At long last, here is my Top 10 Movies of 2006. I finally finished watching all the favorites of the Academy voters and the critics and of course all the other movies I really wanted to see throughout the year. Some match, some are quite different. Hopefully, you guys might rent some of the lesser known films. There are also probably more foreign films than ever before. Not because I got all snooty and snotty, but because foreign filmmakers are finally making movies that I would enjoy.
1-Borat - Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan (Widescreen Edition)---The Best Movie of the Year. It achieved the highest goal of any movie I want to see--It entertained me throughout. Easily the funniest movie of the year, maybe of the decade. I laughed more at this movie than any since Howard Stern's Private Parts, maybe even more than that. What clinched it for me was after seeing it on a Wednesday night with two friends. I went back Sunday afternoon with my wife and different friends. I laughed more on Sunday than I did on Wednesday and that's after almost having a stroke on Wednesday. What helped was that I laughed so hard on Wednesday that I missed or forgot half the funny parts. And it's also the most original comedy I've ever seen. Basically an R-rated Candid Camera where the people know they are on camera and still say incredibly bigoted and stupid things. Sasha Baron Cohen as Borat should have received an award just for not laughing in the people's faces. He won a Golden Globe for Best Actor and rarely has anyone deserved an award more. He pulled off one of the greatest acting jobs in history, by fooling dozens of ordinary people with his foreign manners and stupid questions. I loved Borat on HBO, but was not prepared for how much I would love this movie. The only film from 2006 that I bought on DVD.
2-United 93 (Widescreen Edition) ---As polar opposite from Borat as any movie could be. The most serious film of the year about the most serious subject, 9/11. A perfect movie for DVD, because you really need subtitles to catch all the dialogue. This film was written from transcripts from the agencies involved on that day. The FAA, the military, the airlines and air traffic control towers. The realism is strong throughout from the mundane to the terrifying. The mundane makes it all the more terrifying, like when the stewardesses discuss the food they will be serving. I assumed that the film would be only about Flight 93 and how it crashed in the Pennsylvania field, but it actually encompasses all that went before it on that day, and much of it in real time. Paul Greengrass, the director, knows how to film in a documentary style from the inside out. His previous film Bloody Sunday was done in much the same way. The overlapping dialogue may have much to do with the action or may not and then there are those abrupt fits of violence that you might miss because the camera is focused on something else, like your eyes might be. Without knowing much about what happened in the plane that morning, this is probably as close to the truth as we will ever see. Using completely unknown actors was a brilliant move because a star would be a distraction. Certainly not for everyone to see, but that doesn't diminish its greatness.
3--Babel ---Finally caught up with this gem last week. Three stories told in three different countries about what trouble we can get into when we lack communication. Babel refers to the Tower of Babel, which is one of my favorite stories in the Bible. A pompous king wanted to build a huge tower to Heaven, hoping to meet God while still living. When the tower gets too high, God decides to put an end to this blasphemy and curses everyone involved with a different language. Before that everyone spoke the same language, the language of Adam and Eve I suppose, but now everyone in Babel spoke different languages and spread across the earth after that. This film has English subtitles for Moroccan (Arabic?), Japanese and Spanish. An American woman gets shot while on a tour bus in Morocco, she needs medical attention quickly, but there are no hospitals for hundreds of miles. Her children are back in the states and their Mexican nanny decides to take them with her to Mexico for her son's wedding. In Japan, a deaf teenage girl is having the hardest time adapting to hearing society. Her only link to the rest of the movie is that years before her father gave away the rifle that shoots the woman to a Moroccan hunting guide. I didn't worry about the tenuous reason for the Japanese part of the film because it all was so engrossing. Scene after scene felt like something I'd never seen before. Like how they kill chickens in Mexico, or how a Moroccan veterinarian would put in stitches, or how a deaf person experiences a nightclub. I couldn't believe some of the stupid moves that some of these characters make, but if people didn't make stupid judgments the newspapers would be pretty empty. Not as downbeat as the director's previous film (24 Grams), but has a ton of harrowing moments. I think he went a little soft at the end though. Particularly with the children in the Mexican desert.
4-The Queen---Did the impossible. Made me appreciate Queen Elizabeth. I never liked this lady before. Thought she was cold and aloof even before Princess Diana's death, but really despised her after Diana died. This film tells the story of the Royal Family's reaction to Diana's death in 1997 and how Tony Blair tried to save them from themselves. Blair was only Prime Minister three months when Diana was killed that night in Paris. She was already divorced from Charles and running around with an Arab playboy. The Royal Family used to love her, at least Prince Philip, Charles' father, did but she changed so much over the years that they all fell out of favor with her. When she died they didn't understand what a big deal it was to the public. They didn't even make a statement about it to the press right away. One scene shows the Royal Family staff watching Blair's press conference about the death and when he calls her "the People's Princess" all the women in the room start crying. Oblivious, the Public Relations man who runs the office, turns to say, "that was a bit overdone wasn't it" and is shocked to see all the tears. Indeed, the tears of England shock the entire Royal Family, including Charles. As the tears build, so does the resentment and at this point you feel much like England does about the Queen and her family. But this movie does the unexpected, it gives us a look at The Queen behind the scenes, from her feelings toward a male deer on their 40,000 acre property, to her fears for her grandsons, William and Harry. She's much more complex a figure than I ever expected. In fact, I hate to say this, from looks to demeanor she started to resemble my own mother. A realization that Tony Blair comes to as well. I think that's why this movie touched me so much. And while it feels like a well-written TV Movie, I'm glad it wasn't, because I probably wouldn't have seen it.
5-Pan's Labyrinth ---Take one part Schindler's List and one part dark chocolate Willy Wonka and you have the most bizarre movie of the year. A little girl's fantasy world shelters her from the madness of her real life. She is the stepdaughter of a brutal Army captain during the Spanish Civil War. This sadistic monster works happily under Franco and is trying to kill off the rebels hiding in the woods behind his stately country home. Meanwhile his new wife is having a difficult pregnancy with his unborn child. The wife's daughter's fantasy world is lead by a tall creature named Pan and his commands to her give her pause, but also give her purpose in trying to save her life and freedom. Nothing is held back here, from the gross gooey slime she must climb through to get the magic key or the battle scenes between the rebels and the stepfather's men. The stepfather, a small beast, is particularly cruel to a stutterer who they capture and reveals his real self when he tells his physician that if he has to save his wife or the unborn child save the child. I keep reading that kids should wait a few years before this seeing this film. A few years? I'm not sure I was ready for it yet. It's a tough watch, but it is extremely well made and eye-opening. When you are not hiding your eyes from a tough scene to watch, you are amazed at the exquisite detail of the other world. Like United 93, the subject matter should not take away from the movie's greatness. Wish it was overdubbed, because reading the bottom of the screen takes your eyes off the magic above.
6-Casino Royale (2-Disc Widescreen Edition)---Best Bond ever. Best Bond movie and Best Bond actor. The most serious Bond film. I'm not the biggest fan of the series, but I loved this movie. This is the first story in the series, retold from a modern point of view. Daniel Craig is not the best looking guy for the part, but he is the most manly and he is hardly a metrosexual. When a bartender asks if he wants his martini shaken or stirred, he asks, "do I look like somebody who cares?" LOL There was a bit of a problem wrapping it up, I felt like there were three different endings, but the final ending ending was perfect.
7-Lucky Number Slevin (Widescreen Edition) ---I gave this the seven slot only because of its name. I would like to put it higher. I still think of this movie today and haven't seen it in about a year. What a great little film. About four cool twists which I never saw coming. Done like a great magic act, which was how it was written. You think one guy is getting killed and it turns out to be the guy across the room. Josh Hartnett, who is a really good young actor, plays a fish out of water as a guy mistaken for someone else who is asked by one crime lord to pull off a difficult hit on another crime lord. Morgan Freeman and Ben Kingsley play the two crime lords, both with relish. Bruce Willis is the smarmy background guy who is part hitman, part architect. It's like as if M. Night Shymalan and Quentin Tarantino made a movie together, that cool and that good.
8-Children of Men (Widescreen Edition)---In 2027, the whole world is infertile. The last baby born was in 2009 and he just turned 18 and was killed. This slow paced end to the human race has made everyone a little nuts. The last baby born dying has made people even more depressed and the only city that's sort of holding it together is London. Our hero played by Clive Owen is given a task to complete, get this foreign woman to the sea at the other end of the country and see that she gets on this boat. To do this, he will have to evade police, local crazies running amuck and a rebel group looking to take her back. It's a grim look at the future, but it also has ties to today's world, with its treatment of foreign prisoners and immigrants. The lone voice of sweetness and reason is Owen's best friend played as an aging hippie by Michael Caine. Through Caine you hear about Owen's past and why he is the way he is. I loved how they never explained why the world went infertile. One friend who saw it was annoyed by this, but what caused AIDS, cancer or now autism? We the general public don't know and we assume no one else knows, or at least they are not willing to tell us, so I'm sure this scenario would also go unanswered. And he hated the penultimate scene, finding it too unbelievable. On the contrary, I found it incredibly moving and totally believable. In fact, I think if the opposite had happened I would think that that was just morose nonsense on the part of the filmmakers.
9-13 Tzameti----This movie starts off ant slow. Loses a couple places on the list because I did not discover this film on my own. Critics praised this French movie through the roof. If they hadn't called it the best thriller since Hitchcock I would never even have heard of it. But like I said, the beginning starts off so slowly that if it were a video I might have turned it off, but I was in a theatre and knew something was coming, not sure what, but we were building to SOMETHING. And it was going to be something hair raising and razor edged. Knowing that builds the suspense for you in a way the movie actually doesn't. I imagine it's like the first time people saw Psycho. They knew something bad was coming, but waiting for it only made it worse. The main character here is a Russian immigrant to France repairing this old French guy's roof. When the man kills himself, this kid of about 22 steals his mail. This man looked for a letter every day and when it arrived drove the man to suicide. Now my common sense would tell me that if getting a letter makes someone do that, chances are the thing in the letter is not that good. But this kid looks at it differently, he's desperate for money for him and his family and figures this letter could lead to something profitable. So he decides to use the train ticket and hotel fare that comes in the letter and journeys to where the possible money is. He gets there and realizes he's in way over his head. When you see great, tight thrillers, the audience's blood pressure rises, the metabolism kicks into high gear, people sweat and the temperature inside a theatre goes up measurably. All that happens here until finally you walk out of theatre and happy to get on the street where no more harm can come to your senses. Rare that a horror movie or thriller can do that to you, but when it does it deserves high praise. Subtitles hurt this movie a little, but I think the tough French voices make it more alien and scary. The harsh black and white photography is especially unsettling.
10-Little Children ---Talk about dark. A lonely, bitter housewife takes her child on play dates to have an affair with a lonely bitter househusband. Living in the same town is a pedophile who's just been released from jail. Is he better or will he strike again? His one date starts off pleasant enough, but turns into one of the more disturbing scenes in a movie that's filled with them. Everyone is good here. Bad News Bears' Kelly Leak, Jackie Earle Haley as the struggling pedophile; Phyllis Somerville as his delusional mother; Titanic's Kate Winslet as the overeducated housewife; and Noah Emmerich as a neighborhood vigilante. The kind of movie that shows the worst side of human beings and still makes you root for them to do better.
Honorable Mention:
Dreamgirls (Widescreen Edition)---Eddie Murphy did a great impression of James Brown back in the early '80s. He reprises it here to play James Thunder Early, an exceptionally talented black soul singer at a time when black singers couldn't get on popular radio. His role in this movie is good, but not as impressive as Jennifer Hudson the big girl who lost on American Idol. She plays the Florence Ballard part of the Supremes, as Effie the most talented member of the Dreamettes. She, along with Beyonce and this other girl play a Detroit trio who hope to make the big time. But she is too black, too big and her voice too strong to make it on traditional radio, so the Berry Gordy character, played by Jamie Foxx pushes her to the back and makes Beyonce the star of the group. The songs are stirring if unmemorable. This movie would have been 10 times better if they could have used real Motown hits, but Berry Gordy would never have allowed that.
Superman Returns (Two-Disc Special Edition)---Saw Superman 2 recently, which is more entertaining, but this is a better movie, the best of the series. Skips 3 and 4 and gets right to it. Lex Luthor is more evil here and less goofy and I like the new Lois Lane way more than nutty Margot Kidder.
CSA: The Confederate States of America----Most creative movie of the year. What if the South had won the Civil War? Story told in documentary format like a Ken Burns film. Using real facts and photos and spinning a different history of America. In some ways much worse, in other ways not that much different. Doubt that many of the technological achievements that we take for granted today would have existed in such a repressive regime. I mean what did South Africa ever invent?
Happy Feet (Full Screen Edition) ---Singing, dancing penguins is good enough, but to use classic pop songs and reimagine them is another. Then you add in the best use of Robin Williams' talents in years and a strong, environmentally conscious storyline and you have yourself a real winner. Much more entertaining than the stalled Cars.
The Departed (Two-Disc Special Edition) ---Only my friend Harry really likes this movie. Every other person I've talked to was disappointed by it and they are all big Martin Scorsese fans. In fact, it's because they are Scorsese fans that they are so disappointed. They expect better from him. Maybe if it was original I would have appreciated it more, but like I said before, the Chinese original called Infernal Affairs was made better and faster (90 minutes) and when I was watching THAT film I never thought I was looking at a Best Picture. Still don't.
Blood Diamond (Widescreen Edition)---Director Ed Zwick has an independent vision that gets sideswiped by his commercial style. This could have been one the year's best movies, but instead of letting the characters be real he pulls up short because you can't have the main character be too dislikable a person. Leonardo DiCaprio could have put some mean varnish on his portrayal as a mercenary out to get the Pink Diamond, but Zwick makes him too soft too often. Love to see what a younger Gene Hackman could have done with this part. Djimon Hounsou is wonderful as the man who's trying to get his son back. When he raises a shovel in anger the fear and hatred of 400 years of oppression are seen in his eyes like no other actor's. Amazing how he can switch on from sweet to killer in a manner of seconds.
Half Nelson ---A young white male teacher in Brooklyn named Dan Dunne befriends a 12 year old female black student and tries to be both a friend and mentor to her. But despite her tough background and his comfortable background, he's the one with the problems, smoking crack and trying to make sense of his life. Dunne is played by probably the best actor of his generation, Ryan Gosling. Shareeka Epps plays the young girl and even though this is her first acting role she does a fantastic job. This movie is not at all sweet, but it has a good heart.
Stranger Than Fiction---Will Ferrell turns the heat down so much in this film that he almost seems like he isn't there. But his performance as Harold Crick is a gentle souffle that would be ruined by too much acting out as he is wont to do. Emma Thompson is a brilliant author who is writing the story of a man's life, Harold Crick's life to be exact. And when her novel narrates his story he can actually hear the narration in his head. He tries to outrun the narration, but it always catches up to him. Whether by skipping a bus to work or stepping through a puddle rather than around it, the author is always one step ahead of him. This might be more of a nuisance than a problem if she doesn't let on that Crick will eventually die. The story is brilliant and the performances by almost everyone, especially Maggie Gyllenhaal as the punk rock baker, are great. But the one sore point for me was that of Dustin Hoffman. His literary professor is certainly believable enough, but his reaction to Crick's dilemma seems too easily convinced. They lose a key dramatic element in the movie by first having Hoffman believe him too easily and then not be more amazed throughout by his predicament. It's like someone finding out that Jesus was back and walking among us. How long would that take you to accept as run of the mill news? Days, weeks, months?
Sherrybaby ---Gyllenhaal is back as Sherry Swanson, a recent ex-convict, junkie who moves back into her New Jersey neighborhood and tries to revive a relationship with her young daughter. Maggie gives one naked performance in this film, and I don't just mean with her clothes. The life of an ex-con and rehabbing junkie is nothing pretty, but to try and bring up a daughter in that environment makes it seem that much uglier. Couple that with the fact that her brother and sister in law don't want to relinquish custody of the child back to her and her seemingly nice, but incestuous father (Sam Bottoms) and you have a stew of dysfunction that you will need a bath to wash off. Danny Trejo is good as her sponsor, an ex-junkie who has a lot problems of his own. And Giancarlo Esposito is great as her parole officer, who wants to help her but is not above putting her back in prison. When you've been a tremendous screw-up your whole life and you don't have much family support it must be a crushing problem to try and make a better life for yourself. Sherry wants to and it is her struggle of one day a timing it that we the viewers root for her to overcome.
The Freditor
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