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2005

A History of Violence

I am a huge fan of David Cronenberg and this film is largely responsible for that (as well as a long-term love of The Fly, but that's neither here nor there). Taking the (in my opinion) overlong and aimless comic, Cronenberg crafted a lean, mean film about the lingering effects that acts of violence have on those who inflict them. Viggo Mortensen has never been better than here as a man whose past catches up to him when he foils a robbery and becomes a minor celebrity. Cronenberg also uses the trappings of a gripping thriller to explore the idea of screen violence by depicting such scenes as, for example, Mortensen smashing a coffee pot into a man's face, with a complete lack of sensationalism or exploitation, and in doing so creates some of the uncomfortably real images (and sounds) that still shock me every time I watch it.

Kung Fu Hustle

Technically a 2004 film but i saw it 2005 and it's really really good and it's my list anyway so why doesn't everyone just SHUT UP! It's good to let your inner bratty 13-year-old girl out every once in a while. Anyway, watching Stephen Chow's film is, hands down, the most fun I have ever had in a cinema. Chow delights in throwing together cliches from a thousand martial arts movies along with a Looney Tunes sensibility and a commitment to ringing a laugh out of every scene that rivals Mel Brooks or Zucker-Abrahams-Zucker at their height. The story's gossamer thin and barely worth recounting, but the sheer joy that Chow takes in staging his ludicrous fight sequences justifies its place on my list. It's one of a handful of films that is guaranteed to put a huge smile on my face every time I watch it.

2006

Pan's Labyrinth

As someone who has nursed a lifelong love of history and fairy tales, Guillermo del Toro's masterpiece fits very snuggly into the very center of an unusually specific Venn diagram. Del Toro's visuals and story combine beautifully to tell a heartbreaking story of a young girl who discovers a fantasy world which she longs to enter to escape the brutality of the Spanish Civil War (as illustrated by a scene in which a man is killed with a broken bottle, which remains one of those images which disturbs me to this day). When I met Guillermo del Toro at a book signing a few years ago, I told him that the film was one of the first to make me cry in the cinema, and it still holds a very special place in my heart. A haunting and astonishing piece of work.

The Host

Another foreign language film, but one that couldn't really be different from Pan's Labyrinth. This South Korean film from director Boon Jong-Ho (whose most recent film, Mother, should be on everyone's list of the best films of 2010) takes the monster movie format and injects healthy doses of social satire, family drama and clever comedy to create a unique and delightful experience. It feels like six or seven films in one, each of them great, but when combined they form an all more mighty beast.

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