Sun 8 Jan 2006
2005 Year in Review
Posted by Ethan under Years in Review
Comments Off on 2005 Year in Review
The Top Ten Movies of 2005
1) The New World
I love The New World. I don’t know how else to say it. Terrence Malick’s gorgeous, moving and occasionally frustrating depiction of the first contact between the Native Americans and European explorers is unlike any movie released last year. Many directors have tried to mimic Malick’s unique style, but none have been able to effectively recreate his ability to build an epic scene out of simple moments, even if he sometimes goes too far with the voiceover narration. As Pocahontas, Q’orianka Kilcher is nothing short of a revelation. What’s astonishing about her performance is that she’s not acting as much as she’s simply being. To the great frustration of many actors he’s worked with, Malick doesn’t create an environment that allows for traditional performances. Dialogue is thrown out right before the cameras roll and scenes are only half-completed all in an effort to get beyond artifice to a kind of unforced naturalism. Kilcher is perhaps the first actor that Malick has worked with that understands his style implicitly. She is the heart and soul of The New World and to feel the movie’s quiet power, you only need to look in her eyes.
