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TOP TEN
1. Memento
Cleverly told backward through the eyes of a man with no short-term memory, Memento regenerates film noir as a labyrinth of obsession, futility and delusion. No other film this year was so utterly ingenious, so fascinatingly enigmatic, as Christopher Nolan's masterwork.
2. In the Mood for Love
Wong Kar-Wai's dreamy, kaleidoscopic visual images give this tale of betrayal and unrequited romance in early 1960s Hong Kong a gently impressionistic glow.
3. Mulholland Drive
Nobody understands the puzzling logic of dreams-full of overwrought symbolic trickery and fueled by the desperate need to justify our most unforgivable acts-better than David Lynch. In Mulholland Drive the end is the beginning is the end, and Lynch dares to leave the final meaning up to us.
4. When the Rain Lifts
Made from Akira Kurosawa's last screenplay by his longtime cinematographer, Takashi Koizumi, this is a beautifully crafted fable about an amiable samurai in ancient Japan. Unfortunately, the film only played here one night, at the Portland International Film Festival.
5. The Royal Tenenbaums
Although less focused than Rushmore, Wes Anderson's Salinger-esque portrait of a dysfunctional family of ex-prodigies ultimately has more heart. Meanwhile, Anderson continues to display a genius for extracting larger meaning from the tiniest minutiae of his characters' lives. No matter how absurd they are, Anderson shows his characters an undying affection that's contagious.
6. Sexy Beast
Eschewing hackneyed heist movie formulas, Jonathan Glazer's directorial debut is a fresh look at how, for all its cushy trappings, you can't ever retire from a career in the underworld. Glazer also draws spectacular performances from Ben Kingsley and Ray Winstone.
7. With a Friend Like Harry
The spirit of Hitchcock lives on in Dominik Moll's thriller about a family man whose life becomes dominated by a psychopathic old high school pal.
8. Ghost World
For all the teen comedies to come along in the last decade, this is one of the only ones to capture the comic, pointless, lonely, existential, angst-ridden travails of adolescence.
9. Under the Sand
Featuring a tour-de-force performance by the ever-luminous Charlotte Rampling, wunderkind French filmmaker Francois Ozon explores the way grief can progress into outright madness with artful ambiguity.
10. Waking Life
Forget the animation and the nonexistent plot: This movie is a treasure trove of ideas. Writer-director Richard Linklater dares to ask big questions that he can't answer, forging an impressionistic chat room about reincarnation, war, technology, religion and, most of all, the nature of dreams themselves. His brilliant mess is better than most filmmakers' well-executed formulas.
HONORABLE MENTIONS: The Man Who Wasn't There, The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring, Cure, The Princess and the Warrior, The Deep End, Chunghyang, Gosford Park, Ocean's 11, Suzhou River, Brother, L.I.E., Hybrid, Moulin Rouge, Benjamin Smoke
Worst Film of the Year: Freddy Got Fingered
Most Overrated: Shrek
Most Underrated: Brother
Best Performances: Charlotte Rampling, Under the Sand; Ben Kingsley, Sexy Beast; Guy Pierce, Memento; Franka Potente, The Princess and the Warrior; Nicole Kidman, Moulin Rouge; Ray Winstone, Sexy Beast
David Walker's Year in Review
SORT-OF TOP TEN (IN ALPHABETICAL ORDER)
1. Amelie
Sometimes all a film really needs to do is make you smile. But this film makes you feel good to be alive.
2. Battle Royale
Kinji Fukasaku's brutal tale of teenagers pitted in a game of kill-or-be-killed will probably never see the light of day in U.S. theaters, but you can find copies for sale on the Internet.
3. Brother
Takeshi "Beat" Kitano says more with his silent stares than any American tough guy actor can with a script full of dialogue. In Brother, Kitano plays a yakuza gangster who ventures to America-showing how it's done in more ways than one.
4. Brotherhood of the Wolf
It has yet to play here in the States, but French director Christophe Gans' film is a loving homage to the coolest of the cool film genres-kung fu, westerns, horror and samurai.
5. Ghost World
Like a grown up John Hughes film, Terry Zwigoff's bittersweet tale of a recent high-school graduate (Thora Birch) stuck in the limbo between adolescence and adulthood is a beautiful reminder of how painful being a teenager can be.
6. The Lord of the Rings: Fellowship of the Ring
An epic tale of good vs. evil, Peter Jackson's adapataion of J.R.R. Tolkien's novel is a beautiful marriage of breathtaking special effects and great acting.
7. Memento
The best movie of the year. But I can't remember why.
8. The Road Home
I'm not going to lie, I cried my eyes out watching this tale of a young Chinese woman (Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon's Zhang Yiyi) who falls in love with the man who has come to teach at her village.
9. The Royal Tenenbaums
Like someone telling you about his dysfunctional family, between the laughter, the tears and the "thank God this isn't my family" feelings, Wes Anderson's film draws you in so close you feel like you are part of the love and insanity.
10. Shrek and Monsters, Inc.
Not just for kids, these two animated features took the high road of intelligence in a year when unbridled stupidity reigned in mainstream films.
HONORABLE MENTIONS: Chopper, Heist, The Endurance, In the Mood for Love, Jump Tomorrow, A Knight's Tale, Pootie Tang
WORST OF THE YEAR:
Baby Boy-John Singleton's film plays like a bad comedy-only it's a drama.
Hannibal-Kind of like having someone peel your skull back and eat your brain.
Lara Croft: Tomb Raider-If you saw it, you know what I mean.
The Musketeer-Steaming, radioactive dung.
Say It Isn't So-It was so: a "comedy" about incest.
3,000 Miles to Graceland-Kevin Costner strikes again.
Waking Life-The year's most pretentious piece of crap.
DISHONORABLE MENTIONS: American Outlaws, Driven, Fast Food Fast Women, Happy Accidents, Valentine, Wet Hot American Summer, anything starring Leelee Sobieski
WWeek 2015