:?

I didn't even see it.

Haha...scared me there for a minute.

I am surprised that Hotel Rwanda is not on many lists...I guess most haven't seen it yet.

Well it hasn't really come out yet. It only has 21 reviews over at RT. But I must say, whoever those critics are, the 18 that liked it must have liked it alot since its sitting at 7.8/10 even with the ratings of the three that didn't like it. So probably, the ones that did thought it was an 8/10, which is getting pretty high in the scheme of RT average rating. Th emeter itself is at 86% which is pretty high for an American Indie.

Also, it might now be that great. I can't say because I haven't seen it, but Monster only pulled in a total 80% fresh and only a 7.1/10 average rating and Theron went on to strike it big, so this movie might have other things going for it than favorite picture.

Ken Tucker (New York Magazine)
1. Sideways
2. The Incredibles
3. How to Draw a Bunny
4. Collateral
5. House of Flying Daggers
6. End of the Century: The Story of the Ramones
7. Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
8. Kill Bill: Vol. 2
9. A Very Long Engagement
10. Fahrenheit 9/11

Kenneth Turan (The Los Angeles Times):
The best of these films this year, and the best film of 2004, is Alexander Payne's "Sideways." Exactly written and directed with both warmth and precision, "Sideways" works beautifully on any number of levels, from the bawdily comedic to the genuinely heartbreaking. It is especially satisfying to witness Payne and his screenwriting partner, Jim Taylor, taking their work to increasingly accomplished levels, to see their films getting progressively more subtle, their comedy deeper, their themes more adult.

The rest break down as follows:

2. "The Incredibles." Brad Bird, with Pixar's unequivocal backing, has fulfilled the animator's big dream of doing it all, creating the unprecedented film that is not just a grand feature-length cartoon but a grand feature, period.

3. "Million Dollar Baby." Starring the director, Morgan Freeman and Hilary Swank and set in the harsh world of boxing, this is Eastwood's most touching, most elegiac work, a film that has the nerve and the will to be as pitiless as it is sentimental.

4. "Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind." I don't think I've ever seen a film, much less a deeply felt romance, that irritated me so much before I fell in love with it. Movies that move us have an element of magic in them, and this Jim Carrey- and Kate Winslet-starring bastard child of Philip K. Dick and "It's a Wonderful Life" is high on that list.

5. "The Five Obstructions." Another unlikely triumph, this time from Danish co-directors Jørgen Leth and Lars von Trier. In only 90 minutes it asks you to reexamine both the nature of cinema and the sources of creativity, and it couldn't be more fun to watch. Also one of a kind from Scandinavia is Norway's inexpressibly droll "Kitchen Stories."

6. "Primer" and "Tarnation." One an elliptical but compelling dramatic feature shot, director Shane Carruth said, "for about the price of a used car," the other a passionate autobiography put together by director Jonathan Caouette for even less, these were the pick of classically independent film, proof that talent doesn't need money to flourish. Other unexpected independents include "Saints and Soldiers," "Mean Creek" and the ineffable "The Saddest Music in the World."

7. "Vera Drake." Even by the standards of Britain's Mike Leigh, whose work with actors is in a class by itself, the performance of Imelda Staunton as the title character stands out for its unexpected changes and its devastating power. A deeply felt, inexpressibly moving film. Other British-directed films worth a year-end nod are Jonathan Glazer's ambitious "Birth" and Mike Hodges' masterful "I'll Sleep When I'm Dead."

8. "Fahrenheit 9/11" and "Control Room." 2004 was the year of the political documentary and, as the man says, attention must be paid. Michael Moore's film had virtues all but obliterated by the fuss it raised, and Jehane Noujaim's look at Al Jazeera showed us that what we think we know may not be knowledge at all.

9. "The Manchurian Candidate." Speaking of politics, Demme's thriller joins sensational material, strong acting and uncanny relevance to produce an exceptionally intelligent entertainment. Demme, not one to just hang around, also directed "The Agronomist," one of the year's best documentaries.

10. "The Return" and "Goodbye, Lenin." A brilliant old-style art film from Russia and a wryly comic political drama set in the former East Germany show that films from behind what used to be the Iron Curtain are back with a vengeance.

If there were room for more, I'd likely divide the space between two veteran directors at the top of their form: Michael Mann for "Collateral" and Martin Scorsese for "The Aviator." Or maybe I'd split it between two wonderfully gentle films, "The Motorcycle Diaries" and the Franco/Georgian "Since Otar Left."

Interesting list from Turan, a critic I had heard is very hard to please and have since been following as close as I can....

Having Sideways and Million Dollar Baby up there just cements its locks in the Best Picture category. I think the consensus of the year is Aviator is one of the best films of the year, but not #1. That's what I'm getting from everybody and the split that arises between all the #1's is going to award Aviator the Best Picture statuette.

there is a website that for 2 years has compiled all the top ten lists available and placed all the films of the year in rank accordingly, tallying total top 10 mentions and total #1's for each film. It's quite good and interesting to follow. their 2004 page will be up in a few days and I will gladly link all of you to there as soon as it's up.
they in fact just released 2001 results.

Seriously, if Sideways was a higher profile movie (cast and box-office-wise) and was getting the same amount of acclaim, it'd be close to a lock for winning Best Picture this year.

Roger Ebert

As we entered December, I had a shortlist of candidates for my choice of the best films of the year, but no obvious first-place entry. "Kill Bill Vol. 2" came close, and "Vera Drake" had a somber perfection and a great performance, but I hadn't seen a film that simply stepped forward and announced itself as, clearly, the year's best.

Then I saw Clint Eastwood's "Million Dollar Baby." I don't know what I expected. Actually, I expected nothing, as I'd heard so little about the film in advance. But as it played, I realized it never steps wrong. Never a false note. It has a purity of narrative line and a strength of performance that is classical in its perfection. I had my winner.

The best films of 2004:

1. "Million Dollar Baby"

Classical filmmaking by Clint Eastwood, pure, simple and true. Great because of what it puts in, and great because of what it leaves out: No flash, nothing much in the way of special effects, no pandering to the audience, but a story that gains in power with every scene, about characters we believe in and care for.

Hilary Swank stars as Maggie, a waitress who dreams of becoming a boxer. She's 31, too old to start professional training. That's what Frankie (Eastwood) tells her. Besides, he doesn't approve of women boxers. He owns a rundown gym and runs it with the help of his oldest friend, Eddie (Morgan Freeman). Maggie will not listen to discouragement. She comes back every day, and finally Eddie takes mercy and shows her a few moves, and finally Frankie breaks down and agrees to train her.

So now you think you know where the movie is going, but you are wrong. It's not a boxing movie; it's the story of these people and what happens to them, and it goes deeper and deeper, never taking a wrong step, never hitting a false note. It touched me like no other film this year.

2. "Kill Bill Vol. 2"

The second half of Quentin Tarantino's "Kill Bill" is not only better than Vol. 1, but makes the earlier movie better by providing it with a context; now we can see the entire story, and it has exuberance and passion, comedy and violence, bold self-satire and action scenes with the precision of ballet. Tarantino is the most idiosyncratic and influential director of the decade, taking the materials of pop art and transforming them into audacious epic fantasies.

Uma Thurman stars as The Bride, whose groom and entire wedding party are massacred by Bill; seeking revenge, she did battle with the Deadly Viper Assassination Squad in Vol. 1. Now we see her early training under a legendary warrior master, and her deadly conflicts with Elle Driver (Daryl Hannah), one-eyed expert of martial arts, and Bill's beer-swilling brother Budd (Michael Madsen), who buries her alive. Her final confrontation with the legendary Bill (David Carradine) is great filmmaking, illustrating how Tarantino's dialogue uses graphic description to set up scenes so that the action isn't the point, but the payoff.

3. "Vera Drake"

Along with Hilary Swank and Uma Thurman, here's another brilliant performance by a woman, in a role that could not be more different from the other two. Imelda Staunton plays a cleaning lady in early 1950s London, where wartime rationing is still in effect and poverty is the general reality. Vera Drake has a another, secret existence, "helping out girls who get in trouble." She is an abortionist, but doesn't think of it that way, accepts no payment, is a melodious plum pudding of a woman whose thoughts are entirely pragmatic.

Abortion is illegal at this time, although Mike Leigh's film shows how easily one can be obtained by the wealthy, whose doctors sign them into private clinics. For poor and desperate women, there is Vera. Leigh creates the woman and her family with gentle perception and an eye for small details that build up the larger reality; the scene where the police come to call has an urgency in which silence, shame, grief and love struggle for space in the small lives of these people.

4. "Spider-Man 2"

Here's the best superhero movie ever made. The genre does not lend itself to greatness, although the first "Superman" movie had considerable artistry and "Blade II" and "The Hulk" had their qualities. Director Sam Raimi's first Spider-Man movie was thin and the special effects too cartoony, but the sequel is a transformation. Tobey Maguire and Kirsten Dunst bring unusual emotional complexity to comic book characters, Alfred Molina's Doc Ock is one of the great movie villains, and the special effects, while understandably not "realistic," bring a presence and a sense of (literal) gravity to the film; Spider-Man now seems like a human and not a drawing as he swings from the skyscrapers, and his personal problems -- always the strong point of the Marvel comics -- are given full weight and importance. A great entertainment.

5. "Moolaade"

From Senegal, the story of a strong woman who stands up to the men in her tribe when four girls come to her for protection. The custom in the land from time immemorial has required women to be circumcised, their genitals mutilated so they feel no sexual sensation. Men will not marry them otherwise. But Colle (Fatoumata Coulibaly) has refused to let her own daughter be cut, and now she evokes the tribal rule of moolaade, or "protection," to shield the other four.

This story no doubt sounds grim and will not prepare you for the life, humor and energy of the film by the African master director Ousmane Sembene. He creates a sure sense of the village life, of local characters, of men and women using tribal law like the pieces in a chess game. An important film, since ritual circumcision is common in Muslim lands, although most Islamic teaching forbids it.

6. "The Aviator"

Martin Scorsese's hugely enjoyable biopic tells the story of a man whose risks, victories and losses were all outsize. Howard Hughes was a golden boy with a Texas tool-making fortune who conquered Hollywood, made spectacular epics, loved spectacular women, built airplanes including the largest in history, bought an airline and went bankrupt several times in the process of becoming the world's richest man. Leonardo DiCaprio embodies this mercurial legend, and Scorsese re-creates a lavish Hollywood world of glamor and power. At the same time, they show Hughes battling obsessions that finally overcome him; the king of the world becomes the captive of his own fears.

DiCaprio doesn't look much like Hughes, but we forget that as he embodies the character's obsessions. He leads a lonely life, playing a public role as a successful winner while knowing, deep inside, that he is going mad. There is a scene at the height of his glory when he stands inside the door of a men's room, afraid to touch the doorknob because of a phobia about germs. Against this dark side, Scorsese balances a glorious portrait of a fabled era, and Cate Blanchett does an impersonation of Katharine Hepburn that's just a smile this side of wicked.

7. "Baadasssss!"

Not your usual movie about the making of a movie, but history remembered with humor, passion and a blunt regard for the truth. Mario Van Peebles' film tells the story of how his father, Melvin, all but created modern independent black filmmaking with "Sweet Sweetback's Baadasssss Song," a 1971 exploitation film that won critical praise and unexpectedly grossed millions. Made by, for and about African Americans, it contained harsh truth and gritty irony that hadn't been seen on the screen before.

The production was fly by night on a shoestring, and Mario, who was present for most of the original film and played Sweetback as a boy, doesn't sugarcoat his memories. Melvin did what was necessary to get the film made and never has there been such a knowledgeable portrayal of how money, personalities, compromise, idealism and harsh reality are all part of any movie -- but especially those that cost the least.

8. "Sideways"

A joy from beginning to end, with occasional side trips into sadness, slapstick and truth. Paul Giamatti stars as a 40-ish sad-sack loser, an alcoholic whose best friend (Thomas Haden Church) is getting married in a week. As best man, he treats him to a vacation in California wine country, where they meet two friends (Virginia Madsen and Sandra Oh) and many delightful bottles of wine. Church shamelessly cheats on his fiancee and deceives Oh; Giamatti and Madsen find a gentle, tender, tentative romance, describing grapes in the way they might describe themselves. Alexander Payne's film moves easily from broad to subtle comedy, from emotional upheaval to small moments of romance. It's the kind of movie you want to go see again, taking along some friends.

9. "Hotel Rwanda"

In 1994 in Rwanda, a million members of the Tutsi tribe were massacred by members of the Hutus, in an insane upheaval of their ancient rivalry. Based on a true story, Terry George's film shows how the manager of a luxury hotel (Don Cheadle) saved the lives of his family and 1,200 guests, essentially by using all of his management skills, including bribery, flattery, apology, deception, blackmail, freebies and calling in favors. His character intuitively understands that only by continuing to act as a hotel manager can he achieve anything.

As the nation descends into anarchy, he puts on his suit and tie every morning and fakes business as usual, dealing with a murderous Hutu general not as a criminal, but as a valued client; a man who yesterday orchestrated mass murder might today want to show that he knows how to behave appropriately in the hotel lobby. With Nick Nolte as a U.N. peacekeeper who ignores his orders to help Cheadle and the lives that have come into their care.

10. "Undertow"

The third film by David Gordon Green, at 29 the most poetically gifted director of his generation. Jamie Bell and Devon Alan play two brothers in rural Georgia, one a rebel, one a sweet, odd loner. Their father mourns for their dead mother and chooses for them to live in virtual isolation; then their ex-con uncle arrives, and everything changes. There is a family legend about gold coins that leads to jealousy and bloodshed, and the boys escape the uncle and try to survive during a journey both harrowing and strangely romantic; the film has the form of an action picture but the feel of a lyrical fable, and Green's eye for his backwoods locations and rusty urban hideaways creates a world immediately distinctive as his own.

His style has been categorized as "Southern Gothic," but that's too narrow. There is a poetic merging of realism and surrealism; every detail is founded on accurate observation, but the effect is somehow mythological. Listen to his dialogue; his characters say things that sound exactly like the sort of things they would really say, and yet are like nothing anyone has ever said before.

Special Jury Prize

At every film festival, the jury creates a special prize for a film that did not win the first award, and yet is somehow too good for second place. As a jury of one, I usually award my Special Prize to 10 splendid films, but this year I have chosen 15, because there is not a one I can do without. Alphabetically:

"The Assassination of Richard Nixon," which opens wide in January, stars Sean Penn as a man whose demons have destroyed his marriage and now threaten his job as an office supplies salesman. Whatever his problem, his symptom is to decide what is absolutely right, and then to absolutely insist upon it; he doesn't know when to shut up and has little idea of his effect on other people. Under unbearable psychological pressure, he marches steadfastly toward madness.

"Closer" is Mike Nichols' story, based on Patrick Marber's play, about four characters who fall in and out of love and betrayal in various combinations, complicated by their tendency to tell the truth when it doesn't exactly help anyone to know it. Natalie Portman is luminous in her first grown-up role, as a New York stripper who comes to London and falls in love with Jude Law, a journalist who writes a novel about their affair and then falls in love with Julia Roberts, his publicity photographer. She in turn meets Clive Owen, a doctor who, in his turn, meets Portman. These four people richly deserve one another. Seduced by seduction itself, they play at relationships which are lies in almost every respect, except their desire to sleep with each other.

"The Dreamers" is Bernardo Bertolucci's love song to a vanished era, the film-worshipping, politically radical, sexually liberated Paris of the late 1960s. A naive American student (Michael Pitt) meets a brother and sister (Eva Green and Louis Garrel) and is absorbed into their world of obsession with movies, politics and sex. It all seems wonderful, for a time, in a movie that places their story against a backdrop of a brief season when it did seem as if cinema could change the world.

"House of Flying Daggers" by Zhang Yimou is an audaciously beautiful, improbable, exuberant martial arts romance set in Chinese medieval times, as an undercover cop falls in love with a beautiful woman who leads a band of revolutionaries. There are extraordinary feats of combat and marksmanship, in a film not so much about action as about transcending the laws of physics. There are passages of remarkable beauty and grace, including a battle in a bamboo forest that combines conflict, choreography and syncopation. With Zhang Ziyi (from "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon"), Takeshi Kaneshiro and Andy Lau.

"Kinsey" stars Liam Neeson in a bravura performance as a scientist who studies human sexuality while discovering almost nothing about human nature. Kinsey's best-selling books revised conventional thinking about what people do sexually, how they do it, how often they do it and with whom. Under Bill Condon's direction, Neeson plays Kinsey as a man who takes pure logic perhaps further than it needs to go in personal relationships; Laura Linney is wonderful as perhaps the only woman in the world who could both understand and love this impossible man.

"The Merchant of Venice" is yet another reminder of what a versatile and powerful actor Al Pacino is, and how he continues to grow. Shakespeare's play is classified as a "comedy," and indeed the farce of Portia's courtship is funny, but the story of Shylock is a tragedy. The film, directed by Michael Radford, creates a Shylock who is strangely, perversely sympathetic; Pacino's readings of the famous speeches vibrate with fierce wounded pride, and the cinematography creates a Venice of night, shadow, decadence and deceit to set beside Portia's sunny world.

"The Passion of the Christ" is accurately titled; Mel Gibson's movie is not about the teachings of Jesus, not about theology, miracles or parables, but about how he suffered and died. One of the most violent films I have ever seen, but what would be the purpose of softening the anguish? Christians believe Christ died for our sins; this is above all the story of what happens to the man, to the physical body. The film was divisive and controversial. How you related to it depended on what you brought into the theater, on your own beliefs and background. Some found it anti-Semitic. I did not and tried to explain that in my review.

"The Polar Express" was decisively defeated at the box office by "The Incredibles" when the two films opened almost simultaneously, but it didn't fold up and go away. Instead, week by week, it has been discovering its audience, and its 3-D screenings at IMAX theaters are usually sold out. Tom Hanks voices five of the characters and provides a model for their body movement, in the story of a boy who boards a train to the North Pole and witnesses great wonderments along the way. Creepy in that teasing way that lets you know eerie things could happen; it has a shivery tone, instead of the mindless jolliness of the usual Christmas movie.

"Ray" stars Jamie Foxx in a virtuoso performance as Ray Charles, the blind musical legend who largely created soul music and embraced all the pop genres. The movie doesn't sugarcoat his womanizing and drug usage, but shows him emerging from addiction to become a supremely creative force; Foxx is uncanny in his ability to evoke Charles' body language, which seemed to reflect and even conduct the music.

"The Saddest Music in the World" is a film beyond strange, by the quirky Canadian genius Guy Maddin. Isabella Rossellini plays a glass-legged brewery heiress who summons entries for a Depression-era contest to find the saddest song. Not silent and not entirely in black and white, but it looks like a long-lost classic from decades ago, grainy and sometimes faded; Maddin shoots on 8mm film and video and creates images that look like a memory from cinema's distant past. The effect is peculiar and delightful.

"Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow" stars Jude Law, Gwyneth Paltrow and Angelina Jolie in a tour de force by Kerry Conran, who uses real actors and creates almost everything else on the screen with digital effects that look like Flash Gordon's daydreams. If Tom Corbett, Space Cadet, had gone to film school, this would have been his first movie.

"The Terminal" by Steven Spielberg stars Tom Hanks as a man without a country -- or at least, without a visa. His nation ceases to exist just as he lands in America, and a customs and immigration officer (Stanley Tucci) tells him he's free to remain in the terminal but forbidden to step outside. Hanks creates a man of boundless optimism and great lovability, who makes friends, fashions a life and even begins a romance in the terminal; inspired by the French comedies of Jacques Tati, Spielberg and Hanks find comedy not only in characters but in places and things and the oddness with which they fit together.

"Touching the Void" was as unsettling and disturbing a film as I saw all year, telling the story of two men who set out to climb a mountain. One falls and shatters his leg, the other tries to help him down, they find themselves in an impossible situation, the rope must be cut, and the injured man falls into a deep crevice and incredibly, agonizingly, despairingly, fights for his survival.

"Twilight Samurai" stars Hiroyuki Sanada as a samurai in the dying days of the samurai era, who works as a bookkeeper and then is assigned to perform a murder, to his immense reluctance. Intercut with a poignant love story, and involving an extraordinary conversation between the samurai and his intended victim, it is a bittersweet masterpiece.

"When Will I Be Loved," perhaps the best film yet by the mercurial James Toback, stars Neve Campbell as a rich girl with a scruffy boyfriend who essentially tries to sell her favors to an Italian millionaire. The catch is, she doesn't need the money -- something not known by the Italian (Dominic Chianese) as they enter into a financial and psychological negotiation involving some of the smartest and most agile dialogue of the year.

Best documentaries

It was a year when political documentaries made news, and Michael Moore's "Fahrenheit 9/11" made headlines, both with its political controversy and by setting a box-office record for docs. These I especially admired, alphabetically (with one tie):

"The Agronomist" by Jonathan Demme is about the life and death of Jean Dominique, a courageous Haitian reformer who continued to broadcast attacks on corruption over his radio station, despite death threats that eventually came true.

"Aileen: Life and Death of a Serial Killer" by Nick Broomfield and Joan Churchill is a painful, unblinking portrait of the real Aileen Wuornos, bringing depth and context to the fictional version of her life in "Monster" and illuminating how brilliantly on target Charlize Theron's performance was in that movie.

"Fahrenheit 9/11" is, apart from everything else that has been said about it (and a lot has been said), surprisingly entertaining; Michael Moore is a reformer with the soul of a stand-up comic. The movie became a rallying point for pro-Kerry forces and a lightning rod for anti-Kerry critics, and will be remembered for a sequence in which Bush, told of the attack on the World Trade Center, remains immobile in a primary school classroom for long, strange minutes.

"My Architect" by Nathaniel Kahn is about his relationship (or lack of one) with his father, the architect Louis I. Kahn, who built wonderful buildings while leading an untidy and deceptive private life; he secretly supported three families at the same time.

"Riding Giants" is Stacy Peralta's extraordinary doc about the world of obsessive championship surfing, with archival footage showing each generation of surfers out-daring the last in their quest for near-suicidal challenges. Unlike the inane "surf's up" docs of the past, this one suggests the sport's dark and deadly undertow.

And "Tarnation" is Jonathan Caouette's autobiographical memory of a boy growing up gay and dealing with a mother whose mental health was destroyed by shock treatments. The film was excellent on any terms, and all the more remarkable since it was made for $218 on a borrowed Macintosh and won an invitation to Cannes.

EBERT'S WORST FILMS OF 2004

1. (tie) "Troy"
1. (tie) "Alexander"
2. "Christmas With the Kranks"
3. "The Girl Next Door"
4. "Dogville"
5. "New York Minute"
6. "The Grudge"
7. "White Chicks"
8. "Resident Evil: Apocalypse"
9. "The Whole Ten Yards"
10. "The Village"

Yeah, Engin has done a great job the last couple of years. I'm basically just transferring the information from OscarWatch to here.

Kevin Thomas (LA Times)
1. Tarnation
2. Notre Musique
3. Million Dollar Baby
4. A Home at the End of the World
5. Bad Education
6. Maria, Full of Grace
7. Kinsey
8. Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
9. The Phantom of the Opera
10. Moolaadé

Thelma Adams (US Weekly)
1. Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
2. Finding Neverland
3. Sideways
4. House of Flying Daggers
5. Team America: World Police
6. Bad Education
7. The Incredibles
8. Collateral
9. A Home at the End of the World
10. Lemony Snicket: A Series of Unfortunate Events

Carina Chocano (LA Times)
*Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
*Sideways
*I Heart Huckabee's
*The Incredibles
*The Life Aquatic
*Before Sunset
*Kinsey
*Bad Education
*The Sea Inside
*Fahrenheit 9/11 / Super-Size Me

Jack Foley (IndieLondon)
1. The House of Flying Daggers
2. Bad Santa
3. Lost in Translation
4. Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
5. The Motorcycle Diaries
6. The Station Agent
7. Man On Fire
8. The Cooler
9. Spider-Man 2
10. The Bourne Supremacy

Great read for Ebert's reviews. I spend the last 20 minutes reading his reviews.

The only thing I disagree with is his 4th worst movie of the year. Dogville, which in my opinion is one of the masterpieces of this year, #3 on my best list!

Michael Wilmington (Chicago Tribune)
1. The Aviator
2. Sideways
3. House of Flying Daggers
4. Vera Drake
5. Carandiru
6. Before Sunset
7. Ray
8. The Incredibles
9. Moolaade
10. Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind

Forget the dubious pleasures of reality TV. Reality cinema, in many guises and genres, came back strong in 2004. If there was one distinctive element about the films of 2004, it was the preeminence of real-life subjects, real-life people, real-life events and, in the year's very best, real-life emotion.

It's hard to recall a recent year when the documentary or the film history, biography and docudrama stood so tall in the final reckoning, when so many excellent films and towering performances owed their genesis, at least in part, to a true-life subject.

THE SHORT LIST: Jamie Foxx gives an astounding performance as the late soul-blues great Ray Charles; Bill Condon creates a remarkable drama out of the triumphs and trials of sex researcher Alfred Kinsey and wife (Liam Neeson and Laura Linney); Don Cheadle and director Terry George plunge us into the terror of the Rwanda massacres in "Hotel Rwanda"; Hector Babenco punctiliously recreates Brazilian prison life in "Carandiru"; and Johnny Depp improbably becomes James M. Barrie in the backstage Peter Pan tale, "Finding Neverland."

You could cite the painstaking realism -- in writing, staging and performance -- given to fictional dramas such as Mike Leigh's searing abortion drama, "Vera Drake," or Richard Linklater, Julie Delpy and Ethan Hawke's brainy, buoyant romance "Before Sunset."

Or you could recall the brace of excellent documentaries, including Michael Moore's Cannes Palme d'Or winning (and furiously controversial) "Fahrenheit 9/11." The year's movies also excelled in the creation of fantasy worlds: notably Zhang Yimou's spectacular -- and spectacularly unreal -- historical action epics "House of Flying Daggers" and "Hero," Pixar and Brad Bird's witty super-hero feature cartoon, "The Incredibles," and Michel Gondry and Charlie Kaufman's science fictional look at blighted love affairs (with Jim Carrey and Kate Winslet), "Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind."

As always there was a lot more there than the casual or jaded viewer might first appreciate. Critics and constant moviegoers started carping about the low quality of 2004's movies back in January, but by year's end, there were plenty of gems among the dross.

THE 10 BEST:

1. The Aviator

(Martin Scorsese) Aviator, plane manufacturer, moviemaker, Hollywood Casanova and all-around eccentric Howard Hughes -- the man who started life as a golden boy and ended it as a bearded, germ-obsessed recluse -- is one of the most endlessly fascinating of American biographical subjects. But, though filming Hughes' life obsessed director-producer-star Warren Beatty for decades, the movie that resulted from other hands is a great one -- despite some oddly out-of-chronology historical references, the absence of most of Hughes' crazy last years and the fact that, despite three hours, this movie is still too short. As Hughes, Leonardo DiCaprio cannily portrays boyish adventuring and incipient madness, and Cate Blanchett is simply amazing as Kate Hepburn. As always, though, the star is Scorsese, with his usual incandescent visuals, full-throttle acting ensemble, scintillating mix of truth and stylized fantasy and sheer cinematic magic.

2. Sideways

(Alexander Payne) The most perfectly realized movie of the year: a delightful yet woundingly real look at a flawed American male friendship, with nonpareil Paul Giamatti and Thomas Haden Church as ex-college buddies on a last California wine country fling before an impending wedding and equally fine Virginia Madsen and Sandra Oh as the ladies conned into deceptive, destructive affairs. Both hilarious and sad, truthful and fabulously entertaining, Payne's movie is a defining look at the classic movie pairing of nerdy brain (Giamatti) and reckless stud buddy (Church), a matchup often explored but never better than this.

3. House of Flying Daggers

(Zhang Yimou, China) Initially, I wanted to pair the two great 2004 Zhang Chinese action epics: Cannes sensation "House of Flying Daggers" and all-time Chinese box-office champ "Hero." Both are spectacular blends of extravagant high-flying Hong Kong-style action, exquisite period visuals and searing emotional drama, but "House," Zhang's own favorite, is by a hair the more emotional: a triangle love drama (Zhang Ziyi, Takeshi Kaneshiro and Andy Lau) of lacerating intensity.

4. Vera Drake

(Mike Leigh, Britain) The world's preeminent realist-drama director, Leigh, here takes us back to London in the early '60s when abortion was illegal. A doctor's son, he shows us unflinchingly the implications, contrasts and moral dilemma. A pregnant upper-class date-rape victim relatively easily has her "problem" solved; meanwhile, well-meaning, generous-hearted Vera (played by Imelda Staunton) tries to help poor girls in trouble -- and sees a near fatality and her own potential ruin as results.

5. Carandiru

(Hector Babenco, Brazil) The Carandiru prison riot and deaths, one of the most incendiary and notorious of penal system scandals, becomes the inspiration for one of the best and most comprehensive prison movies ever, from crime-drama master Babenco ("Pixote"). Using the biographical recollections of real-life doctor Drauzio Varella, Babenco paints an unforgettable behind-bars tapestry, teeming with life, violence, conflict and danger.

6. Before Sunset

(Richard Linklater) Over the years, 1995's "Before Sunrise," in which Ethan Hawke and Julie Delpy talked themselves into love as they strolled around Vienna before train time -- has become my favorite modern romantic movie. Here is that film's deeply satisfying, often entrancing sequel, from that same creative trio, with Hawke's Jesse and Delpy's Celine meeting again years later in Paris, before plane time, to recapture the past, catch up on lost years and (perhaps) rekindle sparks of passion. Beautiful, sexy stuff.

7. Ray

(Taylor Hackford) Another great bio-movie with the year's single most amazing performance: Jamie Foxx, playing Ray Charles and having to match his acting to the late giant's soundtrack singing became so completely convincing that I never thought of him as an actor, but simply as conduit for the Genius. There are other fine performances here as well, in Hackford's unsparing but deeply loving celebration of a flawed master and his terrifying but inspirational life.

8. The Incredibles

(Brad Bird) Animation seems to achieve new heights every year; even the disappointing Robert Zemeckis' "Polar Express" is a revelation in the IMAX 3-D format. And the biggest leap often comes from Pixar. John Lasseter and the "Toy Story" maestros provided the wondrous technology for the imaginative writer-director (and voice actor) Bird to realize his witty, ingenious, exciting and affectionate tale of a superhero family condemned to the bland 'burbs but then pulled back into action. For kids and adults: a gem of character and humor, and an action lollapalooza as well.

9. Moolaade

(Ousmane Sembene, Senegal) From the acknowledged father and first creator of African cinema, Senegal's peerless 81-year-old writer-director-novelist Sembene, came a film that ravished critics at Cannes: the luminously simple and vibrantly alive ensemble portrait of an African village and a band of women who revolt against their tribal elders, husbands and the barbaric (and real-life) medical ritual of female circumcision.

10. Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind

(Michel Gondry) After "Sideways," this is the year's cleverest scenario -- and one of its most imaginative and original. Writer Charlie Kaufman ("Adaptation") takes a sci-fi look at what might happen if a company capable of erasing all memories of unhappy love affairs got into the act. Jim Carrey and Kate Winslet shine as the unlucky, rubbed-out lovers; Tom Wilkinson, Mark Ruffalo, Kirsten Dunst and Elijah Wood as the expungers. The concept is fanciful, but being Jim Carrey becomes Phil Dickian fun. The treatment of those fantasies seemed raw and real as a bad morning -- and as full of accidental poetry as a sudden snowfall.

THE NEXT 10:

11. "Bon Voyage" (Jean-Paul Rappeneau, France) Just off the top 10 by a hair: this sumptuous French romantic comedy/adventure thriller set during the chaos after the World War II German invasion. Full of star actors (Gerard Depardieu, Isabelle Adjani) and great scenes, a wonderful pure entertainment.

12. "Hero" (Zhang Yimou, China) Leap to "House of Flying Daggers" above.

13. "The Motorcycle Diaries" (Walter Salles, U.S.-Brazil) From Che Guevara's chronicle of his youthful cycle trip across Latin America with buddy Alberto Granado: a terrific road movie that suggests "Easy Rider" with fewer druggie undercurrents.

14. "Troy" (Wolfgang Petersen) If you compare this hunky re-creation of the Trojan wars to "The Iliad," it suffers, but so does everything else. With Brad Pitt as a golden Achilles, it's one of the all-time top sun-and-sandal epics, furiously scenic and exciting.

15. "Spider-Man 2" (Sam Raimi) The old webhead returns, battling Doctor Octopus (Alfred Molina) and inner demons. A little overrated, but a superior comic-derived movie.

16. "A Very Long Engagement" (Jean-Pierre Jeunet, France) The "Amelie" team of director-writer Jeunet and gamin-star Audrey Tautou returns for an even better movie: the romantic, funny, moving and macabre tale of a determined girl searching for her lost soldier-lover.

17. "The Blind Swordsman Zatoichi" (Takeshi Kitano, Japan) Japan's famed blind, fat masseur master swordsman, incarnated for decades by the late Shintaro Katsu, returns in force, thanks to director-star Kitano. A slasher.

18. "Million Dollar Baby" (Clint Eastwood) Director/star Eastwood starts out this boxing melodrama as if it were more "Rocky," with himself as trainer/manager, Morgan Freeman as his pal and Hillary Swank as a contender. Then he goes into deep noir mode, with shattering results.

19. "Shaun of the Dead" (Edgar Wright, Britain) The year's best horror movie was also one of its funniest comedies: a tribute to Romero's original "Dawn of the Dead" that pitted zombies against slackers, with gut-slicing and gut-busting results.

20. "The Trilogy" (Lucas Belvaux, Belgium-France) A real tour de force from writer-director-actor Belvaux. After terrorist Belvaux's jailbreak, the same events, shown from three different viewpoints, become three different genre movies: icy thriller, marital comedy and stark drama.

THE YEAR'S BEST RESTORATIONS:

"The Leopard" (Luchino Visconti, 1963, Italy) Visconti's supreme historical epic, with Burt Lancaster, based on Giuseppe de Lampedusa's novel. In the restored original Italian and English language release versions on DVD from Criterion.

"The Big Red One" (Samuel Fuller, 1980) Fuller's great WWII epic, with Lee Marvin, returned almost to its original three-hour length. (Warner Bros.).

Richard Roeper:
1. Hotel Rwanda
2. Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
3. The Aviator
4. Sideways
5. House of Flying Daggers
6. Million Dollar Baby
7. The Terminal
8. Kill Bill Vol. 2
9. Spanglish
10. Collateral
11. Garden State
12. Closer
13. Kinsey
14. Ray
15. The Assassination of Richard Nixon
16. Baadasssss!
17. Finding Neverland
18. Maria Full of Grace
19. The Passion of the Christ
20. Spider-Man 2
21. Friday Night Lights
22. Open Water
23. The Dreamers
24. The Village
25. The Woodsman

Top five documentaries
1. Metallica: Some Kind of Monster
2. Super Size Me
3. Overnight
4. Fahrenheit 9/11
5. Going Upriver: The Long War of John Kerry

ROEPER'S WORST FILMS OF 2004
1. White Chicks
2. The Whole Ten Yards
3. Godsend
4. Scooby-Doo 2: Monsters Unleashed
5. The Stepford Wives
6. Catwoman
7. Thunderbirds
8. Saw
9. Taxi
10. Connie and Carla

Good to see some appreciation for Hotel Rwanda finally. I still see it as the 5th Best Picture nominee.

:x


It's so sad to see Dogville with thelikes of Alexander, Christmas With the Kranks, New York Minute...

he gave dogville 2 stars, though, and some (catwoman, etc) that he only gave one too arent even in the top 10... :? l dont get it

but l agree, entirely...

also, when you have a tie, youre supposed to count it as two...oh well...

Updated rankings (didn't add Carina Chocano's since I need to confirm the order is the ranking):

144 Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (4)
137 Sideways (8 )
96 Million Dollar Baby (1)
69 House of Flying Daggers (3)
67 Before Sunset (4)
61 The Incredibles
52 Kill Bill: Volume 2
49 Bad Education (1)
46 The Aviator (1)
42 Dogville (2)
39 Spider-Man 2
33 Hero
32 Collateral
31 Maria, Full of Grace
26 Fahrenheit 911
25 Vera Drake
23 Team America: World Police
22 Touching the Void
21 Tarnation (1)
20 Crimson Gold
20 Hotel Rwanda (1)
19 A Very Long Engagement
19 Finding Neverland
19 The Motorcycle Diaries
19 The Sea Inside
18 Moolaade
17 2046
17 Kinsey
17 Ray (1)
16 Notre Musique (Our Music)
15 Undertow
14 Garden State
14 Primer
13 The Five Obstructions
12 The Saddest Music in the World (1)
12 Shaun of the Dead
10 The Manchurian Candidate
10 Since Otar Left (1)
9 A Home at the End of the World
8 The Big Red One
8 Closer
8 How to Draw a Bunny
8 Osama
8 Twentynine Palms
7 The Bourne Supremacy
7 Cowards Bend the Knee
7 Goodbye, Dragon Inn
7 I'll Sleep When I'm Dead
7 Metallica: Some Kind of Monster
7 Super Size Me
6 Carandiru
6 Control Room
6 Napoleon Dynamite
6 Secret Things
5 End of the Century: The Story of the Ramones
5 Infernal Affairs
5 The Life Aquatic With Steve Zissou
5 Man on Fire
5 Spartan
5 Twilight Samurai
4 Baadasssss!
4 Birth
4 The Door in the Floor
4 Friday Night Lights
4 I Heart Huckabees
4 Intimate Strangers
4 Shrek 2
4 Son Frere
4 Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter...and Spring
4 The Terminal
3 In Good Company
3 Raja
3 Saved!
3 Spanglish
3 The Village
2 Zatoichi
2 Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy
2 Distant
2 Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban
2 The Keys to the House
2 The Phantom of the Opera
2 The Polar Express, IMAX 3-D Version
2 Ramones: End of the Century
2 Torque
1 The Bourne Supremacy
1 The Clearing
1 Dodgeball
1 The Dreamers
1 Fake to Black
1 Goodbye, Lenin
1 The Forest for the Trees^
1 Lemony Snicket: A Series of Unfortunate Events
1 The Merchant of Venice
1 The Return
1 Sex Is Comedy
1 Undertow
1 When Will I Be Loved

Melora Koepke (Montreal Hour)
1. Million Dollar Baby
2. I Heart Huckabees
3. Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
4. A Very Long Engagement
5. Kinsey
6. The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou
7. Finding Neverland
8. Ray
9. Closer
10. The Incredibles

11. Primer 12. Hero 13. Ghost in the Shell 2 14. Sideways 15. Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events 16. Collateral 17. Birth 18. Vera Drake

Gary Dretzka (Movie City News)
1. Sideways
2. The Motorcycle Diaries
3. Saved!
4. I'll Sleep When I'm Dead
5. A Love Song for Bobby Long
6. Hero / House of Flying Daggers
7. Super Size Me
8. The Door in the Floor
9. Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
10. Before Sunset

Brian D. Johnson (Macleans)
1. Sideways
2. Touching the Void
3. The Sea Inside
4. Closer
5. Kinsey
6. Vera Drake
7. Before Sunset
8. Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
9. The Aviator
10. Fahrenheit 9/11 / The Fog of War

Joseph Cunneen (National Catholic Reporter)
1. Kitchen Stories
2. Since Otar Left
3. The Story of the Weeping Camel
4. Fahrenheit 9/11
5. Before Sunset
6. Hero
7. The Motorcycle Diaries
8. Vera Drake
9. Moolaadé
10. Ray

John Hartl (MSNBC)
(In alphabetical order)
• The Aviator
• Before Sunset
• Blind Shaft
• Fahrenheit 9/11
• The Incredibles
• Kinsey
• Maria Full of Grace
• Sideways
• Strayed
• Touching the Void

The Advocate
1. Kinsey
2. Bad Education
3. Tarnation
4. Brother to Brother
5. A Home at the End of the World
6. Saved!
7. A Dirty Shame
8. Mean Creek
9. Bear Cub
10. Bright Young Things

Richard Corliss (Time)
1. Hero / House of Flying Daggers
2. Sideways
3. Bad Education
4. Closer
5. Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
6. Infernal Affairs
7. The Five Obstructions
8. Ray
9. Fahrenheit 9/11 (tie)
9. The Passion of the Christ (tie)

Richard Schickel (Time)
1. The Aviator
2. Million Dollar Baby
3. Vera Drake
4. The Inheritance
5. Kitchen Stories
6. Collateral
7. Maria Full of Grace
8. Kinsey
9. The Woodsman
10. Sideways

Updated rankings:

167 Sideways (10)
163 Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (4)
115 Million Dollar Baby (2)
84 House of Flying Daggers (4)
78 Before Sunset (4)
66 Bad Education (1)
62 The Incredibles
58 The Aviator (2)
53 Hero (1)
52 Kill Bill: Volume 2
42 Dogville (2)
42 Kinsey (1)
41 Vera Drake
39 Spider-Man 2
37 Collateral
36 Fahrenheit 9/11
35 Maria, Full of Grace
32 The Motorcycle Diaries
31 Touching the Void
29 Tarnation (1)
27 The Sea Inside
26 A Very Long Engagement
24 Closer
24 Ray (1)
23 Finding Neverland
23 Team America: World Police
20 Crimson Gold
20 Hotel Rwanda (1)
20 Moolaade
19 Since Otar Left (1)
17 2046
17 The Five Obstructions
16 Kitchen Stories (1)
16 Notre Musique (Our Music)
16 Saved!
16 Undertow
15 A Home at the End of the World
14 Garden State
14 I'll Sleep When I'm Dead
14 Primer
13 I Heart Huckabees
12 The Saddest Music in the World (1)
12 Shaun of the Dead
11 Super Size Me
10 Infernal Affairs
10 The Life Aquatic With Steve Zissou
10 The Manchurian Candidate
8 The Big Red One
8 The Bourne Supremacy
8 How to Draw a Bunny
8 Osama
8 The Story of the Weeping Camel
8 Twentynine Palms
7 Brother to Brother
7 Cowards Bend the Knee
7 The Door in the Floor
7 Goodbye, Dragon Inn
7 End of the Century: The Story of the Ramones
7 The Inheritance
7 Metallica: Some Kind of Monster
6 Carandiru
6 Control Room
6 A Love Song for Bobby Long
6 Napoleon Dynamite
6 Secret Things
5 Man on Fire
5 Spartan
5 Twilight Samurai
4 A Dirty Shame
4 Baadasssss!
4 Birth
4 Friday Night Lights
4 Intimate Strangers
4 Shrek 2
4 Son Frere
4 Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter...and Spring
4 The Terminal
3 In Good Company
3 Mean Creek
3 Raja
3 Spanglish
3 The Village
2 Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy
2 Bear Cub
2 Distant
2 Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban
2 The Keys to the House
2 The Passion of the Christ
2 The Phantom of the Opera
2 The Polar Express, IMAX 3-D Version
2 Torque
2 The Woodsman
2 Zatoichi
1 Bright Young Things
1 The Clearing
1 Dodgeball
1 The Dreamers
1 Fake to Black
1 The Fog of War
1 The Forest for the Trees^
1 Goodbye, Lenin
1 Lemony Snicket: A Series of Unfortunate Events
1 The Merchant of Venice
1 The Return
1 Sex Is Comedy
1 When Will I Be Loved

Guys, the perfect place to go to for collected top ten lists and comparisons and compilated data and such is here:

http://www.geninn.net/critics/index.htm

It is quite awesome. Makes an official list of films based on the number of critics lists they are in, and also notes how many times they are #1. They also have other charts that analyse certain things (like an "Oscar Frontrunners" chart and such). Also, all top ten lists are saved in a spreadsheet to see each individual critics list. (The lists aren't measured by how they rank in each list because a lot of critics do not actually rank their top 10, from 1 to 10, they just have A top 10).

Here is the 2004 List/Page: http://www.geninn.net/critics/2004/index.htm

(there is not yet a list up because there are only 40 critics lists, and they need at least 50 to start it up. But there is spreadsheet for all of the critics lists to browse at this point. Check out the 2003, 2002, and 2001 pages; the links are all below. It's really good stuff. I typed out the top films of each list to see easily. There is more stuff at the links.)
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

2003 -- 514 Top Ten Lists Collected.

FULL LIST: http://www.geninn.net/critics/2003/index.htm

RANK ---------- TITLE --------- # of Lists it's On --------- #1 on Lists

01 LOST IN TRANSLATION -------- 321 ---- 53
02 THE RETURN OF THE KING ----- 277 ---- 92
03 MYSTIC RIVER ------------------ 219 ---- 41
04 AMERICAN SPLENDOR ---------- 216 ---- 20
05 FINDING NEMO ------------------ 201 ---- 11
06 KILL BILL, VOL. 1 --------------- 148 ---- 11
07 CAPTURING THE FRIEDMANS -- 146 ---- 15
08 MASTER AND COMMANDER ---- 138 ---- 11
09 IN AMERICA --------------------- 128 ---- 15
10 21 GRAMS ----------------------- 105 ---- 6
11 ELEPHANT ----------------------- 103 ---- 12
12 CITY OF GOD ------------------- 103 ----- 9
13 THE STATION AGENT ---------- 102 ----- 5
14 COLD MOUNTAIN -------------- 101 ----- 6
15 WHALE RIDER ------------------ 87 ------ 5
16 SEABISCUIT -------------------- 86 ------ 5

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

2002 -- 360 Top Ten Lists Collected.

FULL LIST: http://www.geninn.net/critics/2002/index.htm

01 FAR FROM HEAVEN ------------ 215 ---- 35
02 Y TU MAMA TAMBIEN ---------- 166 ---- 21
03 ADAPTATION ------------------- 153 ---- 16
04 ABOUT SCHMIDT -------------- 122 ---- 12
05 LOTR: THE TWO TOWERS ---- 111 ---- 15
06 TALK TO HER ------------------- 111 ---- 13
07 GANGS OF NEW YORK -------- 108 ---- 13
08 CHICAGO ---------------------- 100 ---- 16
09 SPIRITED AWAY --------------- 99 ----- 12
10 PUNCH-DRUNK LOVE ---------- 98 ----- 8
11 THE PIANIST ------------------- 83 ----- 10
12 BOWLING FOR COLUMBINE --- 83 ----- 3
13 THE HOURS --------------------- 75 ----- 9

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

2001 -- 258 Top Ten Lists Collected

FULL LIST: http://www.geninn.net/critics/2001/index.htm

01 GHOST WORLD ---------------------- 133 ---- 10
02 MULHOLLAND DRIVE ---------------- 127 ---- 21
03 MEMENTO ---------------------------- 125 ---- 20
04 IN THE BEDROOM -------------------- 99 ---- 12
05 AMELIE ------------------------------- 98 ---- 13
06 THE FELLOWSHIP OF THE RING ---- 91 ----- 22
07 THE ROYAL TENENBAUMS ---------- 90 ----- 10
08 IN THE MOOD FOR LOVE ----------- 82 ----- 13
09 MOULIN ROUGE --------------------- 73 ----- 12
10 WAKING LIFE ------------------------ 71 ------ 4
11 SHREK ------------------------------- 70 ------ 7
12 THE MAN WHO WASN'T THERE ---- 54 ------ 2
13 A.I. ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE --- 51 ------ 9
14 SEXY BEAST ------------------------ 50 ------ 0
15 GOSFORD PARK -------------------- 49 ------ 3
16 HEDWIG AND THE ANGRY INCH -- 47 ------ 5
17 AMORES PERROS ------------------ 47 ------ 4
18 A BEAUTIFUL MIND ---------------- 45 ------ 3

PEACE, Mike

Yeah, that's a great site that most of us are aware of. I checked it regularly this time of the year.