Top Ten of 2005 and other bits of love, hate and confusion:

Top 10 Favorite Movies of 2005 (in no order):

My Summer of Love—A movie to swoon over. Writer-director Paul Pavlikovsky films with a style that's both picaresque and rough—like a Dogme film done by photographer David Hamilton. And the beguiling leads, Nathalie Press and Emily Blunt get teenage girls, or rather, overly intelligent, confused, weird teenage girls.

Dear Wendy—I love how borderline insane Lars von Trier has become when dissecting his vision of America and yet, oddly true and fiendishly funny. And if you don’t see the humor in his films (especially the masterpiece Dogville) then you’re really missing out.  Dear Wendy (which von Trier scripted, Thomas Vinterberg directed) is another great outsider perspective, looking at America’s  love affair with firearms with such loving, fetishistic detail that the movie could win over both a left wing pacifist and a “proud to be an American” patron at a gun show. He’s not simply judging guns—he clearly gets why people like them so much. When the kids of the film (led by the uber talented Jamie Bell) reveal the name and specifications for their guns, it’s filmed with such wonderful punch (all the songs are by The Zombies) that I became giddy, I thought, “Dear Lars von Trier, I love you so much it almost hurts.”

Capote—So smooth and precise, the film almost makes one wonder if it’s indeed, “great.” But thanks to Philip Seymour Hoffman’s take on Truman Capote, what could have felt like an HBO TV movie is enlivened by a brilliant performance that manages to show the range of sadness, exploitation, superficiality, self loathing and genius sometimes all in one scene.

Old Boy—Old Boy goes over the deep end more than once. And at times you think, why would anyone go to these lengths? But the film isn’t a bit of gritty realism a la Mike Leigh or Ken Loach, it’s a pulpy blast of B-cinema made so artfully you can’t possibly call it B. It just is what it is. Director Park Chan-wook’s kinetic style and way with revenge (also see Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance—which is even better than Old Boy) is stunningly energizing, absurd and deeply sad.

Sin City—Sure, its terribly self conscious neo-noir. And no, it’s not Detour or Out of the Past or Born to Kill or Double Indemnity, it’s something else—a true graphic novel come to life on screen. Frank Miller’s vision and Robert Rodriquez digital filmmaking wizardly recreate the shadow world of Miller's graphic novel with such stunning faithfulness to the Miller’s look that it’s bloody gorgeous art. And Mickey Rourke is absolutely sublime.

Grizzly Man— In the words of the great DK Holm, Werner Herzog is a “location masochist.” Here he gets to feed off another’s masochism (which makes him a sadist as well) with the story of Timothy Treadwell, a guy who wanted to mutate into a grizzly. Instead he was mutilated. Herzog always paints a compelling portrait, warts and all (and there are some serious warts here) as Grizzly Man showcases the weirdness of a guy who wanted to be some kind of C-list Jane Goodall.   

Last Days—Hypnotic, visually stunning and charged by a powerfully somnambulant performance by Michael Pitt (it’s not just all the back of his head here); Last Days becomes more than a film about Kurt Cobain but a meditation on the reality of depression. And Gust Van Sant has the balls to make real art films—real art films—without coming off as merely precious or pretentious.

A History Of Violence—Like Brokeback Mountain, Violence shows another aspect to the, uh, uniqueness stirring underneath the Norman Rockwell veneer of of Americana. Never one to simplify his “message,” David Cronenberg’s take on violence is so oddly perverse yet sweet, tense and unrelenting (admit it, you liked it when Viggo Mortenson rips that guy’s nose off), that it leaves one stunned and jumbled. Or, really just feeling like you want to kill someone.

Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang—A wonderful explication of the tarnished dreams of Hollywood, a loving ode to pulp detective fiction and that other gay movie that depicts a homosexual without sashaying stupidity and cheap jokes, Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang is one of the funniest most entertaining and enlivening Hollywood picture to come out in a long, long time. In his directorial debut screenwriter  Shane Black (whom I revere for writing The Last Boy Scout and The Long Kiss Goodnight) knocks this one out of the proverbial park with an infectiously jazzy rhythm mingling with the  layered yet hilarious leads (Robert Downey Jr., Michelle Monaghan and Val Kilmer as the bad-ass “Gay Perry”). This is the film Get Shorty wanted to be but so, so wasn’t. Not by a long shot. So for those who missed it—What the hell is wrong with you!

King Kong— I’m going to be real mature on this one but, to all those who told me this was a self-indulgent, boring, Peter Jackson nerd fest, “Fuck all y’all!”   

The Worst of 2005:

Rent—Whaaaattt? I know it’s a beloved, award winning musical but, one, WHY is it a beloved, award winning musical? And two, how could they make this after Team America: World Police?

Best Director:

Tie: Gus Van Sant, Last Days/Peter Jackson, King Kong

Best Screenplay:

Shane Black, Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang

Best Actor:

Heath Ledger—Brokeback Mountain

Best Actress: Tie:

Reese Witherspoon, Walk the Line/Robin Wright Penn, Nine Lives

Best Ensemble:

The 40-Year-Old Virgin

Best Soundtrack:

Walk the Line

Tie: The Lords of Dogtown/Mr. and Mrs. Smith

Biggest Guilty Pleasure:

The Skeleton Key

Best Documentary that Should Have Been Released in Theaters:

No Direction Home

Best Newcomer Breakout:

Nathalie Press and Emily Blunt, My Summer of Love

Best Non Newcomer Breakout:

Terrence Howard, Hustle and Flow

Best Comeback:

Mickey Rourke, Sin City

Best Chemistry:

Tie: Naomi Watts and Andy Serkis/Kong, King Kong/ Joaquin Phoneix and Reese Witherspoon, Walk the Line

Most Disapointing:

Oliver Twist

Funniest Moment:

Vince Vaughn’s “I felt like Jodie Foster in The Accused” scene in The Wedding Crashers

Best Horror Movie:

The Devil’s Rejects (almost made my top ten)

Worst Re-make:

The Longest Yard

Best Re-make:

King Kong

Director Most Suffering from Adult ADD (or possibly, a bad cocaine habit):

Tony Scott, Domino

Best Sex Scene:

A History of Violence

Most Touching Moment:

Brokeback Mountain--When Heath Ledger’s tortured gay cowboy responds to lover Jake Gyllenhaal’s postcard with “You bet.”

Still an Interesting Actor No Matter How Personally Insane:

Tom Cruise, War of the Worlds

My Favorite DVD Releases:

Point Blank

Night Moves

Bring Me the Head of Alfredo Garcia

No Direction Home

Val Lewton Box Set

Bringing Up Baby

The Devil’s Rejects Unrated Edition

Night and the City: The Criterion Edition

L'Eclisse: The Criterion Edition

Raging Bull Special Edition

Movies I regretfully missed/didn’t screen in time:

Munich, The New World, Good Night and Good Luck, Murderball, The Best of Youth and Syrianna.

Read more Kim Morgan at her blog SUNSET GUN

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