For me these are the ten works that best combined the aesthetic and the political while still being fun to watch. How long any of them will last is anyone's guess.
In preferrential order:
1. THE RECEPTION (John G. Young)
What BROKEBACK MOUNTAIN could never dare or dream to be: a film about the tribulations of being queer that neither pathologizes nor demonizes gay men. Add to that a sharp critique of race and colonialism made for $5,000 (yet as polished as any megabucks film), and you have the best movie of the year. Available on dvd from Strand Releasing.
2. THE PRESIDENT'S LAST BANG (Im Sangsoo)
The latest film from my favorite contemporary South Korean filmmaker, TPLB is a social critique of 1970's South Korea done in a style echoing Coppola and Scorsese, but with a sharpness, angst and sense of despair all its own. Maybe the best example of political filmmaking I saw all year. Not on dvd as of yet.
3. MATCH POINT (Woody Allen) & 4. MELINDA AND MELINDA (Woody Allen)
A startling diptych from Allen, including one film that is a diptych itself. Once again Allen is wondering who/what controls the happenings of mankind, and the answer he comes up with will not satisfy many people. MP is in theaters; M&M is on dvd.
5. HAROLD PINTER'S NOBEL LECTURE
A one-man tour de force, we are graced with this work due to the unfortunate precariousness of Pinter's health. Written and performed (and according to what I read self-directed) by Pinter, it is a remarkable document, brimming with intelligence, scorn and a passionate belief in vocal opposition. Available at:
http://nobelprize.org/literature/laureates/2005/pinter-lecture.html
6. THE OUTSIDERS: THE COMPLETE NOVEL (Francis Ford Coppola)
Francis Ford Coppola refashions another of his films and produces a much richer movie the second time around. The class element has been sharpened, and an element of homosociality deleted from the original has been restored. Seeing it on the big screen during its pitiably brief release, my eye was dazzled by the compositions and the rhythm of Coppola's filmmaking. Available on dvd, though to have missed it on the big screen is the cinematic sin of the year in my opinion.
7. KEANE (Lodge Kerrigan)
Boasting the best performance by any performer in 2005 (Damian Lewis), KEANE is that rare hand-held-shot, no-musical-score, portrait-of-mental- illness film that neither condescends to nor sentimentalizes its subject. Kerrigan captures a New York City I travel through every day, but rarely see as incisively as he does. The film feels right both psychologically and geographically. It played briefly at the beginning of the year and has not been released on dvd as of yet.
8. A HISTORY OF VIOLENCE (David Cronenberg)
Not his best by far, but still better than almost all commercial films released this year, Cronenberg's movie is a lovely dirge that chronicles the procession of violence as it crisscrosses America. William Hurt's incredulous "How'd you fuck that up?" during the film's climax is the cherry on top of the coffin. In release (in New York City at least). DVD release set for March 14, 2006
9. GARCON STUPIDE (Lionel Baier)
A film focusing on a gay man who works in a factory and does not crave Dolce and Gabbana? Welcome to GARCON STUPIDE, a marvelous film about the awakening of a lower class gay man who shakes off the roles assigned to him by society (both straight and gay) and discovers how to hold his own parade. The finale on the ferris wheel is filled with longing, desire and hope, and will leave you with a sense of wonder. The film played briefly during Gay Pride Ghetto Month and has yet to be released on dvd.
10. GOOD NIGHT, AND GOOD LUCK (George Clooney)
A rare instance of political filmmaking by a Hollywood star, GNAGL is valentine to an era when a few stalwarts in the media cared and tried to make a difference. Directed, written and acted with conviction and grace, GNAGL's mixing of actual footage from the time with its fictional recreations, make it formally inventive as well as politically interesting. In release with the dvd due out on March 14th as well.
Just missed (because a Top Ten does not allow for a dozen films):
SARABAND (Ingmar Bergman) and SERENITY (Joss Whedon)