Steel White Table

I saw 60 or so new movies this past year, half of them in a theatre and the other half at home. “New” means anything I hadn’t seen before, though most of them were from 2005. (I’ll provide a complete list in a later post.) I’m no movie critic, but for the hell of it, here’s a list of my favourite movies from 2005 (it was slim pickings).

This list was created from all the movies I saw for the first time in 2005, not just 2005 theatrical releases.

10: Sin City
Violent and bloody and cool. One boring segment, but the look of the film (adapted faithfully from the graphic novel) is something to behold. I didn’t love it, but it’s worth a look. The extended special edition DVD is supposedly much better than the theatrical release.

9: The Chronicles of Narnia
One of the most engaging family movies I saw this year, with CGI characters that seem like the real thing. It’s a fairy tale with a message, and it works.

8: Walk the Line
If you like Johnny Cash, you’re going to like this movie. It’s a typical biopic that glosses over the hard stuff, but excellent performances by Joaquin Phoenix and Reese Witherspoon keep things going. (They sing pretty good too.)

7: Saint Ralph
An excellent Canadian film that — like most Canadian films — didn’t have a chance to be seen because of all the Hollywood crap that controls the market. It’s a cliched, by-the-numbers underdog story, but it’s still the most enjoyable family movie I saw this year. (Better than Millions.)

6: House of Flying Daggers
Maybe not as good as Hero, but it sure looks and feels like an epic martial arts film. Surreal at times, and beautifully shot. I can watch this with the sound down and still get into it.

5: Donnie Brasco
This has to be one of the best and most overlooked gangster movies ever made. An entertaining but sympathetic look at the personal lives of criminals and the cops who go after them. Al Pacino doesn’t get any better than this, and Johnny Depp doesn’t miss a beat. Impressive all around, gets better with each viewing.

4: Persona
Ingmar Bergman’s films are hit-and-miss with me. He’s made cinematic masterpieces that bore me into a stupor. But sometimes when he comes in close, like he does in “Persona,” the result is so psychologically intimate, I sit back and marvel at the accomplishment.

3: Broken Flowers
I think anything directed by Jim Jarmusch is worth watching, even though his movies don’t always do much for me (Dead Man and Coffee and Cigarettes). His camera quietly observes people in an unobtrusive way that brings out the subtlties of character and has us feeling for them because they’re just so unremarkable. This is Jarmusch’s most conventional movie to date, and as good as anything he’s done.

2: Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter… and Spring
A movie that doesn’t rush to get to where it’s going: A Buddhist monk and his young apprentice live alone on a houseboat in the middle of a lake surrounded by hills and forest. They sweep the floor, they read, they meditate, they row a boat to shore where they pick wild herbs for making soups and teas. Then one day someone drops by looking for spiritual guidance. From beginning to end, there might be 5 minutes of dialogue. It’s pure cinema. I love it.

1: Himalaya. The story of some Nepalese villagers who trek down the mountains to trade their mountain salt for grain and try not to get killed along the way. The plot is simple but contains all the elements of a great story. The magnificence of the Himalayan landscape provides an epic feel to every single frame of the film. The DVD bonus material, “Himalaya: The Making Of,” shows how it was shot entirely on location under environmental conditions that put all their lives at risk, and makes you wonder how they ever finished it. Deeply moving, astounding, and compelling in every way.

Two brief DVD recommendations: Ryan for showcasing the works of Ryan Larkin, and John Prine: Sessions at West 54th for the music.

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