BEST OF 2005…

I guess I’ll throw my hat in the ring now.

10 Best Films Of 2005

1. King Kong
2. Grizzly Man
3. Head On
4. Pulse
5. Tony Takitani
6. Oldboy
7. The Constant Gardener
8. Capote
9. Brokeback Mountain
10. Hustle & Flow

5 Best Lead Performances

1. Terrence Howard, Hustle & Flow
2. Heath Ledger, Brokeback Mountain
3. Phillip Seymour Hoffman, Capote
4. Vera Farmiga, Down To The Bone
5. Andy Serkis/the King Kong CGI team, King Kong

Honorable Mentions
Choi Min-Sik, Oldboy
Sibel Kekilli, Head On
Joaquin Phoenix, Walk the Line
David Strathairn, Good Night, and Good Luck
Birol Unel, Head On
Reese Witherspoon, Walk The Line

5 Best Supporting Performances
1. Maria Bello, A History of Violence
2. Alexander Siddig, Syriana
3. George Clooney, Syriana
4. Taryn Manning, Hustle & Flow
5. Michelle Williams, Brokeback Mountain

Best Director
Peter Jackson, King Kong

Best Screenplay
Dan Futterman, Capote

Best Cinematography
Chris Doyle, Kwan Pun Leung and Lai Yiu-Fai, 2046

Best First Film
Bennett Miller, Capote

Best Documentary
Werner Herzog, Grizzly Man

As I write this, a number of the critics groups, as well as the Golden Globes, have just announced their winners and nominees, and I’m very surprised and considerably disappointed that King Kong has pretty much gotten the shaft. If this isn’t pure cinema, what is?

My two favorite living filmmakers, Wong Kar-wai and Terrence Malick, both made movies this year and I couldn’t bring myself to love either one of them. Despite some sublime moments (as well as Malick and Wong’s customary visual mastery), both 2046 and The New World felt like films in which the directors were aping themselves, and doing it pretentiously.

Judging from what I saw at the Toronto and New York festivals, 2006 should yield a better, bolder, more diverse class of films: Bubble, Tristram Shandy: A Cock and Bull Story, Tsotsi, Three Times and Dave Chappelle’s Block Party would all have been on my list had they come out this year.