FilmBlather.com

2006 Wrap-Up

My mindset at the end of each year I spend doing this seems to be the same. There are always frustrations -- cinematic, professional and personal -- and always moments where I start to think it would be more productive to refocus my efforts, perhaps lower my intake of new releases, or do something else entirely. And every year I think back to what I might have missed and reaffirm my dedication to the industry and the art form. My life would honestly be less complete had I not experienced the top few films on this year's excellent list, and as always, even the most odious offerings contributed something. 2007 might bring some changes. I plan to spend the summer in New York City, where I will have less access to advance screenings, but many more opportunities to seek out cinematic oddities, delicacies and wonderments that will never make it to Philly. I might decide to continue what I'm currently doing on a somewhat modified schedule, I might focus the site more on delightful obscurities, or I might try a combination of the two. Either way, I'm not going anywhere. And whatever I don't get to here will show up on the companion blog, so keep an eye on that.

Below is 2006 as I saw it. Looking over my "Top 10" makes me smile and cry happy tears. For all the charges of creative bankruptcy constantly hurled at Hollywood, the industry continues to churn-out life-changing material both from within and from without the studio system.

The Ten Worst Films of 2006

10. Pulse (Jim Sonzero) - Of all the American J-Horror remakes we've been subjected to over the past few years, this has to be the least coherent. I have no idea what this was about, really, though I think there might have been a universe of hideous zombie-spirits waiting to get at us through our electronics. Any initial intrigue is guaranteed to turn to puzzlement, then annoyance.

9. Ultraviolet (Kurt Wimmer) - I did not like Wimmer's Equilibrium, but it had its defenders and even its fans; I don't know anyone who liked his follow-up. An interesting visual concept is wasted by a filmmaker who had no idea how to harness it in service of anything remotely interesting. A poor man's Aeon Flux, which is kind of sad.

8. An American Haunting (Courtney Solomon) - It pains me to put all of these genre flicks on this list, but when sci-fi and horror filmmakers whiff it, they whiff it good (and there are more to come). Here's a repetitive, tedious, and incompetently made ghost story, stretching the "based on a true story" meme far beyond plausibility. There must be more out there for Sissy Spacek and Donald Sutherland; I'm not even sure it's a step up for Courtney "Dungeons and Dragons" Solomon.

7. Click (Frank Coraci) - Here's Adam Sandler at his most vile, plundering cinema classics, populating archetypical stories with idiot characters, waving onions in front of our eyes to try to squeeze out some tears. The fact that the conceit is halfway decent only makes it worse in this case; there were no other movies in 2006 that I wanted to rewrite this badly.

6. We Are Marshall (McG) - I pretty much knew I was screwed when I learned that the movie starred Matthew McConaughey and Matthew Fox, but I held out hope, for some reason, that the reliable formula and McG's music-video-trained visual sense would overwhelm their odious presence. No; indeed, the pain they cause is heightened by what is probably the worst conventional screenplay of the year, constructed entirely out of dramatic speeches, confrontations, and heart-to-hearts. You might think it's unlikely that this ordinary-seeming sports flick could make a bottom-ten list, but trust me: it really, really sucks.

5. The Da Vinci Code (Ron Howard) - This has to be the most worthless cultural phenomenon of all time, or at least up there. Maybe it plays differently for Christians, for whom its central "secret" might be more shocking or interesting, but that still leaves the lame dialogue, cheesy plotting, and all-around stupidity.

4. Tamara (Jeremy Haft) - This independent horror film hit theaters for about three days, give or take, early in the year, which is weird, since far superior horror languishes in DTDVD release every week. Offering nothing beyond a lame, unimaginative, poorly conceived Carrie rip-off, this wins the year's "Least Deserving Theatrical Release" prize.

3. Underworld: Evolution (Len Wiseman) - The first film held some promise; the sequel starts out tepid and descends into mind-numbing boredom despite the presence of Bill Nighy. The nadir of modern horror's vampire fascination.

2. Date Movie (Aaron Seltzer) - I'm a sucker for parodies and spoofs, but this is really and truly awful. The writers apparently forgot that parody involves actual jokes, and that people/animals/inanimate objects farting doesn't necessarily count. I cajoled a friend into seeing this with me, and felt very, very guilty.

1. Grandma's Boy (Nicholaus Goosen) - After running my review, I fielded angry e-mails from one of the "talent" involved in this, but I have no compunctions about calling it the worst movie of the year. Laughless and pathetic, it should offend virtually everyone's cinematic sensibilities. It's awful, and it comes to us courtesy of people who are good friends with Adam Sandler. Does anyone like this stuff?


The Ten Best Films of 2006

10. The Prestige (Christopher Nolan) - Nolan is one of our trickiest filmmakers, and The Prestige demands multiple viewings, but it rewards them, too. This is one of the year's most richly plotted and impressive movies, working as a cinematic puzzle and, oddly enough, a mood piece: Nolan is so good at giving his films a cold, forbidding, profoundly ominous facade. They all have a Hollywood gloss, but man can they make you uncomfortable.

9. Pan's Labyrinth (Guillermo Del Toro) - Fantasy for adults is so rare, and this film is so wonderful, in all senses of the word. Maybe it's just my tastes, but I'm enamored of the idea of trying to make sense of history by giving it fantastical parallels; if Del Toro's actual fantasy world had been a tad better developed, Pan's Labyrinth would be much higher on this list.

8. The Death of Mr. Lazarescu (Cristi Puiu) - Required viewing for anyone who thinks that socialized medicine might be a good idea. Also a powerful, keenly observed tragedy, convincing in its portrayal of everyday life -- which makes it that much sadder.

7. Monster House (Gil Kenan) - Simply the best animated and family film since Monsters, Inc.. Funny, unexpected, deliriously entertaining; "Don't be scared, vacuum cleaner dummy; it's not how I trained you" is one of the lines of the year.

6. V for Vendetta (James McTeigue) - Fiery, passionate, unabashedly political, and even more relevant for the fact that a unanimous chorus denied its relevance upon its release. The stylized storytelling is jarring on first viewing but perfectly appropriate upon reflection: "Remember, remember the 5th of November."

5. The Departed (Martin Scorsese) - Along with #2, the place to go this year for good, old-fashioned movie mastery. There's certainly room here to look for subtext -- the rat, etc. -- and I gave it a go in my review, but mostly I just didn't want it to end.

4. Letters From Iwo Jima (Clint Eastwood) - War movies are trickier than you'd think -- many turn out either somewhat perversely "entertaining," or tediously innocuous in an attempt to be "respectful." Here's one of the rare true anti-war films, as riveting and horrifying as its subject matter deserves.

3. United 93 (Paul Greengrass) - "The film no one in America wanted to see," says Rex Reed, and that's fine as long as it's predicated on personal unwillingness to undergo the emotional experience. But all those who insisted that a film like this was purposeless are wrong, wrong, wrong: Anything that brings us closer to the September 11th tragedy has tremendous value.

2. Children of Men (Alfonso Cuaron) - Stunning science-fiction from one of our new masters. Its technical virtuosity is getting props from everywhere, but the movie is so much more than an exercise: Cuaron creates a fluid and natural future world with its roots perceptibly in our own. It took my breath away.

1. Brick (Rian Johnston) - Even Brick's most ardent defenders "conceded" that it was mostly just a clever trick, a niftily executed genre experiment without much soul or substance. But this movie means so much to me. It's noir, and at first I thought that this was the highest compliment I could pay it. I've since realized that Johnson's debut film transcends the genre, creating one of the most heartbreaking and compelling protagonists in years and giving him life apart from the labyrinthine plot; no character this year captured my sympathy more than Brendan Frye. The movie has begun to haunt my dreams.

Some honorable mentions: The Fountain, Running Scared, The Descent, The Heart of the Game, The Last King of Scotland, Marie Antoinette, Superman Returns, Babel, Jesus Camp, Lucky Number Slevin, A Guide to Recognizing Your Saints, Perfume: The Story of a Murderer.


Overrated: Dreamgirls (Bill Condon) - And I am telling you, I'm not buying it. I am really annoyed about the fact that this movie was crowned Best Picture winner sometime in 2005, and continues to be so crowned despite sucking. It's boring, inelegant, and not worth your time. And if Jennifer Hudson is so great -- well, you know how people sometimes ignore phone calls on the theory that if it's important, they'll leave a message? If Hudson is a star, I'm sure we'll hear from her again, and she'll be singing something better.

Also: District B13, The Science of Sleep, Little Children, Volver, The Lives of Others, Flags of Our Fathers, Charlotte's Web


Underappreciated: The Wicker Man (Neil LaBute) - Yeah, I'm gonna go there. LaBute's remake is one of the year's most reviled films, but I found it to be one of the year's most entertaining: absolutely ridiculous, yes, but as creepy as it is (intentionally) funny. I am delighted that I saw it.

Also: Tristan & Isolde, Hostel, Looking for Comedy in the Muslim World, The Pink Panther, Firewall, Running Scared, The Hills Have Eyes, Silent Hill, X-Men: The Last Stand, Twelve and Holding, My Super Ex-Girlfriend, Scoop, Fur: An Imaginary Portrait of Diane Arbus, All the King's Men, The Last Kiss, Saw III, Unaccompanied Minors, The Fountain.


Performance of the Year: Joseph Gordon-Levitt in Brick. The DVD contains an alternate version of the final scene between Gordon-Levitt and Nora Zehetner that's filmed in one take, and watching it is the equivalent of acting school. Unbelievable. But you don't need the DVD: any way you slice it, Gordon-Levitt has taken one of the year's toughest screenplays and turned it into magic. I mentioned above that Brendan Frye may rank among my favorite movie protagonists; the writing takes its share of credit for that, of course, but it would mean little if Gordon-Levitt weren't so good.


Horror Film of the Year: The Descent (Neil Marshall): There is so much horror in my bottom-10 that I felt obligated to point out one of the genre's bright spots this year. The Descent is the first film in maybe a decade to make me let out an honest-to-goodness scream.


And a Few Individual Moments Worth Remembering:

- The assault on the SUV in Children of Men.

- Bill Resler jumping up and down, completely beside himself, shouting "Look in their eyes!" in The Heart of the Game.

- Brendan starting a fight with the football player in Brick.

- The first appearance of the creature in The Descent.

- Television monitors blaring in empty living rooms in V for Vendetta.

- "First Snow" the second time around in The Fountain.

- The donkey trailer pulling into the parking lot in Clerks II.

- The botched knock-knock joke in Half Nelson.

- The triumphant strains of "Gonna Fly Now," 90 minutes into Rocky Balboa.

- The passengers rushing the cockpit in United 93.


©2006 Eugene Novikov