Films Of The Year - 2005

[Paulie Tandoori]

I think my favourite film of last year was Bullet Boy, both for the sheer intensity and also for the way it made Hackney look beautiful in parts.

Honourable mentions for Aaltra, Batman Begins, Broken Flowers, Tim Burton's Corpse Bride and Sin City.

Biggest disappointment by a country mile for me was A History of Violence.

One I missed that I keep kicking myself about and really must get along to see soon - Downfall.

 

[Dubversion]

Saw Lower City - a brazilian film - the other day. very good indeed I thought.

that was AWFUL. Pie Face and I nearly walked. if you're going to have a character-driven movie, you need characters. those three were just utterly insipid, you never felt ANy passion between them at all. sure, it LOOKED great. but otherwise, utter bilge.

IMO

 

[Dubversion]

Gegen die Wand (Head On) was not only the best film of the year for me, but also one of the best of the last five years.

that was fantastic.

My summer of love was definitely 04 though

 

[kyser_soze]

FYI: the internet movie database is doing a pick of the year, Sin City is winning so far....

http://www.imdb.com/features/rto/2006/poll/bestof2005

That's cos all the moronic little fanboys are voting for it. Pretty but vacant is the most positive comment I can make about it.

No 'film of the year' for me cos nothing stood out enough to warrant it - Downfall comes close for actual filmmaking and Begins & Kong for mainstream cinema...

Put it this way, there are NO films or movies that were out this year that I'd pay full price for on DVD.

 

[Utopia]

Batman Begins
Wallace & Gromit : Curse of the Wererabbit
The Constant gardner

Not the best year for films but these were my favs anyways

 

[Dubversion]

That's cos all the moronic little fanboys are voting for it. Pretty but vacant is the most positive comment I can make about it.

yep

Put it this way, there are NO films or movies that were out this year that I'd pay full price for on DVD.

nope. i've already paid full whack for Downfall, Sideways, Head On and erm.. another one.

 

[Techno303]

Put it this way, there are NO films or movies that were out this year that I'd pay full price for on DVD.

Downfall is currently going for a tenner in HMV and worth every penny.

 

[Reno]

That's cos all the moronic little fanboys are voting for it. Pretty but vacant is the most positive comment I can make about it.

No 'film of the year' for me cos nothing stood out enough to warrant it - Downfall comes close for actual filmmaking and Begins & Kong for mainstream cinema...

Put it this way, there are NO films or movies that were out this year that I'd pay full price for on DVD.

As a piece of filmmaking I found Downfall rather conventional and bland. It seems to be its subject matter that strikes a cord with many (Hitler was human after all !). I wasn't quite happy with some of the casting, the women in particular struck me as too modern. Ever seen a photo of the battleaxe that was Frau Goering ? The bitch wasn't just scary, she also looked it. Nothing like the svelte ice queen in the film. I don't think it's a bad film, but it's edging towards the overrated. As a companion piece I'd like to recommend the documentary Blind Spot: Hitlers Secretary, from which they used a brief extract in Dowfall. It's a two hour interview with the real Traudl Junge (the secretary in the film) and it's absolutely riveting.

I liked Sin City and I think I'm neither much of a fanboy nor a moron. I actually thought it had a theme that was worthwhile for this kind of film (at what pice to remain good in an evil world), a wicked sense of humor, a genuinely original style and a gruff heart beating underneath it all.

 

[kyser_soze]

Yeah, but are you voting for it as 2005 Film of the Year.

I liked Sin City the way I like Independence Day - as a b-movie guilty pleasure that at the end of the day doesn't have that much depth, or indeed need that much depth.

If I were 15 years old and yet to have sex with a girl I'd probably rate it as the Best Film Of All Time and bitterly regret ever saying those words in public 10 years later...it's *that* kind of movie.

Don't get me wrong - as a technical exercise in FX it's incredible, however I think it fails utterly as a film noir on just about every level, and in the places where the FX fail (Dwight and whore on the roof top in sillouhette) it looks like Captain Whatsiface and Angeline Jolie in a leather suit!

And even I found it's treatment and portrayl of female characters simplistic and again, very adolescent - it simply transposes male hero archetypes onto women and uses that as an fig leaf to feminism. Basically they're all little boy wank fantasies, but boys who have a simple understanding of both women and what 'equality' means...

 

[Reno]

Yeah, but are you voting for it as 2005 Film of the Year.

I liked Sin City the way I like Independence Day - as a b-movie guilty pleasure that at the end of the day doesn't have that much depth, or indeed need that much depth.

If I were 15 years old and yet to have sex with a girl I'd probably rate it as the Best Film Of All Time and bitterly regret ever saying those words in public 10 years later...it's *that* kind of movie.

Don't get me wrong - as a technical exercise in FX it's incredible, however I think it fails utterly as a film noir on just about every level, and in the places where the FX fail (Dwight and whore on the roof top in sillouhette) it looks like Captain Whatsiface and Angeline Jolie in a leather suit!

And even I found it's treatment and portrayl of female characters simplistic and again, very adolescent - it simply transposes male hero archetypes onto women and uses that as an fig leaf to feminism. Basically they're all little boy wank fantasies, but boys who have a simple understanding of both women and what 'equality' means...

I hated Independence Day, unlike Sin City I don't even think it can be considered to be a film. It's just...shit on celluloid.

No it's not the best film of 2005, but it would make it into my top ten.

Yes I've heard it all before, Sin City = wank fantasies, sweaty 15 year olds, blah, blah, misogynistic outrage, whatever. You know what ? As a gay men who is slouching towards middle age I didn't have a single erection throughout and I still liked it. My feminist dyke buddy who I went with liked it as much as I did. I didn't ask her if she had a wank, but like me she saw the irony in the way it presented it's politically incorrect stereotypes and like me she found it engaging on a level that had to do with more than style.

 

[kyser_soze]

I really can't be arsed to get into a row about Frank Miller's portrayl of women in his comic books over a long time period, but to even think about gracing Sin City with the epithet 'fillm' as opposed to 'movie' (which is what it is) is laughable.

 

[Reno]

I really can't be arsed to get into a row about Frank Miller's portrayl of women in his comic books over a long time period, but to even think about gracing Sin City with the epithet 'fillm' as opposed to 'movie' (which is what it is) is laughable.

Semantics, shmemantics ! Where I come from we call it a film.

 

[kyser_soze]

Semantics, shmemantics ! Where I come from we call it a film.

Ahh... you should think about adopting the Soze classification system

Film - piece of cinema that qualifies as art

Movie - piece of cinema that make no demands on the brain or soul but keeps you happily occupied for it's duration

I saw a great quote about the difference between an entertainment and art the other day:

Entertainer is someone who gives the public what they want. Art gives the public something they didn't know that wanted.

 

[Reno]

Ahh... you should think about adopting the Soze classification system

Film - piece of cinema that qualifies as art.

I'm not much into putting everything into neat little drawers. With film what is art or entertainment is fairly fluid and I don't need to have something sanctioned by terms like "film" or "movie" so I can decide what is what.

To use a famous example, Hitchcock's Vertigo was made as a thriller, an entertainment, a M-O-V-I-E. Yet I believe it to be one of the most profound pieces of art of the 20th century. The same goes for many other classic films that were made to be "movies".

Critics this year tried to convince me that The Constant Gardnener was art, but you know what ? I discovered it was trash of the lowest order masquerading as a "film".

 

[kyser_soze]

I'm not much into putting everything into neat little drawers. With film what is art or entertainment is fairly fluid and I don't need to have something sanctioned by terms like "film" or "movie" so I can decide what is what.

To use a famous example, Hitchcock's Vertigo was made as a thriller, an entertainment, a M-O-V-I-E. Yet I believe it to be one of the most profound pieces of art of the 20th century.

Critics this year tried to convince me that The Constant Gardnener was art, but you know what ? I discovered it was trash of the lowest order masquerading as a "film".

You misunderstand - it's not what the thing is billed as (Movie/film) it how you feel about it. For my money Vertigo is a movie that became a film by virtue of it's quality - the line is fluid, but it's only on viewing that you make the decision.

For me in calling Sin City a film you're comparing it to...well Vertigo!

 

[Leica]

Sorry to break in like that, but I don't get this classification into films and movies where movies may one day become films. To me they are all films, and you can see them and have an opinion on them. Everything, including entertainment, requires some art and skill. I like different kinds of films for different reasons, and I think it is pointless to try and classify these reasons into better and worse ones.

 

[Reno]

You misunderstand - it's not what the thing is billed as (Movie/film) it how you feel about it. For my money Vertigo is a movie that became a film by virtue of it's quality - the line is fluid, but it's only on viewing that you make the decision.

For me in calling Sin City a film you're comparing it to...well Vertigo!

Maybe Sin City isn't art, but I know for sure that it took some artistry to make it. I'm not comparing Sin City to Vertigo, because there wouldn't be any point to that. It would be more useful to compare Sin City to Robert Aldrich's 50's pulp classic Kiss Me Deadly, of which it is a direct descendant. That film was once reviled and heavily censored for its violence, sexism and nihilism, but has since made the transformation to film classic.

Sorry to break in like that, but I don't get this classification into films and movies where movies may one day become films. To me they are all films, and you can see them and have an opinion on them. Everything, including entertainment, requires some art and skill. I like different kinds of films for different reasons, and I think it is pointless to try and classify these reasons into better and worse ones.

My opinion exactly

 

[Leica]

Robert Aldrich's pulp classic Kiss Me Deadly

Good choice.