1) Documentaries. Talk about an embarrassment of riches. There were great docs aplenty in theaters this year, among them “March of the Penguins,” “Murderball,” “Inside Deep Throat,” “Rock School,” “Grizzly Man,” “Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room” and “The Aristocrats.” 2) Rachel McAdams. In 2005, McAdams proved to be more than just another “Mean Girl.” The stunning Canadian-born thesp lit up the screen as the leading lady in the hit comedy, “Wedding Crashers,” opposite Vince Vaughn and Owen Wilson. Next came a knockout performance in the well-received thriller, “Red Eye.” She added the exclamation point to her breakthrough year in the just-released ensemble dramedy, “The Family Stone.” 3) “Actor’s Actors.” 2005 was a very good year for don’t-wanna-be movie stars and their fans: Philip Seymour Hoffman and Catherine Keener both deserve Oscars for “Capote,” and Keener is an absolute delight in “The 40-Year-Old Virgin.” Loved David Strathairn’s spot-on portrayal of Edward R. Murrow in “Good Night and Good Luck,” and the enchanting Maria Bello is unforgettable in “A History of Violence.” Other unheralded faves include Sam Rockwell (“The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy”); John Hawkes (“Me and You and Everyone”); Joan Allen (“The Upside of Anger”); and Paul Giamatti (“Cinderella Man”). 4) Jude Lawlessness. Jude Law was freakin’ everywhere in 2004. “Alfie,” “Closer,” “The Aviator,” “Lemony Snicket’s”, “I Heart Huckabees” … hell, I think he even played the best man in my cousin’s wedding video. Though Sean Penn might beg to differ, the world needed a break from one of its finest actors in ’05 and, thankfully, that’s just what we got … well, with the exception of that silly “nanny” affair. 5) The movies. I didn’t see everything, but I saw more than enough to anoint ’05 a pretty good year in film. In addition to the aforementioned, my favorites include “King Kong,” “Walk the Line,” “Brokeback Mountain,” “A History of Violence,” “Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit,” “Crash,” “Munich,” “Batman Begins,” “Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire,” “2046” and “Hustle & Flow.”
Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on December 23, 2005. Read the original PDF.