Obvious i know: Best films of 2005

I love lists, so can't resist. In no particular order (and probably not even all from 2005), but:

- Assassination of Richard Nixon
- Dead Man's Shoes
- Batman Begins
- Ghost In The Shell: Innocence
- The Constant Gardener
- My Summer of Love
- The Life Aquatic (was that this year..?)
- Head On
- Innocence (the Lucile Hadzihalilovic one )

Lots I haven't got round to seeing yet: 2046, History of Violence, and no doubt a million-and-one things that get posted on this thread.

Los Angeles Plays Itself (Thom Andersen, US)
Czech Dream (Vít Klusák and Filip Remunda, Czech Republic)
The Holy Girl (Lucrecia Martel, Argentina)
The Consequences of Love (Paolo Sorrentino,Italy)
Wild Side (Sébastien Lifshitz, France)
Innocence (Lucile Hadzihalilovic, France)
Detroit: Ruin of a City (Michael Chanan, UK)
Charlie And The Chocolate Factory (Tim Burton, US)
Dig! (Ondi Timoner, US)

Can't think what the tenth was just at this moment...

i just watched batman begins and i was so pleased someone has got it right at last.
it's not complete crap, it's well paced with narrative and some depth, good twists.
this is my number one film as it makes up for all the previous batman dross, esp the dreadful tim burton stuff, he is just awful, he's the goth oliver stone, knows how to make one film, the one about tim burton which he repeats over anything he's been given to direct.

SIn City
Wolf Greek

mms said:

i just watched batman begins and i was so pleased someone has got it right at last.
it's not complete crap, it's well paced with narrative and some depth, good twists.
this is my number one film as it makes up for all the previous batman dross, esp the dreadful tim burton stuff, he is just awful, he's the goth oliver stone, knows how to make one film, the one about tim burton which he repeats over anything he's been given to direct.

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hear hear

alo said:

Oh i forgot, Sideways, which, is basically as good as everyone let on I reckon.

Nice essay on Miller/Batman Begins, K-P. I agree that Millers stuff was built around cinematic cliches from the beginning- pretty off putting personally. The golden Triumvirate of Ware/Clowes/Tomine always delivers for me. It basically just took a hundred years for comics to become good

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got to defend alan moore tho, cos i heard an interview with him where he sees killing joke , which is batman's darkest hour as his most regrettable work, because it mean't following on from that , every comic character was treated to this kind of teasing out the dark bit's even if they didn't actually exist principally.
i think Mark's right Batman's not a dark character, what sets him apart from these fantastical characters with their super human properties and 'from another planet hangups' is that he's human, it's his choice to be like that, his creation and his actions.
he's the most simple of cartoon characters but with space for the most complex issues.

I didn't make it out to many this year, but at the top of my list I'd put A History of Violence and Herzog's Grizzly Man. Also an honourable mention for Hustle and Flow which pleasantly surprised me with its complex characters and deviation from the gangsta-romanticism template. I enjoyed Broken Flowers too, but Bill Murray had better come with something other than the affable, late-middle-aged philanderer schtick next time or I'm staying home.

k-punk said:

hear hear

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i'm in total disagreement over your assessment of alan moore. surely criciticisng comics for not being the exuberant artform it once was is like moaning about cinema not being all about black and white slapstick. art moves on, it reflects the pre-occupations of the age.

in particular moore has produced some of the most vibrant thought-provoking comics ever, imo. v for vendetta is dark cutting satire, concerned with the overthrow of a future police state - read it now and it has even more relevance than it did back when it was one of many strips in the fledgling (and now defunct) warror comic.

and obviously watchmen deserves props too for lifting the curtain of a superheroes existance, challenging their divine right to take action in humanities best interests even if it means loss of life on a dramatic scale. even the sub-themes of watchmen are endlessly enterataining in themselves - my personal favourite is the desert island strip from the comic the young boy is reading where the protaganist ends up strapping dead bodies bloated with putrefaction to a raft in order to escape (anyone note Rome ripping this idea off the other week?)

the fact that people like moore exist does not mean the more immediate visceral comics are relegated to second division - in fact even a cursory glance at the shelves of a comic book store shows huge re-releases of everything marvel & dc have ever done. stock in regular heroes has never been higher. surely such diversity is to be encouraged? i've been collecting all kinds of comics since i was a child, and i don't recognise that these things are remotely in opposition with one another.

Alan Moore (still) rocks.

You know he refuses to take money for films and insists that whoever did the art on a comic that gets made into celluloid gets the money instead? cool.

See also: the highbury working...

They haven't been mentioned but I thought Birth and The Brown Bunny were both really great.

It's really slow and strange. It's basically about a guy heading out to a motorcycle race in his van and have strange meetings with different girls. It's the sort of thing that would get ruined if I explained why I thought it was so good so I don't know if I can sell it really other than just to say I got a lot out of it. I don't know why people hate it so much other than it's pacing and maybe they've already had enough of it so they aren't receptive when it's at it's best. People seem to hate Gallo too.

I was expecting to like it more than other people seemed to but I was suprised how much more I did.

alo said:

Actually, I saw Before Sunset the other night (without having seen Before Sunrise) and I have to say it was fucking brilliant! So sweet and warm, but melancholic for the passing of time and opportunity. Quite emotionally charged I found as it runs its course; rings true with a certain kind of dreamy, natural authenticity.
Makes you think what if? about your own circumstance quite a bit too.

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Agreed. I saw Before Sunrise, and while "nice", it wasn't gripping.

Before Sunset was fantastic.

Pride and Prejudice was the best film this year.