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these capsules sound like something i'd read in a magazine...good ones, though, even if i didnt agree with all your choices.
>Here are my ten.
>
>10.Punch-Drunk Love
>A terrifically pro-romance movie that also captures how
>relationships are seldom built on perfect unions nor always
>evolve in a straight-forward manner. However, while Paul
>Thomas Anderson's story and Adam Sandler's Barry Egan do go to
>delightfully ridiculous extremes to be able to finally bare
>their souls, with pudding and phone sex and all, it's these
>great lengths that arrive at a conclusion that's as satisfying
>and simply put as anything: all you need is love. This
>sometimes quirky, sometimes old-fashioned, sometimes
>disturbing, finally hopeful and strongly colorful film is an
>ode to the power of love and proof of the power of cinema to
>make the hard-bitten turn believer.
>
>09.United 93
>Politicians, who have continually exploited the day as though
>some cheap slogan, and the media, who has over-exposed the raw
>footage of the Twin Towers' collapse, have shamefully
>manipulated the events on and surrounding September 11th to
>the point where for many Americans, six years now removed,
>that fateful New York morning has lost its significance. What
>Paul Greengrass, alongside a thankless ensemble of mostly
>unknown or first-time actors, does is to restore meaning to
>9/11, as painful and as devastating, but also as truly
>important, as that might be. United 93 is shot with the look
>of a documentary, the feel of a well-paced thriller, and all
>the dignity those who perished as a result of the attacks
>rightly deserve.
>
>08.The Man Who Wasn't There
>In the hands of the Coen Brothers, Ed Crane is fashioned as a
>man of nothing, so forgettable you'd lose his name the second
>after he gave it out, the post-WWII Bartleby. By placing such
>a listless character at the crux of a story centered around a
>salacious criminal scheme and bordered by the supernatural,
>the Coens craft their most original film in years. Though
>they do not turn away from either their pulp-tendencies or
>their use of bizarre humor to undercut moments of tension,
>because their story is ultimately grounded in sincerity, in a
>real sense of sadness and despair, their work has been
>elevated to the level of a fascinating character study. Billy
>Bob Thorton's hushed performance also does a great deal to
>convey Crane's languid state of being.
>
>07.Yi Yi
>Edward Yang's Yi Yi asks the question how do we know we make
>the right choices when we see only from our eyes, from only in
>front of us, and subsequently then only half of the truth?
>This query, earnestly posed by a precocious young boy, echoes
>throughout the entire film and is thematically most evident in
>the way Yang films each scene: often from a distance, even
>seemingly the back of action, still, as though curiously
>observing. He wants us to take in the long and full picture
>in a way his characters cannot always. In doing so, each shot
>potentially becomes its own story; from a parting glance to an
>uncertain exchange, Yang communicates understanding and
>misunderstanding beautifully. The classical-composition of
>the film too produces an unpretentious effect key for such a
>gracious portrayal of life and all the choices it has to
>offer.
>
>06.Half Nelson
>While Ryan Gosling's performance, and even first-timer
>Shareeka Epp's to some extent, hogged most of the coverage of
>Half Nelson--and yes, it is a incredibly complex but organic
>turn by the Canadian actor--director Ryan Fleck too
>accomplishes a difficult task by successfully rooting his
>story and characters in often ambiguous and contradictory
>territory, and not just archetypal or tidily-resolved
>scenarios. It's inspiring, gutsy storytelling, where a drug
>addict is at once a brave school teacher, a friendless
>asshole, a protector, and an enabler. No one here is easily
>defined, nor should they be. And it's because Half Nelson has
>such an interest in telling a three-dimensional story that it
>can feel altogether harrowing, heartbreaking, frustrated,
>uncomfortable, and even funny, but always truthful.
>
>05.Good Night, and Good Luck.
>Shot in a kind of black-and-white photography that lends
>itself more to story than strictly style, George Clooney's
>second directorial work brims with the great confidence
>usually found in Clooney's public persona. Though it covers
>several considerably heavy topics (the power of television,
>the responsibility of the media, and the need to protect the
>freedom of expression), Good Night, and Good Luck knows itself
>with a manner of precision, smarts, and fearlessness fitting
>its lead subject, Edward R. Murrow. By gathering arguably the
>best cast of currently-working character actors and matching
>them with a script as witty as it is poignant and as biting as
>it is graceful, Clooney achieves a certain timeless quality,
>that's both a history lesson and a modern-day parable, while
>never feeling tedious nor heavy-handed.
>
>04.Shaun of the Dead
>This endlessly creative and loving spoof of horror movies
>pours in carnage when it needs to, slapstick when appropriate,
>satire all over, and a surprising amount of character and
>story development. Creators Edgar Wright and Simon Pegg are
>ever-knowledgeable about the often-ludicrous films they're
>sending up, but they also realize a large amount of humor and
>emotional resonance can be forged by grounding the most
>outlandish of plots in the middle of the everyday,
>particularly here with dating relationships and work.
>Moreover, as gore and more subtle visual gags share the screen
>equally as well, and as heavy-stylistic flair is balanced with
>pure storytelling, Shaun of the Dead serves up a unique and
>exceptionally well-rounded piece of entertainment.
>
>03.Raising Victor Vargas
>The principle cast of Raising Victor Vargas and its director,
>Peter Sollett, first began their working relationship on a
>2000 short film, Five Feet High and Rising. The rapport that
>sprang up as a result of this early collaboration is
>noticeable in Vargas not only in the chemistry shared between
>the leads but especially by how natural and unforced actor and
>director alike perform together. By allowing the real-life
>personalities of these actors to shape the script, by
>promoting improvisation, and then by keeping the camera free
>and unrestrained, Sollett creates a work of great
>authenticity. Moreover, his characters have so accurately
>realized that fine balance between childhood and adulthood:
>hormones-raging, awkward all over, brimming maturity cut by
>sudden self-doubt. They have trouble trusting each other and
>themselves, and it's how these moments are captured in a
>simple, seemingly spontaneous manner that highlights late
>adolescence in a way most movies are either afraid or unable
>to.
>
>02.City of God
>Brazil in the 1970's, with its beautiful bikini-clad women and
>streets soaring to a soulful samba sound, is at first an
>irresistible setting. Likewise, Fernando Meirelles's frenetic
>gangster tale has the look of a movie wonderfully exploding at
>your senses. Split-screens, quick-edits, sudden freeze
>frames, and a bursting surreal color catch the eye, but the
>movie's intense and unrelenting violence also gives way to a
>startling depiction of those favela streets shaped like so
>many tireless mazes. Here frightened young boys, trapped as
>they are, have resorted to a kind of cruelty typically found
>only in the most vile of Shakespearean kings. Again, their
>brutality is contrasted by a sad naiveté, just as the
>seductiveness and savageness of Rio goes hand-in-hand.
>Non-actors and a narrator who is both apart from the gangland
>lifestyle and also its best hope are the perfect choices to
>tell this multi-faceted true story.
>
>01.Zodiac
>Using visual effects to recreate period locations that may now
>be unrecognizable or to otherwise control the look of his
>scenes to the smallest detail, David Fincher's Zodiac finds
>the director employing stylistic craftiness to enhance the
>story on screen and then to also illuminate the obsessive
>nature of the material. His meticulousness thankfully finds
>its match in an exhausting true crime investigation, one that
>covered whole careers and is realistically rendered by a
>handful of actors giving largely difficult but defining
>performances. The film's daring narrative, first mapped out
>in a thoroughly-researched script by James Vanderbilt, flaunts
>conventions in an ultimate sign of respect to all the
>investigators involved. Chilling, slyly humorous, and
>ever-engaging, Zodiac's dedicated vision is a painstakingly
>well-organized revelation for its director and sure evidence
>that storytelling is forever king.
>
>
>my '05 list.
>
>25th Hour (2002)
>City of God (2002)
>George Washington (2000)
>In the Mood for Love (2000)
>Lost in Translation (2003)
>Raising Victor Vargas (2002)
>Road to Perdition (2002)
>The Royal Tenenbaums (2001)
>Yi Yi (2000)
>You Can Count on Me (2000)
>
>Reason for differences:
>
>1)Don't take a 20 year-old's opinion on artistic endeavors too
>seriously, I guess. (What about a 22 year-old?) Anyway, my
>tastes haven't changed drastically, it's just that I've more
>finely tuned for myself what makes a good movie.
>
>2)In the Mood for Love and George Washington I haven't watched
>in years. They've faded a little bit from my memory, and that
>lack of a long-standing interest says something to me.
>
>3)The Royal Tenenbaums fell in the 11-15 range.
>
>3b)Lost in Translation and You Can Count on Me probably would
>fall in the 15-25 range.
>
>4)Upon re-seeing Road to Perdition and 25th Hour, while there
>are many strong qualities that I still find in 'em, and I do
>still like them, they feel more flawed now, e.g., the third
>act in Perdition and the overall heavy-handedness of Lee's
>picture.
>
>5)Of the new inclusions to my list, five of them I had not
>seen at all two years ago (or had just seen them, as with Good
>Night, I believe).
>
>6)So with the three left standing, the five new additions,
>that leaves Punch-Drunk Love and The Man Who Wasn't There. I
>saw the latter in the theaters when it first came out. I was
>16 and in over my head. Thankfully, I revisited it some
>months back and was amazed. As for PDL, I'm actually
>surprised it wasn't on my first list. Again, it went over my
>head the first time through, 17 then, but a year or so later I
>got the DVD, strapped on some headphones and have been a fan
>ever since.
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