2006 in film. • Page 2

There is the academic difference that United 93 is directly dramatizing a real event while Elephant heavily alludes to but does not directly depict Columbine. Elephant is intentionally slow and seemingly aimless until the violent act, mimicking the ways these tragedies seem to spring out of nowhere while not following easy narratives, like the ones about violent music or video games that were sold to us at the time. The senselessness of the violence is also contrasted with the response to the different events; 9/11 led to the War on Terror which is still leading to bloodshed and tragedy today, while Columbine ended up just being the first major in a long string of school shootings where people are upset for a few days until everything goes back to the status quo. Because of those realities, the films end up hitting different emotional notes; United 93 came out and poked at those feelings when people were starting to doubt the wars and our strategies, while Elephant was criticizing us for our indifference and apathy to the struggles that teenagers are going through in an increasingly meaningless and empty existence.

A lot of the best films about major events or moments do not try to depict the events in their totality. I have said it before, but 25th Hour is the best film about the September 11th attacks. It wasn't even formed as a response to the event, but it bleeds into a narrative about owning up to your mistakes and seeking redemption, and if anyone had dared to say that in 2002 they would have been run out of the country. One day there will be a very expensive prestige film about the coronavirus, filled with actors that make people pay attention and with a glossy trailer and marketing campaign, but it will say so much less than some small-budget drama that makes references to the event and the ways in which it drastically and subtly changed our lives.

 

Soderbergh already made it 10 years ago and it was good!

 

I saw it at the time and watched it again the night they shut the schools down. So eerily prescient.

 

And even with all the unruly mobs in that movie, they still overestimated the amount that Americans would comply with safety measures hah.

But I imagine people might be more convinced to stay home and the fuck away from everyone if the virus had an IFR of 25%

 

If you made a movie where people refused to get a vaccine and took horse medicine instead it would be dismissed as too unbelievable.

 

Thanks for the write up! I would watch United 93 to see what I though because I think it does depend on the rest of the film, but after Elephant and Irreversible last week I've had enough depictions

 

Deparred
Child of men
Pan lbyanth

 

Children of Men wins it with 28 votes. Pan's Labyrinth was in second place with 9 votes. Children of Men will move on to the bracket.

 

blowout, well deserved

 

Two masterpieces.

 

2007 is going to be impossible

 

2007's top three is actually pretty easy for me but the films rounding out the top 10 could individually have been #1 in almost any other year

 

2007’s top film is easy for me, it’s loaded under that though.

 

I feel like it's between two films really and I know which one I'd bet on.

 

There are four films id personally consider a masterpiece, would probably consider at least 3 of them as #1 depending on the day

 

My top 3 are going to all be Best Picture nominees. Not sure if I've done that yet so far

 

where is the thread

 

as far as 07 goes it’s a matter of whether or not twbb takes it by ko

 

Wouldn't be surprised if it was a tie tbh

 

Didn't log it on Letterboxd, so missed it when looking through my 2006, but Little Man came out this year, the Wayans Brothers' "comedy" about a dwarf criminal who pretends to be a baby, and gets adopted by a couple, in order to steal a diamond.

No exaggeration, I think about this film more than 99.9% of the other films I've seen, it has haunted me and stuck with me for about 15 years. One of the most baffling and unhinged films I think I've ever seen - absolutely terrible of course, but it has stuck with me, and I don't think it'll ever let go.

Don't watch it - but if you do, you won't be able to shake it. I cannot believe this was made, it's so much worse than you think it is.

 

Im gonna get high and watch this with my wife lol.

 

Im going to watch it sober, by myself

 

I missed this year, but glad about the winner! Would have been my #1 pick

 

1. The Prestige
2. The Departed
3. Stranger than Fiction

Other standouts:
Inland Empire, The Fountain, The Last King of Scotland, Borat, Click, Babel, Inside Man, The Lives of Others, Running Scared, Grandma's Boy, Little Miss Sunshine, Half Nelson, Alpha Dog, The Pursuit of Happyness,

 

I watched it.

It was bad, not amateurish, not infuriating, and not so bad it was good.

It was 90mins of jokes and none of them were funny, It wasn't anti-funny, and there weren't any unintentionally funny moments. I don't even know how you can do that.