What are your favorite movies that came out last year?

Here's my top 10 list:

1. Czech Dream
2. Broken Flowers
3. Me, You and Everyone I Know
4. Yes
5. The Real Dirt on Farmer John
6. Ushpizin
7. Syriana
8. Duck Season
9. Travelers and Magicians
10. Capote

Don't yell at me if you've never heard of them. A few didn't get U.S. theatrical distribution.
[Edited 1/27/06 20:26pm]

heartbeatocean said:

I was going to yell but then I read that last sentence...I have only heard of Duck Season out of all those movies. Which one of those is your fave?

*whispers* I haven't heard of any of them ! ....

Sinister said:

No way, you've heard of Duck Season? The Mexican black and white film about kids smoking pot? That showed nowhere. Great movie though!


Oh, and my fave is Czech Dream. I listed them in order of preference.
[Edited 1/27/06 20:27pm]

heartbeatocean said:

I didn't know what its about but I was reading online and it was mentioned

Sinister said:

It's really funny. Two young kids refuse to pay for the pizza that gets delivered because the pizza man was a few seconds late. So the pizza man refuses to leave and then the neighbor girl comes over to borrow the oven and makes pot brownies for her birthday. Then she feeds them to the kids without their knowing what's in them. And then one of the kids talks about his parent's divorce and who he should choose to go live with, and they take out some rifles and shoot all the china on the wall along with several vases and ceramic animals in the living room. Then the pizza man enters into a painting naked. You've got to see it!

Two stills from Duck Season

Gosh now I have to remember just what it is I saw. I think 2005 was kind of patchy for me movie-wise..

Top Ten of 2005

1. Star Wars: Revenge Of The Sith
2. The Squid And The Whale (if you haven't seen it, see it!)
3. Broken Flowers
4. King Kong
5. War Of The Worlds
6. Crash
7. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire
8. The Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy
9. March Of The Penguins
10. You and Me and Everyone We Know (made in my 2nd home, Portland, OR)

Honorable Mentions:

Wallace and Grommit: Curse Of The Were-Rabbit
Palindromes
The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe

I Didn't See These But They Might Have Made My "Best Of":

2046
Howl's Moving Castle
Brokeback Mountain
Cinderella Man
The 40 Year-Old Virgin
A History of Violence
Good Night, And Good Luck
Syriana
Capote
Walk the Line
Murderball

Bottom 8: I saw these (or at least part of some of them) and was disappointed:

1. Sin City (all glitz, boring script!)
2. Kicking & Screaming (just unfunny)
3. Gus Van Sant's "Last Days" (somnulant and weird "based on Kurt Cobain and Nirvana" story which seemed to glamourise the nasty aspects)
4. Batman Begins (couldn't watch more than the first few minutes)
5. Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (not exactly bad, but not as good as the original)
6. Serenity (couldn't watch more than the first few minutes...I might have stayed around if not for the macho-glorifying and "Buffy-esque" dialogue)
7. Happy Endings (great cast, pity the movie was forgettable)
8. Mirrormask (could have been good...but it wasn't)

.
[Edited 1/28/06 5:15am]

heartbeatocean said:

I liked that one.

Though I wasn't crazy about Syriana and I'd like to see Capote.

2the9s said:

I wanna see Capote too. The book was so good, so I would like more of the story.

I don't think I even saw ten movies this past year...lol

Oh my, I've only heard of Syriana and Broken Flowers from that first list.

I go to the cinema a LOT, but I didn't see 10 films that I even liked last year. A lot of the good ones batting for the awards and stuff right now have only just come out in the UK so technically they're 2006 for me, and I absolutely loathed the "acclaimed" blockbusters like Batman Begins and King Kong.

Anyway, my absolute favourite film of '05 was Kiss Kiss Bang Bang

I don't have a Top 10!

But I really did like the movie "Elizabethtown"!!!

Ellie said:

I thought Batman Begins sucked too, but what was wrong with King Kong?

King Kong was just FAR too long. Anything that was visually stunning about it was countered with overlong sequences and bad effects (dinosaur stampede - didn't need to happen, and Jurassic Park which is 13 years old was better done). Too much time was spent on nothing characters at the beginning only for them to be killed off later as if they were random extras. Plus, I usually like Jack Black but he was just rubbish.

5 star reviews from every major critic? Seriously, I thought I was watching the wrong film. Some 3+ hour movies can go by really swiftly, but this one felt more like 12 hours.

I didn't understand the praise Batman Begins got either. Katie Holmes and Cilian Murphy were the absolute worst things about it. It was supposed to be "dark", but every superhero movie has to have at least some humour. I really resent the fact that the brilliant Tim Burton films have been slagged off just to talk this one up. And again, it was too long. The action sequences were utterly pointless. They just sort of started with no build-up as to whom was chasing who and why. Just a bunch of cameras dancing about so you couldn't really see or care what was going on.
[Edited 1/28/06 2:20am]

I don't think I even SAW 10 movies last year. I mean, counting in even the ones that came on TV...

This makes me feel cinematically inferior.

Ellie said:

Hey you know what... everything you said I agreed with, especially the dinosaur sequence, Jack Black (bad casting in my opinion) and yeah, it was WAY too long..... so I might need to rethink my list regarding Kong...

HOWEVER, I DID think Kong himself was marvellously well done and Naomi Watts was great and there were some good sequences... but those detractions you made... I totally agree with... I never thought Kong was a 5-star movie myself.....3 1/2 stars for me.... *goes to change list*

.
[Edited 1/28/06 5:13am]

In no particular order...

1) Broken Flowers
2) Shopgirl
3) Mysterious Skin
4) Jarhead
5) The Aristocrats
6) Junebug (the most accurate film ever made about small-town living)
7) Sarah Silverman: Jesus Is Magic
8) Grizzly Man
9) A History Of Violence
10) Good Night and Good Luck

One more thing...

Why is "Me, You, and Everyone We Know" so highly praised? It reeks of pretentious art-fag "Oh, this is SO deep..." gay-cowboys-eating-pudding bullshit.

I liked the ))>><<(( subplot

B ut seriously, will someone please explain what makes this film so great? I've seen experimental student films made by goths that were less pretentious. I just don't get it...

Case said:

I'm still in awe of that one. Quite possibly my favourite documentary ever. It's really, really sad that it's being marketed as a "nature movie" since it is sooo much more than that.

I haven't seen 10 movies from 2005...yet...

Nice thread.

Must be one of the worst years for movies.

heartbeatocean said:

Is there a reason the "vel" in "Travelers" is in bold??...

Byron said:

Yeah, I edited it. Mispelled it the first time.

bluesbaby said:

It was pretty stunning. Philip Seymour Hoffman was amazing. I felt like the prisoner was a bit miscast though.

GangstaFam said:

That's okay, you can make me feel musically inferior.

Case said:

Good to see Broken Flowers getting some love around here. I should have seen Junebug. Heard it was great.

Case said:

I just thought it brought a lot of weird elements together and captured a unique tone. I liked the humor a lot, and it captured a magical feeling. I didn't realize I liked it so much until I compared it to the other films I saw last year. The script was unique, and it hung together well as a whole piece. I was disappointed the ending wasn't stronger though.

I saw The Best of Youth just after the new year. If I could add that, it would be my number one from last year. If you ever get an opportunity to see it, go. It's well worth the six hours.