The 100 Project: The Top 25 Movies of 2005

By 2005, I was already a husband and father of three - ages 8, 5, and 3. However, I had a birth of my own. This is the year I arrived as a cinephile. I'd always loved movies, but before now I wouldn't venture outside of my comfort zone. The catalyst for this change was a policy at the place where I was hired and worked evenings - Blockbuster. The policy was that employees were allowed five free rentals each week. The idea being that we would be able to speak knowledgeably with customers about movie.

I devoured my five each week despite working two jobs. Being a life-long insomniac didn't hurt. Basically, I would work 9 to 5 at my full-time job, change jobs and head to Blockbuster and work 6 to midnight. I'd get home about 15 minutes later, and put on a movie while I ate dinner. It wasn't the healthiest lifestyle, but here we are.

I was exposed to many types of movies I would never have watched before because we were encouraged to use those rentals on as many new releases as possible. Suddenly, I was watching arsty fartsy indie flicks, foreign cinema, slow-moving period dramas, documentaries, and whatever else came into the store. And they're all represented here.

• According to my Letterboxd account I've seen 176 movies that were released during 2005, easily a new personal best.
• I saw 10 movies in theaters. 6 made the top 25, including the top 2.
• I've seen 4 of the 5 Best Picture nominees. Only 1 made the top 25.
• For the first time since the 1960s, 2 black and white movies make the top 10.

This South African feature won the Oscar for Best Foreign Feature, and with good reason. It pulls off quite a trick. It makes us really care about a carjacker who accidentally kidnaps a baby.

The first time I watched this, I started by unenthusiastically pressing play. The problem was it stars Aaron Eckhart. I don't dislike him, but he screams bland to me. And remember, this is a few years before The Dark Knight. By the time the credits rolled I found a film that was sharp and slyly funny.

If this list were purely based on how many times I've seen these movies, this would be near the top. That's because it's safe. Normally, safe is a curse word in my cinematic vocabulary. It's especially dirty when combined with cheesy, which this is. However, this one makes that work. Therefore, when I watched it with my kids, my nieces and nephews, the kids I teach, and even once or twice by myself. It's good, clean fun, and in this case, I'm good with that.

Before the masses deemed it acceptable to be transgender, this film came along and told a great story about a trans person at a crossroads. She is suddenly in the midst of her son who last saw her when she identified as a straight male and has no clue what has happened. Felicity Huffman in fantastic in the lead. I get that her casting is problematic, especially through a 2020 lens, but it's stellar work.

I was expecting a run-of-the-mill buddy-action flick. I mean, it's a Shane Black movie, set at Christmas. Robert Downey Jr. was still struggling to get back into America's good graces and Val Kilmer was a failed Batman. This film took those stars and gave us a very funny dark comedy. It's one of the most underseen movies in the filmographies of just about all involved.

Who but Tim Burton would make a kiddie flick about a guy who accidentally marries a corpse that rises out of the grave? Well, he has a co-director here (Mike Johnson), but that's beside the point. In that wonderfully goth-chic style that Burton has, it works. The film also contains perhaps the most underrated collaboration between he and two of his most regular stars: Johnny Depp and Helena Bonham Carter.

Speaking of underrated performances, this movie contains a couple of its own. One is by Billy Bob Thornton, who gets most of the best lines. The other is by star John Cusack. It's darkly funny and tense and would make J.K. Simmons proud. It never rushes or drags.

Even back when it came out, for most people, the movie itself was overshadowed by the personalities on the screen, Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie. Then, it was all about them becoming a couple and ending Pitt's high-profile marriage to Jennifer Aniston. Now, Brangelina is having problems, but as individuals they're still larger than life. Therefore, even I can't fully forget about that stuff when watching this movie. What I am watching is two superstars at the height of their powers having an ungodly amount of fun. And so do I.

Honestly speaking, it took me a while to come around on Dave Chappelle. This helped. It humanized him to a degree even his stand-up can't quite manage. For those unaware, this is more or less a documentary. He threw a free concert in Brooklyn, NY featuring many legendary hip-hop and R&B acts. We watch him go around the neighborhood informing residents of all the excitement that's about to take place and inviting them. My favorite part is we also see him in Ohio rounding up some of those kids, putting them on a bus, and taking them to the show. My second favorite part? He got The Fugees to do a show together for the first time in a decade.

This is another of those of movies I get more out of than my critical eye should allow. It's an innocent, sweet spin-off of another innocent, sweet movie, Barbershop. It contains all the cliches and contrivances that come with such a vehicle. Back when I was rating movies, I think I objectively gave it a 6 out of 10. All these years later, I love it like a 10 and can't help myself. Being a film I've enjoyed with my entire family on several occasions probably has a lot to do with that. And that's okay.

This movie hits all the traditional beats of sex, drugs, and rock-n-roll biopics, just with a country twang. The thing is hits them so well, you can't help but get into it. Joaquin Phoenix shines as Johnny Cash. Not only was I blow away by his acting, but he did a good approximation of Cash's voice while doing all the singing himself. He made the legend magnetic, self-destructive, and mercurial. Just like in real life, he was grounded by his Ruth Carter, Reese Witherspoon in this case.

The truth of the matter is that I can probably copy and paste my entry for Beauty Shop and just switch a couple of things to fit this film. Instead, I'll talk about the real draw of both films: its star. For Beauty Shop, it's Queen Latifah. Here, it's Will Smith. This, to me, is a severely underrated performance. He takes a movie that's predictable from frame one and, using nothing but the power of charm and charisma, lifts it up onto his shoulders and carries it across the finish line.

I had no idea what to expect when I put this movie on. It was definitely one of those rentals I got just to fill my quota for the week since I had never heard of it. I barely knew who Joseph Gordon-Levitt was, so that wasn't a draw. The plot seemed like a typical murder mystery, but with high school kids. That was kinda interesting, but not getting me excited. If you haven't seen it, imagine a movie set in the modern day (or 2005) with everyone talking like they're in a 1940s noir. Sounds weird, and like it shouldn't work. It is very weird, but somehow, it works really well. The only reason this one isn't higher is because it's been quite a while since I've seen it.

Because the movie that preceded it in the franchise was so bad, this remains the only Star Wars movie that I did not see in a theater. I've been kicking myself ever since because it's clearly the best of the prequel trilogy. It has the sense of urgency and flair sorely missing from episodes I and II. It feels like the same type of space opera George Lucas gave us with the original trilogy. Sure, I could nitpick lots of stuff about it ("Nooooooooooo!), but it's a blast to watch.

True story time. My brother went to see this with this wife opening weekend. So did I, but separately. A few days later I asked him how he liked it. He told me they walked out about halfway through. It just wasn't what they were looking for and it failed to persuade them. On the other hand, that's about the time I really started getting into it. It wasn't what I thought I was getting, but it reeled me in and kept me there. And now, it's sadly prophetic. Sigh.

Peter Jackson's early work is a mystery to me. That said, I've seen and own all of the Lord of the Rings movies because I really like them. I've seen all the Hobbit movies, but I don't own them because I do not like them. Between them, he did this remake of an American classic. Well, I like this more than any of Jackson's trips to Middle Earth. Shhhh...don't tell anyone else, but I also think it's just as good, if not better than the original King Kong.

Nic Cage is known for his on-screen shenanigans, that special brand of freaking out now branded Nic Cage going Nic Cage. His role here is one of the most subdued of his career. I think that has a lot to do with the fact it's also one of the most underseen movies of his career. Despite this, or perhaps because of this, it's one of his more intriguing performances.

If Brick is something I wouldn't normally have watched before 2005, Good Night, and Good Luck. is the type of movie I would've actively avoided. The vast majority of it is people talking politics and smoking cigarettes. It pulled off the impossible and got better and better. It's also the first film I've seen where cigarette smoke is practically a character. You might know this is based on a true story. The fun fact is that the junior high school my best friend went to was named after its protagonist, Edward R. Murrow.


If you've been following The 100 Project, you might have noticed a pattern. There is usually a comedy of questionable taste that made me laugh hysterically. This is that movie for 2005. The scenarios and the dialogue within all cracked me up. Every bit of it. Like every other Judd Apatow flick, it's probably too long. He generally makes two to two and a half hour movies with about an hour and forty minutes worth of plot. This time, I don't mind.

I forgive you if you've never heard of this basketball documentary focusing on a talented high school girl and the coach who wants the best for her. Most people haven't. I've turned a few folks on to it and they were all happy I did. Like the best sports docs (and sports movies in general) it's not about the game itself. It's about the people who happen to be involved in it. And these people get to you.

When the best horror movies of this still young century come up, I never hear this mentioned. Most people don't even consider it part of the genre. As a dad of two girls, I do. I was on pins and needles from the jump because it starts with a teenage girl showing up to meet a grown man she only knew from the internet. What happens from there is divisive. Some think it's repulsive and possibly promoting reckless behavior. I, on the other hand, was cheering by the end.

Another pattern of this project is the inclusion of hip hop movies. The difference between this and most of the others is that it's critically acclaimed and Oscar nominated. Terence Howard gives what is still his best performance and so does Anthony Anderson. It's not quite  Taraji P. Henson's best, but when is she ever not awesome?

Now for the obscure foreign flick of the bunch. It also happens to be one of the most unsettling things I've ever sat through. I mean, the starting point is a 12 year old girl who gets locked in a cello case by her dad who has drilled a peephole in it. He the props the case up next to his bed, effectively forcing her to watch her own parents have sex. And it gets weirder from there. So, yeah, you might not want to see this. Then again, the storytelling is masterful.

As I've said repeatedly, a number of movies on this list are things I might not have watched if I was never hired by Blockbuster. This is a movie I would've never missed no matter what. I walked into the theater holding my son's hand with my right and crossing my fingers on the left. I might've had my toes crossed, too. After all, the last Bat-flick was. My son grew impatient because this wasn't anything like the Schumacher debacle and there was no sign of the costume for quite some time. He was 8, so it makes sense. Me? I was having the time of my life. Then, when at very end (spoiler alert), Gordon hands Batman the Joker card, I no longer felt the effects of gravity. I really had to hold tight to my son's hand as I floated back to my car.

Like Brick, this took its inspiration from the great noirs of yesteryear. It keeps the clever dialogue, but dirties it up. It also keeps the dark shadowy visuals and mixes it with comic book panel aesthetic. The whole thing is injected with 21st century nihilism in the form of a devil-may-care attitude and loads of hyper-violence. And I am so glad I watched it on the big screen. I saw the trailer for this weeks before it came out. I immediately knew it was going to be a tough sell to Mrs. Dell. It was a (mostly) black & white movie based on a graphic novel she had never heard of. That just means I spent a small portion of every day talking it up. I was walking a tightrope to keep from annoying her, and it worked. Opening weekend, there we were.