For the record books as I close the year, here’s a list of all the movies I first saw in 2005. The theme of movies this year: laziness and television. The movies that don’t show up on the list are the movies I watched for a second (or third…) time – and that’s the bulk of them. I rewatched an awful lot of films this year, often because a) Eric was watching them already; b) I was too lazy to go to the video store, so I hit up the kommunal film collection; c) I wanted to watch them with Kathryn.
I also watched television-on-DVD for the first time this year. I’ve always ignored tv as the lamentable bastard child of cinema, but I discovered that Joss Whedon makes some very entertaining series. To my shock, Buffy the Vampire Slayer season two was excellent, and season three was okay. His later series Firefly is superb, as was its movie followup Serenity. Before now, the only time I sat down and followed the slower-paced character development of a television series was X-Files, and I got impatient with that after a season. Plus, when I watch the shows on DVD, I’m not tied to a schedule or forced to wait through painful advertising… a vastly better way to experience television, I must say.
So it goes. I think I’ll get a bit more adventurous once I move out of the Kommune. While I’m there, it’s very easy to just watch 10 minutes of whatever Eric’s watching, get queasy from the gruesome violence, and swear off movies for a week. Some day, I’ll get back into films, I imagine. Meanwhile, I watched 41 new films in 2005 – less than one a week. I’m going soft.
- the man who knew too much. usa, 1956.
- a beautiful mind. usa, 2001.
- before sunrise. usa, 1995.
- syriana. usa, 2005.
- king kong. usa, 2005.
- i heart huckabees. usa, 2005.
- matrix revolutions. usa, 2004.
- primer. usa, 2004.
- the constant gardener. uk, 2005.
- wallace and gromit: curse of the were-rabbit. uk, 2005.
- serenity. usa, 2005.
- layer cake. uk, 2005.
- bleu (blue). france, 1993.
- broken flowers. usa, 2005.
- it’s all gone pete tong. uk / canada, 2005.
- bullitt. usa, 1968.
- charlie and the chocolate factory. usa, 2005.
- blow. usa, 2003.
- batman begins. usa, 2005.
- the interpreter. usa, 2005.
- star wars episode iii. usa, 2005.
- the manchurian candidate. usa, 1962.
- sin city. usa, 2005.
- enron: the smartest guys in the room. usa, 2005.
- the conversation. usa, 1974.
- kung fu hustle. hong kong, 2004.
- shaolin soccer. hong kong, 2000.
- the killer. hong kong, 1989.
- downfall. germany, 2004.
- napoleon dynamite. usa, 2004.
- be cool. usa, 2005.
- born into brothels: calcutta’s red light kids. india / usa, 2004.
- fast, cheap and out of control. usa, 1997.
- million dollar baby. usa, 2004.
- cidade de deos (city of god). brazil, 2002.
- incident at loch ness. uk, 2004.
- groundhog day. usa, 1993.
- the life aquatic with steve zissou. usa, 2004.
- fa yeung nin wa (in the mood for love). hong kong, 2000.
- die salzmänner von tibet (the saltmen of tibet). germany, 1997.
- house of flying daggers. china, 2004.
- the breakfast club. usa, 1985.
- eternal sunshine of the spotless mind. usa, 2004.
- control room. usa, 2003.