The Ten Best Films of 2004

Sorry for the lack of new postings for the last few days. Your devoted moviegeek has been hunkered down viewing and reviewing the best of last year in order to create the best of year-end list.

10. Dodgeball: A True Underdog Story
Sure there are better films than this that will not be on my list, but it is impossible to make a high-concept Hollywood comedy that not only rewards multiple-viewings because of the various ways it gets laughs, but also manages to assume that the audience actually has some intelligence. Rawson Marshall Thurber is one to watch.

9. Kinsey
Bill Condon's screenplay for the biopic of Alfred Kinsey is worthy of study. He has managed to encapsulate the complicated inner-world of an outwardly dull man, he made it visually interesting, and he managed to create two fascinating supporting characters to flesh out the story. A clear-headed, reasonable film about an electrifying subject matter, Kinsey achieves its greatest success in being a fascinating character study.

8. Shaun of the Dead
A ceaselessly funny, yet also scary zombie movie that has a great deal of respect for the genre. For social commentary, absurdist humor, and genuine terror this British film is a better tribute to George Romero's Dawn of the Dead than the American remake of that film that hit theaters this year as well (and the remake was still a good film).

7. Closer
What is escapism? For some people it's watching stuff blow-up. For others it's watching Jim Carrey talk out of his ass. For me it's watching beautiful people lie to themselves and each other and treat each other horribly while speaking strikingly cruel and witty dialogue. This fits that bill. Natalie Portman and Clive Owen deliver two of the best performances of the year, and Julia Roberts gives the best performance of her career.

6. The Aviator
Martin Scorsese's take on the early life of Howard Hughes shows Marty having more fun while making a movie than anything he has made in close to fifteen years. So much to admire including the amazingly conceived cinematography, the beautiful art direction, and two superb performances by Leonardo DiCaprio and Cate Blanchett.

5. The Dreamers
I recognized myself in Bernardo Bertolucci's ode to the point in every young moviegeek's life where sex, politics, and movies combine in order to shape the adult they will grow into. This was kind of like someone saw inside my heart and brain and made a movie about what they saw. I feel intimate with this film, and that rare feeling helps catapult it into the top 5.

4. Kill Bill Vol. 2
Really the entire opus is what holds this spot for the film was always to be taken as a whole. The secret to Tarantino is that he so clearly communicates the sheer joy he takes from and puts into the filmmaking process. Argue that this is a slick, empty revenge film if you want, but you are denying the fact that he does provide an emotional context for just about everything that happens and he gives David Carradine a chance to shine in a way nobody else ever thought possible. He loves Bill and the Bride, and it is easy to go along with his emotion.

3. Metallica: Some Kind of Monster
Capturing a life is a very difficult task for a movie to achieve. This documentary captures three lives and details how those lives interact with each other. And it's about so much more - how to make a modern rock record, how twelve-step recovery can affect relationships, and (most importantly for moviemakers) this film is about how to edit a documentary in order to slowly achieve a level of intimacy that very few films scripted or not ever attain.

2. Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
Charlie Kaufman's perfect script is enhanced by Michel Gondry's inventive direction that - while stylish - never overwhelms the disturbing struggle at the heart of this remarkably moving film about why and how we get into relationships and risk feeling the pain that we seem to know this will cause. The best performance of Jim Carrey's career, and yet another in a an ongoing series of breathtaking performances by Kate Winslet.

1. Before Sunset
The best film since Paul Thomas Anderson's Magnolia. Quite simply, perfect. For details, click on the link to read my AMG review - I couldn't say it any better.


In the interest of fairness these are the five films I have yet to see that I wish I had seen before composing this list:
Bad Education
Brown Bunny
Dogville
Los Angeles Plays Itself
Moolade