By D.K. Holm
January 7, 2005
[nota bene: The following column, by necessity, contains some spoilers! If you don't want to know the ending of the movies mentioned, don't read on, and perhaps you should stop reading the Internet.]
10 Best
Every year I grumble about 10 best lists. And it's not as if anybody really wants me to do one, either. Work on these annual reductivist lists is spurred solely by duty to the profession, such as it is.
As I wrote last year at this time, for me these annual orgies of chest-thumping hold about as much interest as those other tedious bores of film history: the results of Academy Award ceremonies, the battle over movie censorship in America, and the HUAC hearings in the post-war era. All of these topics have merit, of course, but what they lack is satisfying resolution, and as a reader I grow weary of yet another unimaginative rehashing of the same issues over again.
Ten Best lists have a number of drawbacks: they artificially divide the onrush of film history into arbitrary concise segments; they play up to the commerciality of the bogus award season with its meritless glad-handing and preening; they are rarely truly comprehensive because no one person can see everything in one year; and they are unduly confining: why 10? Why not 15? Or 20? Or 100?
But these days, I am beginning to change my tune. I'm beginning to feel warmly toward that annual task that was the bane of my existence. I now see that 10 Best roundups provide handy shopping lists for people visiting video rental stores. They also offer a thumbnail sketch of a reviewer's aesthetic constitution. Best of all, they are easy to compose, since are the writer has to do is regurgitate thumbnail versions of the opinions toiled over earlier in the year. And they cleanse the cinematic palette at the end of one year as the writer embarks on yet another 12-month grind of high hopes and ambitious projects.
My usual caveats on 10 best lists include the following. There are frightful gaps in my 2004 film going (and there will be more in 2005, as I am attending fewer films with the wretched public). I haven't seen every movie that came out in 2004. I certainly didn't see all of the foreign film releases that I wanted to. And just because I saw a film in 2004 doesn't mean it is really a 2004 film (an example of this is ZATOICHI, which Kitano released in 2003).
The operating principal here is that a 10 best list even at its most rewarding is tentative. In later years, I may unearth an overlooked gem that I passed by this time around, or come to disparage a movie I was obsessed with this year, like a once loved but poorly made jacket now found to be ungainly and awkward, the way I imagine many aging yuppies are now viewing FRIENDS. And the aesthetic standard by which I chose these films is also simple. Do I ever want to see this film again? And in the era of DVD do I want to see the film again and again? For all the films on this best list, the answer is yes.
All that throat clearing out of the way, here is my tentative list of the 10 best films, 10 worst films, the best DVD packages, and the film books I liked the most in 2004.
When contemplating the worst films of the year, it's not really worth squandering one's time to excoriate releases such as EUROTRIP. Bad as it is, and though it offers robust opportunity for comical commentary, it didn't really have much in the way of ambition. It was what it was, more or less, though more less than more. No, the films that should qualify for a worst list have to offend. They need to betray their viewers, undermine the reputations of their creators, and trivialize important issues or public lives.
In that context the worst film of the year to my mind is FINDING NEVERLAND. It wastes the talents of its stars, Depp and Winslett, to offer a distorted portrait of an oddball British writer presented in an offensively life-draining "theatrical" manner. It's horrible and manipulative, even for a chronically calculating genre such as the tearjerker.
Only slightly less appalling was the unnecessary sequel, BRIDGET JONES 2: THE EDGE OF REASON, which quite simply did not have much more story left to tell, and told it badly.
Politically revolting was HERO. O, what a noble mind was here o'erthrown, as Zhang Yimou sold out to China's leaders, his proboscis inserted firmly in their collective fundament.
Unfortunately, Oliver Stone's ALEXANDER had no political point. He seemed not to know what he wanted to say about Alexander. What a waste of time, money, locations, and cast. Stone's distinctive editing style was absent, thrown aside as he seemingly aspired to become Ridley Scott or Wolfgang Petersen.
OPEN WATER was a meretricious piece of crap that could have put back the cause of digital photography were it not for the later release of COLLATERAL.
If you are going to do a remake of a "classic" film that was actually fairly bland and bad, at least try to improve it. STEPFORD WIVES was an effort to turn the horror tale into WILL AND GRACE, with the addition of a slightly shifted horror premise that has didn't make any sense if you were paying careful attention to the plot.
Arguably the most ambitious film of the year, at least intellectually, was I ♥ HUCKABEES, but the more I think about this film the worse I find it — visually sloppy, internally contradictory, and unable to face up to its own vision because it is basically a pilot for a sit-com.
But enough negativity. There were quite a few good movies in 2005.
Since I wrote a whole book on KILL BILL, I guess you could say that its second half, KILL BILL VOL. 2, was my favorite film of the year. I certainly saw it enough times. And though I agree with everything that our esteemed editor Chris Ryall says in his year in review column, I still have to give a very slight edge to KBV1, if only for that terrific mass slaughter scene in the House of Blue Leaves. That sequence alone defines why we, or at least I, love movies. But that is just me. CR's views are, as usual, impeccable.
I don't mean to disparage KBV2 in any way. I love it. But if I announce that ETERNAL SUNSHINE OF THE SPOTLESS MIND ever so slightly edges out KBV2, that opinion has more to do with personal neurosis than aesthetic values. I love ETERNAL because it is, for want of a better phrase, about me, just as last year's PUNCH DRUNK LOVE was all about me. And if the cinema doesn't at least in part tell us about ourselves what is it for?
While those two films are battling it out in my mind and heart for first place, Michael Mann's COLLATERAL, easily slips in as my second favorite film of the year. Though it is a great action film, I also love the somber lovelorn mood of the opening sequences, and the evocative manner in which Mann and his DPs shot Los Angeles.
On the opposite coast, but equally moody and well shot, is BIRTH, coming surprisingly from the same guy who brought us SEXY BEAST (though there are general thematic similarities). It's a brainy art film and not for everyone, but definitely intriguing and challenging.
In BIRTH, Nicole Kidman is thin and short-haired and adopts that Woody Allenish upper West Side demeanor for her character. She is more conventionally beautiful in Lars Von Trier's DOGVILLE, one of the best films about America that came out this year, its at-the-time controversial portrait of social vindictiveness perhaps born out by subsequent real life events. If only the distributing company saw fit to release the Region 2 version of the DVD, widely regarded as one of the greatest DVDs ever made, instead of the bare bones affair they came up with.
It was a good year for zombies, and SHAUN OF THE DEAD is like its British cousin, THE OFFICE: funny and derisive, with an Everyman hero and great satire on British manners. Meanwhile, DAWN OF THE DEAD, the remake, is equally funny in its cruel fashion. And like most good horror films, it is visually stylish while all the films around them have the flat sheen of a '70s cop show.
That other group of somnambulistic conformists, teenagers, were also well served with some witty entertainments. MEAN GIRLS was a sharp satire (featuring at its center another female math whiz trying to fit in, like the show FREAKS AND GEEKS). This was the year that I fell in love with Lindsay Lohan, like the rest of America. Lohan is a new Liz Taylor (in more ways than two), but also a damn fine actress and dancer, with a heart-melting smile (like the late, lamented news anchor Jessica Savitch). I will see every movie she ever makes.
Though it didn't receive as much attention, WIN A DATE WITH TAD HAMILTON!, about a small town teen falling in with a movie star, proved to be funny and charming even while going over well-worn ground and common fantasies. And THE GIRL NEXT DOOR, addressing a fantasy of a different flavor, had a great star turn by Timothy Olyphant.
Virginia Madsen is also the highlight of SIDEWAYS, and probably Oscar-bound for it. I found her character to be one of the most admirable people I'd seen in a movie in years. As a really good biopic, KINSEY made the most of a shabby genre.
THE BOURNE SUPREMACY overcame its clunky title to be one of the best action films of 2004. I enjoyed its blend of Soberbergh-style jump cutting and Mann-esque Steadicam shows. The bumptious score by John Powell really made the film. The editors of this essentially old fashioned film, tricked up with a gripping surface reality and tense pace, also deserve a salute: Richard Pearson (THE ITALIAN JOB) and Christopher Rouse (THE RUNDOWN).
Ridiculed by the reviewers, VAN HELSING is probably on a lot of 10 Worst lists, but like Chris Ryall, I found it far from terrible. It was parodistic, with a clever re-use of the Universal monsters, and a pair of good roles for Hugh Jackman and Kate Beckinsale.
The most unusual wide release of the year was Guy Maddin's THE SADDEST MUSIC IN THE WORLD, a film that blended a love of old American movies with the sensibility of a John Waters.
THE LIFE AQUATIC WITH STEVE ZISSOU is one of those films that would be on this year's list if I compiled it five years from now. I am certain that it is going to grow on me, and that its various mysteries (such as the insider joke names for some of the characters) will only make it a richer experience.
Two of the most controversial films of the year cannot pass without mention. At opposite ends of the political spectrum, the two movies end up being surprisingly similar. Both FAHRENHEIT 911 and THE PASSION OF THE CHRIST celebrate martyrdom, have a love-hate relationship with violence, manipulate emotions and select facts, and are cries of protest against the state of the world. Both films deserve simultaneously to be on the best film list, for if nothing else provoking discussion and rabid interest, and on the worst list, for their sins against reason, argument, and drama. PASSION will have a long afterlife as a cult film among sexual subcultures. Though in terms of pure cinematic entertainment, I would give a higher rating to THE PASSION OF THE JEW.
One of the consequences of watching so many movies is that one doesn't get to read about them as much. But among the film books published in 2004 that I liked were Ryan Gilbey's BFI monograph on GROUNDHOG DAY, Alain Silver and James Ursini's FILM NOIR READER 4 (Limelight), Peter Cowie's REVOLUTION (Faber), about '60s art cinema, John Boorman's autobiography, MEMOIRS OF A SUBURBAN BOY (Faber), Jonathan Rosenbaum's review collection ESSENTIAL CINEMA (Johns Hopkins), Eric Lichtenfeld's ACTION SPEAKS LOUDER (Praeger), and Rafael Alvarez's book on THE WIRE (Pocket). Another favorite book of the year was OPEN WIDE, by VARIETY reporters Dade Hayes and Jonathan Bing, perhaps the best introduction to today's film world, and one of the best books on Hollywood. It is the harbinger of a slew of further examinations of Hollywood now and in the recent past, including Sharon Waxman's forthcoming book on the 1990s, Tom Shone's book on blockbusters, and Legs McNeil's book on the pornography industry. This paragraph is a grave disservice to publishing, which has increased its film book production dramatically in the last few years.
And the future of film is slightly promising. But then, it always is around December 27th. By the following December 27th you are deflated again, and ready to scour the January LOS ANGELES TIMES's Sneaks supplement for inspiration. But certain great directors have new films coming out: Spielberg (THE WAR OF THE WORLDS), Lucas (STAR WARS: EPISODE III – REVENGE OF THE SITH), Crowe (ELISABETH TOWN), Gilliam (THE BROTHERS GRIMM), Mangold (WALK THE LINE), Jackson (KING KONG), Rodriguez (SIN CITY), Burton (CHARLIE AND THE CHOCOLATE FACTORY), Nolan (BATMAN BEGINS), and Romero (LAND OF THE DEAD).
Ideally there should only be one kind of DVD release on a best list: a great film offered up in a spectacular package that matches a peerless transfer with fascinating supplements. What I have in mind is something like Touch of Evil, with all three extant versions of the film, a feature length documentary, and three commentary tracks (Heston; Rosenbaum; Carringer and Naremore).
Unfortunately, for the most part we have to settle for less. We are more likely to get one of three lesser kinds of DVD packages. The first is nostalgia items, films you loved as a kid that you now get to play over and over, but usually with minimal supplements. The second category is good films that you missed on their theatrical release now hitting you via disc but with too many supplements. And finally there are films that should have been on DVD a long time ago but now finally appear with pedestrian transfers and minimal supplements — yet you are still grateful.
In the 2004 nostalgia realm I would put these films: THE SHERLOCK HOLMES COLLECTION 3 and with THE HOUND OF THE BASKERVILLES and THE ADVENTURES OF SHERLOCK HOLMES, from MPI, movies I had seen as a kid, and which now fill me with the warm glow of childhood bliss; THE OSTERMAN WEEKEND, Peckinpah's last film, from Anchor Bay, which comes in an exhaustive package of different versions, commentary, and making ofs; and LITTLE MURDERS, which has a nice audio track from the film's writer, Jules Feiffer.
In the second category of much needed additions to the catalog come CROUPIER, previously only available in a full frame Canadian platter; Guy Maddin's DRACULA: PAGES FROM A VIRGIN'S DIARY, made for Canadian television and otherwise uneasily viewable; and RIPLEY'S GAME, the best Patricia Highsmith adaptation yet.
Other DVDs that I got a kick out of over the year were WALKING TALL for its funny yak track by The Rock; BORN RICH, the best documentary I hadn't heard of before; BROADWAY: THE GOLDEN AGE for its wonderful evocations of the early career of Brando and the late career of Laurette Taylor; and DAREDEVIL: DIRECTOR'S CUT.
One of my favorite films is COPLAND, which finally received a second pressing with commentaries, deleted scenes, and other accoutrements for this epical drama with an all star cast.
Of the usually superb Criterion Collection discs, I saw and cherished EYES WITHOUT A FACE, BATTLE OF ALGIERS, THE LEOPARD, and SALVATORE GIULIANO were the standouts. Criterion has adopted the habit of issuing two- and three-disc sets of late. This has the advantage of giving the primary disc room for a good transfer, but also raises the cost of their DVDs to $40 and $50 dollars.
Noir received honors via two packages, one from Warners, the other from Universal, along with a terrific example of French poetic realism, a precursor to noir, called PORT OF SHADOWS, from Criterion. Warners also issued several Hitchcock films in its Signature series, and five Scorsese films (2005 brings a Scorsese package from MGM).
There were at least five great TV shows that got good DVD iteration: THE WIRE: SEASON #1, WISEGUY: SEASON ONE, PART TWO, the one that introduced Kevin Spacey to the world, THE SHIELD: SEASON 2, FOYLE'S WAR VOL. 2, and ALIAS: SEASON 3.
Undoubtedly the most important DVD release of the year was Blue Underground's THE ALAN CLARKE COLLECTION which brought to accessibility several pictures by the late British director of off-beat, intellectual dramas of social realism.
Surely, one of the best DVD packages of the year is CABIN FEVER, an ambitious and funny horror film that gets royal treatment, and with a great audio track by the director (who has a big fan in Tarantino).
MORE TREASURES FROM AMERICAN FILM ARCHIVES is a noble, riveting, and endearing survey of rare films that range from silent snippets, ads, and animated films, to full length features, including a Rin Tin Tin movie and a Lubitsch feature.
Fans of FREAKS AND GEEKS had to wait a long time for their favorite show to hit DVD, but the wait was worth it. The "Yearbook" edition, which I haven't seen (I can't even find it on the WWW), is suppose to be even greater.
And just as the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences gave LOTR: ROTK a best picture Oscar as a sort of cumulative thanks for giving so many people jobs, New Line's LOTH: TROTK extended director's cut edition along with the previous two extended cut editions, must be granted kudos as cumutively the best DVD set in recent history.
Letters
From Damon Houx:
"My 10 Best list for 2004: 1) RULES OF THE GAME: THE CRITERION COLLECTION. When pressed to name my favorite film of all time RULES OF THE GAME tends to be default pick. Fortunately the Criterion collection release is a lovely two-disc affair. 2) ETERNAL SUNSHINE OF THE SPOTLESS MIND. My favorite theatrical release of 2004, and now one of my favorite films of all time. 3) Wong Kar Wai box set which includes AS TEARS GO BY, DAYS OF BEING WILD, CHUNKING EXPRESS, FALLEN ANGELS and HAPPY TOGETHER, Newly re-mastered versions of Wong Kar Wai's earlier films makes for a great weekend of movie watching, though the only major supplement is TANGO YEAR ZERO, an hour long making of on HAPPY TOGETHER featuring some of the footage that Wong shot but cut. 4) THE GREAT ESCAPE: SE. One of the most entertaining Hollywood films ever made. 5) THE LEOPARD: THE CRITERION COLLECTION. Another great film gets the Criterion release in an uncut version finally, after never had been released on video. 6) ONE FROM THE HEART. A film that really benefits most from DVD release, Coppola's most abused film now reveals itself to be a minor masterpiece. 7) KILL BILL VOLS. 1 and 2: Though the DVD's are not that great, who cares? I'll be spinning these discs for the rest of my life. 8) PICKUP ON SOUTH STREET: THE CRITERION COLLECTION. "Are you waving the flag at me?" 9) CALIFORNIA SPLIT. Another gem never on video that could be Robert Altman's best work. 10) LA DOLCE VITA. Widescreen, subtitled, and arguably Fellini's best."
From Paul DeKams:
" Hey, just read this week's Nocturnal Admissions and I gotta agree with you on the general public thing. When my girlfriend and I saw ETERNAL SUNSHINE OF THE SPOTLESS MIND, there was an annoying fortysomething group of couples talking through the whole film, bitching how Jim Carrey wasn't being funny. Probably the same reason your crowd was laughing during non-comedic moments in LIFE AQUATIC, because they're conditioned to accept Bill Murray as a comedic actor. I don't know that the general movie going public will ever or could ever accept the type of movie Wes Anderson or any director puts out because it doesn't fit into their familiarity … I know you were just talking about general rudeness, but this is part of the problem with movie going crowds as well."
From Drew Collins:
" I agree with some of your points in your review of the LIFE AQUATIC, and I hope you get a chance to see it again without being surrounded by idiots. I didn't think it was Anderson's laugh-out-loud funniest film, but I do think it might be his best. I sat there with a grin on my face the whole time, because I could appreciate what he was doing. It was the best film I've seen about a team of adventurers since BUCKAROO BANZAI. As I sat there watching the film, BUCKAROO kept creeping into my head, because that was the only other film I could compare it to (I don't think it was a re-tread of Anderson's previous films, as some people seem to think).
Here are a few reasons. World famous adventurer with a team of trusted aides? Check. Team headquarters? Check. Mobile headquarters? Check. References to past adventures? Check. Raid on the bad guys headquarters? Check. Weirdness? Check. Jeff Goldblum? Check.
Then you get to the end, where Zissou walks along to an electronic score while his team comes together and joins him (even the dead member, as I think that was supposed to be Wilson standing on top of the boat). I've only seen that in one other film, and that's BUCKAROO. I'm not saying that it hasn't been done in any other film, but that's the only other film where I've seen something like that.
I absolutely loved this film, and the similarities to Buckaroo just made it all the better."
From Bryan Sullivan:
" While shopping in Best Buy today, I noticed several films that have been re-packaged by Fox. THE ABYSS, THE SOUND OF MUSIC, INDEPENDENCE DAY, and PLANET OF THE APES (remake). It seems that the first three are just the same discs that were released in Fox's "Five Star Collection" … the same discs that were discontinued quite a while ago. My main gripe here is that THE ABYSS still doesn't have an anamorphic transfer. As much as I love this movie, I won't buy it in its plain-Jane widescreen format. When is Fox going to get on the ball and give this film a transfer worthy of the rest of the great extras on the disc?
Another gripe I have with Fox is it's marketing in places like Wal-Mart and other similar places. I have noticed an abundance of stickers on full-screen movies that tout (in BIG black letters) Formatted to fit your screen: NO BLACK BARS. Wouldn't it be nice to educate folks, instead of cowing down to people who think that, "some of the picture is cut off" by black bars? I live in rural Arkansas, and it's already tough to rent widescreen movies on DVD if a full screen version is available. I'm afraid that before too long, it's going to be like going to rent VHS tapes 10 years ago. Thanks for listening to my rants!"
NEXT TIME:Onward into 2005, with ASSAULT ON PRECINCT 13, THE WOODSMAN, LAS VEGAS, CSI: MIAMI, more Asian action films, movies on music, several STAR TREKS, and more!
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