Best Movies of 2005

Editor: Piero Scaruffi
Best movies of all time | Back to the Cinema page
Best of the decade | Best of 2004 | Best of 2006
The following list averages the opinions of my favorite critics plus mine.

Foreign movies show sometimes a year later, so if you can't find a title, check last year's ratings.


8.0 Michael Haneke: Cache`/ Hidden
7.8 Majid Majidi: Beed-e Majnoon/ The Willow Tree
7.5 Sion Sono: Noriko no Shokutaku/ Noriko's Dinner Table
7.4 Cristi Puiu: Moartea Domnului Lazarescu/ The Death of Mr Lazarescu
7.3 Jacques Audiard: De Battre Mon Cour S'Est Arrete'/ The Beat That My Heart Skipped
7.3 Shane Black: Kiss Kiss Bang Bang
7.3 Kim Ki-duk: The Bow
7.2 Don Roos: Happy Endings
7.2 Philippe Garrel: Les Amants Reguliers/ Regular Lovers
7.2 Jan Svankmajer Sileni/ Lunacy
7.2 Guy Ritchie: Revolver
7.2 John Singleton: Four Brothers
7.2 Ira Sachs: Forty Shades of Blue
7.2 Vimukthi Jayasundara: Sulanga Enu Pinisa/ The Forsaken Land
7.2 Andrew Bujalski: Mutual Appreciation
7.2 Christian Petzold: Gespenster/ Ghosts
7.2 Ramin Bahrani: Man Push Cart
7.1 Liang Ying: Taking Father Home
7.1 Rian Johnson: Brick
7.1 Apichatpong Weerasethakul: Worldly Desires
7.1 Gela Babluani: 13 Tzameti
7.1 Emmanuel Carrere: La Moustache
7.1 Sion Sono: Kimyo no Circus/ Strange Circus
7.1 David Cronenberg: A History of Violence
7.1 Noah Baumbach: The Squid and the Whale (2005)
7.0 Andrei Kravchuk: The Italian
7.0 Hayao Miyazaki: Hauru no Ugoku Shiro
7.0 Sanjay Bhansali: Black (2005)
7.0 Deepa Mehta: Water
7.0 Michael Cuesta: 12 and Holding
7.0 David Jacobson: Down in the Valley
7.0 John Hillcoat: The Proposition
7.0 Patrice Chereau: Gabrielle
7.0 Rodrigo Garcia: Nine Lives
7.0 Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne: L'Enfant/ The Child
7.0 Sangsoo Hong: Tale of Cinema
7.0 Carlos Reygadas: Batalla en el Cielo
7.0 Tomas Vorel: Skritek
7.0 John Young: The Reception
7.0 Quay Brothers: The Piano Tuner of Earthquakes
7.0 Mohammed Amin: Laylat Suqut Baghdad/ The Night that Baghdad Fell
7.0 Bennett Miller: Capote
7.0 Jane Anderson: The Prize Winner of Defiance, Ohio
7.0 Joss Whedon: Serenity
7.0 Steven Spielberg: Munich
7.0 George Romero: Land of the Dead
7.0 Marcos Siega: Pretty Persuasion
7.0 Christoffer Boe: Allegro
7.0 Craig Lucas: The Dying Gaul
7.0 Hany Abu-Assad: Paradise Now
7.0 Stephen Gaghan: Syriana
7.0 David Slade: Hard Candy
6.9 Katsuhiro Otomo: Steamboy
6.9 Aleksandr Sokurov: The Sun
6.9 George Lucas: Star Wars: Episode III - Revenge of the Sith
6.8 Ang Lee: Brokeback Mountain
6.8 Anders Thomas Jensen: Adam's Apples
6.8 Chan-wook Park: Chin-jeol-han Geum-ja-ssi/ Sympathy for Lady Vengeance
6.8 Tommy Lee Jones: The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada
6.8 Tim Kirkman: Loggerheads
6.8 Julien Hernandez: Sex, Politics and Cocktails
6.8 Jim Jarmusch: Broken Flowers
6.8 Phil Morrison: Junebug
6.8 Roberto Benigni: La Tigre e la Neve
6.8 Miranda July: Me and You and Everyone We Know
6.8 Gus Van Sant: Last Days
6.8 Zeze Gamboa: The Hero
6.7 Kang Yi-kwan: Sa-Kwa
6.7 Raul Ruiz: Le Domaine Perdu/ The Lost Domain
6.7 Judd Apatow: The 40-Year-Old Virgin
6.6 Ming-liang Tsai: Tian Bian yi Duo Yun/ The Wayward Cloud
6.6 James Benning: Ten Skies
6.6 Lajos Koltai: Fateless
6.6 Gu Changwei: Peacock
6.5 Takeshi Kitano: Takeshis'
6.5 Lars von Trier: Manderlay
6.5 Manoel de Oliveira: Espelho Magico/ Magic Mirror
6.5 Krzysztof Zanussi: Persona non Grata
6.5 Joao Botelho: O Fatalista
6.5 Andrew Bujalski: Funny Ha Ha
6.5 Marcos Carnevale: Elsa & Fred
6.5 Homi Adajania: Being Cyrus
6.5 Johnny To: Hak Sewui/ Election
6.5 Terrence Malick: The New World
6.5 Radu Mihaileanu: Live and Become
6.5 Mark Dornford-May: U-Carmen e-Khayelitsha
6.5 Gavin Hood: Tsotsi
6.5 Josue Mendez: Dias de Santiago
6.5 Fred Keleman: Krisana/The Fallen
6.5 Takashi Shimizu: Marebito
6.5 Duncan Tucker: Transamerica
6.5 Neil Jordan: Breakfast on Pluto
6.5 Fernando Meirelles: The Constant Gardener
6.5 Sebastien Lifshitz: Wild Side
6.5 Paolo Virzi: Caterina in the Big City
6.5 Bahman Ghobadi: Turtles Can Fly
6.5 Danny Boyle: Millions
6.5 Minh Nguyen-Vo: Buffalo Boy
6.5 Christophe Honore: Ma Mere
6.5 Louis Leterrier: Unleashed
6.5 Paul Schrader: Dominion Prequel to the Exorcist
6.5 David Dobkin: Wedding Crashers
6.5 Craig Brewer: Hustle & Flow
6.5 Michael Bay: The Island
6.5 Hans Weingartner: Die Fetten Jahre Sind Vorbei/ The Edukators
6.5 Greg Harrison: November
6.5 David Mackenzie: Asylum
6.5 Wes Craven: Red Eye
6.5 Iain Softley: The Skeleton Key
6.5 Bob Clark: Now & Forever
6.5 Tetsuya Nakashima: Kamikaze Girls
6.5 Mark Waters: Just Like Heaven
6.5 Lionel Baier: Garcon Stupide
6.5 Atom Egoyan: Where the Truth Lies
6.5 Anand Tucker: Shopgirl
6.5 Julian Fellowes: Separate Lies
6.5 Carroll Ballard: Duma
6.5 Harold Ramis: The Ice Harvest
6.5 Greg McLean: Wolf Creek
6.5 Frank Miller: Sin City
6.4 Tim Burton: Charlie And the Chocolate Factory
6.4 Nicolas Winding Refn: Pusher 3
6.3 Adam Watstein: Loudmouth Soup
6.3 Michael Meredith: Three Days of Rain
6.0 Angela Robinson: DEBS
6.0 Amos Gitai: Free Zone
6.0 Abel Ferrara: Mary
6.0 Stanley Kwan: Changhen ge
6.0 Michael Almereyda: Happy Here and Now
6.0 Andrew Adamson: The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe
6.0 Rob Marshall: Memoirs of a Geisha
6.0 Stephen Frears: Mrs. Henderson Presents
6.0 Frederic Fonteyne: La Femme de Gilles/ Gilles's Wife
6.0 Mike Mills: Thumbsucker
6.0 Tim Burton: Corpse Bride
6.0 Robert Young: Human Error
6.0 Sydney Pollack: The Interpreter
6.0 Nigel Cole: A Lot Like Love
6.0 Takashi Miike: Chakushin Ari/ One Missed Call
6.0 Oliver Hirschbiegel: Downfall
6.0 Lukas Moodysson: A Hole in My Heart
6.0 Matteo Garrone: Primo Amore
6.0 Josh Sternfeld: Winter Solstice
6.0 Shona Auerbach: Dear Frankie
6.0 Eytan Fox: Walk on Water
6.0 Sergio Castellito: Non Ti Muovere/ Don't Move
6.0 John Boorman: In My Country
6.0 Campbell Scott: Off the Map
6.0 Yasuaki Nakajima: After the Apocalypse
6.0 Rebecca Miller: The Ballad of Jack and Rose
6.0 Tim McCann: Nowhere Man
6.0 Matthew Parkhill: Dot the i
6.0 Garth Jennings: Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy
6.0 Hal Hartley: The Girl From Monday
6.0 Minoru Kawasaki: The Calamari Wrestler
6.0 Matthew Vaughn: Layer Cake
6.0 Volker Schl”ndorff: Der Neunte Tag/ The Ninth Day
6.0 Ron Howard: Cinderella Man
6.0 Werner Herzog: The White Diamond
6.0 Ken Kwapis: The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants
6.0 Pierre Salvadori: Apres Vous
6.0 Hsiao-hsien Hou: Three Times
6.0 Alexandre Aja: High Tension
6.0 Chris Terrio: Heights
6.0 Lucia Murat: Almost Brothers
6.0 Angela Wu: Saving Face
6.0 Rob Zombie: The Devil's Rejects
6.0 Michael Winterbottom: 9 Songs
6.0 Jonathan Jakubowicz: Secuestro Express
6.0 Terry Gilliam: The Brothers Grimm
6.0 DJ Chen: Formula 17
6.0 Gael Morel: Three Dancing Slaves
6.0 Lexi Alexander: Green Street Hooligans
6.0 Humberto Solas: Barrio Cuba
6.0 Ben Younger: Prime
6.0 Adrian-Garcia Bogliano: Habitaciones Para Turistas/ Rooms for Tourists
6.0 Susan Kaplan: Three of Hearts
6.0 Ti West: The Roost
6.0 Cameron Crowe: Elizabethtown
6.0 Tony Scott: Domino
6.0 Marc Forster: Stay
6.0 Dave Gebroe: Zombie Honeymoon
6.0 Mark Milgard: Dandelion
6.0 Kiefer Liu: Life Translated
6.0 Paul Fox: The Dark Hours
6.0 Kevin Jordan: Brooklyn Lobster
6.0 Katrina Holden Bronson: Daltry Calhoun
6.0 John Gatins: Dreamer: Inspired by a True Story
6.0 Melissa Painter: Steal Me
6.0 George Clooney: Good Night And Good Luck
6.0 Roman Polanski: Oliver Twist
6.0 Michael Phelan: Into the Fire
6.0 Henry Jaglom: Going Shopping
6.0 Mark Levin: Little Manhattan
6.0 Scott McGehee and David Siegel: Bee Season
6.0 Marco Bellocchio: Good Morning, Night
6.0 Lasse Hallstrom: Casanova
6.0 Bruce Hunt: The Cave
5.9 Barry Alexander Brown: Winning Girls Through Psychic Mind Control
5.6 James McTeigue: V for Vendetta
5.5 Woody Allen: Match Point
5.5 Paul Haggis: Crash
5.5 Louis Leterrier: Transporter 2
5.5 Rosario Roveto: A Wake in Providence
5.0 Steve Carr: Rebound
5.0 Peter and Bobby Farrelly: Fever Pitch
5.0 Christopher Nolan: Batman Begins
5.0 Thomas Bezucha: The Family Stone
5.0 Margaret Brown: Be Here to Love Me
5.0 Adam Goldberg: I Love Your Work
5.0 Saverio Costanzo: Private
5.0 Eran Riklis: The Syrian Bride
5.0 Angelina Maccarone: Unveiled
5.0 Niki Caro: North Country
5.0 Robert Schwentke: Flightplan
5.0 Thomas Vinterberg: Dear Wendy
5.0 Tennyson Bardwell: Dorian Blues
5.0 Geoffrey Sax: White Noise
5.0 William Bindley: Madison
5.0 Jorge Furtado: O Homem Que Copiava/ The Man Who Copied
5.0 Breck Eisner: Sahara
5.0 Allan Brooks: Eating Out
5.0 Elmar Fischer: The Friend
5.0 Yvan Attal: Ils se Marierent et Eurent Beaucoup d'Enfants/ Happily Ever After
5.0 Francis Lawrence: Constantine
5.0 Al Corley: Bigger Than the Sky
5.0 Lawrence Guterman: Son of the Mask
5.0 Nick Palumbo: Murder-Set-Pieces
5.0 Daniel Burman: Lost Embrace
5.0 Thomas Carter: Coach Carter
5.0 John Polson: Hide and Seek
5.0 Andy Tennant: Hitch
5.0 Gurinder Chadha: Bride and Prejudice
5.0 Adam Shankman: The Pacifier
5.0 Chris Wedge and Carlos Saldanha: Robots
5.0 Laurice Guillen: Santa Santita/ Magdalena the Unholy Saint
5.0 Tim Fywell: Ice Princess
5.0 Dana Brown: Dust to Glory
5.0 Lee Friedlander: Girl Play
5.0 Bille Woodruff: Beauty Shop
5.0 David Duchovny: House of D
5.0 Damon Dash: State Property 2
5.0 Lee Tamahori: XXX: State of the Union
5.0 Ridley Scott: Kingdom of Heaven
5.0 Richard Ledes: A Hole in One
5.0 Jesse Dylan: Kicking and Screaming
5.0 Renny Harlin: Mindhunters
5.0 Eric Weber: Second Best
5.0 Doug Liman: Mr. and Mrs. Smith
5.0 John Schultz: The Honeymooners
5.0 Quentin Lee: Ethan Mao
5.0 Mark Rosman: The Perfect man
5.0 Sally Potter: Yes
5.0 Scott Caan: Dallas 362
5.0 Angela Robinson: Herbie: Fully Loaded
5.0 Steven Spielberg: War of the Worlds
5.0 Mick Davis: Modigliani
5.0 Richard Linklater: Bad News Bears
5.0 Gary Chapman: Valiant
5.0 Steve Boyum: Supercross
5.0 John Dahl: The Great Raid
5.0 Mark Meily: La Visa Loca
5.0 Peter Hyams: A Sound of Thunder
5.0 Lasse Hallstrom: An Unfinished Life
5.0 Les Mayfield: The Man
5.0 Carl Evans: Walking on the Sky
5.0 Liev Schreiber: Everything Is Illuminated
5.0 Andrew Niccol: Lord of War
5.0 John Madden: Proof
5.0 Paul Etheredge-Ouzts: Hellbent
5.0 Alison Bagnall: Piggie
5.0 Raymond de Felitta: The Thing About My Folks
5.0 Jim Gillespie: Venom
5.0 Dave McKean: MirrorMask
5.0 Joseph Castelo: The War Within
5.0 Gore Verbinski: The Weather Man
5.0 Christopher Scott Cherot: G
5.0 Andrzej Bartkowiak: Doom
5.0 Jennifer Todd Reeves: The Time We Killed
5.0 Nick Park and Steve Box: Wallace and Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit
5.0 Sam Mendes: Jarhead
5.0 Vincent Sassone: A Tale of Two Pizzas
5.0 D.J. Caruso: Two for the Money
5.0 Rob Hardy: The Gospel
5.0 Curtis Hanson: In Her Shoes
5.0 Josh Stolberg: Kids in America
5.0 Joe Wright: Pride & Prejudice
5.0 Jon Favreau: Zathura: A Space Adventure
5.0 Chris Columbus: Rent
5.0 Barry Blaustein: The Ringer
5.0 Rob Reiner: Rumor Has It
5.0 James Ivory: The White Countess
4.9 Rob McKittrick: Waiting
4.5 Peter Jackson: King Kong
4.5 James Mangold: I Walked the Line
4.5 John Maybury: The Jacket
4.5 Malcolm Lee: Roll Bounce
4.5 Mike Binder: The Upside of Anger
4.5 Eddie O'Flaherty: Fighting Tommy Riley
4.5 Robert Luketic: Monster-in-Law
4.5 Eric Darnell and Tom McGrath: Madagascar
4.5 Harvey Kahn: The Deal
4.5 Scott Derrickson: The Exorcism of Emily Rose
4.5 Jim Sheridan: Get Rich or Die Tryin'
4.5 Mike Newell: Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire
4.5 Dean Parisot: Fun With Dick and Jane
4.0 Rob Bowman: Elektra
4.0 Susan Stroman: The Producers
4.0 Penelope Spheeris: The Kid and I
4.0 Jeff Byrd: King's Ransom
4.0 Matthew Leutwyler: Dead and Breakfast
4.0 Brian Levant: Are We There Yet?
4.0 Gary Gray: Be Cool
4.0 Florent Siri: Hostage
4.0 Hideo Nakata: The Ring Two
4.0 Kevin Rodney Sullivan: Guess Who
4.0 John Pasquin: Miss Congeniality 2
4.0 Jaume Collet-Serra: House of Wax
4.0 Vadim Jean: Jiminy Glick in Lalawood
4.0 Robert Rodriguez: The Adventures of Sharkboy and Lavagirl in 3-D
4.0 Casper Andreas: Slutty Summer
4.0 Nora Ephron: Bewitched
4.0 Tim Story: Fantastic Four
4.0 Walter Salles: Dark Water
4.0 Mike Bigelow: Deuce Bigalow: European Gigolo
4.0 Michael Showalter: The Baxter
4.0 Meiert Avis: Undiscovered
4.0 Marcos Siega: Underclassman
4.0 Bill Paxton: The Greatest Game Ever Played
4.0 John Stockwell: Into the Blue
4.0 Martin Campbell: The Legend of Zorro
4.0 Isaac Eaton: Don't Tell
4.0 Sean Anders: Never Been Thawed
4.0 Lindley Farley: The Rodnees: We Mod Like Dat!
4.0 Mikael Hafstrom: Derailed
4.0 Roger Kumble: Just Friends
3.5 John Mallory Asher: Dirty Love
3.5 Raja Gosnell: Yours, Mine & Ours
3.5 Adam Shankman: Cheaper by the Dozen 2
3.0 Darren Lynn Bousman: Saw II
3.0 Mark Dindal: Chicken Little
3.0 David DeFalco: Chaos
3.0 Jay Chandrasekhar: The Dukes of Hazzard