I have confessed that I love lists, but this one is particularly troubling to me. Although any year’s list of Oscar nominations will be far removed from my choices for the year’s top films, by the date of the Oscar broadcast I can usually claim to have seen most, if not all, of the nominated films. Not so this year. I have shamefully missed the following films, although not for lack of genuine excitement about them: Half Nelson, The Last King of Scotland, Little Children, The Good Shepard, The Illusionist, Marie Antoinette, Letters From Iwo Jima, The Lives of Others, and The Good German. For some reason I feel less compelled to see Blood Diamond, Venus, Notes on a Scandal, The Queen, The Curse of the Golden Flower, or Apocalypto. [Ed. note: the links above are to subsequent reviews.]That’s a bigger list than I thought it would be, and doesn’t even include the non-nominated films I regret to have missed, like The Fountain, Perfume: The Story of a Murderer, and several Iraq documentaries. Alas, here are the films I did get to see — and utterly enjoyed — from 2006: (*indicates that a Mishmash review can be found by following the title’s link)
Volver. Pedro Almadovar’s ability to craft believably real characters within a completely absurd context somehow makes his storytelling all the more powerful. Carmen Maura and Penelope Cruz give two of the best performances of the year, and this ranks among the best works from a truly talented writer/director.*Pan’s Labyrinth, Children of Men, and *Babel. I would feel like a conformist praising the work of these three Mexican directors, except that my opinions of the films and their directors pre-dated the silly headlines of late (like “Three Amigos”). Guillermo del Toro’s Labyrinth is one of the most beautiful yet brutal films in recent memory, and deserves the second spot on this list. One step closer to reality, Alfonso Cuar�n has 
achieved the ideal cinematic portrayal of dystopia in Children of Men, creating a place simultaneously familiar and foreign. Finally, Alejandro Gonz�lez I��rritu has shown us again his mastery of the intersecting episodes, this time revealing that like Cuar�n’s dystopia, the corners of our present world are also simultaneously familiar and foreign.*The Science of Sleep. Realism and absurdity also tangle, like so much tape and yarn, in Michel Gondry’s dreamy romance. Gael Garc�a Bernal gives an under-appreciated performance in an under-appreciated film.*United 93. Among a year full of films with strong or subtle themes of war, fear, and abuse of power, Paul Greengrass had the courage not only to let us confront the events of September 11, but to do so in a way that defied any detractor’s claim of exploitation. United 93’s sister film is Michael Winterbottom’s The Road to Guantanamo, which takes a similar reenactment approach to document the later, and equally ugly, effects of our “war on terrorism.”*Joyeux No�l. Although nominated for last year’s foreign language Oscar, this film wasn’t released until March of last year. It is too bad that our present political climate makes this Christmas film feel so topical in any season.*The Departed. No other recent film has come close to justifying the gesture of awards recognition that has unfairly eluded Martin Scorsese. Although there is a certain irony that such an original filmmaker would finally be honored a remake, there is no doubt that Scorsese’s sensibility is behind what is great in the film and the performances.*Casino Royale and Mission: Impossible III. There seemed 
to be fewer action films last year, but these two took such a fresh and smart look at the genre that it hardly mattered. Daniel Craig redefined the action hero and reinvigorated the Bond franchise, and Philip Seymour Hoffman gave us a truly magnetic villain. Also worth noting in this category is perhaps the most resonant and fully-realized film in Park Chan-wook’s revenge trilogy, *Lady Vengeance.*Little Miss Sunshine. Like this family’s VW van, there is a lot packed into this film, not the least of which is ample observational humor and a knockout performance by its diminutive star, Abigail Breslin.The Death of Mr. Lazarescu and Water. While international cinema can highlight the universality of certain human struggles, these two films show just how different cultures can be. Mr. Lazarescu uses dark humor to show a truly maddening failure of the health care system in Bucharest. Water explores the traditional Indian practice of treating widows, even 
impossibly young ones, as social outcasts. And while you may feel compelled to scream (silently, of course) at the screen “Why isn’t anyone calling the ambulance again?” or “Why doesn’t someone challenge the status quo?”, both films tend to call to mind the dumb ideas we take for granted closer to home.Honorable mentions need to go to: M. Night Shyamalan’s tremendously misunderstood and underestimated *Lady in the Water, Lars von Trier’s daring but revelatory Manderlay, and Christopher Nolan’s magically gritty The Prestige. Also, from first-time writer/director Rian Johnson came a daring and well-executed high school – and highly stylized — noir, Brick. Finally, a flawed but truly surprising and compelling indie, Quincea�era, a film that explored the human experience more honestly than its many big-budget competitors.
The Best of 2006
February 10th, 2007 · No Comments
Tags: Feature
Here are this morning’s Oscar-nominated films, alphabetically. The nominees for foreign language film and documentary feature are compiled at the end of the list. (Short format nominees are listed in a 
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