The biz buzz cooled for movies in 2004, though Mel Gibson ("The Passion of the Christ") and Michael Moore ("Fahrenheit 9/11") raised temperatures by jamming fierce new crowds into theaters.
"The Polar Express" chugs along, prettily. Documentaries supersized in impact. Jack Valenti retired. Brando died. Christianity survived Gibson's gift.
Not a grand year for art, but the film game remains more plus than minus. In that spirit I add the pluses to deal seven doubles:
1) "Sideways" plus "The Motorcycle Diaries" – Travelers. Alexander Payne's wise California comedy of a wine-soaked teacher (ace nerd Paul Giamatti) and his slob friend (scene-heister Thomas Haden Church) is the year's finest vintage. Walter Salles' subtle ramble in South America with young Che Guevara (terrific Gael García Bernal) is a poem of destiny, unfolding.
2) "The Aviator" plus "Sky Captain and the World of
Tomorrow" – Fliers. Martin Scorsese has a lavish aerial fling with young Howard Hughes (Leonardo DiCaprio); a crash and Cate Blanchett's sexy Kate Hepburn top it. Kerry Conran's dizzy retro update on flighty 1940s serials is a lovable windup fantasy, a can-do triumph that should have hit bigger.
3) "The Corporation" plus "Fahrenheit 9/11" – Shockers. Cool, knowing, worried, the documentary on global growth mania drives home key points as John Kerry couldn't. Partisan and proud of it, Moore's contra-Bush broadside is a wartime lampoon grenade that rips open tragedy.
4) "Before Sunset" plus "Flesh and Blood" – Heroines. Julie Delpy, who is sex made intelligent, returns for more sexy talk as the French love muse of Ethan Hawke, in Richard Linklater's swift, pure sequel. Jonathan Karsh's doc on totally giving mom Susan Tom and her afflicted brood of adopted kids is a gut-grabber of awesome integrity.
5) "Beyond the Sea" plus "Ray" – Singers. Kevin Spacey's loving, swinging salute to Bobby Darin will be reviewed tomorrow. In "Ray," Jamie Foxx is all soul, sex, art, hurt and power as Ray Charles.
6) "Twilight Samurai" plus "Kill Bill, Vol. 2" – Swords. Yoji Yamada's exquisitely made story of a domestic but fated samurai is human every instant. Quentin Tarantino's second onslaught with la fab Uma Thurman brings rich closure to a dashing revenge comedy, plus a gulp of mother love.
7) "I'm Not Scared" plus "Touching the Void" –
Survivors. In Gabriele Salvatores' heart-grip Italian film, a boy risks all to save another child lost in darkness. In "Void," a restaged mountain ordeal feels documentary, as a wounded climber descends through hell on guts and luck.
(And thanks for: "Bad Education," "Birth," "Bukowski," "Crimson Gold," "The Door in the Floor," "Facing Windows," "The Fog of War," "Garden State," "Girl With a Pearl Earring," "Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban," "House of Flying Daggers," "The Incredibles," "The Life Aquatic With Steve Zissou," "Maria Full of Grace," "Millennium Mambo," "Monsieur Ibrahim," "My Architect," "Riding Giants," "She Hate Me," "A Slipping-Down Life," "Super Size Me," "Vera Drake," "The Village," "Young Adam," "Zelary," "Zero Hour.")
