New Jersey and a kid named Napoleon

With indies taking us by storm and blockbusters flopping, 2004 was an interesting, but… With indies taking us by storm and blockbusters flopping, 2004 was an interesting, but sometimes uneventful year for cinema. But there were some highlights; some coming at the end of the year like “Meet the Fockers” and “Life Aquatic,” and some that came really early in the year that people might have forgotten about, like “Butterfly Effect.”

It was actually pretty hard to come up with this list because I saw so many movies in 2004 that I forgot which ones actually came out last year and which ones just seemed to stand out from ’03. But through all of the mess, I managed to come up with five that were my favorites of 2004. Don’t worry, I looked them up to make sure they actually came out in ’04.

5. “Fahreneit 9/11”

Michael Moore took to the big screen again, and this time he wasn’t going after K-Mart; he was going after the White House and the Bush administration. Kudos to you, Mr. Moore. I thought this was a very good film and that the scene where Moore asks members of Congress to sign their children up for the military was pretty powerful, considering these are the same men who are willing to send other people’s kids to fight a war, but not their own. However, I don’t think it stands a chance in the Best Picture category of the Academy Awards, like Moore thinks it does. But hey, if it’s something to make a stink, Moore will go through with it.

4. “Spanglish”

This one came out late in the year and many critics bashed it, saying that it was merely another stereotypical film with very little substance. Bull. Adam Sandler is very good in a serious role in this film, and even though Tea Leoni is annoying when she bawls her eyes out at the end, she was good early on, too. The family in “Spanglish” learns how to live with each other with a little help from their Spanish-speaking housekeeper, played by Paz Vega. A very touching and well-written script.

3. “Napoleon Dynamite”

A soon-to-be cult favorite, much like “Office Space” and “Super Troopers,” this one wasn’t very popular in theaters. But since it’s been out on DVD, it’s hard to go anywhere and not hear someone quoting the memorable lines from this movie. It’s easily one of the funniest movies that has ever been made about nothing.

2. “Elephant”

An eerie look at school shootings. Gus Van Sant took actual high school kids, some of whom had never acted, and a very thin script and made a jaw dropper of a film. Using cameras that follow the different students, the viewer is brought into the life of the high school students. My only beef with this one is that Van Sant gave the kids too much leeway with the script. With very little written, the kids had to improvise dialogue, leaving some of it very rough.

1. “Garden State”

Zach Braff went from “that guy from ‘Scrubs'” to “that guy who did that movie.” Braff is seen in the DVD extras saying that he wanted to make a movie that was different from anything he had ever seen and something that movie buffs couldn’t sit around and say was simply following the typical format. To his credit, he succeeded and made one hell of a movie, easily something that hasn’t been done before. Braff wrote, directed and starred in this indie that got more buzz than any blockbuster in 2004.