It's Oscartown, Jake
Head First
by Kristopher Tapley

On Wednesday, January 4, the Writers and Producers Guilds will announce their nominees. Neither group is particular good prognosticators of the Academy's Best Picture quintet. However, on Thursday the Screen Actors and Directors Guild will announce. The DGA in particular is like a lid for the casket, fit with nails from the various guild nominations to come throughout the rest of the month.

New Lists: Jon Niccum, Bob Strauss, Desson Thomson, Glenn Whipp, Christopher Kelly, Stephen Hunter, Ann Hornaday, Christopher Borelli, Rich Copley, Pablo Villaca, Glenn Whipp ...

The Top Twenty: Pride And Prejudice Moves Into The Top 20

The Updated Scoreboard
The Individual Lists
The List of Critics
The Worst

Pride, Unprejudiced
by Ray Pride

There were at least 90 movies that I liked this year out of the several hundred I saw, and probably even overlooked a couple. Here’s a provisional ten best, twenty more, and a longer list of redeeming features or lovely passages (with some annotations). There are lists of best performances, documentaries, and cinematography, too. The only philosophical note: there are no guilty pleasures. The next column will have DVD lists and notes and such.

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The Weekend Report
by Leonard Klady

As 2005 segued into 2006 The Chronicles of Narnia and King Kong once again battled for the weekend box office crown and respectively grossed an estimated $33.3 million and $31.5 million. Activity at the nation’s multiplexes was generally brisk, just not quite as brisk as it had been in 2004 when one places the comparable 3-day spans side by side. Initial figures for the calendar year show box office revenues taking a 6% hit and admissions declining into the low double digits.
Weekend Estimates
Top Worldwide Grosses
Domestic Market Share

4-Day Estimates	Weekend	% Change	Cume
The Chronicles of Narnia	33.3	5%	225.3
King Kong	31.5	-5%	174.3
Fun With Dick and Jane	21.4	-1%	65
Cheaper by the Dozen 2	19.3	26%	55.2
Rumor Has It	11.7	56%	26.9
The Family Stone	10.3	3%	47.3
Memoirs of a Geisha	10.1	0%	30.6
Harry Potter	7.9	23%	277.3
The Ringer	7.8	2%	21.4
Munich	6.2	2%	15.7
Syriana	5.4	12%	39

Digital Nation
The Ten Best DVDs Of 2005
by Gary Dretzka

Of all the gods in the Pantheon of American cinema, Harold Lloyd may be the least known and underappreciated by todays audiences.

Had he lived to see the DVD release of The Harold Lloyd Comedy Collection, Lloyd probably could have climbed up the sides of the same buildings he scaled in Safety Last, 82 years earlier, and no one in downtown Los Angeles would remember his name. But, his wasn't the story of a once-famous actor who slipped into despair and poverty after the introduction of talkies.

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The Reeler's
Top 10 of Top 10 Lists of 2005
by S.T. VanAirsdale

While considering whether to assemble a Top 10 myself, I could not conceive a single reason you would care about one more list of movies. It DID occur to me, however, that I could pinpoint the 10 Top 10 lists I came across that reaffirmed to me how lousy an idea these things are in the first place. So here is The Reeler's first Top 10 List of Top 10 Lists--five today, five tomorrow, ranked from frustrating (10) to useless (5) to outright insulting (1) ...
Lists Worth Reading
The Top Ten Scoreboard
The List of Critics

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The Hot Button
2005 Review: Best, Worst And What You May Have Missed

The truth is, 2005 was a fairly crappy year at the movies.

Every year, people seem to be shouting about how bad things were and every year I seem to come up with more than 30 movies that I really cherish. This year, 20 seemed like a bit of a reach. And I don't think that, even on that list, that there are 10 that I can imagine chewing on a third, fourth, fifth, sixth, seventh time. And while many people are "one viewing and out" people, I am not. For me, true greatness is when I can find inspiration and excitement the seventh, fifteenth, twentieth time; when I can't switch that channel when it comes up on TV.
The Best of 2005
The Worst of 2005
Movies You Should Have Seen, But Didn't

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The Ultimate DVD Geek
The Ten Best Of 2005
by Doug Pratt

DVDs are to movies as men are to apes. Most of the genetic material is the same, but the possibilities of intelligent design are greatly enhanced, significantly widening their potential. A movie does just one thing, and that becomes the starting point for a DVD, which can do so much more.

This isn’t just a movie on DVD, it is a profound resurrection of art that makes the potential of the format seem limitless.

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MCN DVD Wrap-Up
2046

Wong says in his commentary, he conceived 2046 as an echo to the frustrations and regrets that lingered from their tragically unrequited encounter in a Hong Kong boarding house. The intensity of that near-miss experience, which occurred in Room 2046, prompts the writer, Chow, to conjure a sort of purgatory where former lovers are allowed one last opportunity to work out their regrets and longings.More>>

Plus: 2046, American Pie Presents: Band Camp, The Brothers Grimm, Chicago: The Razzle-Dazzle Edition, Dark Water, The Exorcism of Emily Rose, Four Brothers, Gilmore Girls, Yhe Great Raid, Must Love Dogs, November,
Penguins Under Siege, Toy Story 2, Tracy Takes On .., The War of the Worlds, The Yards

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Updated throughout the day
Updated: 1:50 pm

Carrie Rickey Qs and As

Ma-Moirs Of A Geisha Cellist

Enron, Street Fight, Cowboy, Fujimori, Penguins
The Documentary Screenplay Noms From WGA (Dramatic Noms Tomrrow By 12)

indieWIRE's Best Domestically Undistributed Films of 2005

The Ageless Michael Caine
"I'd always thought I was this handsome bloke with this great voice, and then this terrible geek came up on the screen and I realised my whole life was over."

A Bit Of 2006 Advice From Across The Pond For A Few Hollywood Big Names

The New Version of Video On Demand

A Freebie - What To Do When The 30 Second Spot Dies

Some Box Office Sanity From Eller & Bates

Using DVD To Milk The Minority Market

A Different Kind Of Holocaust Movie

Thomson On Munich - "Spielberg seems to have another thought on his conscience: that movies glorifying the action of a moment do not convey the grim calculation of history, whereby one squalid act leads to another, until moral superiority is mere rhetoric."

In A Free Opinion Piece, Bret Stephens Lays Out His Right Wing Argument Against Munich

Larry David's Brokeback Humor Piece Goes Free From The NYT

Casanova Score Goes for Baroque

Is There A Local Downside To Mega-Movies Being Made In New Zealand?

Punto De Dósforo?
Woody Reported Headed To Barcelona Next

Roger Ebert Remembers My Fair Lady

Cronenberg: Artist Of The Year

Pete Rainer On Malick

Malick Speaks After A Family Screening

Thomson Renoirs In The New Year

One Of Hollywood's Favorite Old Men, Patrick Cranshaw, Passes Away At 86 | See Him Here

Latest Reason For China To Launch WWIII
Pirated Memoirs Of A Geisha DVDs Flood China

The Sunday Times
Charles McGrath: Talking At The Movies
NYC's Stealth Dance Film Fest
Moerk On Some Creative Movie Posters
Obsessing On Typefaces At The Movies

Patterson On Filmmakers Coming To Britain To Make Movies About Britain
"British cinema is so half-assed these days that any infusion of foreign cynicism - or the outsider's simple clarity of vision - can only be a good thing."

The Chicago Film Critics Nominate

Australian Censorship

Mel Brooks Talks The Producers In England

LouLu Lifts The Lid On Life As A Critic

A Strong, Complex Piece About The Future Of Hollywood's Interests In China

In Memoriam: Remembering The Passages Of 2005

The Paper Of Record Records The Thoughts Of Six Random People... And Does A Little Reporting As Well... Including Reporting Misleading Christmas Weekend Numbers As Down Even Though December Is Up More Than 11 Percent So Far

Dave Kehr Wraps Up The Best In Film Vault DVD In 2005

The Blood Continues To Run Through The Hallways At Dreamamount... How Bad Will It Get And How Quickly?

The Oscar Nom Ballots Are In The Mail

It's Easier To Get Your Old College Pals To Finance Your Indie Film If They've Since Founded Google

From Munich To Mary Poppins For Spielberg?

Nic Cage & Tony Scott Among The Most Interesting "Winners" Of The Women Film Critics Circle Awards For 2005

Can Actors Who Sing Actually Sing?

Babe, If You're The Top, I'm The Bottom
The Reeler Rips Into 5 Top Tens Lists

indieWIRE picks Kings & Queen As Its Foreign Film Of The Year

It's Time To Make The Donuts In Heaven

MovieCityIndie Hits It's 1000th Entry!

More Blood Shed At Paramount Today... DreamWorksers Replacing Paramounters...

Slate Slideshows The Pixar Exhibit At MOMA

New Orleans Filmmaker Commits Suicide In Post-Katrina Despondency

Adapting Frank Miller's 300: The Video Blog

Whose Button Will Be Pressed Next?
The Latest Shoe Drops At Paramount... DW's Tharp Takes Distribution Reins Over As 33 Year Par Vet, Wayne Lewellen Exits

Aussies Celebrate The Wolf Creek Weekend

The Final David Edelstein Slate Movie Club, Starring 4 Old Media Writers, Starts Here... And Then Really Starts Here...

Is Spain Being Held Back By Dubbing?

Great To See - A Full Tribute To Vincent Schiavelli

"If he really wanted to make it a prayer for peace he should have listened to both sides of the story and reflected reality, rather than serving the Zionist side alone," Says The Planner Of The Munich Massacre Who Has Not Seen The Film

Hoop Dreams, Rocky Horror, French Connection, Toy Story, Fast Times, Sting, Santa, Raisin, Luke, Giant Among New Adds To National Registry Of Film

India Nervously Experiments With Varied Ticket Pricing

Trailer For The New Luc Besson

The Title Treatment - "Can I have two tickets to I Heart ... I Love Thingabees ... I Heart Heckerbees ... The one with Naomi Watts, thanks?"

Xan Brooks On The 12 Films You Should Have Seen In 2005

John Patterson Fantasizes About The New Year - "I demand, and I receive, cast-iron guarantees that Ron Howard, Tony Scott, Chris Columbus, Rob Marshall and Steven Spielberg will all take five-year directorial sabbaticals."

One of The Most Memorable Faces Of The Last Three Decades Passes At 57, Not In L.A., But In Sicily... Vincent Schiavelli

The Rumor That This Marriage Ended Because She Had A Bowel Movement He Didn't Sign Off On Are Untrue

Christian Groups Give Brokeback Mountain (Not Too Much Of) A Chance... Choose To Review Rather Than Boost The Box Office WIth Protests