Ranking the Films of 2005

As I was stuck sitting in my living room for a good chunk of the last year, I decided to watch as many 2005 movies for their 20th anniversary as possible. This was also fitting because it was the first year I was single since 2005, and I am back living in the same town I was in 2005. In fact, I thought I was going to do all kinds of 2005 media retrospectives, but last year was so dramatic between the stroke and car accident and everything else, that the present took up much more of my time. So the only thing that survived of those plans was the most emotionally easy, especially considering there were so many 2005 films I missed at the time, or haven't rewatched since I saw in the theater. I also switched my movie cataloguing website from the snooty, cool kids club Letterboxd, to the much more punk rock Criticless. I like it and the more interactive, less posing users there much better, and making a list is just as easy. Thus, here is my ranking list for 2005 films. I have short reviews for some of these on Criticless. I may make a page here for 2005 films like my 1999 one, but 2005 is a much less substantial cinematic year than possible best year ever, 1999.
A note on 2005 in film history--it's a great one for genre films (four of my top five could be considered sci-fi/horror), but an awful one for prestige films. Some may not like the word "woke," but it is hard to find a better one word descriptor for the prestige film slate of 2005. It is clear that the George W. Bush administration was deep in Hollywood's skull, and many prestige films feel like an intentional and direct opposition to it, which would be fine if the filmmakers did not do so to the detriment of the quality of their films. South Park has tipped its hand as to the actual political direction of its creators in recent years (they are far to the left of the center many assumed), and even they had to call out the political smugness in 2005's prestige films in an episode ("Smug Alert!") where a cloud of smug threatens to destroy part of the Western seaboard. Frankly, the prestige cinema of 2005 almost makes some of the "politics over story" trends of 2016-2026 look quaint, and I say this as someone who, if anyone visited this blog 20 years ago knows, was no great fan of George W. Bush. So, if a very critically praised, highly rewarded film is low on this list, that's likely why--it's probably a film that puts politics over story, or leans so heavily into an agenda that it is heavy-handed and ridiculous. There aren't too many years where the best picture winner is just barely spared from last place by a horrible horror film like An American Haunting, but 2005 is one of those years.