My Favorite Movies of 2004

With the heaviness of politics this year, I was even less tolerant than usual of heavy films (melodramas, biopics & other Oscar bait), preferring instead films (often comedies) that had the grace to stay light on their feet.

TOP TEN
1. I Heart Huckabees
2. Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
3. Before Sunset
4. The Life Aquatic
5. Sideways
6. The Saddest Music in the World
7. Kill Bill, V.2
8. Coffee and Cigarettes
9. Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban
10. Bad Education

RUNNERS-UP
Los Angeles Plays Itself, Red Lights, A Very Long Engagement, The Door in the Floor, Spiderman 2, Finding Neverland, Napoleon Dynamite, Cellular, Ripley's Game, Shaun of the Dead.

HONORABLE MENTIONS (the next twenty)
Nobody Knows, Hotel Rwanda, Moolaade, Being Julia, Bon Voyage, Bear Cub, The Aviator, Hellboy, The Village, Kinsey, The Trilogy (On the Run; An Amazing Couple; After Life), Vera Drake, Starsky and Hutch, Since Otar Left, The Incredibles, Million Dollar Baby, Broadway: The American Musical (PBS), Broadway: The Golden Age, The Terminal, The Return

AWARDS
Best Actress: Annette Benning (Being Julia)
Runners-Up: Bryce Dallas Howard, (The Village); Julie Delpy (Before Sunset); Uma Thurman (Kill Bill, v.2); Imelda Staunton (Vera Drake)
Best Actor: Paul Giamatti (Sideways)
Runners-Up: Gael Garcia Bernal (Bad Education); Jeff Bridges (The Door in the Floor); Tobey Maguire (Spiderman 2); Simon Pegg (Shaun of the Dead)
Best Supporting Actor: Mark Wahlberg (I Heart Huckabees)
Runners-Up: Thomas Haden Church (Sideways); Gordon Liu (Kill Bill, v.2); Nick Nolte (Hotel Rwanda); David Thewlis (Harry Potter ATPOA)
Best Supporting Actress: Kim Basinger (The Door in the Floor)
Runners-Up: Cate Blanchett (Coffee and Cigarettes / The Aviator / The Life Aquatic); Darryl Hannah (Kill Bill v.2); Virginie Ledoyen (Bon Voyage); Naomi Watts (I Heart Huckabees)
Best Comic Performance: Bill Murray (The Life Aquatic & Coffee and Cigarettes)
Runners-Up: Brad Bird (The Incredibles); Jon Heder (Napoleon Dynamite); Alfred Molina and Steve Coogan (Coffee and Cigarettes); Lilly Tomlin (I Heart Huckabees)

Best Child Performance: Freddie Highmore (Finding Neverland)
Best Adolescent Performance: Jon Foster (The Door in the Floor)
Best Cameo: David Hasselhoff (The SpongeBob Square Pants Movie)
Best Use of a Star's Persona: (tie) David Carradine (Kill Bill Vol. 2) and Isabella Rossellini (The Saddest Music in the World)
2004 Christina Ricci "It" Girl Award: Jude Law (6 films!)
Best Director: Alexander Payne (Sideways)
Best tagline: "If you're sad, and like beer, I'm your lady." (Saddest Music in the World)

Activist Film of the Year: Fahrenheit 9/11
Most Overrated Film: Tarnation
Most Underrated Film: The Village
Best Gay/Queer film: Bear Cub

Best Film Critic: Dave Kehr - His new post at the Times reviewing DVDs is a perfect fit for his awesome talents.