Benjibopper

This year I sat through 62 movies. Here is a list of the 20 that were most worth my time (in the order I saw them):

Brokeback Mountain, the one about them gay cowboys

TransAmerica, best trans-sexual road movie ever set in the USA

Hotel Rwanda, difficult to watch, but worth it

Kung Fu Hustle, the single best movie I have seen in many a year, loads of action, beautiful cinematography and choreography, hi-freakin-larious

Frida, story of a Mexican artiste who painted better than her more famous philandering (yet loveable and much-loved) husband

Yes Men, great little documentary of some modern merry pranksters with a leftwing agenda

Godfather Part I, claaaasic

Runaway Jury, one of those Tom Clancy movies, but really well done with a satisfying ending, go John Cusack

Million Dollar Baby, didn’t expect that ending, really well done movie, sad and sweet, Eastwood continues to deliver

Miami Vice, I love Michael Mann movies, so slow, deliberate, suspenseful, and he did a great job with this old show about cops who seem corrupt but are really good guys

Matrix II &
Matrix III, I didn’t think any sequels to the Matrix were necessary, but I thought they did a great job of building on that world, that mood, that ingenious device

Harry Potter I &
Harry Potter II, these movies are so fun, fanciful, and cute, only a moron could disapprove (to borrow from Monty Burns)

Koomei (Tuvan Throat Singing), despite technical flaws, this little tourist doc is visually and aurally beautiful and informative

American Splendour, another movie about an American cartoon artist, a loveable loser makes good, then complains about it, I love the main character’s constant whining about the sad lot the working man gets in life

Salvador, classic American anti-American propaganda starring Canadian

James Woods, Oliver Stone’s only good movie that I know of

Dave Chappelle’s Block Party, Second best movie I saw this year, a musical documentary about a Brooklyn politically conscious hip hop concert starring all my favourites (including an all too brief appearance by the great Talib Kweli) and the usual hilarity of Chappelle himself

Yesterday, gorgeous South African flick that manages to warm your heart despite difficult subject matter: the dying of a young woman and her husband from AIDS, and her worry about the fate of their little girl

Munich, some would call it biased and one sided, others would say it painted a negative picture of Jews (or at least Israeli Jews), I say it attempted to present a side of the story as honestly as possible – but as Miia pointed out, it’s too bad we don’t have anyone in Hollywood doing the same for the other side. Anyway, this movie was a cross between Mission Impossible and the Pink Panther, with a group of bumbling assassins carrying out state-sponsored vigilante justice (not just an oxymoron anymore), and unlike a spy movie it really got into the characters’ psyches, and the effects that their illicit activities has on them. It was very well done.

Labels: best of