The year 2004 offered many films to choose from in both the good and the bad categories. These are the ones that made the biggest impression on me, the ones that shifted some of my paradigms, for good or ill, or that simply wowed me, also for good or ill.
The top 10 (an unfairly arbitrary number having more to do with the number of fingers we have than anything else) are listed with my top movie first, the others are in no particular order.
million dollar baby
I Heart Huckabees
aviator
Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
Shaun of the Dead
Vera Drake
OSAMA
the Life Aquatic with steve zissou
Hotel Rwanda
James Journey to Jerusalem
Honorable Mention:
The Woodsman
Coffee and Cigarettes
SAVED
sideways
THE PHANTOM OF THE OPERA
Napoleon Dynamite
And a phalanx of documentaries that superbly demonstrated that the art form is alive, well, and giving feature narratives a run for their money:
In the Realms of the Unreal
THE FIVE OBSTRUCTIONS
Fahrenheit 9/11
Supersize Me
THE CORPORATION
THE YES MEN
From the sublime to the ridiculous, the 10 worst in no particular order, if only because pondering the proper placement would make my head explode.
THE Alamo
alien v. predator
alexander
christmas with the kranks
Resident Evil: Apocalypse
ENVY
STEPFORD WIVES
catwoman
PRINCESS DIARIES 2
EXORCIST, the beginning
The Prince and me
VAN HELSING
AND
Dis-honorable mention :
SCOOBY DOO II, whose only virtue was killing the franchise once and for all
BEYONd THE SEA, for crushing so many expectations.
Your Thoughts?