nixsight

I didn’t mention “Waterdance” in 1992 – I can’t believe I forgot that film – Eric Stolz being predictably brilliant, Wesley Snipes actually acting, and Helen Hunt doing that thing where she turns up on screen, and makes me feel funny in my tummy.

I also failed to mention “Jacob’s Ladder” in 1990. I am a cinematic idiot.

Anyway, the rest…

1995 – Clueless

This was close. What with the classic moments of modern noir of “Things To Do In Denver When You’re Dead” and “Se7en”, and the blackened and twisted celluloid of ”Twelve Monkeys” and “The Usual Suspects”, I had to go with the movies that sustain repeat viewing by dint of not being so heavy.

It was either “Mallrats” or this one. “Clueless” wins out – I only ever saw it by accident, years after release, because it happened to be on, and I hadn’t realised what it was. It was clear, from the trailers, that it was going to be the shittest film ever made, so I dodged it.

So imagine my surprise when it turns out to be one of the funniest, smartest and most redeeming piece of cinema fluff ever made. Alicia Silverstone never does as good a job again, Brittany Murphy is adorable in a way that it’s now difficult to believe she was ever capable of, Donald Faison and Breckin Meyer deliver typically charming daft performances, and Paul Rudd is as likeable as you’d expect. A “feel good without feeling stupid” movie, one of not many, down through the years.

1996 – Fargo

There was never any other contender for this year – I already knew that when I got to the year “Fargo” was released, it was going to be my favourite. Because basically, it’s probably my favourite movie of all time.

The Coen brothers do this sort of film so well – possibly even better then they do the screwball delivery of a “Big Lebowski”, a “Raising Arizona” or an “O Brother Where Art Thou”, if that’s possible. There are no jokes, but it’s funny. The criminals are bickering and bungling, but still ultimately terribly dangerous, and believably scary. William H Macy is brilliant, and Frances McDormand’s understated lead presents possibly the most likeable and solid of heroes in cinema history.

I’d have liked “The Frighteners” to get a year to itself, but it wasn’t to be. And “The Craft”, a monumentally shite film, should still get a mention for a soundtrack that is nifty, and still casts a shadow over youth oriented TV and film today.

1997 – Con Air

The very definition of high-octane, this film fits Rol’s newly defined genre of claustrophobiaction perfectly. The script cracks along at a decent pace, with more laughs then melodrama, Cage’s hero works well enough as a laconic hard-man with a heart, but it is really the impressive supporting cast and the action sequences that are staged to ramp up the “Awesome” to painful levels that really take this year’s ribbon for this film. 

This was also the year that the world remembered about John Cusack, with two winning performances, in this movie and in the great “Grosse Point Blank”.

Other favourites from ’97 were “Cube”, which does exactly what it wants to do, and does it well, and then gets the hell out, and “Starship Troopers”, which still delivers on the action front, even after all this time, and would have been my favourite if it wasn’t for the awkward “is it or isn’t it” social commentary – which seems to be saying “militaristic fascism is both cool and awful” all at once.

1998 – Blade

Because I go back and watch it all the time. Just a slim time before “The Matrix” came out, and confused the adolescent boys of a generation, “Blade” did it all better. The characters here aren’t deep, the performances workmanlike, but Stephen Dorff enjoys the hell out of the villain role, the fight coreography and action are perfect, as are the blending of soundtrack and visuals. There are some nice risky moments with the horror. For years, I firmly believed that the reason that this film was so good was that no-one at Marvel really gave a shit about the property, and so didn’t interfere, but recent successes maybe invalidate that opinion. I love this film to it’s guts.

Special mentions go to “Babe: Pig In The City” and “What Dreams May Come”, for visual wonderment – the former doesn’t get talked about much, but the art of the thing is incredible – the latter is only let down by sporadic injections of schmaltz, but even now, looks amazing. ”The Big Lebowski” was certainly the smartest film this year, and “Can’t Hardly Wait” the cutest.

1999 – Ghost Dog: Way Of The Samurai

You don’t always know what you’re going to get with a Jim Jarmusch movie, but “Ghost Dog” delivers. Not what you’d expect from a gangster movie, nor a samurai flick, nor a hitman story – in fact, not what you’d expect at all. There’s a lot of atmosphere scenes that don’t seem to serve much purpose, but that’s okay, because this is a tone-poem on film. Laying out the plot wouldn’t help you get a feel of proceedings – the definitive moments have nothing to do with it. “Ghost Dog” is a meditation on many themes, and rewards repeat viewing. The soundtrack is superb -music weaves through the film, rather then over the top of it.

Honorable mentions for: “The Iron Giant”, with beautiful animation, solid voice-acting, and a message that seems trite if you speak it out loud, but works well on screen – and “Sleepy Hollow”, in spite of, or maybe because of, Johnny Depp’s Swiss Tone impression in the final act.

2000 – High Fidelity

Would this movie have taken the year, if it hadn’t been based on my top book of my all time top five books? Probably. John Cusack et al did such a fine job of adapting the book that sometimes it feels like you’re watching the novel, and other times it feels like a whole new, perfect thing. Jack Black doesn’t overwhelm, which is nice, and the rest of the cast perfectly complement Cusack. 

In the same year, “The Emperor’s New Groove” became probably my favourite western animated movie ever, “Final Destination” was one of the best examples of it’s genre, and also did a bit of playful smashing of the genre at the same time, “Memento” was the cleverest and niftiest film. The Coens made George Clooney something new in “O Brother, Where Art Thou?” and Vin Diesel made his only good film ever in the spunky little sci-fi horror “Pitch Black”, all well worth another look.

2001 – Josie And The Pussycats

This was the year of brilliant, visually ground-breaking and deep foreign language films, with both “Amélie” and “The Devil’s Backbone” making it onto my “must watch again” lists. The former is too overwhelming, and the latter too morbid and sad, to take the year for me, though – which is where Josie came in.

Like “Clueless”, Josie was let down badly by it’s advertising campaign, but then, it’s not really fair to complain on that score – how are marketers and trailer editors supposed to deal with something that plays so mischeviously with genre and format as much as this film did?

Superficially a great piece of teen fluff, but also sharp, and savvy, and cynical. There’s a winning anarchy to the presentation, great performances throughout, really good sound editing, and a pitch perfect power-pop soundtrack. I am totally onside with the Josie kool-aid drinkage.

2002 – Bubba Ho-Tep

If “28 Days Later” had lived up to the promise of it’s first act, or “The Bourne Identity” hadn’t been watered down by subsequent, still great, but not as good, installments, or “Blade 2″ had been slimmed down so that it’s wonderful visuals hadn’t been diluted – if I’d had the chance to watch “City Of God” or “Adaptation” more then once, or knew “Road To Perdition” a bit better – who knows what might have happened with this year?

As it is, though, there’s only one film that I can put in this slot unreservedly, and that’s “Bubba Ho-Tep”. This is the point at which Bruce Campbell really justifies all the fan adoration that he’s accumulated over the years. The premise is ridiculous, but it is perfectly delivered, and Campbell and Ossie Davis bring the whole thing more bathos, pathos and sensitivity then you would expect.

2003 – American Splendor

I’ve never been a massive Harvey Pekar fan, but this film, from its key performance by Paul Giamatti, to the playing around with form, and the mixing up of interviews with scripted scenes, transcends it’s subject matter, and engages me every time I watch it.

Other highlights of the year include the disaster that kicks off “Final Destination 2″, pretty much all of “The Hulk” except the last ten or fifteen minutes, the first half of “Kill Bill”, and most of “X-Men 2″.

2004 – Team America: World Police

On my death bed, I suspect my greatest regret in life will be that I couldn’t share enjoyment of this masterpiece with Girl One. She just really didn’t buy it.

It was a good year: “Closer” broke my heart, “Collateral” justified Tom Cruise’s existence, “Dawn Of The Dead” saw lots of excellent decapitations, which is funny because “Harold & Kumar” quite surprisingly made me laugh my head off (would “split my sides” have been a better link to run with? Does anyone say “laugh my head off” any more?). “Man On Fire” continued a trend which has J believing that Tony Scott and Ridley Scott have swapped names, “Danny The Dog” was the weirdest film I’ve seen in ages, but strangely likeable throughout, and “Phantom Of The Opera” wasn’t as good as the musical, but was still better then one could have hoped.

2005 – Sideways

Trailer at IMDB.

Warm, real, and funny, it had to be “Sideways” for 2005. It’s a perfect movie, and it’s also the reason that I now have a thing about Pinot Grigio. Sorry I couldn’t find you an embedded trailer, but the one at IMDB is fine.

This was a year of pretty good tie-in movies. “Batman Begins” was brilliant, “Constantine” was better then it should have been, what with the liberties it took with it’s source material, “Doom” was substantially better then the last few games have been, and “War Of The Worlds” was fucking epic, full of spectacle, with a nicely played, and realistically flawed, everyman from the increasingly less average Tom Cruise. The only thing stopping it being great was some of the irritating Hollywood nonsense that crept it’s way in in the second half. “Serenity”, also, was a tight and decent cinema outing for the brilliant tv series, but it didn’t feel like it made enough of a leap in scale for the increased aspect ratio. Maybe it was just too good on the small-screen.

As far as original movies go, the only things really giving “Sideways” any competition was the very smart actioner, “Kiss Kiss Bang Bang”.

2006 – Pan’s Labyrinth

I don’t know why, but Guillermo Del Toro really does bring it when he makes Spanish language movies. His English language stuff always has visual and atmospheric flair, but somehow the pacing is seldom exactly right.

I didn’t like “Pan’s Labyrinth” as much as “Devil’s Backbone”, but that says more about that film then this one. Horrifying, suspenseful, imaginative and evocative, just talking about it makes me want to crack the DVD case open right now.

Other stand outs this year:
“Crank” boiled the action movie down to it’s finest points, and delivered high-concept nonsense with style. ”The Illusionist” and “The Prestige” tackled similar subject matter, but the talent involved, and the differences in approach, make both outstanding films. The former nudges forward in my memory, for the gorgeous cinematography.
“Casino Royale” is a solid movie – I won’t say that it is a return to form for Bond, because frankly, I think it surpasses pretty much every other film in the series, if not the franchise itself. It misses out on points, because of a brave and plot-vital final act which unfortunately ends up skewing the pacing of the film totally.
I have to mention “A Scanner Darkly”, because I suspect that some years down the line, it’s going to be a favourite – beautiful to watch, and with a delirium that is hypnotic, but I just don’t know it that well yet. And “Tenacious D: The Pick Of Destiny” gets a mention for having a truly awesome soundtrack, which is not only funny, but also rocking, full of hooky songs and catchy lyrics.

2007 – 300

We watched and loved a lot of films in 2007.

“300″ is here because it is the one that I have watched the most. Having said that, that something is easy to park your ass in front of doesn’t necessarily mean it has longevity. I will say that, inconsistencies aside, I think it’s a pretty good, self-aware action movie.

Films that I suspect will become favourites:
“Superbad”, and “Juno”, for comedy and that feel-good flair.
“Zodiac”,”Eastern Promises”, “No Country For Old Men” and “The Assassination Of Jesse James By The Coward Robert Ford”, because they are all just so damn good that I wish I wrote them.
“28 Weeks Later”, “The Mist” and “30 Days Of Night”, for not letting their high-concept high-profile horror roots stop them from being genuinely horrifying.

2008 – In Bruges

So far, “In Bruges” is hands down the best film that’s come out of 2008. “Cloverfield” gets points for scale and production, choosing between “Iron Man” and “The Incredible Hulk” for sheer entertainment would be hard, and “Dark Knight” had so much good stuff going on in it that it’s strange that I’m still feeling a little restraint on the subject.

But “In Bruges” was just perfect – a nuanced script, fine relationships between the characters, and well-rounded performances from everyone, especially Colin Farrell (who, in this movie, was a revelation), and Brendan Gleeson. I’m a big fan of stories about hitmen – this is possibly the most unusual and layered one I’ve seen since “Ghost Dog”, and easily the most human.

So that’s it, then. I daresay I spent too much time on the list. I also reckon that on any given day, I’d have made different choices, too, and I’m sure I’ll change my mind down the line, n’all. But for now, there we are… 35 years worth of favourite films… all of them awesome, and dialled up to eleven. It’s been fun going back over them, and realising how much my mind has changed over the years… hope it’s as much fun to read!