Redoing the 21st Century Best Picture Nominees Part 1 (2000–2004)
I want you to closely examine the following two groups of films:
2001: A Space Odyssey (1968)
Apocalypse Now (1979)
Bicycle Thieves (1948)
Citizen Kane (1941)
Psycho (1961)
Seven Samurai (1960)
Tokyo Story (1953)
Vertigo (1958)
The Apartment (1960)
From Here to Eternity (1953)
Gigi (1958)
Hamlet (1948)
How Green Was My Valley (1941)
Kramer vs Kramer (1979)
Oliver! (1968)
On The Waterfront (1960)
The first list is contains films considered to the be the greatest of all time. The second list are the Best Picture winners for the years those greatest films came out. Citizen Kane, a film I don’t particularly love myself, but one that’s routinely regarded as one of the best films of all time, lost at the Oscars to a film called How Green Was My Valley. How often have you read or heard people talk about How Green Was My Valley, let alone give a brief explanation of the films plot?
Best Picture winners hardly reflect the best films. This isn’t to say that they always get it wrong, however. The Godfather is in the Top 5 of nearly every Greatest Films of all time list, and it won Best Picture. Sadly for every year that the Academy “gets it right” like they did with The Godfather, there are 4 5 or 6 years they miss the mark on.
In defense of the Academy for a small moment, it’s often hard to know what a classic is within 3–4 months of seeing that particular film. Take The Shawshank Redemption for example, it was a commercial bomb at the box office and completely ignored at the Academy Awards that year. The Shawshank Redemption didn’t even find an audience until it’s successful runs on cable television. Go to IMDB.com and you’ll see The Shawshank Redemption at number 1 for Greatest Film of All Time.
One of my professors at the University of Oklahoma briefly described the problem with the Oscars in a nutshell: voters are forced to decide the years best film in a few weeks period. From the time the nominees are announced, they have less than a month to cast a vote for the best film. Or favorite. Or whatever metric they decide. He believed that great works of art don’t reveal themselves within a month. The greatest films of all time stand the test of time. They are relevant not just five years later, but twenty years or even fifty years later. If he had it his way, the Oscars in a few weeks wouldn’t be honoring the best films of 2016, but rather 2006. It gives time for people to reflect on the films and find what holds up.
With the Oscars coming at the end of this month, I had some ideas rolling around in my head about revisiting all the Best Picture winners since 2000 and ranking them. While I feel like the Academy has gotten some of the Best Picture winners right (12 Years A Slave for example), they’ve also gotten it blatantly wrong other years (Argo). Not only that, most of the nominees in a given year are better than the film that actually won. Some of the best movies this century were never even nominated!
So starting with the year 2000, I’m going to redo the Academy Awards for Best Picture and highlight which films I think should have been nominated and which one I think should have won.
Here we go!
The real nominees for Best Picture (winners indicated by bold):
Chocolat
Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon
Erin Brokovich
Gladiator
Traffic
Gladiator is one of the worst Best Picture winners this century. For the overused and referenced quote “are you not entertained?” it gave us, there are a lot of editing problems in Gladiator (that’s another post for another time). I don’t even find the story to be that compelling. It’s not even that long of a film and yet it took me 3 nights of sheer willpower to finish it. It’s a poor man’s action film with a meddling plot, subpar acting by Russell Crowe, and a complete mess of editing on action scenes. People get angry when they said Crash won Best Picture. I’m angry that Gladiator won.
There’s only 1 film I would keep from this list, which would be Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon. I wish I could vouch for Traffic, but I’ve never seen the film. It sat in my Netflix queue for years, and last I checked, it’s not on their anymore. Sorry Soderbergh! Speaking of Soderbergh, I wasn’t a huge fan of Erin Brokovich, mainly due to me just not enjoying Julia Roberts. She’s far from my favorite actress. Which is a shame because Erin Brokovich is a great person who accomplished a tremendous feat in protesting against PG&E in the early 90s. As for Chocolat, I’ve never seen the film. I’ve heard very positive feedback on the film, but I don’t expect that I’ll be going out of my way to view it anytime soon.
My nominees for Best Picture in the Year 2000 are…
Almost Famous
Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon
In the Mood for Love
O Brother, Where Art Thou?
Requiem for a Dream
Almost Famous is a superb film that I finally watched a few years back. I’m not huge on the coming-of-age movies, but there’s a resonant and honest way to how Cameron Crowe presented the film. There’s one big reason for that, Crowe himself was a writer for Rolling Stone at an early age. Anyone else does this film and I don’t think it carries the same soul.
In the Mood for Love comes from Wong Kar-Wai, better known for his 1994 film Chungking Express. Simply put, there’s not a better foreign film from this year. I often touch on how some directors have a certain soulful characteristic to their work, their craft goes beyond simple mechanics or technical precision. On a philosophical level, they understand film and often reject simple conventions. They aren’t afraid to challenge conventional norms when it comes storytelling. Wong Kar-Wai fits this in bill a way only directors like Terrence Malick and Andrei Tarkovsky can. In the Mood for Love details an adulterous relationship in Hong Kong during the 1960s and how it impacts their lives over the next few decades. Kar-Wai is known for his use of color. In the Mood For Love’s use of color reminds me heavily of Stanley Kubrick’s last film Eyes Wide Shut. He’s not afraid to use hues of red, blue, green, or purple. His films are unashamedly filled with color, a trait that I often wish more directors would utilize.
O Brother, Where Art Thou? is one my favorite Coen Brothers films. A retelling of the Odyssey, this film is actually historically important from an editing standpoint: it was one of the first films to be completely colorized digitally (something every single film does now). Coen’s magnum opus is No Country for Old Men and The Big Lebowski has a massive cult following, but O Brother, Where Art Thou? is safely their third best film. And I can’t imagine anyone taking offense to that.
I had a hard time putting Requiem for a Dream on here. If the Academy Award nominations were up to me, I would have highlighted the ass to ass scene right after the In Memoriam segment. Or maybe after Best Children’s Film (not a real Oscar). Joking aside, Requiem for a Dream is one the most terrifying films I’ve ever scene. Fear and anxiety are often reserved for horror, but those convey fear and insecurities in an illogical kind of way. Requiem for a Dream haunted me for a few weeks after I saw it, to the extent that I was actually quite angry I watched it (I was 15 at the time). That’s not an emotional response many films get from me. I gave Requiem for a Dream the final nomination spot over another 2000 film, American Psycho.
The Best film of 2000 is…
The Academy Award nominees for 2001 were:
A Beautiful Mind
Gosford Park
In the Bedroom
Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring
Moulin Rouge!
I’m cutting four films here. No disrespect to Gosford Park or Moulin Rouge!, but I haven’t seen any of you guys even though I have a high desire to do so. That leaves A Beautiful Mind, In The Bedroom, and The Fellowship of the Ring. I actually enjoy each of these films to a high degree. A Beautiful Mind isn’t historically accurate, but I actually don’t think you would be able to tell this story without adding the visual hallucinations. For those who are unaware, the film was criticized heavily for not accurately portraying Nash’s struggle with schizophrenia. He never appeared to have any sort of visual hallucination, but only audible. That would be a tough film to make accurately, and I think A Beautiful Mind got the point across fairly well. It’s not making my list here, however. If we were adhering to the Academy’s expanded Best Picture nominee rules from 2009 to the present, it would be a shoe-in.
The Fellowship of the Ring, for all the flak that Lord of the Rings can get, is the best in the trilogy for a number of reasons: pace, story structure, McKellan as Gandalf the Grey, an under-reliance on CGI, and editing that fairly gives its ensemble cast the amount of depth for viewers to connect with. Whether you like Lord of the Rings or not, The Fellowship of the Ring is an achievement in many ways, so it’s staying.
The Best Films of 2001 are:
Amelie
The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring
Mulholland Dr.
Spirited Away
Y Tu Mama Tambien
At face value I never expected to enjoy or admire Amelie. Sometimes films can have this raw kinetic energy about them where it comes across as trying too hard. The colors are unnecessarily bright, the characters try to hard to fit into a quirky personality, the editing tries to be flashy and spontaneous, and overall is just too full of itself. The film screams to itself “Look! I’m quirky and unique!”. Amelie somehow manages to take all of that and execute it well. The script by Guillaume Laurant creates a world with interesting characters without seeming full of itself. The characters, while unique, have relatable faults within them. Audrey Tatou fucking nails the lead performance as the titular Amelie. The entire film hinges on her performance. The wrong actress could have easily sent the film into campy territory or overwrought pretentiousness. I’m often at a loss for words for why I like the movie so much, all I remember is that it crumbled and destroyed all the preconceived notions I had about it. It’s easy to look at teh trailer of the film and dismiss it, but you’d be doing yourself a damn disservice. It’s a fun film that you wouldn’t expect.
Mulholland Dr. might be the greatest troll film of all time. I can usually decipher or get a sense of what’s going on a film. It’s been nearly a decade since I first saw this film and I’m still at a loss for words. Usually I call films like this pretentious, but I can’t help feel like there’s meaning to be found here. One of my favorite Russian Film theories deals with the concept of estrangement. Estrangement is the concept that when you watch films over and over, you become more familiar with their structure and execution. Estrangement means you take every aspect that makes something familiar and throw it away. It causes the audience to look at the film and question what is going on. It forces them to engage and search for a deeper meaning. The best director’s on the planet are masters at executing this technique. Mulholland Drive might be the worlds best example of estrangement. When it comes to storytelling, you don’t know what the fuck is possibly going on. As soon as the movie is over, you frantically go to Google to understand what the film is about. That’s what every director dreams of accomplishing. George Clooney has famously said that he hopes he creates works of art that aren’t forgotten after opening weekend. Well, George, I’ve got the perfect film you need to study. When I watch Mulholland Dr, I struggle to find meaning and wonder, but I can’t help but look on.
Spirited Away is animated film by legendary Japanese director Hayao Miyazaki. Before I took my Japanese film course at OU, I was completely ignorant of anything anime. We know the stereotypes out there and the normal conventions that anime has carved out for itself. Miyazaki might be the most important voice in animation. He’s the Spielberg of the anime world. No other Japanese animator has gotten the worldwide respect and western market penetration that Miyazaki has. Roger Ebert hailed Miyazaki as the best animated storytelling of all time. Spirited Away follows a young girl as she accidentally travels to the spirit world after her family finds an abandoned town. I had the opportunity to view much of his work over that semester and gained a profound respect for his work. Miyazaki, like many other Japanese directors, uses his work as a commentary on Japan. Spirited Away is a commentary on a Japan that no longer exists, a Japan that is rampant with consumerism and greed. An underrated aspect of Miyazaki’s work is the execution of how it portrays children. I often find myself cringing at American representation of children, often providing them with a sense of urgency and agency to correct what adults can’t perceive. Miyazaki doesn’t shy away from the fact that kids perceive differently from adults, but he portrays them as scared and not completely understanding of the world around them. It’s a real and honest portrayal of innocence.
Y Tu Mama Tambien comes from director Alfonso Cuaron, who many might know for his work on Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, Children of Men, and Gravity. Before making English films in Hollywood and London, he hit the international scene with Y Tu Mama Tambien. A a coming of age story about two sexually active teenagers as they go on a road trip with a woman in their late twenties. What transpires on the road trip forever changes the young boys. Y Tu Mama Tambien had a shocking ending at the time for a few reasons, but still carries resonance 15 years later.
When picking the best film for this year, you could make an argument for any one of these films. Amelie might be the best film from top to bottom, but for some reason I can’t seem to pull the trigger and call it the best film. Spirited Away is one of the best animated films from legendary director Miyazaki, but I wouldn’t call it my favorite film of 2001 let alone my favorite anime. The only film I feel like I can put here is a film that most people don’t even understand at all. The Best Film of 2001 is:
The Academy Award nominees for 2002 were:
Chicago
Gangs of New York
The Hours
Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers
The Pianist
Never saw Chicago or The Hours, so those two are out. Again, no disrespect. The Two Towers has a litany of problems and is the worst Lord of the Rings film, so it’s out too. Gangs of New York, like many Scorsese films, is overrated. So that gets the boot as well. Which leaves me with The Pianist. I don’t love the film, but I have a great amount of respect for it. It stays by default because looking over the year 2002… a pitiful amount of good domestic films. It’s another year dominated by international heavyweights.
The nominees for 2002 are:
City of God
Minority Report
The Pianist
Talk to Her
The Twilight Samurai
Foreign films continue their dominance in the early part of the century, as City of God (Brazil), Talk To Her (Spain), and The Twilight Samurai (Japan) are three of my picks.
City of God is easily one of the Top 5 foreign films of the century. Plunging the viewer into the depths of the Rio de Janeiro slums, it’s a horrifying look at the underbelly of this bustling city known for it’s beaches. I studied a large part of Italian Neo-realism in college and City of God is one of the few modern films that takes the technical and storytelling elements from this underrated genre. Deep focus gives us a clear and often suffocating look to the slums. The narrow streets of the slums increase the tension of many of the scenes, giving the viewer a feeling that they are unable to escape the slums themselves. The slums feel like a labyrinth that you’ll never escape. If this film had been American produced, the shallow focus would lose the character of the slums, which would sap the authenticity. Further use of non-actors for characters leads to a credence of reality that professional actors would have a much harder time conveying. Most of these kids really lived in the favelas of Rio, and a few them were actually in gangs. Further use of on-location filming and before you know it, it feels like you’re watching a news documentary. When it comes to style, tone, and storytelling, few do better than City of God.
The Twilight Samurai might be the most overlooked Japanese film I’ve ever watched. Following a low ranking Samurai, Seibei Iguchi struggles to juggle life after his wife passes away. Left to take care of his mother who has dementia and two young daughters, he quickly falls out of favor with the local samurai clan. Matters are complicated when his childhood friend, Tomoe, returns to town (a female samurai). Tomoe’s divorced husband shows up and duels Seibei. It becomes quickly apparent that not only is Seibei a good samurai, he might be the best.
Japanese cinema is usually defined by it’s old golden years, when cinematic pioneers Akira Kurosawa and Yasujiro Ozu dominated the international film scene. Modern Japanese cinema hasn’t quite replicated those powerful voices. As South Korea, China, and Thailand have churned out high quality directors like Bong Joon-Ho, Wong Kar-Wai, and Apichatpong Weerasethakul, I’ve struggled to find a consistent Japanese auteur. Yoji Yamada directed The Twilight Samurai, but this was his 74th film. SEVENTY FOURTH! Many of which are part of the Tora-san series (a huge deal in Japan, but much less so outside). The Twilight Samurai is a diamond in the rough. It doesn’t have the star power actor or famous director, but it’s one of the finest films to come out of Japan this century.
Talk to Her is from acclaimed Spanish director Pedro Aldomovor, and honestly, the less I say about this film, the better. It’s a drama. It’s a comedy. It’s about two men who form a friendship because the women the both care for are in comas. It’s an incredibly powerful film that handles loss in a way that hasn’t been done since Krzysztof Kieślowski.
Minority Report certainly feels like sore thumb in this list, but is a solid film on its own. This isn’t exacly a hot take of epic proportions here, but Minority Report is Steven Spielberg’s penultimate great film. A lot of Spielberg’s current films lack a soul, passion, and fine attention to detail. I think Spielberg is bored of making films. He’s currently in the same area Stanley Kubrick found himself in when he made Barry Lyndon, a technical masterpiece that bores you to sleep.
Minority Report is based on Philip K. Dick’s short story of the same name, which was released in 1956. Spielberg meticulously fuses a high concept idea into a thinking man’s thriller while blending styles of dystopian science fiction and late 1940’s film noir. Tom Cruise was riding a wave of critically acclaimed roles at the turn of the century and Minority Report is one of his finest outings.
The Best Film of 2002 is…
The Academy Award nominees for Best Picture in 2003 were:
The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King
Lost in Translation
Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World
Mystic River
Seabiscuit
I’m getting rid of all of — wait, hold on a second. It appears that this is the first year I actually agree for the most part. I’m cutting Seabiscuit because spoiler alert: movies about horses bore me to tears. I’m a bit of a sport fanatic but there’s a big disconnect in my brain when horse racing is involved. Granted, I probably shouldn’t talk because I love golf.
The real nominees for 2003 are:
The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King
Lost in Translation
Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World
Memories of Murder
Mystic River
The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King absolutely cleaned up at the Academy Awards in 2003 winning all eleven categories it was nominated in, tying the record for most wins alongside Titanic and Ben-Hur. I mentioned above that The Fellowship of the Ring is the best Lord of the Rings film, but The Return of the King is fine in it’s own right. Star Wars fans will probably always feel duped, but Science Fiction films have always been largely disregarded at the Academy Awards. A bulk of the awards The Return of the King won were technical awards, and it deserved every single one of them. Peter Jackson absolutely deserved the Best Director award because as a whole, The Lord of the Rings were quite an achievement at the time. The Oscars are known for giving out legacy Oscars and that perfectly sums up Peter Jackson’s win. It’s not just for Return of the King, but the entire trilogy. Did it deserve to win Best Picture? I’m not going to say it didn’t, but I’m not sure I would have made same pick.
Lost in Translation comes from Sofia Coppola, daughter of famed and legendary director Francis Ford Coppola. It’s now 2017 and Sofia Coppola’s career never blew up like I imagined it would. I was 100 percent that she would the first female director to win an Oscar for directing. Alas, Kathryn Bigelow beat her to the punch and I’m not sure we’ll ever see Sofia Coppola on stage. Lost in Translation is a superb film. If Return of the King wasn’t released in 2003, Lost in Translation would have easily won Best Picture. I’m honestly shocked it didn’t pull off the Shakespeare in Love over Saving Private Ryan upset the Academy is known for. The film follows Bob (Bill Murray) and Charlotte (Scarlett Johansson) as they both have turbulent relationships with their significant others. Lost in a seemingly alien world of Tokyo, Japan, both cross paths at their hotel and become revitalized by one another’s presence. Lost in Translation superbly uses it’s environment in a way that wouldn’t be seen again until Spike Jonze’s film Her. The city of Tokyo is just as much of a character as Bob and Charlotte with the Tokyo symbolizing a different meaning for each character. The ending of Lost in Translation spurred online debates that still continue to this day.
Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World’s only crime was that it was released so close to Pirates of the Caribbean. Directed by acclaimed director Peter Weir, Master and Commander signifies the end of era when epic drama films could be made. Peter Weir remarked on this in 2009 when he stated the the film industry had left him behind, and that nobody wanted to hear his stories anymore. Master and Commander was intended to be a series. Russell Crowe and Paul Bettany were signed on for multiple sequels, but unfortunately the series never gained traction. This might be the most underrated and overlooked Best Picture nominee this century. Instead of focusing on the cinematography, writing, or acting, I want to focus on one aspect that Master and Commander is a technical achievement: sound editing and design. If there’s one film to test out your new speaker system, it’s this film. The first ship battle scene had my jaw on the floor. As cannonballs raced by the screen and destroyed the ship, you can hear every piece of wood being blown into a million little pieces. The attention to detail in the sound department hasn’t been matched since, and the only film that comes even remotely close in this department is Michael Mann’s 1995 Heat. Master and Commander may never be remembered as one of the greatest films of all time and that’s okay, just as long as it’s never forgotten.
Memories of Murder comes from South Korean director Bong-Joon Ho. The film is based on the true story of a South Korean serial killer from the end of the 80s to the early 90s. Park Doo-man (Song Kang-ho) is a local detective that finds himself embroiled in a series of rapes and killings of young women. He is joined by an experienced but young detective from Seoul, Seo Tae-yoon (Kim Sang-kyung). The best aspect of Memories or Murder is that it treats every single one of its characters as human. Both detectives make mistakes and hold biases against the other detective. Neither man can agree on the best methods to go forward. The detectives use the cliche method of handling suspects, often relegating itself to the “good cop, bad cop” schtick but Memories of Murder is brilliant in it’s execution of this concept. The humor of the local “bad cop” brings much needed comedic relief from the dim and grisly subject matter, while the experienced good cop delivers the emotional weight that brings resonance to the viewer. Memories of Murder remains one of my favorite foreign films, and I’ll always remember this film fondly for helping me grasp a better understanding of foreign films. I first watched Memories of Murder in 2006 and it helped dispel many false truths and perceived notions about foreign films. Ultimately the film helped me be less intimidated to watch foreign films going forward, and I’ll always thank it for that.
Mystic River is a solid film, but one that I rather don’t find myself passionate about. Clint Eastwood is an acclaimed director, but the fact of the matter is there’s only one film that he’s directed that I absolutely loved (which I’ll get to in part two). The thing is, I find Clint Eastwood’s style of filmmaking on the boring side sometimes. The stories he covers are superb, but the style in which he executes his films feel overly safe and not risky enough. So why is Mystic River on here? Well, I’m not removing it for Seabiscuit dammit. The fact of the matter is, 2003 wasn’t a superb year. I like Mystic River, but Big Fish, Kill Bill Vol 1, The Last Samurai, and Cold Mountain aren’t better films. So Mystic River almost falls into this final spot by default.
When it comes to the Best Film of 2003, it’s a close race between Lost in Translation and Memories of Murder. However, the foreign domination from 2000 to 2002 comes to an end here.
The Best Film of 2003 is…
The nominees for Academy Award for Best Picture in 2004 are:
The Aviator
Finding Neverland
Million Dollar Baby
Ray
Sideways
Goodbye The Aviator, Finding Neverland, Million Dollar Baby, and Ray. Ray gets removed because I’ve never seen it. The Aviator and Finding Neverland are good films, but ones that I don’t believe have held up very well 13 years later. I mentioned about that I thought Clint Eastwood makes good stories, but wraps them up with an incredibly boring style of filmmaking. Million Dollar Baby is anything but a joyful film. I’d be interested in revisiting it down the road, but I remember the first time I watched the film I didn’t walk about feeling like a million dollars. The Aviator is another film in my long list of Scorsese films that have had zero impact on me. I’ll never forget the flack I caught in film school when I said I didn’t enjoy any of Scorsese’s films. I might have been better off setting the OU football stadium on fire.
Now, I’ll be the first person to admit that when it comes to 2004, my knowledge of films from this year is a little lacking. It was right around this period that I really started watching more films (I was only 14 at the time). Usually for each year I’ve seen anywhere from 25 to 50 films. When I was looking over my notes for 2004, I had only seen 16. Yikes. So if there’s one year from this entire list you want to take with a grain of salt, I won’t be offended. The Passion of the Christ, Collateral, Vera Drake, Before Sunset, The Motorcycle Diaries, The Sea Inside, and I Heart Huckabees are all films I would love to see. So it’s damn possible that a few years from now my 2004 picks could look very different. But without further ado:
The real nominees for 2004 are:
Downfall
Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
Hotel Rwanda
The Incredibles
Sideways
Downfall might be more recognized online for the meme where Adolf Hitler is passionately upset for getting banned from Xbox Live (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sfkDxF2kn1I) but don’t let that distract you that Downfall is a powerhouse of a film. Detailing the final days of Hitler, Bruno Ganz should have absolutely won the Oscar for Best Actor in 2004 (but on a serious note, when would the Oscars ever reward someone for playing Hitler?). Downfall touches on a much more serious note that critics have debated: did the at times sympathetic portrayal of Hitler help the Neo-Nazi movement? How do you portray the most evil figure of modern times and make him human? Downfall is one of two films that I believe that can instantly lead to a philosophical debate about perception vs portrayal (the other film being The Hunt).
I’m still not sure how this film didn’t even manage to grab a Best Picture nomination, but Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind is the most unique film of the first decade of the century. I don’t believe there’s a more distinguished writer in Hollywood than Charlie Kaufman. Kaufman hasn’t written my favorite films of all time but the style in which he writes is incomparable. Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind is perhaps is most accessible work. The use of non-linear narrative to reflect on a past relationship is a natural fit. After the failing of a relationship, it’s easy to look back at certain moments in time and wonder what went wrong. More importantly, if you could, would you completely erase someone from your past in order to move on? Or the memory absolutely essential in order to move you forward? What are the consequences? Eternal Sunshine is bizarre, cerebral, nostalgic, and brazenly romantic. For all the quirks and stylistic choices the film implements that may be slightly off-putting for some, the message is powerful and heavy enough to carry resonance.
Is Hotel Rwanda one of the most forgotten modern films? Critics lauded the film as the African Schindler’s List, but it doesn’t seem to have the resonance or staying power that Steven Spielberg’s film achieved. There are a few reasons for that. The acting across the board is generally better in Schindler’s List. I also think that Hotel Rwanda is very similar to Schindler’s List in terms of story structure and plot devices. Still, when talking about racial or African films this century, you don’t see much discussion on Hotel Rwanda. It’s a great film on it’s own that has a few weaknesses. I don’t mean to take away from the subject matter of Hotel Rwanda, because the Rwandan Genocide is one of the worst genocides in human history. Don Cheadle plays Paul Rusesabagina, a hotel manager that saved over 1000 people during the Rwandan Genocide. Don Cheadle was rightfully nominated for Best Actor and serves as the backbone of the film. The film doesn’t hold back any punches when it comes to violence or the perceived lack of effort by humanitarians. Though it has its flaws, Hotel Rwanda is a often overlooked film that highlights one of the worst human atrocities we’ve ever witnessed.
The Incredibles, up until 2010, was the best Pixar film ever produced. Normally I don’t think it makes any sort of 5 best films of 2004 list. That’s not a slight against the film, but combined with the abnormal amount of 2004 films I haven’t seen, me not liking heavy hitters such as The Aviator and Million Dollar Baby, The Incredibles sort of falls into this place by default. When Pixar was making family oriented pictures such as Toy Story or Finding Nemo, there was a clear line drawn in the sand when it came to tackling more serious subject matter. Guns and violence were aspects of fiction you weren’t likely to see. The most gratuitous depiction instability up to this point was Sid blowing up his action figure with a M-80 in Toy Story. The Incredibles signified Pixar dipping its toe into the ice cold pool water. While we’re going to wait nearly fifteen years to get a proper sequel, we haven’t seen Pixar really embrace or tackle any of this subject matter in a film since. The Incredibles is more teen and adult oriented and in another universe, we may get Pixar films that tackle the mature subject matter that Miyazaki has tackled for years.
Sideways marked the beginning of critically acclaimed Best Picture nominees that are independent films. Since 2004 an increasingly number of films have had success at the Oscars, and it all traces back to 2004. Director Alexander Payne would capitalize on this and have success at the Oscars with his following films The Descendants and Nebraska. The strength of Sideways largely rests on it’s witty writing and lead performances from Paul Giamatti and Thomas Haden Church. A remarkably funny film about coming to terms with the limitations of ones own success, it carries equal weight in drama that prevents it from becoming an absurd, over-the-top comedy.
For 2004, there’s only two films that really come close to deserving the accolade of Best Film. Downfall carefully examines Hitler’s final days in an underground bunker before committing suicide. Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind is a deep dive into the consequences of erasing past relationships. I often talk to my friends how I’m more willing to praise a film that does something new than a film that does something safe (even if it executes it well). Charlie Kaufman’s writing isn’t for everyone. I respected Being John Malkovich while at the same time struggling to find words and meaning after watching Synecdoche, New York. Eternal Sunshine is perhaps the best and most accessible writing. A large part of this was having Michel Gondry direct, who is a master of manipulating mise-en-scene. So, it goes without saying that the best film of 2004 is:
