Fun with Film

[przed]

Along with surviving my first week back at work, I've managed to finally pull together a list of my favourite films of the past year. It's my usual idiosyncratic mix of high and low art.


The Best of 2004

1. Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
Hands down the best film of the year. There is no weak link here: Kaufman's script is amazing, Gondry's direction is flawless, and all the performances are brilliant. And who would have thought that Jim Carrey could so affectingly play a straight man without once resorting to his usual bag of acting tricks.

2. Rivers and Tides
A documentary following the working methods of artist Andy Goldsworthy, Rivers and Tides is remarkable and beautiful and will make you look at the world in an entirely new way.

3. The House of Flying Daggers
Operatic melodrama meets balletic martial arts. Zhang Yimou's exquisite shot composition meshes beautifully with a story of love, loyalty and betrayal. And the acting, from Andy Lau Tak Wah, Zhang Ziyi and Takeshi Kaneshiro, is impeccable.

4. Before Sunset
Before Sunset may be a film of two people talking, but it's also a brilliant character study of how two people have grown and what's become of their youthful idealism and affection. A worthy successor to Linklater's Before Sunrise.

5. Sideways
Paul Giammatti turns in another brilliant performance in this story of a disappointed writer who takes one last stab at love while taking his soon-to-be-married buddy on a tour of California wine country.

6. 3-Iron
This nearly wordless Korean film, by the phenomenal director, Kim Ki-duk, follows a very singular love story between a homeless young man and the abused wife of a businessman.

7. I Heart Huckabees
Philosophical angst mixes with corporate intrigue in David O. Russell's latest. I defy anyone to resist Lily Tomlin and Dustin Hoffman as existential detectives. (You too will ask yourself, "How am I not myself?")

8. The Village
M. Night Shyamalan is both a paranoid nutbar and a brilliant filmmaker. Which means that The Village is based on a pretty wacko premise, is exquisitely shot and contains one of the most chilling sequences I have ever seen on film.

9. The Incredibles
Cartoon superheroes (and heroines) take on the challenges of living with real world middle-age disappointment, while simultaneously taking on a new supervillain. Brilliant stuff from the maker of the sadly underrated The Iron Giant.

10. Kung Fu Hustle
A martial arts comedy masterpiece from Stephen Chow Sing Chi. If you put Jet Li, the Three Stooges, and Wile E. Coyote in a blender, the mutant result would give you something like Kung Fu Hustle. Even better than Chow's criminally underseen Shaolin Soccer.

The full list, including the honourable mentions, is up at my film website: P's House O' Film

Comments

[faramir-boromir.livejournal.com]

I know that everybody and their brother loves Sideways, and I did drag spouse to go see it...but I liked Sunshine and Flying Daggers better. We'll see what the Academy makes of it all later on. And thanks for the recs to Kung Fu Hustle and 3-iron, might not have found those otherwise.

[przed.livejournal.com]

I like Sideways a lot, but Sunshine is so clearly better than every single other film that came out this year. Bah to the Academy for not giving it more nominations. And Flying Daggers is just gorgeous and tragic and unforgettable.