2005 Tagged Articles at Cinematical

It might sound absurd at first to compile a top ten list of movies based solely on your political views. But let's face it, we all do this on one level or another. For example, a movie loses big points for me if the women are all submissive, supportive wives or nagging-bitch girlfriends. And I never could bring myself to see The Passion of the Christ (although part of that isn't politics, it's the same reason I haven't seen Hostel—I can't abide excessive gore).

So perhaps former Boston Herald columnist Don Feder's list of the 10 best conservative films of 2005 isn't as unusual as it might seem. Feder selected the films that he felt represented "conservatism’s cardinal values – faith, family and freedom." Does that explain why King Kong is #2 on the list? Feder feels the movie's characters "exemplify feminine virtue, masculine heroism and romantic love." Oh, and lots of cool computer-generated effects. His #1 pick isn't The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe, either; that movie is down at #4, past "pro-life" film The Island. Feder tops the list with Cinderella Man, and he particularly cites Renee Zellweger's performance as the "worried but steadfast wife". Good thing Feder and I have never been on a movie date together.

[Thanks to Nigel R. for the link.]

After six ballots, the 55 film writers who make up with National Society of Film Critics chose Capote as the best film of 2005. In the second spot was A History of Violence, followed by a film that has received little notice this awards season, Wong Kar-Wai's 2046. Capote star Philip Seymour Hoffman also received top honors for his work as Truman Capote, just beating out The Squid and the Whale star Jeff Daniels for the honor. The gay cowboy, er, sheepherder, himself, Heath Ledger, finished third.

Refreshingly, apart from that whole Capote thing, this group of critics didn't really follow the 2005 awards trends, and ended up giving their prizes to a fairly diverse group of people and films. Other major winners were David Cronenberg, who took home the best director award (for A History of Violence), and Reese Witherspoon, who was named best actress for Walk the Line. Additionally, the rarely-mentioned pair of Ed Harris (A History of Violence) and Amy Adams (Junebug), won the supporting awards, while Noah Baumbach picked up yet another screenwriting nod for the hilarious, acerbic The Squid and the Whale.

You surely disagree with *something* on this list – so comment away, and stay tuned for our Worst Of, coming tomorrow.

1.  Match Point

Match Point has the conventions of an easy-to-follow thriller - a busty seductress, a suspicious wife, a scheming husband and an act of murder - but what it lacks is what makes it special. The film is a post-religious parable, with no overriding moral authority at the center. "Faith is the path of least resistance," one character scoffs at a dinner party. In other words, the only meaningful struggle with moral choice is the one that we are willing to have internally. Is the main character - an ambitious, social-climbing young tennis coach - willing to have that struggle? The signs aren't promising. He reads a Penguin edition of Crime and Punishment with the attention you would give US Weekly, and morally-loaded Verdi operas inspire nothing more from him than a blank stare. On the other hand, he has the self-preservation instincts and the dumb luck of a Patricia Highsmith fox. Watching him operate will keep you on the edge of your seat for the full two hours. The year's best film. – Ryan Stewart



2. A History of Violence

A History of Violence is a rare thing: a genre hybrid film that actually works. On one level, it's an effective thriller about a mild-tempered Midwesterner who may or may not be a stone killer masking his identity; on another level, it's a schlock horror film with make-up effects that would be appropriate for a Friday the 13th film, circa 1987. A lot of bullets fly, but when they do, people aren't simply knocked down or off-screen - they are disfigured, maimed or reduced to chunks of sputtering flesh. It's as if an EMT was present on set as an advisor, and piped in with "no, no...a shotgun blast at that range would do much more damage..." The result is that the audience's ho-hum desensitization to violence is briefly circumvented and the central question about the main character – why is he so at home with blood and gore? – is brought into sharp relief. Director David Cronenberg is asking the same question of the audience. – RS



3. Pride & Prejudice

Pride & Prejudice is, in some ways, a perfect film. Director Joe Wright follows the much-worshipped source material closely and never steps wrong with character, music or scenery. When we think of Austen, our first thought is not wild animals roaming through the Bennett house, but little details like that seem to have some historical grounding, and it adds to the realism. The screenplay also modernizes and clips Austen's language in the most surgically careful ways, so that only those who pay their Austen Society dues a year in advance will notice the seams. Keira Knightley, though certainly more athletic and forcefully feminist than anything Austen could have imagined for her Elizabeth Bennett, somehow owns the role like no one before her. Austen characters famously speak in unbroken paragraphs, expounding themselves purple in the face, but Knightley handles the language and the meaning behind it as easily as slipping into a warm bath, and the other characters fall into line behind her. – RS



4.  The New World

Don't be fooled by New Line's last-ditch efforts to recoup their investment in Terrence Malick's latest: The New World is not a de-Disneyfied tale of pilgrims and indians and a snow-crushed first Thanksgiving full of pious pumpkin eyes; it is not a battle-heavy, voodoo-tinged culture-clash adventure; it is not, by any means, a Colin Farrell film. Sure, Farrell is stunning as Captain John Smith, the borderline-infidel who is spared from execution just in time to meet and fall powerlessly in love with a 12-year-old native princess. But this is The Pocahontas Story, and from its opening frames of still-water reflection to its near-hallucinogenic final sequences, The New World  reimagines a historical footnote known to most six year olds as a fairy tale rich enough to seduce most adults. Drunk, in grand Malick fashion, on sunlight and internal monologue, The New World will irk those who want their historical epics to function as freeze-dried educational substitutes. The rest of us will stare slack-jawed at Q'orianka Kilcher, as she and Farrell and Malick recast the silliest of American myths as a swirling tale of obsession and longing on the order of Lolita. – Karina Longworth