All these wonderful things

The 10 Most Wonderful Things of 2005

And now for some completely personal, completely random, completely belated takes on some things in 2005 that made me smile. It might be a stretch to call these things the 10 most wonderful things, but what the hell, we're already 9 days into 2006. So here goes:

10. Mary Lynn Rajskub on 24

One of the great things about Fox's paranoid, real-time actioner 24 is that it manages to bring in an unusual coalition of truly wonderful actors (and usually kills them off or roughs them up). Roseanne's Sara Gilbert? Killed in a bomb attack. Lukas Haas? Beaten and left for dead near a highway underpass. Larry Sander's old secretary Penny Johnson Jerald? Shot to death after three glorious seasons of treachery.

Then there's Mary Lynn Rajskub, formerly of Mr. Show, Larry Sanders and Punch-Drunk Love, who showed up in season 3 as the nervous, weird, nit-picking, jerkish computer analyst Chloe O'Brian. No request was made of her that wasn't received with a pout or a put-down. Then, midway through last year's fourth season, she picked up a machine gun and took out a terrorist in a charging SUV. Somewhere in between she became the very best thing about a show that is by turns the most exciting and ridiculous television on the air.

The 10 Least Wonderful Things of 2005

Everyone has their year-end lists. Pitchfork's got their top 50 albums of the year, the Voice has their 7th annual film crix poll, Movie City News keeps a critics scorecard of their own, and the Indiewire kids pick their favorites - kudos to Jonny Leahan for leading his list with Jem Cohen's Chain.

For my own take on the year that is almost past, I wanted to pay due reference to my blog's title. So, herewith, my (first) annual, highly subjective, randomly considered list of ten of the least wonderful things of the past year (the most wonderful things will be unveiled in the next day or so). The usual caveats apply:

10. The Demolition of Busch Stadium
More than just the ballpark of my youth, Busch was the last of the so-called "cookie cutter" stadiums, built for baseball, football, concerts, revivals, you name it, and as such, was thought to be a dinosaur. (Where are the luxury boxes? Where is the swimming pool?) Most of the folks who like the new back-to-classic stadium designs couldn't understand why anyone would be sentimental about the place. But as St. Louis has always been a mecca for baseball (with some of the best and most knowledgeable fans going), the stadium has had its own sense of hallowed ground.

These days, the life cycle for stadiums appears to be three or four decades, and fans (mostly) seem OK with demolishing the old ones for better seats, snacks and atmosphere. But there was history in that place, from McGwire's home runs, Brock's stolen bases, Gibson's pitching, Buck's play-by-play. And while the history remains, the actual site is no more, destined to be a mixed-use, "entertainment-dstrict".

The Voice Poll: Grizzly Man in Top 5

The beginnings of the annual Village Voice Film Critics Poll are online and, while it's still early, Werner Herzog's Grizzly Man is currently at number 4. This coming on the heels of a number of critics prizes for the acclaimed film that continue to call into question its exclusion from the Academy Awards shortlist for Best Documentary Feature (more on this subject in the coming week).

Also of note in the top 10 is the presence of Gus Van Sant's Last Days, which I wrote about back in July. I had mixed feelings about the film then but was feeling mostly positive. I have to say that in the past three months I have been asked about Last Days a lot and most of the people quizzing me have been almost angry in how much they disliked the film. So it's interesting to see it near the top of the Voice list.

Priests v. Penguins: Indiewire Looks at Docs '05

Indiewire's Jonny Leahan takes a look back at the year in documentary films, with some very interesting tidbits.

First off is Warner Independent prez Mark Gill's wholesale credit-taking for making March of the Penguins the biggest doc of the year:

"The short answer is that I spent five years reworking movies at Miramax," says Mark Gill, president of Warner Independent Pictures, "and learned a great deal about what changes make a big difference to an American audience's enjoyment of a movie. My colleagues also have worked on such a large number of movies that they, too, have seen the patterns of what works best in this culture."

I mean, seriously, God bless 'em for believing in a French documentary about penguins that was getting a lot of acclaim (in the original French) when it played Sundance last year, and further, good on them for getting (the Voice of God) Morgan Freeman to narrate a new script, but wow. OK. I wonder what happened with The Jacket?