Best of 2005

We Are All Fools in Love

/ / Movie Reviews, Theme Week
  • Title: Pride & Prejudice
  • IMDb: link

Let me start out by saying I’m not a big Jane Austen fan and just the thought of reading a novel of hers makes me drowsy.  Joe Wright‘s new version of Pride & Prejudice is anything but dreary.  With a wonderful eye, energetic performances, and a droll since of humor and wit this piece of Austen’s work comes alive on screen and not only is fresh, inviting, and enjoyable it just happens to be one of the best movies of the year.

In England during the Georgian era Austen’s tale follows the lives of the Bennet women especially the headstrong Elizabeth (Keira Knightley).  The Bennet clan is headed by Mr. Bennet (Donald Sutherland) and lorded over by his wife (Brenda Blethyn) who spends all her time trying to wed off her five daughters and improve the family’s fortunes.  Into the picture arrives Mr. Bingley (Simon Woods) a wealthy suitor who takes a fancy in the eldest Bennet daughter Jane (Rosamund Pike) and his rather drab companion Mr. Darcy (Matthew McFadyen) who raises the ire of Elizabeth.  What follows is the tale of love found and lost and the consequences of choices made.

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Good Night = Great Movie

/ / Movie Reviews
  • Title: Good Night, and Good Luck
  • IMDb: link

good-night-and-good-luck-poster

George Clooney has this natural ability to act with such effortlessness; as a director he has taken this same gift and now has made a movie that flows so easily, moves so naturally, that it really is a wonder.  There are still films coming out this holiday season that I have yet to see; I’m not quite prepared to call this the best movie of 2005, but I will say that it is the most important film of the year.

After WWII in the https: 40’s and early 50’s America was attacked by the threat of Communism.  One man made it his life mission to root out all Communists and sympathizers out of the government and the media (film, television, and radio).  The country was trapped in a never ending witch hunt where only the inference or gossip was enough to bring you before the self appointed savior of our country, Senator Joseph McCarthy.

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Everything is Illuminated

/ / Movie Reviews
  • Title: Everything is Illuminated
  • IMDB: link

everything-is-illuminated-posterStrange.  Quirky.  Moving.  Poignant.  Wonderful.  There are so many words to describe Everything is Illuminated that I find it hard to choose them.  It is simply one of the best movies of the year.

Jonathan Safran Foer (Elijah Wood) collects everything dealing with his family.  After receiving a photograph from his grandmother, he decides to travel to the Ukraine to meet Augustine, the woman in the photograph with his grandfather, who he believes saved his life during WWII.  He procures the services of Alex (Eugene Hutz) and his grandfather (Boris Leskin) who is a driver who sometimes believes he is blind and will not go anywhere without his seeing-eye-bitch Sammy Davis Jr. Jr. The trio and dog travel to try and find the small town and the woman in the picture amid the emptiness of the Ukrainian countryside.

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Frank Miller’s Sin City

/ / Home Video
  • Title: Sin City
  • IMDb: link

Walk down the right back alley in Sin City, and you can find anything…

It might seem strange to call a movie as violent and bloody as Sin City beautiful but no other word quite fits.  After all the movie vividly contains decapitation, canibalism, castration, severed limbs, truckloads of guns and explosions, and blood in all different shades and colors.  It’s a film noir overflowing with deceit, treachery, torture, murder and death.  Yet somehow this is all captured as originally drawn by Frank Miller and transferred so lovingly onto screen that one can not help but sit back with wonder and appreciation.  Beautiful?  ‘Bet your ass!

The plot of the film blends three main stories, with one or two small ones,  compiled from Frank Miller’s successful Sin City graphic novels.  We get three hardboiled protagonists in the sinful setting of Basin City.

Hardigan (Bruce Willis) is one honest cop in a city owned by the crooks.  On his last day on the job he saves 11 year old skinny little Nancy Callahan (played as an adult by Jessica Alba) from a senator’s demented son (Nick Stahl) only to be shot by his partner and put in prison for Junior’s crimes.

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A Man Walks Into the Office of a Talent Agent…

/ / Movie Reviews
  • Title: The Aristocrats
  • IMDB: link

One joke told over and over for ninety minutes.  It may be fair to say that The Aristocrats is the funniest documentary ever made; it is easily one of the most profane.  To be completely honest the film is a little uneven; there are more than a few slow points, but when the joke is given to the right comedian prepare to roll around the aisle in tears.  I laughed my ass off!

The documentary examines one aspect of comedians, a private joke told among themselves.  The joke it seems is as old as the comic profession.  The object of the joke is to make it as disgusting and vulgar and humorous as possible; anything is fair game.  The movie goes back and forth from analyzing the joke to actually having a host of comedians tell it.  Hold your hats folks, the folks they found can tell a joke.  Everybody’s here, it is a who’s who of comedians:  Billy Connolly, Eric Idle, Richard Lewis, Chris Rock, Lewis Black, Whoopi Goldberg, the South Park gang, Paul Reiser, Howie Mandel, the Smothers Brothers, Steven Wright, oh god I could go on and on.

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