Top 10 of 2005

It’s interesting to note that many of the films I’d pick as the Top 10 of 2005, happen to be romances.

In the mood for love am I?
Here we go:

10. In Good Company
Topher Grace, Dennis Quaid and Scarlett Johansson make good company in this movie. Identifying with the loneliness in this one, I can.

9. Perhaps Love
It’s been some time since a Chinese musical gets celluloid treatment and the complex romance draws you in, together with a myriad of rich colours and costumes.

8. Closer
Beautiful cast with dysfunctional characters. Questions of modern day romances and insecurity have never been raised so subtly.

7. Be With Me
Don’t worry Eric Khoo. The Academy might have disqualified your movie on a technicality, but I’d rank it as the best local movie to date. So much strength with so much unsaid. Inspirational.

6. Crying Out Love, in the Center of the World
Classic Japanese love story on teenage romance, and love lost.

5. Millions
A boy, his trains, his imagination of the Saints, his longing for his mom, and loads of cash. Unconventional, excellent material.

4. Be With You
This is yet another Japanese drama-weepy, which is on one hand so saccharine sweet, and the other, so painfully sad. Emotional roller coaster this one.

3. Der Untergang aka Downfall
The last hours of Hitler and his Nazi cronies are so accurately portrayed, you might mistake this for a documentary. Extremely engaging, up to the last minute.

2. Saving Face
Chinese / Asian values being looked at in a refreshing way. So what if it’s a lesbian romance when the themes explored are so universal?

And my number one movie for 2005
1. Crash
Compelling star-studded cast, tackling racism head on. Plot and narrative so nicely done, how they all come together at the end, you’d hardly find flaws. The song at the finale did it for me.


Notable Mention (Alphabetical Order)

Batman Begins
Cinderella Man
Constantine
Finding Neverland
Frank Miller’s Sin City
Goal!
Hotel Rwanda
In My Father’s Den
King Kong
Kontroll (Fantastic Film Fest)
Million Dollar Baby
Perth (also Screen Singapore)
Ray
Sideways
Spanglish
Swing Girls
The 40 Year Old Virgin
The Hidden Blade
Tim Burton’s Corpse Bride
Wallace & Gromit in The Curse of the Were-Rabbit