2005: 10 Best Films of the Year
A Review by Lucas Stensland
01/23/2006
A question is posed by seeing some of the best films of the year directed by Martin Scorsese, George A. Romero, Steven Spielberg, John Boorman, Wes Craven and Woody Allen: What, is this the fucking 70s? While it isn't that surprising for Spielberg and Scorsese to make good popular art, 2005 did see some strong turns by directors whom I thought either dead in the business or dead creatively.
As always there were the typical atrocities from Hollywood, like Sin City and Crash, and there were also films that at first looked like popcorn that turned out to have meat on the bone, like War of the Worlds and The Revenge of the Sith. However, the real sound in the 2005 air was that of old knuckles being cracked by some of cinema's elder statesmen as they sat down to plug the latter part of their filmographies with solid, often brilliant, work.
1. No Direction Home
Further evincing television's rising competition with the official film industry, the year's best film debuted on PBS and was shortly followed by a DVD release. Martin Scorsese's doc No Direction Home is nothing short of astonishing. Scorsese's greatest film since Goodfellas not only has the ability to renew interest in Dylan, it can create it. The film is just as much about the 1960s as it is about Dylan. How could it be any other way?
2. Land of the Dead
This will surely be remembered as one of the greatest cinematic returns in the history of Hollywood. Romero's parable sings; it's wise, funny, smart and exciting. Any society that celebrates its hegemonic ladder will surely produce vast amounts of invisible and alienated souls. Spirituality and revolt are two paths chosen by Romero's dead citizenry. How American.
3. Breakfast on Pluto
People have complained that transvestite Kitten's sex life was too muted in Neil Jordan's latest. Why didn't these same people complain about Edward R. Murrow's lack of ass-bumping in Good Night, And Good Luck? The answer is because audiences have been trained to think that an arthouse film about a transvestite will inherently contain graphic sex. Other critics have condescendingly stated that the world of the film was too harsh for delicate Kitten. Again people are blinded by naïve and boring prejudices. It was Kitten's sensitivity that made him so entirely healthy and right. When Kitten stood up to terrorists in a farewell-to-arms scene, he did not arrive at this point because of a lack of courage or insight. Forget Batman, Kitten is 2005's real action hero: the one of pacifism.
4. Munich
There was a scene in Spielberg's War of the Worlds in which a violent reactionary, played by Tim Robbins, says to Tom Cruise's levelheaded protagonist, “We're not on the same page here.” Mystified Cruise turns his head and looks over his shoulder at his daughter, the visual answer to Robbins' implied question. Spielberg has the rare ability to present universal issues on a micro, visible level. In Munich a bounty hunter's killings permeate not only his patriotism but also his ability to function in his newfound family life. Only a fool would think Spielberg's latest is a Jewish sympathy film. I cannot think of a better movie that delves into our current 9/11 anxiety and demos the consequences of a nation's desire for revenge, no matter how necessitated. Relevant and timeless, Munich is widely available and required viewing.
5. In My Country
Like his sublime The Tailor of Panama, Boorman brings together two diametrically opposed ideologues in a generically contrived narrative that somehow addresses global concerns with depth and charisma. A poet and journalist together covering South Africa's Truth and Reconciliation Committee hearings is bound to cause conflict. But seeing past differences is what the film successfully posits as the best way to avoid oppression. Boorman's cinematography has become so subtle, graceful and revealing that this film could be a helpful tutorial for many modern directors of mindless excess.
6. Match Point
I will not claim this to be some unexpected come back as have others. Deconstructing Harry, Celebrity and Sweet & Lowdown were great films found in the late 1990s. And his most recent Melinda and Melinda outshone his recent junk and seemed to indicate something good to come. And it did. Match Point looks like an Allen film, but has an unusual sharpness to it. Only Scarlett Johansson's typically self-conscious performance and zero charisma mar the film, though her drab personality is admittedly used effectively at times. Some police detectives are introduced toward film's end and are some of the best bit parts Allen has written in years. Allen implicates the viewers who sympathize with the film's blood-soaked male. But this is not just a matter of the unavoidable results of narrative point of view. One must only watch Rob Zombie's The Devil's Rejects to do away with that theory. Avariciousness is a powerful thing. Who knew that our favorite snob knew it so well?
7. The Family Stone
One of the biggest surprises of the year, Thomas Bezucha's The Family Stone is the reverse of the also great Junebug: an urban and career-oriented conservative woman (played by Sarah Jessica Parker) invades a liberal household (presided over by matriarch Diane Keaton). The film equally pinpoints the shortcomings of the snide, cynical liberals and the narrow-minded conservatives. However, the film's greatness is its demonstration of the two's symbiosis. It's also the best holiday film in years.
8. Look At Me
Akin to Agnes Jaoui's debut feature, The Taste of Others, she once again assembles an eccentric, neurotic, and often pretentious group of hopeless romantics. She's the French Alan Rodolph. Look At Me is a colorful look at complicated Parisians who cannot help but judge people by their appearance. It's not as simplistic as it sounds. Jaou's film is so honest and perceptive that the monumental defiance found in its climax is impossible to dismiss and wholly justifiable: It should give us all pause.
9. Red Eye
This would make a great double feature with The Terminal; not only because of their airplane/airport themes but to show how two filmmakers can learn from old Hollywood in such different and successful ways. Channeling the immediacy of Hitchcock, as well as his sense of morbid fun, Craven unleashes a Real World Freddy Krueger who threatens not only national security but our personal liberties, like when the terrorist listens in on a private phone call. On second thought, maybe that portentous element renders the film yet another 2005 George Bush allegory.
10. Three Dancing Slaves
Gael Morel's Three Dancing Slaves is not another queer lie for the straight guy. Its inclination to treat the anxieties of homosexuality as subtext instead of text will hopefully be instructive for future gay films. In it one will find truth and understanding about heartbreak, family and mourning presented on a collective level.
© Copyright ToxicUniverse.com 01/23/2006
