Second Negative

The Second Negative Movie Awards

Well, maybe not movie awards in the conventional sense. I don’t have a category for sound editing or best supporting actress, and I’m skipping the opening musical number. This is a list of the five movies I feel represent the best of 2004, and several others that should be given similar consideration. I’ve offered a few thoughts about each film that you should feel free to be confused by, or disagree with. If I’ve learned anything over the years, it’s that our movie going experience tends to be highly subjective.

And the nominees are…

Best Picture of the Year

1. Garden State
   This was easily the best picture of the year. It spoke to me in a way that few movies have. It has a specific mood that contributes to the plot as much as the dialogue. It’s about being lost amid the early life crisis of your mid twenties. It’s about returning where you came from and realizing that a real sense of home no longer exists. It’s about making choices instead of just letting life happen around you. It’s about the way that another person who really feels life can make you feel alive.
2. Closer
   This is a movie about despicable people who make selfish choices based on weakness and their own delusional notions about being happy in love. It presents lying and betrayal as a normal lifestyle. The characters are cruel, sad, and pathetic all at once. This isn’t a movie for everyone, as it includes several graphic scenes and a lot of frank language, but there is no denying the powerful intensity of almost every scene. I felt a little disturbed leaving the theater, which is how I know it was so damn good.
3. Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
   This was one of the strangest movies I saw this year, which isn’t a surprise considering it came from the mind of Charlie Kaufman (Being John Malkovich). I’m starting to think that I gravitate towards movies with strange, offbeat relationships. Also, it seems to rain a lot in my favorite movies, and the characters sometimes look a little dirty. The characters in Eternal Sunshine seem to be lonely, each bizarre in their own way. They make an irrational decision based on the pain of emotion, and perhaps later realize that our memories hurt for a reason that is easily dismissed, but not so easily forgotten.
4. The Incredibles
   Like most of the Pixar movies, this film looks fantastic. More than its predecessors, The Incredibles perfectly blends computer animation with old style cartoons. The early scenes have the look of a classic 1950’s serial that meshes well with the notion of real superheroes. I especially enjoyed the modern themes, including the move to the ‘burbs, being sued for “unlawful rescuing”, packing on the pounds in middle age, and wasting the days away in a cramped cubicle working for a megalomaniacal boss. The story is in the tradition of Austin Powers or any spy movie where an evil genius plots to take over the world, but there are unique twists along the way. The voice work is stellar, and Craig T. Nelson was an inspired choice for Mr. Incredible. But above all else, remember the timeless message of the movie. Capes kill.
5. Spider-Man 2
   This is where it became more difficult to decide on a deserving movie. The first four were more or less a given, but any of the movies on the honorable mention list might also be ranked as #5. Ask me again tomorrow. I’m putting Spider-Man 2 here because it was the best comic book movie I’ve ever seen. It far surpasses the first, and improves in almost every area from plot to villain to effects. Tobey Maguire was perfect as Peter Parker in both movies, but comes into his own as Spider-Man here, and Alfred Molina is wonderful as Doc Ock. Molina is convincing before and after the transformation because he gives his character a real sense of humanity. A scene on an elevated train where a man looks at Spider-Man lying unconscious without his mask and remarks, “he’s no older than my son” is a nice reminder that in many ways, the hero is just a regular guy like the rest of us.

Honorable Mention

1. Saved
   A hilarious religious satire posing as a teenage comedy.
2. The Bourne Supremacy
   The best spy movie of the year. Better than the original.
3. Going Upriver: The Long War of John Kerry
   A film that was probably regarded by right wingers as partisan hackery, but is actually a wonderful documentary that relies on archival footage and interviews to accurately depict the Vietnam War and the role Kerry played in the anti-war protest when he returned. John Kerry’s testimony before the House Foreign Relations Committee in 1971 that included the question, “How do you ask a man to be the last man to die for a mistake?” is even more remarkable when you consider that he was only twenty-seven years old.

Might Be Great, But I Haven’t Seen Them

Worth mentioning in this category…Sideways, Before Sunset, The Dreamers, Ray, Finding Neverland, Napoleon Dynamite, Million Dollar Baby, The Aviator, Supersize Me.