The year, the year, the year.

We're still trudging our way through the curdling masses of year-end reviews, summations and such (why are there always sooo maaany (The IFC Blog — now with 50% more whining!)), but here are a few we can't pass up:

We swore off Rex Reed back in April, but, like a good solid amphetamine habit, his New York Observer "On the Town" column keeps luring us back, only to leave us, two days later, sleepless and crazed and trying to hold up a 7-Eleven in Poughkeepsie using only a banana. His look back at 2005 is a round-up of everyone who died, along with, as much as he can manage it, his sometime tenuous social connection to each of them. Selections:

But as [Sandra Dee]'s frequent co-star [Troy] Donahue once confided to me, "On the set, they never knew which one of us was the biggest drunk."

[Geraldine Fitzgerald] sent me a leather-bound copy of some literary classic for my library shelves every Christmas for 40 years.

...as a frequent guest of Johnny [Carson]'s in the good old days, I can testify that he was the last of the bearable late-night talk-show hosts before the shows turned into the brainless blabfests they are today.

I live in [Eddie Albert]'s former apartment in New York’s Dakota, and I’ll never understand why he boarded up the chimney flues and robbed all future occupants of their fireplaces.

The crazy kids over at the New York Press have their top tens up. Armond White's (and what we wouldn't give to see him fight Rex Reed someday) first two choices won't surprise anyone, but we're pleased to see "Kung Fu Hustle" make both his and Zoller Seitz's list, because no one else seemed to give it the weight we did. Reverse Shot also has their list up on indieWIRE — their top pick is Arnaud Desplechin's "Kings and Queen."

At the Hollywood Reporter, Gregg Goldstein reads the year in indie film as escapist, compared to 2004's Fahrenheit Passion, with roiling real world concerns being replaced by enjoyable gore and, well, penguins. Essentially, no one knows what people want anymore, but clearly it's time for a franchise based on a group of lovable Antarctic fauna who wake up in a locked room and are forced to play sadistic mind games with a manipulative, mask-sporting psychopath.

In the London Times, Kevin Maher doles out career advice to the notables of film in 2005. And, over at Fimoculous, Rex Sorgatz presents his not particularly film related, but no less interesting  Top 20 Lists of 2005.

+ Adios! Addio! Adieu! Beloved Greats Depart In 2005, Which Stinks (NY Observer)
+ TOP FILMS OF 2005 (NY Press)
+ Reverse Shot's Best of '05: "Kings & Queen" and 9 More (indieWIRE)
+ Indies take the escape route (Hollywood Reporter)
+ I'm afraid I have some bad news... (London Times)
+ Best Lists (Fimoculous)