Category: Film

I’m not a fan of graphic novels, but I do have a soft spot for highly stylized films. Renaissance looks like it has potential, and I have high hopes for Richard Linklater’s upcoming A Scanner Darkly.

For the record books as I close the year, here’s a list of all the movies I first saw in 2005. The theme of movies this year: laziness and television. The movies that don’t show up on the list are the movies I watched for a second (or third…) time – and that’s the bulk of them. I rewatched an awful lot of films this year, often because a) Eric was watching them already; b) I was too lazy to go to the video store, so I hit up the kommunal film collection; c) I wanted to watch them with Kathryn.

I also watched television-on-DVD for the first time this year. I’ve always ignored tv as the lamentable bastard child of cinema, but I discovered that Joss Whedon makes some very entertaining series. To my shock, Buffy the Vampire Slayer season two was excellent, and season three was okay. His later series Firefly is superb, as was its movie followup Serenity. Before now, the only time I sat down and followed the slower-paced character development of a television series was X-Files, and I got impatient with that after a season. Plus, when I watch the shows on DVD, I’m not tied to a schedule or forced to wait through painful advertising… a vastly better way to experience television, I must say.

So it goes. I think I’ll get a bit more adventurous once I move out of the Kommune. While I’m there, it’s very easy to just watch 10 minutes of whatever Eric’s watching, get queasy from the gruesome violence, and swear off movies for a week. Some day, I’ll get back into films, I imagine. Meanwhile, I watched 41 new films in 2005 – less than one a week. I’m going soft.

• the man who knew too much. usa, 1956.
• a beautiful mind. usa, 2001.
• before sunrise. usa, 1995.
• syriana. usa, 2005.
• king kong. usa, 2005.
• i heart huckabees. usa, 2005.
• matrix revolutions. usa, 2004.
• primer. usa, 2004.
• the constant gardener. uk, 2005.
• wallace and gromit: curse of the were-rabbit. uk, 2005.
• serenity. usa, 2005.
• layer cake. uk, 2005.
• bleu (blue). france, 1993.
• broken flowers. usa, 2005.
• it’s all gone pete tong. uk / canada, 2005.
• bullitt. usa, 1968.
• charlie and the chocolate factory. usa, 2005.
• blow. usa, 2003.
• batman begins. usa, 2005.
• the interpreter. usa, 2005.
• star wars episode iii. usa, 2005.
• the manchurian candidate. usa, 1962.
• sin city. usa, 2005.
• enron: the smartest guys in the room. usa, 2005.
• the conversation. usa, 1974.
• kung fu hustle. hong kong, 2004.
• shaolin soccer. hong kong, 2000.
• the killer. hong kong, 1989.
• downfall. germany, 2004.
• napoleon dynamite. usa, 2004.
• be cool. usa, 2005.
• born into brothels: calcutta’s red light kids. india / usa, 2004.
• fast, cheap and out of control. usa, 1997.
• million dollar baby. usa, 2004.
• cidade de deos (city of god). brazil, 2002.
• incident at loch ness. uk, 2004.
• groundhog day. usa, 1993.
• the life aquatic with steve zissou. usa, 2004.
• fa yeung nin wa (in the mood for love). hong kong, 2000.
• die salzmänner von tibet (the saltmen of tibet). germany, 1997.
• house of flying daggers. china, 2004.
• the breakfast club. usa, 1985.
• eternal sunshine of the spotless mind. usa, 2004.
• control room. usa, 2003.

• the ladykillers. usa, 2004.
• the bourne supremacy. usa, 2004.
• bulworth. usa, 1998.
• mujeres al borde de un ataque de nervios (women on the verge of a nervous breakdown). spain, 1988.
• the take. argentina, 2004.
• the incredibles. usa, 2004.
• cool hand luke. usa, 1967.
• diarios de motocicleta (the motorcycle diaries). usa / argentina, 2004.
• wargames. usa, 1983.
• hero. china, 2002.
• collateral. usa, 2004.
• metallica: some kind of monster. usa, 2004.
• fargo. usa, 1996.
• fahrenheit 9/11. usa, 2004.
• spiderman 2. usa, 2004.
• orphée (orpheus). france, 1951.
• the battle over citizen kane. usa, 1995.
• citizen kane. usa, 1941.
• once upon a time in china. hong kong, 1993.
• one flew over the cuckoo’s nest. usa, 1975.
• basquiat. usa, 1996.
• shrek 2. usa, 2004.
• troy. usa, 2004.
• the godfather part iii. usa, 1990.
• the producers. usa, 1968.
• mies vailla menneisyyttä (the man without a past). finland, 2002.
• little dieter needs to fly. france / uk / germany, 1997.
• kill bill vol. 2. usa, 2004.
• goodbye lenin. germany, 2004.
• osama. afghanistan, 2004.
• ararat. canada, 2002.
• les triplets de belleville (the triplets of belleville). france / canada / belgium, 2004.
• el mariachi. usa, 1991.
• lashou shentan (hard boiled). hong kong, 1992.
• the corporation. canada, 2004.
• elephant. usa, 2003.
• office space. usa, 1999.
• le déclin de l’empire américain (the decline of the american empire). canada, 1986.

• men with brooms. canada, 2003.
• return of the king. usa/new zealand, 2003.
• les invasions barbares (the barbarian invasions). canada / france, 2003.
• 21 grams. usa, 2003.
• winged migration. france, 2003.
• capturing the friedmans. usa, 2003.
• star wars episode ii. usa, 2002.
• monsters, inc. usa, 2001.
• geung si sin sang (mr. vampire). hong kong, 1985.
• finding nemo. usa, 2003. Wow – I was blown away by this flick. I’m actually proud to work in computer graphics when Pixar can make such a stellar film using the technology. The film’s success is really in the imagination and skill of its creators: good characters, and brilliant animation to evoke their personalities. Pixar still suffers from a masculine view of the world (witness the dippy female character), but they’ve improved a lot from past films.
• spellbound. usa, 2002.
• the station agent. usa, 2003.
• lost in translation. usa, 2003.
• kill bill vol. 1. usa, 2003. So violent, so gory. There were some truly inventive shots and fights in this film; I have to give Tarantino credit. It was all very memorable, and very stylish. But I just didn’t have the stomach for the level of “comic” violence he used in this film. update: I saw this again in 2005, and I actually really liked it the second time. So much style and comedy… I can put up with the worst of the violence for that, now.
• the birds. usa, 1963.
• the saddest music in the world. canada, 2003.
• fog of war. usa, 2003.
• animal nightmares: sex, frogs and rock ‘n’ roll. canada, 2003. Peter Lynch really outdid himself with this flick. After project grizzly and cyberman, the last thing I expected was a glossy, freaky music video. Very stylish and creative, but probably impossible to see outside a film festival.
• bugsy malone. usa, 1984.
• x-men 2. usa, 2003.
• the matrix reloaded. usa, 2003.
• the hours. usa, 2002.
• x-men. usa, 2001.
• hable con ella (talk to her). spain, 2002.
• love happy. usa, 1948.
• intacto. spain, 2002. A top-notch flick. I’m not sure if it was the espresso before the movie, but my heart was thumping non-stop through this philosophical thriller. It’s a very eerie piece, dealing with a world where luck is not random. Individuals hold luck, and can steal luck from others. The ramifications of this fact play out slowly over the movie, which is shot in an eerie Lynchesque lighting, with a suitable soundtrack. The storytelling is excellent, communicating complicated ideas in a clear, highly visual manner. First rate.
• gangs of new york. usa, 2002. Wow, what a violent movie. It felt like it had the material to be a great film, but the actual movie didn’t live up to the promise. Some magnificent sprawling setpieces, a very convincing bit of geography and an excellent period look, but there’s just not enough thematic material to tie it together. To justify the raw, ugly violence of the opening scene, I needed a grander, deeper, and more coherent message. To its credit, the movie is much more realistic about American history than most: class warfare, racism and lynch mobs, and the ugliness of the political system are well represented. But the initial ugly gang brawl still sits poorly with me: it was shot with fast-paced excitement music, and it didn’t tie into any of the other themes, really. All it did was set the tone and shape a vivid image of the Five Points. Sorry, Scorcese – you didn’t deserve an Oscar for this one.
• nine queens. italy, 2002.
• roger and me. usa, 1988.
• russian ark. russia, 2002.
• être et avoir (to be and to have). france, 2002.
• blue velvet. usa, 1986. It took a while to make up my mind about this one, but in the end I liked it. It’s a difficult film to watch, and distinctly strange and twisted. The real trick with the movie is that you think you understand it: the story is straightforward, there isn’t any nonlinear narrative structure or dream sequences. The characters and situations are outlandish, but you could easily just reject it as a bad or gratuitous movie. mulholland drive, by comparison, was outrageously difficult to follow, so you spend a lot of time analysing it before drawing a judgment. To my mind, mulholland drive is still the better film, and definitely more accessible. However, if you spend some time reflecting on the characters and meaning of the scenes in blue velvet, there’s a lot of substance there. And there’s no denying the power of lynch’s style; the images and music of the film have stuck in my head for weeks afterwards.
• siunin wong fei-hung tsi titmalau (iron monkey). hong kong, 1993. Some very fun kung fu, with the typical way-over-the-top acting and so on. A little too mysogynistic at times, but otherwise excellent. There are a few spectacular fights along the way, especially in the finale.
• the pianist. poland, 2002.
• feng yue (temptress moon). china, 1996. I wasn’t very impressed, frankly.
• dogtown & z-boys. usa, 2002. A fun ride. Very informative for those of us who knew nothing about skateboarding history, and some cool shots of 70s style skateboarding, doing surfing tricks with narrow boards in empty pools and so on.
• adaptation. usa, 2002.