I learned a lot about the movies this year. I saw over 150 of them in theaters, so I would hope I came out of that with something more than hemorrhoids. One of the things I learned about was the way movies aren’t stationary things. You don’t just see them and have an opinion and that’s that. A movie that, at first, seems great will fall apart a few hours or days after seeing it. A movie that you thought didn’t work will haunt you for the rest of the year. It can be tough being a critic, because you’re being asked to immortalize a specific view of a movie, when your opinion may well change next week.
There are movies that, when I saw them, I assumed they would make the top 15. I am shocked that Good Night, and Good Luck is not on this list, but that’s how it shook out. It came close, but in the end the movie didn’t have the resonance to be one of my favorites for the year. Meanwhile The Devil’s Rejects spent most of the year growing on me, and it squeaked into the top fifteen.
I’ll tell you this much, though – it was much easier making my top fifteen than it was making my ten worst list. There were plenty of excruciating pictures this year, and only a handful of ones that were even remotely great. Here’s hoping 2006 is a little more like 2004, one of the wonder years.
My entries below are short and sweet. This year I wrote most of the reviews here on CHUD – you can get a longer look at my thoughts on these movies by clicking on the review link. And stay tuned for the rest of the CHUD crew bringing you their thoughts over the rest of the week!
15. Grizzly Man (CHUD Review) (Buy the DVD)
You can turn on the Discovery Channel any night of the week and see a documentary about some poor bastard getting ate up by some beastie or other; hell, you can probably find the story of Timothy Treadwell, the well-meaning but ultimately appetizing grizzly bear activist. But none of those docs would carry the imprint of cinematic lunatic Werner Herzog, who has turned the tragedy not just into a compelling story but also a fascinating meditation on the nature of nature.
Current Rating: 8.0 out of 10
Contributing
Factors: Grizzly Man is the kind of movie that divides audiences in the right way – you’ll walk out of this one arguing whether or not Treadwell was nuts. You’ll all agree on Herzog, though.
Performance to
Savor: Werner Herzog listening to the recording of Treadwell being eaten alive in the presence of Treadwell’s ex-girlfriend. It’s bizarre, hilarious and yet moving.
P.R. CHUD.com
Pull-Quote: “You’ll want to eat this movie up!”
14. The Devil’s Rejects (CHUD Review) (Buy the DVD)
You may recall that my review of this film wasn’t all that favorable. I thought it was OK at the time. What’s funny, though, is how The Devil’s Rejects stuck with me after I saw it. I kept coming back to scenes and characters from the film – and listening to the soundtrack again and again. 2005 was a good year for real horror films – I loved Wolf Creek and High Tension as well- and The Devil’s Rejects is the standard bearer. It’s gritty and nasty, mean and creepy. This is what I want in my horror films, not wisecracking killers or tongue in cheek deconstructions or endless PG-13 faux-scares featuring the latest tween sensation from The WB.
Current Rating: 8.5 out of 10
Contributing
Factors: Torture, mayhem, nastiness, degradation and Lynyrd Skynyrd.
Performance to
Savor: Bill Moseley’s Otis P Driftwood is the 21st century incarnation of Charles Manson.
P.R. CHUD.com
Pull-Quote: “It’ll make you feel bad about being alive!”
13. Millions (CHUD Review) (Buy the DVD)
The great directors aren’t hemmed in by genre, so it should be no surprise that Danny Boyle goes beyond zombies, drug addicts and murderous roommates to make a wonderful, touching and resolutely not-cheesy Christmas film (which was released about nine months before Christmas). Sure, the title is misleading – it was just thousands! – every other aspect of this story about a young boy’s relationship to the saints is wonderful and moving. Yeah, I cried. Maybe twice.
Current Rating: 8.7 out of 10
Contributing
Factors: Imagine Trainspotting for kids – that’s what this film often is, filled with pizzazz, wit and visual whimsy.
Performance to
Savor: It’s a tie – James Nesbitt, as always, gives a nuanced and brilliant performance, but newcomer kid Alex Etel is the exact opposite of the sort of mannered, treacly kiddie actors we usually get in the States.
P.R. CHUD.com
Pull-Quote: “Saints alive! There are Millions of reasons to love this film!”
12. Everything is Illuminated (CHUD Review) (Pre-Order the DVD)
CHUD fave Liev “Microsoft Word hates my name” Schreiber makes his directorial debut with the rare movie that’s much better than the book it’s based on. Jonathan Safron Foer’s Lit-student-cutesy novel gets pared down to the modern day story of a young Jewish American looking for his ancestry in Eastern Europe. It’s the kind of movie that people call quirky just because it operates slightly outside of your normal movie expectations. Unless you’re expecting a great movie – it operates right inside there.
Current Rating: 8.9 out of 10
Contributing
Factors: Schreiber makes a most un-actorly movie; it’s filled with gorgeous sights and minimal dialogue. On top of that, it’s the kind of movie where the great acting is done with subtlety.
Performance to
Savor: Eugene Hutz, lead singer of the fantastic band Gogol Bordello, makes a stunning debut as the malapropistic tour guide, Alex, the guy who all the ladies want to get carnal with because of his premium dance moves.
P.R. CHUD.com
Pull-Quote: “A best adapted screenplay nomination is illuminated here.”
11. War of the Worlds/Munich (CHUD Review / CHUD Review) (Buy the DVD)
It’s kind of a cheat, but it’s my list. And on my list these two films are two halves of one thing – a complicated and mature allegory for our modern War on Terror. It all begins with WOTW, a film that sees Spielberg remembering that sometimes the House of Horrors is a better ride than the rollercoaster. The first hour of the movie is as scary a thing as you’ll see all year, filled with real and intense misery and doom, a summer movie evocation of 9/11 that manages to completely transcend its blockbuster nature. Munich, meanwhile, sees Steve all grows up. It isn’t the subject matter that makes the whole thing mature, it’s the way that Spielberg has left behind his usual heavy-handed stylings. He’s finally made a movie that trusts the audience.
Current Rating: 9.0 out of 10
Contributing
Factors: Astonishing FX makes War of the Worlds a seamless horror experience, while thoughtful and deep concepts in Munich prove to be a more special effect than all the pixels in King Kong.
Performance to
Savor: Eric Bana. America, please finally meet your next big star. He’s the kind of manly actor who fits perfectly on the line between boy (Leo) and beast (Crowe).
P.R. CHUD.com
Pull-Quote: “The year’s weirdest double feature!”
10. Last Days (CHUD Review) (Buy the DVD)
It’s not a movie about the final hours of Kurt Cobain. Except when it is. Gus Van Sant’s latest film is a chewy bit of masterpiece, a movie that eschews traditional standards of narrative 
and structure for a gauzy and often meandering series of events. It’s the kind of movie that can be about something different every time you watch it, and every viewer will bring something else to the film, and will take something different home with them. Last Days isn’t for everyone, but for the people with the patience and the interest, it’s an amazing trip.
Current Rating: 9.0 out of 10
Contributing
Factors: Even if the rest of the movie stunk (which it doesn’t), Last Days would be on this list just for the slow pullback from a room where doomed rocker Blake is making his last recording. It’s cinema at its most pure, and it’s a joy.
Performance to
Savor: Michael Pitt mumbles and stumbles his way through something more uncanny than an imitation of Kurt Cobain.
P.R. CHUD.com
Pull-Quote: “Don’t blow out your brains in the greenhouse until you’ve seen this film!”
9. The 40 Year Old Virgin (CHUD Review) (Buy the DVD)
I’m not including this film just because of my Judd Apatow/Seth Rogen fetish. I’m including it because it’s the best comedy to play in theaters in more than a decade, and like all the really great comedies, it gets better and better every time you see it. Apatow has retained all the things that made his short-lived TV shows so great – real characters, sidesplitting jokes and a true sensitivity and caring for the people on screen. It’s a movie that works on repeated viewing not just because it’s funny, but because it’s an honest to God, real movie.
And by the way, as a side note – it’s interesting to me that two of the films on my top fifteen would not have been serious contenders when they first came out, much as the worst film of the year for me wasn’t that bad after the original screening. Movies are living things, and they grow and change over time, and with dialogue. It’s sort of fascinating to see how feelings can change – something I don’t think many critics are happy to admit.
Current Rating: 9.1 out of 10
Contributing
Factors: Mooj. The Unrated version on DVD only further proves how great this character is, especially once you’ve heard about the Alligator Fuckhouse.
Performance to
Savor: Paul Rudd continues to be the most unexpectedly great comedic character actor working today.
P.R. CHUD.com
Pull-Quote: “You’ll lose it with this new classic comedy!”
8. Murderball (CHUD Review) (Buy the DVD)
Two documentaries on the list? Eat it. Murderball is the kind of movie that is not only entertaining, is not only fascinating and is not only filled with unforgettable characters, it’ll change the way you look at the world. And if that sounds too much like eating your vegetables, let me assure you that the film, about an extreme sport known as wheelchair rugby, is filled with footage of cripples beating the shit out of each other. The film is also an excellent opportunity to argue about the meaning of “quadriplegic” with non-doctors who think they know more about it than the guys in the wheelchairs.
Current Rating: 9.1 out of 10
Contributing
Factors: Ever wonder if paralyzed guys can have sex? Wonder no more.
Performance to
Savor: Zupan, the ass-kickingest quad you’ll ever meet.
P.R. CHUD.com
Pull-Quote: "Run – or roll very fast – to see this film!"
7. Lady Vengeance
Park Chanwook is on the kind of roll we haven’t seen in film since… well, since Peter Jackson’s Lord of the Rings, but that doesn’t sound as impressive as reaching back into the 60s or something. Lady Vengeance is the third film in Park’s thematically connected vengeance trilogy, and it might be the best yet. It’s as different from Old Boy and Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance as it can be, but this story of a woman released from prison looking for payback is just as wrenching, exciting and ground breaking.
A quick note for those of you playing at home – Lady Vengeance hasn’t been released in the US yet, but it did play some film festivals, including Toronto and New York, which is how I saw it. This year did see the release of one of my top fifteen from last year, though, Old Boy, as well as Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance (in the US, that is), so this is partially the Park Chanwook Honorary Spot.
Current Rating: 9.2 out of 10
Contributing
Factors: Park Chanwook is the best director working today, in any language and on any continent.
Performance to
Savor: Yeong-ae Lee as Geum-ja Lee, the titular Lady Vengeance. With her red eye shadow and ornate gun, she’s a striking figure standing for the meaning of retribution.
P.R. CHUD.com
Pull-Quote: "Make this film your lady of the year!"
6. Hustle & Flow (CHUD Review) (Pre-Order the DVD)
It’s not the tale, it’s the telling. Newcomer Craig Brewster tells a run of the mill tale about a pimp longing to express himself in a way that makes everything seem completely new. The fact that he’s populated his world – a little seen bit of the grungy Memphis rap scene – with characters as three dimensional as a Rodin sculpture (or a guy in a Rodan suit) only makes it work more. Hustle & Flow is a sweaty, groovy film that exhilarates you with its daring and its setting. It’s not often movies pulse so with the beat of its character and its environment.
Current Rating: 9.2 out of 10
Contributing
Factors: Hustle & Flow isn’t just a great movie about rap, it’s a movie with some great rap tracks. The songs DeeJay cut could very well be real world hits, and they made my regular iPod rotation.
Performance to
Savor: Terrence Howard, the single best actor of the year.
P.R. CHUD.com
Pull-Quote: "Smack this bitch up!"
5. Brokeback Mountain (CHUD Review)
If I had cried this would have been number one. Ang Lee’s made the most gorgeous movie of the year, a film that demands to be seen on a big screen, where the languorous landscapes and majestic mountain ranges can unfold in all their glory. And the story set before them is just as widescreen – a sure-to-be considered iconic story of a taboo love. It’s the kind of movie that creates waves, not just in the culture but in the psyche of every viewer. It’s a movie that can be easily politicized – and God knows, I’ve done my part – but Brokeback is cuts across all demographics and beliefs to deliver a story of aching truth.
Current Rating: 9.3 out of 10
Contributing
Factors: The movie’s not just gay cowboys – the women devastated by the love that dare not speak it’s name are just as important. Anne Hathaway and Michelle Williams are the secret weapons here.
Performance to
Savor: Heath Ledger, the second best actor of the year.
P.R. CHUD.com
Pull-Quote: "Fabulous!"
4. A History of Violence (CHUD Review)
Hey everybody else, welcome back to Cronenbergland. You’ve been away but he hasn’t, and he is reminding you of what a great filmmaker can do with this, a movie masquerading as a pulp fiction. What does violence do to us – not just physically, but emotionally, and spiritually? And what does it do to the people around us? How does it deform our lives? Is there good violence? And are there other major films in the last few decades that feature the two stars performing 69? A History of Violence has more great moments, per capita, than any other film this year, and it’s also the sneakiest about making it’s point. This is one of those films where if you didn’t get it, the problem may be you.
Current Rating: 9.3 out of 10
Contributing
Factors: Cronenberg has seemingly toned down his usual obsessions and gore, but the scenes of violence he does feature are all the more shocking for their rarity.
Performance to
Savor: Ed Harris, mugging his way wonderfully through every scene.
P.R. CHUD.com
Pull-Quote: "Viggo will kick your ass if you don’t like this!"
3. Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang (CHUD Review)
I was never a fan of Shane Black. The films he wrote – Lethal Weapon, The Long Kiss Goodnight, The Last Boyscout – always felt facile to me. It was like this guy had a great ability and he was squandering it on absolute nonsense. So I wasn’t expecting much when I went to see Kiss Kiss, and I was amazed to find a movie that took Black’s great ability and showered it on a really well made film. Kiss Kiss is funnier, wittier, more propulsive, and more fun than any other film this year. And it’s just as goddamned smart as any of the rest of them, too, which is the biggest triumph.
Current Rating: 9.3 out of 10
Contributing
Factors: Michelle Monaghan, hotter than my asshole after a Taco Bell binge.
Performance to
Savor: Robert Downey Jr almost makes Kiss Kiss a one man show with his sheer force of hilarity. The damn drugs made us miss a decade of this greatness.
P.R. CHUD.com
Pull-Quote: "You’ll want to Kiss Kiss Shane Black and Bang Bang Michelle Monaghan!"
2. The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada (CHUD Review)
There aren’t many Westerns made these days, but when you get one as good as Three Burials, you don’t need many more. Three Burials isn’t just a great Western, it’s a great American film. It’s one of THE great American films, a movie that is about the aspects of this country – loyalty, respect and insanity – that seem to have disappeared under the strip malls and Wal-Marts. Tommy Lee Jones has been building up the pain and sorrow that paints every frame of this film – it’s Method directing, where he uses the idea of starring in Man of the House to inform the elegiac nature of this wonderful movie.
Current Rating: 9.6 out of 10
Contributing
Factors: It’s beautiful. It’s thoughtful. It’s unpredictable.
Performance to
Savor: Tommy Lee Jones, coming back to reclaim his status as a real actor.
P.R. CHUD.com
Pull-Quote: "See three screenings of Three Burials!"
1. The Squid and the Whale (CHUD Review)
A story about divorce set in Brooklyn, New York in the 1980s? Yeah, it’s like a movie engineered for me. But even beyond the personal identification issues, Squid and the Whale is a magnificent movie. The writing is consistently astonishing with its reality – Shane Black writes great dialogue, but Noah Baumbach writes people as they really talk – and the performances are cutting and fearless, showing every nasty nook and cranny of these characters in a family that is falling apart. Imagine a Wes Anderson movie set in the real world and you will have an idea of what The Squid and the Whale is all about.
This is a movie that I loved so much I couldn’t write a review of it – anything I wrote would be so gushing as to be unreadable. It’s a movie that I think is going to have a life long beyond 2005, a life that’s going to see it being discovered by people who are going to be profoundly influenced by its genius.
Current Rating: 9.8 out of 10
Contributing
Factors: What’s most amazing about The Squid and the Whale is the way that it presents characters doing gross or awful things – and you still love them completely at the end.
Performance to
Savor: Jeff Daniel’s turn as the father is truly elegant, the filet of the movie.
P.R. CHUD.com
Pull-Quote: "Hey you – out there seeing movies. This is the best one of the year."
Honorable mentions: Good Night, and Good Luck. North Country. The Producers. Broken Flowers. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire. Match Point.