A silver-screen lining in a cloudy year

2005 started out badly at the movies. The dreary offerings that typically populate the first few months of the new year continued well into the spring and summer. Had the fall/winter crop not come in, we'd be calling 2005 the Year of the Movie That Should Have Gone Straight to DVD.

As it is, I had no problem coming up with a 10-best list that I can not only live with but champion. But before I get down to that, a few thoughts about the year as a whole.

Socially-conscious prestige pictures made a splash this year. Some, such as "Good Night, and Good Luck" and "The Constant Gardener," were better than others, such as "Syriana" and "Munich." The political realities of modern life usually slink into Hollywood movies through the back door, if at all. The reason these films are so atypically forthright about such issues as Big Oil, Big Pharma, terrorism, and government censorship is because the realities are just too big to ignore anymore, even in the realm of popular entertainment.

Then there are the prestige pictures of a different stripe - the Oscar-bait movies like "Cinderella Man" (this year's "Seabiscuit") and "Memoirs of a Geisha," which achieved the impossible: It starred Ziyi Zhang, Gong Li, and Michelle Yeoh, and yet it was boring. In the low-budget "independent" world, the pickings were slim - "Junebug," "Down to the Bone," "Nine Lives," and "Transamerica" had their moments, primarily because of the performances, but overhyped remains the watchword in the land of the underfunded.

The franchise business proceeds apace in Hollywood. George Lucas says he's all done with "Star Wars." We'll see. "Fantastic Four" wasn't fantastic, which I hope means we won't be seeing a "Fantastic Five." And I couldn't wait for "Batman Begins" to end. On the other hand, "The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe" was pretty terrific and so was the latest "Harry Potter." "King Kong" is a success, but I sincerely hope that Hollywood doesn't succumb to sequelitis and try for another, even if it makes a gajillion dollars (which is slightly more than it cost).

Most of the movies I admired this year were solidly traditional, even somewhat old-fashioned, which may have less to do with my predilections than with the fact that most of the "trailblazing" movies didn't blaze many new trails for me. But that's OK. I take my good movies where I find them.

Here then, in alphabetical order, are my Top 10.

Jacques Audiard's revamping of James Toback's cult classic "Fingers" stars Romain Duris in the year's most electric (and jittery) performance as a classical pianist turned gangster. You may not buy into the conceit for a moment, but the typically Gallic mixture of existentialism and pulp goes down very well, indeed.

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