A Decade's Perspective

My friend Jesse Walker has an annual tradition--top ten lists of movie from previous decades ending with the number of the present year.  And at Pajama Guy, we have a tradition of critiquing these lists.

So here's the first, for the year 2006.  His top ten:

1.  Deadwood 3
2.  Pan's Labyrinth
3.  Children Of Men
4.  The Wire 4
5.  Everything Will Be OK
6.  The Lives Of Others
7.  Volver
8.  Meditation - Light
9.  The Girl Who Leapt Through Time
10. Dreamgirls

Jesse breaks my rules for top ten movie lists by including TV shows for 1 and 4. They may be good (The Wire) but they are not movies, so shouldn't be here.  He also includes a short--Everything Will Be OK is pretty special, but it's also 17 minutes, and shouldn't be competing with features.

As for the others, Pan's Labyrinth and The Lives Of Others would make my list.  Volver's okay, but not for top ten.  Children Of Men didn't impress me like it did others--I had trouble with its tone.  Dreamgirls isn't much of a show (or much of a score) to begin with, and I thought the movie lost the one thing it had going for it--its staging.

The other two I haven't seen.  Haven't even heard of 8.  I'd definitely like to check out 9.

Here are his honorable mentions:

11. Time
12. Veronica Mars 2
13. Bug
14. Tell No One
15. Stranger Than Fiction
16. Inland Empire
17. The Host
18. The Departed
19. A Scanner Darkly
20. Tekkonkinkreet

Haven't seen 11, 13, 17, 19 and 20 (though I've caught bits of 17 and 19). 12 is another damn TV show.  Doesn't leave much.

Tell No One, if I recall correctly, is good faux-Hitchcock.  Stranger Than Fiction came from a script by a hot writer who wasn't so hot after his films came out--Jesse, being a good auteurist, only mentions the director at his website. The movie (which features a lot of actors I know from Chicago in bit parts) is a good idea that doesn't work, mostly due to the writing.  Inland Empire certainly has moments of interest, but at three hours is a compendium of some of the worst habits of David Lynch--he hasn't made a feature since. The Departed, which won the Oscar that year, is not one of Scorsese's best (and I'm not even that much a fan of his work to begin with).

Here are other films that would have made my top ten or twenty list:

Clerks II (not everyone loved it, but I think it's one of Kevin Smith's best)

The Devil Wears Prada (expert Hollywood entertainment is nothing to sneeze at)

Heart Of The Game

Infamous (the good film about Truman Capote)

Jackass Number Two

Little Children

Little Miss Sunshine

Lunacy

The Queen

Trailer Park Boys: The Movie (saw it before I knew there was a TV series)

Wordplay

Other films I liked:

Art School Confidential (seemed disappointing after Ghost World, but has held up well), Cars (weak for Pixar, but still fun), Casino Royale (the only Daniel Craig Bond I liked), Friends With Money, Idiocracy, The Illusionist, Mission: Impossible III, Pittsburgh, A Prairie Home Companion (Altman's last--flawed but fascinating), The Prestige, Rocky Balboa, RV, Talladega Nights: The Ballad Of Ricky Bobby, Thank You For Smoking, Tristram Shandy, The TV Set, Venus, Wristcutters: A Love Story

Other films of note:

16 Blocks, Akeelah And The Bee, American Dreamz, The Ant Bully, Apocalypto, As You Like It, The Astronaut Farmer, Away From Her, Babel, Basic Instinct 2, The Black Dahlia, Borat, The Break-Up, Click, The Da Vinci Code, Date Movie, Death Of A President, Deja Vu, Delirious, The Descent, Factory Girl, Factotum, Fast And The Furious: Tokyo Drift, Find Me Guilty, Flushed Away, For Your Consideration, The Fountain, Freedomland, Fur, Game 6, The Good German, The Good Shepherd (some have noted they should have worked together and made "The Good German Shepherd"), Goya's Ghosts, Grandma's Boy, The Green Hornet, A Guide To Recognizing Your Saints, Half Nelson, Happily N'Ever After, Happy Feet, Harsh Times, The History Boys, The Hoax, The Holiday, Hoot, I Want Someone To Eat Cheese With, Ice Age: The Meltdown, Idlewild, Inside Man, John Tucker Must Die, Lady In The Water, The Lake House, Letters From Iwo Jima, Looking For Comedy In The Muslim World, Lucky Number Slevin, Madea's Family Reunion, Man Of The Year, Matador, Miami Vice,  Monster House, My Super Ex-Girlfriend, The Nativity Story, Neil Young: Heart Of Gold, Night At The Museum, Notes On A Scandal, The Omen, Over The Hedge, The Pacifier, The Painted Veil, Paris Je T'Aime, Penelope, Phat Girlz, The Pink Panther, Pirates Of The Caribbean: Dean Man's Chest, Precinct B13, Puccini For Beginners, The Pursuit Of Happyness, Red Riding Hood, Saw III, Scary Movie 4, School For Scoundrels, The Science Of Sleep, Skinwalkers, Slither, Smokin' Aces, Snakes On A Plane, Southland Tales, Step Up, Stick It, Superman Returns, This Film Is Not Yet Rated, Underworld: Evolution, United 93, We Are Marshall, Who Killed The Electric Car?, Who The $&% Is Jackson Pollock?, The Wicker Man, Wild West Comedy Show, The Wind That Shakes The Barley, World Trade Center, X-Men: The Last Stand, You Me And Dupree