Second Negative

Best in Show 2005

The Academy Awards telecast will start in a few hours, and although I had intended to offer my list of best films several weeks ago, well…better late than never.

There was a lot to love about the movies in 2005, and although I could write a separate entry about many of the films I will list here, a few words will have to suffice. These notes are not plot summaries, and I can’t properly explain what is so special about the connection I felt watching these films. To understand, you’ll have to experience them for yourself.

Best Picture of the Year

1. Brokeback Mountain

   There is little more I can say that I haven’t said already, or that others haven’t said better about Brokeback Mountain. This is a beautiful movie. The theme of being unable to break free of what society has decided is right and wrong is universal. And timeless. The last two scenes are the most heartbreaking I can ever remember watching.

2. The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada

   All I knew while waiting for Three Burials to come to Austin was that Tommy Lee Jones (the director and star) had won best actor at the Cannes Film Festival. And after watching the movie, I can understand why they loved his performance. I’ll admit up front that the movie is set in Texas, so maybe I’m biased. But I didn’t grow up in Southwest Texas, where the movie is set, and outside of horses, cowboy hats, pickup trucks, and twang, there is little in common. Okay, maybe that’s a lot. But we have grass and trees here. And no mountains. But that said, I could smell the vinyl seats in Jones’ pickup truck. And maybe in another life, my father lived there. This movie almost seems like it came from a different time, but I can’t say which that would be. I only know that there are quiet moments in this movie that set it apart from almost everything else I saw this year. The characters are well drawn and real. I identified with each of them. I felt like I knew who they were. I understood their frustrations. I knew why they behaved in ways that were sometimes difficult to understand.

3. Munich

   I almost put Syriana on this list, but ultimately decided that Munich was a better representative of the political thrillers that I enjoyed last year. Why? Well, even though Syriana is a more complex (and well written) tangle of intersecting stories, Munich feels much more personal. Maybe because it is told from the point of view of a man with a young family. Or maybe because it’s less complicated. The team assembled in Munich goes about their work in a very human way, which is to say that things rarely go quite right. In those moments, and in the discussions they have over meals, it went beyond what you might normally expect from this type of movie.

4. Crash

   I read the other day that people either love this movie, or they hate it. Some critics who dismissed it said that Hollywood must just now be discovering that racism exists. But to me, the movie is more about showing the way that racism affects people involved in the same situation, in so many different ways, and how everything is often related. There is a lot of truth in this movie, and even though you already know that people are racist, what does that mean? Does it mean that we are done talking about it? An Iranian man in Crash is offended when someone mistakes him for an Arab, because Iranians are actually Persian. How many people knew that? Maybe you don’t care, and maybe it’s just news to you. But we can learn a lot from each other if we will just stop labeling everyone and start trying to understand our common fears and prejudices.

5. Wedding Crashers

   I’ll admit, another movie might have deserved this 5th spot, but comedies always get the short stick at the awards shows, so I’m including Wedding Crashers. How come? Because I laughed my ass off watching it. And because we quote from that motorboat scene almost daily at work. The main characters didn’t even need to talk, because the looks that Vince Vaughn gave Owen Wilson were funny enough. Add in some great supporting work, and a hilarious cameo from the numchuck king at the end, and you’ve got a classic. No kidding. I’m going to use Wedding Crashers as my new test movie. If you don’t laugh, you’re dead inside.

Honorable Mention
I only pick 5 movies for best picture but there are plenty of others that I want to list here, because they were often just as deserving.

1. Good Night, and Good Luck

   This movie about Edward R. Murrow was directed by George Clooney and perfectly matches the time period by filming in black and white. Clooney said it was inevitable because the old footage they used was black and white, but I can’t imagine the film in color. The performance of David Strathairn as Murrow is worth the price of admission.

2. Syriana

   This was a great political thriller, with wonderful dialogue and scenes all over the globe. George Clooney’s work here as an aging CIA operative deserves to win an award tonight.

3. Walk the Line

   In some ways this is the standard singer biopic. The main character overcomes his not so perfect childhood, suffers early rejection, only to eventually make it big, almost lose it all to booze or drugs, and then comes out on top in the end. But what sets this movie apart is the performances from the two leads as Johnny Cash and June Carter Cash. Their scenes together are wonderful, and they even sing their own songs. Very well done.

4. Serenity

   The best space western I’ve ever seen. Is that a category? Well, it should be. I wrote a post about this movie last year, but what you need to know is that Serenity is just like Star Wars, but with a better plot, and good dialogue.

5. The Upside of Anger

   This movie didn’t last long at the box office, but I really enjoyed it. The scenes between Joan Allen, and a perfectly cast Kevin Costner are as good as in any movie last year.

6. Batman Begins

   The best Batman movie since 1989. And, I’d have to say the best cast, right down to Christian Bale, the most believable Bruce Wayne/Batman. Somebody finally decided to take Batman seriously and filmed it like a real movie. It worked.

7. Sin City

   I almost forgot about this movie, but the visual work really stands out, as do the sharply drawn characters, and the comic book style. Each story stands alone, and is also part of a larger world. My favorite involved Clive Owen.

Might be great, but I didn’t see them
And finally, a few movies that I wish I’d had a chance to see, but haven’t yet.

Junebug, Capote, The Constant Gardener, Hustle & Flow, A History of Violence, Broken Flowers, The Squid and the Whale, and March of the Penguins.