Dana Stevens (at Slate.com), Susan Gerhard (SF360.org), and I are the only critics I know of who put "Man Push Cart" on our best of 2006 lists. Roger Ebert probably would have been a fourth, if he'd made a list this year -- because he programmed "MPC" in his Overlooked Film Festival. Time and DVD will no doubt correct this ghastly critical oversight.
If it hadn't been for the 1981 Village Voice Pazz & Jop Poll, I would never have discovered one of my all-time favorite albums: Human Switchboard's "Who's Landing in My Hangar?" It's the only studio LP by a Velvet Underground-influenced band from Ohio (Bob Pfeifer, Myrna Macarian and Ron Metz), released on Faulty Products/IRS Records and, well, it didn't get much advertising or marketing support. (You can still read Robert Christgau's Consumer Guide mini-review here. See if you can find it on LP. It never made it to CD.) It came in at #11 in the poll, and ranked #10 on The Dean's List, between Psychedelic Furs' "Talk Talk Talk" (yes, the one with "Pretty in Pink" on it) and Tom Verlaine's "Dreamtime" (another favorite of mine to this day).
Which is why I find it helpful to scour critics' polls (and individual lists): to alert me to titles I may have overlooked -- and, perhaps, may even come to treasure. (Just beware of those who prize obscurity -- or obtuseness -- for their own sake.) The First Annual LA Weekly Film Poll has a nifty interface, where you can click through by category, see which critics voted for what, or look at individual critics' lists. There's even a Worst Film category, the top four winners (winners?) being:
1) "Lady in the Water"Everything else averaged two points or fewer. (I really dug watching "Miami Vice" myself. It was an exercise in style, not unlike "The Departed," but it had a spark that, actors aside, I felt Scorsese's picture lacked.)
2) "Babel"
3) "World Trade Center"
4) "Miami Vice"
Other crix polls:
IndieWire Critics Poll
Film Comment Poll
And, of course, the Biggest of Them All: The Master List of Top Ten Lists at Movie City News Awards Watch (now with more than 250 individual critics' lists. Editor David Poland's statistical analysis here.
And don't miss David Bordwell's Best Danish Films I Saw at the End of 2006 List. You may discover something you'll eventually love if you make the effort to see it!
"I really dug watching "Miami Vice" myself. It was an exercise in style, not unlike "The Departed," but it had a spark that, actors aside, I felt Scorsese's picture lacked."
YES! Glad to have you on this side of the fence. Seriously...being a [i]Vice[/i] fan is hard, as anyone who loves a near-universally reviled film probably knows.
Out of curiosity, did you see the original cut or the "directors" unrated cut (that term really is a misnomer; everything about it - even Mann's unsure commentary - says it was the product of studio prodding)? Most fans find the latter's changes terribly underwhelming.
Quite agree on the "Unrated Director's Cut" of Miami Vice, the theatrical version is a beautiful piece of stylized Mann movie.
I think you touched on the real value of any type of cannonization Jim, is using it as a suggestion tool. Ebert's "Great Movies' series has been invaluable to me because it served as a starting point.
rob: This is something worth pondering. I first saw "The Departed" at a press screening on a big screen (though seated much farther back than I would have liked; I'm a third- or fourth-row guy) a week or two before it opened. I was definitely excited about seeing it. My expectations were high, although I had seen a few references to it being a "purely commercial" picture -- and even a non-Oscar-type picture, in comparison to "The Aviator" and "Gangs of New York." That's more than I wanted to know in advance, and it may have tempered my expectations somewhat.
I saw "Miami Vice" on DVD, after it had been generally released and dismissed, so my expectations were fairly low. But it's Michael Mann, so I wanted to see it. I have friends who are full-on Mann-iacs, but I'm not one of them. I'm passionate about some of his movies ("The Insider," "Heat"), and others leave me pretty cold ("Collateral"). On a 55" HD screen, "MV" looked spectacular. I'm telling you: digital photography can capture more of the ambiance of a city at night (those clouds, with that pinkish reflected light!) than I've ever seen in movies before. I know he used digital for the nighttime stuff in "Collateral," too, but the open night vistas in "MV" (and those occasional flashes of lightning) knocked me out. That said, I have no recollection of what the movie was about or who any of the characters were -- but I didn't think the movie was even trying to be about anything but style. Whereas "The Departed" (or, at least, "Infernal Affairs") was working on a different (you might say slightly more ambitious/complex) level (though maybe not much), and in my estimation came up short.
Being what they are, (and considering the circumstances in which I initially saw them) I don't think "Miami Vice" could have struck me as disappointing -- and perhaps "The Departed" could not have struck me otherwise. I really don't know. All I can do is report and evaluate my experience! (I love getting all epistemological...)
A possible error Jim; the "Worst Film" hyperlink reopens this page.
JE: Thanks, Dan. Fixed now.
I'm surprised "Babel" is there. I certainly didn't buy into it as a whole piece of cinematic work, but was quite moved by the experience of the Japanese teenage girl. Funny, I actually ran across her this evening in LA coming out of a Q&A... blonde hair, quite gorgeous... nothing like the girl on screen, which makes me appreciate her performance that much more. To me that story raised it nicely above the worst, and keeps it somewhere in the middle.
And Miami Vice -- director's cut aside (as I only saw it onscreen) I enjoyed it thoroughly and was pleased that they took out the line, "Do you know what the definition of foreboding is...?" that grated on my dialogue sensitive ears. "The Insider" -- one of my favorite films of the past decade or so. I won't even go into "Lady in the Water", as I didn't like it, but appreciated the attempt.
I thought "Miami Vice" was an excellent film. I agree with what Jim said about the cloudy night skies; it's absolutely brilliant. But I also loved the naturalistic style applied to all aspects of production, including some of the performances. That speedboat scene is contains erotic undertones that no other scene or movie I've seen this past year came close to. Despite that the plot was practically incoherent, I was able to invest myself in the characters and the storytelling. The details of the plot itself were not really the point. I don't think viewers are meant to be able to follow it all; but Mann took a similar approach as Altman did with many of his films. He forces the viewers to immerse themselves in the film and allows the camera be comfortable in the environment. There were also so many subtly stated moments of beauty in the quieter moments of the film, especially between Farrell and Li, whose chemistry together was perfect.
I'm not sure if anyone noticed, but Manohla Dargis actually featured "Miami Vice" on her Top Ten, and her explanation is fascinating. I comment on the film's redefinition of cinematic space extensively in a recent blog post about digital cinema.
Too bad to see that the lead singer/founder of the band you loved Human Switchboard- went on to tap his ex girlfriend's phones, stalk and harrass her and pleaded guilty now facing prison time. What music will do to a guy.
http://www.latimes.com/technology/la-me-arrest5feb05,1,4943998.story?coll=la-mininav-technology
JE: Wow, that's depressing... I didn't know that had happened.