Here are three avenues by which to access the reviews and information on this site. On the left-hand side below are Year Index pages, which include the stars, director, and my review grade for each of the releases I saw from that year; an annual top-ten list; decorative graphics; and links to special features such as annual sub-sections devoted to the Academy Awards.

The Alphabetical Indexes displayed on the right-hand side include links to all of the reviews on the site. Titles that appear in blue text indicate a film that I have seen but for which I have not yet provided reviews or supplementary information. Please e-mail me with thoughts or questions about the reviewed or the unreviewed movies-and enjoy your reading!

Finally, click here for an index of all full-length film reviews or an updated list of all-time favorites.

Browse by Year 2006 2005 2004 2003 2002 2001 2000 1999 1998 1997 1996 1995

Browse by Title A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z

Year Indexes appear only from 1995 to the present because of the uniquely high number of films I have seen during that period. All films are catalogued by the year they debuted on United States screens; for that reason, some foreign-language films and other movies may be designated by a year later than that in which they were originally produced.

THE 2005 NICKSFLICKPICKS HONOREES
(Written in January 2006)
Blame a blog, a dissertation, and a slew of reasonable but unelectrifying nominees for the fact that I short-changed the Oscars and my own Top Ten this year. But, the biggest and best feature is still here: my rationalized choices for the best of the year in all of Oscar's categories.

THE 2004 NICKSFLICKPICKS HONOREES
(Written in February 2005)
Oscar never gets it quite, don't you agree? Browse here for my own selections of the dreamiest, dazzliest, and best in a very good year for commercial filmmaking.

THE BEST FILMS OF 2004
(Written in January 2005, after screening 115 calendar-year releases from 2004)
Every year I mean to say a few words in explanation/praise/defense of my choices as the year's best. This year, with too many good films for a mere top 10—and too many shared ideas among these movies to let them pass without notice—I finally give the crème de la crème the royal treatment they deserve.

OSCAR NOMINATION PREDICTIONS FOR 2004
(Written and updated between November 2004 and January 2005)
Unlike my braver colleage at The Film Experience, I wait until mid-autumn to take a stab at predicting January's Oscar nominations. The link above is to my final round of guesses, two weeks before the announcements, though my earlier stabs at guessing in November and December are still accessible.

MIDYEAR REPORT 2004
(Written in August 2004, and expanded through September)
The end of August is a perfect moment to honor the best individual achievements of the preceding winter, spring, and summer. As a bonus, I also look forward to the ten films I most eagerly anticipate in the upcoming fall and holiday seasons and the artists to watch in those high-prestige months.

THE CANNES FILM FESTIVAL
(Written in April 2004, timed to the announcement of the Cannes competition lineup)
To balance out the heavy Oscar focus of recent features, I have provided a quick, at-a-glimpse history of the prizewinners, high-profile competitors, and jury presidents from the last 57 years of Cannes Film Festivals. As a bonus, I've added a ranking of Palme d'Or winners from best to worst, with linked reviews to several Cannes honorees.

THE 2003 POST-OSCAR RENTAL ADVENTURES
(Written in March 2004, following the Oscars which honored releases of 2003)
I'm not calling it a "Rental Guide" anymore, because some of the films I dig up don't work out all that well! But this is still your annual catalogue of buried treasures and interesting oddities in the prior portfolios of this year's Oscar nominees, as well as pictures to seek out if you liked this year's Picture and Director nominees.

THE 2003 ACADEMY AWARDS
(Written and maintained from January-February of 2004)
The annual banquet of features, including winner and nomination predictions, profiles of the nominees in the major categories, my own picks, and links to the other Oscar-related special features.

THE 2003 NICKSFLICKPICKS HONOREES
(Written in January 2004, with updates through February 2004)
My most extensive and best-illustrated salute yet to the best filmmaking achievements of the previous calendar year, in all the same categories as Oscar (but with precious few of the same nominees!).

Please click here for the full archive of past Special Features...

---

Cinemarati was founded in 2000 by web-based film critics who wished to enforce a mutual standard of quality film writing among the endless, anonymous “resources” available on the Internet. Cinemarati’s business is to provide the Internet with a lively and rigorous space for talking and writing about the movies. At this site, redesigned as a blog in 2005, you will find short reviews, quick editorials, film journalism, public discussions, provocations, festival news, awards buzz, and all kinds of other features that answer those really important questions such as:

• What were the best and worst movies of this year, or last year, or any year?
• Who are the up-and-coming directors all over the world of film?
• What films and artists have been winning industry accolades lately, and who has been left out?
• Which are the movies you think about when you think about movies? And what do you think about them?

Please click over to Cinemarati and contribute your thoughts, lists, tidbits, and hopes for this wonderful artform we all love.

---

- LINKS TO GREAT FILM SITES -

INFORMATION AND REVIEWS
If you're here, I can't imagine that you haven't already checked out the Internet Movie DataBase, but it's always good to have at your fingertips, no? If you're curious about box-office statistics, BoxOfficeMojo is a stunningly exhaustive and easy-to-use site; skip the stupid reviews, but check the global box-office and almanacs of past info. For an encyclopedic array of awards info and predictions, special features on crafts like costume design, interesting reviews, and fetching attitude, you can always wile away a few hours at Nat Rogers' The Film Experience, known in saltier quarters as FilmBitch. Variety is the official industry news mag, with priceless articles, statistics, and insider buzz, but you'll need to pay a subscriber's fee for most of the goodies. On the opposite side of the film spectrum, Acquarello's Strictly Film School website provides exhaustive and enthusiastic intro's to all kinds of directors and film cultures you may never have heard about; if you're already a fan, you'll have just as good a time.

RENTAL SITES
NetFlix is just the tip of the iceberg. Here are two better ideas. One, if you're looking for one of over 7,000 classic movies made before 1970, including heaps of silent treasures and out-of-print rarities you won't find anywhere else, get thee hence to ClassicFlix, another rent-by-mail service that has the goods NetFlix hasn't even dreamed about (plus many titles that they have). On the more contemporary artistic tip, GreenCine has a vault of independent, foreign, auteurist, and other hard-to-find titles right alongside this week's mainstream releases. Adding to your pleasure are the copious news bulletins and feature articles by people who really love film and really know what they are talking about. If these two sites don't have what you want, try Facets Video, which offers DVD and VHS for sale or for rent, but at steeper prices and for shorter rental spans than the other sites allow.

RELEASE CALENDARS
If you're wondering what will be debuting at your local 'plex sometime soon, some hard-working soul named Eric Carter has assembled The Movie Release Page just for you! If you’re still hankering for a movie that has left all the cinemas, Video ETA provides both a weekly calendar of DVD/VHS releases and a searchable database of planned releases for at least six months in advance. Which, speaking of...

RETAIL SITES
If you're already considering buying a DVD, especially a top-dollar Criterion release or expensive import, it's worth a trip to DVDBeaver to get an intensive, graphically-enhanced review of each disc's image quality, menu options, and special features. Once you've made your decisions, DeepDiscount DVD and DVD Planet are both reliable and inexpensive places to get your cinematic bling for a good, marked-down price (and DeepDiscount ships especially quickly).

---

Nicholas K. Davis
Assistant Professor, Northwestern University, Evanston, IL
E-mail me at nick@nicksflickpicks.com
© All reviews and articles are the exclusive property of Nick Davis and the NicksFlickPicks website.
No material may be cited, copied, recirculated, or republished without the express written permission of the author!