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Movie Archives:
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Alphabetical
Laurence Station's Best Films of 2005
Top 10:
 1.
Munich (Steven
Spielberg, USA)
Spielberg, the Master Craftsman, is at the top of his game in this
period piece about the fallout from the 1972 Munich Olympics massacre of
Jewish athletes by Palestinian terrorists. If only the film didn't so
obviously attempt to link today's war on terror to the events it
depicts, Munich would have been an unqualified masterpiece. As a
consolation prize, it's still the year's finest, most compelling work.
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 2.
Grizzly Man (Werner Herzog, Canada / USA)
Herzog
skillfully manages to paint a larger context than ill-fated grizzly
groupie Tom Treadwell's gorgeous footage provides in this absorbing
documentary. And despite the director's obvious affection and empathy
for the main subject, the viewpoint remains balanced between Treadwell's
childlike sense of nobility and the more disturbing failings of his
character.
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Shame and
fear ultimately can't overcome love and desire. Lee manages to convey
the dread and wonder, reticence and exhilaration of a twenty-year
relationship in carefully measured, powerfully subtle ways. Brokeback
is not the pigeonholed "gay cowboy romance" too many pundits
inappropriately mislabel it. This is a much broader canvas, universal in
its message of the price people pay for failing to embrace happiness.
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 4.
Pride & Prejudice (Joe Wright, USA / UK)
Streamlined and wonderfully down-to-earth, this latest adaptation of
Jane Austen's beloved novel benefits enormously from pitch-perfect
casting, especially Keira Knightley's puckish Elizabeth and Matthew
MacFadyen's outwardly snobbish and romantic idealist Mr. Darcy. The
details, though, from muddy hems to constrictive parlour manners, help
ground the material in a late 18th-century reality that adds veracity to
its universal themes of love, longing and, of course, its titular
concerns.
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 5.
The Squid and the Whale (Noah Baumbach, USA)
Brutal,
often brilliant stuff. Noah Baumbach reconstructs teenage memories of
his parents' bitter split in the mid-80s and the results are, at times,
excruciatingly painful to watch. Leads Jeff Daniels and Laura Linney are
in top form as conflicted, stubborn and selfish parents fighting for
favor and sympathy from their two sons.
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 6.
Kung Fu Hustle (Stephen Chow, China / Hong Kong)
Hustle
is a dizzying live-action cartoon, equal parts loving tribute and clever
send-up of Hong Kong action movies. Stephen Chow gets incredible mileage
from an engaging cast of supporting characters, especially Yuen Qiu's
perpetually smoking and lethal Landlady.
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 7.
Match Point (Woody Allen, USA)
Allen
gets his groove back thanks to a new locale (London) and a fresh batch
of actors to play out his philosophical musings on fate, obsession and
guilt. Match Point overcomes turgid pacing (especially during the
middle third) and obvious plot turns, settling for an unsettling,
ambiguous, and morally bleak resolution. Allen deserves credit for
refusing to take the neat and tidy way out of what could have easily
become a murder-by-numbers set piece.
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Working on multiple levels, from cheeky humor to delightfully intricate
set designs, Nick Park and co-creator Steve Box fashion a true classic
of stop-motion artistry. The true joy of Were-Rabbit, however, is
its affectionate prodding of distinctly British quirks, from gardening
to old-fashioned notions of gallantry.
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Yes, Murrow gets a tidy, revisionist
heroic makeover, but this film has less to do with historical accuracy
and the toppling of McCarthyism than with challenging present-day media
outlets to stand up and be heard in regards to national and foreign
policy. Good Night should be mandatory viewing for muffled White
House reporters.
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 10.
Capote
(Bennett Miller)
A film that bends over backwards to expose the duplicitous, self-serving
nature of Truman Capote. But it's the intriguing dynamic between
charming, cold-blooded killer Perry Smith and the titular lead that
merits this film a strong recommendation. If only there had been more
jailhouse conversation and less New Yorker-elite cocktail parties.
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Notable near misses (Alphabetically Listed): |
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Broken
Flowers (Jim Jarmusch, USA) Haunted by ghosts of past
relationships and an empty future, Bill Murray's aging Don Juan,
seeking to find out which mystery woman sent him a letter claiming
he has a son, doesn't convey an appreciable change in outlook by
film's end. Despite the lack of character progression, Broken
Flowers succeeds with the small moments (buying flowers; dinner
with an old flame and her daughter), and that helps tip the scales
in its favor.
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The 40-Year-Old Virgin (Judd Apatow, USA) Steve Carell and
Catherine Keener imbue the obvious (albeit hilarious) jokiness of
the plot with unexpected depth and grace, helping Virgin
surmount its trite boys-meets-girl, boy-loses-girl, boy-gets-girl
structure.
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Syriana (Stephen Gaghan, USA) The plot is labyrinthine, the
basic message bluntly direct: National interests are too often put
aside in favor of bottom line profits. A decade on Syriana will be
lumped in with other politically minded films of this period much in
the way paranoid '70s thrillers were.
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Much thanks to Filmsite.org for having scans of many of these posters online:
http://www.filmsite.org/posters.html
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