The 2005 movies I saw in 2005:
Capote, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Crash, Elizabethtown, Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room, In Her Shoes, Junebug, Mad Hot Ballroom, Me and You and Everyone We Know, Millions, Mysterious Skin, Nobody Knows, The Family Stone, The Squid and the Whale

The 2005 movies I wanted to see in 2005, some more desperately than others, but couldn’t because of laziness and/or a new job and/or other circumstances of life including, in some cases, a movie’s lack of accessibility or a late-in-the-year-release date:
5x2, Broken Flowers, Everything is Illuminated, Good Night, and Good Luck, Grizzly Man, Green Street Hooligans, Jarhead, March of the Pengins, Match Point, Murderball, Narnia, Shopgirl, Syriana, The Chumscrubber, The Constant Gardener, Thumbsucker, The Corpse Bride, The Weatherman, Turtles Can Fly, Walk the Line

The 2005 movies I could care less about, but acknowledge I should probably give a chance to due to everyone’s raving:
Batman Begins, King Kong, Wedding Crashers

The 2005 movies I dozed during, but saw enough of to validate a full viewing, which admittedly may skew my opionion of the movie:
Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Elizabethtown
(Let’s be honest, it was probably more than just these two.)

The 2005 movies I pretty much slept through completely:
Fever Pitch

The 2005 movies I tried not to watch but had little choice when my 3 nieces were sleeping over and my wife is an ice skater:
Ice Princess

If I were doing a traditional top 10 list, and I saw each of the movies I listed above, it would be my top 10 out of 38 movies. If I set this proportional to the 14 movies I actually saw, I should really only be doing a “Top 3.6 list” in order to keep things fair. But we all like even numbers, so I’ll be generous and round it up to a “Top Five” list. No but seriously, we can all agree that doing a top 10 out of 14 would be a little ridiculous.

My top 5 of 2005:

5. Me and You and Everyone We Know - I didn’t much like it when I saw it, but as most indie films do, it grew on me more and more with extra throught. It was had a fresh, unique, original, artistic feel all the way around, from the screenplay to the acting to the cinematography. It was refreshing in that way. The burning hand incident was hilarious. And the goldfish incident? So original and hilariously intense, one of the best moments I saw on film all year by far. Also, I think it did a better job of intertwining characters than Crash did; it felt a bit more natural, or maybe the film was off-center enough that it didn’t feel out of place. Yeah, so I guess I liked this one after all.

4. Junebug - It seems like there is at least one film every year that is solid, but not necessarily anything outstanding or original, and it deals with a bunch of characters who can’t seem to deal with their problems but they’re doing their best to interact with each other or at least co-exist without any major problems. Junebug is 2005’s. It has very rich character development, stuff that could be discussed and dissected for hours on end. I think that’s pretty much the only thing it had going for it, and I’m ok with that. I liked it. Plenty of hilarious moments and plenty of heartbreaking moments. That’s what I like.

3. The Squid and the Whale - Speaking of hilarous and heartbreaking moments, I liked the Squid and the Whale, too. Definitely a solid film all the way around: script, acting, cinematography, everything. This also had a rich set of characters, each with their perplexing idiosyncrasies that one could sit around and dissect for quite a while. Any movie with a theme about trying to be someone who you’re not gets my approval (which was also present in Junebug), especially when it’s presented with some heavy dry humor.

2. Millions - At first, I had this and Junebug switched on the list but decided this had a little more of a unique flare to it which earned a higher spot. Who can’t love a film about imagination and a childlike spirit that simultaneously makes you feel guilty about being so materialistic, all captured through the brilliant beautifully breathtaking eyes of Mr. Danny Boyle. It’s hard to believe this film came from the same man that made 28 Days Later, and I have yet to see Trainspotting, but if it’s anywhere near as good as Millions and 28 Days, I think I might very well proclaim him my favorite director. Or at least tied with Wes Anderson. But yes, Millions pretty much just about had it all. It made you laugh, it made you cry, it made you scared, it made you think, and on and on we could go. Its anti-adulthood theme was timely.

1. Nobody Knows - I would venture to say that seeing this film was one of my favorite memories of my first year of marriage, and my first year of marriage isn’t even over yet. Jamin and I saw the trailer for this before Hotel Rwanda and I instantly fell in love. It turned out it only played in Indy for one week and I didn’t find out until the last night it was playing. I thought I would have to wait for the DVD, but several months later, this summer, I found out by chance that it was playing at this hole-in-the-wall theater in Kutztown. We drove the 45 minutes and joined the 5 or 6 other gray-haired people in this new-to-us theater ($5 a ticket), and I spent the next 2-and-a-half hour wide-eyed in amazement. The movie is absolutely beautiful. Every shot is a masterpiece. The children are unbelieveable. The movie is both heartwrenching and heartwarming. And, I don’t know how to explain it, but the minimal dialogue makes you get into the movie all the more, and at some points you’re outraged, talking to the characters inside your head (or maybe even sometimes out loud, too), which causes you to think some things through all the more. It was amazing. Erica gave me the DVD for Christmas, and when I simply looked at the pictures on the case, I almost started crying.

There you have it.

Runners Up: Mysterious Skin was a good reminder, Capote was a stunning performance, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory was a fun time, and Mad Hot Ballroom was a constant smile.

On a related note, if you’re wondering what my top albums of 2005 are, the only ones worth mentioning are: Sufjan’s Illinois, Sigur Ros’s Takk, and Why?”s Sanddollars EP and Elephant Eyelash. Was Headphones released in 2004 or 2005? Them, too.