Podcast: 2004 Anniversary Party w/ Top Ten Lists
Sunday, June 15, 2014 at 10:00PM 
For this hour long special edition of the podcast, we took Joe Reid's suggestion and are having ourselves a theme party. The theme is 2004, and on its tenth anniversary Nathaniel, Nick and Joe marvel at what a rich cinematic year it was and how well the highlights have endured.
We begin with movies we think we should revisit or have shifted in our memory and then compare top ten lists. Movies discussed include but are not limited to: Dogville, Bad Education, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, Tarnation, Before Sunset, Blissfully Yours, Shaun of the Dead, Sideways, House of Flying Daggers, Primer, Vera Drake, and Maria Full of Grace among others.
You can listen to the podcast here at the bottom of the post or download the conversation on iTunes. Continue the conversation with your own 2004 memories and revisits in the comments.
Reader Comments (21)
This podcast was one of the best you guys have recorded.
Well done everyone! So enjoyable.
Great podcast!
Here's my 2004 top 10. I would have to re-watch some movies before I tweak it:
01. Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
02. Dogville
03. Before Sunset
04. I Heart Huckabees
05. Sideways
06. Shaun of the Dead
07. Closer
08. Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy
09. Good Bye, Lenin!
10. Vera Drake
Other movies I really love: Reconstruction, Birth, Collateral, Dawn of the Dead (Director's Cut), The Door in the Floor, Garden State, Hotel Rwanda, The Incredibles, Lemony Snicket’s A Series of Unfortunate Events, The Life Aquatic With Steve Zissou, Mean Creek, Mean Girls, Open Water, The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie, Team America: World Police, We Don’t Live Here Anymore.
2004 was an incredible year. Even more so when I compare it to last year which was very lackluster, IMO.
What a lovely podcast!
My choices, In almost no particular order: 1) Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind and Before Sunset, then The Incredibles, Mean Girls, Spiderman 2, Maria Full of Grace, I Heart Huckabees, My Summer of Love (Emily Blunt!!), Moolaade and Vera Drake.
Special honors to: Kill Bill vol. 2, The Saddest Music in the World, In Good Company, Closer, The Dreamers, and Mayor of the Sunset Strip
Happy to hear Joe's love for Closer. I apparently need to revisit Eternal Sunshine - I've heard so many people reference it as an all time favorite, and while it was easily in my top 10 for that year, I've always loved pieces more than the whole. Hotel Rwanda is a movie that rattles me to my core every time I watch it, so I was surprised not to hear about it here.
Fun revisit and great year.
Loved this podcast!
I saw Time of the Wolf, Maria Full of Grace and Oasis because I knew Nick loved them and I really like Maria and Oasis but Wolf not so much.
Based on my initial reaction to the movies, I'd say Kinsey is my favorite 2004 film but I don't think I would feel the same way if I rewatched it. And I don't really feel like rewatching it.
I guess I'm on the Eternal Sunshine team along with the rest of the planet.
I want to add that I also like The Holy Girl, which, again, I saw because Nick likes it, and want to recommend it to everyone.
My top 10
10. Nobody Knows
9. Dawn of the Dead
8. The Story of the Weeping Camel
7. Control Room
6. Vera Drake
5. Birth
4. Dogville
3. Kill Bill 2
2. Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless MInd
1. The Five Obstructions
Both movies on the top of the list were daringly free with the form and presented innovative ideas, which is often times the most exciting aspect of movies to me, outside of a great female performance (see numbers 3-6) and great writing, of course.
sadman & f -- you must have loved that so many of your favorites were discussed. Great minds think alike.
mr goodbar - i love self awareness of one's own aesthetic sense like this. It must make it easier to know which tickets to buy
eurocheese, amir & james t - thank you!
Quick note: Nick mentions Osama. Osama was submitted for the 2003/2004 oscars, where it wasn't nominated. The Barbarian Invasions won that year. The Sea Inside was submitted for the 2004/05 oscars. They were never in direct competition in the foreign film category.
2004 is a year that requires a top twenty.
1. Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
2. Before Sunset
3. The Corporation
4. Son Frere
5. The Incredibles
6. Infernal Affairs
7. Primer
8. Touching the Void
9. Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter….Spring
10. I Heart Huckabees
11. Dogville
12. The Return
13. Birth
14. Bad Education
15. Uzak
16. The Aviator
17. Raja
18. I’ll Sleep When I’m Dead
19. Kinsey
20. Dawn of the Dead
Basically, my 20th favourite film would be challenging for top five in 2003, the year was that strong.
these lists just remind again how insane the oscars were: finding neverland and ray? WHAT THE HOLY HELL?
Happy 10th! I started reading in 2007, so I had no idea you started the blog during such a rich movie year -slash- frustrating oscar year.
I hope you'll keep doing these year-in-review podcasts every once in a while, though I understand that they require more prep time. I also enjoyed the 1986 podcast from a few years ago.
My top five of 2004 are Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, Birth, Before Sunset, Vera Drake and Sideways. Maria Full of Grace is a close sixth, but after that I'm not sure at the moment. I always go by the world premiere year, so Dogville is my second favorite of 2003 (behind Lost in Translation) and Time of the Wolf is also in the top five.
Thanks for the great podcast; it reminded me of what a great year 2004 was for movies, and how the Oscar nominations failed to reflect that. So many movies to revisit now!
I'd be curious to hear you all do a podcast on one of the weaker years of the last 10 years.
@F: I just saw Moolaade for the first time and really liked it, though not quite as much as other Sembenes. Glad to see you mention it here.
@Arkaan: Good catch! I don't like The Barbarian Invasions, either, though at least it's better than The Sea Inside. Either way, I resent Osama's loss of the trophy, much less a nomination. And Dawn of the Dead would be in my Top 5 of any other year, too.
So glad everyone enjoyed this one so much! I had a blast doing it. We'll have to grill Katey later for her answers.
GREAT podcast. It's worth noting that 2004 is also the year that gave us the amazing sight of Alfre Woodard being sucked into the sky by aliens.
You guys neglected to weigh in on the great Team Chasing Liberty vs. Team First Daughter debate.
Nick, have you seen The Adventures of Iron Pussy? That sounds insane.
My cine-intake in 2004 was not nearly what it is now so I mostly enjoyed this podcast as one giant recommendation of films to check out. The only film that I thought might come up but didn't was The Motorcycle Diaries. I just love its passivity, as the most enlightening trips I've had involved 'watching/listening' rather than 'doing.' And that score!
Thanks guys!
PLEASE do one of these a year - it was so great to listen to and a fun trip down memory lane.
The things I remember most from 2004, in no particular order: Fuckabee's, "That is SO fetch!", the unbearable tension, incredible empathy, and fan-fucking-tastic central performance of Maria Full of Grace, Natalie and Clive in the strip club, "WHERE IS MY SUPER-SUIT?" "WHY do you NEED to KNOW?!?", Jennifer Garner dancing to Thriller, "You're getting MARRIED on Saturday?!?" (Sandra Oh gets such short shrift in Sideways), "Baby, you are gonna miss that plane" (I did not fully "get" Before Sunset the first time I watched it - perhaps I was too young at 20 - but it made a DEEP impression on me), "This is the last time I saw you", Elle Driver thrashing blind around that trailer.
Honorable mention to the year's two most indelible music cues: The Blower's Daughter in Closer, and Let Go in Garden State (which, while I still like it, has not aged very well for me).
As someone who’s always followed and delighted in reading your guy’s top 10 lists, hearing this retrospect/ reordering was an especially fascinating treat…
NATHANIEL: I’m with you all the way (and always have been since I first saw it in ‘spring’ of 2004) on “Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter & Spring”. Such a beauty. And yes, Craig’s virility in “Mother” is something else.
NICK: You speak so eloquently about your picks, especially “Osama” which I’m now definitely going to revisit. Also I must say I loved your mini writeups of “Eternal” and “Birth” in your Top 100 of the 00s.
JOE: Yes! Thank you for the “Closer” love. Sure it’s divisive but deserved more from critics and Oscar (Marber’s screenplay snub was so egregious). Your comments about the strip club scene and it’s worthiness as a short film couldn’t be more true.
Please, please keep these revisits going guys.
My ten:
1. Before Sunset
2. Eternal Sunshine
3. A Very Long Engagement
4. Shaun of the Dead
5. Howl's Moving Castle (I also go by international, non festival, release)
6. Downfall
7. Layer Cake
8. I Heart Huckabees
9. The Incredibles
10. The Aviator
@Ryan: Thanks so much! Very kind words. Let me know what you think of Osama when you see it. Just for the record, I'm in Closer's camp, too, though I'm all about Julia and Clive in it.
@Nathaniel: I understand that Daniel Craig + red hair + beard + handyman's body has a way of wiping away the memory of literally anything else. In fact... give me a second. But, as the person who let you come over and watch The Good Parts of Love Is the Devil ('98) on DVD while I cooked us dinner, I do have to object a little to this outlandish claim.
Also, Craig completists in 2004 should make sure to note Enduring Love as well, where he remains the best-built humanities professor I have encountered on screen or in life. Good glasses, too.
I still have some major blind spots but I love this year and at the moment this is what I'm at:
1. Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
2. The Return
3. Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter... and Spring
4. Before Sunset
5. Vera Drake
6. Bad Education
7. Mean Girls
8. Birth
9. The Incredibles
10. tie: The Motorcycle Diaries & Collateral
Awesome podcast!
My Favorite 4 of 2004, in no order...
- Motorcycle Diaries
- Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
- Sideways
- Napoleon Dynamite (though it's difficult to separate from the hoopla and overreaction, it's a really hilarious movie.)
Also, excited about the recommendations! Especially "Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter... and Spring" and "The Time of the Wolf"