For the beginning of the year 2005, it’s time for me, the Pulse Editor, to shuffle out what I think the best ten movies of the previous year were. But, let me say this: I am not a professional film critic, and so I do not receive free movies each week. Thus, my top ten is compiled of what movies I did see. And now, top ten:
10. The Day After Tomorrow
One reason: I really enjoy watching cities get destroyed in utterly preposterous situations.
9. Shaun of the Dead
The British seem to have a good idea of what a zombie movie should be these days. A few years ago they released the quite good 28 Days Later… and this year followed it up with Shaun of the Dead. Granted that Shaun is a comedy, it is still better than any zombie movie that has come out of the states in a long while (we’re counting on you George Romero and your Land of the Dead this fall). As an added bonus: it’s funnier than hell.
8. Garden State
Zach Braff’s writing/directing debut, Garden State, was just shy of being a masterpiece. The film captures the muted world of Braff’s character Andrew Largeman and how he attempts to find his way back into it. The only problem the film has is its final act, where Braff tries to insert a side-story into the slowly building one he already had going. Thankfully the scene of the main characters screaming into the quarry pit made the side-story all worthwhile. The film also had a killer soundtrack, to boot.
7. The Motorcycle Diaries (Diarios de motocicleta)
The film version of the diaries of a young Che Guevera as he traveled with his friend throughout his home continent of South America should be an inspiration to us all. The opportunity to find oneself is something that not all of us obtain, and to see a young Che (then known by his birth name of Ernesto) find himself and his beliefs that would define his later years is quite the journey to see.
6. Hellboy
It’s been a while since a film combined action, comedy and Nazi villains to utter success. The last film to do that was Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, and that was around 15 years ago. Thankfully, Hellboy came along to show us that you can’t judge a book by its cover (the demon superhero and all), that Ron Pearlman can indeed carry a leading role (finally!), and that, yes, Nazis still make very suitable bad guys. Let’s hope they always do, too. They are that evil.
5. Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
The most original movie to be released this year. Charlie Kauffman has been turning out the best scripts in Hollywood over the past couple years (Being John Malkovich, Adaptation). What Eternal Sunshine did was show that Kauffman does indeed have a heart and that we as an audience can indeed feel for his characters instead of merely laughing at the inane situations he places them in. The film also had Jim Carrey in his best role since Man on the Moon.
4. The Incredibles
For this film, which everyone has heard about and is the best superhero satire ever, I will merely say this: Disney is going to cry a long, long while when their contract with Pixar ends.
3. The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou
Wes Anderson’s movies get more streamlined and defined with every feature. What is good about The Life Aquatic is it brings Anderson back to his Bottle Rocket and Rushmore type of zaniness (take that all you who only liked Royal Tenenbaums because you love messed up family drama). And who better to guide the film than Bill Murray? He just keeps improving.
2. Before Sunset
I didn’t particularly care for Richard Linklater’s Before Sunrise. It was too sappy: lovers spend the night in Vienna, philosophizing like undergrads, and dreaming that love can conquer all before saying goodbye. The movie was too long and hopeful. Thankfully Linklater brings us a film for we, the Generation after X, where the two lovers meet again after nine years. It’s a short film (75 minutes) and the two still talk about the same old stuff, only this time it seems more meaningful, and a hell of a lot shorter. The film also has one of the best endings ever.
1. A Very Long Engagement (Un long dimanche de fiançailles)
However, the ending for this film was even better. It ends exactly when it should. The new movie from director Jean-Pierre Jeunet (Amélie, The City of Lost Children) follows Mathilde (Amélie’s Audrey Tautou) as she searches for her fiancé, who presumably died in the trenches of World War I. The film is full of the same style and lightheartedness that made Amélie good, without the over-the-top-ness that Amélie suffered from in its second half. A Very Long Engagement is a film that uses its lighthearted nature to keep us from being overcome by the horror of the trench warfare that Jeunet brings to life with a stylistic flare that no American director could capture. A special note though: see this with someone who is French if you can. I had my French-speaking girlfriend explain jokes to me that I would have never gotten alone, and they were good jokes, indeed. A Very Long Engagement is a film that spans genres: romance, drama, comedy, even detective story, across a two hour time span without becoming boring. Which is more than I can say for Napoloen Dynamite, my pick for the year’s worst film, which managed to become boring and unwatchable within its first few minutes. And remember: I saw Alexander. Gosh.
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