That Cow - Article: The Lazy Moviewatcher's Top... Something of 2004

9. Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind: The manic, moody script from Charlie Kaufman was uneven and inconsistent, but still more interesting than most of the films out there.
8. Spider-Man 2: What can I say? Better than the first, the more so because it was planned out so well. The villains in this world don't do a lot for me, but Sam Raimi brings in enough character touches and simple, pure moments that number 3 could be against Urkel for all I care.
7. Ray: A more beautiful and haunting biopic I could not imagine, unless of course, it were one not bound by the traditional difficulties of biopics. I truly can't say if he outclassed everyone else this year, but Jamie Foxx absolutely turned in an Oscar-calibre performance.
6. Hero (Ying Xiong): Though not technically a 2004 film, its USA release came this year. While a lot of people are probably praising its structure, what I liked was that it actually had some interesting questions to pose.
5. Team America: The best thing Parker and Stone have done since Cannibal! The Musical. I find their formula a little hit-and-miss, but these puppet commandos hit on all cylinders.
4. Sex Is Comedy: Another not-really 2004 film. Catherine Breillat doesn't qualify as a cannot-do-wrong director for me, but she's close. Among the driest of comedies, it's really the characters and insight that make the fiom.
3. Before Sunset: Linklater and friends know that it's not sex that's sexy, but rather the not-having-sex (stay with me here). They've created for the audience the most voyeuristic talking ever on the screen.
2. The Notebook: Does this belong at number two? I'm not inclined to order this much differently, so we'll say there's something I haven't seen yet that belongs here. Though Nick Cassavetes has adapted of work of almost entire sappiness, he embraces it into the most delicious sappy perfection I've seen.
1. Eulogy: A little flawed for number one, for a few moments of predictability, I still laughed more at this dark comedy than anything else this year, and that includes Team America.