My RSS Feeds
MY FAVORITE MOVIES OF 2006
Last year's top ten is here, and yeah, Crash is on there. I'm sorry.
What follows is a list of the films released in 2006 that I saw, ranked from worst to best. You might notice that some of the ratings don't match my original reviews. I can only go on how I feel about the movie right this second. OK. Here we go!
*Titles in black were seen after this list was made.
HAPPY FEET (D) FIREWALL (D) ALL THE KING’S MEN (D)MY SUPER EX-GIRLFRIEND (D)
FREEDOMLAND (D) YOU, ME AND DUPREE (D)TIDELAND (D)
LADY IN THE WATER (D)
MANDERLAY (D+)
THE LIBERTINE (D+) POSEIDON (D+)
THE LAST KISS (D+) RUNNING WITH SCISSORS (D+) NIGHT AT THE MUSEUM (D+)CSA: THE CONFEDERATE STATES OF AMERICA (C-)
AMERICAN DREAMZ (C-) SCHOOL FOR SCOUNDRELS (C-)
THE DA VINCI CODE (C-) 16 BLOCKS (C-)
SCOOP (C-)
A SCANNER DARKLY (C-)
EMPLOYEE OF THE MONTH (C-)
SNAKES ON A PLANE (C)
X-MEN: THE LAST STAND (C)
PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN: DEAD MAN’S CHEST (C)
ACCEPTED (C)GRANDMA’S BOY (C) EDMOND (C) THE WOODS (C)IDLEWILD (C) BOBBY (C) MONSTER HOUSE (C+) FACTORY GIRL (C+)LOOKING FOR COMEDY IN THE MUSLIM WORLD (C+) THE WICKER MAN (C+) FINAL DESTINATION 3 (C+)CANDY (C+)
HOLLYWOODLAND (C+) THE GOOD GERMAN (C+) FLAGS OF OUR FATHERS (C+) SUPERMAN RETURNS (C+)SHADOWBOXER (C+) THE OH IN OHIO (B-) THE KING (B-) A PRAIRIE HOME COMPANION (B-)
THE HOLIDAY (B-)WORLD TRADE CENTER (B-)THE NOTORIOUS BETTY PAGE (B-) THE DESCENT (B-)BEERFEST (B-) VENUS (B-) THE DEATH OF MR. LAZARESCU (B-) FAST FOOD NATION (B-)THE LAST KING OF SCOTLAND (B-) CARS (B-) FOR YOUR CONSIDERATION (B-)
NACHO LIBRE (B-)
RUNNING SCARED (B)
MISSION IMPOSSIBLE 3 (B)
DAVE CHAPPELLE’S BLOCK PARTY (B)
V FOR VENDETTA (B)
A GUIDE TO RECOGNIZING YOUR SAINTS (B)
THE DEVIL WEARS PRADA (B)
THE BLACK DAHLIA (B)AN INCONVENIENT TRUTH (B) THANK YOU FOR SMOKING (B)HARD CANDY (B) THIS FILM IS NOT YET RATED (B)SLITHER (B)
SHERRYBABY (B)
MARIE ANTOINETTE (B)
THE ILLUSIONIST (B)THE PRESTIGE (B) THE PROPOSITION (B) DREAMGIRLS (B)
CASINO ROYALE (B) TENACIOUS D IN THE PICK OF DESTINY (B) THE FOUNTAIN (B) MIAMI VICE (B)
JACKASS NUMBER 2 (B)THE BREAK-UP (B) IDIOCRACY (B)SHORTBUS (B) SHUT UP AND SING (B) LETTERS FROM IWO JIMA (B)
PERFUME (B)BLOOD DIAMOND (B) loudQUIETloud: A FILM ABOUT THE PIXIES (B+) STRANGERS WITH CANDY (B+)THE PAINTED VEIL (B+) BRICK (B+) FRIENDS WITH MONEY (B+)TRISTRAM SHANDY: A COCK AND BULL STORY (B+)NOTES ON A SCANDAL (B+)THE DEVIL AND DANIEL JOHNSTON (B+)
ART SCHOOL CONFIDENTIAL (B+)APOCALYPTO (B+)
STRANGER THAN FICTION (B+)VOLVER (B+)
THE QUEEN (B+)
TALLADEGA NIGHTS (B+)HALF NELSON (B+)
JESUS CAMP (B+)INLAND EMPIRE (B+)
ROCKY BALBOA (B+)
LITTLE CHILDREN (B+) CLERKS 2 (A-) THE PURSUIT OF HAPPYNESS (A-) HOSTEL (A-)
Whew! And now, drumroll please, My Top Ten, which I must admit has been completely different every time I've tried to do it, so don't take the rankings too seriously past the top five.
10) PAN'S LABYRINTH
No question, the most memorable visuals I saw all year. For me, the performance by Sergi Lopez (above) is what elevated this movie from "cool" to "excellent."
9) BORAT
This was overhyped to the point where I almost didn't want to like it. It was a hit, so I guess the media blitz worked, but Jesus. Having seen every episode of Da Ali G Show, nothing here seemed that fresh or crazy or mind-blowing, but no movie this year made me laugh harder. The naked wrestling sequence is one of the funniest things I've ever witnessed.
8) INSIDE MAN
Fast, funny, tense, exciting, beautifully acted, wonderfully shot. The shout-outs to Dog Day Afternoon didn't make me wince, they felt totally warranted.
Spike Lee is one of the five best directors working today, but to get any sort of recognition or money or notice, he pretty much had to sell out at some point. He held out for two decades, it's about time. Spike Lee can't make a movie that doesn't address race, politics, and class in some way, even on a big studio picture, that's why I love him. What he did here is what he did on a much less publicized scale with The 25th Hour: Cram all that good stuff in around the edges of a traditional genre flick. A spoonful of sugar helps the medicine go down. It's what elevated this from an incredibly cool crime caper to something much more. And it's the best New York movie since...well, since The 25th Hour.
7) LITTLE MISS SUNSHINE
There are people, and I know them, who recoil in terror at the phrase "feel-good movie." I wonder if they sit in the theater, getting angry at the goosebumps on their arms or at getting emotionally involved in a movie that has the "disgraceful" goal of...getting you emotionally involved. Little Miss Sunshine did "feel-good" just right. This is sort of the reverse of Inside Man, in that a spoonful of darkness really helps the sugar go down. Perfectly cast, right down to the creepy Pageant Announcer, and anchored by a genuinely great Greg Kinnear performance, who perfectly nails the quiet desperation in suburban fathers everywhere. This is a movie about failure, and fear of failure, and what that does to people. That it is also so heartwarming and moving and funny is a real accomplishment.
6) BABEL
Looking at that still above, I wonder how people can be so vehement in their hatred of this movie. It's exceptional filmmaking. The somewhat over-the-top Crash-lash last year proved that people absolutely hate coincidences for some reason. Life is full of coincidences, people do crazy things all the time, I don't really understand some critics' complete inability to suspend disbelief a bit for a movie like this. The Mexican wedding/Japanese nightclub scene is about as good as movies got this year, and very little gripped me like the Mexico story. The bitching about its Oscar chances are in full swing, but filmmakers should be rewarded for taking on expansive, difficult, powerful material like this.
5) CHILDREN OF MEN
A very solid futuristic thriller drop-kicked into classic status by way of some of the most exciting and innovative filmmaking this year. Two of the best action sequences in film history are in this movie. Excellent performance by Clive Owen and a wonderfully loose and funny one by Michael Caine, who gets nominated for an Oscar every year except the one he deserves to be.
4) WHEN THE LEVEES BROKE
Quite the year for Spike Lee. Wow. No sugarcoating here. This is nothing less than a piece of American history. Lee is smart enough to know what a polarizing figure he is, and he made the right decision to stay off camera and just let the images and the words of the survivors tell the tale. All of these people who were just completely pushed aside and are being ignored to this day finally get a voice, and their voices are ANGRY. Half documentary, half testimonial, I heard and saw things in this movie that made my blood boil. Just an absolutely infuriating experience. If you had any lingering support for George W. Bush, this should make you rethink. Government fuckups don't come much larger than what went on here.
And if you wonder how a man can become so uncaring, so unhelpful, so ignorant, just take a look at the scene where his mother, Barbara Bush, looks around at the people in the Astrodome, forced out of their homes and into filth and squalor and pain and degredation and remarks "So many of the people in the arena here, you know, were underprivileged anyway, so this - this is working very well for them."
3) THE GOOD SHEPHERD
Far and away the most misunderstood and underrated movie of the year. A wide audience not giving props to a challenging movie that requires full attention is one thing, but how did film critics not get behind this? Whatever. This movie blew me away, it's about as close as we're going to get to The Godfather in this day and age. Matt Damon gave his best performance and one of the best performances of the year. An intimate epic, an incredible film.
2) UNITED 93
I can't say that I wanted to know what it felt like to be on that plane, but I now have as good idea as I hopefully ever will. Beyond tense, this was the most emotionally exhausting movie in a long while. It wisely eschewed schamltz, and was all the more gutting and draining for it. Truly great filmmaking.
1) THE DEPARTED
Nothing else came close. Twenty minutes in, when the title came flying on screen out of nowhere, Dropkick Murphys pumping in the background, I almost wanted to leave the theater, so sure was I that nothing could live up to that opening. It lived up, again and again and again. When this movie ended, I immediately wanted to see it again. I saw it again, and I immediately wanted to own it. Once I own it, I'll immediately want to make out with it. I haven't been this excited by a movie in years, this was miles ahead of every tired old thriller that Hollywood craps out each year.
The script was exceptional, but this is a Martin Scorsese movie all the way. Thank God He blessed us with this big, crazy blast of a movie before settling down, and hopefully it will keep him off biopics and period pieces for a while. Nobody does this kind of thing better. Nobody.
As for the acting, just marvel again at that cast. Criticizing Nicholson as being "Too broad" doesn't make sense, he was playing a notorious mobster! If everyone in the movie was just simmering and glowering and giving themselves ulcers, there'd be no dynamics. With all the tension and lying and deceit going on in the thing, this movie needed someone to barge into scenes and shake things up. He was great. DiCaprio was just terrific (although not Blood Diamond terrific apparently, yeesh), he made you feel every ounce of nerves and fear. Mark Wahlberg and Alec Baldwin (and his sweat-stained shirts and driving range Budweisers) were fucking hilarious, and Martin Sheen just nailed it. Vera Farmiga played a difficult role perfectly, and how this could only be the second-best Matt Damon performance this year is a true testament to the guy's developing talent. What a great asshole character.
With all the insanity in this movie, it's the smaller moments that stick with me. Martin Sheen must have really tapped into some universal fatherly thing here, because talking about this movie with my best friends, each one of them mentioned being sucker-punched by that simple scene where Sheen asks DiCaprio to "stay for supper." Something in that tiny moment just got to me, and apparently everyone I know. I think of Alec Baldwin dunking his bloated face into a bucket of ice. I think of Vera Farmiga peeling a banana while consoling Matt Damon about his erection problem. Maybe my favorite moment in the whole big, messy, gigantic thing was the tiny scene in the hallway at the end, when even that little dog can't stand to look at Matt Damon. Perfect.
And just like with its characters, there is so much more going on under the glossy surface of this movie. Watch it a couple times for entertainment, then just marvel at what Scorsese and screenwriter William Monaghan (and I suppose the makers of the original, ridiculously inferior Infernal Affairs), got in here, touching on fathers and sons, on loyalty, on moralism, on trust, on identity, on family, on intimacy, on relationships, on commitment, on Catholicism, on being Irish, on and on and on.
Maybe my favorite movie of the decade thus far.
I know it's only been three minutes since I posted this, but just know that
I blew my entire Sunday night on this, so I want to see comments and
discussion, people! All of you who read day after day in silence, I see
you! It's your time to shine! Agree! Disagree! Top tens all around! Step
lively!
Excepting #7 on which I've already made comment, I haven't seen any of your
Top 10, so I'll refrain from commenting on those except to say that based
on what you've already said on this very journal nothing is a surprise. I
read your entire list of movies you saw just now, though, and noticed three
that were actually from 2005: V FOR VENDETTA, BRICK, and HOSTEL. You're
gettin' sloppy, Walsh!
(By the way I saw HOSTEL and BRICK but not V4V) Here's the paltry list of
all 11 (technically 10) movies from 2006 that I have seen thus far,
partially in order of how they appear on your list (it was the easiest
reference I had, even though I saw a couple you didn't):
Nice text formatting there, Blog-City. ::FART NOISE::
Nope,
Pat,
great list - haven't seen half of the movies from it that I would have
liked to, though. I can't write much at the moment, but as one who gets
angry at the goose-bumps some movies give, I'd like to say something brief
on the subject. For me at least, it's not every "feel good movie" that gets
me upset. I though Little Miss Sunshine was a feel good movie done right
and I really liked the movie. I get upset at movies that pull my heart
strings just because they can and not because the movie really needs it. I
also hate movies that do this as a replacement for substance. Some movies
demand this kind of emotion. When a movie does this and not more
unnecessary emotion it helps make the movie great. It's the
fake/unnecessary stuff that makes me angry - mainly at the film-maker's
laziness.
John,
My top 10 (keeping in mind that the only movies I saw this year not on this
list are Happy Feet, The Break Up, and Superman returns)
10) Over the Hedge
9) X-Men
8)V for Vendetta
7) Thank you for Smoking
6) Talladega Nights
5) Inside Man
4) Stranger than Fiction
3) Little Miss Sunshine
2) When the Levees Broke
1) The Departed
I have to agree with most of your choices, although I think I would have
put Little Miss Sunshine up much further. I haven't checked out the oscar
picks, but I think Steve Carrell should get something for his role. So
should the older brother. I am realizing from your list that you see way
to many movies, and since law school, I basically don't see anything
anymore. However, I would have put the Pirates of the Carribean and X-men
higher, but certainly not in the top 10. And The Departed is definatly the
best movie of the year without question.
Wow, a really well-thought out list. Good job - a Sunday night well spent!
Some thoughts:
So wait, you gave me links to IMDb business pages, whose very titles
include the names of the films represented, directly followed by a
"(2005)," as proof that they were released in 2006? I must therefore
respectfully declare: "Nope," yourself, sir!
Of course, I'd mess up the quote. ...and I RE-Quote: "...a list of the
films RELEASED in 2006..."
John,
Rob,
As a gesture of appreciation for your hard work in preparing this list,
here's my top 10 list (and admittedly I missed quite a few movies this
year)...
1. The Departed - I don't have much to add, it's nothing less than
a classic.
2. The Proposition - I really got into this, I loved how dreary and dirty
it was. Something you probably need to be in the mood for.
3. Brick - Staging a modern film-noir could be gimmicky, unless it's done
really well and I thought this was.
4. The Science of Sleep - No one seems all this excited about this movie. I
can see how the quixotic characters could wear thin for some people. I
really enjoyed the visuals and for some reason the story resonated with me.
5. Pan's Labyrinth - One of the saddest movies I've ever seen, I think.
Contrasting the fantasy world with the real world drive the point home in a
way that's very effective and not preachy.
6. A Prairie Home Companion
7. Shortbus
8. Thank You For Smoking
9. Factotum
10. Casino Royale
6. A Prairie Home Companion .... the 'penguin joke' is great and the
cowboys are hilarious. Lindsy Lohan sucks. The lady in the white dress ---
lame.
I think the lady in the white dress would have been a disaster if it had
been taken more seriously. But since the whole movie was treated lightly I
thought it worked, or was at least forgiveable. Maybe it got a little bump
in the ratings for being Altman's last movie, and for having the guts to
put Garrison Keillor's mug on the big screen.
Perhaps I need to give The Departed another shot before I trash it more,
and I will next week. You know I love Marty, and I'll be happy when he
picks up his statue (though I'd rather him have it for The Aviator) in a
few weeks. I liked the film, but I don't think this is the one that
deserves to be his winner. I found The Departed to be vastly inferior to
Infernal Affairs. That's a nitpick not on Marty, but more just on the need
to remake it. The desire. It was bloated and full of too much
introspective information and character for what should be a taught
thriller. As a screenwriter, I couldn't believe that I could ever think
there was TOO MUCH character in anything, but there it was. It was nothing
more than a cop thriller to begin with (also the best Chinese production in
the past decade), and to take something so simple and fill it up felt
useless to me. Nothing takes away thrills like using the same thrills as
done before, and adding more scenes in between to slow shit down. Pacing
is the main issue that I had, not length. Also, that new ending is far
less haunting and mean as what the original did, and I dare you to argue
that. But I'll give you the benefit of the doubt, as we had very similar
lists, and say good taste, sir.
For me, nothing could have possibly topped Children Of Men in terms of
brilliance. It had a pulse to it, a rhythm in the pacing, that is absolute
perfection. Nothing more immersive and cinematic was released last year,
plain and simple.
It's not the coincodences or inter-connections in Babel that brought the
film down--it's the forced Mexican story that feels more like a "Message."
But I have already spoken to Mr. Walsh on that point. Here are my top ten,
(sort of) in order:
It's not the coincodences or inter-connections in Babel that brought the
film down--it's the forced Mexican story that feels more like a "Message."
But I have already spoken to Mr. Walsh on that point. Here are my top ten,
(sort of) in order:
There's the proof I'se lookin' fer! I don't (and won't) use Google.
Ben,
Pat,
Brown,
Nah, it's just a much shittier search engine than people give it credit
for. It's sort of the TITANIC (1997) of Search Engines, if you will. It
mighta made more money than anything in its class, but it certainly wasn't
as deserving of that as others.
Brown,
Here's an interesting article on the ending of The Departed from cnn.com:
Work's been busy, so I'm commenting a little late in the game, but here's
my top ten ... 1.) Children of Men 2.) The Departed 3.) Babel 4.) Pan's
Labryinth 5.) The Good Shepard 6.) United 93 7.) Borat 8.) Half Nelson 9.)
Brick 10.) The Queen
In true form, I leave my comment a year later! I just finished watching
The Departed last night and.....W. O. W. Absolutely stunning. I can't
elaborate more as you've covered just about everything. A roller coaster
ride of darkness, good, evil and on and on and on. Scorcese is indeed a
master. The only problem I had (and be it ever so small) is with
Nicholson's accent. There's one point towards the end when he's screaming
that he seems a bit more Jessup than Costello. I'm a purist when it comes
to using accents - either nail it, or don't use it. Small thing really.
Amazing movie. I'll be thinking about this one for weeks to come.