Out of the past... the best (and worst) of 2004.
Jun 30 '05 (Updated Feb 17 '07)
The Bottom Line Lists like this are purely subjective and kind of arbitrary, but they're good conversation pieces, and fun to make too. So check mine out, and tell me what you think.
THE BEST FILMS OF 2004 (according to me):
1. DOGVILLE
In a film that’s filled to the brim with ideas, the most controversial is not its anti-American ideology but rather Von Trier’s insistence on judging his characters, and finding them wanting, unworthy of the Grace that has been bestowed upon them. The undressed set on which Von Trier shoots the action not only invites multiple interpretations but also leaves the actors nowhere to hide, and his peerless ensemble is up to the task, particularly Nicole Kidman as Grace herself and Paul Bettany as the town’s naive voice of reason. This was the most exciting film experience I had in 2004, as well as the year’s supreme masterpiece.
2. BEFORE SUNSET
The year’s most unlikely great film was not only a romantic two-hander but also a sequel. Revisiting the two one-night lovers of BEFORE SUNRISE (played here again, and impeccably, by Ethan Hawke and Julie Delpy) when they meet again nine years later, Linklater invites the audience to reflect not only on how the years have changed the two of them but also how profoundly their night together has weighed upon them in the intervening period. The film’s final scene is a true Holy Moment in the WAKING LIFE sense, isolating the couple in time far from the world and its concerns, until a stunning fadeout.
3. KiLL BiLL: VOL. 2
Late in the second installment of the KiLL BiLL saga, The Bride (Uma Thurman) muses on the importance of surrogate fathers in the life of Bill (David Carradine). Tarantino was raised by a single mother, but is also the product of many cinematic dads, some of whom receive dedications in this film’s end credits- Charles Bronson, Chang Cheh, and so on. And with two easily miss-able moments, Tarantino turns a movie-drunk revenge drama into the closest thing he’s made to an autobiography.
4. COWARDS BEND THE KNEE
Guy Maddin is, in his own way, no less movie-mad than Tarantino, and his infectious silent concoction- originally intended as a series of peep-hole installations- is the most giddy work he’s made to date. Mixing melodramatic plot turns and overtly Freudian imagery, the film is a fevered dream of a slightly unhinged cinephile, and that Maddin shot the film in a total of five days only makes the end result all the more miraculous. COWARDS contains some of the most priceless intertitle cards since, well, ever.
5. THE FIVE OBSTRUCTIONS
Here’s Von Trier again, only this time instead of stirring up the audience he turns his attention on his mentor, filmmaker-diplomat Jørgen Leth, inviting him to remake his short film THE PERFECT HUMAN under severe, pre-determined limitations. What results is a firsthand glimpse into what makes Von Trier tick as an artist- little surprise that the founder of Dogme 95 thrives by setting creative limits on himself- as well as an examination of how artists can often find more inspiration in what they can’t do than what they can. My favorites of the bunch: obstruction #2, which says in the course of fifteen minutes what it takes BORN INTO BROTHELS the length of an entire film to put across; and obstruction #4, which may not be an obstruction in the strictest sense but manages to yield a wonderful result.
6. PRIMER
Shane Carruth directed, produced, wrote, shot, edited, scored, and starred in (whew) the year’s most auspicious debut feature, a no-budget entry into the genre of science fiction of ideas. What begins as a peek into the lives of two overworked engineers struggling to create a potentially lucrative invention changes before our eyes into a convoluted story of their messing with fate and even time (!) in their quest to succeed. This is a rare film that demands multiple viewings, not only to make sense of the film’s second half, but to better appreciate the way Carruth subtly drops hints of what is to come into the beginning of the film. The supreme head-trip movie of 2004.
7. ETERNAL SUNSHINE OF THE SPOTLESS MIND
And speaking of head trips… here we follow Joel (Jim Carrey) down the rabbit hole of his own memory, even as patches of it are being taken from him. Carrey, for the first time in his career, creates a recognizable, three-dimensional character, and Kate Winslet pulls off the feat of making Clementine nothing more than the sum total of Joel’s memories- by turns difficult, obnoxious, free-spirited, and irresistible. Once again writer Charlie Kaufman has crafted a wholly original vision while also allowing his romantic side to show, and director Michel Gondry redeems himself after his Kaufman-penned misfire, HUMAN NATURE.
8. LOS ANGELES PLAYS ITSELF
If nothing else, this is a marvelous work of film criticism, with director Thom Andersen charting the history of the titular city as seen through the eyes of Hollywood. Los Angeles (Andersen hates the abbreviation “L.A.”) has been utilized in innumerable films, but few of the portrayals of the city on film have properly conveyed its strange history. One of the most moving passages focuses on the now-defunct Bunker Hill neighborhood as it underwent drastic changes both onscreen and in real life throughout the years, from middle-class neighborhood to haven for criminals and transients to the post-apocalyptic wasteland of THE OMEGA MAN.
9. HERO
No film of 2004 was more visually stunning than Zhang Yimou’s martial arts epic, originally released in 2002 but held back from American theatres until last year. Zhang, along with cinematographer Christopher Doyle, utilizes numerous separate color schemes to relate various takes on a story told by a nameless warrior (Jet Li at his best) of his battles with infamous assassins Flying Snow (harshly beautiful Maggie Cheung) and Broken Sword (the ever-iconic Tony Leung Chiu-wai). Sure, the story may be little more than an apology for imperialism, but such concerns seem petty when beholding sights such as Nameless and Broken Sword dueling ON TOP of a crystal blue lake.
10. THE LIFE AQUATIC WITH STEVE ZISSOU
Following the masterpieces RUSHMORE and THE ROYAL TENENBAUMS, this film was a slight letdown, but really, if all disappointing films were this awesome then life would be almost too wonderful to bear. Director Wes Anderson sometimes lets his more cutesy impulses overcome the story, but then he’ll manage to defuse the preciousness with an acid-tongued barb or a jarring, well-deployed jump cut. Bill Murray shines here, playing Zissou as a dissipated semi-failure who has waited too long to think about his legacy, and the supporting cast shines, especially Willem Dafoe as the Teutonic dive-master and CITY OF GOD’s Seu Jorge, who also croons Bowie songs in Brazilian at various points in the film.
Honorable mentions:
BLISSFULLY YOURS – the second film by Apichatpong Weerasethakul is, like all of his work, indescribable and wholly original. Suffice it to say that I’ve never seen anything like this.
THE CORPORATION – FAHRENHEIT 9/11 got all the press, but this documentary had the hard research to back its righteous indignation. I know I’ll never look the same way at agribusiness milk (or Fanta, for that matter) again.
I [HEART] HUCKABEES – critics who bagged on the film for being nearly incomprehensible were missing the point; you don’t need to pick up on everything that’s being said to understand what writer-director David O. Russell is up to. Who would’ve thought that out of this cast, Mark Wahlberg would have given the crowning performance?
THE INCREDIBLES – what does the phrase, “when everyone’s super, no one is,” mean? Director Brad Bird, making his Pixar debut, invites the audience to puzzle over that question if they choose to, and even if they don’t, the film is so creative and so much fun that deep thought isn’t necessary to enjoy it.
MILLION DOLLAR BABY – Clint Eastwood has been directing long enough that he no longer needs to reach for effect, and his Oscar™-winning film is a perfect example. With little more than three finely-drawn characters, some well-shot boxing scenes, shadowy images, and a gut punch of a third act, Eastwood proves once again that he’s much more than just a sublime onscreen tough guy.
MOOLAADE – what captures the attention of audiences initially was the film’s subject matter- the age-old African “tradition” of ritualized female genital mutilation. However, Ousmane Sembene’s film isn’t a sober liberal screed, but a vibrant portrait of a village at a crossroads between the comfort of the past and the unknown future.
SIDEWAYS – “all they did was talk about wine,” some friends complained to me, but somehow director Alexander Payne manages to use the wine-is-life metaphor just enough without forcing the issue. Paul Giamatti’s great here, as expected, and the film finds career-redefining roles for both long-underused vets Thomas Haden Church and Virginia Madsen.
ZATOICHI: THE BLIND SWORDSMAN – Takeshi Kitano the star takes the formerly bumbling character and reinvents him as a canny, though still comic, man of action. Kitano the director, on the other hand, takes his cue from Zatoichi’s blindness, lavishing a great deal of attention on the film’s inventive sound design, which uses rhythms in everyday goings-on to segue into expected musical numbers.
Worst of 2004:
1. SAW
Reprehensible, for the way it uses its clothesline of a plot as an excuse for the filmmakers to invent ugly and complicated killing scenes. Cheesy, for some of the worst acting that has graced the screen in years. And finally laughable, for a completely nonsensical final twist that nearly compelled me to throw my beverage at the screen. Shock cinema at its shameless worst.
2. THE COOKOUT
This is a film that traffics in broad and unfunny African-American stereotypes in an attempt to get laughs, only to mix in cheap sentiment when the laughs don’t come. What would be inexcusable if the film shucked’n’jived for the entertainment of white audiences becomes inexplicable in a film that supposedly appeals to black crowds.
3. THE PUNISHER and WALKING TALL
The bottom of the barrel for revenge flicks in 2004. PUNISHER, a bargain-basement adaptation of a comic book, was one of the more incompetent movies I’ve seen, draining the usually-compelling Tom Jane of his interest as well as succumbing to all the worst tendencies of vigilante stories. WALKING TALL, though slightly more competently-made, was perhaps more odious for the way it appropriated the narrative arc of Hitler’s rise to power into the audience-pandering story of a good ol’ boy sheriff who lays down the law with an iron fist. Sure, not all revenge movies can be KiLL BiLL, and these films demonstrate how some entries into the genre can’t even come close.
4. BEYOND THE SEA
Kevin Spacey can sing like Bobby Darin. Well, la-dee-frickin’-da. In my opinion, this is a pretty sorry excuse for a movie, and nothing I saw in this film eased my suspicions that Spacey the star/director/writer/producer was organizing an entire story around what is, at the end of the day, little more than a pretty okay parlor trick. At least in LITTLE VOICE, Jane Horrocks could mimic more than one voice.
5. THE TERMINAL
There were several movies that I could have included here instead of this one, but none of them were as disappointing as Steven Spielberg’s listless stuck-in-an-airport dramedy. Tom Hanks’ performance is predictably solid, and the Slavic-inflected John Williams score is hummable, but what was Spielberg trying to do here? By turning the true story of a somewhat unhinged foreigner into a parable about a clever, noble guy yearning to visit America, the character loses much of what made him interesting in the first place. To see an actor of the caliber of Stanley Tucci reduced to playing a fussy, officious petty bureaucrat is almost painful.
Other noteworthy performances of 2004:
Tadanobu Asano, LAST LIFE IN THE UNIVERSE (an introverted, fascinating performance)
Jamie Bell, UNDERTOW (who knew Billy Elliot could really act?)
Cate Blanchett, THE AVIATOR (what begins as an uncanny impersonation becomes a distillation of what made Kate Hepburn great)
Steve Carell, ANCHORMAN (is there a more reliable scene-stealer in big-screen comedy today?)
Jean-Pierre Darroussin, RED LIGHTS (my favorite performance of the year)
Gael Garcia Bernal, BAD EDUCATION (like three performances in one)
Esther Gorinton, SINCE OTAR LEFT… (a deadpan 85-year-old found object of an actress)
Bryce Dallas Howard, THE VILLAGE (a revelatory breakthrough that almost redeems a misguided film)
Danny Huston, BIRTH (cold and stilted, as befits the character- when he explodes, it’s quite a spectacle)
Maia Morgenstern, THE PASSION OF THE CHRIST (a stunning presence, memorably embodying Mary’s horror and suffering)
Clive Owen, CLOSER (I could watch him scream at Julia for days)
Anne Reid, THE MOTHER (she manages not only to sexualize the character, but also to humanize her)
Coralie Revel, SECRET THINGS (potent work, as she shifts from sexual adventuress to jilted lover to avenging angel)
Catalina Sandino Moreno, MARIA FULL OF GRACE (the year’s other great debut, carrying the film on her capable shoulders)
Liev Schreiber, THE MANCHURIAN CANDIDATE (by not trying to mimic the original, he makes the character all the more vivid)
Imelda Staunton, VERA DRAKE (such an unlikely heroine because she doesn’t think of herself that way)
Early contenders for my 2005 list (in rough order of preference): KINGS AND QUEEN (Arnaud Desplechin), TROPICAL MALADY (Apichatpong Weerasethakul), OLDBOY (Chan-Wook Park), KUNG FU HUSTLE (Stephen Chow), NOBODY KNOWS (Hirokazu Kore-eda), DOWNFALL (Oliver Hirschbiegel), SEXUAL DEPENDENCY (Rodrigo Bellott)
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Epinions.com ID:
hkoreeda
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Member: Paul Clark
Location: Ohio
Reviews written: 35
Trusted by: 9 members
About Me:
What's the polite term for "unemployed wannabe critic"?
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