Monday, January 02, 2006

lists, if you care to read them

I guess you're supposed to do this before the end of the year, but in case anyone is interested I'll post a couple of lists.

Top 10 movies of 2005-I'd like to note that last year I saw 74 movies and this year I saw around 45. There were a couple of different reasons for this but the big one is that this was an annus horribilus for movies, indie, foreign, and mainstream. The stream of crap has been unrelenting. I just can't muster up an iota of enthusiasm for dreck like King Kong or Revenge of the Sith, or even for minor crap like the Family Stone or Aeon Flux. That said, here are my top 10 for this past year

1. 40 Year Old Virgin-just rewatched it again yesterday and it's still hilarious and touching.
2. Hustle and Flow-I got so excited when Leon DJed a song for this movie at the Christmas party and it got me thinking about it all over again.
3. Capote
4. Walk the Line-flawed, but the musical sequences were as exciting as attending an great live performance
5. A History of Violence
6. Grizzly Man
7. The Passenger (a re-release of a minor Antiononi movie from 1975 easily trumps most of the stuff that came out this year)
8. Jarhead
9. Mad Hot Ballroom
There isn't really a movie good enough to round out the 10. And nothing at all came out this year that rivals last years best, Eternal Sunshine. Although if memory serves I may have ranked Before Sunset over that (which is also great), but after review Eternal Sunshine I feel that it's a classic and I'm not sure Before Sunset will hold up in a second viewing.
and they don't deserve to be on the top 10, but I thought the two best action movies of the year were:
1) War of the worlds
2) Red Eye

and just lazily naming albums off the top of my head without thinking about it too hard, my top 2 that came out this year were 1) animal collective feels and 2) the finches six songs ep.

8 comments:

beckler said...

Oh yeah, and lookaftering and the fiery furnaces ep.

Anonymous said...

Don't forget about Outhud and MIA. I guess all in all 2005 just wasn't a mind blowing year.

Brew

Anonymous said...

As for movies, I guess I would also put Junebug somewhere in there.

Anonymous said...

There's been at least TWO movies with Sarah Silverman this year. How could that not make your list? Or maybe Jews are just too deadpanned for you. I haven't seen you at the synagogue, and I'm thinking you aren't a real Jewess.

beckler said...

ha. it's funny that you wrote that because i was just rechecking heckasac real quick on my way to look for a menorah on ebay. it's ok for jews to hate sarah silverman. in fact, due to our superior sense of humor it's almost and obligation.

beckler said...

wost menorah evs. and they have the noive to call it art deco!

http://cgi.ebay.com/Art-Deco-Multi-Colored-Hanukkah-Ceramic-Menorah_W0QQitemZ6239770727QQcategoryZ13775QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

Unknown said...

i'd add Me and You and Everyone we Know.

i think you hated it though?

the soundtrack is also really great. same guy who did Donnie Darko's.

Stephen Glass said...

In retrospect, I think those two films may been at the top of list for 20-aught-five as well. And oddly enough, I saw them on the same day (my schedule's all screwed up).
We didn't get the "Passenger" rerelease here in Mayberry, damnit, so I'll just be envious that it's been so long since I've seen it that it's starting to get murky...