The Best of 2004

5. GARDEN STATE
Intelligently written, oddly endearing dark comedy about two chance lovers in New Jersey. he entire film is fresh, original, and humorously random without being weird. It would be placed higher on the list if not for the depressingly predictable and stereotypical ending - your classic airport love scene. In the last ten minutes, the movie abandons what makes it great - its fresh and funny writing - for a typical Hollywood romance. Still a great film, Zach Braff should make more.

4. HERO
I have been gaining more and more appreciation for East Asian, specifically Chinese, cinema lately, and Hero is probably my favorite film in recent memory. The storyline is beautifully intricate and complex: the entire film is essentially a dialogue between two characters, each of whom is constantly re-telling the same story - only in the end is the true version revealed. But the film's greatest success is it visual triumph: with each new version of the story, the entire color scheme of the shots changes. In the first version, everyone is wearing red; then yellow, then blue, and so on and so forth. The viewer becomes visually overwhelemed while being engrossed in the story without ever knowing it. Simply brilliant.

3. HOTEL RWANDA
Everyone knows about the Holocaust - millions of innocent people killed for no reason by the orders of an evil dictator. But almost no one is aware of the continuing ethnic conflict between the Hutus and the Tutsis of the small central African nation of Rwanda, and this film depcits that conflict far better than Schindler's List shows the Holocaust. (Yes, you heard me right.) Don Cheadle is brilliant in one of his rare serious roles. The movie is so saddening and enraging in its unrelenting depiction and telling of the truth that it seemed to have been forced to insert random comic relief lines to keep viewers sane. Virtually all the people involved in this conflict still have nightmares about it, and seeing Hotel Rwanda will give you just a glimpse of what it must have been like. See it once, never wish to see it again, and find yourself telling everyone else to see it.

2. ETERNAL SUNSHINE OF THE SPOTLESS MIND
Great performances all around, a great story, and original writing highlight the best love story in recent years. It depicts love how it really is - full of pain, tragedy, triumph, and most of all, relaity. The characters aren't beautiful models who have great sex constantly; they are real people with believable lives. In the end, despite all of their differences, they find themselves drawn together because what they have supercedes their interests, desires, and even their own lives. If you are having trouble in a relationship, go see this movie with your significant other, and suddenly you will realize that you are the most perfect couple there has ever been.

1. NAPOLEON DYNAMITE
The most original movie in a long time, Napoleon Dynamite is one of those movies whose every scene, every line, is endlessly watchable and repeatable to all of your friends. The characters are so perfectly written and cast that what should have been a totally awkward group of weirdos became a perfectly believeable representative group of a small Idaho town. As they say in the DVD extras, anyone who watches the film cannot help but find themselves identifying with one or more of the characters, for whatever reason. Each character fills a perfectly form-fitting hole in the story. There is no sex, no foul language, no violence in the whole film, and yet this PG-rated masterpiece of comic genius still made it to the top spot of my rankings. Vote for Pedro.