10 Best Films of 2005
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 (Philip 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.
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.
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.
Bottom 10 Films of 2005
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 cheap 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.