Decade in Review: 2005 Top Ten

2009 is almost over and so many magazines and websites have already offered up their best of the year AND decade that I'm afraid y'all will get sick of the retrospectives before The Film Experience has chimed on. Remember: the tortoise wins! 2005's top ten list (in its original form) follows. New comments in red.

Public Favorites (Box Office): Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith, The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe, Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, War of the Worlds, King Kong, Wedding Crashers, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Batman Begins, Madagascar and Mr & Mrs Smith
Oscar Favorites: Brokeback Mountain, Capote, Crash, Good Night and Good Luck and Munich
My Vote For UnderAppreciated: In Her Shoes, Happy Endings and The White Countess
Top Ten Runners Up (11-15): The Squid and the Whale, Match Point, The New World, Junebug and The Beat That My Heart Skipped. I like all five of these even better today than I did at the time... and more than a few things in my top ten list. I'd definitely reorder.

10 Corpse Bride
If there is one thing I value above all else in animated films, it's vivid character designs and cohesive artistic vision. In this area, Tim Burton's Corpse Bride has few equals. Credit goes to the titular auteur Tim Burton and co-director Mike Johnson's guiding goth-happy hands as well as one of Hollywood's finest production designers, Alex McDowell. (His past visually stunning credits include Minority Report, The Terminal, Charlie & the Chocolate Factory, and Fight Club. And still no Oscar nomination for his troubles... tsk tsk Hollywood.)

Beyond its superb visual delights, Burton's best film in years also digs up rich voicework from its cast, and offers an enchanting tale both sweet and sour. Nowhere close to perfect but Corpse Bride's got magic to spare.

09 Wallace & Gromit in the Curse of the Were Rabbit
(Another animated film that's blissfully not of the currently homogenous CG *only* school of animation)

I have been a fan of W&G for a long time and enjoying them for an entire feature was akin to visiting with supremely droll friends whom one never sees enough of. To sweeten the reunion, they brought along the sublimely silly Lady Tottington. They even uncovered a heretofore unseen sense of humor in Ralph Fiennes (who voices bunny-hunting Victor Quartermaine). W & G's last cinematic outing was in 1995. A plea to Nick Park: Please do not make us wait another whole decade for the next adventure.

Curious that I shoved two animated films into the top ten... especially considering how strong the runners up were. I blame this partially on my own childlike delight at stop motion animation (it gets to me on some primal level) but mostly on release schedules. I know I'm too susceptible to that but it's just the way I am. I am better at loving things I'm familiar with than brand new things I've just met. And I had JUST gotten a glimpse of Match Point and I remember that I had an awful awful time processing The New World and what was going on with Oscar qualifications that year. Like Nick recently mentioned, I wasn't even sure which version of the Malick movie I was watching. And I don't know that it even still exists. I'm nervous about what this says about me but I actually felt physically angry at the idea that a movie I saw in the theater was not the same movie that my friends saw in the theater which was maybe not even the same movie that critics were writing about for their readers who would never be able to see that one. In some ways I'm still angry. It makes no sense to be this bonkers about it but I even feel like there should be laws against that ever happening again.

08 Good Night, and Good Luck.
Seasonal truth: As surely as leaves fall in autumn, "prestige" dramas arrive in movie theaters. They are generally set in the past, always aim to be 'classy', wish to delight year-end awards voters with gorgeous production values, and plan to be good for you, too. Rarely however are do they deliver on all four counts. This recreation of the 1950s media war between journalist Edward R Murrow (played by the mesmerizing David Strathairn) and Communist hunting Senator Joseph McCarthy (playing himself in archival footage) gratefully hits all of its mark. It's a prestige bullseye for writer, director, star, and emerging activist hero George Clooney.

I have had no desire whatsoever to rewatch this. Does that mean I overvalued it or is one enjoyable viewing of anything reason enough to love a movie?

07 Kings & Queen
Ever since seeing Arnaud Depleschin's wondrously mutating film Rois et Reine about a single mother named Nola (the superb Emmanuelle Devos) and the four men (father, son, ex-lover, and fiancé) in her life I've been desperately trying to pin it down. Exactly what is it?

Whatever it is --melodrama, comedy, existential quandry-- it's as gripping as any fine novel. And to extend the comparison further, it seems just as rich and information packed. Like Nola herself, Kings and Queen is a mysterious and possessive creature: Ultimately unknowable but unwilling to let you withdraw from its world.

06 Brødre
I first saw this Danish drama @ TIFF in 2004 where it became one of my two favorites of the festival. A year later Brothers was released in the states to critical acclaim but made not much of a ripple at the arthouse box office, making it one of the many lost foreign pleasures of the year.

Hollywood may soon be utilizing director Susanne Bier. It's easy to see why. This drama about a young family turned upside down by the news that the husband has been killed in Afghanistan is emotionally potent without ever once feeling forced, despite story elements that would be either pedestrian or overplayed in lesser hands. There's nary a false note struck from the entire ensemble including Hollywood actress Connie Nielsen (making her first film in her homeland) who has never looked better or been more sympathetic onscreen.

Oops. Hollywood didn't take my warning about a story that would feel "pedestrian or overplayed in lesser hands". They went and proved my point just two weeks ago.

05 Me and You and Everyone We Know
Quirky. Edgy. Precocious. Artsy. Odd. These are all adjectives that truthfully describe Miranda July's debut film. Unfortunately all of these carry a whiff of negative connotation. Any of them alone can feel like mere attitudinal posing if a film has nothing to say. Thankfully Me and You and Everyone We Know, with its endearing cast of childlike adults and children playing at adult games has plenty to say about life and connections in this digital age. So quirky yes, but blissfully so. Me and You transcends any adjective you'd like to bestow on it.

One of Miranda July's funniest affectations in her performance/digital art is her tendency to use pre-recorded crowd cheering to punctuate her lines or do her own repetitous call/response with a lowered voice creating her own sycophant lover. I didn't need the prompting to express my adulation. In a year filled with promising debut filmmakers hers was the most endearing new voice.

This movie feels a bit like a lost oddball relic now. Not that it's aged poorly... just that it was always such an idiosyncratic unfashionable feeling thing that it stills feels a bit like an installation rather than a movie that came out. I hope she makes another film soon.

04 Caché
The last time I saw a Michael Haneke picture the title was The Piano Teacher. I was completely terrified, revolted, and stunned. Though nothing in Caché (also known as Hidden) reaches the peak of Isabelle's Huppert's performance accomplishment in the earlier film, I much prefer the newer film, which offers me the same visceral mix of reactions, albeit in different quantities. Perhaps in 2002 I just wasn't ready for the way Michael Haneke mercilessly dissects human weakness.

This mind-bender (and politically-minded story) about a rich French couple and the stalker-like videotapes that begin arriving at their door is masterfully told and rewards attentive viewing. The Austrian auteur uses no musical scoring, no quick editing, and no cheap Hollywood "gotcha!" scare tactics but still manages to thoroughly unnerve the audience. And unlike most tales meant to terrify, Caché also gives the intellect a workout. Michael Haneke may be the most gifted frightener since Alfred Hitchcock.

03 Pride & Prejudice
Confession: Prior to seeing this romantic romp from debuting director Joe Wright I had not read the Jane Austen novel nor seen the BBC miniseries which many consider definitive. I have since begun to fill in those gaps. For those angered at the films many liberties taken (300 plus page novels can't make it to film without cuts --sorry) I say pshaw! What matters is the spirit of the thing. And spirit the new Pride & Prejudice has in spades.

Austen's writing is full of memorable characters, delicious staccato banter and wit and breakneck pace. In this impressively cinematic transformation, the nimble cinematography, beautifully dexterous setpieces, and highly enjoyable performances have all been beautifully choreographed together to ape the high spirits of Austen's eternal charmer. For pure movie-movie fun and swoon-worthy romance, this film is tough to beat.

I am not at all embarrassed by my love for this film, but I do think I overstated the case with the bronze medal. I'd move Caché up a spot for sure.

02 A History of Violence
David Cronenberg, the legendary Canadian director, is a shining beacon to all fringe dwelling filmmakers with a taste for mainstream exposure. You can make an accessible film without losing any of your maverick qualities or subversive spirit. Cronenberg hardly sold out upon taking the reins of this graphic novel adaptation. His signature offputting bits, like his taste for body-horror are still present, just less visible. In one of the film's many masterfully pivoting scenes, Edie Stall (Maria Bello) suddenly vomits upon learning a disturbing truth about her husband. This isn't the in-your-face gynecological terror of Dead Ringers (another Cronenberg masterpiece) but damned if it's not psychologically connected to Mrs. Stall's genitals

...Violence is one of those rare movies that expands and contracts with the audiences expectations. For film fanatics wishing to get lost in the celluloid, it's as deep as you want it to be. For the more casual moviegoer it's a shocking thriller. Either way it's a superbly crafted piece of cinema.

01 Brokeback Mountain
When I read the famous short story upon which this instant classic is based it haunted me for weeks. In very few pages with precise and spare prose, Annie Proulx gave me a portrait of two lives and broke my heart in the process. The film version has that same lean spirit but miraculously never missteps in expanding her original story. This portrait has fresh details and a stunning humanism. Ang Lee paints the secondary characters, wives, mothers, employers, fathers nearly as vividly. In the process the confident auteur has deepened the tragedy of the original story. Brokeback Mountain is no longer just a small but perfect romantic tragedy. It's now an improbably behemoth portrait of tragedy spilling out all over; this is the price of love rejected and forbidden --both for all those who find it and all those who deny its place in society.

Brokeback, which felt like an instant classic at the time, has never disappointed on repeat visits. If anything its familiarity works for it. Like Jack and Ennis, this love deepens. Will it haunt for a whole lifetime?


How does 2005 hold up for you? Which were your favorites at the time and which have snuck up on you as enduring loves?
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Trailer Fourgy: Rendition, Lions, Things and Darjeeling

Time to check in with new trailers. Only a few weeks of hot weather and sequels remain and then we're in the clear, ready to face the onslaught of SERIOUS films aiming for gold.



Rendition (on your left. October 12th) and Lions for Lambs (right. November 9th) are but two of four (?) fall films dealing with our current political quagmire and the misguided unending war (the other pair are the action-heavy The Kingdom and the Paul Haggis thriller In the Valley of Elah) One assumes from the trailers that the four films will have their own individual identities but it's anyone's guess until they're widely seen which will garner Oscar's favor. It's unfair to judge a film based on 2 minutes of heavily edited footage but then, on the other hand, these are how the studios are presenting said films so, you know, judge away.

Rendition looks like it might work. Three separate tracks: terrorist prisons (Gyllenhaal & Metwalley), political chambers (Streep & Arkin) the homsetead (Witherspoon) all lead toward one assumed destination. Cue the grand collision. That the collision involves a weepy screaming wife might spell more Oscar news for Reese but, then again, it might not. [more on the Best Actress race] For it looks like a true ensemble piece. If you lazily compare it to, say, Syriana (hey why not? That's what pre-fall Oscar analysis is all about) you'll be looking at the tortured central figure (played by Omar Metwally who made a big splash on Broadway a few years back) for your acting kudos and not the other players frantically moving their pieces in this tense puzzle. [Supporting Actor race --I'll have to move Metwally way up the chart]

The trailer for Lions for Lambs improves upon the first teaser which looked hideously shoestring as if it were a straight to DVD release. But the improvements are small. It still looks like an unwieldy pendantic machine that luckily fell on top of three massive stars. They're crushed under the weight of the catchphrase ready dialogue. If you ask me this movie looks terrible but Oscar might feel differently. We'll see.




Things We Lost in the Fire (left) is the latest drama from Danish auteur Susanne Bier who won critical acclaim with her first two films and an Oscar nomination in the foreign film category for her last (After the Wedding). From the looks of the trailer Things... is pitched exactly to her strengths: nuanced emotional drama with complicated human relationships. But, that said, I'm not sure I would have as much faith in this project if I wasn't familiar with her work. Halle Berry and Benicio Del Toro, former winners both, could find themselves back on the red carpet if the reviews are kind. Anyway you slice it it's one of those films that screams "actors film" i.e. even if it's well regarded its limited to just a few categories in awards season.


The last trailer The Darjeeling Limited (right) I've included just for fun. Wes Anderson movies usually come out in December but this one is a September release. Still, no Oscar love-in looks likely. Anderson is just too stylized for mainstream love and the Oscars are a mainstream endeavor no matter how much people pretend otherwise whilst bitching about the voters ignoring the latest blockbusters and comedies. Anyway... Anderson isn't making films to win Oscars so good for him. Darjeeling appears to be bringing us a colorful and tasty buffet of his usual treats: witty familial drama, sad-eyed comedy, and amusing widescreen compositions. Some people might find his visual stylizations too affected and thus predictable at this point but I'm so glad someone is using the full rectangle still when they compose their movies. I also love the dialogue exchange halfway through the trailer

"what's wrong with you?"
"let me think about that"

That strikes me as the perfect question and answer response for people who conjecture about the Oscars all year round (like me) and more importantly the perfect banter for a movie artist who just can't be anything other than what he is, god bless. Can't wait to see this one... though I do hope it transcends its style like The Royal Tenenbaums rather than gets smothered by it like The Life Aquatic.

Your thoughts on any of these four? [More on each Oscar race]

Now Playing 03/30

all links go to official sites with trailers...

Limited Release
After the Wedding. You've all heard me go on and on about the talents of Danish director Susanne Bier (Brothers). She's no longer working with Michelle Pfeiffer on an upcoming film (damn!) but she is crossing the water soon for Things We Lost in the Fire starring Halle Berry and Benicio Del Toro. But before that arrives, enjoy last year's foreign film nominee. This orphanage based family drama stars bloody-eyed Bond villian Madds Mikkelsen.
The Hawk is Dying. Paul Giamatti tries to train a wild hawk. Michelle Williams lends support in this festival drama getting a teensy release.
Live Free or Die Tadpole (Aaron Stanford) and Queen of Inescapable Type-Cast Sarcasm (Zooey Deschanel) star in this wacky indie.

There are other movies opening in LA but if movies can't be bothered to open in NYC they're dead to me.

Wide Release
Meet the Robinsons This could obviously turn out to be fun but it's so busy and hyper looking that it makes me flash back to Chicken Little. That is not a good thing.
The Lookout. Scott Frank (the writer of Out of Sight) directs this weeks HDH Joseph Gordon-Levitt in a crime drama that's garnering very strong reviews. Don't they know it's March and the first few months of the year are reserved for completely crappy movies --can't they respect the studio mandated distribution model!?! Speaking of crap cinema...
Blades of Glory. no, I'm kidding. I haven't seen it. I shall not judge sight unseen even though Will Ferrell (annoying) and Jon Heder (even more annoying) headline as a same gendered ice skating pair (...)

Bier for Berry

This woman to your left is one of the best actors directors working. It's Susanne Bier of Open Hearts and Brothers fame. Both of those films are Danish productions but Hollywood has been circling Bier for at least a couple of years now. In fact Open Hearts is now slated to be remade in English as Zach Braff's Garden State followup.

Bier's first English language production was supposed to be Chasing Montana and bring with it the return of Michelle Pfeiffer. Unfortunately that film seems forever mired in some kind of development hell (be it noncommital of actors, lack of studio passion, who knows). In the latest Entertainment Weekly they have a tidbit about a new Bier project:

Danish import Susanne Bier will direct Halle Berry in Things We Lost in the Fire, about a woman who loses her husband and asks his unstable best friend (Benicio Del Toro) to move in.

If that sounds suspiciously like Brothers in its character triangle, widow with husband surrogate and potential for all kinds of dramatic tear wringing, well, so be it... the Danish director knows this emotional territory. This makes me think that I was wrong about Halle Berry being one of those actresses who wins an Oscar never to even be nominated again. You know what i'm talking about: the AMPAS novelty act. Berry just got lucky or was smart about signing on with Bier.

Susanne Bier is exactly the type of actor-focused emotionally potent director that would get her actors nominations should she ever actually make this move across the pond. However, if she made an English language film as good as Brothers [on last year's film experience top ten list -ed.] she'd probably end up like Todd Field from In the Bedroom in 2001: nominations for the cast but not for the egoless director guiding them.

tags: Halle Berry, movies, Denmark, Oscars

Pfeiffer Teaser

This image comes from ioncinema... and was sent in by Film Experience reader Chris. Thanks Chris! Ahhhhhh, relief. Pfeiffercalifragilistic expialodocious. Even though the sound (of being excited about a film by the maker of Look Who's Talking) of it is something quite atrocious. I can't even breathe thinking about laying eyes on La Pfeiffer again onscreen after 3 years of total deprivation! 2003, 2004, and 2005 have been cruel and unusual cinematic punishments for Pfans everywhere. Bring this on, now!

And, Michelle, while I'm being greedy singing this anticipatory tune, please call up Susanne Bier immediately! Clear both your schedules and make this frickin' movie already. You were supposed to start filming 13 months ago. Have you seen Brothers, her last film? It's great. If Bier can pull that performance out of the very uneven Connie Nielsen, think what she could do for you, a world great actress? Read scripts. Choose Projects. Act! Act! Act! Get that Oscar on your shelf. Don't let Jessica Tandy continue to laugh at you from that fiery 8th circle of hell. SHE STOLE YOUR OSCAR



um... heh heh. Er... my apologies, forgot my meds got carried away there. I'm sure Jessica Tandy was a lovely lovely thief woman. Truly.