Best Movies of 2004

Added on by C. Maoxian.

This is a list of the Best Movies of 2004 according to John Farr. I find his site hard to navigate, so I create summary lists like this one.

English-language movies:

  1. As It Is in Heaven

  2. Before Sunset

  3. Clean

  4. Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind

  5. Finding Neverland

  6. John Cassavetes: Five Films [no, no, no, no, no]

  7. Layer Cake

  8. Maria Full of Grace

  9. Million Dollar Baby

  10. Millions

  11. Miracle

  12. Mysterious Skin

  13. Omagh

  14. Police Beat

  15. Ray

  16. Sideways

  17. The Chorus

  18. The Door in the Floor

  19. The Machinist

  20. Vera Drake

  21. Walk on Water

Foreign-language movies:

  1. 2046 (Cantonese)

  2. 3-Iron (Korean)

  3. A Very Long Engagement (French)

  4. A World Without Thieves (Mandarin)

  5. Bad Education (Spanish)

  6. Brothers (Danish)

  7. Citizen Dog (Thai)

  8. District B13 (French)

  9. Downfall (German)

  10. Howl’s Moving Castle (Japanese)

  11. Innocent Voices (Spanish)

  12. Intimate Strangers (French)

  13. Kings and Queen (French)

  14. Kontroll (Hungarian)

  15. La Sierra (Spanish)

  16. Live-in Maid (Spanish)

  17. Machuca (Spanish)

  18. Moolaadé (Bambara)

  19. Mountain Patrol (Mandarin)

  20. Nobody Knows (Japanese)

  21. Our Own (Russian)

  22. Red Lights (French)

  23. Shutter (Thai)

  24. Simon (Dutch)

  25. The Edukators (German)

  26. The Hidden Blade (Japanese)

  27. The Holy Girl (Spanish)

  28. The Motorcycle Diaries (Spanish)

  29. The Sea Inside (Spanish)

  30. The Syrian Bride (Arabic)

  31. The Taste of Tea (Japanese)

  32. The Triplets of Belleville (French)

  33. The Weeping Meadow (Greek)

  34. Tony Takatani (Japanese)

  35. Turtles Can Fly (Kurdish)

  36. Whisky (Spanish)

  37. Yesterday (Zulu)

English-language documentaries:

  1. 5 Films about Christo and Jean-Claude

  2. A State of Mind

  3. A Touch of Greatness

  4. After Innocence

  5. Born Into Brothels

  6. Broadway: The Golden Age, By the Legends Who Were There

  7. Citizen King

  8. Darwin’s Nightmare

  9. Fahrenheit 9/11

  10. Guerrilla: The Taking of Patty Hearst

  11. Heir To An Execution: A Grandaughter's Story

  12. In the Realms of the Unreal: The Mystery of Henry Darger

  13. Lightning in a Bottle

  14. Metallica: Some Kind of Monster

  15. Outfoxed: Rupert Murdoch's War on Journalism

  16. Paper Clips

  17. Super Size Me

  18. The Devil and Daniel Johnston

  19. The Staircase

  20. The Take

  21. Twist of Faith

  22. Unforgivable Blackness: The Rise and Fall of Jack Johnson

  23. Z Channel: A Magnificent Obsession

Foreign-language documentaries:

  1. Control Room (Arabic)

  2. Czech Dream (Czech)

  3. Death in Gaza (Arabic)

  4. The Man Who Planted Trees (German)

  5. The Ritchie Boys (German)

Movies Watched -- She Said (2022)

Added on by C. Maoxian.

129 minute running time so 20 to 30 minutes too long … it’s about the case the New York Times made against Harvey Weinstein … he was a real scumbag, no doubt … the movie is well made, but it’s not a green-go, though John Farr recommended it. Yellow rating (consider).

“She was talking to me kind of Jew to Jew and including Weinstein in the gang” … (That’s Elia Kazan’s granddaughter)

Best Movies of 2003

Added on by C. Maoxian.

This is a list of the Best Movies of 2003 according to John Farr. I find his site hard to navigate, so I create summary lists like this one.

English-language movies:

  1. American Splendor

  2. Angels in America

  3. Concert for George

  4. Dogville

  5. Elephant

  6. Finding Nemo

  7. In America

  8. Intermission

  9. Lost In Translation

  10. Master and Commander

  11. Mystic River

  12. Off the Map

  13. Owning Mahowny

  14. Peter Pan

  15. Pieces of April

  16. Shattered Glass

  17. Something’s Gotta Give

  18. The Station Agent

  19. Whale Rider

Foreign-language movies:

  1. A Tale of Two Sisters (Korean)

  2. A Talking Picture (Portuguese)

  3. Blind Shaft (Chinese)

  4. Cautiva (Spanish)

  5. Crimson Gold (Persian)

  6. Good Morning, Night (Italian)

  7. I’m Not Scared (Italian)

  8. Last Life in the Universe (Japanese)

  9. Memories of Murder (Korean)

  10. Oldboy (Korean)

  11. Osama (Dari)

  12. Saraband (Swedish)

  13. Since Otar Left (Georgian)

  14. Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter... and Spring (Korean)

  15. The Barbarian Invasions (French)

  16. The Best of Youth (Italian)

  17. The City of No Limits (Spanish)

  18. The Inheritance (Danish)

  19. The Memory of a Killer (Dutch)

  20. The Return (Russian)

  21. Together (Mandarin)

  22. Tokyo Godfathers (Japanese)

  23. Travellers and Magicians (Dzongkha)

English-language documentaries:

  1. A Certain Kind of Death

  2. A Decade Under the Influence

  3. Capturing the Friedmans

  4. Churchill

  5. Festival Express

  6. James Dean: Forever Young

  7. Los Angeles Plays Itself

  8. Lost Boys of Sudan

  9. My Architect

  10. Power Trip

  11. Seabiscuit: American Experience

  12. Step Into Liquid

  13. Sunset Story

  14. The Corporation

  15. The Fog of War

  16. The Nazi Officer’s Wife

  17. This So-Called Disaster

  18. Touching the Void

Foreign-language documentaries:

  1. Bus 174 (Portuguese)

  2. The Five Obstructions (Danish)

  3. The Story of the Weeping Camel (Mongolian)

Movies Watched -- Dick (1999)

Added on by C. Maoxian.

90 minute running time so the perfect length … goofball comedy starring teenyboppers (at the time) Kirsten Dunst and Michelle Williams. Dan Hedaya plays a good Richard Nixon. It’s good, clean fun and I appreciate the recommendation from John Farr. Green-go.

You kick Checkers!

And you're prejudiced,

and you have a potty-mouth!

Best Movies of 2002

Added on by C. Maoxian.

This is a list of the Best Movies of 2002 according to John Farr. I find his site hard to navigate, so I create summary lists like this one.

English-language movies:

  1. 28 Days Later

  2. About Schmidt

  3. About a Boy

  4. Adaptation

  5. All or Nothing

  6. Bloody Sunday

  7. Dirty Pretty Things

  8. Insomnia

  9. One Hour Photo

  10. Path to War

  11. Rabbit Proof Fence

  12. Raising Victor Vargas

  13. Road to Perdition

  14. Skins

  15. Sweet Sixteen

  16. The Bourne Identity

  17. The Count of Monte Cristo

  18. The Gathering Storm

  19. The Hours

  20. The Magdalene Sisters

  21. The Pianist

  22. Thirteen

Foreign-language movies:

  1. Behind the Sun (Portuguese)

  2. Chi-hwa-seon: Painted Fire (Korean)

  3. City of God (Portuguese)

  4. Distant (Turkish)

  5. Dolls (Japanese)

  6. Good Bye Lenin! (German)

  7. He Loves Me, He Loves Me Not (French)

  8. Hero (Mandarin)

  9. Infernal Affairs (Cantonese)

  10. L'Auberge Espagnole (French)

  11. Oasis (Korean)

  12. Russian Ark (Russian)

  13. Talk To Her (Spanish)

  14. Ten (Farsi)

  15. The Clay Bird (Bengali)

  16. The Cuckoo (Russian)

  17. The Lady and the Duke (French)

  18. The Man Without a Past (Finnish)

  19. The Son (French)

  20. The Twilight Samurai (Japanese)

  21. When the Last Sword is Drawn (Japanese)

  22. Yossi & Jagger (Hebrew)

English-language documentaries:

  1. 7 Days in September

  2. 9/11

  3. Ansel Adams: a Documentary Film

  4. Bowling for Columbine

  5. Bukowski: Born into This

  6. Decasia: The State of Decay

  7. Dig!

  8. Dogtown and Z-Boys

  9. Elaine Stritch: At Liberty

  10. Lost in La Mancha

  11. My Flesh and Blood

  12. Prisoner of Paradise

  13. Smothered

  14. Spellbound

  15. Stevie

  16. The Agronomist

  17. The Last Game

  18. Unprecedented: The 2000 Presidential Election

  19. Tibet: Cry of the Snow Lion

Foreign-language documentaries:

  1. Balseros (Spanish)

  2. Blind Spot (German)

  3. To Be and To Have (French)

Movies Watched -- Return to Seoul (2022)

Added on by C. Maoxian.

In Korean. 119 minute running time so 20 minutes too long … this wasn’t terrible, it would appeal to adoptees from Korea (or other parts of east Asia), but I wouldn’t recommend it. John Farr did: “Freddie is a wild, restless creature, unsure of who she is even before arriving in Korea. This latest adventure only adds to her dislocation, but it’s clear she’s searching for something.” Yeah, it’s OK, but not good enough for me to recommend.

Best Movies of 2001

Added on by C. Maoxian.

This is a list of the Best Movies of 2001 according to John Farr. I find his site hard to navigate, so I create summary lists like this one.

English-language movies:

  1. 61*

  2. And the Band Played On

  3. Ghost World

  4. Gosford Park

  5. Hedwig and the Angry Inch

  6. L.I.E.

  7. Memento

  8. Monsoon Wedding

  9. Mulholland Drive

  10. Tape

  11. The Deep End

  12. The Incredible Adventures of Wallace and Gromit

  13. The Others

  14. Wit

Foreign-language movies:

  1. All About Lily Chou-Chou (Japanese)

  2. Amélie (French)

  3. Baran (Farsi)

  4. Elling (Norwegian)

  5. I’m Going Home (French)

  6. La Cienaga (Spanish)

  7. Lagaan: Once Upon a Time in India (Hindi)

  8. Late Marriage (Georgian)

  9. Mostly Martha (German)

  10. Musa, the Warrior (Korean)

  11. My Father and I (French)

  12. Nine Queens (Spanish)

  13. No Man’s Land (Bosnian)

  14. Nowhere in Africa (German)

  15. Pauline and Paulette (Dutch)

  16. Safe Conduct (French)

  17. Spirited Away (Japanese)

  18. The Devil's Backbone (Spanish)

  19. The Piano Teacher (French)

  20. The Road Home (Mandarin)

  21. The Son’s Room (Italian)

  22. The Tunnel (German)

  23. Time Out (French)

  24. Under the Skin of the City (Farsi)

  25. Y Tu Mama Tambien (Spanish)

English-language documentaries:

  1. New York in the Fifties

  2. Stanley Kubrick: A Life in Pictures

  3. Startup.com

  4. War Photographer

Foreign-language documentaries:

  1. Children Underground (Romanian)

Movies Watched -- Hit the Road (2021)

Added on by C. Maoxian.

In Farsi. 93 minute running time so the right length, but I only made it ten minutes in before going to fast forward, I couldn’t bear the bratty kid or obnoxious family … I guess it was a story about smuggling their older son abroad, out of Iran, no reason given … there was probably a lot of humor in this, but I didn’t get it because I’m not Iranian … this was a John Farr reco (“this portrayal of a loving family coping under stress also contains a measure of hope and affirmation”), but I certainly don’t recommend it.

Best Movies of 2000

Added on by C. Maoxian.

This is a list of the Best Movies of 2000 according to John Farr. I find his site hard to navigate, so I create summary lists like this one.

English-language movies:

  1. Almost Famous

  2. Best in Show

  3. Billy Elliot

  4. Bread and Roses

  5. George Washington

  6. Girlfight

  7. High Fidelity

  8. Innocence

  9. O Brother, Where Art Thou?

  10. Our Song

  11. Pollock

  12. Requiem for a Dream

  13. Sexy Beast

  14. Snatch

  15. Songcatcher

  16. The Contender

  17. Traffic

  18. You Can Count on Me

Foreign-language movies:

  1. A Matter of Taste (French)

  2. Amores Perros (Spanish)

  3. Bread and Tulips (Italian)

  4. Code Unknown (French)

  5. Coronation (Spanish)

  6. Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (Mandarin)

  7. Gloomy Sunday (German)

  8. Il Mare (Korean)

  9. In the Mood for Love (Cantonese)

  10. Italian for Beginners (Danish)

  11. Lumumba (French)

  12. Songs from the Second Floor (Swedish)

  13. The Circle  (Farsi)

  14. The Day I Became a Woman (Farsi)

  15. The Fast Runner (Inukitut)

  16. The Taste of Others (French)

  17. The Widow of Saint-Pierre French)

  18. Under the Sand (French)

  19. With a Friend Like Harry (French)

  20. Yi Yi (Mandarin)

English-language documentaries:

  1. Chuck Jones: Extremes and In-Betweens – A Life in Animation

  2. Dark Days

  3. Half Past Autumn

  4. Into the Arms of Strangers: Stories of the Kindertransport

  5. Napoleon: Soldier, Emperor, Lover, Statesman

  6. Ring of Fire

  7. Sidney Poitier: One Bright Light

  8. Sound and Fury

  9. The Ballad of Ramblin' Jack

  10. The Endurance

  11. The Filth and the Fury

  12. Unprecedented: The 2000 Presidential Election

  13. World War II: The Lost Color Archives

Foreign-language documentaries:

  1. Calle 54 (Spanish)

  2. Paragraph 175 (German)

  3. The Gleaners and I (French



Movies Watched -- Wheel of Fortune and Fantasy (2021)

Added on by C. Maoxian.

In Japanese. 121 minute running time so at least 21 minutes too long. Three separate short stories, all of them sort of weird and pointless? Japanese culture is very strange after all.

The Chinese characters (the Japanese have adopted a lot of Chinese characters) on the box say “coincidence and imagination,” which I guess turned into “fortune and fantasy.” This was a John Farr reco (“smart, subtle filmmaking”), but you can definitely give it a miss. Oh, this is the same guy who made the terrible “Drive My Car” movie … I’m not fan.

She swallowed his right testicle…