Top Ten Films of 2006
December 17th, 2006
It’s not quite official yet, but here’s a sneak peek at my favorite movies of the year. We also have Marcy’s top ten, top ten documentaries and a list of the worst movies of 2006.
[tags]film, movies, top ten, 2006, lists, jurgen, marcy, worst, documentaries[/tags]
December 18th, 2006 at 7:48 pm
Of Marcy’s list I only saw The Queen.
I really want to see Children of Men — don’t think it is out yet.
I gotta part company with you on Volver — I just don’t think I’ll see it. I’ve seen many, many Almodovar films and I haven’t enjoyed a one of them. There’s just some receptors on my end that don’t respond to his work. The fault must lie with me — so many people like him — back in college I even fibbed to fit in and pretended to like him. But I won’t lie on Muckworld. I just don’t like his work.
Inland Empire — as I mentioned on my own blog (in a comment) I’m finding that I am enjoying the act of *remembering* Inland Empire far more than actually sitting through it. Maybe that’s part of the whole waking from a dream thing.
I didn’t see a lot of new releases in the theaters this year, but doing a quick check the ones from 2006 that got an A- or higher were:
Climates
Darkon
The Queen
The Departed
A Scanner Darkly
The Beales of Grey Gardens
The Devil Wears Prada
Lady Vengeance
Three Times
Kekexili: Mountain Patrol (this’d probably be my top pick of the year)
Yang Ban Xi: The 8 Model Works
In Memory of My Father
Manderlay
December 30th, 2006 at 9:29 pm
I look forward to seeing Inland Empire as Lynch is my favourite director. I’m boycotting The Queen for reasons described here. I don’t yet have my review up for Pan’s Labrynth as it is not due for release here until Jan 18. In short, I found the mixing of genres didn’t work. The fantasy was excellent; the drama was flawed (too caricatured). I also cringed at the graphic violence.
I’m on holidays now, and have run out of films to see on the big screen. So after being disappointed with Volver, I’ve been watching old Almodovar DVD titles to work out what I don’t like about his work. I plan to post an article on Almodovar’s work in general. I find:
(1) He appears to have unresolved issues with heterosexual males and that his work demonises them yet idolises women and non-hetero adult males (boys and adolescents are fine, as in All About My Mother).
(2) His characters talk and act like perverted daytime television soap opera. The plots are so implausible and lack emotional verisimilitude.
But somehow or other, I find Almodovar films (including) very watchable, and I attribute this to his technical excellence and his use of unconventional characters.
I found Shortbus very enjoyable, though not one of my better films of the year. It was my first posting on my blog. Children of Men had the potential for being an important film, but I felt it fell short because Cuaron didn’t fully commit to the risks that he took in depicting such a gritty future.
Factotum made it into my top 20. I missed Lemming, was unimpressed by Brick and have never laughed so hard as in Borat.
Interestingly, L’enfant (The Child), one of your worst, made it into my best films. All the best for 2007.