Lord of the Rings Alums Help Me Get Through 2004's Post-LOTR Blues

The biggest media event in 2004 for me was LOST - and I didn't even experience it in 2004, since my VCR failed to tape the first couple of episodes and I knew I wouldn't want to watch the series out of order. It took LOST to fill the void left by Lord of the Rings, but 2004 had a pretty good crop of movies, most of which I didn't catch in the theater. These were my ten favorites.

13 Going on 30 - Probably my favorite movie of the year. I found it much funnier and sweeter than I expected, an endearing story of childhood sweethearts and the mistakes made along the road to adulthood. I loved getting to see Andy Serkis playing a regular old human, and quite a charming one at that, and Sean Marquette and Mark Ruffalo are extremely lovable as the younger and older versions of Matty, the love interest of Jennifer Garner's Jenna. But Garner was the one who really impressed me as the teenage girl in adult shoes trying to figure out just where she went wrong in the 17 years she never experienced.

Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind - One of the strangest movies of the year, it too boasts a Lord of the Rings alum. Elijah Wood's role as an unethical memory wiper is a far cry from the virtuous Frodo. The movie stars Jim Carrey in one of his most dramatic, least frenetic roles to date, while Kate Winslet is his extremely eccentric love interest. I much prefer his character to hers, but they play off one another well in this pleasantly bizarre movie about the importance of one's memories to one's identity. I'm glad I waited for this one to come out on DVD, since I ended up watching it two times in a row. It made a lot more sense the second time...

Finding Neverland - I find Winslet a lot less grating in this film, which also stars Johnny Depp and Freddie Highmore. Depp is Scottish playwright J. M. Barrie, who seems a little out of touch with reality and is happiest when reclaiming his childhood with the family led by the widowed Sylvia (Winslet). Depp's low-key performance is most endearing, as is that of Highmore, who plays one of Sylvia's sons, the lad who supposedly served as the model for Peter Pan. A lovely score and cinematography and creative incorporation of Barrie's fantasy world added to my enjoyment of this unusual biopic.

Garden State - There were three main reasons I rented this one. An acquaintance of mine had heartily recommended it, and I'd heard that its soundtrack included one of my favorite Simon and Garfunkel songs and that the cast included Ian Holm, yet another Lord of the Rings alum. I'm glad they led me to this movie, which is part romance between the quirky characters played by writer-director Zach Braff and Natalie Portman, part a reflection on dealing with grief, part coming-of-age story, part buddy comedy. It all adds up to a pretty impressive directorial debut.

Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban - I couldn't leave this one out. Third in the Harry Potter film series, it departs more from the books than the first two films but is still in many ways a wonderful adaptation, from the soaring score to the sweeping cinematography. Important characters such as Remus Lupin and Sirius Black are introduced, and while it's a rather painful transition from Richard Harris to Michael Gambon, Emma Thompson is hilarious as the wacky Divination professor. Meanwhile, the visual spectacle of the Hippogriff and the Patronuses are fantastic, and the Dementors are terrifying.

Mean Girls - Lindsay Lohan stars in this story of an innocent newcomer to high school who befriends a pair of oddballs, who encourage her to infiltrate the class's top clique and do some spying. Of course, she ends up getting sucked in and must ultimately decide whether popularity is worth the changes it has wrought to her personality. Based on Queen Bees and Wannabes, a treatise on teen behavior, the movie is a little over-the-top but still fun and occasionally thought-provoking.

Napoleon Dynamite - I saw this one in the theater with my brother, his friend and the exchange student staying with us. We enjoyed it, but we couldn't really think of anything to say about it as we hung around waiting to get picked up afterward. It's an odd, amusing movie about the triumph of the underdog. Jon Heder's Napoleon is awkward and towering, always sounding like he's mad at the world but expressing his frustration with a surprisingly clean vocabulary. Tina Majorino plays the most normal character in the bunch, a shy girl who actually finds Napoleon appealing. The cult hit is full of great catch-phrases that have spawned everything from magnets to t-shirts. I'm a little surprised there hasn't been a sequel, but then one movie's worth of Napoleon may be enough...

Spider-Man 2 - Probably the best of the series, though each installment has its charms. Alfred Molina and James Franco give great performances as men turned sour by tragedy, and Spidey's big heroic train scene is one of my favorite moments in a superhero movie.

The Terminal - This one didn't get a lot of attention and generally seems to have been regarded as a bit of a flop for director Steven Spielberg and star Tom Hanks. However, I loved this fairy tale-like story of a gentle man from a fictional war-torn country in eastern Europe who spends weeks living in an airport, infuriating the airport director (Stanley Tucci) but inspiring everyone else. Very sweet and very funny.

Two Brothers - This was the movie that introduced me to Freddie Highmore, my favorite child actor since Haley Joel Osment. It also stars Guy Pearce. Each of them has a significant relationship with one half of a pair of tigers, the brothers of the title. The boy and the man don't meet until late in the movie, but their scenes together are quite moving. Most notable, though, is the gorgeous cinematography that so perfectly captures the majesty of these creatures.

I've still got some catching up to do on 2004's crop of movies, but so far, what I've seen is a pretty good batch.

A Flippin' Sweet Movie That Sounds Like It's Been Picked Over By TBS

Back in the fall of 2004, my family took in an exchange student from Germany. Shortly into her stay, she and my brother went to see Napoleon Dynamite with a friend and invited me along. I accepted the invitation, eager for any opportunity for a bonding experience. So we got to the theater, watched the movie and waited outside for about an hour for my parents. We talked about all sorts of random shmoo, but we didn't say a word about the movie. None of us really knew what to say.

Napoleon Dynamite is an oddity. It's a triumph of independent film-making, having quickly achieved cult status as more and more teens and young adults cracked up over the antics of its strange characters and repeated their catch-phrases incessantly. Like so many other films before, it, Napoleon Dynamite is about an unpopular high school student who manages to make good. In this case, that student is beyond awkward. Hovering over the heads of his classmates, Napoleon (Jon Heder) glares out from behind thick glasses and under a mop of reddish curls, gritting his enormous teeth and spitting out vitriolic words at whoever crosses him. Almost every line is uttered with such agitated exaggeration that it seems he should be swearing up a storm. It's refreshing but jarring to note the lack of profanity; whenever he talks, I can't help but feel as though I'm watching a poorly dubbed movie on TBS. But then that is part of the movie's humor.

His manner of speaking is just so bizarre, as is everything else about him. He explodes periodically with "GOSH!". He emphasizes most statements with "pretty much", "freakin'" or "flippin'". He draws hideous hybrid creatures and practices "sweet" dance moves to corny '80s videos. He loves tater tots so much he stuffs them in a zippered pants pocket for later noshing. He bellows belligerently at his llama, builds a time machine and, when asked to regale the class with a current event, launches into a fanciful account involving explosives, the Loch Ness Monster and wizards.

Also strange is Pedro Sanchez (Efren Ramirez), the glassy-eyed new student whom Napoleon befriends after offering to show him the ropes at school. Pedro seems to spend his life in a daze, always looking bored, disinterested and utterly unengaged in the world around him. It's a surprise, then, when he decides to run for class president, but it sets us up for the nerds' inevitable shining moment. Deb (Tina Majorino, the only cast member I recognized) is a friend of both boys, though she associates more closely with Napoleon. She's very quiet and shy, but she seems to like Napoleon, and he has no objection to her, even wooing her with the ever-so-romantic observation that she's not fat, so she doesn't need to drink one percent milk.

And then there's his brother Kip (Aaron Ruell), a lisping wisp of a geek with thick glasses and a peach-fuzz mustache who spends virtually every minute of the day in front of the computer, often chatting with his dream girl, who turns out to be the robust, hip, polar opposite LaFawnduh Lucas (Shondrella Avery), who reminded me of Charlene in Bringing Down the House. There's also Uncle Rico (Jon Gries), a slimy shyster who Napoleon loathes, and Grandma (Sandy Martin), who's not in the movie much once she takes a nasty tumble while ATV-ing on some sand dunes.

They're all as quirky as can be, but Napoleon is the one commanding the audience's attention. We watch him in rapt fascination, wondering whether anyone could really be this awkward. He's so off-kilter, and there's such an aggressive manner about him, it's rather hard to fall in love with him. He's not as likable as Sam, Neil and Bill from Freaks and Geeks, Luke from Joan of Arcadia, Damian from Mean Girls, Matt from 13 Going on 30... But by the end of the movie, we can't help but like him a bit, despite the fact that he usually seems ready to bite someone's head off. And if nothing else, he provides plenty of amusing quotes to randomly incorporate into everyday conversation. I don't know if I'd quite call him "dynamite," but this movie boasts more sizzle than fizzle.