2006 in film.

Top ten box-office films of 2006:

1. Pirates of the Caribbean Dead Man's Chest
2. The Da Vinci Code
3. Ice Age: The Meltdown
4. Casino Royale
5. Night at the Museum
6. Cars
7. X-Men: The Last Stand
8. Mission: Impossible III
9. Superman Returns
10. Happy Feet

What are your top three films for 2006? We will keep a running tally and eventually have some sort of bracket. For me it would be:

1. Syndromes and a Century
2. Children of Men
3. 12:08 East of Bucharest

What are some of the forgotten gems from the year? What is overrated? What did you discover at a young age and what did you discover later?

YEARS IN FILM • forum.chorus.fm

 

Some really big misses. I thought for sure that Miami Vice and Marie Antoinette would factor in. Offside is incredible, I Don't Want to Sleep Alone is fascinating, and you have films like Old Joy, Colossal Youth, The Fall, Borat, and Inland Empire.

Coincidentally, today's anniversary coincides with the thread where the disgusting and vapid United 93 might come up. One of the worst films, from a man who is as brainless as they come, treating the open wound of a nation like a rollercoaster.

 

1. The Wind that Shakes the Barley
2. Old Joy
3. Jackass Number Two

Truffaut’s famous quote says something like any movie about war is a pro-war movie, or that it’s impossible to make an anti-war movie, I don’t remember. The Wind That Shakes the Barley was the first time I realized that that isn’t inherently a bad thing. Old Joy is a cinematic haiku and Kelly Reichardt has a near spotless filmography. Jackass Number Two is relentless, I love how the trilogy is structured and Two is the nice bridge between the low budget antics of the first movie that looks like the bonus features on a skate video and the big budget and technological advancements of Jackass 3D.

Honorable mentions: The Departed got me into cinema and holds up. Not really close to Scorsese’s best but there are some perfect sequences. Children of Men, Marie Antoinette, Miami Vice, The Fountain is so earnest and sprawling that it’s one of the few Aronofsky that’s right up my alley even if it’s not perfect, plus maybe Clint Mansell’s best score. Casino Royale, Borat, and Click were some of my favorite movie theater experiences from my 14 year old moviegoing.

My friend and I started Syndromes of a Century once and both fell asleep, but we were drunk and it was 4 in the morning so it wasn’t the movie’s fault, and Weerasethakul is a genius so I’ll be back to it.

 

1. Little Miss Sunshine
2. Click
3. Behind the Mask: The Rise of Leslie Vernon

 

1. Children of Men
2. The Wind That Shakes the Barley
3. Letters from Iwo Jima

Children of Men and The Wind That Shakes the Barley are two of my absolute favorites. It was between Iwo Jima and The Departed but I gave the bump to Iwo Jima because it's one of the director's best films versus The Departed which, while really good, is not top-tier Scorsese.

 

1. Children of Men
2. The Departed
3. The Fountain

 

1. Jackass 2
2. Behind the Mask
3. The Foot Fist Way

 

This is a better year than I initially remembered. Lots of great stuff.

1. Children of Men
2. The Prestige
3. Pan's Labyrinth

Honorable mentions:

The Departed
The Wind that Shakes the Barley
Miami Vice
The Host
Borat
Casino Royale
Inland Empire
Deliver Us From Evil
Mission Impossible III
Idiocracy

 

1. Children of Men
2. The Prestige
3. Casino Royale

 

I am pleasantly surprised how many people have seen The Wind That Shakes the Barley. It feels like a forgotten film.

 

Pan’s Labyrinth
Children of Men
Half Nelson

HM: Planet Earth, Little Miss Sunshine, The Prestige, Casino Royale, Syndromes and a Century, The Departed, The Fall, Blood Diamond, The Host, Stranger Than Fiction

 

I need to rewatch Miami Vice.

 

1. Apocalypto
2. Paprika
3. Borat

Apocalypto is a masterpiece in visual story telling. It Viscerally shows us the pitfalls of civilization while holding you to the edge of your seat. Crazy to think that is got made, the scale, sets, Indigenous cast & language, lack of CGI.

Nacho Libre is one of my most watched films. We used go out on Saturday after band prac and on hangover Sunday watch Nacho Libre. We really vibed with it.

Inland Empire, I felt this film when I saw it but did not understand it. Its Lynches most challenging work and I hope to get more out of a reviewing.

 

1. Pan's Labyrinth
2. Children of Men
3. The Prestige

4. The Fall
5. The Fountain
6. Crank
7. Paprika
8. Babel
9. I'm a Cyborg, But That's OK
10. Borat

Also love Perfume: The Story of a Murderer, Black Book, Tekkonkinkreet, Blood Diamond, The Last Kiss, Stranger Than Fiction, This is England, Shortbus, The Hills Have Eyes, The Departed, Jackass 2 and Inland Empire.

 

1. Children of Men
2. Casino Royale
3. Pan’s Labyrinth

Those in bold are other films that had a chance of being in the top three while the rest of them are notable releases I enjoy; Slither, Mission: Impossible III, Letters from Iwo Jima, Notes on a Scandal, Fearless, Monster House, Inside Man, Crank, Black Book, Days of Glory, The Host, Black Sheep, Running Scared, Gamera the Brave, Déjà Vu, and Silent Hill.

 

1. The Wind that Shakes the Barley
2. This is England
3. Volver

The Wind that Shakes the Barley is one of the most powerful and considered films about revolution and civil war. Loach never shies away from the complexities and fissures of this, is the goal a revolution against capitalism, or is all they are doing changing the accents of the master and the colours of the flag? Loach's best film.

This is England is a fantastic snapshot of mid-80s England, showing how a young working class kid gets taken in by a group of Skinheads, and then corrupted by a sub-set of fascist skinheads, redirecting Shaun's anger at the country into anger at immigration and non-white Brits. Powerful, with an absolutely masterful performance from Stephen Graham as the repulsive, yet tragic, Combo.

Volver is another Almodovar magic realist melodrama, with Penelope Cruz looking completely transfixing and cinematic for every moment on screen. There's no muted, understated moments here, everything is turned up to 11, just like Almodovar's characters, plot and colour.

Honourable mentions;

A couple of good British films this year from major filmmakers, Alfonso Cuarón's Children of Men, with it's showy and mesmerising tracking shots, and Andrea Arnold's Red Road, a Haneke-esque film about violence and obsession when a CCTV operator sees something she doesn't expect.

Two very different films from China, Zhang Yimou's epic historical fantasy, Curse of the Golden Flower, and from the complete other side, Jia Zhangke's Still Life, a tale about the rapid modernisation in China, and who gets left behind.

A Mongolian film I really like is Tuya's Marriage, about a young rural woman needing to find a husband. Full of beautiful shots of Mongolian landscape, and a slice of life that you don't see often in films.

A couple from Korean, Bong Joon-Ho's anti-capitalist monster movie, The Host, that delights in violating all the "rules" of monster movies. Park Chan Wook's I'm a Cyborg, but That's Okay is a kooky but charming rom-com about two people in a mental health hospital.

Satoshi Kon's Paprika is a wonderful piece of animation and imagination that twists and turns in directions quicker than you can keep up.

Finally, Slavoj Zizek's The Perverts Guide to Cinema is a great introduction to Zizek, a visual essay, using major moments in cinema to introduce his ideas about ideology and philosophy. Frequently baffling, but full of moments that are really interesting.

 

The Host was one of those foreign films that broke out so much that you would hear casual film fans talking about it. It is impressive that Bong has done that twice in his career.

 

Guess I need to see The Wind that Shakes the Barley. It was already high on my watchlist but I'll try and make it a priority.

 

1. Miami Vice
2. Election 2
3. The Host

Miami Vice is an all timer, immaculate vibes. Struggling to think of a movie that jumped higher for me on my second watch than that one. Johnnie To's Election 2 is even better than the first. It takes the capitalism = barbarism concepts of the first movie in a much darker direction, there's a 5 minute stretch in there that is scarier than anything in Hereditary. And of course, The Host is more quality anti-capitalist/anti-imperialist work from Bong.

 

1. The Host
2. Children of Men
3. Miami Vice

I like Children of Men as much as The Host but giving the top spot to The Host because I’m not seeing it make as many lists. The first time I watched I knew nothing and assumed it was about a parasite so the scene where we’re introduced to the monster was extra exhilarating for me, and it’s a fantastic scene on its own. Of course what makes The Host special is the underlying critiques but it is a top tier Monster film regardless.

 

1. Children of Men
2. The Host
3. Behind the Mask

 

Can you expand on United 93? I haven't' seen it in a long time so the only thing that I can really remember is the last 15 minutes or so, but from what has come out about the final struggle on the flight and call transcripts, didn't it stick to about as close approximation to what happened? Or are you referring to just the making of a movie about it in general? I can definitely see that argument. Though I think it was impossible to not expect that story to be told on screen at some point, but maybe 5 years was just way too soon.

I also have a vague memory of seeing that Nick Cage 9/11 movie that also felt too soon, but can't remember what year that came out.

 

There is no deeper meaning or justification for it. People praised it for being very truthful to the moment, but what is the value in that other than traumatizing people?

 

I haven't seen United 93 but how would you contrast it to Elephant

 

yeah I def understand that. I think the only real justification is “these people did something heroic and we’re gonna tell that story”, and for a lot of people that’s def not gonna be enough lol. It’s been at least 5 years since I’ve seen it but I still remember the last minutes of it being just brutal and, yeah, traumatizing.