Lists, 12/15.

Dana Stevens, contributing to Slate's best books list: "Though it technically came out in late 2004, I spent the first two months of this year struggling with David Thomson's The Whole Equation: A History of Hollywood. But it was a passionate, engaging struggle, like an argument with a brilliant, impossible friend."

Girish: "So, here goes, in alphabetical order by filmmaker." That would mean leading off with Andrew Bujalski's Funny Ha Ha.

Jeffrey Wells: "I can't do a Ten Best of '05 of list - the number has to be fourteen. And I had to include 27 films on the 'Pretty Damn Good' roster, and I had to make a special mention of Terrence Malick's stunningly see-worthy shortfaller, The New World."

Instead of a string of titles, David Lowery lists a few "favorite filmgoing experiences of the year."

MS Smith: "[T]here were two films that meant more to me than the others, that altered the way I watch and think about the cinema. The first is Jean-Luc Godard's Masculin féminin; the other is Wong Kar-Wai's In the Mood for Love."

The Guardian's Xan Brooks picks out the highlights of the year in the UK, one for each month.

At Twitch, logboy logs the winners of the British Comedy Awards.

Anne Thompson's running a poll: "What is the best holiday movie?"

Updates: It's good to check Fimoculous now and then these days. Rex really goes all out this time of year, his little Christmas gift to each and every one of us. A few film-related lists I'd overlooked so far: Stephen King's got a top ten. Really. In Entertainment Weekly: "Many of this year's best movies were really depressing. Below is my admittedly eccentric list of the year's best; a B in parentheses stands for Bummer." His #1: The Squid and the Whale. (B)

Then there are Movie Mistakes's "Best mistakes of 2005"; a Sith goof tops the list and it just so happens that the film is Rolling Stone's Peter Travers's favorite DVD. He picks 25 in all. More best DVDs: editors and customers at Amazon and, at About.com, Dave White's "Top 10 Classic Rock DVDs of 2005."

Posted by dwhudson at December 15, 2005 7:23 AM