My Top 10 Movies of 2005

December 22nd, 2005

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Movies

My Top 10 Movies of 2005

Because the year isn’t complete without a few silly lists, here are my personal favourites for 2005. I haven’t seen Brokeback Mountain or Munich yet, and they’re on lots of critics’ lists, so they might fit in here somewhere.

I’m not judging these as the best or most artistically-gratifying films of the year–they’re just my favourites. With links if I’ve discussed them elsewhere, and 25 words or less on why I liked them:

Syriana – Complicated, brainy and utterly modern
Downfall – Bruno Ganz gives the performance of the year as Hitler (technically released in Germany in 2004, but I saw it here in 2005).
A History of Violence – Astonishingly good performances and wonderful direction
Capote – Only a character study, but one of the best I’ve ever seen.
Lord of War – Andrew Niccol is a slick director who makes intelligent, layered films. Great despite the presence of Nicholas Cage.
3-Iron – A quiet, clever film from South Korea
Unknown White Male – Not a technically astute documentary, but incredible subject matter.
Shopgirl – Charming, off-beat comedy with note-perfect performances from the three leads
Serenity – More Star Wars than Star Wars
King Kong – Great storytelling, incredible effects, powerful themes and Naomi Watts is luminous. Too bad about all that slow-motion.

If I were going to pick some runner-ups, here are eight in no particular order:

Walk the Line
Crash
The Family Stone
Sin City
Wedding Crashers
Murderball
Turtles Can Fly
Broken Flowers

Comments: 9 Responses so far

-j.
December 23rd, 2005
8:32 am

Ooh, someone else who saw “Unknown White Male”…I loved it too. Interesting to see how an idea that’s gotten less-than-satisfactory treatment in Hollywood fiction becomes so compelling in real life…

Jeff
December 23rd, 2005
9:25 am

Hey Darren, did you ever catch Constant Gardener? I suspect it would have made your list. :)

Darren
December 23rd, 2005
9:53 am

Jeff: I did, and it probably just missed my runners up list. It was definitely a good movie, but it left me a little underwhelmed (perhaps it was its early similarities to “The English Patient”?).

Jeff
December 23rd, 2005
10:11 am

I admit, I knew nothing about the film, and the ‘fiennes factor’ had me worried about an English Patient style movie as well.

alexis
December 24th, 2005
8:41 am

I’ve been thinking about your list and it just occurred to me that most of your top choices are movies with male lead characters, where women are in smaller roles.

So this begs the question- “Was 2005 a bad year for women in film?” The only movie that I can think of that was critically acclaimed with a female lead character was “North Country.”

Interesting.

Darren
December 24th, 2005
2:52 pm

Alexis: You’re right about that, though that may reflect more my taste in movies than the year’s best films.

That said, I wonder if there’s gender equality in the recent reduced box office. That is, are fewer women going to movies than men? I’ve never seen any research on this, so it’s just speculation.

alexis
December 27th, 2005
12:03 am

After I thought about it, I looked at the top lists from critics, and the majority of “critically acclaimed” movies generally contained casts with a large number of men/male leads. So it seems that women might have done poorly in film this year. I think it’s also a factor that many of the top critics, directors and people who control the film industry are men. It might also be interesting to see how many men/women attend movies and drive the box office. More women read books, and so you would think that would drive which books get adapted into movies as well.

I might do a blog post about this at some point.

Darren
December 27th, 2005
1:00 am

FYI, I posted a follow-up to this entry here:

http://www.darrenbarefoot.com/archives/2005/12/men-women-and-going-to-the-movies.html

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