Top ten list of 2005

[Sabin]

Funny thing: as I think back on The New World, I don't remember many individual scenes, just compositions and the sensation of overwhelming uplift. And one other thing: antsy. I remember feeling very antsy for the movie to end so I could watch the DVD when it comes out. I couldn't knock out of my mind the notion that I was watching something very compromised.

Then again, I felt the same thinig during the first time I saw The Thin Red Line. I stand by my original assessment but I feel the need to add the word "provisional" to my more exalting statements.

About as good a time as any for my latest top ten, with yet another top stop shuffle.

****
1. The Best of Youth
2. A History of Violence
3. The New World

***1/2
4. The Squid and the Whale
5. Tropical Malady
6. Brokeback Mountain
7. King Kong (NEW)
8. Good Night, and Good Luck.
9. Match Point (NEW)
10. Mysterious Skin
11. Junebug (downgraded)
12. The Ballad of Jack and Rose
13. Look at Me
14. Hustle & Flow (NEW)

***
15. Red Eye (NEW)
16. Me and You and Everybody We Know
17. Syriana
18. Capote
19. 2046
20. The 40-Year Old Virgin
21. Breakfast on Pluto (NEW)
22. Walk the Line
23. Wedding Crashers
24. My Summer of Love
25. Broken Flowers
26. Cinderella Man
27. The Constant Gardener

**1/2
28. Batman Begins
29. War of the Worlds
30. Crash
31. Sin City
32. Charlie and the Chocolate Factory
33. Happy Endings
34. The Aristocrats (NEW)

**
35. Transamerica (NEW)
36. The Upside of Anger
37. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire
38. Fever Pitch
39. Constantine

*1/2
40. Star Wars: Episode III--Revenge of the Sith
41. Fantastic Four

Somewhere between ***1/2 and **1/2 -- Munich



Edited By Sabin on 1140378644

[Eric]

Three anti-New Worlders emerging on the same day.

Well, I'm only "anti-" in the sense that I didn't have a religious epiphany during the screening like E. Gonzalez, M. Wilder, M.Z. Seitz, et al.

In the sense that I'm probably only "anti-" Brokeback when compared to Penelope here.



Edited By Big Magilla on 1243662715

[dws1982]

New World: eh, ask me again after I see if the obligatory Malick-second-time.

The DVD is expected on May 30. It's rumored to be an extended (210 minute) version.

[Sonic Youth]

Eh is right. If Malick wanted to create the cinematic equivalent of a mid-70s Yes album, he did the job.

In fact, after the movie, I saw someone carrying a shabby vinyl copy of Tales from Topographic Oceans around, for whatever reason. I almost cracked up.

Three anti-New Worlders emerging on the same day. I hope Sabin's heart doesn't break.

[Eric]

Caché: pretty good. New World: eh, ask me again after I see if the obligatory Malick-second-time.

[Greg]

Greg: I'm supposed to get paid?! I make more money turning tricks than I do writing criticism.

I take it you've bulked up recently.



Edited By Big Magilla on 1243662727

[Eric]

Eric, when did you become Armond White?

Garçon Stupide... The Family Stone... Nine Lives... Kung Fu Hustle... Cote d'azur...

I'm sure I could go on. Anyway, I don't mean to be terribly humorless about it, but is it really so impossible to take Spielberg seriously these days without invoking the AW rubber-stamp of approval? (Would it help if I said I had no special affection for Minority Report or Catch Me If You Can?)

Anyway, the second part of the AW acolyte litmus test comes tomorrow when I see the newest film from that international charlatan/art-house terrorist: Haneke's Caché.

Greg: I'm supposed to get paid?! I make more money turning tricks than I do writing criticism.

[Greg]

Add a few more "semi"s there.

Ed pays you that little, huh?

[Damien]

***½

Munich (Steven Spielberg)
War of the Worlds (Steven Spielberg)

Eric, when did you become Armond White?

[anonymous1980]

My new Top 10:

01. The New World (Terrence Malick)
02. Brokeback Mountain (Ang Lee)
03. A History of Violence (David Cronenberg)
04. Grizzly Man (Werner Herzog)
05. Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit (Nick Park)
06. Good Night and Good Luck (George Clooney)
07. Munich (Steven Spielberg)
08. Land of the Dead (George A. Romero)
09. 2046 (Wong Kar-Wai)
10. Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (Tim Burton)

[Eric]

Add a few more "semi"s there. Also, I frequently let other people pick films when I see them with others.

[Greg]

I find it rather amusing that you've seen a couple of dozen movies yet you disliked more movies than you liked. Is that a conscious choice?

Eric's a semi-semi-semi-professional movie reviewer. :p



Edited By Big Magilla on 1243662750

[Bruce_Lavigne]

10) The 40-Year-Old Virgin (Judd Apatow)

09) Capote (Bennett Miller)

08) Murderball (Henry Alex Rubin, Dana Adam Shapiro)

07) The Constant Gardener (Fernando Meirelles)

06) Grizzly Man (Werner Herzog)

05) King Kong (Peter Jackson)

04) A History of Violence (David Cronenberg)

03) Brokeback Mountain (Ang Lee)

02) Munich (Steven Spielberg)

01) The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada (Tommy Lee Jones)

[anonymous1980]

I find it rather amusing that you've seen a couple of dozen movies yet you disliked more movies than you liked. Is that a conscious choice?

[Eric]

I'll be adding Caché and The New World to this list later this week, but bump while the bumping's hot.

Masterpiece
Nada.

***½
Kings and Queen (Arnaud Desplechin)
Munich (Steven Spielberg)
War of the Worlds (Steven Spielberg)
Land of the Dead (George A. Romero)

***
Forty Shades of Blue (Ira Sachs)
Cinévardaphoto (Agnès Varda)
The Joy of Life (Jenni Olson)
Tomorrow We Move (Chantal Akerman)
The World (Jia Zhang-ke)
The Best of Youth (Marco Tullio Giordana)
The Devil's Rejects (Rob Zombie)
Ma Mère (Christophe Honoré)

**½
Palindromes (Todd Solandz)
Red Eye (Wes Craven)
Mysterious Skin (Gregg Araki)
Caché (Michael Haneke)
Good Night, and Good Luck. (George Clooney)
Last Days (Gus Van Sant)
Grizzly Man (Werner Herzog)
A History of Violence (David Cronenberg)
The Soup, One Morning (Takahashi Izumi)

**
The New World (Terrence Malick)
Roll Bounce (Malcolm D. Lee)
Brokeback Mountain (Ang Lee)
À Toute de Suite (Benoît Jacquot)
Ballets russes (Dan Geller & Dayna Goldfine)
3-Iron (Kim Ki-Duk)
Clean (Olivier Assayas)
Capote (Bennett Miller)
Armwrestler from Solitude (Lisa Munthe & Helen Ahlsson)
5x2 (François Ozon)

*½
Bear Cub (Luis Miguel Albaladejo)
2046 (Wong Kar-wai)
Match Point (Woody Allen)
Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (Tim Burton)
Sarah Silverman: Jesus is Magic (Liam Lynch)
Kung Fu Hustle (Steven Chow)
TV Party (Danny Vinik)
Cote d'Azur (Olivier Ducastel & Jacques Martineau)
King of the Corner (Peter Riegert)
The Constant Gardener (Fernando Meirelles)
Nine Lives (Rodrigo García)

*
Syriana (Stephen Gaghan)
The Family Stone (Thomas Bezucha)
Ring of Fire: The Emile Griffith Story (Ron Berger & Dan Klores)
Proof (John Madden)
The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe (Andrew Adamson)
Dear Frankie (Shona Auerbach)
Fun with Dick and Jane (Dean Parisot)
Starkiss: Circus Girls in India (Chris Relleke & Jascha de Wilde)
Seven Days, Seven Nights (Joel Cano)

½
The Legend of Zorro (Martin Campbell)
Cry_Wolf (Jeff Wadlow)
Harry and Max (Christopher Munch)
The Man Who Copied (Jorge Furtado)
The Boys and Girl of County Clare (John Irvin)
Batman Begins (Christopher Nolan)

Zero stars
Cheaper By the Dozen 2 (Adam Shankman)
Yours, Mine and Ours (Raja Gosnell)
The Work and the Glory: American Zion (Sterling Van Wagenen)
Crash (Paul Haggis)