Best Movies Seen, 2005

One more arbitrary list of bests: I watched a movie 74 times (as opposed to watching 74 movies) in 2005. Of the newly-released movies I saw this year, the best were (in no order) The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, Star Wars: Episode III: Revenge of the Sith, Howl's Moving Castle, Batman Begins, and Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire; our movie-going was a bit hampered by our location, as the local cinema doesn't show the more artsy stuff that I wanted to see (The Constant Gardener, for instance). Of all the above, I'm sure you've seen them all, except maybe Howl's Moving Castle, which is a beautiful bit of animation, tho the story isn't as strong as the other Ghibli movies.

For "first-time viewing" of movies that have been out for a while, the best I saw was probably Donnie Darko. I could also add F for Fake, although it didn't get much of a showing when it was initially released. But it wasn't released theatrically so I can't put it in the first list. It's a great movie about fakery and such from the legendary cinematic mind of Orson Welles, I recommend it highly.