2004 in film.

Top ten box-office films of 2004:

1. Shrek 2
2. Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban
3. Spider-Man 2
4. The Incredibles
5. The Passion of the Christ
6. The Day After Tomorrow
7. Meet the Fockers
8. Troy
9. Shark Tale
10. Ocean's Twelve

What are your top three films for 2004? We will keep a running tally and eventually have some sort of bracket. For me it would be:

1. Before Sunset
2. Clean
3. The Village

What are some of the forgotten gems from the year? What is overrated? What did you discover at a young age and what did you discover later?

YEARS IN FILM • forum.chorus.fm

 

There were a lot of tough films to cut. Kill Bill Volume 2 and Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind were close but couldn't crack the three. Anchorman and Shaun of the Dead are still funny. Collateral and Million Dollar Baby are strong. Tropical Malady, 2046, Moolaade, and Vera Drake are strong. I liked Sideways a lot at the time, but I have no idea if it is actually good or not.

 

1. Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
2. Before Sunset
3. Collateral

Honorable mentions:

Kill Bill Vol. 2
Anchorman
The Incredibles
Sideways
Mean Girls
The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou
Shaun of the Dead
Napoleon Dynamite

Eternal Sunshine is another one of those movies I vividly remember watching. It stuck with me in a way few films do. What can I say about Before Sunset, except it continues one of the most perfect trilogies of all time. I almost gave #3 to Kill Bill Vol. 2 (and maybe should have), but Collateral is such a lean mean thriller, and I really love Cruise's performance. I wish he did more stuff like that.

 

He was awesome in Collateral, really appreciate the work he put into that role.

 

1. Before Sunset
2. Collateral
3. Shaun of the Dead

 

1. Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
2. Before Sunset
3. The Butterfly Effect

4. Shaun of the Dead
5. Kill Bill Vol 2
6. Garden State
7. Dead Man's Shoes
8. Survive Style 5+
9. Howl's Moving Castle
10. Nobody Knows

Also love Dead Leaves, A Hole in My Heart, Harold and Kumar Go to White Castle, Anchorman, Palindromes, Million Dollar Baby, Dawn of the Dead, The Notebook, Collateral, Moolaadé and Vera Drake.

Eternal Sunshine is my all time favourite and Before Sunset is in my top 3 so this is a very strong year for me.

 

I always liked Adaptation more, but I rewatched Eternal Sunshine recently and it still has that energy that made it stick out so much at the time. I've said it before, but the way Synecdoche bombed at the box office really robbed us of some potentially great films. Luckily he is slowly starting to return.

 

1. Before Sunset
2. Collateral
3. The Bourne Supremacy

 

1. Before Sunset
2. Satan’s Little Helper
3. Shaun of the Dead

 

1. Before Sunset
2. Eternal Sunshine
3. Spider-Man 2

probably the only superhero movie I’ll end up voting for in one of these but a friend and I rewatched it the other day and it’s still great. The other two were easier picks, and Collateral, Shaun of the Dead, and Ocean’s Twelve were considerations as well.

 

1. Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
2. Shaun of the Dead
3. Before Sunset

 

1. Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
2. Before Sunset
3. Shaun of the Dead

HM: Collateral, Kill Bill Vol 2, The Incredibles, Man On Fire

 

I think this is a slightly thinner year than others for me, but as always some good stuff.

1. Before Sunset
2. Bad Education
3. Dumplings

Before Sunset might well have the greatest final scene in any film ever?

Bad Education is a semi-autobiographical Almodovar film, told in the messiest most Aldovoar ways, with it's film within a film structure, and performance within a performance. Has the mesmerising Gael Garcia Bernal in it, and the scene of him by the pool is pure eroticism - Almodovar and the camera clearly love him.

Dumplings is the full length version of the 40 minute concept from Three Extremes (also released this year, but not as good). Dumplings is basically the most disgusting ASMR video, at feature length, with absolutely repulsive sound design, that makes me wince and shudder like no other film.

For some honourable mentions;

Maggie Cheung's last film this year, with her ex-husband Olivier Assayas directing in Clean - it's a fairly formulaic tale of addiction and redemption for Assayas, but Cheung is as always mesmerising, and fun to see Nick Nolte pop up, seemingly playing Tom Waits.

Napoleon Dynamite I must have seen about 101 times from like 13 - 16, and I'm sure I could basically quote the whole thing from memory now. It has that endearing quirkiness and charm that so many films have utterly failed to imitate. Shaun of the Dead, will similarly have been a film I'll have watched to oblivion, but continues to make me laugh.

Vera Drake is a great Mike Leigh film about an illegal abortionist in post-war England, with a great central performance (as always with Leigh) from Imelda Staunton.

A couple of good animations from Japan, with the wonderful Howl's Moving Castle from Miyazaki, full of imagination and visual wonders, and Ghost in the Shell 2: Innocence from Mamoru Oshii, and while I know this doesn't have a particularly great reputation, I thought it was mesmerising at times.

House of Flying Daggers is a great wuxia from Zhang Yimou. Maybe not quite as good as Hero from a few years ago, but still good. Kung Fu Hustle is a great and silly parody of sorts of kung fu movies, and one of Stephen Chow's funniest.

Kim Ki Duk's 3-Iron is a great romantic drama, with some interesting ideas and concepts. Relatively rare for a Kim Ki Duk film, he manages to be quite and reserved here, when needed.

Primer is an utterly baffling time travel sci-fi, which despite completely losing the plot at times, I respect the ideas, and the fact that they made the film for about $10.

Everytime I watch In the Mood for Love (which is quite often...), I always think that I want to spend more time in that world and maybe this time I'll be able to enjoy 2046. Hasn't happened yet, but I'm sure I'll keep trying...

 

Seems like more people need to see Satan’s Little Helper…

 

Is this a real movie? You are the only person I follow on Letterboxd that logged it.

 

It is incredible. A yearly Halloween staple. Obviously not a high bar, but far and away the best 2000s direct to Blockbuster shit horror film. I genuinely love it and have for 15 years now

 

1. Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
2. Howl’s Moving Castle
3. Saw

 

Kill Bill 2
Shaun of the Dead
Sideways
Eternal sunshine
The Aviator
Million Dollar Baby

 

1. Before Sunset
2. Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
3. Team America World Police

Some good stuff this year but after 1 there could have been a lot of others at 2 and 3. Not a lot of standouts after Before Sunset. The Village and Collateral are cool.

 

My biggest issue with Team America is that the movie conflates annoying liberal celebrities with hard-right demagogues that were invading countries. Yes, Sean Penn and Alec Baldwin can be annoying and grandstanding, but they are not the same threat.

 

I might have to rewatch it but I didn’t think it was conflating the two, certainly making fun of liberal celebrities but their larger part in the plot is so ridiculous that I didn’t see it on the same level as the American imperialism satire.
At this point I mostly remember the song scenes which are all really really great.

 

1. Mean Girls
2. Spider-Man 2
3. Before Sunset

 

Americans adopting "America, Fuck Yeah!" unironically has soured that one a little bit for me.

 

1.Before Sunset
2.Eternal Sunshine
3.Primer

What a year for classic comedies. Anchor Man, Napoleon Dynamite, Mean Girls, Dodge Ball, Shaun of the Dead!

I remember having discussions with my friends about Primer trying to decipher the plot before someone made that diagram that explained it clearly, one of my first encounters with a film that deliberately had the philosophy of making it difficult with the purpose of rewarding the viewer to solve it. At its heart is a story we'd later see in the Social Network, where the tight knit tech nerds invent something together and get torn apart as it blows up, except instead of it being facebook and lawyers, the most boring shit ever invented its time travel cloning. Its also one of the rare time travel movies where the protagonist doesn't go back in time and kill himself to save his friends, looking at you Butterfly Effect, Donie Darko, Edge of Tomorrow, Looper, Tennent.