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THE BEST FILMS OF 2004
Numbers 11 - 20
20. The Door in the Floor - A John Irving adaptation that feels like a novel on the screen… but I mean that in a good way. This film has grown and grown on me over the six months since I first saw it. Jeff Bridges gives a performance that looks to be a bit over the top, but is anchored with enormous subtlety. Kim Basinger looks as worn as her character is meant to and is still as fragile and beautiful as ever in one of her most mature turns. It is a beautiful little film.
19. Dogville - Some people hated it. I can understand that. It is insanely theatrical and the work of an unrelenting show off, but for me, it was Lars Von Trier's first really complete work. It is ironic that both this film and Birth feature Lauren Bacall, since that film is quite theatrical as well. For me, this film does an fascinating job of scraping away at the human condition and the constant shifting from darkness to light and back again. .
18. The Assassination of Richard Nixon - Neils Mueller's examination of a desperate life struggling to find the light is one of the true undiscovered gems of the years. Sean Penn gives one of his best performances ever. Jack Thompson, Don Cheadle and Michael Wincott give amazing performances. And the intimate portrait of these lives is filled with small insights that make it well worth seeking out.
17. Dodgeball - How many times can a film make you laugh at someone getting hit really hard by a flying object? I don't think I'll be able to answer that question until I see Dodgeball 2: The Quest for More Money, because this one got me laughing every single time. It is a shame that people keep referring to this as a "Ben Stiller movie" because Stiller - who plays one of his broad caricatures here but really makes it work with occasional humane nuances - is not really the story here... Vince Vaughn is. It is Vaughn's humanity and vulnerability that drives this one. That and a lot of groins getting hit.
16. The House of Flying Daggers - The ultimate grind house film, Zhang Yimou takes all the melodrama, action and hyper-reality and brings it together with technology and style more elegant than any Shaw Bros. film ever made. If you like these kinds of films, you will find none better in the genre. It's a little long at 119 minutes… which reminds one just what a joke Kill Bill's three and a half hour running time really is.
15. The Sea Inside - A powerful, beautiful movie about living, as expressed by a man who wants to die. Alejandro Amenabar is a fine young director who will be giving us great films for a long time to come. But it is Javier Bardem that is the story here. Perhaps the finest actor of this generation, the fact that he is Spanish has kept him the most underappreciated of gems. But his performance here is the stuff of legend.
14. Tarnation - There will never be another film quite like it. There can't be. It is Jonathan Caouette's life and while there may be a few people out there who have documented their lives as thoroughly as Caouette, few will see it as fodder for art. We have no idea whether Caouette can direct a film… only that he has amazing taste and that he is, above all, an artist.
13. Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind - It is impossible to turn away from this droopy, anxiety-ridden look at the human heart. It is Charlie Kaufman's most powerful script because it doesn't linger in the clever tricks that Kaufman often allows himself… even though the central conceit is out of reality's reach. Michel Gondry just can't stop throwing stuff at the audience, but Jim Carrey and Kate Winslet keep our emotional treads firmly on the ground and like any wonderful memory, keeping this story of human resilience on the tip of our tongue.
12. Kinsey - Bill Condon's turn here is underestimated. He took a dry life and made it as rich and complex as the reverberations of this man's work. The film is very funny and challenging in scene after scene. As a director, Condon stretches stylistically and also gets some of the best work we've seen in a while out of a large group of supporting actors. But mostly, he drew a torrent of thought and activity around a man who could not see his own reflection. Excellent.
11. Twist of Faith - A really fine look at how damage in our childhoods keeps creeping into our adult lives. The story here is about a pedophile priest and focuses on one of his victims, now a grown up husband, father and fireman. Kirby Dick knows how to get out of the way of people… especially people with vulnerable egos… and lets them tell their own stories. It is a technique in which the hand of the documentarian completely disappears… but when you think about it is, by necessity, as strong on the wheel as any filmmaker's.
The Runners Up | Numbers 11-20 | The Top Ten | The Worst
December 30, 2004 - The Ten Worst
December 29, 2004 - Movies You Should Have Seen, But Didn't
