Top Ten Films Of 2005
Kent called me out to send my top 5 to The Inaugural A.V. Club Film Poll which I am about to do. However my Top 10 is listed below, and you can also view my full rankings of all the year 2005 new release films I saw.
- Grizzly Man
- Tropical Malady
- Mysterious Skin
- 3-iron
- The Aristocrats
- Good Night And Good Luck
- The Nomi Song
- Brokeback Mountain
- We Jam Econo: The Story Of The Minutemen
- Batman Begins
I wanted to include some commentary about these choices, but nothing is coming to me that doesn’t sound trite. Every movie in the top 5 would receive the adjective “lovely” including The Aristocrats. Certainly the lost film in this list is The Nomi Song, and extremely well-done documentary of German new-wave-opera vocalist Klaus Nomi. It does everything right, includes some incredible archive footage, and puts forth a harrowing and heatbreaking picture of the gay world at the time when AIDS was just starting to rear its ugly face. I recommend everyone check it out, since you’ll probably already see everything else on the list and they don’t need my help.
OK, I managed to cobble together a few inane words to send to The Onion about my picks.
“The portrait Herzog painted of Timothy Treadwell vs nature in Grizzly Man was such a compelling piece of filmmaking that I couldn’t deny it my #1 spot. However, it is Tropical Malady that continues to linger in my heart and soul in the year and a half since I first saw it. It is all too rare that a film explores what you give up when you fall in love with as much care and thought as it explores what you gain. Tropical Malady turns this equation into a lush and beautiful film unlike anything I’ve seen before. I also can’t think of another movie in recent memory that rewards a second viewing with so many gifts. After my first viewing I was intrigued, but after my second I was speechless. Anyone who didn’t get it the first time is encouraged to give it another shot.”
related articles
- Memories, Complicated (February 14th, 2008)
- SIFF Day 10 (I Don’t Want To Sleep Alone, The Man In The Chair, The Elephant And The Sea) (January 1st, 2008)
- Some Shit I Stole From socialretard (September 10th, 2007)
- SIFF Day 9 (The Cloud, Still Alive: A Film About Krzysztof Kieslowski) (June 25th, 2007)
- SIFF Days 7 and 8 (Slipstream, Eagle Vs Shark) (June 24th, 2007)
January 18th, 2006 at 11:42 am
I’ll have the same #1 as you and 3, 4 & 9 will be on my list too. Glad to see the Minutemen doc on your list. I’ll push Nomi Song up in my queue on your recommendation. I still have so many from 2005 to see.
I can’t wait for SIFF this year. It’ll be great to be here for the entire fest. If only I wasn’t working an 8-5 job.
January 18th, 2006 at 5:09 pm
I really don’t know what to do about SIFF and I’ll just play it by ear. I am really tempted to just get a full pass and be done with it, so that I can have the freedom to not worry about tickets, but $375 is a big chunk and I don’t know if I can justify it. I mean that is … approximately 40 movies to break even and I didn’t even hit that last year when I wasn’t working full time. You do get access to the press screenings too but that is all morning/afternoon so its no help. We’ll see.
Hey is this layout ugly? I feel like its maybe a little too in your face.
January 18th, 2006 at 10:09 pm
I don’t know about ugly. I guess you could say it’s not entirely subtle. It seems okay. But I’m no design guru (as you can tell from any of the various sites I’ve called home), so asking me probably isn’t much help. What was wrong with the old design? Just wanting something fresh?
My solution to the SIFF dilemna is to get the 20 pack of tickets. I think that’s a good number of films to see over three weeks and it’ll only cost me $130 if I get it under the SIFF member early bird special. That’s just over $6 a ticket, which is pretty good.
January 19th, 2006 at 8:22 am
this is what i sent the onion, but it sounds dumb and obvious now upon reread. i didn’t want to say something dumb if they quoted me. also i personally surprised myself with pick #5, i might have to rethink it.
1. Grizzly Man
2. We Jam Econo
3. 3-Iron
4. Mysterious Skin
5. Me and You and Everyone We Know
Grizzly Man deserves the #1 spot because it impressively succeeds in portraying the many dimensions of one character while simultaneously maintaining (for the most part) an objective voice. So much of the available footage could have been strewn together in the worst possible way, but it is the care that Herzog put into weaving it together, and filling us in on his
process, that it is tough to walk away and not pick up a sense of Treadwell’s enthusiasm, inner struggles, and absolute dedication to his own cause whether right or wrong.
We Jam Econo seems odd for #2 but I felt it was a really great portrait of a friendship between two people in an otherwise unsuspecting band documentary. You come to realize that music is a direct reflection of those band members that create it, and how solid it sounds or how good it gets depends very much on that unspoken connection between them.
Pick #5 was hard so I settled on Me and You because it’s one of the movies that stands out in my head over the last year, and not just because of the ))(( scene. Just exploring the idea that everyone is in their own isolated bubble, but some are trying desperately to extend a hand outward in an attempt at some social contact seemed refreshing in the face of so many other films that portray the troubled anti-social psyche, and more relevent than ever in our increasingly electronically connected-but-distant world.
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what i really meant to say about Grizzly Man was that on a personal level, it was refreshing to be taken into the world of someone who really felt he had a connection with animals. you could tell he was genuine and honest, but perhaps too headstrong to back down. it’s always an annoyance to see the interaction between humans and animals being portrayed everywhere as just owner and pet, rather than two simple creatures trying to live in the same pocket of the world. and obviously a great deal of that angle in the documentary comes from herzog’s work on it–i don’t think treadwell’s footage alone or edited merely by himself would have done himself the justice he deserved.
January 20th, 2006 at 12:24 pm
Wow I am pretty shocked about your #5 vote. I hadn’t realized it had risen in your view like that. I like your take on Grizzly Man too. I totally agree that in anyone else’s hands it would not have been anything near the movie it is now.