This is the thread where we discuss matters pertaining to the detrius that accompanies the "End of the Year in Cinema" -- 2005

I think it's mostly that the critics' screenings for both films are fairly late in the game. Long past the time Peter Travers would wish to post his first-outta-the-gate top 10. (I'd expect The New World to be on his list when the time comes, simply based off his predictability.)

Funniest movie I saw this year:
Green Street Hooligans (unintentional)

Best films:
Wedding Crashers
The Constant Gardener
Masculin-Feminin (re-release, obviously)
The Devil's Rejects
My Summer of Love
Serenity

Good, but not the best:
Good Night & Good Luck
Domino
The Island
Hustle & Flow
Mr. & Mrs. Smith
Layer Cake
The Skeleton Key (shockingly enough)
The Longest Yard

Better than expected but still not very good:
Cry_Wolf
Lord of War

Disappointingly Mediocre:
Land of the Dead
Corpse Bride
Jarhead
Walk The Line

I watched it again for Nicole Kidman:
The Interpreter

Totally Overrated (but not necessarily bad):
2046
Broken Flowers
Oldboy
Batman Begins
40-Year Old Virgin
A History of Violence

Boy did these fucking suck:
Willy Wonka
Sin City
Bad News Bears
The Brothers Grimm

You saw The Island.

no, and it got buried so quickly in the US it's shameful. I really wanted to see it, just couldn't make it.

I didn't see too many movies out this year, and that was partly because, for the first time in a long time, I found myself really disappointed in movies. I don't know if it's jsut because I've reached some saturation point where I've realized "fuck this, this was NOT worth the $20 we just spent to see it" or what. But Me You And Everyone We Know? MEH. Broken Flowers? Gimmie a fucking break.

I liked:

2046
Wallace and Grommit
Walk the Line

that was about it.

I didn't even realize Where the Truth Lies had been released in the U.S. I was kind of keeping an eye out for it, but I guess not enough of one.

You like tv.

Pleasantly surprised:
Four Brothers
Tell Them Who You Are

wish I'd never bothered:
Crash
Sahara
Lord Of War
High Tension

What if luna asked you to?
-- Soledad (adamr...), December 2nd, 2005.

uhh....I'm scared.

And, yeah, for the record, I'd pretty much do what either Caveh or Luna asked me to do, including (but not limited to) taking a ridiculously large quantity of psychedelic mushrooms on camera or dropping trow for an underwear thread gone seriously out of control.

Funniest movie I saw this year:
TV Party

Best retro screenings at Oak Street (or elsewhere):
Late Spring
Mouchette
The Exterminating Angel
The Passenger
Seventh Heaven // A Single Girl

Best NEW films:
Kings and Queen
War of the Worlds
Land of the Dead

Good, but not the best:
Forty Shades of Blue
Cinévardaphoto
The Joy of Life
The World
The Best of Youth
The Devil's Rejects
Ma Mère

Better than expected but still not very good:
Capote
3-Iron
Clean

Disappointingly Mediocre:
Harry and Max
Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch & the Wardrobe
Nine Lives
The Family Stone
Proof

I watched it again for Nicole Kidman:
Roll Bounce (still didn't see her)

Totally Overrated (but not necessarily bad):
A History of Violence
Grizzly Man
Kung Fu Hustle

Boy did these fucking suck:
I'll just say Crash since everything else was good in comparison

obligatory "TV buries movies these days" slumming:
"Noah's Arc" on Logo

Honeymoon and marriage is over but I'll still have sex on the sly:
Last Days

Passable:
Batman Begins
Constant Gardener
Jarhead
Cinderella Man

Poor:
Everything is Illuminated

Fewer Hollywood films than ever for me this year. I need to rent some obvious garbage just cuz there must be SOMETHING worse than Batman Begins.

Early cream o' crop, roughly in order:

The Joy of Life
2046
The White Diamond
Saraband
Kung Fu Hustle
L'Esquive (Games of Love and Chance)
Private

Schultze Gets the Blues
Chain
Grizzly Man
Los Muertos The Ice Harvest
Rize
Tony Takitani
Mysterious Skin

Tim Burton's Corpse Bride
Tropical Malady
Cinevardaphoto
Gabrielle
A State of Mind
Midwinter Night's Dream
Head-On

Machuca
War of the Worlds
Clean
Save the Green Planet
Junebug
The Best of Youth
The Beat That My Heart Skipped

Good :
Primer
Last Days
Vital
Howl's Moving Castle
Land Of The Dead
2046

Harmless :
Willy Wonka
The Brothers Grimm

so many! my piece is due next friday so next week i'm going to press screenings of brokeback mtn & capote (still not out here, that one) even though i'm not reviewing them, just for possible top 10 purposes.

i'd also like to see the constant gardener, kiss kiss bang bang, & good night & good luck before deadline!

VERY GOOD:
the taste of tea (won't count for my list as it only festival-screened in montreal this year... but best movie i saw this year by far)
war of the worlds
squid vs. whale
la niña santa

GOOD:
syriana
kung fu hustle
sin city
batman begins
zorro
the devil's rejects
zathura
deuce bigelow 2
primer
hustle & flow

WORST:
elektra
star wars
casanova
be cool
the pacifier
racing stripes

2046
The Aristocrats
Broken Flowers
*Capote
Crash
*Grizzly Man
*A History of Violence
Howl's Moving Castle
Hustle and Flow
Kings and Queen
Me and You and Everyone We Know
Where the Truth Lies

i can't possibly choose a best-of yet (too much i didn't see) but the filmGOING experience of the year for me by far was the NYUFF showing of a family finds entertainment (which culminated in a guerrilla musical performance by the cast with all sorts of funky props, including a MASSIVE BALLOON STRUCTURE!!!) (the movie itself is hysterically art-wacky and all the better for it)

kinda enjoyed:
mr. & mrs. smith (but i still think it would have been better with will ferrell in brad pitt's role)
land of the dead

wish had been better:
jarhead

disliked:
thumbsucker
that stupid cameron diaz toni colette one

wish i'd seen/still have to see:
grizzly man
howl's moving castle
oldboy
rize

Nobody Knows
Mysterious Skin
Hana & Alice
Kung Fu Hustle
Batman Begins
A Bittersweet Life
Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy
Downfall
Corpse Bride
Mind Game
Crying Fist
Danny The Dog
Wedding Crashers
AV
Seven Swords
Howl's Moving Castle
2046
3 Iron
Clean
War Of The Worlds
Me And You And Everyone We Know
Gunner Palace
Layer Cake
Be Cool
House Of Fury
Assault On Precinct 13
Tropical Malady
Sin City
Crash
Hell On Wheels
1735km
Grizzly Man
Initial D
Rebound

After M&M, I bet it will be even longer until you see another Woody.

haha, i just watched that this afternoon! i didn't think it was terrible, but it was probably a failure. a not altogether uninteresting one, though. and i actually thought radha mitchell's perf. was quite good.

Eric, I take it you've seen Yehuda Levi in Yossi & Jagger (I missed) or that was an impactful 3 seconds.

The Oughties are striking me the way '90s music struck Stephin Merritt: best ever for reissues, worst ever for new stuff.

Let Viggo Mortenson rehash the tired clichés of fantasy and thrillers. Moviegoers with hearts, minds and eyes know that Paul Walker is a more significant movie icon. Walker confirms his movie star status with Eight Below.

I'd put K&Q in a rundown of the Respectable Overrateds like this one (thx for alerting me to him, Eric):

http://www.geocities.com/michaelsicinski/2005notgoodenoughformyexactingtaste.htm

Stephin M. is not remotely an idiot, even if he's wrong. I also would not take pop radio of '90-94 over any other era but '94-present. (obv since SM is of my generation, tho I was Indie Rock and he was not -- landing on Merge notwithstanding -- we're more apt to agree).

Alfred, first-time film viewings in pieces? Go to confession.

Terrible year.. There are not 10 movies from 2005 I've seen that I enjoyed. As far as I can tell, there are seven, and there might be more if I watched enough of what's been listed in this thread, but if you really have to dig to find stuff you like, then it's simply not a good year.

01 Palindromes
02 A History Of Violence
03 The Squid And The Whale
04 Sin City
05 Kung Fu Hustle
06 Broken Flowers
07 I Heart Huckabees

08 The Devil And Daniel Johnston

kidding, that was 2006

08 The Baxter

Something like an '05 top 10:

Kings and Queen
Munich
War of the Worlds
Land of the Dead
The Death of Mr. Lazarescu
The Joy of Life
The Devil's Rejects
Forty Shades of Blue
Cinévardaphoto
Palindromes