The 2005 Raymo awards

For those movie fans out there here's my reviews of the year that was 2005. I'm up to 17 films in 2006 with some promise ahead for good viewing.

1. Wallace & Gromit: The Curse Of The Were-Rabbit
You’ve just got to love Gromit. Despite never saying a word you know exactly what he’s thinking – this is the mark of a true genius storyteller. Added to that the movie is really funny, but it is my experience that you either love the English style of humour or you don’t. Fantastic, inventive, hilarious, a winner!
2. Mysterious Skin
"The summer I was eight years old, five hours disappeared from my life. Five hours, lost, gone without a trace..." 18-year-old Brian Lackey (Brady Corbet), growing up in Kansas, is plagued by nightmares. Brian believes that he may have been the victim of an alien abduction. Local Neil McCormick (Joseph Gordon Levitt) holds the key to the lost time.’’
Easily the most moving film of the year but also the most disturbing. It definitely isn’t everyone’s cup of tea and I wouldn’t say rush out and see it. Some scenes are hard to watch but it was a small price to pay. If it wasn’t so disturbing it’d be number one (also got 9/10 from me like W&G)
3. Closer
Another awesomely made movie with a great cast but none better than Clive Owen as Larry. Also features Jude Law (Dan), Natalie Portman (Alice) and Julia Roberts (Anna). Best described as a love triangle between four people whose lives intersect over a period of years. You have to watch closely but the performances are fantastic and it just draws you in and doesn’t let go until the end. A close third.
4. Kinsey
Many will have heard of Kinsey’s studies into human sexuality and this is a sort of biographical account of his life’s work. Liam Neeson and Laura Linney are fantastic and the support cast includes Chris O’Donnell, John Lithgow and the always great Peter Sarsgaard. A little slow to begin but it’s another quality movie, well acted and thoroughly enjoyable.
5. The Machinist
Anyone who saw Batman Begins would be surprised to see Christian Bale in this masterpiece. He lost 30kg to play the role of Trevor Reznik, a machinist who hasn’t slept in a year (you find out why in the movie) and is beginning to freak out as he doubts his own sanity when he starts seeing people who turn out to not be there. Bale is just brilliant, he’s creepy and difficult to look at but you have to like him. The shots of him before he lost all the weight really make the effort even more astounding.

Honourable mentions: The Lion, The Witch And The Wardrobe (loved it thoroughly), Sideways, Batman Begins, The Dukes Of Hazzard (gave it 8/10 because it was just so entertaining), Broken Flowers and Wedding Crashers.
Oh, and how could I forget Star Wars: Revenge Of The Sith – it wasn’t the best of the six but it was pretty entertaining despite the poor script and acting.
Flop of the year: The Brothers Grimm. Don’t you just hate it when someone takes a great idea and completely stuffs it up. On the plus side Heath Ledger was very good, a sign of things to come in 2006.