The Curious Case of 2004
I think it’s time we talk about 2004. Now officially two decades gone, the discussion has become unavoidable. Pay no mind to the fact that I was four-years-old. This is not about me. This is bigger than me. 2004 is one of the greatest years in cinematic history.
George W. Bush is reelected. The first Nintendo DS enters the market. Mark Zuckerberg launches Facebook. Friends ends after 10 seasons. Natasha Bedingfield releases her debut album Unwritten. My little brother is born. 13 Going on 30 hits the big screen. Then Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind. Then Mean Girls. Sideways. Shrek 2. The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou. Anchorman. Ella Enchanted. Before Sunset. White Chicks. Princess Diaries 2. The Incredibles. Sleepover. Dodgeball. Ocean’s Twelve. The Spongebob Squarepants Movie. Spider-Man 2.
That’s not even all of them. I had to stop myself. Scooby-Doo 2: Monsters Unleashed.
In many ways, it feels like my whole life has been leading me to 2004. My mom bought us Shark Tale on DVD to watch on the flip-down screen in her minivan. As soon as I became cognizant of the American government (age 7 maybe), my dad made me and my brothers watch National Treasure like it was a history lesson. Lying on the floor of a friend’s living room with our eyes glued to The Notebook was an essential middle school experience. The Polar Express is a Humphries-Christmas-Classic that we tune into nearly every year. And, lo and behold, the movie that got me through college was released in 2004 too: The Prince and Me.*
For years I’ve been collecting these 2004 movies – both purposefully and accidentally – and each time I uncover another I am floored. I’m supposed to believe that two separate movies about “the President of the United States’s daughter sneaking away from her Secret Service guards and starting a forbidden romance with a handsome stranger who, in the end, she discovers has been working undercover for the Secret Service” were released in the same year and nobody batted an eye? Talk about cosmically ordained…First Daughter and Chasing Liberty.
Something was in the air.
One producer pitched, “What if we tell the story of the Three Musketeers, except the Three Musketeers are Mickey Mouse, Donald the Duck, and Goofy?” Mickey, Donald, Goofy: The Three Musketeers.
One writer typed, “I see you’re drinking 1% milk. Is that ‘cause you think you’re fat? ‘Cause you’re not” and set awkward high school romances on a whole new course. Napoleon Dynamite.
And then Zach Braff dared to ask, “What if I direct?” Garden State.
I challenge anyone to bring me a calendar year full of more hits. It was one after the other. Something for everyone. If only I hadn’t been four-years-old, then I could’ve seen these in theaters. The one I did get to see right when it came out: Superbabies: Baby Geniuses 2.
What’s even more beautiful is that I can’t precisely pin down why 2004 was such a phenomenal year for filmmaking. It might be because all of my favorite actors now were just getting big then. Ryan Gosling. Anne Hathaway. Mark Ruffalo. Natalie Portman. Or maybe it’s because America was recovering from a terrorist attack and engaged in war, so movies needed to be fun and happy for a while. But perhaps it was just a perfectly timed convergence of minds. A year of coincidental magic. Smart, creative movies full of heart and joy.
I wonder how we get back to that? Is it even worth trying to recapture? I’m curious if it has anything to do with youth. Wes Anderson, Tina Fey, Sam Raimi, and Richard Linklater were in their 30s and 40s in 2004. Kate Winslet, Ethan Hawke, Rachel McAdams, and Ben Stiller were in their 20s and 30s. They were young blood. Now, I love these people – don’t get me wrong – but they’re also the ones making the popular movies twenty years later. The big names in 2004 are still the big names in 2024. The same is even more true for studio executives. It makes me think of this quote from Issa Rae for the new Time magazine cover: “‘I’ve never seen Hollywood this scared and clueless, and at the mercy of Wall Street…I’m sorry, but there aren’t a lot of smart executives anymore. And a lot of them have aged out and are holding on to their positions and refusing to let young blood get in.’”
I suspect a 2004 renaissance is possible if we circulate young blood through the IV of Hollywood. Not that I want people over the age of 40 thrown out. I love people over the age of 40. I feel in my bones I am over the age of 40. But people like Ilana Wolpert, who wrote Anyone But You (2024), stir something in me that I haven’t felt in a long time. Raine Allen-Miller, who directed Rye Lane (2023). Cooper Raiff, who wrote, starred in, and directed Cha Cha Real Smooth (2022). Emma Seligman and Rachel Sennott, who made Bottoms (2023) and Shiva Baby (2020). They’re not at the mercy of Wall Street. They’re making movies full of heart and joy.
One day I’ll tell you about how 2005 is one of the greatest years in television history. Today is not that day.
*I will not elaborate on why.