There is none so blind as he who will not see. It's true. Ray Stevens sang it in the hit single "Everything is Beautiful (In Its Own Way)." I have no idea why I just mentioned that.
MSN Movies has published its main movie contributors' lists of the year's best films (and, yeah, we cheated freely -- our lists don't all contain ten titles). Here you'll find lists from me and (in alphabetical order) some other names you may recognize: Sean Axmaker, Gregory Ellwood, David Fear, Richard T. Jameson, MSN Movies chieftan Dave McCoy, Kim Morgan and Kathleen Murphy. As is my custom, I don't make what I see as artificial and qualitatively meaningless distinctions between categories (documentary, "foreign language") because, the way I see it, a feature film is a feature film, and a doc or a movie from somewhere else in the world is every bit as much a product of conscious and unconscious artistic decision-making, skill, planning, determination and luck as any other kind of picture with a running time of around an hour or more. (That, arguably, is a meaningless distinction, too. Heck, "Simon of the Desert" and "Wavelength" are only 45 minutes long, "Sherlock, Jr." is 44, " and "Un Chien Andalou" is only sweet 16!)
I'm cooking up a different sort of list I want to do for Scanners and RogerEbert.com, but if you want to see my faves (as of my deadline last week -- and nothing I've seen since then would change my rankings), use the link above and/or check after the jump. Please see my post about listmaking in general, below... and please, as always, feel free to post your own lists and responses in the comments section!
In the meantime, here are just a few of the titles favored by esteemed critical colleagues and friends (or hordes of ticket-buyers unknown to me) that I haven't seen yet: "Army of Shadows," "Three Times," "Idiocracy," "The Lives of Others," "Iraq in Fragments," "Iraq for Sale," "The Blood of My Brother," "When the Levees Broke: A Requiem in Four Acts," "The War Tapes," "Days of Glory" (aka "Indigènes"), "An Inconvenient Truth," "Jesus Camp," "Deliver Us From Evil," "Our Daily Bread," "The Intruder," "Inland Empire," "The Proposition," "Neil Young: Heart of Gold," "Marie Antoinette," "The Painted Veil," "A Scanner Darkly," "Fast Food Nation," "Climates," "The Last King of Scotland," "Catch a Fire," "Dreamgirls," "Apocalypto," "Blood Diamond," "The Wire: Season Four," "Deadwood: Season Three," "Superman Returns," "Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest," "Sherrybaby," "Our Brand is Crisis," "The Devil Wears Prada," "V for Vendetta," "The Pursuit of Happyness," "The Da Vinci Code," "X Men: The Last Stand," "The Hills Have Eyes," "Dave Chappelle's Block Party," any of the big animated films, "Casino Royale"...
Who knows, I might be able to squeeze another "ten-best" out of these, if only I'd had stamina enough and time. On the other hand, some of these I've chosen to avoid for my own reasons -- but, as my experience with "Flags of Our Fathers"/"Letters From Iwo Jima" demonstrates, just because I find myself resisting seeing something doesn't mean I won't find it worthwhile if and when I eventually get around to it...
Jim Emerson's 2006 list for MSN Movies:
1. "Pan's Labyrinth": I don't know that I've ever seen a more richly and fully realized fantasy film. In Guillermo del Toro's masterpiece, Fascist Spain and a little girl's imaginary world of monsters and fairies are two sides of the same coin. One isn't the "fantasy escape" from, or the "harsh contrast" to, the other; each is a reverse impression of the same treacherous experience.
2. "Perfume: The Story of a Murderer": Think of it as "cine-sthesia" -- a lush, sensuous, brutal fable (aren't fables meant to be all that?) in which sight and sound are masterfully orchestrated in the service of ... smell. My senses were re-invigorated. My jaw was on the floor half the time, and my eyes, ears and nostrils wide open from beginning to end. [Fortunately, the theater was dark so nobody had to see me looking like a Tex Avery character.]
3. "Man Push Cart": A Pakistani pushcart vendor survives one day at a time on the streets of midtown Manhattan. A modern Sisyphean tale of urban survival, told with Bressonian minimalism and specificity -- and if that doesn't sound like a rip-roaring good time, it's also spellbinding, suspenseful, heartbreaking and dazzling to behold.
4. "A Prairie Home Companion": Robert Altman's vision was always so wide that it embraced life and death at the same time, but never so warmly and wisely as in his valedictory film -- an elegy for a career and a companion to "Nashville," especially.
5. "The Descent": Six women go spelunking in the bowels of Mother Earth. A plunge into subterranean horror, deep underground where our bones will someday lay, and even deeper into the darkness of the subconscious.
6. "The Bridge": Another kind of plunge into the abyss: Cameras capture suicides off the Golden Gate Bridge over the course of one year. The filmmakers work backwards to fill in the gaps, to see if it's possible to understand what brought these people out onto the span. Maybe the only film that has ever dealt so honestly (yet also hauntingly, poetically) with the most important decision of people's lives (that is, whether to continue living them) -- a decision many have to make again and again and again, every waking moment.
7. "51 Birch Street": Nice house, nice neighborhood, nice Jewish family. Documentarian and sometime wedding videographer Doug Block investigates the mystery of his own parents' marriage -- and all the drama of "ordinary lives" emerges, as we see how the past flows into the present.
8. "Half Nelson" / "Old Joy": Two tales of struggle with personal and political idealism as Americans (in the urban Northeast and the bucolic Pacific Northwest, respectively) age into their 30s and 40s, worried about what they've lost, who they've become and who they're going to become.
9. "Flags of Our Fathers" / "Letters From Iwo Jima": Images, words, symbols, stories, propaganda ... Clint Eastwood's two-part epic, ostensibly looking at the battle for Iwo Jima, first from the American and then from the Japanese point of view, is really about the meta-weapons of war -- powerful as any atomic bomb. As Peter Bogdanovich says of "The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance" in "This Is John Ford," these movies understand the value (maybe even the necessity) of "printing the legend" -- but the director also makes a point of showing you the truth behind it.
10. "Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan": This is what movies do best: They show you the world through someone else's eyes, even when that someone is a ridiculous cretin from a mythical Kazakhstan. I don't think we've even begun to consciously understand why this movie is so funny, or how it managed to resonate so strongly with a mainstream American audience. But the comedy of Sacha Baron Cohen smartly and hilariously connects the anarchic wit of W.C. Fields, the Marx Bros. and Preston Sturges with the reality-based satire of "The Daily Show" and "The Colbert Report."
Honorable Mentions
"The Good German"
"The Break-Up"
"Inside Man"
"49 Up"
"Volver"
"Brick"
Worst
"World Trade Center": Of course it's not really the worst movie of 2006, not even close. But Oliver Stone's superficially "nonpolitical" film about Sept. 11 could not have been more political, almost by definition. As such, it's perhaps the most deceptive and dishonest. It will always be "too soon" -- and "too late" -- to make a feel-good movie about Sept. 11 simply by narrowing or widening the zoom (in to the guys in the rubble, or out to the rescuing Marine headed to avenge this slaughter in Iraq), but what Stone served up was the knee-jerk, Rumsfeldian antithesis of the ambivalent wisdom expressed in Eastwood's 2006 war movies.
P.S. About those two top choices: No, I did not succumb to "end-of-the-year" syndrome. "Pan's Labyrinth" has been my favorite movie of the year ever since I saw it (and wrote about it) in Toronto in September. And "Perfume" was a big surprise -- seen at a screening sometime in November (or was it October?). Anyway, both have stayed with me.
Hey Jim
I've been anticipating your thoughts on the best films of the year for a while. Great to read your opinions once again. Here is my list so far, minus the films I've yet to see like Children of Men, The Good Shepherd, and many more.
1. The Fountain
2. Deliver us from Evil
3. The Departed
4. Game 6
5. Casino Royale
6. The Prestige
7. Superman Returns
8. Marie Antoinette
9. The Proposition
10. The Descent
Quite interesting to see Perfume on your list, even at that high a place. The movie didn't do well with critics [or audiences, I fear] in Germany ...
Okay, I can get behind most of these on one level or another (although I admittedly have yet to many of them), but I expect you to answer for Flags of Our Fathers. I give Eastwood some credit for effectively ripping off John Ford, but I found the story so static and shallow (there's actually no need for the battle scenes at all, except as a selling point) that I could barely stomach it. Maybe it's better after seeing Iwo Jima?
My Top 10:
1. The Bridge - Quite simply, the best documentary I've ever seen. It combines Morris' ear for unintentionally philosophical testimonials with Herzog's eye for effective setting.
"There's a lot of rational thought that goes into an act that a lot of people just consider irrational."
2. United 93 - Let's get one thing straight: a 9/11 movie is not by default a masterpiece, but Greengrass's flawless realistic style and unflinching script perfectly capture the experience of having actually been there, trying to make chaos fit some reasonable shape while the world spins out of control.
"Two planes hit the World Trade Center!? We just left Newark; the weather was beautiful."
3. The Descent - The smartest and most utterly terrifying film of the decade. Anything left to say needs no repeating.
4. The Departed - It might not rank at the top of Scorsese's best, but that still puts it a head above the rest. Not only does it do a great job exploring corruption and faith, actually improving on its source material, but it's an endlessly watchable and entertaining example of what most big budget films are missing.
"I thought I was supposed to go into shock! I'm not in shock!! IT FUCKING HURTS!!!"
5. Tristram Shandy: A Cock & Bull Story - Not since Day For Night have I seen such a compelling film about filmmaking (unless you count Mulholland Drive). Michael Winterbottom evokes some of the best traits of the dearly departed Robert Altman in this adaptation/making of Tristram Shandy. I also haven't laughed so hard since Harold & Kumar.
"Look, you are tremendously attractive, and your knowledge of German cinema is second to none. But uh...I gotta go."
6. The Science of Sleep - I have difficulty finding a director whose mind I love visiting more than Michel Gondry. It does go somewhat astray toward the end by making Stephane a little too whiny to really get behind, but I understood that I was looking at someone with issues. Even when sympathy for him was difficult I could always empathize.
"Ladies and gentlemen we are approaching the Moon. WHAT!? The Moon. YEAH!"
7. Little Miss Sunshine - The funniest American film of the year features the best ensemble cast that isn't Tristram Shandy. It had me laughing even when I felt like crying.
"Everyone just...pretend to be normal!"
8. Inland Empire - David Lynch's most experimental film since Eraserhead might be the least accessible of his career, but what a trip! Laura Dern gives the performance of her career as an actress giving the performance of her career, and the photography stretches digital photography to its outermost limits.
"Strange, what love does."
9. Cars - The most pleasant surprise of the year breathes new life into an old cliche with more grace than I've seen from any animated film since The Polar Express. Lasseter grabs attention with some of the most exhilerating special effects sequences of the year, then slows the film down to something so simple, beautiful, and pure that we remember why the story was good in the first place.
"It is such an honor to be your agent that it almost hurts me to take ten percent of your winnings. And merchandising. And ancillary rights in perpetuity. Anyway, what a race, huh, champ? Uh, didn't see it, but I heard you were great."
10. A Scanner Darkly - An interesting companion piece to The Departed, it follows an undercover cop who infiltrates a drug ring (or is it vice versa) drifting into addiction and eventually oblivion. Most of the film consists of the paranoid conversations of the addicts (hardly typical subject matter for a sci fi).
"What if they come in through the back door or the bathroom window like that Infamous Beatles song?"
Honorable Mentions:
When The Levees Broke
Tideland
Monster House
The Proposition
Happy Feet
Worst:
Tie - Apocalypto and High School Musical. I can't think of two films more different that managed to piss me off more effectively. Apocalypto's unintended comedy about the horrors of a pagan world is matched only by its irksome digital photography that makes the mystique of the jungle look more like the mystique of a houseplant. With High School Musical, at least I knew what I was getting into, but nothing could've prepared me for the random noises assembled by starving Canadian children and sold at top dollar to impressional youths. On the other hand, if a song like "Stick to the Status Quo" sounds promising, then by all means, embrace it.
I do not have a final list, yet - mainly because there are so many, apparently great, films that have yet to be released here in Istanbul - but from what I have seen thus far, I have to say that it's been a rather lacklustre year for film.
Jim also touched upon this, albeit briefly and in a slightly different context, in his coverage of this year's Toronto festival, and it's a depressing trend.
I believe that William Goldman's nostalgic, equally hyperbolic, yet inherently true caveat about talent's tendency to cluster could naturally be extended to film, the final product. For some reason, this year the muses seem to have put their feet up, and there is no overall sense of brilliance that usually seems to pervade during the end of the year through Hollywood.
Comparing this year to even last year, where the best films included "Good Night, and Good Luck," "Brokeback Mountain," "Walk The Line," "Munich," "North Country," "The Constant Gardener," "Junebug," and my personal favourite "A History of Violence," one can see that the difference is palpable.
I really hope that the plethora of non-mainstream films I have yet to see prove me otherwise. Even if they don't, I hope this is not the beginning of a trend.
I'm crapping my pants to see "Pan's Labyrinth," as well as "INLAND EMPIRE," but here is my top ten, so far.
1. The Science of Sleep
2. United 93
3. V for Vendetta
4. The Proposition
5. An Inconvenient Truth
6. Clerks II
7. The Prestige
8. Borat
9. Little Miss Sunshine
10. The Fountain
Admittedly, I have not seen as many films this year as I would like; however, I just wanted to weight in on a few that I considered exemplary:
A Scanner Darkly - best PKD adaptation since Bladerunner. Best film of the year.
The Departed - Best Scorcese in a while (although GoNY was execellent too)
PoTC: Dead Man's Chest - great sequel, maybe better than the original - the Empire Strikes Back of the PoTC films.
Brick - mixing genres rarely works this well. Beautiful film that is much more than homage.
And a few that I know I need to see: The Fountain, The Prestige, Little Children, The Descent, Inland Empire, Pan's Labyrinth, Children of Men, Borat, Science of Sleep
Keep up the good work Jim!
Well, Jim, you are in excellent company! Stephen King picked "Pan's Labyrinth" as well over at EW!
Living in Houston and not being a professional film critic, I can't reasonably make a list of 2006's best films until late February of 2007, but so far, the best film I've seen this year is one on your list of yet-to-be-seen and that is The Proposition. Imagine a film directed by Peckinpah from a script by Cormac McCarthy and you get the idea of what a grimly beautiful film this is.
I am eagerly awaiting Pan's Labyrinth and Perfume to open here.
Hi, Jim!
As a lifelong lover of films and a burgeoning film critic myself (this is my first year in print!), I'm pleased to say you and your Scanners blog have been a stimulating mainstay of my film/film criticism diet. While I don't often find myself capable of sustaining online discussions, I feel compelled to chime in with my own list this time around if only as a way of making people's acquaintance and championing a few films that simply meant a lot to me (and deploring a few I really, really hated). Many thanks for an eventful year at and around the movies!
Top Ten
01. The Fountain
02. Borat: Cultural Learnings Of America For Make Benefit Glorious Nation Of Kazakhstan
03. Little Miss Sunshine
04. Shortbus
05. Akeelah And The Bee
06. Trailer Park Boys: The Movie
07. The Departed
08. A Prairie Home Companion
09. Hana yori mo naho
10. United 93
Honourable Mentions
- Flags Of Our Fathers
- The Host
- The Journals Of Knud Rasmussen
- An Inconvenient Truth
- Dave Chappelle's Block Party
- Neil Young: Heart Of Gold
- Pirates Of The Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest
- Eve And The Fire Horse
- 49 Up
- Blood Diamond
Worst
01. V For Vendetta
02. Crank
03. Little Children
Major Blind Spots: 51 Birch Street, The Bridge, Crossing The Line, Dreamgirls, The Good German, The Good Shepherd, Inland Empire, The Last King Of Scotland, Letters From Iwo Jima, Three Times, Time, Volver, The Wind That Shakes The Barley
Jim,
The Break-Up? I'm so confused! ;-)
It's good to see a list without a lot of the mainstream choices (even if, by part, it's because you haven't seen a lot of the mainstream choices).
The day that I see Pan's Labyrinth can't come any quicker.
Nice to see someone appreciate Perfume. Have you read Suskind's novel, Jim? I've been a fan of it for years, and it was a great delight to see it translated so lusciously (especially that ending!). But the two friends who went with me, who hadn't read it and didn't know what to expect, thought it was rather ridiculous.
I haven't seen enough films this year to make a top ten but heres a few that will make my list:United 93, The Dearted, Borat, An Inconvenient Truth...and i'll fill in the rest later.
Other honorable mentions are Flags Of Our Fathers, Little Miss Sunshine, The Proposition, A Prairie Home Companion and Cars.
While I didn't much care for it, it's good to see someone who didn't knee-jerk hate "The Break-Up." As for "Pan's Labyrinth"...December 29th...December 29th....
Still no fan of "Flags" in retrospect, but having not see "Iwo Jima" (which I hear is a much better film) I will give it the benefit of the doubt.
I'm hesitant to post my Top Ten at this point, seeing as Netflix still can work some wonders in the next few days. I will say, however, that 7 of my top ten are listed in your blind spots, so you better get on that pronto. ;)
New Year's resolution for 21st consecutive year: Keep log of movie's seen so around Dec. 31, 2007 you can remember what you saw during year. Actually, I'm not sure I can pick ten anyway, I thought it was a pretty horrible year but I'll try.
1.Stranger Than Fiction
2.Half Nelson
3.Akeelah and the Bee
4.Talladega Nights
5.Little Miss Sunshine
6.The Queen
7.Borat
8.Babel (seems I'm the only one here who liked this one)
9.Inside Man (movies don't always need to be knocked for being effortless, Spike and Denzel are terrific here even if it's just fluff. Plus, like I said it wasn't a great year...)
10.Match Point
11.Spin ( ok, this is a 5 minute short I saw at the prestigious Flint [MI] Film Festival but it was the most perfect 5 minutes of film I saw this year. It's by Jamin Winans and is probably available on the web somewhere. Check it out.
12.*So many yet to see.*
2 and 3, and 6 and 7 would make good double bills.
*NOTE: I fully expect "49 Up" to be the best when I get to see it. I think that series is just some kind of treasure. It's in a class of its own in film history and I hope it keeps going as long as I do.
Biggest Disappointments
1.For Your Consideration (I love Chris Guest)
2.New World (I love Terrence Malick)
3.Little Miss Sunshine--only because it was number one on my list until the last 15 minutes which just baffled me.
4.Descent--sorry, Jim, but I never would have gone to this one if you hadn't absolutely loved it--just not my thing. Even so I was with it for a while but it just went on and on and...I give it props as the most claustrophobic movie ever, though. I felt a very strong need to pace around and swing my arms when they first entered the cave.
pacheco & rob:
I'm fighting deadlines, but I wanted to take a second to chime in about my otherwise unexplained inclusion of "The Break-Up" in my "Honorable Mentions."
Mostly it was an acknowledgment of the actors (I'd give Vincent D'Onofrio a Best Supporting Actor nod) -- and the way it lived up to its title. The studio tried dishonestly to sell it as a romantic comedy, when it was really an anti-romantic comedy.
Interesting list Jim, although I haven't seen most of them. Like others here, I'll have to see Pan's Labyrinth when it comes to DVD. I think A Prairie Home Companion was Roger's favorite film of the year where he left off.
I'm sorry to say you lost me with your final stab at World Trade Center. I'll grant you that the marketing was a little questionable, and that it has a bad title, but I took it as a simple, moving human story and in no way did I think it was rah-rah "Rumsfeldian" propaganda. I was thinking more of what Roger wrote about the movie Frequency:
The result, however, appeals to us for reasons as simple as hearing the voice of a father who you thought you would never hear again.
Since I've already got a list, I might as well post it. Great to see so much enthusiasm for The Fountain, and hopefully i'll add to it. The list is likely to change as the NY/LA end of the year releases make it to Chicago, and as I catch up (just got back from The History Boys which knocked Shortbus out of the top 10.) But, as it is this moment, mine:
1. The Fountain
2. Three Times
3. Marie Antoinette
4. Half Nelson
5. Syndromes and a Century
6. Little Children
7. Bubble
8. The History Boys
9. Babel
10. Little Miss Sunshine
Others: The Queen, Volver, Shortbus, The Departed, Time, Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan, Pan's Labryinth, A Prairie Home Companion, Flags of Our Fathers, Army of Shadows, United 93, Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby, Stranger Than Fiction, Flannel Pajamas, An Inconvenient Truth, Monster House, Riding Alone For Thousands of Miles, Fast Food Nation, Blood Diamond, Sherrybaby, and Happy Feet.
Worst: All The King's Men
top 15, as 10 isn't enough:
1) United 93
2) The Departed
3) A Scanner Darkly
4) The Science of Sleep
5) Tideland
6) V for Vendetta
7) Borat
8) The Descent
9) Happy Feet
10) Inland Empire
11) 13 Tzameti
12) The Proposition
13) This Film is Not Yet Rated
14) Brick
15) The Wild Blue Yonder
worst movies of the year (from worst to, um, least worst):
Apocalypto
The Black Dahlia
You, Me and Dupree
The Last Kiss
I was thinking about this post and your last list post on my way into work this morning, and it's just fantastic that you decided to include that list of films you haven't seen. Especially since it will give pause to anyone who navigates to the other MSN lists through this post: which films haven't they seen?
Even full-time daily critics and exhibitors who see nearly every one of the 350-400 films on the "Academy's Reminder List of Eligible Films," which includes everything distributed theatrically in the States in a given year, can't claim to have seen nearly every one of the year's films. There are thousands of films on the festival circuit that never find a distibutor, and thousands more films that never even make it to the festival circuit. There are avant-garde and experimental films that play art galleries or speciality fests, not movie theaters. And then there are all those millions of films online...
Obviously it's untenable to consider all of these films when constructing a list. Organizational principles, like "I will only consider films on the Academy's Reminder List" are in order. But I don't like lists, and this describes many of them, that give the impression of an unearned authority. That suggest, by way of omission, that the critic is listing the best films of the year.
We should "acknowledge that there's inevitably an element of serendipity at work in anybody's movie year -- above and beyond the choices made by international distribution and local exhibition companies." We should acknowledge that. Or else we just tacitly endorse the canon of international distribution and local exhibition companies.
I like lists. I like Movie City News' Big Chart and Film Comment's end-of-the-year critics' poll. I like movies. And with both movies and lists, I like good ones better than bad ones...
Which is all my long, drawn-out way of saying, "Cheers!"
How can you guys all be making top ten lists when the year isn't over year? That's something I've never been able to understand.
Hi Andy: I've been including lists of suspected list-worthy movies I haven't seen with my lists since the '80s -- especially when I was writing for a monthly and deadlines prevented me from seeing some stuff I really wanted to consider. (Did it last year on my Scanners/RogerEbert.com list, too!)
When I was in the Los Angeles Film Critics Association, Myron Meisel used to give us all a comprehensive list of everything that had opened in LA each year (and back then, I was seeing just about everything that could remotely be considered "best"-worthy) -- and Scott Foundas provided the same valuable resource for voters in this year's LA Weekly Film Critics Poll. Seeing all the year's (local) releases on one list really puts the whole endeavor into perspective!
I haven't seen too many films this year (half of it was spent desperately finishing college). So here's my 5 top films of the year, in no particular order:
The Departed
Casino Royale
Cars
Little Miss Sunshine
Superman Returns
In general I prefer to catch classics on Video/DVD. I was fortunate to catch two brilliant films that I've been wanting to see for a long time: Le Samourai and Peeping Tom.
Bad films: I religiously avoid bad films. They're bad for my health. Short-term effects are vertigo, vomiting, and drowsiness. Long-term effects is amnesia.
Hence, I can't recall ever seeing a bad film...except for Van Helsing and Pearl Harbor, which were so bad they're permanently lodged in a special part of my memory bank. They'll never go away!!!
-Mason
Major gaps in my viewing:
Volver
Idiocracy
Pan's Labyrinth
Children of Men
Shut Up and Sing
Deliver Us From Evil
Letters from Iwo Jima
The Road to Guantanamo
A Prairie Home Companion
A Pervert's Guide to Cinema
Perfume: Story of a Murderer
CSA: Confederate States of America
I haven't seen all the year's major movies, but of the ones I HAVE seen:
BEST:
Borat
Casino Royale
The Departed (I liked it a lot more when I saw it a second time)
The Illusionist
Inside Man
Little Miss Sunshine
A Prairie Home Companion
The Queen (film of the year)
Volver
WORST:
Apocalypto
The Fountain
The Proposition
You have not seen most of the most important films of the year. Therefore, you have not right to make a 10 best list. What hubris on the part of Jim Emerson. Overall it's not a bad list save for The Bridge which represents a new form of obscenity that might be called suicide porn. It's not just the voyeuristic surveillance that's obscene, but the use of suicide footage as counterpoint to other stories as they're told. Steel shows no special insight into the subject, though even that couldn't justify such hideousness.
Okay, Dave, how about posting the 10 (or more or less) most important films of the year so we all know what to go and watch? Nothing wrong with that or with others of us listing the 10 best that we happened to see. Assuming we all care quite a bit about movies than each of our lists can be useful, even though none can see everything.
Jim,
First, I have to say I love your blog, and your enthusiasm in studying and promoting worthwhile films (your essays on THE DESCENT have been invaluable to me). I have to take major umbrage, however, over one of your Film of the Year choices. More accurately, it's one of your runners-up: THE BREAK-UP. That film was one of the worst I've ever seen, a simpering, whiny, completely laughless feature-length sitcom. I can think of no possible defense of it, except, with all due respect, by a sado-masochist. I'd love to read your reasons for including it in even an ancillary position. I'd also like to end in the fashion most befitting a malcontent fanboy-letter: my own personal best and worst lists.
BEST
1. The Descent
2. United 93
3. The Departed
4. Shortbus
5. Borat
6. The Death of Mr. Lazarescu
7. The Queen
8. 49 Up
9. 12 and Holding
10. Monster House
WORST
1. Hostel
2. The Break-Up
3. Lady In The Water
4. Bloodrayne
5. Barnyard
6. The Science of Sleep
7. Feed
8. Scary Movie 4
9. Silent Hill
10. American Dreamz
Thanks for your time.
I haven't seen that many new movies this year, first off because I've been very busy and second because I've been catching up on a lot of older classics (well, and not-so-classics). That said, of the few films I have seen:
1. A Prairie Home Companion: I still have a lot of Altman yet to see, but this is such a great, gentle, and often hilarious movie about an end of days. What a great way to end a career. Favourite moment: Virginia Madsen as The Dangerous Woman describing the the absurdity of life and death, distilled into the penguin joke she heard right before driving off a cliff.
2. Borat: Cultural Learnings of America For Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazahkstan: I like you. Do you like me? High five!
3. United 93: I think it works best when viewed as catharsis. It's not a feel-good movie but a horror movie, which leaves the audience adrift without the musical cues or Hollywood stars they're used to hanging onto. I'm still not sure what to make of the morality of such a film, and whether it's exploitive--but I know that it got maybe the biggest reaction out of me this year.
4. Little Miss Sunshine: See Steve Carrell run! Adds depth to the "quirky family vacation" cliche, with wonderful performances and dialogue all around.
5. The Departed: It's not Scorcese's best but I enjoyed its plots and counterplots thoroughly. (I do have to see IA sometime....)
Honourable mentions: A Scanner Darkly, Casino Royale. And, okay, The Fountain for sheer audacity if not necessarily effectiveness, and Snakes on a Plane, for being what it is and being genuinely funny on top of that.
Worst: Clerks 2. I can't remember the last film that pushed all the wrong buttons so thoroughly and consistently for me. It's an entire film devoted to showing us that its central characters haven't grown up a bit in ten years--and, apparently, neither has its the director, who added bigger sets and colour to the original without remembering to add anything else. I have never been so happy to leave a theatre.
Runner-up: X-Men 3. None of the X-films have been particularly good, but this one, attempting to run through a dozen story threads barely even trying to integrate them, fails completely. Comic book movies CAN be good, really; they just often aren't.
Anyway, lots and lots of 2006 movies left to see. I'm looking forward to it.
And just think about how many people you put off from seeing "Flags of Our Father". While I agree with the generalities of what you say about it - I don't think the film was very good at sticking to the point - very unfocused. Looking forward to part two though!
Now here's one though. A movie that was not released stateside until 2006. One that seems to have been overlooked by every critic and viewer out there, and it's really bugging me, because it is one of my favorite films of the past year, and for very good reason. The very moving, heart breaking, and thought provoking "Lady Vengeance" by Chan-Wook Park. Did people just not care to see this film. Will it be relegated to the films people only heard about in passing? Very upsetting that this film didn't receive more attention. It falls into place for me right after "Pan's Labyrinth", and "Perfume"... but how do you chose between the three. All so very wonderful.
Hey Jim,
Was very happy to see you post Roger's **** and *** 1/2 star films for 2006, even if Twelve and Holding (which WAS a 3.5 star film on the website) and Wassup Rockers (which was a 3.5 star film in the Yearbook) were conspiculously missing.
My list (so far):
1. BABEL
2. A PRAIRIE HOME COMPANION
3. THE THREE BURIALS OF MELQUIADES ESTRADA
4. THE PROPOSITION
5. INLAND EMPIRE
6. THE DEPARTED
7. HARD CANDY
8. THANK YOU FOR SMOKING
9. WORLD TRADE CENTER / UNITED 93
10. THE BLACK DAHLIA