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It was a
big year for star-crossed loves at the
movies this year, as my top two (really,
my top three) picks reflect.
Here’s my
Top Ten list:
KING
KONG—I suppose I felt the same way
about the 1933 King Kong that
Tolkien geeks felt about The Lord of
the Rings, and Peter Jackson didn’t
let me down, either. There are some
complaints one could raise—the
heavy-handed Conrad references, moments
where the CGI effects go a bit
sterile—but they seem like petty
quibbles against the show that Jackson
puts on, and against the genuine
emotional responses that he wins.
BROKEBACK MOUNTAIN—This has been
hailed as the “first gay western,” which
leads me to wonder how closely other
critics have looked at some of the
classic westerns. But in any case, this
tale of the connection between two
cowboys who meet on the trail in Wyoming
of the early ‘60s is a first-rate,
bitterly and sweetly sad love story. The
performances of Jake Gyllenhaal and
especially Heath Ledger are
heartbreaking and exhilarating.
GRIZZLY
MAN—Werner Herzog’s jaw-dropping
documentary is about Timothy Treadwell,
an eccentric conservationist and video
diarist who for more than a decade
insisted on living and interacting with
grizzly bears in the Alaskan wilderness,
with predictable results. Herzog’s sees
this poor, arrogant whackjob (he’s just
a notch or two crazier than the
Crocodile Hunter) with no illusions, but
the filmmaker also gives Treadwell his
due for his commitment and his artist’s
eye on nature. Majestic, horrible,
infuriating, thrilling.
GOOD
NIGHT, AND GOOD LUCK—Not enough
people saw George Clooney’s fiercely
stark black-and-white chronicle of
Edward R. Murrow’s public battle with
Joe McCarthy. The always-commanding
David Strathairn shines as Murrow, a
role for which he seems to have been
born. The lean script doesn’t allow
for much
insight into the man’s motivations, but
its eloquence about the abuse of
government power may never have been
more timely.
THE
40-YEAR-OLD-VIRGIN—This farce from
director Judd Apatow is proof that it’s
still possible to make a comedy that’s
silly and raunchy without being
insulting and dumb. Steve Carrell is
convincing and deeply likable as the
poor fellow in the title predicament,
Catherine Keener is lovely as his best
hope of deliverance—not just sexually
but romantically—and the actors who play
his haywire friends are a hilarious
ensemble.
TRANSAMERICA—The year’s cleverest
title: This one concerns a pre-op
transsexual traveling across the country
when she learns that years earlier she
fathered a child, and that the boy, now
in his teens, is in trouble. Felicity
Huffman of TV’s Desperate Housewives
makes her portrayal of Bree, aka
Stanley, into an acting feat without
making it into an acting stunt, and
Kevin Zegers is winning as the kid.
SIN
CITY—This adaptation of Frank
Miller’s violent noir comic book by
Miller and Robert Rodriguez (with a
one-scene assist by Quentin Tarantino)
is all style, next-to-no content, but
the style is dazzling.
THE
UPSIDE OF ANGER—Joan Allen is a bolt
of sexy lightning in this domestic
comedy-drama about an upper-middle-class
wife and mother living through her fury
at an absent husband. Kevin Costner
gives, probably, the best performance of
his career as the affably washed-up,
beer-soaked baseball player who wanders
into her life.
THE
DEVIL’S REJECTS—This horror-crime
shocker, an homage to ‘70s drive-in
fare, is ghastly, grueling, sick,
sadistic, and also an intelligent and
grimly funny piece of moviemaking.
Director Rob Zombie’s style shows a
marked improvement over his earlier
The House of 1,000 Corpses, to which
this is a sequel, and that neglected
actor Sid Haig at last gets a juicy lead
role.
THE
CHRONICLES OF NARNIA: THE LION, THE
WITCH AND THE WARDROBE—The first of
the allegorical C. S. Lewis fantasies is
adapted with unusual and fan-pleasing
fidelity, but even non-geeks can enjoy
the fanciful spectacle of the battle
scenes, and the acting of the charming
kids.
A very,
very near miss for this list was the
hilarious, fast-talking noir parody
Kiss Kiss Bang Bang, featuring
Robert Downey, Jr. in a sublime comic
performance. Other films worth seeing
included War of the Worlds,
Wallace & Grommit in The Curse of the
Were-Rabbit, Corpse Bride,
The Constant Gardener, Red Eye,
Pride & Prejudice, Mad Hot
Ballroom, Syriana, Batman
Begins, The Producers (though
it certainly doesn’t replace the
original), The Family Stone,
The Great Raid, Harry Potter and
the Goblet of Fire (once it finally
gets going), Fun With Dick & Jane
(until the dopey final third), the
underrated Fantastic Four, and
the inconsequential but enjoyable
Star Wars III: Revenge of the Sith. |
