29/01/2006

ISX 2005 List #2: Films of Last Year

entry posted by Inquisitor at 1:46 (permalink).
categories: Movies

In a belated followup to the previous "music of 2005" list, as discovered in my drafts folder, here's a grossly incomplete films of 2005 list.

• Antibodies (saw at EIFF, so doesn't really count) - Truly brilliant German serial killer movie with a psychological bent that knows exactly how to involve its audience on a primal level; it also, happily, knows both when and when not to use gore, much like David Fincher's Seven (the last great serial killer movie). The less you know about this movie, the better; I knew very little on going in, and it only aided the experience. An absolute must see.
• Batman Begins - It's a tribute to how good this movie is that it ends up being the best comic-book movie of the year - in the year of Sin City. Tim Burton didn't really get Batman (he got the villains, though), and Joel Schumacher was, let's face it, crap, although Batman Forever is a bit of a guilty pleasure. Chris Nolan and David Goyer, on the other hand, do get Batman, and also know how to write a decent motion picture; Batman Begins is a comic-book movie with a immensely solid script structure, densely interconnected and near enough making sense. The structure is impeccable; the villain choice brilliant; the proto-Batmobile plain cool and Christian Bale excellent. If only more comic-book movies were like this.
• Crimen Ferpecto (Ferpect Crime) - Yeah, another EIFF movie, but a great one; funny, twisted and intricately done. Coincidentally, its director Alex de la Iglesia was once attached to the Doom movie, and may have made a better fist of it than the guys that did...
• Downfall (Der Untergang) - Again, technically doesn't count because it was made in 2004, but we only got it in 2005. It is simply an outstanding achievement - by "humanising Hitler", as its detractors put it, it shows us why people were so devoted to him and why he was able to get away with it for so long. The movie feels real.
• Kiss Kiss Bang Bang - It's a lot funnier than any movie with a scene involving electrical genital torture has any right to be; to the extent that even the genital torture is funny, in its own brilliantly warped black way. A must see.
• Land Of The Dead - I have a rather contrary opinion on Land; it was one of the most engaging cinema experiences I've had this year, pretty much non-stop zombie fun. Remember, fans loathed Day when it came out as well; now, Day is seen as a modern classic, and I hope that in the future Land will be seen the same way. There already seems to be a fanbase growing...
• Serenity - It's pretty well done, although uneven; besides, we need more decent SF, it's a very underdone genre right now.
• Sideways - That Paul Giamatti performance is really a thing of wonder; it makes the movie, despite its slow start. Besides, it's funny...
• Sin City - See the Batman Begins review - Sin City, like BB, is a comic book movie done right, true to its origins and true to cinema as a medium.
• The Aristocrats - The best one-joke film of 2005.
• The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou - If you hate Wes Anderson, that's fine. I, on the other hand, rather like his films, and Life Aquatic is no exception.
• Wallace and Gromit in The Curse Of The Were-Rabbit - If you don't like this movie, you have no soul. Period.

And the disappointments of the year (not necessarily all bad):

• Doom - How on earth do you dumb down a videogame plotline? The answer, unfortunately, is this movie: you swap demons from hell with "mutations caused by 'Chromosome 24'", add a really stupid first-person scene and rip off Aliens. Thanks, Hollywood. The only reason this isn't in the next section is because of the decent-to-not-horrendous direction, good DP, proper monsters and the Clint Mansell score; if you want plot, not to mention have some actual fun, go play the much misunderstood and majorly underrated "Doom 3" instead.
• Eternal Sunshine Of The Spotless Mind - Sorry, I didn't get it. I got Adaptation, and I can tell that Jim Carrey puts in a fantastic performance, but the movie really didn't grab me. Your mileage may vary.
• Napoleon Dynamite - I didn't get this either, and not in a good way. It really is a one-joke movie, and the one joke is very close to the end. Nicely quirky, but not satisfying at all. Again, your mileage may vary.
• War Of The Worlds - Spielberg ending strikes again; what is a very well done freakout of a film ends up wrecking all its good work in the last ten minutes. Shame.
• Series 4 of 24 - (Sure, it's not a movie, but I don't watch that much TV so it's going in here) - they really should have ended after S3, rather than go to the contrived lengths they did throughout S4 (and, according to the spoilers, in S5 too.) Sigh.

And by far the worst thing this year...

• The Business - Loud, obnoxious and supremely idiotic. 'Nuff said.

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