Looking back at the films of 2005, I can’t really see anything 
that stood apart from anything that I had previously seen. In 
short, 2005 really wasn’t the greatest year for motion pictures 
except for a few nice surprises here and there. Mostly, the big 
hyped films like Steven Spielberg’s War of the Worlds or Batman 
Begins were big disappointments. War of the Worlds, although with 
a great performance by the usually non-performance Tom Cruise, 
had an absolutely ludicrous ending that didn’t make any sense. 
When the film builds you up so much to the point of thinking that 
Tom Cruise would single-handedly combat and win over the Aliens, 
instead it ties all the strings together by coming up with the 
explanation that bacteria killed the aliens. The main flaw about 
this is that these extra-terrestrials who are supposed to be 
light years ahead of us and smarter than we could imagine. These 
visitors who have thought of everything else did not consider the 
make up of the planet and they did build an immunity before 
coming to Earth?

Batman Begins was yet another film that took itself way too 
seriously. In the original Batman, Tim Burton paints a macabre 
picture of the superhero and the comic sensibilities of the 
character fit perfectly within the comic book surrealistic feel 
of the movie. In this case, Christopher Nolan who is better know 
for his experimental Memento introduces Batman as a human being 
with man flaws. I have no problems with that, in fact, I think 
that is the strength of the film. What I do have problems with, 
however, is that Bruce Wayne is so real that he forgets himself 
and in some of the scenes appears to be high on drugs. Christian 
Bales turn as Batman has tendencies to go overboard into surfer 
territory.

Two of the best films of 2005 were interestingly enough very 
similar in style and context. Crash was the low-budget feature 
debut by Million Dollar Baby screenwriter Paul Haggis. In the 
film he intertwines the lines of seven characters as they go 
through their daily routines in a racism-invested Los Angeles. 
The other film that deserves recognition is Machiavelli Hangman. 
This was also a feature debut by new comer Shervin Youssefian 
who had previously worked as a commercial director. Machiavelli 
Hangman doesn’t follow its characters as vigorously as Crash
but it revisits them every time it jumps back and forth in 
different time frames.

Both these films are my two picks of the year because they have a 
strong message that jumps off the screen and grabs at the throat 
and they manage to be extremely entertaining. And that’s what a 
movie is supposed to be isn’t it? Educative, entertaining and 
plain simple fun! 

Susan Bell is a movie reviewer.
Machiavelli Hangman
http://www.hangmanmovie.com