Column #29: The Best Films of 2005

I haven't written a column in a while. I bet you all thought I'd disappeared for good. No such luck, just been busier than a bee in a bonnet, what with writing submissions, emails to my agent, talking to producers, and working on a movie shoot. All will be detailed in some future column. Yes, I fully intend to write more often, if only to fill out the pages of my future book entitled, "Jess Nakaska: The Early Years, Prosaic and Proud Of It".

What can I say about last year's films? They were an eclectic group that's for sure. Strong comedies. Moving dramas. Powerful ensembles. Wonderful voices. All in all a good year for flicks. So good in fact, and in celebration of my return to active columnist, I going to break down the 29 best films of the year...

...but not really. Instead, here are the 10 best films of 2005.

#10 - Cinderella Man
Almost forgotten by everyone but I, this was a flick that if it had come out in the fall instead of the spring, would be on everyone's top ten list. The common man down on his luck tale, this time set in the depression, which is not a psychiatric diagnosis but a common nation-wide state of malaise between stock market crashes, drought, famine, unemployment, homelessness, and hunger all overlapping until FDR's revolutionary New Deal program. Never heard of the depression? Go read a book...

...after reading the rest of this column. Russell Crowe is good, Renee Zellweger is good, and Paul Giamatti is excellent as trainer/manager Joe Gould. Well-directed by Ron Howard. An underdog story that's all pumping, throbbing heart. A story of a man who fights to better his family. The fight scenes are strong without being Scorcese and battering but not overly bloody. Saving grace? Giamatti's Oscar nomination. This is a man who for four straight years has given superior work as an actor. Deserves to win for the screw-over last year of Sideways. (I would rant but this will come up in a future column).

#9 - Batman Begins
The re-birth of the legend and the franchise, thanks to writer David Goyer and director Christopher Nolan. (He of the Memento fame. It might just be the best film ever made. Seriously. Better and better with every viewing.) An earlier Bruce Wayne, excellently played by Christian Bale. I'd talk about Katie Holmes but lets just say that being over-exposed and adopted by a cult may get you precious airtime but it won't help your lack of range. Nuff' said. The Dark Knight is reborn as a psychologically scarred but still complex everyman searching the globe for the cure to many of Gotham's problems of corruption and evil. Finds it, and is turned into the Batman of legend. Great turns by Liam Neeson and Cillian Murphy, as friend and foe alike. Recharges the franchise's energy, returns the faith in DC comic characters, and sets impossibly high standards for this summer's Superman Returns.

#8 - King Kong
The annual Peter Jackson action-fest epic. The first hour or so is kind of a snore-fest. But once they get to Skull Island, and Jackson unveils his computer-generated human-growth hormone enhanced primate, Kong that is, this movie is all about going for broke. And deliver it does. It puts Jurassic Park to shame and that's not just because the technology is twelve years older. Jackson has defined, for an entire generation, the redefinition of the epic. All others are playing catch-up. To them I wish good luck. Kong, the ape, does have a lot going for him; he's passionate and not just about Naomi Watts' Ann Darrow (an aside, I'm still trying to decide whose better looking, her or Nicole Kidman, oh what a problem to have. My job is hard. Aside ends...), he's photo-realistic, and he's loaded with emotion, mainly thanks to Andy Serkis, he of Gollum fame, who once again plays a computer-generated character better than most normal actors. They seriously need to introduce a new category of Oscar for animation-slash-human performance. Serkis would have two already.

#7 - Constantine
I know a lot of people who didn't like this movie. They were all wrong. They were usually turned off by the changes made to the story by the producers. John Constantine of comic-fame, was moody, blond, and British. Kinda like the new James Bond. Instead, here he's American, brunette and played by Keanu Reeves. Kinda like discovering that Santa Claus isn't real and oh, by the way, your parents will never get you the gift you want for Christmas except when you're an infant and a card box is the cat's pajamas. Anyhow, I liked this movie. I liked it immensely in the theatre, I liked it on the DVD that I bought. It holds up well, and has the best interpretation of Lucifer since the first Prophecy movie. It also has the luscious Rachel Weisz, who I fall more in love with every flick she's in. The plot revolves around Lou's kid skipping over pop and reigning fire and brimstone on his own terms. Keanu's the only guy who can stop him. He's a demon fighter extraordinaire. Except that he's dying from a two-pack-a-day cigarette habit. And he's going to hell. All-in-all, highly entertaining, very interesting thematically, and you can't beat God when it comes to high stakes.

#6 - The 40-Year Old Virgin
Saw this again and it was funnier than I remembered. I was originally going to throw in Wedding Crashers as my comedy for the list, but I forgot how funny, deadpan, and dead-on The 40-Year Old Virgin was. The two scenes that set this movie apart: one, Steve Carell getting his chest waxed (for real). Every man in the audience could feel his pain as strips of skin were stripped bare by wax. Did I mention his bloody nipples? I've a new respect for women. God-bless'em for going through with that to make us guys happy. Bring'em some flowers just because. Two, the banter between Paul Rudd and Seth Rogan, about why they think each other's gay is Hilarious. I secretly think they threw this in in case of the obvious sequel, The 35-Year Old Gay Virgin. Hey, Brokeback Mountain has completely changed the landscape. And I think that everyone reading this column appreciates that the sexier man is the one with chest hair.

#5 - Syriana
About oil. About the families involved in the oil industry from the spies to the executives to the Arab sheiks who control billions of tons of the black gold. George Clooney is very good and deserves his Oscar nomination, but the real breakout star of the movie is Matt Damon, who having survived the set-back that was Team America: World Police (now this is a F**KING FUNNY movie, and he's really not in it, just his puppet, you'll never hear the words "Matt Damon" again without laughing) steps into his own with his best performance since Good Will Hunting. Or maybe The Rainmaker. I liked that movie so much I read the book. Damon plays a mid-level oil exec who gets a career boost when his son is electrocuted in a Prince's pool. It nearly costs him his marriage and his soul, but he tries to effect real, important, and potent change in the oil-rich kingdom. Interestingly, Damon's character is the only one who really changes in the story. Or is maybe "allowed" to change. See the movie and get my drift.

#4 - Crash
Co-written and directed by Paul Haggis who helped create two of the greatest television shows of all time, Walker, Texas Ranger and Due South. Chuck Norris and a city-locked Mountie; now that's talent that doesn't bless every guy out there. Haggis has become the screenwriter of the moment after the success of Million Dollar Baby. (Am I the only one who wants to see Hillary Swank and Michelle Rodriguez in a cage match of death boxing match? Or maybe the jello wrestling pit of death?) He wrote the new James Bond flick and Flags of Our Fathers for Clint Eastwood. Oh, I almost forgot he produced the strongest epithet on race relations since Rodney King. There are no saints in this movie, just different levels of sinners. Don Cheadle might be considered the lead in a movie that's a true ensemble. Sandra Bullock proves once-and-for-all she's a great serious actress, following her confrontation with two young black men. The stories unwrap while at the same time intertwine in a dozen unexpected ways. Each character is linked to one another though they may not know it. This is a Los Angeles that never recovered after Rodney King, or maybe even Watts. Then again maybe this subtle and not so subtle racism is always omnipresent. That's a depressing thought from a very good movie.

#3 - Walk The Line
The best musical in years. Since Moulin Rouge. And to all the haters of that movie you can all go to...somewhere where it's really hot year-round and I ain't talking about Vegas. Joaquin Phoenix deserves the Oscar for the best performance of the year. And the best singing since Streisand. She use to sing in movies before ruining them with her acting. Who knew that a Gainesville, Florida boy could channel the actual spirit of Johnny Cash just so? And capture his essence during performance so totally? Johnny Cash, that's who. Joaquin was handpicked by the Man-In-Black himself. Apparently, Johnny was a huge Gladiator fan; Joaquin was in that movie actually, played the evil Commodus he did. Anyway, Walk The Line moved me way more than Ray did. Also, Joaquin and Reese Witherspoon do all their own singing which only serves to wrap up the viewer in the inner spaces of this excellent biopic. Reese is that consummate actress who toes the line between drama and comedy. She also deserves an Oscar for the understated and ever-patient June Carter.

#2 - Munich
I vacillated between Munich and Crash being at the number two spot, only because of the strength of Walk the Line as number three. Munich is here because of the emotional bond it builds with its viewer, stronger than Crash but by no means a derision of that film. A story about brutal justice perpetrated on the Palestinians behind the Massacre at the 1972 Munich Summer Olympics. More than a revenge thriller, this examines the men behind the retaliatory assassinations. They're not mere killers. They're family men and fathers and sons and husbands. They are also Mossad agents devoted to the Israeli state. The film goes out of its way to show the anguish and pain that accompanies highly meticulous revenge. Eric Bana leads an all-round excellent cast in particular, as the leader of this assassination squad, who though he tries to limit casualties to the target at hand, still finds himself affected by the murders he commits in the name of justice. One of Steven Speilberg's strongest efforts, up there with Saving Private Ryan, but not quite up to the vast power and importance of Schindler's List. Munich, nonetheless, is a big movie full of little idiosyncrasies. Definitely one to check out.

#1 - The Constant Gardener
Hands down the best film of the year. Very corporeal, very British, and most of all, very, very good. This is the film I want to see more of. This is the film I still think about when it rains. Okay, that last part is BS, but I do still, on occasion remark just how good and moving this film really. Ralph Fiennes, the lucky bastard husband of a pregnant Rachel Weisz, goes on an African-wide search for the truth after she's murdered. It all comes down to Colonialism, greed, large pharmaceutical companies, and human testing. When the end arrives and Fiennes has finally discovered the reason for his wife's death, rather than fight it out against hopeless causes, he accepts his impending death with dignity and closure. It was one of the most positive/negative movie outcomes I've ever experienced. At least since Hard Core Logo. A movie that's as small as it needs to be, that connects to the audience and to the viewer, on many levels, contrasted with the internationalist scope at its heart. This is a movie that's a thriller, a romance, a tragedy, and a mystery, all at the same time. Hands down the best film of 2005.
Jess Nakaska is an aspiring screenwriter always on the lookout for the next great script idea. He'll let you know if he finds it. Feel free to contact him at jessnakaska@hotmail.com.