Saturday, December 24, 2005

That was 2005, that was

Top Ten Films of the Year


10. Mysterious Skin








9. Junebug











8. Kings and Queen








7. Capote








6. Howl's Moving Castle









5. Sometimes in April








4. Adam & Paul








3. The Holy Girl









2. The Sun






1. King Kong









Honourable mention: The Wayward Cloud, Primer, The Edukators, Head-On, Downfall, The Machinist, The Keys to the House, The Secret Lives of Dentists, The Beat That My Heart Skipped, Friday Night Lights, The Shore, Brokeback Mountain, L’enfant, Caché

3 comments:

Javier Aldabalde said...

I second the "King Kong" motion. The film of the year no doubt. And I love to see "The Holy Girl" so high!

Yaseen Ali said...

Yes! I'm so happy to see Sokurov's The Sun placed so high on your list. I'm still debating whether or not it's fair to include it on mine, as it still hasn't received theatrical distribution here (did it in England?). But now that you've done it... :)

Ack, I still haven't seen Mysterious Skin.

Anonymous said...

Mysterious Skin is a film I was intensely surprised with, and I stress the use of "intensely." There were so many moments I wanted to shut the thing off, but its power just wouldn't let me go. Its ending is as close to perfect as any this year, and the performances are stellar throughout. I really do believe it could end up on my list. A film like Mysterious Skin has so much more artistic value than, say, Good Night and Good Luck, which I found to be a rather thin historical account that was too stoic for its own good.

Also, like you I was taken with Howl's Moving Castle on a level that transcends the ever-patronizing "internal critic." There were flaws, but I've never really wanted to elaborate on them; I loved it too much. Thusly, it may also end up on my list.

Every list (like this list, in fact) should be quite interesting. For mine I'm taking so much into consideration since there weren't many films that seemed to cohere into fully-powered films that obviously took titles as "the best," or anything of the sort.