2005 Film List - Page 6

I presume Jason Whyte's not around the forum? (He hasn't updated his first post since May.)

Does someone want to start the 2006 Film List?

Cinderella Man -

Really excellent and well made film. it's basically Rocky and not quite as compelling, but still a damn good story very well told. More impressed with Reese Witherspoon and Paul Giamatti than Russell Crowe who has been better, but is still excellent here. Good script from Goldsmith, good direction all around. Excellent editing on the fights, very nicely done. Strong but very bland flawless film, at least the ending doesn't go off into lala 'the audience is retarded' land that Million Dollar Baby chose, on the other hand its still not as compelling as that film.

Upside of Anger -

Solid film with a bit of a surprise ending, mostly its all about the script and performances but well made all around I was just never really interested nor did I care about any of the characters though I found Costner charming and funny, it's clear why he is an A list star and none of the other participants are.

Adam

Yeah, last year the 2005 film list and Track the Films you Watch in 2005 threads co-existed. It should be the same thing this year. I was thinking about starting a 2006 list but was waiting for someone else to. I'll start one now.

King Kong
7.5 of 10
One word - overwritten.

There are too many extra characters, too many redundent scenes, too many non-essential scenes, and what is there often runs on 2 minutes too long.

The original is McKee template at its best. You're on the boat with the girl in just a few minutes, the entire opening premise laid out. Here there must be about 30 minutes of character background spoonfeeding that it utterly pointless. Did we need to meet this grandpa type in the girl's background? Is her plight not enough just as a girl on the street stealing food just to live, instead we must know the details of how she got that way and how far she's almost willing to go?

Get on with it already. Really AWFUL screenwriting there. The second the plucky young shipmate and the rugged veteran sailor who found him as a stowaway make their appearance you're hard pressed not to groan.

On top of that just edit some of this stuff down. The action scenes run on and on and on at times which kills the "pop" of a great action moment. And the "Bronto run" features some dreadful green-screen work and yucky CGI.


Kong on the other hand is brilliantly created. The CGI for him is a big reason this film remains a 7.5 and it will make you wonder why Jackson wasn't in a bigger hurry to get to him in the first place.

I did feel for Kong and the film got increasingly better as it went along, with less and less pointless scenes showing up. That's not to say that a certain "skating" scene in the park won't feel like needless extra emotional manipulation in the last act, but at least its not 80% waste like the first act is full of.

So Kong = great. Jack Black is pretty impressive despite having his own character rewritten in a rather silly way. Watts is okay, but rather bland by the standards of her other work.

This should have been a 4 character piece ala Closer, that tight. Just some extras to take up space with zero development. All the emotional dynamics should be with Kong, Watts, Black and Brody. EVERY other character introduced in Jackson's film is completely overwritten and distracting.

Pry them out, trim a lot of the story/action scene fat off, and in there you have a pretty good remake of a classic film.

Very frustrating to see it turn out like this. At least the original is out on a fantastic DVD and displays what great, crisp storytelling is like.

I didn't get why there was so much spin off onto the "Films you watch" thread in the first place. I'm all for people documenting that stuff, but I need a place that is only talking about the films of THIS YEAR.

Mentioning things here is fine, and mentioning the current year views in the other thread is appropriate. But do a copy and paste of entries on your "track the films you watch" into the thread for just the current year's films.

I don't want to sift through people's feelings about seeing Halloween, Citizen Kane, This is Cinerama, or Sixteen Candles for the first time just to find out what they thought of Brokeback Mtn or Syriana.


One thread is a group diary of film viewing in general, the other is about the crop of films for a given year. Just like the AFI or S&S challenges wouldn't be folded into the "track the films you watch" thread either.

I'll continue participating in both threads, in the same way.

I agree with the jist of your Kong comments Seth, the backstory was additional bloat not necessarily needed in a 3 hour+ film, but I found that material (at least the Jack Black moviemaking stuff) more worthwhile than a lot of the utterly ridiculous Skull Island stuff.

I liked Upside of Anger more and Cinderella Man less than you did Adam, but agree with a good deal of what you wrote. Maybe I'd like Cinderella Man more if I could see this Reese Witherspoon cut.

another fabulous example of why posting in the AM (before dawn) is bad for me.

Thought of a good description for Crash today, "it's the best Max Fischer production ever made!"

I read the American Cinematographer article on Walk the Line, just patheticly poor, Phedon Papamichael comes across as bland and uninteresting as his bland cinematography. Cinematography is part of the film arts, use it to help your movie, Sideways managed it, Capote managed it, you're not trying to make Tommy Boy here, but damn if that's about the level reached.

Now I'd say Walk the Line is overall a little better than Ray, but Ray was a compelling film to watch, I can't say that I'm constantly compelled by Walk the Line, rather occasionally bored (and this still when I'm really interested in the subject!). It's no wonder the film is getting no awards notice, there's nothing visually memorable about the film outside of its advertising.

A damn shame for a well constructed film.

There are a lot of good movies out there, but not many I'm interested in rewatching often. I think that's a problem, many well made films, but few that people are connecting to passionately (still need to see mountain and munich)

Adam

Added Munich, which is excellent, and In My Country (under its original title of Country of My Skull), which I probably would give more than two stars if I saw it today, but that's how it struck me when I saw it way back in April '04 (it got swallowed when I switched to an automated list-file-generator and forgot to put it in the database).

Adam, agree with the Ray-WTL comparison in terms of script (better with WTL) vs look (better with Ray). Ray had great musical sequences that worked better than the story set up for them. WTL's great musical moments are completely created by the story (not talking about the actors, who were great) rather than the photography.


I have Island in, Dukes on the way, and I'm going to try to dig in to the meat of the Oscar flicks missing from my list in the next 3-4 days. I'm going into hardcore movie mode to get on track.

Then I need to apply that to the S&S stuff with 2 discs just sitting here waiting on me week after week.

Had Wednesday off from work and found a theater that started showing at 10 am so I was able to squeeze in 2 movies before picking the kids up from school. Still have a lot of work to do with Walk the Line, Munich, Brokeback, The Producers, and a number of smaller releases to see.

I have 2046 and Broken Flowers coming from Netflix after seizing the queue back from my wife who took it over while I was out of town. The first 20 spots on my queue are now taken up by 2005 films as I'm putting off older movies, my Miike festival and a blaxploitation retrospective in a catchup effort.

Wolf Creek (2005) - Had seen some raves about this recent Australian horror flick that had me excited, only to be let down yet again. Two of the three main characters are somewhat likeable but it's your basic young people stuck in the wilderness get kidnapped, tortured, escape from, hunted, etc.... by your basic crazy killer who attempted and failed to become a compelling horror villain. - C

Syriana (2005) - Technically well done and strongly acted but a bit too stuffed and abstract with it's multiple storylines. It could have stuck to a more central theme and driven that home better and more directly than diluting its focus by having to deal with so many characters and situations in 2 hours. I never really found it confusing as others have complained about; just too overwritten and manufactured for its own good. If you're going to attack the government and the abuses of misdirected capitalism, just go ahead and do it rather than trotting out easy targets like villainous middle managers, an oil exec, and the always reliable greedy corrupt lawyers.

Thought it also erred in detailing all this corruption and 'world's a terrible place stuff" for pretty much the entire running time and then still try and have an uplifting ending that doesn't address any of the points of the film. Delivers drama and the pleasure of watching a collection of very good actors ply their trade, but ultimately unsuccessful as a "message" film. - B-

You make very good points about the flippant and disingenuous treatment of religion in the film, Adam.

Broken Flowers - Bill Murray's latest sardonic performance comes to life thanks to Jim Jarmusch's deadpan humor and layered scripting that provides plenty of laughs while tugging at the heartstrings. The solid supporting cast includes Jeffrey Wright, Tilda Swinton, and a cameo from cult horror director Larry Fessenden. The film considers people who were once a large part of our lives, people who were cared for, that no longer exist in our present - heady stuff about memory, loss, and regret. - B+

2046 - Wong Kar-Wai's long gestating sequel to In The Mood For Love is a complex sequence of love stories combined with a fictionalized future created through the experiences of the writer, Mr. Chow, whose story we follow in both films. Deliriously beautiful and possessing a soundtrack that combines classical, opera, and Nat King Cole, just like In The Mood, it's series of relationships never capture the magic of the previous film. This is certainly intentional, as Mr. Chow is on an impossible journey to rediscover the same feelings he had with his lost true love, but makes for problematic film viewing as the scenes, no matter how beautiful, pale in comparision to the emotional power of the previous film. - B

Next Up: Saraband

Turtles Can Fly -

Still mulling this over, but overall an excellent film in the vein of Rosselini.

This is about a thirteen year old boy called Satellite, he's an orphan who fixes and installs satellites wandering from village to village.

Also wandering from village to village are the girl Akrin, her armless brother and their blind younger brother, also orphans they run afoul of Satellite's minor benevelent tyranny of the village/refugee orphans. They are traveling low profile because the armless brother has had dreams and made predictions that have come true.

Satellite hopelessly falls for Akrin and the film spirals down as the march of war in Iraq approaches their village.

The performance by Akrin is really outstanding, she's given numerous closeups to great effect. A largely silent piece of work and every bit as good as Keisha Castle Hughes in Whale Rider. The highlight of the film.

If I have one frustration with the film it's that Satellite is a domineering shouting, lieing little bastard, but that's also part of the character's identity and the culture that produced him.

The film brings to mind Best Years of Our Lives and Bicycle Thief and continues that sort of tradition of filmmaking. Although a bit heavy handed and overtly symbolic/metaphorical at times, the film is quite graceful and beautifully shot. The sructure and editing are a bit jumpy and not as clear and clean as the individual scenes are.

An excellent film.

Updated with:

Match Point - ¾ - Not a bad movie, by any means, unlike a lot of Allen's recent stuff, but still rather ordinary.

The Matador - - Why do studios give movies like this the kind of weird platform releases (30 Dec 05 NY/LA) that basically guarantee they won't be seen? Pierce Brosnan does well in the kind of funny, amoral character actors love, and it's fun, but this won't be a big awards contender.

The Producers - ¼ - I'm not a big fan of musicals, but I had a lot of fun with this one.

North Country - ¼ - Charlize Theoron is, as usual, really good.

Nine Lives - - It's kind of amazing to me that a movie with this cast gets almost no distribution and earns less than $1M at the box office. Sure, it's kind of an anthology film, but geez...

The Aristocrats - ½ - The mime damn near killed me.

Dukes of Hazzard
1.5 of 10
Worst film I've seen this year so far. Unfunny, uninteresting. Would be a .5 but I thought there was some creative stunt driving in the middle of the film. I couldn't believe I was watching a film this dull and poorly written when it aimed so low in the first place.


The Island
6 of 10
Most of those points go for the Sci-Fi, both story and art direction. Sure its Logan's Run with a modern adjustment (not unlike how JC remade The Thing without being fully true to the original), but its still interesting SF to watch. Then Bay kicks in and the film turns into a poorly edited excuse for over the top stunts that undermine the whole thing. Imagine Gattaca if the last act was Con-Air or Armageddon.

A few points also go to the actors who made the most of it.

The Devil's Rejects
7.5 of 10
A huge improvement by Zombie. The strength of this film is its direction, whereas that was a primary problem with the last film. He also tightened up the script and reduced the outright stupid to a minimal level. This felt a lot more like a Last House on the Left type of film, with a Dirty Mary, Crazy Larry mixed in.

I wouldn't have given Rob another cent for a film after 1000 Corpses but I'm glad somebody did. It's not perfect by any means, but certainly solid.


Brokeback Mountain
9.5 of 10
Powerful direction and cinematography paired with some solid acting and writing make this another Lee classic. It ran a little dry at times and probably could have stood to lose about 20 minutes to keep the tension up, but the extra time is at least nice to look at. Makes you want to move to Montana, that's for sure.

It was not unlike the bittersweet romance story of Crouching Tiger, but without the action of course. It also tells a strong story of how romantic entanglements can cause all sorts of collateral damage as well as undermining and holding back the people directly involved (of course social pressures facilitate this within the film).

The Squid and the Whale
10 of 10
Very funny commentary on how mismatched parents can influence and damage their children, even when they have the best intentions. The writing feels very much like Royal Tenebaums, Rushmore, and naturally Team Zissou (though far less quirky than that film and much leaner too). The same overbearing father figure you saw with Hackman, an obnoxious wanna-be intellectual elite teen ala Rushmore.

Yet it doesn't feel derivitive in the least. More like a different example of the same basic troubles those characters displayed. Daniels and Linney are really great, and Billy Baldwin's small part is likeable and fun.

One of my favorites of the year so far. Can't wait to watch it over and over.

Saraband (2003 orig., 2005 US theatrical release) - Ingmar Bergman's latest, and perhaps this time final, film feels both instantly familiar and surprisingly fresh. It is a story of terrifying hatred and possessive love amongst a family fractured by previous wounds. Stellar performances and Bergman's absolute command of film language (even when shooting dig video for the first time instead of film), combine with the acidic script to create a work that shows time and age has dulled none of the fascinating complexity and raw emotional power that comes with the phrase "written and directed by Ingmar Bergman". - A

Tony Takitani - A quiet, meditative film about a man who, the narrator tells us, doesn't realize how lonely he is. As a child he grew up the neglected son of a touring jazz musician, spending virtually all of his non-school time on his own or in the care of distant relatives. In adulthood he has no friends or relationships outside work. It's only when he falls in love with a client and "the way she inhabits her beautiful clothes" that he realizes how empty his life has been. She makes him happy in ways he has never before experienced. Unfortunately, he cannot fulfill the hole inside this woman that she has filled within him and his carefully self-contained world will begin to unravel.

Using a spare, calm style, director Jun Ichikawa shows us that love can be as disruptive and destructive as it is uplifting and pleasurable. With precise camerawork and a soft piano score, Ichikawa creates a mood of examination and reflection. Yet even in painstaking closeup, the characters remain inscrutable, sometimes frustratingly so. There is an inward collapse that renders them unable to communicate their feelings and fears to one another. This empathic and moving film is almost too brief at only 75 minutes, but it says everything it needs to. - B+

The Island - Combining an intriguing sci-fi premise, an excellent cast, and several terrific action sequences (particularly the highway chase with the train wheels rolling off the truck - killer execution), director Michael Bay creates a surprisingly enjoyable film. Unlike Armageddon, The Island is not spastically edited; it takes its time in setting up the story, introducing characters, and appropriately pacing the action with "quiet" moments once the film ramps up. It could have been even better with a more thorough focus and examination of the scientific themes and questions the film generates, and it is unfortunate the creators could not figure out a more suitable climax then an eye-rolling descent into action movie clicheville, but for most of its running time the film delivers more entertainment than I would have thought possible. - B

Hope to get to the theater tomorrow to see either Munich or maybe a dual Brokeback-Breakfast on Pluto if the movie times line up right.

Munich -


Amen.

Everything about this film was perfect for me. I don't get the controversy, the movie was very clear people defend their family/clan/country/values, that's why we fight, but when you're fighting the ephemeral the violence only begets more violence over and over in an endless cycle until the reasons to fight are gone, unimportant, or endangered. Avril fought for his country and people, he quit to protect his family. Family. Family. Family. It is why a people continue or are wiped out. It is what they fight for. And in this case it's what they stop fighting for.

A very complex and powerful film and damn if that last scene between Avril and Ephram didn't sucker punch me to the gut. Powerful and perfect. The best ending Spielberg has had since Empire of the Sun and one of his strongest films overall.

I can't wait to see it again and I'm updating my top ten.


Adam

Munich (2005) - As well made as any Spielberg film but one that left me mostly cold. I disagree with its political and philosophical point of view thus causing each scene to exist in a context that renders it meaningless. The film is at cross purposes, seeking to say that an endless cycle of tit-for-tat violence is ugly and senseless and yet portraying much of that violence in the terms of an entertaining Hollywood thriller. - C

The Beat That My Heart Skipped (2005) - A remake of the 1978 James Toback film Fingers, Beat is the story of a man involved in shady real estate deals and small scale thuggery who rediscovers his love of music and begins a quest to become a concert pianist. A French Hustle & Flow, if you will. A solid character piece in which a man's business and personal life runs counter to the dream burning within. If the "2 years later" epilogue resolution is not entirely satisfying, it also does not negate the effectiveness of the character's evolution or the scenes of music soothing the savage beast. I also enjoyed the soundtrack's mix of techno and classical music. While not as successful as his previous film Read My Lips, Jacques Audiard has established himself as a director to pay attention to in the future. - B

Brokeback Mountain -

Incredible film. The stuff on the Mountain is great, the way Heath Ledger's performance creeps into you is outstanding.
Warning: Spoiler! (Click to show)

The cinematography, from the astonishing opening shot, is incomperable this year. The opening few minutes just have an aura of classicism to it, This is a great film that dares to do what is necessary to tell its story exactly right--the rhythms construction of the film is flawless.

If I have one complaint it's that the script is a bit over the top/obvious at time, mostly on Gyllennhall's lines.

Other than that, a very minor annoyance is that Gyllenhaal is good, but looks like a hollywood actor too often, whereas Ledger seems like a good ole boy from the ranch, a more complete embodiment and a Brando/Dean performance/acheivement comes from Ledger.

Brook, Island we agree on, and actually I agree that there are some strong moments of action. But I could feel him crutching onto it as it went and then it just becomes too much. That sign thing was WAY over the top and not necessary. Too much narrow escaping and miracles, not enough of the thoughts and intrigue that drove the first 2/3.


Adam, I agree on Ledger in BBMtn. He does get fully into that role and make it believable.

I actually forgot it was Ang Lee directing going into it, and I was thinking "wow, this is great photography here, and the shot selections are amazing". I mean he has these great cuts from one outstanding shot to the next, and its not just a point and shoot great scenary. It's going from long lens to short, from straight on to angles, high to low, close to far, etc.

The film "reads" well, it is written well with the image selection of a well-spoken director. Like PT Anderson but without the showy "look what I can do" aspect he sometimes brings (though Lee does go for that fireworks "poster shot"). He goes way beyond just getting the script up on the screen.



On to the adds

The Chronicles of Narnia
8 of 10
It's a good family popcorn/fantasy escape film. It can't help but feel a little dervitive in the wake of LOTR, though that's no fault of it own. The kids are okay, but weaker IMO than the kids in Lemony Snicket (which I preferred).

CGI is at times great, always good, and they draw you into the fantasy well. You can tell that Richard Taylor and WETA have been involved in the project.

And yeah, its not hard to miss the Christ allegory toward the end...might as well be called The Passion of the Lion.


Grizzly Man
9.5 of 10
(might go to 10 yet as I think on it)
One of the best films the year, Herzog has taken this footage and mined it for the deeper stories. He comments both figuratively and literally throughout the film, but is careful to balance the various viewpoints of Treadwell.

Herzog filming his own reaction to the audio tape of Tim and Amie's death followed by Tim's own footage of 2 bears fighting as a surrogate for seeing the actual attack is sheer genius and momumentally powerful.

The film leads you across the emotional spectrum. You will pity Treadwell, marvel out him, be overcome by the beauty of nature, horrified by the details of nature's wrath, think him true to himself and yet ultimately probably totally nuts. I've never been a great fan of Herzog, but this effort is incredible.



If Murderball lives up to the hype it will make the 4th great documentary I've seen this year (Grizzly, Penguins, Deep Throat).

Alex Gibney's Enron: The Smartest Guys In The Room - This year's most fascinating, intelligent and comprehensive film full of intriguing and complex characters in one of the most elaborate and dramatic malfeasance in corporate America.

Gibney's approach to such voluminous material is both expansive and entertaining and makes for a very cerebral and riveting experience.

(out of four)

~Edwin

Oh yeah I also caught Inside deep Throat -
outstanding documentary that covers everything well and does a great job presenting and finding the story about this film and the effects it created around the country.

Judd Apatow's The 40-Year-Old Virgin takes the same raunchy approach to reveal a funny and this year's well-written comedy that propels its material with a seemingly meek rectitude.

~Edwin

I have no idea what this sentence means.

I had to do a couple of takes as well, and still don't get it.

--
H

I do not think that word means what you think it means.

Edwin, you should open the window in your room.

~T

Still, I'm perplexed as to the confusion of what I posted.

~Edwin

Lord of War - Nic Cage stars as an international arms dealer without a conscience in Andrew Niccol's uneven film. The parts of the film that deal with the arms trade and politics are very strong. Portions of the film work as effective and entertaining dark comedy. Lord of War gets its message and commentary across in a clearer, more succinct, and powerful manner than either Syriana or Munich. Yet the portions of the film that deal with Cage's family read like a bad mafia movie. Ethan Hawke picks up a paycheck in a paper thin role as an Interpol investigator. I have no idea whether to recommend the film or not. - C+

Junebug - Embeth Davidtz plays a Chicago art dealer who comes to small town North Carolina to acquire the work of a local artist and to meet her new husband's family in this mostly delightful 1st film from director Phil Morrison. While the film starts you out thinking this is an art house excersize asking city movie watchers to laugh at small town rubes, the genuine honesty with which the material is presented quickly changed my mind. The film includes a number of warmly enjoyable characters with fine performances by the supporting cast, especially Amy Adams as the exuberant sister-in law, who steals virtually all her scenes and Scott Wilson as the father who has almost shut himself down. It is very good at presenting the small dramas of life, because unlike a lot of films, these characters know far more about each other than we get to learn about them.

The film effectively balances humor and more serious material, only faltering in its latter stages. While I like that the film does not offer easy answers or resolutions, I don't think it did as much as it could have with some of the characters. The last line of the film bothers me quite a bit too. It seems to invalidate a good deal of what we have seen. Another film I struggled to rate - B

The Perfect Crime - In Spanish director Alex de la Igleisia's latest comedy, a womanizing manager in a department store, Rafael, has his hip bachelor lifestyle jeopardized when an argument with a rival manager over a promotion leads to murder. Used to bedding a harem of gorgeous saleswomen, he finds himself blackmailed into a relationship with the only unattractive saleswoman he had hired.

This is a zany, at times surreal film as laughs stack upon laughs until it spins wildly out of control. The dead manager showing up as a bleeding apparition to give Rafael advice may have worked on the page, but just doesn't work at all onscreen and the film stumbles down the stretch before recovering nicely at the end when Rafael executes his plan to try and escape the tightening noose. Despite some problems, The Perfect Crime ranks as one of the year's funnier comedies. - B+

A Hole in My Heart - A misfire from Swedish director Lukas Moodysson involving 4 lost souls sitting and screwing in a dingy apartment, seeking any sort of meaning in their lives. A porn actor, the masochistic actress, the director/cameraman/2nd dick, and his son, a shy moody type who mostly stays in his room listening to industrial music. The film could be seen as an attempt to punish the audience with provocative, somewhat repulsive sexual imagery and sadistic human behavior interspersed with quiet moments of reflection or shame. The whole thing comes off as more dull than anything. Anytime the film seems on the verge of providing empathy for a character it immediately pushes one away. - D-

Come on, was "me likey" not good enough for you.

To paraphrase Cosmo Kramer - "Is it confusing, or is it just so clear that it blew your mind?"

Goodbye Dragon Inn - 0 (zero)

Worst movie I've ever seen.

If George watched it he'd probably shoot his TV screen, if he owned a gun, which I doubt.

Apparently Tsai has figured out that he can make more money making a film that will never be seen by any reasonable person in his home country but will be eaten up by gullible western audiences that will go, 'oooooooooohhhhhhhh deep," at anything that is anti typical. This isn't a film.