The Best of 2005...So Far
Since Tim Robey has got his favorites of 2005 posted, I figured I may as well take the bet and post my own choices of the best that this paltry movie year has had on offer up through the summer. The fall and holiday seasons should juggle these lists a good bit (hell, they'd better!), and since things have lately been on a relative upswing, quality-wise, I'm hopeful that the final laps toward Dec. 31 will be worth taking the time for. As of the moment, though:
Best Picture
The Beat That My Heart Skipped
The Holy Girl
Land of the Dead
Murderball
Palindromes
Best Director
Jacques Audiard, The Beat That My Heart Skipped
Lucrecia Martel, The Holy Girl
George Romero, Land of the Dead
Todd Solondz, Palindromes
Gus Van Sant, Last Days
Best Actress
Joan Allen, Off the Map and The Upside of Anger
Jennifer Connelly, Dark Water
Radha Mitchell, Melinda and Melinda
Connie Nielsen, Brothers
Natalie Press, My Summer of Love
Best Actor
Daniel Day-Lewis, The Ballad of Jack and Rose
Romain Duris, The Beat That My Heart Skipped
Bruno Ganz, Downfall
Terrence Dashon Howard, Hustle & Flow
Birol Ünel, Head-On
Best Supporting Actress
Maggie Gyllenhaal, Happy Endings
Taraji P. Henson, Hustle & Flow
Debra Monk, Palindromes
Mercedes Morán, The Holy Girl
Rachel Weisz, The Constant Gardener
Best Supporting Actor
Tom Arnold, Happy Endings
Terrence Dashon Howard, Crash
Michael Peña, Crash
Mickey Rourke, Sin City
Jim True-Frost, Off the Map
Best Original Screenplay
The Ballad of Jack and Rose, Rebecca Miller
Crash, Paul Haggis
Happy Endings, Don Roos
The Holy Girl, Lucrecia Martel
Palindromes, Todd Solondz
Best Adapted Screenplay
The Beat That My Heart Skipped, Jacques Audiard & Tonino Benacquista
Dark Water, Rafael Yglesias
Downfall, Bernd Eichinger
Mysterious Skin, Gregg Araki
Off the Map, Joan Ackermann
Best Cinematography
The Beat That My Heart Skipped, Stéphane Fontaine
Head-On, Rainer Klausmann
The Holy Girl, Félix Monti
My Summer of Love, Ryszard Lenczewski
Nobody Knows, Yutaka Yamasaki
Best Sound
The Beat That My Heart Skipped
Head-On
The Holy Girl
Last Days
War of the Worlds
Winners would probably be Beat, Audiard, Allen, Howard, Monk, True-Frost, Holy Girl, Downfall, Holy Girl, and a five-way tie for Best Sound, one of this year's few consistent pleasures even amid inconsistent pictures. If I had my arm twisted, I'd probably go for Last Days, though truly, all five are hard to vote against.
Labels: Movies 2005
posted by NicksFlickPicks at 7:27 PM
5 Comments:
Three cheers for Land of the Dead!
And here I was, thinking that I was pretty well caught up on the must-see movies so far this year. Sigh. I'm going out to the theater now.
Oh, I can relate, goatdog. Here I thought I was keeping up well, and then the very next day after posting this roster, I see Grizzly Man, my 50th movie for 2005, and it's better than all five of my Best Picture nominees (bumping Land of the Dead to #6 - sorry, David!).
Still, this is pretty exciting news. I'm seeing A History of Violence this afternoon - will report back.
I really loved Grizzly Man (saw it twice), but I wish that Herzog had kept the explaining to a minimum. Perhaps he didn't need to explain what various events were metaphors for; maybe we could have figured that out ourselves.
But then again I loved it for its opinionatedness (is that a word?). Out of all that footage that Treadwell shot, Herzog could have made any number of different films. I love how he picked and chose elements to back his thesis—and yeah, all documentaries do that, but I love Herzog for not pretending to be objective.
My Best Picture nominees so far this year are The Best of Youth, Yes, Downfall, Grizzly Man, and Me and You and Everyone We Know.
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