PERFECT DOZEN
The Twelve Best Films of 2004
Like I said before, this was a very good year. So good, in fact, that I must admit to being a weak-minded, spineless fool: I can't hack my list down to just ten movies. I've thought it over, and I decided to cave and go with a Top Twelve. If it makes you feel better, consider these first three a tie for tenth. In any event, these twelve movies are the ones from this year I couldn't live without -- cinematic heaven.
12. The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou
Wes Anderson is some kind of crazy, but it's my kind. Like his previous works -- the excellent Rushmore, the glorious The Royal Tenenbaums -- he perfectly straddles the thin lines between reality and fantasy, between comedy and drama, joy and melancholy. Helped along by a magnificent ensemble (especially Cate Blanchett and Bill Murray), Anderson has created another remarkable gem.
11. I Heart Huckabees
"How am I not myself?" David O. Russell's goofy existential comedy is a hilarious philosophical jaunt, shining with perfect performances from Mark Walberg, Dustin Hoffman, Lily Tomlin, Naomi Watts, and the ubiquitous Jude Law. But it's the film's centerpiece sequence -- in which the innocent query, "How am I not myself?" turns into a mantra-like chant of self-examination -- that seals it as an instant classic.
10. Collateral
Michael Mann's smoky little film is smarter than the average action film, with performances to match: an icy Tom Cruise and a brilliant Jamie Foxx (in a role I didn't truly appreciate until a second viewing). Add in the sharp dialogue and the rich cinematography, and you've got a near-masterpiece.
9. Fahrenheit 9/11
It's a little more depressing in the wake of Dubya's reelection, but Michael Moore's ringing condemnation of the Bush Adminstration still packs a punch. Make this to the main course to the appetizers of Bush's Brain and Outfoxed and have fun torturing a conservative.
8. Shaun of the Dead
Take two genres I generally don't like -- romantic comedies and zombie flicks -- add them together, and you have one of the funniest movies I've ever seen. Extra credit for the intelligent script, which manages to make a fart joke -- a fart joke -- not only funny but, so help me, poignant.
7. Kill Bill, Vol. 2
Quentin Tarantino finally finishes his revenge opus, and does it in style. Uma Thurman's masterful as the Bride, David Carradine is just as good, and the script shines with the great touch that only Tarantino can bring. On the downside, no one gets chopped in half with a samurai sword, but I guess you can't have everything.
6. The Incredibles
So here's the Pixar pattern -- make a masterpiece, then make a very good but unremarkable kid's movie, then make another masterpiece. Toy Story, then A Bug's Life, then Toy Story 2, then Monsters Inc., and now...The Incredibles, a roaringly funny examination of the way the world treats the exceptional. It never ceases to amaze the philosphical depths Pixar can explore by using such (supposedly) childish concepts -- first it was toys, and now superheroes. But isn't Dash right? Isn't saying "Everybody's special" just a way of saying that no one is? The world where the Incredibles live, in which the talented are forced to hide their gifts for fear of ridicule, often looks eerily like our own.
5. Garden State
If you've ever felt like screaming into an infinite abyss, this is your movie. Zack Braff's writing and directing may occasionally seep into the overly quirky -- the guy in shining armor who speaks Klingon? -- but that seems to fit perfectly into the slightly-off-center little world the film inhabits. And for anyone who often feels that life is an endless, mind-numbing exercise of banging one's head against a wall, Garden State can be mesmerizing.
4. Sideways
Alexander Payne (director of the wonderful About Schmidt and the flawless Election) has done it again. This hilarious little film covers ground we've seen a million times -- the buddy road movie -- but the smart, literate script (based on an -- ironically -- unpublished novel by Rex Pickett) and the genius performances elevate it above the pedestrian and into the realm of greatness. Paul Giamatti, especially, is transcendent as Miles, the painfully overanalytical wine snob, and Thomas Haden Church hits all the right notes as his out-of-work actor best friend.
THE MEDAL STAND
Bronze: Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
He flirted with it in Being John Malkovich and Adaptation, but Charlie Kaufman finally achieves genius with the folding, complex screenplay for Eternal Sunshine. Michel Gondry, director of some of the most mind-bending music videos ever, applies his unique talents to magnificent ends. And at the end, it has a wonderful message about love: that the good times will always outweigh the bad. I think Miles from Sideways needs to see this movie.
Silver: Metallica: Some Kind of Monster
He probably needs to see this one, too, if only to know that it isn't just unsuccessful artists who go throw crises of confidence. What could have been an overblown Behind the Music special ends up as so much more -- Some Kind of Monster is a moving portrait of insecurity, fear, and -- ultimately -- triumph that ranks as one of the very best movies I've ever seen.
Gold: Dogville
The best movie of 2004 is also the most unlikely. The crazy Dane, Lars Von Trier, strips away set design and production values and leaves us only with bare, unpolished humanity, in all its hideous and cruel glory. Don't listen to those who call it un-American -- this is an examinantion of the evil and coldness that lay dormant in the hearts of all of us. Though painful to watch at times, Dogville is clearly a masterpiece, and the most unforgettable film out of a year full of them.
Next: The Oscars are stupid.
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