The Neurotic Monkey's Guide to Survival

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Monday, April 16, 2007

One Nerd's Opinion: The Top Films of 2006

Yes it is a bit belated, but I had to be sure to see most if not all the most buzz worthy of films. Although I still didn't see Dreamgirls...and to be honest? I'm okay with that. Also missed out on Norbit. I know that was in 2007, but I think that's what everyone should say if they ever wish to procreate--"Have you ever seen Norbit, and if so, did you watch it ironically?"

Anyways, without further ado here's my Top 5 films of 2006:


  1. Children of Men
    Cuaron's film is so many things at once: effective sci-fi, scathing political commentary, action journey film. It also does all these things while still having moments of wit and humor, and grounding everything in the real; nothing feels terribly manufactured, and that's perhaps while it's still able to convey such a powerful emotional message. Cuz while it's not nearly as moving as United 93, Children of Men is able to go for beyond just sheer tragedy and horror to actually discuss a great many things on a great many levels. Great soundtrack, too.



  2. United 93
    The best film I never want to see again, yet always feel oddly compelled to watch it. Greengrass made a film that feels like a documentary (helped most ably by his cast, which has most of the actual people reliving that horrible morning), in so much that it's showing the bare bones and realistic occurrences of 9/11, but it does it while also maintaining the growing sense of confusion, fear, horror and ultimately panic that everyone felt that day. Of course capturing the near primal scene aboard the titular plane in such a way that seems fearsome and grotesque while retaining its heroism and humanity, the film refuses to be used as a political soapbox for anyone and simply asks to look at the faces and listen to the words of the people who were involved in that entire tragedy.



  3. The Fountain
    Aronofsky's film was a huge disaster. At least that's how most people, including box office prognosticators, would have you believe. And I'm not about to take the gross nerd copout route of saying "people didn't get it". In fact, this film is fairly easy to get (although still open to interpretation and debate). However, the film is simplicity itself: it's about life and death and how love fits in between and among those two pillars of our reality. The Fountain is such a simple story of how we don't want to die, how we're so afraid of death, how the shadow of death creates a pall over all over our lives, that we don't even notice the great things like love. Kudos to Wolverine for proving he can act, by the way.

  4. Brick
    One of the best debuts of a filmmaker since the historic Sundance Class of '92, Rian Johnson's amazing film first takes a-so-obvious-I-can't believe-it-was-never-done-before premise (high school + film noir), and then actually makes a great film, not simply resting on the genius of that pairing. The plot and dialogue is pure Chandler (of who I happen to be a big fan), and the acting is so well done. Brick is simply a great exercise in characterization and style, and I can't wait to see what Johnson does next.

  5. Borat
    Funniest movie of last year. I don't care about the lawsuits, or how it destroyed Kid Rock & Pamela Anderson's marriage, or any of that jive--this movie had me laughing so hard in theaters that I literally was in pain. My head hurt and my sides hurt from all of the laughter, while my eyes hurt from looking at Ken Davitian's taint. It's not the great American satire or looking glass that it could've been, but it provided plenty of "Holy Shiite!" moments, that even such things are forgiven. High Five!

    And here's the remaining ten in my top 15:
  6. A Scanner Darkly
  7. The Descent
  8. Pan's Labyrinth
  9. Stranger Than Fiction
  10. Talladega Nights: The Ricky Bobby Story
  11. Slither
  12. Little Miss Sunshine
  13. Lady Vengeance*
  14. Volver
  15. Idiocracy
Thoughts? Agree? Disagree? Let me hear it!

*Yes, I know Sympathy for Lady Vengeance originally came out in 2005, but it didn't make it to our shores until 2006. So deal with it.

2 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

It seems The Proposition & Letters from Iwo Jima appear to have accidentally been left off the list. I will consider this an editorial eror, and if not I would have to say Idiocracy had potential in the script stage but did not at all work out in the end and a brutal australian western and a humanizing tale of World War II from the Japanese side are much more deserving films. Plus Strangers with Candy had more laughs than idiocracy.

3:39 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

HHAAAAAATED IT!

9:54 PM  

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