Lifetime Movies: 2004

Winner: Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind

Hold on...what? In maybe the biggest upset since my stomach the morning after The Distillery dared me to eat all that saurkraut, I have immortalized a Jim Carrey film in the ranks of my Lifetime Movies. Now, a lesser man could credit this film's success to a brilliant Charlie Kaufman script. Or visionary direction by Michel Gondry. Or another exquisite performance by Kate Winslet. Or any number of reasons besides that assclown  Carrey. But I am not that lesser man. I'm a different lesser man that has nothing to do with movies. No, as much as it pains me to say, Carrey was good here, Yes, that half-hearted compliment hurt. I avoided this movie for years mainly because I didn't want to like it. Sigh. Not even my innate bitterness could stand in the way of one of the best movies I have ever seen. Yes, that's what I said.

What else? This may be the year of the decade.

Zack Snyder's Dawn of the Dead remake may have surpassed the original which itself is considered by many to be the best zombie movie. And then there's Shaun of the Dead, which if you know me you know I love. Not that anyone can ever know me.

And there is the far and away best football movie ever, Friday Night Lights.

And the deepest comedy year of the decade featuring Napoleon Dynamite, Mean Girls, Harold & Kumar Go To White Castle, Anchorman, and Team America. And Kung Fu Hustle, which was as cool as it was funny.

And Fahrenheit 9/11, which despite your political or Michael Moore leanings, was easily the most important film of the year and maybe the decade.

And The Notebook.

And what Vin said.