25 In 25: My Favorite Films of the First Quarter Century - 2005

When I made my lists for each year, I made it a point to include up to ten films for my consideration. This one, 2005, has to be the most violent of them all... And that's saying something considering how many times Tarantino shows up!

Philip Seymour Hoffman became his muse in Capote. Shane Black gave us Val Kilmer in one of his best roles in Kiss Kiss Bang Bang. Our beloved Aragorn, Viggo Mortensen, became a killer/family man in one of David Cronenberg's most straightforward films of his career in A History of Violence. Sin City, Revenge of the Sith, V for Vendetta, Munich, Brokeback Mountain!!! All amazing films... An embarrassment of riches for the year. But only two films made the finals, and you will be surprised what I chose.

George Clooney was as the peak of his powers in the early/mid 2000's. Starting in 1998, he went on one of those epic runs we as film nerds debate about. Out of Sight, Batman, Three Kings, Ocean's 11, Perfect Storm, O Brother, and on and on. After all the acting, it was time for him to take a stab at directing, which he did in 2002. And then came my favorite film at the time, Good Night, and Good Luck.

For me, the revelation wasn't so much in Clooney's direction; it was the phenomenal acting by the lead actor, David Strathairn. As Edward R. Murrow, Strathairn takes his acting to a level I could only assume was reserved for his stage work. This film is a true testament to the power of the news and should be a blueprint for a modern news outlet on how to be the voice of the people. We need this now more than ever.

Filmed in black and white, it goes on to show, with calculating precision, the precise and calculated take-down of Joe McCarthy, and it was glorious to my eyes in the infancy of my cinema education!

Sometimes films fall through the cracks. You don't expect one with Keanu Reeves to do so after The Matrix, but Constantine did just that. Somehow, I missed this upon release, or if I did see it, I forgot it. But after the recent comic book movie boom, I watched this film ten or so years ago and kicked myself for not being a fan of it earlier.

While it is based on a comic book anti-hero, John Constantine, an occult detective/conman, the film is way more than that. Its deepest themes are depression, religion, good versus evil, and redemption. The characters dig deep inside themselves to confront those "demons," both theoretical or actual, and try to break them down to their core. And the way the two leads, Keanu and Rachel Weisz, do so is a revelation in acting never seen in comic book filmmaking.

And for good measure, Francis Lawrence and crew cast legendary character actor Peter Stormare as Satan, which might be the best representation of the devil on screen, and an androgynous Archangel Gabriel played deliciously by Tilda Swinton.

Genius is rarely used to describe comic book movies, yet I have ZERO issue deploying it for Constantine.