2004: My Year In Movies

I feel as though I saw many more films from 2004 than what is on this list, but this is everything that I remember. I had a much better year with television by far, thanks to my buddies Tivo and Netflix. With the exception of Anchorman and possibly Eternal Sunshine, I doubt that any of these films will ever mean as much to me as the recent seasons of The Sopranos, The Office, Peep Show, Angel (I saw the entire series in 2004), Gilmore Girls, Six Feet Under, and especially Arrested Development.

Anchorman: The Legend Of Ron Burgundy – Oh dear God, I love this movie. Much like The Big Lebowski, Anchorman has its own bizarre internal logic and a seemingly endless stream of hilarious, highly quotable dialogue. Will Ferrell co-wrote this film with director Adam “The H Is O” McKay, and as a result it is an undiluted, superconcentrated dose of the Ferrell aesthetic. The movie’s best gags are strange turns of phrase (“I’m in a glass case of emotion!”) and moments of extreme absurdity, such as the scene-stealing Steve Carell murdering another news man in a back alley brawl with a trident. An instant (cult) classic. – A+

Before Sunset – Though this is in fact a sequel to Before Sunrise, it works perfectly well as a stand alone film. In lesser hands, this could have been a pointless excercise in fan-fic, but this reunion of star-crossed lovers is significantly more interesting and insightful than the original. The movie plays out in real time, as Julie Delpy and Ethan Hawke’s finely nuanced characters reconnect over the course of an hour before Hawke must leave to catch a plane. The conversation is intense but extremely naturalistic as it hits on big ideas and covers a range of emotions with effortless grace. – A

DiG! – Full review here. – B+

Dodgeball – Almost everyone involved can do better than this, and the concept could have been executed with more style and humor; but as far as disposable sports comedies go, this is fine enough. – C

Dogville – I’m not certain whether this film is simply overlong, or better viewed as a series of vignettes with substantial breaks between each chapter. Seen as a whole, Dogville is overwhelming, and its flaws and quirks become very grating after the first hour has passed. Nevertheless, the film has its own misanthropic charm. I saw this the same day that I saw Kill Bill Vol 2, which made for an interesting double bill given that both movies are about the intense suffering and eventual righteous, bloody vengeance of the female lead. B-

Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind – The story is as clever, thoughtful, and poetic as I would expect from a sci-fi romance by Charlie Kaufman, but what sticks with me the most is how Michel Gondry pulls it all off visually. The scenes taking place inside of Jim Carrey’s dissolving memories are brilliantly concieved and photographed, but the simpler scenes on the frozen lake, the snowy Montauk beach, and the LIRR train are among the most lovely and sublime in all of the cinema that I’ve ever seen. Kate Winslet (who has never looked more beautiful than in this film) is particularly excellent in her role, as is the uncharacteristically understated and sullen Jim Carrey. – A+

Fahrenheit 9/11 – I expected this to be sloppy and didactic, but it’s actually a much more coherant and restrained polemic than one might reasonably expect from Michael Moore. Obviously this wasn’t strong enough as a piece of propaganda to get Bush out of the White House, but how can you expect very many people outside of the Democratic base to pay $5-10 to see this? It’s not as though many left wing partisans would want to pay to watch The O’Reilly Factor at a multiplex. TV, newspapers, and radio are far better venues for propaganda. Nice try. – B-

Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban -Thanks to director Alfonso Cuarón, this is the most aesthetically successful film in the Potter series to date, though it is marred by structural flaws inherant to JK Rowling’s original text. The movie is full of great moments and some impressive visuals, so I can forgive its plot holes and anticlimactic ending. Bonus points are awarded for an increase in screen time for the series’ best character, Hermione Granger. – B+

I Heart Huckabees – Without question, I Heart Huckabees is the most unfairly reviewed film of 2004, with most of the negative reaction being the result of a kneejerk anti-intellectualism that either missed its point entirely or begrudged the film for even having one. I find it particularly odd that anyone would accuse this film of being smug, since I find it to be remarkably compassionate, at least much more so than most other contemporary satires. The comedy is very sharp, and the film is full of surprisingly great performances from actors I don’t normally like. Naomi Watts is especially great, which suggests that she has been wasting too much time screaming and crying in shameless Oscar bait when she ought to be doing more comedy. – A

The Incredibles – A fine film, though it is vastly overrated by critics beaten down by the onslaught of painfully awful “family entertainment” movies. I normally dislike digital animation, but the design and direction is generally strong enough for me to forgive the parts that look like a video game. The writing and acting is well above par for an animated feature, though the jokes are a bit stale if you’re like me and have been reading postmodern superhero comics since you were eight years old. It’s impossible for me to say anything nice about this movie without sounding as though I’m damning it with faint praise, but it is definitely worthwhile. – B

Jandek On Corwood – Such a disappointment! The Jandek story is quite fascinating, but it is much better suited to print media. The majority of the film is repetitive and pendantic, featuring a steady stream of mostly insufferably pretentious fringe music critics explaining to the viewer what Jandek’s music sounds like while Jandek’s music plays in the background. Almost no one in the film has anything particularly interesting or insightful to say, and were it not for the inclusion of a recording of the only known Jandek interview, it would come off like an avant garde version of a fluffy E! celebrity profile. But hey, at least Douglas is in it, and that’s kinda cool. – C+

Kill Bill Vol. 2 – I am very grateful that Quentin Tarantino split Kill Bill into two distinct films, mostly because I appreciate that the first film is nothing but undiluted, ridiculous violence. I appreciate the greater depth and humanity of the second film, but if it were edited into one big movie, the material from Vol 2 would have dragged down the fun bits considerably. I will probably always prefer the stylistic excesses of Vol 1, but there is very little that I don’t like about this movie. – A

The Ladykillers – Totally forgettable. In fact, I barely remember any of it and am mildy surprised that I went to see it at all. Not awful, but completely inessential, even to hardcore fans of the Coen brothers. – C

The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou – I feel as though I need to catch this one again, as my first viewing was probably spoiled by the weight of enormous expectations and a generally weird mood on my part on the day that I saw it. My friend believes that The Life Aquatic will inevitably be considered Wes Anderson’s best work by his hardcore fans in the future, similar to how Wowee Zowee is so beloved by diehard Pavement fans like myself because that album is the purest essence of the band’s aesthetic. He’s probably right. If you’re into Anderson’s style, you will find plenty to love about this film, even if it lacks the heart and soul of Tenenbaums and Rushmore. When I saw the film, I was let down because the emotional moments did not resonate enough for me, and because I was not nearly as engaged by this set of characters (well, except for Jeff Goldblum’s “part-gay” Alistair Hennessey) as I was by Max Fischer or the Tenenbaum clan, but an observation made by another friend of mine makes me want to disregard all of that when I see the film for the second time. He says that the film’s key exchange is when Cate Blanchett’s character tells Bill Murray’s Steve Zissou that her fetal child will be 11 and a half in 12 years, to which he replies, “that’s my favorite age.” My friend’s point is that all of the emotional moments in the movie are like a sensitive 12-year-old’s idea of an emotional moment. I get the feeling that he understood this film far better than I did. – B+

Mean Girls – This movie is the entire reason why I have any good will for Lindsay Lohan. Mean Girls has its flaws, but Tina Fey’s script is a funnier, less hateful version of Heathers, which is exactly what this new generation of teenagers deserves. – B

Meet The Fockers – Occasionally amusing, but mostly quite embarassing. Nearly every joke from Meet The Parents is recycled in the most tasteless way possible, and every punchline is telegraphed well in advance. A terrible recurring joke about a baby who can only utter the word “asshole” is beaten into the ground, as though the producers were deseperate to score a catchphrase for merchandising. Barbra Streisand and Dustin Hoffman commit to their thin roles admirably, but their talents are entirely wasted here. C-

Metallica: Some Kind Of Monster – At its best, Some Kind Of Monster is like a hilarious, real life version of This Is Spinal Tap full of bizarre, too-good-to-be-true moments and mind boggling dialogue. I would have been satisfied if the documentary only made the band look ridiculous, but there are moments throughout the film that make me feel genuine sympathy for Metallica for the first time in my life. The movie is about an hour too long, but I was never bored. B+

Napoleon Dynamite – Amusing, but soulless. It was rather like bad fast food – reasonably tasty during consumption, but it doesn’t digest well and leaves an unpleasant aftertaste. Most of my favorite contemporary comedy (Peep Show, The Office, The Best Show On WFMU, Arrested Development) finds humor in sympathetic portrayals of loathesome characters, whereas Napoleon Dynamite gets its cheap laughs at the expense of its harmless, clueless cast of rubes. The movie can be funny, but it’s all bully humor. If you like to pick on misfits, minorities, the poor, and the handicapped, then this is the movie for you. – C+

Nausea II – Though its pacing is occasionally clumsy and its production values are roughly on the same level of the hardcore porn that it spoofs, Guy Richards Smit’s Maxi Geil rock opera is one of the sharpest, funniest art films that you’ll probably never get to see. As many of you are already aware, the music in the movie is top notch, especially the showstopping “Please Remember Me.” The story is a cutting satire of the contemporary art world, but it is entirely unnecessary to be invested in that scene to enjoy Nausea II’s droll wit and spectacular low budget set pieces. – A-

The Perfect Score – Formulaic and aggressively dumb, but what would you expect? I’m not quite sure what Scarlett Johansson was doing slumming in a movie like this, but I suppose that we all have to pay our bills somehow. The only memorable performance in this movie is by Asian stoner dude Leonardo Nam, who delivers every funny-on-purpose line of dialogue in the film, including a bizarre riff about the lizard guy from Mortal Kombat. – C-

The Saddest Music in the World – I wanted to like this film more than I do because of the praise for it written by some of my friends, but ultimately I find that I admire its visual style, ideas, and witty dialogue far more than I actually enjoyed it. Nevertheless, there is a great deal of brilliance on display in this film, even if I was not fully engaged. I read something (I can’t remember where…) recently that suggested that this was like the cinematic equivalent of the WFMU aesthetic, and that seems about right, at least in terms of the brand identity that the station has created over the years. – A-

Saved! – Very underrated and subversive. Those of you who complain about its familiar teen movie narrative structure are missing the point enormously. If this film was even remotely arty, it would turn off the people who need this movie the most – average American teens who have been raised in very mainstream Christian homes and have not fully made up their own minds about their faith. I don’t think that this film is judgemental of faith, only of zealotry. It’s remarkably compassionate and very funny. – A

Sideways – This is Alexander Payne’s best picture to date, which is saying quite a lot given his brief but uniformly excellent filmography. At this point, I thought that I was completely burned out on the “sad sack character sketch” subgenre, but Payne and Paul Giamatti bring a great deal of empathy and humor to the lead character, a failed novelist divorcee who blurs the line between wine connoisseur and wino. I’ve noticed a lot of buzz about Virginia Madsen’s supporting role, but I wasn’t nearly as impressed by her as I was by Thomas Hayden Church, who is a revelation as Giamatti’s party dude foil. – A

Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow – In a better world, a Fantastic Four movie would be shot using similar special effects. Strictly in terms of visuals, this is my favorite film of the year. The story is good fun, though its fetishization of serials, comic books, and pulp leaves little room for subtext. Impressive work for a first time writer/director, though Kerry Conran would be wise to collaborate with a proper writer in the future unless he aims on becoming his generation’s answer to post-Return Of The Jedi George Lucas. – B

Spider-Man 2 – I imagine that much of the “best superhero movie ever!!!” hype around this movie is mostly due to it not sucking even though it’s a sequel to a massive hit. Sensibly, the second film in the series doesn’t stray very far from the winning formula of its predecessor (basically: be as reverential to the spirit of Stan Lee/Steve Ditko comics as possible), but I think that Spider-Man is a much better character when his lighthearted wit is emphasized rather than his hard luck. I hope that Spider-Man 3 is a lot less emo than this. – B

Starsky & Hutch – Another enjoyable but totally forgettable mainstream comedy. Not a bad way to kill time, but nothing special. Obvs, I’ll see most anything featuring Owen Wilson. C+

Word Wars – It is somewhat difficult for me not to think of this film as being like a poor man’s Spellbound. The structure is almost identical – the first half of the documentary shows us the daily lives of a selection of hardcore Scrabble enthusiasts, and the second half shows them in action at a national Scrabble tournament. The subjects of the film are mostly depressing loner types who have some measure of quirky charm, but clearly not enough so that I can remember many details about them several months after seeing the movie. – B