Last Days - (Gus Van Sant;2005;USA)
The last days of a burnt-out rock musician.
The best film of 2005 and one of the best to come out of the last several years. Gus Van Sant direction is mesmerizing, making the audience seem like they're simply spying on a life, especially with it's distant shots and tracking shots. At times the film feels like a modern revival of Romanticism, especially with it's nature theme, which adds to the beautiful cinematography. Michael Pitt's performance is very good, working mostly through body language and mumbling. Like Elephant Van Sant uses off-beat sound mixes to establish a very disturbing mood in some moments, while using other music to amplify moods wonderfully. The best scene is of course the "Death to Birth" scene, which is a very good song from Pitt. Unfortunately, it’s a very misunderstood film this year. One of the most haunting portraits of loneliness and mental isolation in cinema.