This is the thread where we discuss matters pertaining to the detrius that accompanies the "End of the Year in Cinema" -- 2004

Bad Education is also playing nearby.

I can't wait for the new Eastwood to open around here. If the Unforgiven/Perfect World standard holds, the followup to his overrated Oscar winner will be fantastic.

I had a moment of skepticism when I thought of the scenes of nature before death in Soylent Green (too easy), but then I was reassured by some of the ways he shoots people, e.g., when one of the Native American men shakes out his hair and stands, so much a companion, next to the other. Also, the woman's wrist during Godard's lecture and the woman running and Olga's face and the man's hand against his black coat at the reception. And someone mentioned the hard cuts, so I looked for that, pretty obvious I guess, and was propelled along and held at a distance. So long looking doesn't lead to identification. It's more like looking in a mirror and remembering what you look like.

Also, the dreariness of the city in rain and traffic: this is what we have built for ourselves - this way of life.

So mostly I'm not bothered by my philistinism because he's right, you can't go back. He's just further along than I am, maybe out on a limb.

It's embarrassing to go on like this.

This assumes Million Dollar Baby isn't on a collision course with at least 7 Oscar nominations, which it is.

-- milozauckerman (wooderso...), December 24th, 2004

Short answer, yes. It's a decent film, but would've been largely ignored had it been made by anyone else. Most the acting talent went to waste in rather lifeless characters.

Collateral
Farenheit 9/11
Harold and Kumar Go to White Castle
Kill Bill 2
Maria Full of Grace

the winner was Farenheit 9/11

I am not making this up.

Nice feature of the Voice poll: the clickable titles and voters, so you can personally blacklist everyone who voted for "Dogville."

Melissa Anderson
Jason Anderson
David Blaylock
Donna Bowman
Tom Charity
Travis Crawford
Mike D'Angelo
Howard Feinstein
Scott Foundas
Graham Fuller
Stephen Garrett
Ed Gonzalez
Elizabeth Helfgott
J. Hoberman
J.R. Jones
Kristin M. Jones
Anthony Kaufman
Dave Kehr
Ben Kenigsberg
Michael Koresky
Joshua Land
Dennis Lim
David Ng
Ed Park
Keith Phipps
Nathan Rabin
Jim Ridley
Mike Rubin
Laura Sinagra
David Sterritt
Ron Stringer
Benjamin Strong
Scott Tobias
Jessica Winter

Critics who Dr. Morbius can still trust (i.e. Dogville is on their "worsts" list):

Roger Ebert
Owen Glieberman
Rex Reed

01 Sideways
02 Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
03 Goodbye Dragon Inn
04 Fahrenheit 9/11
05 The Aviator
06 Kill Bill Vol. 2
07 Infernal Affairs
08 Notre Musique
09 Collateral
10 Spider-Man 2

Let's just say I'd take the rest of Hoberman's list over Mike D'Angelo's. (Time Out NY's critics don't appear to have even seen many films more than 30 years old.)

not a top-10, but my list from ILF which might be missing some that I saw

won't see because the trailers repulse me:
Napoleon Dynamite
Spanglish

disliked:
Saw (hated)
Intermission (hated)
Spider-Man 2
Coffee & Cigarettes
Garden State (kind of hated, but at least it wasn't the Rick Moody novel)(Ms. Portman please go back to doing 'chick flicks' like Where The Heart Is, I enjoyed that one)
Hero (bo-ring)
Team America: World Police (oh yeah, so [i]that's[/i] why I dislike libertarians)
Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow
The Girl Next Door
Troy
the Dreamers

meh:
Fahrenheit 9/11 (a few good sequences, mostly shrill and self-defeating)
the Incredibles
Kill Bill 2 (my God this seems never-ending on DVD)
Van Helsing (not as bad as some would lead you to believe, the first third is decent for a CGI blockbuster)

halfway between meh and liked:
I Heart Huckabee's (hated the Christian family scene and the crowd scenes)
Saddest Music In The World (could have been better)
Hellboy (loses a lot from big-screen to DVD)
Control Room
Dodgeball
Anchorman
Mean Girls

liked:
Sideways (overrated)
Harry Potter
Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (don't understand all the love, it was good but not great)
Closer (which was shallow and pretentious, maybe, but fun to watch and good performances except for Portman)
the Bourne Supremacy
Undertow
Baaaddddaaaaassssssss or whatever

Liked a lot:
Harold & Kumar Go To White Castle
Zatoichi
Collateral (even if the last 15-20mins were pretty bad)
Friday Night Lights

loved:
Twilight Samurai
Before Sunset

>I Heart Huckabee's (hated the Christian family scene and the crowd scenes)

Since the dinner scene is probably the favorite of everyone I know who likes IHH, tell us why? It seemed to encapsulate Divided America better than anything I've seen lately (and Marky apparently improvised his "Jesus is most definitely mad at you" line).

Most of the scenes with more than a few people (the environmental group meetings, the Jesus people) were pretty bad. Russell seemed to be trying for madcap, screwball energy in them, but they were all just overly shrill and unfocused.