Personal 2004 Best Lists

[Chris Knipp]

These are on my website (for updates): http://www.chrisknipp.com/writing/viewtopic.php?t=388.

These are alphabetical within categories. As always, the most interesting part is how one justifies individual awards and exclusions; most of my main choices I've reviewed -- see my website -- and those not yet reviewed, I will write about shortly.

Please feel free to post your own corrections, additions, and lists!



CHRIS KNIPP'S 2004 MOVIE BEST LISTS



TEN BEST U.S.

THE AVIATOR (MARTIN SCORSESE)
BEFORE SUNSET (RICHARD LINKLATER)
COLLATERAL (MICHAEL MANN)
ETERNAL SUNSHINE OF THE SPOTLESS MIND (MICHEL GONDRY)
KILL BILL: VOL. 2 (QUENTIN TARANTINO)
THE LIFE AQUATIC WITH STEVE ZISSOU (WES ANDERSON)
MILLION DOLLAR BABY (CLINT EASTWOOD)
NAPOLEON DYNAMITE (JARED HESS)
SIDEWAYS (ALEXANDER PAYNE)
UNDERTOW (DAVID GORDON GREEN)


TEN BEST FOREIGN

ADIEU (ARNAUD DE PALLIÈRES)
THE DREAMERS (BERNARDO BERTOLUCCI)
FATHER AND SON (OTETS Y SIN, ANDREI SOKOROV)
GOODBYE LENIN (DANIEL BRÜHL)
HEAD ON (FATIH AKIM)
HOUSE OF FLYING DAGGERS (SHI MIAN MAI FU, ZHANG YIMOU, 2004)
THE HOUSE KEYS (LE CHIAVI DI CASA, GIANNI AMELIO)
THE RETURN (VOZVRASCHENIE, ANDREI SVYAGINTSEV)
STRAYED (ÉGARÉS, ANDRÉ TÉCHINÉ)
VERA DRAKE (MIKE LEIGH)


BEST ANIMATIONS

THE INCREDIBLES (BRAD BIRD/PIXAR)


BEST DOCUMENTARIES

BORN INTO BROTHELS (DANA BRISKI)
BUKOWSKI: BORN INTO THIS (JOHN DULLAGHAN)
CONTROL ROOM (JEHANE NUJAIM)
THE CORPORATION (JENNIFER ABBOTT)
FAHRENHEIT 9/11 (MICHAEL MOORE)
OUTFOXED: RUPERT MURDOCH'S WAR ON JOURNALISM (ROBERT GREENWALD)
IN THE REALMS OF THE UNREAL (JESSICA YU)
RIDING GIANTS (STACY PERALTA)
TARNATION (JONATHAN CAOUETTE)
TOUCHING THE VOID (KEVIN MCDONALD)


SHORTLISTED, ALL CATEGORIES

FEAR AND TREMBLING (STUPEUR ET TREMBLEMENTS, ALAIN CORNEAU)
FINDING NEVERLAND (MARC FOSTER)
HiJACKING CATASTROPHE (JEREMY EARP, SUT JHALLY)
KINSEY (BILL CONDON)
MONSIEUR IBRAHIM ET LES FLEURS DU CORAN (DANIEL DUPEYRON)
MOOLAADÉ (OUSMANE SEMBENE)
THE MOTHER (ROGER MITCHELL)
PRIMER (SHANE CARRUTH)
THE TIME OF THE WOLF (LE TEMPS DU LOUP, MICHAEL HANAKE)
THE WOODSMAN (NICOLE KASSELL)


IN A CLASS APART

RIPLEY'S GAME (LILIANA CAVANI) -- STRAIGHT TO VIDEO IN U.S.
BROWN BUNNY (VINCENT GALLO) --SUCCÈS DE SCANDALE
KEN PARK (LARRY CLARK) -- NO U.S. DISTRIBUTION. TOO SEXY
THE BUTTERFLY EFFECT (ERIC BRESS, J. MACKYE GRUBER) ASHTON ACTS
THE BATTLE OF ALGIERS (LA BATTAGLIA DI ALGERI, GILLO PONTECORVO, 1965) -- A CLASSIC REISSUED


YEAR'S MOST OVERRATED

DOGVILLE (LARS VON TRIER)
PASSION OF THE CHRIST (MEL GIBSON)
SPRING, SUMMER, AUTUMN, WINTER....AND SPRING (KI-DUK KIM)

MOST OVEREXPOSED ACTORS

JUDE LAW
BEN STILLER


WISH I'D SEEN

INNOCENCE (LUCILE HADZIHALILOVIC)
CAFE LUMIERE (KÔHI JÎKÔ, HOU HSIAU-HSIEN)
GOODBYE, DRAGON INN (BU SAN, TSAI MING-LIANG)
TROPICAL MALADY (SUD PRALAD, APICHATPONG WEERASETHAKUL)
PALINDROMES (TODD SOLONDZ)
TRIPLE AGENT (ERIC ROHMER)
THE BIG RED ONE (SAMUEL FULLER) -- RECUT VERSION

[oscar jubis]

Thanks Chris. Hope others follow up. As you know, I'm still catching up with 2004 releases but won't wait until the end of February (as I did last year) to post my list. Some info on titles that may be unfamiliar to others.

*Head On will be considered a 2005 release in the US (scheduled date: Jan. 21st in NYC). Please tell us about it.

*In the Realms of the Unreal and Born into Brothels were released in NYC (and maybe a few other big markets) in December 2004. Hope I get to watch them soon. Members who live in small markets may have to wait for the dvd.

*Innocence, Adieu, Cafe Lumiere and Triple Agent have no US distributor, but the latter is already available on import dvd. Chris, tell us a little bit about Adieu

*Tropical Malady and The House Keys will be released in the USA sometime in 2005. T.M. is available on import dvd.

*Palindromes is scheduled for release on 4/13/05.

[Chris Knipp]

I am working toward writing and posting reviews of all the films on my Best Lists, which will include Head On, In the Realms of the Unreal and Born into Brothels. And I will do my best to see the others that you mention that are on my "Wish I'd seen" list via dvd.

I have reviewed Adieu on my website. ("A passionate meditation on hospitality, death, injustice") I will post it here in a bit. http://www.chrisknipp.com/writing/viewtopic.php?t=362.

[hengcs]

Originally posted by oscar jubis
*Head On will be considered a 2005 release in the US (scheduled date: Jan. 21st in NYC). Please tell us about it.

Originally posted by Chris Knipp
I am working toward writing and posting reviews of all the films on my Best Lists, which will include Head On

Hi,
my 1 cent worth on "Head On" (re-edited)
http://www.filmwurld.com/forums/show...&threadid=1105

Anyway, in order to avoid reading the same content twice (because some of you are members here and in foreign films forum), I have decided that I shall post
-- Hollywood and independent films HERE ... ;)
-- Non American films in http://www.foreignfilms.com

I will post "3 Iron" (aka Binjip) (Korea) there in a few minutes' time!
http://p219.ezboard.com/fforeignfilm...picID=35.topic

Happy reading ...
;)

[tabuno]

With the almost bewildering subjective judgments of best films, it's nice to see a list that at least resembles some of my own choices.

THE AVIATOR (I had 5th)
BEFORE SUNSET (have not seen)
COLLATERAL (I had 10th)
ETERNAL SUNSHINE OF THE SPOTLESS MIND (I had 4th)
KILL BILL: VOL. 2 (I had 3rd)
THE LIFE AQUATIC WITH STEVE ZISSOU (have not seen)
MILLION DOLLAR BABY (have not seen)
NAPOLEON DYNAMITE (didn't fall into my top 20)
SIDEWAYS (have not seen)
UNDERTOW (have not seen)

I am surprised to see that Dogville didn't get any mention or Touching The Void. I also enjoyed Wicker Park as one of my top ten films of the year along with The Incredibles and Spartan.

[Chris Knipp]

I did mention Dogville and Touching the Void, Dogville as one of the "most overrated" and Touching as one of the best documentaries. I realize Dogville is a strong film or I wouldn't have called it "most" anything. I preferred The Five Obstructions. As for Spartan and Wicker Park, you're way in left field for most of us on those. Spartan was pointless diddling by Mamet and Wicker a flabby adaptation of a French film. I also listed The Incredibles, but my animations list is short to say the least. I just don't seek them out to see. In particular obviously I should have seen the Japanese ones.

[Chris Knipp]

Here are some other titles not on my 2004 lists, that I did see, and which either I or others liked--or hated--enough to be worth talking about. The sequence is alphabetical, so things I liked, but not quite enough, alternate with things others loved that left me cold.

Choses Secrètes (Secret Things). I thought this was a suave French excuse for soft core porn at first, but later I read discussions of it that made it sound far more thoughtful than I'd realized.

Clean. I found Olivier Assayas' new film uninvolving, despite the charisma of Maggie Cheung and the strong presence of Nick Nolte. Assayas' fans love it even before they see it, and the European critics have been generous in their praise.

Similarly with the even colder and less engaging 5 x 2 (Cinq fois deux, Five Times Two) François Ozon's latest film also was greeted as brilliant. Its trendy use of reverse chronology fails to conceal its lack of depth.

Closer, Mike Nichols' strategic exploitation of A-Listers, I've written about already.

Crimson Gold is a peculiar, rather haunting ramble with a slow, overweight Teheran pizza delivery guy who turns to violence. If it were better executed, it would be great. I may have to reconsider this one, but the minute-by-minute texture of this film failed to engage me at any point.

The Door in the Floor has been listed by some as a brilliant achievement, and Jeff Bridges does a fine job of impersonating an offensive, self-indulgent philanderer, but the result has no emotional resonance.

I ♥ Huckabees delights philosophy buffs and may enjoy delayed minor cult status. It looks more to me like David O. Russell, who achieved such a high level of wit and relevance in Three Kings, has lost all touch with the general public, without achieving a style.

Japanese Story is an involving Australian film about a tragedy in the outback and a brief love affair that turns painful; but there were many stronger candidates.

Speaking of candidates, the Manchurian Candidate remake by Jonathan Demme seemed pointless to me, as remakes so often do. Forget this one and go back and see the 1962 John Frankenheimer original.

Maria Full of Grace is on some ten best lists and it was destined to be. A remarkable first film with a lovely star, and deserving of praise. Its process-story of drug running seemed unoriginal to me, and the dice seemed so loaded it turned me off.

Metallica:Some Kind of Monster surprised me by making it to ten-best lists. Why? Those who regard it so highly must like group thearapy and self-absorbed rock stars more than I do, and they also may have missed the more interesting three-hour documentary about Metallica that came out a few years ago.

The Mororcycle Diaries is charming and irresistible and must have been a great experience for new international A-lister Garcia Bernál as well as another feather in his cap, but when you come right down to it not much happens and it's too glossy a picture of a complex revolutionary; it's one of those easy foreign films that get long runs and leave sweet memories without making much of an artistic mark.

The Mudge Boy was a miserable failure to some, but was a quirky gay coming of age movie that showed the young Emile Hirsch's skills as never before.

Notre Musique is accessible late Godard, and the old master made ten-best lists for it. Man's addiction to war is an important topic. For me, the film failed to engage.

Osama is another Iranian tale of brutality and repression like The Circle and gets high points from those whose buttons are pushed by it.

The Saddest Music in the World is the year's best for those who like their art house films outré; like watching paint dry -- fuzzy black and white paint, that is.

A Very Long Engagement was groomed and financed as the French-import flick lite of the US movie year and it's succeeding. But it's not lite, it's just overproduced.

The Weeping Camel--who thought camels could be cuddly and sad? Or that a documentary could feel so fake and manipulative? Yet the film has many champions.

Young Adam is a unique little Scottish film from a minor cult novel of the Fifties, and has a great cast headed by Tilda Swinton and Ewan McGregor. Bad timing I guess: I'd really forgotten it, and a lot of other good stuff came along afterward. I'd like to see it again, though.

Harry and Kuman Go to White Castle is one I don't think I have to apologize to any film buffs for not listing; I was almost crucified for even talking about it. And yet it made more than one best list as the Listology site shows: http://www.listology.com/content_sho...ntent_id.15150

[SinjinSB]

The Weeping Camel--who thought camels could be cuddly and sad? Or that a documentary could feel so fake and manipulative? Yet the film has many champions.

I agree, after seeing it nominated, I watched it last night. While I didn't hate it, it definitely wasn't anything special and I saw other documentaries more worthy of nomination. Probably my favorite documentary of the year was Stacey Peralta's Riding Giants. Then again, I am a sucker for good surf docs.

[oscar jubis]

5x2 and Clean will get proper US releases in June and September 2005, respectively.

Complete agreement on Door in the Floor, Japanese Story, Metallica, Young Adam, Manchurian, Very Long Engagement.

Osama is not as complex and ambitious as The Circle, but it's compact, stirring, well-made.

Crimson Gold is a masterpiece and I liked Saddest Music in the World a lot. The other Guy maddin 2004 release, Cowards Bend the Knee, has not opened here.

Looks like I'm going to have to post a list before watching Moolade and Notre Musique, two 2004 films from directors I greatly admire that I'm still waiting for.

I watched Huckabees and I still don't know how I feel about it. Could be a dud or a masterpiece. I know I like the themes and one or two perfs.

[Chris Knipp]

Thanks for all the feedback, Oscar. I hope there'll be more. On Huckabees, I'd say if you're still waiting to know what you feel about it, either it's a dud or you don't adhere to the notion that a movie must achieve some kind of gut reaction to be worth remembering and talking about, and I don't think that's you.

[arsaib4]

Chris, you certainly need to pay a visit to east-Asian cinema. Not much going on in your list(s) from there except the two mainstream Yimou films. I know now that you're gonna see Springtime in a Small Town; also check out Twilight Samurai for starters.

Son frère, I hope people see this film before they make their list. As of now two people love it: me and Armond White.

[Chris Knipp]

In my lists I try to have a mix of things a lot of people can see and those only a few can or will see.

I will watch what I can get . I'm not near a good rental store any more.I didn't know much about several Chinese directors till you and Oscar mentioned them -- and I still don't, because their movies are not easily accessible and I spend most of my viewing time in theaters these days; but it's not like I never see any Asian films, and I have seen Twilight Samurai.

Son frère, Patrice Chereau: I admire this director, famous in Europe, I understand, as a designer of opera productions. L'Homme blessé was one of the most powerful films of the Eighties, with a stunning first performance by the risk-taking actor Jean-Hugues Anglade; La reine Margot is gorgeous, also with Anglade. Intimacy was talked about, but not widely shown in the US; I have not seen it. What is or was the US distribution of the 2003 French release Son frère? It seems to have done well critically in France http://www.allocine.fr/film/fichefil...lm=47796.html. Armond White is nuts, but I do check out what he says when I get the opportunity. I doubt that you and he are its sole admirers.

The listmaking time is becoming overdue. I can add Son frère to my "Wish I'd Seen" list. But one has to stop adding to that too, and just move on to 2005 and catch up when one can. One simply cannot see everything before making and finalizing annual lists.

[arsaib4]

Originally posted by Chris Knipp
Armond White is nuts, but I do check out what he says when I get the opportunity.

LOL,...true; I should've added an exclamation point next to his name (or maybe mine since I'm a little nuts too). I also strongly disagree with him most of the time, but usually I still find an idea or two in his reviews to think about. I can't say the same about too many other critics.

"Son frère, Patrice Chereau: I admire this director, famous in Europe, I understand, as a designer of opera productions. L'Homme blessé was one of the most powerful films of the Eighties, with a stunning first performance by the risk-taking actor Jean-Hugues Anglade; La reine Margot is gorgeous, also with Anglade. Intimacy was talked about, but not widely shown; I have not seen it. What is the distribution of the 2003 French release Son frère?

I believe Chéreau is an immensely talented director who's still very underrated. I had a thread about his latest film in the DVD section of the site:

http://www.filmwurld.com/forums/show...&threadid=1057

"One simply cannot see everything before making and finalizing annual lists. I can add Son frère to my "Wish I'd Seen" list."

Maybe if you weren't watching Harold and Kumar that night, you would've seen something else...just kidding.

[oscar jubis]

In response to Chris Knipp's post about Huckabees:
Ebert had the same reaction upon first viewing at Cannes and decided he didn't like it when he watched it in the States. I'll try to say something more concrete. As of right now, it goes into the category of memorable failure, a courageous stab at creating an original work that deals with a type of angst that some of us liberal Americans are grappling with, a feeling of malaise about where the country is headed, recently stoked by an inaguration speech that gave me nightmares.

[Chris Knipp]

That's fair. But it's a bit scattered, and Three Kings was very sharply focused, wittily satirical, and at the same time a movie that a mixed crowd at a cineplex could enjoy, or think it was enjoying, which most of the time is the same thing, don't you think? Huckabees draws in a much more limited audience and has no visceral effect.

I'm sorry you have had nightmares about the new crusade to spread Freedom and Democracy under God through his chosen servant, GW Bush.