Top 10 movies of 2005

OK, here's the problem I found when putting this list together: There have in fact been quite a lot of good movies I've seen over the past year. The trouble is, I'm finding it hard to place any of these movies in the Top Three slots. In other words, there are no movies that are slam dunk Number One candidates. Lots of B's and B+'s, but not too many solid A's or even A-'s (IMHO, of course). I suppose I got too spoiled in recent years by one brilliant Lord of the Rings movie after another. So into that vacuum I've decided to go for Joss Whedon's Serenity as number one, because a.) I'm a Joss Whedon/Buffy fan; b.) I need to make up for being so late getting into the whole Firefly thing (which I love); and c.) there will be no more Firefly or Serenity on either big or little screen; and d.) I had to put something in the top slot. As for no. 2: No-one in America's talking about the Brit gangster flick Layer Cake, but I loved it! And The Constant Gardener deserves a Top Three spot: Why not?

Anyway, here are 2005 films I've seen in the past year, and I've liked.

#1. Joss Whedon's Serenity (Culver Ridge, 10/02/05)
#2. Matthew Vaughn's Layer Cake (The Cinema, 6/27/05)
#3. Fernando Meirelles' The Constant Gardener (Pittsford Plaza, 9/12/05)
#4. Alejandro Amenábar's The Sea Inside (The Cinema, 3/26/05)
#5. David Dobkins' Wedding Crashers (Pittsford Plaza, 7/18/05)
#6. Judd Apatow's The 40-Year-Old Virgin (Pittsford Plaza, 9/2/05)
#7. Steve Box and Nick Park's Wallace and Gromit in the Curse of the Were-Rabbit (Greece Ridge Center, 10/06/05)
#8. George Clooney's Good Night, and Good Luck (The Little Theatre, 11/04/05)
#9. Terry George's Hotel Rwanda (The Little Theatre, 3/3/05)
#10. Clint Eastwood's Million Dollar Baby (Pittsford Plaza, 2/2/05)

Honorable mentions:

Yimou Zhang's House of Flying Daggers (The Little Theatre, 1/14/05)
Wes Anderson's The Life Aquatic With Steve Zissou (The Cinema, 1/29/05)
Danny Boyle's Millions (The Little Theatre, 4/5/05)
Frank Miller's Sin City (The Little Theatre, 4/11/05)
Oliver Hirschbiegel's Downfall (The Little Theatre, 4/14/05)
Garth Jennings' Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (Pittsford Plaza, 5/4/05)
Paul Haggis' Crash (The Cinema, 8/29/05)
Mike Newell's Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (Tinseltown, 11/18/05)
Andrew Adamson's Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe (Pittsford Plaza, 12/10/05)
Stephen Gaghan's Syriana (Pittsford Plaza, 12/11/05)
David Cronenberg's A History of Violence (Movies 10, 12/13/05)
Peter Jackson's King Kong (Tinseltown, 12/14/05)
Chris Columbus's Rent (The Cinema, 12/29/05)