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shadowkat[As an aside - according to the news, 167,000 jobs were added to the economy in December. Hoping this is "good" news and not just bad statistics.]
Granted it's probably mildly silly to rank or list the best/favorite films of any year - since films like people tend to be their own entities. And debating favorites is bit like standing at a candy counter and arguing whether rock candy is better than chocolate bark, if you hate chocolate you will argue rock candy, if you have sensitive teeth - chocolate bark. Same goes for movies, you hate action flicks? Casino Royale would not have appealed to you. Adore satire? Borat would have made you happy.
But what the hey, it's fun to do and even more fun to share with others, not to mention fun to read their lists - hence the reason I keep doing it and I'm entitling my list the most memorable. This list is in no particular order except that of memory or which film comes to my mind first.
(To cut or not to cut therein lies the question - I'll cut to save you real estate, since the post in lengthy and in case of any vague spoilers.)
1. The Prestige - a film that on its surface appears to be about no more or less than a magic trick. After seeing it many viewers joked about how quickly they figured it out, seeing as little more than a caper flick. But look deeper and the film discusses issues that Star Trek didn't dare broach, about the ethics of technology and magic amongst them. Nicola Tesla wonders if the discovery he's made should be shared with the populace? And his invention proves that science is the true magic here, not sorcery or sleight of hand. Yet it has a great deal in common with the magic trick - the eye is fooled over-complicating what is truly simple, and like magician the scientist is often tempted to sell his ethics even his soul for the wonderment of the trick. The film is a fitting one for our current age - obsessed with the thrill and magic of the next advancement in technology, yet ignoring what we've lost. The next time you think I can't live without my Tivo or how cool it would be to have a transporter like in Star Trek, re-watch The Prestige. And that's just one layer - the other is the characters themselves,
how they mirror one another, and how one can destroy oneself for the sake of one's craft.
A haunting film that I may never forget.
2. Stranger Than Fiction - under-rated by most critics who got confused and thought the film was a wacky comedy, it's not. In actuality it is a hopeful existentialist drama about who we are and what if any meaning our lives have. Borrowing heavily from Pirandello's play Six Characters in Search of An Author it appears at first glance to be a one-joke comedy, but look deeper - underneath that layer we see an ordinary man hunting the thread of his life through its ending. Does our life become less meaningful when we learn of on-coming demise? Or more so? Or just the same? Can we change it? Or are we doomed to follow a predestined path? And to what degree as writers are we responsible to the characters that we create and kill? Are they living entities once they leave our minds and interact with the page and another's mind? May be Will Ferrell's best role to date, if the only one that was not over-the-top.
3. Little Miss Sunshine - another film that is more than it appears. This appeared to be the year for that in film. Watching Little Miss was a bit like playing with one of those wooden Russian Dolls, that have little dolls enclosed inside them. At times touching to the point of heartbreaking so - it catchs itself with hilarous bits of black comedy. Never stumbling too far into one extreme, walking the tight rope between both. The film is about a little girl who wants to go to the Little Miss Sunshine Beauty Pagent held in California - a real event. And manages to make fun of the event and beauty pagents in general, exposing them for what they really are - through the innocent eyes of a little girl and the cynical ones of her grandfather.
4. Little Children
- another film with the word "Little" in the title. Also a comedy, except far blacker than Sunshine. The story here is about alienation, the feeling of disconnection and boredom that enters one's life - and the desire to recapture the excitement of youth. The Children in the title relate to the children inside the adults, or rather the children they are not quite ready to let go of in order to become the custodians of their own as well as their own lives.
Stellar performances all around.
5. The Queen - a film that like many others who'd seen it, I did not expect to like. It surprised me. Frears film is an odd bio-pic, in that it is not about a specific individual or even an event, so much as a relationship between two people and their positions, a power-play between the two that is at times personal and others strictly business, demonstrating how the line blurs no matter how much we wish it wouldn't. There are no good guys or bad guys here, just people, warts and all. Helen Mirren with the gift of understatement manages to convey more with a twitch of an eyebrow and the curve of her mouth than I think Jack Nicholson did with all his caterwauling in The Departed. And she's not alone, supported by James Cromwell as Elizbeth's husband, and a fine turn by the actor who plays Blair.
6. Good Night And Good Luck - I'm fudging here since this film premiered in the theaters in 2005 but I did not see it until May 2006. For the reasons I loved this film, go to the link.
A film that is about the media, yet also about the people, one of those few show-pieces that does not sacrifice character for theme or vice versa - both exist alongside one another, propping each other up. It may be David Straightharn's best role to date. And Clooney's best film - a far more intricate piece than even his mentor Soderburgh has been able to pull off.
Making me wish Clooney would step behind the camera more frequently.
7. Hustle & Flow - yet another film that premiered in 2005 but I did not get around to seeing until 2006.
Once again in May. It is hands down the best film I've seen about the helter-skelter world of the music industry. Depicting the pain of it and the impossibility of getting ahead. The film is notable for winning an Oscar for it's theme song "It's Hard Out There For a Pimp" - which if you see it, you'll get the ironic resonance of that song and why it won. One of those few films that literally takes you inside a point of view you can't quite wrap your brain around and does not let you go.
8. V for Vendetta yet another film that premiered in 2005, but I did not see until 2006 - this round August. (I'll probably run into the same problem next year.) This is the sort of film that you either hate or love, there does not appear to be any in between. It is what it says it is - a stylistic political satire in graphic novel format put on celloide. Harsh, at times heavy handed, and borderline offensive, it makes you think. Everything from the mask on V's face to the sing-song rhyme "Remember, remember..." is detailed and perfectly rendered. It is a meticulous film, perhaps too much so. The satire at times may feel as if it has been laid on with a shovel. But, but - once you see it, you can't quite forget it. And you realize how complex its themes are - not quite providing the answers that you originally thought upon further contemplation and analysis. An example of how style can be used to tell a story effectively and add to the substance of it.
9. Superman Returns which is an odd selection for me, because when I saw it I found it flawed, but of the films of its ilk, it is the only one I can't quite forget. A film told more through pictures than dialogue. Watching it feels like looking at a painting or series of paintings telling a tale as they did long ago...before we had sound or words. It accomplishes, I felt, what Sky King And The World of Tomorrow attempted and seriously failed at, which is capture the innocence of a time-period when we believed all we needed to save the day was the man of steel. The film itself comments on that innocence and re-examines it through Lois and her child, by the same token it re-examine what it means to be a hero and the sacrifices one makes to be one. Simple in structure, but layered in theme - a magic trick of a film that still has me pondering it months later. Under-rated by both audience and critics at the time, I still think it was by far the best of the comic novels brought to life this year. Certainly better than the ill-concieved and busy X-Men Last Stand.
10.) Hmmm... I suppose I shouldn't include The History Boys, considering I did not technically see it until 2007. And having established the rule that I can only include films I've seen in 2006 regardless of when they first premiered, one must remain consistent.
So...of the rest of the bunch, I'd have to say Casino Royale - while flawed and in my opinion far too long with it's almost endless chase sequences, it is the best action flick I've seen in a long time. And for what it is, stellar. Daniel Craig inhabits Bond in a way that predates Connery, which I did not believe to be possible. If you read the novels and appreciated the early Connery films, you will enjoy this one. Violent, raw, and in your face - this film revitalizes a genre I'd believed to be dead and buried.
And it made a bonified star out of Craig.
Also rans:
1. Lady in The Water which I believe got short shrift by peeved critics. I cornered one of them in bar regarding it, and to give the guy credit - he agreed that the critical response was a tad on the self-indulgent/defensive side of the fence. Granted it is a flawed film, but it does have some tricky messages underneath - about our society and creation that are worth a look.
2. Pirates of The Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest a fun thrill ride. Well-worth the price of admission. The film has moments of hilarity that made me ache with laughter - but then I like absurd Loony Tunes style sight gags such as the two men attempting to sword fight on a wheel. Could have done without the false endings though.
3. Borat - not a film for everyone, but the blackest comedy I've seen in my life and that includes, MASH, Bad Santa, and Little Children. Mel Brooks used to say the best way to handle racism and prejudice was to poke fun at it - hence The Producers and To Be or Not To Be which in comparison to Borat, gently poke fun at Hitler and white supremacism. What Borat does is out the racists, places people in situations in which they inadvertently reveal behavior they may not have done otherwise, demonstrating how racist we are and how certain social interactions can bring out the worste and best of human behavior.
But Borat doesn't stop there with the mockumentary - it also pulls back the curtain on our obsessive desire for those 15 minutes of fame, cultivated by the reality shows. The desire to see people at their worst, laugh at them, and be pleased it is not us up there on display.
An unsettling film - that makes you wonder about the limits of comedy, and the root of it.
And also perhaps realize that Mel Brooks may be right, the only way to deal with racism and prejudice is to poke fun at it and show how truly absurd it is.
4. United 93 - not an easy film to watch, but one that may be the definitive piece on 9/11. Skip the melodrama of World Trade Center and rent United 93, which is filmed in documentary style format and depicts precisely what happened in the airplanes and in the airline control towers between 8 am and 10 am on that fateful day when the friendly skies ceased to be friendly and airlines became bombs. A day that will live infamy and truly marks the beginning of the 21st Century.
[Please note that History Boys and Dreamgirls was seen in 2007. And I have not had the chance to see The Descent, Pans Labrynth, Notes on A Scandal, The Good Shepard, Marie Antoinette, Romance & Cigarettes, Painted Viel, or Babel amongst others.]
Least favorite films...: Cars, The Departed, X-Men Last Stand - a flick that wanted to combine two films and couldn't figure out which one should take precedence - while one worked, the other did not - to the point that it made the film almost unwatchable, and Mission Impossible 3.
So there's mine - what are yours?
Granted it's probably mildly silly to rank or list the best/favorite films of any year - since films like people tend to be their own entities. And debating favorites is bit like standing at a candy counter and arguing whether rock candy is better than chocolate bark, if you hate chocolate you will argue rock candy, if you have sensitive teeth - chocolate bark. Same goes for movies, you hate action flicks? Casino Royale would not have appealed to you. Adore satire? Borat would have made you happy.
But what the hey, it's fun to do and even more fun to share with others, not to mention fun to read their lists - hence the reason I keep doing it and I'm entitling my list the most memorable. This list is in no particular order except that of memory or which film comes to my mind first.
(To cut or not to cut therein lies the question - I'll cut to save you real estate, since the post in lengthy and in case of any vague spoilers.)
1. The Prestige - a film that on its surface appears to be about no more or less than a magic trick. After seeing it many viewers joked about how quickly they figured it out, seeing as little more than a caper flick. But look deeper and the film discusses issues that Star Trek didn't dare broach, about the ethics of technology and magic amongst them. Nicola Tesla wonders if the discovery he's made should be shared with the populace? And his invention proves that science is the true magic here, not sorcery or sleight of hand. Yet it has a great deal in common with the magic trick - the eye is fooled over-complicating what is truly simple, and like magician the scientist is often tempted to sell his ethics even his soul for the wonderment of the trick. The film is a fitting one for our current age - obsessed with the thrill and magic of the next advancement in technology, yet ignoring what we've lost. The next time you think I can't live without my Tivo or how cool it would be to have a transporter like in Star Trek, re-watch The Prestige. And that's just one layer - the other is the characters themselves,
how they mirror one another, and how one can destroy oneself for the sake of one's craft.
A haunting film that I may never forget.
2. Stranger Than Fiction - under-rated by most critics who got confused and thought the film was a wacky comedy, it's not. In actuality it is a hopeful existentialist drama about who we are and what if any meaning our lives have. Borrowing heavily from Pirandello's play Six Characters in Search of An Author it appears at first glance to be a one-joke comedy, but look deeper - underneath that layer we see an ordinary man hunting the thread of his life through its ending. Does our life become less meaningful when we learn of on-coming demise? Or more so? Or just the same? Can we change it? Or are we doomed to follow a predestined path? And to what degree as writers are we responsible to the characters that we create and kill? Are they living entities once they leave our minds and interact with the page and another's mind? May be Will Ferrell's best role to date, if the only one that was not over-the-top.
3. Little Miss Sunshine - another film that is more than it appears. This appeared to be the year for that in film. Watching Little Miss was a bit like playing with one of those wooden Russian Dolls, that have little dolls enclosed inside them. At times touching to the point of heartbreaking so - it catchs itself with hilarous bits of black comedy. Never stumbling too far into one extreme, walking the tight rope between both. The film is about a little girl who wants to go to the Little Miss Sunshine Beauty Pagent held in California - a real event. And manages to make fun of the event and beauty pagents in general, exposing them for what they really are - through the innocent eyes of a little girl and the cynical ones of her grandfather.
4. Little Children
- another film with the word "Little" in the title. Also a comedy, except far blacker than Sunshine. The story here is about alienation, the feeling of disconnection and boredom that enters one's life - and the desire to recapture the excitement of youth. The Children in the title relate to the children inside the adults, or rather the children they are not quite ready to let go of in order to become the custodians of their own as well as their own lives.
Stellar performances all around.
5. The Queen - a film that like many others who'd seen it, I did not expect to like. It surprised me. Frears film is an odd bio-pic, in that it is not about a specific individual or even an event, so much as a relationship between two people and their positions, a power-play between the two that is at times personal and others strictly business, demonstrating how the line blurs no matter how much we wish it wouldn't. There are no good guys or bad guys here, just people, warts and all. Helen Mirren with the gift of understatement manages to convey more with a twitch of an eyebrow and the curve of her mouth than I think Jack Nicholson did with all his caterwauling in The Departed. And she's not alone, supported by James Cromwell as Elizbeth's husband, and a fine turn by the actor who plays Blair.
6. Good Night And Good Luck - I'm fudging here since this film premiered in the theaters in 2005 but I did not see it until May 2006. For the reasons I loved this film, go to the link.
A film that is about the media, yet also about the people, one of those few show-pieces that does not sacrifice character for theme or vice versa - both exist alongside one another, propping each other up. It may be David Straightharn's best role to date. And Clooney's best film - a far more intricate piece than even his mentor Soderburgh has been able to pull off.
Making me wish Clooney would step behind the camera more frequently.
7. Hustle & Flow - yet another film that premiered in 2005 but I did not get around to seeing until 2006.
Once again in May. It is hands down the best film I've seen about the helter-skelter world of the music industry. Depicting the pain of it and the impossibility of getting ahead. The film is notable for winning an Oscar for it's theme song "It's Hard Out There For a Pimp" - which if you see it, you'll get the ironic resonance of that song and why it won. One of those few films that literally takes you inside a point of view you can't quite wrap your brain around and does not let you go.
8. V for Vendetta yet another film that premiered in 2005, but I did not see until 2006 - this round August. (I'll probably run into the same problem next year.) This is the sort of film that you either hate or love, there does not appear to be any in between. It is what it says it is - a stylistic political satire in graphic novel format put on celloide. Harsh, at times heavy handed, and borderline offensive, it makes you think. Everything from the mask on V's face to the sing-song rhyme "Remember, remember..." is detailed and perfectly rendered. It is a meticulous film, perhaps too much so. The satire at times may feel as if it has been laid on with a shovel. But, but - once you see it, you can't quite forget it. And you realize how complex its themes are - not quite providing the answers that you originally thought upon further contemplation and analysis. An example of how style can be used to tell a story effectively and add to the substance of it.
9. Superman Returns which is an odd selection for me, because when I saw it I found it flawed, but of the films of its ilk, it is the only one I can't quite forget. A film told more through pictures than dialogue. Watching it feels like looking at a painting or series of paintings telling a tale as they did long ago...before we had sound or words. It accomplishes, I felt, what Sky King And The World of Tomorrow attempted and seriously failed at, which is capture the innocence of a time-period when we believed all we needed to save the day was the man of steel. The film itself comments on that innocence and re-examines it through Lois and her child, by the same token it re-examine what it means to be a hero and the sacrifices one makes to be one. Simple in structure, but layered in theme - a magic trick of a film that still has me pondering it months later. Under-rated by both audience and critics at the time, I still think it was by far the best of the comic novels brought to life this year. Certainly better than the ill-concieved and busy X-Men Last Stand.
10.) Hmmm... I suppose I shouldn't include The History Boys, considering I did not technically see it until 2007. And having established the rule that I can only include films I've seen in 2006 regardless of when they first premiered, one must remain consistent.
So...of the rest of the bunch, I'd have to say Casino Royale - while flawed and in my opinion far too long with it's almost endless chase sequences, it is the best action flick I've seen in a long time. And for what it is, stellar. Daniel Craig inhabits Bond in a way that predates Connery, which I did not believe to be possible. If you read the novels and appreciated the early Connery films, you will enjoy this one. Violent, raw, and in your face - this film revitalizes a genre I'd believed to be dead and buried.
And it made a bonified star out of Craig.
Also rans:
1. Lady in The Water which I believe got short shrift by peeved critics. I cornered one of them in bar regarding it, and to give the guy credit - he agreed that the critical response was a tad on the self-indulgent/defensive side of the fence. Granted it is a flawed film, but it does have some tricky messages underneath - about our society and creation that are worth a look.
2. Pirates of The Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest a fun thrill ride. Well-worth the price of admission. The film has moments of hilarity that made me ache with laughter - but then I like absurd Loony Tunes style sight gags such as the two men attempting to sword fight on a wheel. Could have done without the false endings though.
3. Borat - not a film for everyone, but the blackest comedy I've seen in my life and that includes, MASH, Bad Santa, and Little Children. Mel Brooks used to say the best way to handle racism and prejudice was to poke fun at it - hence The Producers and To Be or Not To Be which in comparison to Borat, gently poke fun at Hitler and white supremacism. What Borat does is out the racists, places people in situations in which they inadvertently reveal behavior they may not have done otherwise, demonstrating how racist we are and how certain social interactions can bring out the worste and best of human behavior.
But Borat doesn't stop there with the mockumentary - it also pulls back the curtain on our obsessive desire for those 15 minutes of fame, cultivated by the reality shows. The desire to see people at their worst, laugh at them, and be pleased it is not us up there on display.
An unsettling film - that makes you wonder about the limits of comedy, and the root of it.
And also perhaps realize that Mel Brooks may be right, the only way to deal with racism and prejudice is to poke fun at it and show how truly absurd it is.
4. United 93 - not an easy film to watch, but one that may be the definitive piece on 9/11. Skip the melodrama of World Trade Center and rent United 93, which is filmed in documentary style format and depicts precisely what happened in the airplanes and in the airline control towers between 8 am and 10 am on that fateful day when the friendly skies ceased to be friendly and airlines became bombs. A day that will live infamy and truly marks the beginning of the 21st Century.
[Please note that History Boys and Dreamgirls was seen in 2007. And I have not had the chance to see The Descent, Pans Labrynth, Notes on A Scandal, The Good Shepard, Marie Antoinette, Romance & Cigarettes, Painted Viel, or Babel amongst others.]
Least favorite films...: Cars, The Departed, X-Men Last Stand - a flick that wanted to combine two films and couldn't figure out which one should take precedence - while one worked, the other did not - to the point that it made the film almost unwatchable, and Mission Impossible 3.
So there's mine - what are yours?
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no subject
Date: 2007-01-05 11:37 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-01-06 02:58 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-01-06 12:28 am (UTC)I've seen almost no films released this year, but I agree that "V for Vendetta" was, at its heart, surprisingly ambiguous about whether the protagonists were admirable. The 'triumphant' ending, so typical of the action genre, actually seemed a frightening subversive comment on how the populace, and by extension the audience, is so easily sucked into fanaticism.
I liked POTC2 better than many, also. A good flick for the type of thing it was.
And while I am interested in "The Departed", I always brace myself for Jack Nicholson, who has for the most part stopped doing anything but playing variations on himself.
I also think Clooney is actually better behind the camera, though he occasionally impresses me as an actor.
no subject
Date: 2007-01-06 03:02 am (UTC)Regarding The Departed - lots of people loved it and it will most likely be nominated for the Oscars. Still found it too long and incredibly boring in the second half. My friend was surprised by the ending, while I saw it coming a mile away. She felt sympathy for the characters, I found them grating. It really just comes down to what speaks to you and that's a personal thing. Which is why this lists are fun to do and often state more about that critic than the film - since your looking at it through their lense.
no subject
Date: 2007-01-06 03:03 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-01-06 11:04 am (UTC)1. The Prestige
2. The Constant Gardener
3. Good Night and Good Luck
4. Children of Men
5. The Wind that Shakes the Barley
6. Uno
7. Transamerica
8. Little Miss Sunshine
I also enjoyed "Brokeback Mountain", "Pan's Labyrinth", "Marie-Antoinette", "Volver", "United 93" or "Inside Man" but there was always something bothering me in those films so they don't make the top 8.
I didn't like much "Borat", "V for Vendetta", "Scoop" and there are many films I saw that I almost forgot immediately as soon as I left the theatre or disliked so much that either I didn't write a review or I just hinted at how bad they were (like "The Fountain").
"Taxidermia" is still an oddity that I can't put anywhere here...
no subject
Date: 2007-01-06 04:46 pm (UTC)You liked The Constant Gardner far more than I did, since I forgot it. Now that you mention it, I realize I did see it last year and it was moving and well done. But for some reason not memorable - may be the fault of timing more than anything else - also it is a film I think that may work better onscreen than DVD - which was how I saw it.
Same with Inside Man - a good film, but not one that stays with me.
Many of the films on my list have the privilege of being seen in the later part of the year so are more memorable as a result.
I did love Brokeback Mountain - but saw it in 2005 - so disqualified. May have put it on the list above Casino Royale otherwise. Do agree that it is flawed.
Haven't seen Pan's Labrynth, TransAmerica, Uno, Children of Men, The Wind That Shakes The Barley, Volver or Marie-Antoinette. Will check them out.
What's interesting is in reading online favorite lists - I've noticed that everyone has at least one, two or all of these films :The Prestige, Little Miss, and Good Night and Good Luck somewhere on them.
no subject
Date: 2007-01-06 07:38 pm (UTC)Also about The Prestige, I've just realized that the film gets the usual situation reversed!
We, the audience, can figure out the twists rather easily, we see through the apparent illusion while the two illusionists are unable to see the truth, they are tricked just the way the audience usually is during a magician show. A case of biter being bitten...
The film maker turns out to be the greatest magician at the end of the day and he took us as his accomplices!