The Movie Snob's 2005 Year in Review

As usual, I am considering all movies that I saw in theaters for the first time last year. There are assuredly some 2004 releases in this list, but I saw 'em in 2005. So sue me.

Best Drama. I thought 2005 was a good year all the way around, so I'll be singling out more movies in this list than I usually do. Top honors in this category have to go to Hotel Rwanda, a movie that grabs you by the throat and never lets go. Some scenes are hard to watch, but the Rwandan genocide really happened, and not hundreds of years ago either. It happened in 1994. It may be happening again right now in Sudan. Close second: Pride & Prejudice. It's hard to make a bad movie out of a Jane Austen story, and this one was terrific. Some critics carped that the movie displays a judgmentalism about the rigid social rules of Austen's time that is absent from Austen's own novels. Frankly, I didn't care. It's just a great love story. Honorable mentions go to biopics Ray and Walk the Line, as much because of the awesome performances as because of their respective plots.

Best Action Flick. This year's winner slipped in on the last day of the year--The Chronicles of Narnia blew me away, even though I had never read the books. As a devout Catholic, I am probably biased in the movie's favor since it's based on the work of the great apologist C.S. Lewis and it's a Christian allegory that I wouldn't say is even thinly disguised. But it has a lot of great action, and a message that probably anyone would find thought-provoking. Coming in a close second is Serenity. Never saw the TV show on which it was based, but loved the movie. If you liked Star Wars, then shame on you for not getting out there and buying tickets to Serenity so they would make a sequel. Honorable mention to Batman Begins, the best of the three Batman movies that I have seen to date. It even beats whichever that one was that had Nicole Kidman in it! (Sorry, Nic.)

Best Comedy. As always, good comedy is hard to come by. I'd give top honors to The 40-Year Old Virgin, but with the caveat that you must have a huge tolerance for coarse, vulgar humor to enjoy this movie. (The equally coarse and vulgar Wedding Crashers just wasn't that funny.) Equal parts comedy and action movie, Kung Fu Hustle was also a lot of fun. I hope the rumors of a sequel are true. Can't think of any other comedies really worth a mention here....

Best Documentary. The Penguins were fine, but there were plenty of other better documentaries this year, in my humble opinion. In fact, you could get Penguins condensed to about 90 seconds within the excellent ocean-going documentary Deep Blue, if it didn't sneak by you in its short theatrical run. Also terrific was Mad Hot Ballroom, about the ballroom-dancing program in NYC's public schools that showed etiquette and beauty to kids who had seen little of either in their lives. Honorable mention to The Wild Parrots of Telegraph Hill, a touching little movie about an eccentric fellow in San Francisco and a flock of wild parrots that he befriends. Be sure to watch until the very end for a pleasant little surprise.

Other Honorable Mentions:

The Aviator -- yeah, it's way old by now, but I didn't see it until '05, so I'm mentioning it.

Off the Map -- a quiet little independent movie about an eccentric family that really lives as far "off the map" as it can manage. Maybe I'm remembering it being better than it was, but I liked it a lot at the time.

War of the Worlds -- I managed to forget all the TomKat craziness and enjoyed Cruise's turn as an average joe trying to save his kids from evil extraterrestrials. Great special effects.

Dear Frankie -- this little independent melodrama deserved a wider audience. I've liked Emily Mortimer in every movie I've seen her in, so I'm really looking forward to Match Point.

Tim Burton's Corpse Bride -- my favorite animated film this year. Weird for sure, but what do you expect from Tim Burton?

Zathura and The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants -- the best family-oriented movies of the year. But be careful. Zathura is a little scary for the littlest ones, and Sisterhood deals with adolescent-girl issues in a pretty frank way. Watch them for yourself before showing them to your kids. Sky High was cute too, come to think of it, and probably doesn't present any of the concerns that Zathura and Sisterhood do.

Grizzly Man -- good, intense documentary. It felt a little exploitative to me, preventing a higher rating, but the story of this guy trying to live with Alaskan grizzly bears is hard to turn away from.

That's all, folks!