The Movie Score for 2004
Bad Santa
Profane, vulgar, and hilarious, definitely not for kids. Billy Bob Thornton
makes a drunken, debauched, depraved derelict of a department store Santa
into a loser we root for, and one for whom we have high hopes. He may never
be normal, but will he finally find a reason to live?
Calendar Girls
A truly charming comedy of the type at which the British seem to excel.
Steve liked this one for the nudity. Denise liked it for the cake recipes.
See? The perfect date movie.
The Cooler
Great performances filled with charm, punctuated with terror, and enough
humor to keep you involved until the unexpected ending.
Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
This brilliant comedy by Charlie Kaufman is extremely entertaining in a
way that never panders to the audience. To the contrary, as he did with
Adaptation, Kaufman has written a thinking person's comedy, a satire
that is warm, charming, witty, and clever, and which asks tough intellectual
questions about emotions, questions that perhaps can never be answered through
intellectual methods. Kate Winslet is great, as always, and Jim Carrey gives
yet another surprising performance that, after Man in the Moon and
The Truman Show, should no longer be surprising. We've seen it twice
now, and we highly recommend it.
The Fog of War
Fog or a smoke screen? Robert McNamara comes as close as he may ever come
to a confession in this haunting documentary about his life and the pivotal
roles he played in WWII and the Vietnam War. He damns himself while seeking
absolution from us, and after watching this mea culpa, you might
be willing to give it.
Girl With a Pearl Earring
This film is a seamless journey into the world of light and shadow inhabited
by the great dutch painter Johannes Vermeer. The story may not be true,
but like the stories we imagine behind each of Vermeer's works, we want
it to be.
LOTR: The Return of the King
The best of the trilogy. A great conclusion to this amazing series. It's
almost too good to watch. I can't really explain that. It just is.
Matchstick Men
This film could have been better, and would have been had it been written
by Charlie Kaufman or David Mamet, but Nicholas Cage still gives us a fun
performance, and Alison Lohman is surprising.
Monster
Charlize Theron, as you all know by now, gives a mesmerizing, stunning,
visceral, Oscar-winning performance as serial killer Aileen Wournos. This
film will spur you to discuss motivations and justifications like you may
never have done before.
Pieces of April
A great human comedy about a family threatened by disintegration. Patricia
Clarkson gives a terrific performance, while Katie Holmes deserves our respect
for shying away from the more mainstream flotsam she could have chosen to
make, and instead using her talents on such a touching film.
The Statement
Michael Caine plays an oddly sympathetic yet loathsome refugee from his
own dark past. He's an unrepentant, pro-Nazi, Vichy collaborator sought
by modern French authorities who want him jailed and others who want him
dead. His supporters in the French Catholic Church just want him out of
sight. Tilda Swinton is also very good as the judge in charge of the hunt.
Touching the Void
An amazingly well filmed telling of a true story of the power of the will
to survive, Touching the Void is exciting and compelling all the
way through. For those of us who get tired walking to the mailbox, the depiction
of a lost mountain climber's trek to safety with a broken leg is both fascinating
and humbling.
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