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Clay's 2005 Movies
#1 - Pride & Prejudice
Initially, nobody was as shocked as I was to see a Jane Austen costume movie persist in the top position of my list as the year came to an end. But after watching it a third time, I'm more perplexed that it isn't topping everybody's list. The film is exceptional in every facet - from the gorgeous cinematography and elegant editing to the best score I heard all year; from the seamless script that captures the spirit of a classic novel but never feels written to the perfect, scene-stealing ensemble cast. It's funny, sad, wise, romantic... simply a masterpiece.
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#2 - No Direction Home: Bob Dylan
When you find yourself watching a 4-hour documentary twice on back-to-back days, you know it's something special. The movie allows you to revel in the talents of two American masters - Dylan, of course, but also Scorsese. His ability to marry music to images has always been a strong point, and he outdoes himself here. Scorsese has unearthed footage of Dylan playing in Greenwich Village coffee houses, the famous "Judas" performance in London, the moment Dylan went electric at the Newport Folk Festival - iconic moments in American music history - and he offers a new perspective on the civil rights movement and Kennedy's assassination. Tying it all together are fascinating interviews with the people who lived through it all and with Dylan himself, alternately evasive and illuminating. Eight hours later, I'm dying to see it again.
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#3 - Munich
The best movie Spielberg has made since Schindler's List is also his least understood. Though nominated for several Oscars, it received mixed reviews, mediocre box office returns and a hailstorm of political attacks. It's said you're doing something right when you anger people on opposite sides of an issue, and Munich does a lot of things right. It's a movie about the futility of vengeance that thrills you for its first hour with a stirring revenge yarn then sends you down the rabbit hole with its protagonist until you question your own responses. It makes you think and feel, it disturbs and excites... and it's always a rousing entertainment.
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#4 - Serenity
Joss Whedon delivers the most criminally overlooked movie of the year - a sci-fi western that's funnier, smarter and more thrilling than anything George Lucas or Gene Rodenberry ever dreamed up. In a proper universe, this movie would be topping $200 million and up for a handful of Oscars and Nathan Fillion would be a huge star. But we're stuck in this one, so forgive me if I opt to spend my time in the Serenity 'verse, where everybody is clever but nobody is safe, where the stakes are real but love keeps her in the air when she oughtta fall down.
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#5 - The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada
Guillermo Arriaga (Amores Perros, 21 Grams) has swiftly become my second favorite screenwriter (trailing only the great Charlie Kaufman). He has a gift for finding the poetry and mythos in gritty scenarios played completely straight. He delivers all the emotional power of magical realism but without the magic -- and I mean that in the best possible way. Tommy Lee Jones is equally strong as actor and director in this darkly comic, deceptively touching morality tale about friendship, loneliness and redemption.
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#6 - Hustle & Flow
It's hard out here for a pimp... but it's easy to fall for the fascinating character created by writer/director Craig Brewer and especially Terrence Howard, who gives the best performance of the year. The film is such a surprising delight in large part because it's so unlikely. A feel-good Rocky-esque character sketch about a pimp who wants to be a rapper, presented with all the funk and gloss of a 70s blaxploitation flick, but somehow grounded, emotional and exciting. It reflects so many things that came first, yet it's like nothing I've seen before.
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#7 - Kiss Kiss Bang Bang
Forget Wedding Crashers and The 40-Year-Old-Virgin... I laughed more at this schizoid crime movie send-up than I have at any movie in years. It's a splendid comeback for Val Kilmer and Robert Downey, Jr., two interesting and talented actors who've been weighed down by their baggage, and a coming-out party for Michelle Monahagn, who gives the sexiest, funniest performance of the year. The plot is all over the place, but deliciously so. I will own this movie, if only to watch Harry say "I peed on the corpse" and Gay Perry recommend "fawn" gloves.
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#8 - The Squid and the Whale
A sharp, funny, biting, brutally honest and wonderfully acted character study about a family torn apart by divorce, The Squid and the Whale is the least polished film on my top ten list but one of the most moving. The film plays a bit like a real-world Royal Tenenbaums (appropriately, as Wes Anderson produces here and co-wrote The Life Aquatic with Squid writer-director Noah Baumbach). Jeff Daniels makes the biggest impression here, creating a fascinating, deeply flawed character unlike any he's played before. Kudos, too, for the superb use of its New York setting, especially in the final, hauntingly ambiguous shot.
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#9 - Brokeback Mountain
Poor Jack and Ennis. After the stunning Oscar upset and months of "I can't quit you" jokes, Brokeback Mountain has gone from critics darling to whipping boy. But this wonderful, sad movie will be remembered decades from now not for the media circus but for its moving exploration of a life unlived. It's a message movie, in a way, but the message is what's least interesting. Ang Lee's triumph is crafting a tragic love story that deconstructs an American myth while simultaneously fulfilling it.
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#10 - The Matador
A delightful, oddball little movie that completely and wrongly slipped through the cracks - something of a trend on this list so far after Serenity and Kiss Kiss Bang Bang. Pierce Brosnan explodes his James Bond persona in a scrappy performance that seems to have been as much fun for him as it is for the audience while Greg Kinnear and Hope Davis anchor the film with some scenes of genuine heartbreak. For all the comic shenanigans, the underlying sense that these people really need each other is what makes the movie work.
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And the rest...
11. The Weather Man
12. King Kong
13. Walk the Line
14. Cinderella Man
15. In Her Shoes
16. Capote
17. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire
18. Good Night, and Good Luck
19. Grizzly Man
20. Oldboy
21. A History of Violence
22. The Constant Gardener
23. Sin City
24. Batman Begins
25. Mr. and Mrs. Smith
26. Red Eye
27. Kung Fu Hustle
28. The 40-Year-Old Virgin
29. 2046
30. The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe
31. Match Point
32. War of the Worlds
33. The Family Stone
34. Wedding Crashers
35. Shopgirl
36. Fever Pitch
37. Hitch
38. Broken Flowers
39. Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith
40. Madagascar
41. Layer Cake
42. The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy
43. Pooh's Heffalump Movie
44. Bride and Prejudice
45. March of the Penguins
46. The Upside of Anger
47. Crash
48. Me and You and Everyone We Know
49. Elizabethtown
50. Monster-in-Law
51. Must Love Dogs
52. Elektra
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