THE TOP MOVIES OF 2004 - Continued

It's amazing, really, the outpouring of interest in my blog about the top movies of the year. It seems everyone has an interest in the movies, more so than voter fraud, social security or the War in Iraq!

(The above lie was brought to you by the Bush Administration. George W. Bush, "We won. Now kiss our collective ass.")

Some final notes before I reveal my top picks. By my count, or rather the number on my spreadsheet, I saw 78 new releases between last January 12th and this January 17th. My "Best of..." was culled from that list. Although that's a lot of movies, and I would hardly recommend that everyone see that many, it's hardly comprehensive. In fact, it's just a little over one movie per week. A film critic sees at least three new movies a week and gets paid for it. That truly is the greatest job in the world. There are some notable movies I didn't see from the last year and any one of them could be your choice for The Top Movie of 2004. A partial list: King Arthur, Moolade, Finding Neverland, The Woodsman, Bad Education, The Motorcycle Diaries, Being Julia, Vanity Fair, Beyond the Sea. As you can see, those aren't all obscure titles on that list. I'm sure at least one of those movies probably belongs in the Top Ten, but hell, what's a brother to do? I've got a day job!

Anyway, enough whining. On with the list, plus the worst movies I saw last year...
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5. COLLATERAL - Director/co-writer: Michael Mann. Stars: Tom Cruise, Jamie Foxx and Jada Pinkett Smith. The other great Jamie Foxx performance this year was in this late summer blockbuster, which for me did a better job of sustaining mood and tone than any other movie I saw this year. Cruise is the monochromatically dressed hired gun who hires Foxx to taxi him from one murder to another. Tense, moody, strikingly photographed, well-acted and with no more plot than is absolutely necessary, Collateral is Michael Mann at his best.

4. HOTEL RWANDA - Director: Terry George. Stars: Don Cheadle, Sophie Okenedo, Nick Nolte and Joaquin Phoenix. Yes, it's a tearjerker and it is almost all absolutely true. One million Rwandans died in 1994 as the result of war and genocide and Paul Rusesabagina, manager and the swank hotel in Rwanda's capital, manages to save more than a thousand of them by doing what he does best--coping, lying, kissing ass, whatever it takes. Cheadle is a marvel in a story that moves you without ever truly showing the scale of the horror that is taking place. That is not a weakness of the movie--it is the only way most viewers could get through it and appreciate Paul's small, heroic tale.

3. MILLION DOLLAR BABY - Director: Clint Eastwood. Stars: Eastwood, Hilary Swank & Morgan Freeman. Another tearjerker--but, oops, maybe I've said too much. For the first two reels, it certainly doesn't play like a tearjerker, but rather like a female Rocky--white trash, over-the-hill waitress (Swank) goads and wheedles a boxing trainer with a checquered past (Eastwood) into turning her into a prizefighter. His confidant and sometime corner man (Freeman) helps her and narrates. Then...well, the rest you should discover for yourself, but it's doubtful you'll find a more moving, real and shattering ending to a movie this year. Swank's work here actually improves upon her Oscar-winning performance in Boys Don't Cry.

2. SIDEWAYS - Director: Alexander Payne. Stars: Paul Giamatti, Thomas Haden Church, Virginia Madsen and Sandra Oh. As the Oscar race heats up, so comes the inevitable backlash. At first, Sideways was the little slice-of-life road trip movie that could do no wrong. Now. even the New York Times critic A.O. Scott has taken pains to write an essay explaining why the movie really isn't that good and we should all root for Million Dollar Baby. Whatever. Sideways greatest strength is what makes it so easy to dismiss sometimes--it doesn't seem like a difficult movie to pull off, every performances seems so natural and it's not exactly about genocide or dying or any of the Big Oscar Topics. It's about recovering from depression and getting on with your life and about the grace of forgiveness and the uneasy path toward redemption. It's about wine and sex and midlife crises and how passions can become obsessions that help us to hide from the real world. In other words, it's about life and frankly, it's almost a perfect movie. Yep, the Times is right, it doesn't have a chance on Oscar Sunday...

1. ETERNAL SUNSHINE OF THE SPOTLESS MIND - Director: Michel Gondry. Stars: Jim Carrey, Kate Winslet, Tom Wilkinson and Mark Ruffalo. After my stirring defense of Sideways, my top movie of the year is still this gem released way back in March. As well-crafted and brilliant as films 2-10 all are, they are all missing one ingredient that this film has in spades--originality. When all else fails, pick a unique movie that works brilliantly over a genre piece that works brilliantly. Kudoes to scripter Charlie Kaufman (again) and to a cast that is completely convincing selling us on an otherwise bonkers sci-fi idea...that loved ones can be erased from our memories once they have broken our hearts. The movie brilliantly shows why that's poppycock and it manages to be funny, clever, satirical, moving and exciting all at once. Director Gondry also shows that you don't need fancy special effects with a fancy idea like this either, revelling instead in old school tricks like manipulating light and shadow or rotating a set. The best picture of 2004 and the only one I would watch again and again without reservation, is Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind.

AND THE WORST FILMS FROM LAST YEAR:
1. Soul Plane - I can't believe I saw this film in a theater. Imagine every current negative sterotype about black people (and suburban white people) and then see them clumsily dropped into this plotless, artless, laughless wonder. While watching this celluloid excrement, I found myself wishing that the writer(s) and director never worked again, in this town or any other.

2. Dirty Shame - ...was what I felt while walking out of the theater after this John Waters shlockfest. It has nothing interesting or shocking to say about sex and, after the first ten minutes or so, no laughs or points of interest of any kind. Tracy Ullman's balls out performance is the best thing about it, and I just wound up feeling sorry for her.

3. Johnson Family Vacation - Another reminder that (sadly) most "black" movies aren't worth the price of a (matinee) admission. Cedric the Entertainer has a moment or two here, but the whole exercise is predictable, painful, tedious and unfunny.

4. Taking Lives - Consider suicide before you rent this wrongheaded Angelina Jolie vehicle. I saw it for free and wanted my money back. Ethan Hawke also stars as a murder suspect in a movie that (trivia buffs will find this interesting) directly led to the dissolution of his marriage to Uma Thurman. Nothing interesting here and it doesn't make any sense.

5. She Hate Me - I Hate Movie. Spike Lee's visual gifts are on full display here in a movie that is way beneath his talents as a storyteller. It starts out as a potentially interesting satire of recent corporate scandals and the anything goes ethos of American business and quickly goes south from there. By the end, I was left wondering what the whole mess was about and what does it have to do with open bisexual marriage?

And Finally, The Reggie Awards Go To...
BEST ACTOR - Jamie Foxx, Ray
BEST ACTRESS - Hilary Swank, Million Dollar Baby
BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS - (tie) Cate Blanchett, The Aviator/Sophie Okenedo, Hotel Rwanda
BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR - Alfred Molina, Spider-Man 2
BEST DIRECTOR - Michel Gondry, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
BEST ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY - Charlie Kaufman, Michel Gondry & Pierre Bismuth, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
BEST ADAPTED SCREENPLAY - Alexander Payne & Jim Taylor, Sideways, from Rex Pickett's novel of the same name.
MOST PROMISING NEWCOMER - (tie) Bryce Dallas Howard in The Village/Catalina Sandina Moreno in Maria, Full of Grace
OVERLOOKED MOVIE THAT MOST DESERVES A SECOND LOOK ON VIDEO- Eulogy, written and directed by Michael Clancy. Dark comedy that manages to be touching at times without being forced. If it had better pacing in the final act, it would have made my Top 20. Check it out on DVD.

I'm going back to the award-winning dissent channel for a while and you'll be glad to know that I'm done with lists for a while. I'll see you soon though and feel free to write back to me via this blog with your picks for the top movies, TV and music of the year just past. Peace...