The Usual Choices
Babel (Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu)
The Departed (Martin Scorsese)
Letters from Iwo Jima (Clint Eastwood)
The Queen (Stephen Frears)
United 93 (Paul Greengrass)
But how about...
The Illusionist (Neil Burger)
Somewhat overshadowed by the same year's The Prestige (a similarly conjuror-topiced movie with clever ending), The Illusionist is more romantic and folktale-ish in its telling (although I still think The Prestige is the better film...but not by much). In late 1800's Austria, a master-magician named Eisenheim re-meets his long-lost true love who unfortunately is set to wed a royal creep named Prince Leopold...things get trickier and trickier until Justice & Love are properly served. While Edward Norton is the weak link (his portrayal of the title character is so controlled as to be soulless...he never breaks out), Paul Giamatti impresses as the conflicted Chief Inspector who must do the Crown Prince's bidding. With appropriately lush cinematography, subtle special effects which don't draw attention away from the story and a satisfying finish, this is film entertainment at its classiest.
...and what about...
Stranger Than Fiction (Marc Forster)
This is the story of Harold Crick (played shockingly well by Will Ferrell) who is one of Life's most boring creations (yes, he's an accountant). One day, he hears a voice which seems to be narrating his everyday existence, eventually announcing his imminent demise...and that's all I can tell you before I spoil the whole viewing experience, which is unique, warming and has something non-icky to say about being alive. With clever visual inserts and a toe-tapping punky soundtrack, this film wants to entertain and baffle, make you smile and make you think. And don't believe any critic who tells you the script writes itself into a corner, forced to stagger down to an ending that doesn't work...it is, instead, perfect. Seen many times now, both on my own and with others, this is one of the most purely enjoyable and impressively imaginative films ever made. Even with Will Ferrell in it.
...not to mention...
Hollywoodland (Allen Coulter)
This is a wonderful example of turning a seemingly thin scenario into something of real substance. The sad story of actor George Reeves (aka Superman from the 1950's kids TV show) who shot himself in 1959 and the usual array of murder-conspiracy theories which surfaced pretty much immediately afterwards. This is one of the very few movies which seems to get the old days (well, actually...the tail-end of the old days) of Hollywood right. Ben gives his indisputably best performance as the fatally-typecast actor who wanted to be so much more and Diane is terrific as his sugar-mummy. I have no idea of how historically accurate all of this is, but it doesn't really matter...this is a perfectly-structured and poignant story told by a skilled craftsman. Come back from TVland Allen!
...and one personal unmentionable...
The Hawk is Dying (Julian Goldberg)
Art for Art's sake...a film which is stocked with peculiar characters who are more narrative constructs than people: George (Paul Giamatti) is a car upholsterer who is consumed by his obsession with Falconry; Betty (Michelle Williams) is a psychology student who is a drugged up / needy mess looking for Meaning; Fred (Michael Pitt) is an autistic 20 year old who blows smoke rings and is fascinated by water; and Precious (Rusty Schwimmer) is the size of a fridge and reads pop junk mags instead of participating in Life. None of the actors can make these prefabs flesh...only the red-tailed hawk is real, tethered & flapping, just trying to get away from these tedious weirdos. We get ugly sex & symbolic visions & grief as illness & good ol' Jesus stirred into the cinematic gruel to add texture. I suggest watching 1969's Kes instead if you are a birdy person and would like to spend nearly two hours with some unpleasant people.
My Top 10 Films of 2006
 |
| "Hmm. What this song really needs is more cowbell." |
#02 A The Prestige (Nolan)
#03 A Hollywoodland (Coulter)
#04 A- The Illusionist (Burger)
#05 A- Old Joy (Reichardt)
#06 A- Ten Canoes (de Heer)
#07 A- Casino Royale (Campbell)
#08 A- United 93 (Greengrass)
#09 A- Babel (Inarritu)
#10 A- Children of Men (Cuaron)
Overflow: More A-/B+ Films
#11 A- Little Children (Field)
#12 B+ Notes on a Scandal (Eyre)
#13 B+ Jindabyne (Lawrence)
#14 B+ Half Nelson (Fleck)
#15 B+ The Last King of Scotland (Macdonald)
#16 B+ Flags of Our Fathers (Eastwood)
#17 B+ The Queen (Frears)
#18 B+ The Good Shepherd (De Niro)
#19 B+ The Departed (Scorsese)
#20 B+ Kenny (Jacobson)
#21 B+ Infamous (McGrath)
Sorry, They Didn't Make It...
> B Away from Her [an Alzheimer's story; the film, like the disease, is gently harrowing and only forgiving at the end]
> B The Devil Wears Prada [a fashionable comedy, but I doubt the material is going to last]
> B The Fountain [tolerable arty epic which goes a'looking for, yup, you guessed it...The Meaning of Life]
> B Little Miss Sunshine [really just another "my family is weirder than your family" comedy]
> B Superman Returns [a better Superman III, but Christopher, Margot and Gene are missing and missed]
> B The Dead Girl [a heavy but occasionally affecting 5-story compendium linked by a corpse]
> B- A Prairie Home Companion [not much more than mildly pleasant, despite the plethora of big names]
> B- Catch a Fire [strong Apartheid story blighted by an ineffective American-as-a-South-African performance]
> B- Candy [a junkie love story with the usual good-looking young people sprinting to the bottom]
> B- The Good German [WWII film that mimics 1940's style but not 1940's quality]
> B- Miss Potter [for undiscerning Peter Rabbit fans...for the rest of us, this is a little too twee]
> C Borat [I am not a fan of cringe comedy or humiliation humour or this guy]
> C Running with Scissors [a dark "comedy" with lots of loud, angry people being truly awful to each other]
> C 300 [exciting to look at, but ultimately just bloody and empty]
> C X-Men: The Last Stand [somehow, even with these extreme characters, this is a bland action epic]
> C The Black Dahlia [only a master craftsman could turn THAT infamous murder into a handsome bore]
> D How to Eat Fried Worms [another popular kids book messed with by filmmaking adults...and it's gross]
> D The Hawk is Dying [A Personal Unmentionable]
> E Lady in the Water [what is this shit?]
"Ah!..Sweet Mystery of Life...": 2006 Films I Apparently Still Need to See
Akeelah and the Bee (Atchison); All the Boys Love Mandy Lane (Levine); American Dreamz (Weitz); Art School Confidential (Zwigoff); Black Snake Moan (Brewer); Blood Diamond (Zwick); Bobby (Estevez); Brand Upon the Brain! (Maddin); Breaking and Entering (Minghella); Bug (Friedkin); Day Night Day Night (Loktev); Death of a President (Range); Dreamgirls (Condon); Driving Lessons (Brock); Find Me Guilty (Lumet); For Your Consideration (Guest); Friends with Money (Holofcener); Goya’s Ghosts (Forman); The History Boys (Hytner); The Hoax (Hallstrom); Inland Empire (Lynch); Inside Man (Lee); Kidulthood (Huda); Letters from Iwo Jima (Eastwood); London to Brighton (Williams); Marie Antoinette (Coppola); Mission: Impossible III (Abrams); The Night Listener (Stettner); Once (Carney); The Painted Veil (Curran); Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest (Verbinski); Red Road (Arnold); Rescue Dawn (Herzog); Right at Your Door (Gorak); Scoop (Allen); Seraphim Falls (Von Ancken); Sherrybaby (Collyer); Shortbus (Mitchell); Snow Cake (Evans); Starter for 10 (Vaughan); Stephanie Daley (Brougher); We are Marshall (McG); Wild Tigers I Have Known (Archer); The Wind That Shakes the Barley (Loach); World Trade Centre (Stone)
Best Performances of 2006
Alan Arkin in Little Miss Sunshine
Judi Dench in Notes on a Scandal
Jackie Earle Haley in Little Children
Jennifer Hudson in Dreamgirls
Helen Mirren in The Queen
Peter O'Toole in Venus
Meryl Streep in The Devil Wears Prada
Forest Whitaker in The Last King of Scotland
But how about...
Shareeka Epps in Half Nelson
While all the critical attention went to Ryan Gosling's performance (and it was warranted...he's terrific as an inner city school teacher who is wearing himself away with drugs and disappointment), Shareeka impresses as one of his at-risk students. Just 13 years old, she is already grown, struggling to understand what that means and facing a future that is more than likely going to be bleak and criminal. Shareeka acts with her eyes, taking it all in, focussing carefully on adult words and claims, wanting to learn from everybody, no matter what they do. I especially like the way she spontaneously breaks into grins, a happy child again, then quickly reverts to a serious stare...gotta stay cool, gotta stay cool. The actress makes you see what this kid could make of herself, if she just lived somewhere else...which is pretty sad.
...and what about...
Daniel Craig in Casino Royale
The best Bond, because this one has depth. No longer a Swinging Sixties cocksman, a fleeting Australian embarrassment, a smarmy sex quipper, a humourless void or a too-perfect compromise of all the above, this James Bond is almost a viable person. And Daniel Craig gives the perfect flesh 'n' (lotsa) blood portrayal of what used to be simply Action Hero + Man With Appetites. Starting off as an unmitigated shit, Daniel comes across as almost pathologically relentless, unable to accept being bested, brutal, hard and...deeply in love with a woman for whom he is prepared to give it all away. At this late stage, Bond discovers soul, and it's all in those blue eyes, not as cold as they once were. Daniel Craig steps out of the ocean, all dripping beefcake and workouts, fully aware that he is capable of anything, and is no longer a campy cliche. He is James Bond, 007, Licence to Kill. The actor has shaken, not just stirred, the icon.
...not to mention...
Laura Linney in Jindabyne
The NSW / Victorian High Country is one of my beloved places, and this story is about its beauty and ugliness (the image of the wild mountains scratched with pylons & cables snapshots it perfectly). Four mates go fishing and find the body of a murdered young woman floating in the river...so they tether her and continue fishing, not reporting the discovery until they return home a few days later...to the outrage of their small community. Laura is married to one of these men...she is a strong but troubled soul, who soon learns that she doesn't understand her husband, her fellow townsfolk and, most tellingly, her own beliefs... what actually is important to me? One of the most poorly-treated of all film actresses (she never seemed to get the big, meaty roles), Laura draws us all in via this performance...struggling with mental illness and motherhood, she simply knows that something is wrong and therefore, must be fixed. The woman wants the world to be put to rights...she just isn't exactly sure how to go about it. And how universal is that?
...and one personal unmentionable...
Hilary Swank & (especially) Fiona Shaw in The Black Dahlia
Ms Swank: While Josh, Aaron & Scarlett do 1940's film noirish impersonations (Dana Andrews, Richard Widmark and Gene Tierney respectively), Hilary is stuck with the obligatory femme fatale role...the sexy-as-hell bitch...and subtle, she ain't. All pout and shimmy, she torches every room she enters, breathe-talking and dressed in hi-gloss black. A tall, jiggered cocktail of every Rita Hayworth performance you have ever seen, and just as dated. Some people just shouldn't watch old movies.
Ms Shaw: Playing a dipsomaniac psycho, Fiona decides to go the exploding-sledgehammer route...every gesture, vocal inflection and stagger screams out "I Am A Looney!!!" And, as such, she is obviously overacting in a local village panto, having gone on after one too many serves of the brandy trifle. A ghastly and embarrassing performance that her true friends will never refer to again.
My 10 Favourite Performances of 2006
 |
| "And now...for my next trick...I will make my career disappear!" |
#02 Ben Affleck in Hollywoodland
#03 Jill Clayburgh in Running with Scissors
#04 Shareeka Epps in Half Nelson
#05 Jackie Earle Haley in Little Children
#06 Laura Linney in Jindabyne
#07 Daniel Craig in Casino Royale
#08 Toby Jones in Infamous
#09 Rinko Kikuchi in Babel
#10 Annette Bening in Running with Scissors
Overflow: More List-Worthy Performances
#11 Julie Christie in Away from Her
#12 Ryan Gosling in Half Nelson
#13 Diane Lane in Hollywoodland
#14 Rose Byrne in The Dead Girl
#15 Paul Giamatti in The Illusionist
#16 Forest Whitaker in The Last King of Scotland
#17 Helen Mirren in The Queen
#18 The ensemble cast of The Prestige
#19 Will Ferrell & Maggie Gyllenhaal in Stranger Than Fiction
#20 Jack Nicholson in The Departed
#21 Abigail Breslin in Little Miss Sunshine
Sorry, They Didn't Make It...
> Alan Arkin in Little Miss Sunshine [in every one of his performances, the man is more gratingly odd than funny]
> Meryl Streep in The Devil Wears Prada [an occasionally entertaining performance]
> Michael Caine in Children of Men [convincingly plays an old hippie but later on voted YES for Brexit...hmm...]
And so...onto the annual awards (with a nod of appreciation to Danny Peary)...
The Alternate Oscars for 2006 are:
FILM of the YEAR
GOLD: Stranger Than Fiction (Marc Forster)
SILVER: The Prestige (Christopher Nolan)
BRONZE: Hollywoodland (Allen Coulter)
LEAD ACTOR: PERFORMANCE of the YEAR
GOLD: Daniel Craig (Casino Royale)
SILVER: Toby Jones (Infamous)
BRONZE: Ryan Gosling (Half Nelson)
LEAD ACTRESS: PERFORMANCE of the YEAR
GOLD: Laura Linney (Jindabyne)
SILVER: Annette Bening (Running with Scissors)
BRONZE: Julie Christie (Away from Her)
SUPPORTING ACTOR: PERFORMANCE of the YEAR
GOLD: Ben Affleck (Hollywoodland)
SILVER: Jackie Earle Haley (Little Children)
BRONZE: Jack Nicholson (The Departed)
SUPPORTING ACTRESS: PERFORMANCE of the YEAR
GOLD: Jill Clayburgh (Running with Scissors)
SILVER: Rinko Kikuchi (Babel)
BRONZE: Diane Lane (Hollywoodland)
ENSEMBLE or PARTNERSHIP: PERFORMANCE of the YEAR
GOLD: Judi Dench & Cate Blanchett (Notes on a Scandal)
SILVER: Hugh Jackman & Christian Bale & Michael Caine & Scarlett Johansson & Rebecca Hall (The Prestige)
BRONZE: Will Ferrell & Maggie Gyllenhaal (Stranger Than Fiction)
JUVENILE: PERFORMANCE of the YEAR
GOLD: Shareeka Epps (Half Nelson)
SILVER: Abigail Breslin (Little Miss Sunshine)
BRONZE: Elle Fanning & Nathan Gamble (Babel)
The Alternate Razzies for 2006 are:
CRAP FILM of the YEAR
Lady in the Water (M. Night Shyamalan)
CRAP MALE PERFORMANCE of the YEAR
Tim Robbins (Catch a Fire)
CRAP FEMALE PERFORMANCE of the YEAR
Hilary Swank & Fiona Shaw (The Black Dahlia)
