-up world snuffs that out. This is a metatext, a story about storytelling, and it addresses the reasons we need fantasy. This is definitely a film for fans of Depp, Peter Pan, and those who like fantasy stories.
7. Open Water
Directed by: Chris Kentis
Premise: A couple is stranded in shark-infested waters when their diving boat leaves them in the middle of the ocean.
Why It Made the List: This is a very unsettling film and it has the intensity of the opening scene of Jaws. The married couple (Blanchard Ryan and Daniel Travis) are well-developed characters that the audience is able to latch onto and really care about them. There is a great authenticity to their performances as they cope with the situation. Open Water is an example of low budget filmmaking using its minimal resources to its advantage. It is one of the most frightening films of the year and will likely make even seasoned horror fans squirm in their seats.
8. The Manchurian Candidate
Directed by: Jonathan Demme
Premise: A remake of the 1962 film. Ben Marco (Denzel Washington), a Gulf War veteran, has chronic nightmares that he and the men under his command were brainwashed by a corporation, including one man who is now running for vice-president (Liev Schreiber).
Why It Made the List: This is a film of the times and a very subversive picture, in some ways even more so than Fahrenheit 9/11. The acting here is great. Washington creates the conspiracy for the audience and his performance brings out the paranoia of the situation in a very well structured way. Liev Schreiber’s is able to make the audience feel a great deal of empathy for his character and while Washington’s role is more pronounced, it is Schreiber who really punctuates the human tragedy of the situation. Meryl Streep is wonderful as Schreiber’s mother, and theirs is one of the most creepy, manipulative, and Freudian mother-son relationships ever seen on film. The story of this remake has been made to fit contemporary politics and anxieties, and this version of The Manchurian Candidate has all of the potency of a Michael Moore film.
9. Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
Directed by: Michel Gondry
Premise: Joel (Jim Carrey) undergoes a procedure to erase his memories of ex-girlfriend Clementine (Kate Winslet) when their relationship goes south. In the process of erasing the memories, he realizes the value of the positive memories despite the pain of the negative ones.
Why It Made the List: The film is at its best when it is exploring Joel’s memories and allowing him to explore those memories and why they are special. This is a good pick for fans of Being John Malkovichand those who enjoy Jim Carrey as a dramatic and experimental actor. The film is a breath a refreshing and original piece that crosses categories of science fiction, art house pictures, and Hollywood love stories.
10. Fahrenheit 9/11
Directed by: Michael Moore
Premise: The film is a documentary about the Bush administration and criticizes Bush from the 2000 election through the Iraq war.
Why It Made the List: Fahrenheit 9/11 is documentary filmmaking at the top of its game regardless of its political agenda. It is to the film’s credit that Moore stays out of it and lets the audience absorb the drama as it unfolds. As a piece of argumentation, Fahrenheit 9/11 is a very partisan piece but it embraces that political point of view rather than attempt to conceal it. Is Fahrenheit 9/11 a piece of propaganda? Of course it is. It’s also one of the best and most important films released this year.
Honorable Mentions
The Aviator–Demystified Howard Hughes and was another gorgeous film by Martin Scorsese.
Birth–Deserves recognition just for having a lot of guts to go to the depths that it did
The Bourne Supremacy–The Bourne films are some of the best spy films every made and prove action and intelligence are not mutually exclusive.
Dawn of the Dead–This remake was a return to smart, socially conscious horror and perhaps the first post-9/11 American film.
De-Lovely–This very nearly made the Top 10 as it was a great fusion of the stage and film mediums.
The Dreamers–A sexy and beautiful film made for the art house crowd.
Jersey Girl–Director Kevin Smith’s latest film was fun if predictable and featured an Oscar-worthy performance by George Carlin.
The Passion of the Christ–This film deserves some recognition for its ability to use technical mastery to disguise the shallowness of the content.
Saved!–This was another film with guts that was also funny, heartfelt, and smart.
Saw–A frightening film with an uncompromising and smart script.
Shrek 2–This was a very funny and a worthy sequel to the original.
Spider-Man 2–This sequel was lots of fun and gave audience one of the best comic book films ever.
The Stepford Wives–This was a funny remake that plays well for contemporary audiences.
Super Size Me!–A very funny and poignant documentary that never becomes condescending.
The Terminal–Tom Hanks’ best performance since Forrest Gump.
The Village–M. Night Shyamalan’s latest picture was a fascinating film despite its flaws.
Bottom 5 Films of 2004
1. Harold and Kumar Go to White Castle
Directed By: Danny Leiner
Premise: Just like it sounds. Harold (John Cho) and Kumar (Kal Penn) get high on marijuana and decided to take a short road trip to get burgers from White Castle fast food restaurant.
Why It Made the List: The film’s attempt to be a fusion of Dude, Where’s My Car, Road Trip, and the Cheech and Chong movies falls flat. It’s just not funny. On top of that the characters are totally uninteresting and even the drug humor does not work. The film lacks the poetry of idiocy that Cheech and Chong and Dumb and Dumber do so well. John Cho and Kal Penn seem like competent actors, but they have been given little to work with. Even if you are a stoner yourself, give this movie a pass.
2. Catwoman
Directed By: Pitof
Premise: The DC Comics character from the Batman franchise is given her own spin off. In this film she is a full-fledged crime fighter, not a burglar as in her origins. Also, the film is moved out of Gotham City and as a result the story bears little resemblance to the comics that Catwoman was based upon.
Why It Made the List:The film switches alternates between being a music video and a strip tease. Sharon Stone plays perhaps the most uninteresting villain in comic book adaptation history and she perpetuates a dull drum murder mystery that is predictable from the start. The film’s script seems like it was written from the point of view of a feminist but then was shot by someone who did not grasp that at all and objectifies Berry throughout the picture, defeating any female independence issues. It is too bad someone of Berry’s talents had to be involved in this. If you are interested in seeing a psychologically interesting Catwoman, I recommend renting Batman Returns.
3. The Forgotten
Directed By: Joseph Rubin
Premise: A mother (Julianne Moore) grieving the loss of her son is told by her psychiatrist (Gary Sinese) that all the memories of her son are made up.
Why It Made the List:The story is a mess. It has a compelling idea but that idea is not fleshed out dramatically. The conspiracy plot should be front and center but it has no structure. For this kind of story to work, the audience needs to be given clues. This makes the story go forward. Unfortunately, after Moore’s character realizes she might not be crazy the story grinds to a halt. The ending comes almost out of nowhere and is very detached from the rest of the picture. The Forgotten feels like a really bad episode of the X-Files. It may make a good rental or party movie but it has little value to the conspiracy or science fiction genres.
4. Exorcist: The Beginning
Directed By: Renny Harlin
Premise:Prequel to 1973’s The Exorcist. Father Merrin (Stellen Skarsgard), the exorcist from the original picture, leads an archeological expedition into a cursed church.
Why It Made the List:This is just not a very scary film, which is surprising from Harlin, who has done successful horror films in the past such as Deep Blue Sea and Nightmare on Elm Street Part 4. It does have plenty of gore (and was originally given an NC-17) but it never slows down enough to be scary. The link between this film and the original is really on contrivance. Fans of Skarsgard and Harlin may want to have a look but fans of the original Exorcist will be disappointed.
5. Suspect Zero
Directed By: E. Elias Merhige
Premise: A man (Ben Kingsley) trained by the FBI to find serial killers by reconstructing their fantasies begins to hunt the killers on his own.
Why It Made the List: The premise of the film has been seen before in Manhunter, Red Dragon, and in an overload of TV police procedurals. There are massive plot holes in the climax as characters appear out of nowhere and act inconsistent with their motivations. The film is an example of style over substance. Despite some strong acting, Suspect Zero cannot overcome the massive problems of its script. Give this one a pass and rent Se7en or Manhunter instead.
2004: The Year of the Political Film
Historical Films
Alexander–Addressed issues of power, responsibility, and sexual orientation.
The Aviator–A lone man faces off against corporations and a corrupt senator.
The Passion of the Christ–Charged a debate about cinema violence and the historical Jesus.
Documentaries
Fahrenheit 9/11–Michael Moore’s film kicked open the door for the documentary as a commercial film.
Super Size Me!–A very funny and pointed documentary about America’s eating habits.
Control Room–This film addresses the news media and the larger issue of meaning in film and television.
Fantasy Films
The Chronicles of Riddick–Although dismissed by most critics as fluff, this film was a strong allegory for the Iraq War.
Dawn of the Dead–The remake reflected a lot of Romero’s original but felt fresh and scary. This is possibly the first major post-9/11 American film.
I, Robot–The film preyed on the fear of “the other inside” and the invading hoard.
The Manchurian Candidate–This remake ripped some of its content right from the headlines and explored fears about corporate power.
Team America: World Police–A very funny and irreverent parody of the political left and right.
The Village–This film explored the reasons societies create devils and use the fear as a device for controlling the lower members of society.