Here I was thinking it wasn't a good year for movies. Yet, in compiling this year-end roundup, I've amassed upwards of 40 titles. Sadly, I have to report that I don't consider even one of them a bona fide masterpiece. That said, 2005 was overflowing with movies I liked a lot, even if I wasn't quite in like with them. Here's to Mr. Right Now.
01. Brokeback Mountain (Ang Lee)
02. Munich (Steven Spielberg)
03. Caché (Michael Haneke)
04. The 40 Year Old Virgin (Judd Apatow)
05. Syriana (Stephen Gaghan)
06. Mysterious Skin (Gregg Araki)
07. A History of Violence (David Cronenberg)
08. Murderball (Henry Alex Rubin & Dana Adam Shapiro)
09. Shopgirl (Arnand Tucker)
10. Serenity (Joss Whedon)
Next ten, alphabetically: Breakfast on Pluto (Neil Jordan), Frank Miller's Sin City (Robert Rodriguez & Frank Miller), Howl's Moving Castle (Hayao Miyazaki), Kiss Kiss Bang Bang (Shane Black), Lord of War (Andrew Niccol), Sahara (Breck Eisner), Sky High (Mike Mitchell), The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada (Tommy Lee Jones), Walk the Line (James Mangold), War of the Worlds (Steven Spielberg)
And the rest: 3-iron (Kim Ki-duk), Capote (Bennett Miller), The Devil's Rejects (Rob Zombie), Elizabethtown (Cameron Crowe), Fever Pitch (The Farrelly Brothers), Good Night, and Good Luck. (George Clooney), Grizzly Man (Werner Herzog), Happy Endings (Don Roos), Happy Here and Now (Michael Almereyda), Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (Mike Newell), The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (Garth Jennings), Hustle & Flow (Craig Brewer), In My Country (John Boorman), Jarhead (Sam Mendes), Junebug (Phil Morrisson), Land of the Dead (George A. Romero), Millions (Danny Boyle), Mirrormask (Dave McKean), Oldboy (Park Chan-wook), Pride & Prejudice (Joe Wright), Pulse (Kiyoshi Kurosawa), Red Eye (Wes Craven), Sarah Silverman: Jesus Is Magic (Liam Lynch), The Skeleton Key (Iain Softley), The Squid and the Whale (Noah Baumbach), Star Wars: Episode III — Revenge of the Sith (George Lucas), Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance (Park Chan-wook), Tropical Malady (Apichatpong Weerasethakul)
In the queue: Kings and Queen, The Beat That My Heart Skipped, Head-On, Memories of Murder, Funny Ha Ha
Didn't open here (yet): The Best of Youth, Match Point, The New World, Transamerica