Best Films of 2006 Written by Frank J. Avella Opposite Photo Dreamgirls

It’s that time! Prognosticators are out and about in full force, blogging away about their favorite films of 2006. Most are complaining that it was a bad year in cinema (they say the same thing every year, they probably said it in 1939). Many critics groups (so many more than ever it seems) have already bestowed their own awards (oh so many for Helen Mirren and Forest Whitaker.) Mid January, the Hollywood Foreign Press will announce the Golden Globe winners. This is followed by SAG and the many other Guilds, all leading to the magical night on February 25, 2007, when AMPAS will give the real party of the year and new Oscar royalty will be crowned.

Of course, the Academy often goofs big time. Last year, the worst film of the five nominated, Crash, won Best Picture (nominees: Brokeback Mountain, Capote, Good Night and Good Luck, Munich were ALL more deserving). Many, including this reporter, felt homophobia was a part of the Brokeback backlash. Others blamed Oprah!

This year there’s more controversy. Martin Scorsese is finally poised to win his first Best Director award ever for the The Departed. Of course the same thing was said in 2004 when he lost to Clint Eastwood for Million Dollar Baby and in 2002 when he lost to Roman Polanski for The Pianist. And Clint will be in the running again for his masterpiece, Letters from Iwo Jima. So anything can happen.

If things go as predicted, Meryl Streep will break her own record and garner a 14th acting nomination for The Devil Wears Prada. Chomping at her accomplishment is Jack Nicholson, who may receive his 13th acting nod for The Departed. He has won three, Meryl two. And septuagenarian Peter O’Toole will probably walk away with his 8th career nomination for his magical performance in Venus. If he wins, it will be his first ever (not counting the Honorary Award he was given two years ago).

This year critics seemed desperate to honor the memory of 9/11. Why else would they be falling over themselves to award a mediocre action/adventure thriller like United 93? The New York Critics, who chose it as their best picture, should be ashamed! They did have sense enough to give Scorsese the Best Director Award.

The New York Times perfectly represents the problem in Gotham. One of their chief film critics is a terrible writer with little film knowledge and esoteric tastes (Manohla Dargis). Thank God for the other, A.O. Scott, one of the few remaining critics who actually knows and cares a damn about film.

Getting past studio garbage like All the Kings Men, The Black Dahlia and Poseidon and a few indie clunkers, one finds that 2006 was, indeed, a fine year in film. Some of the hilights included:

Maggie Gyllenhaal’s searing performance in Sherrybaby; the audacity of John Cameron Mitchell’s Shortbus; twins Harry & Luke Treadaway in the shocu-mocu-mentary, Brothers of the Head; the ensemble power of Bobby and The History Boys; Darren Aronofsky’s visually stunning and ambitious The Fountain; the disturbing Road to Guantanamo, delicious Devil Wears Prada, delightful Little Miss Sunshine and demented Borat; Aaron Eckhart in the hilarious Thank You for Smoking; Daniel ‘sexiest Bond ever’ Craig in the exciting Casino Royale and the gritty, uncompromising Half-Nelson.

Many kudos to Steven Soderbergh for continuing to push cinematic boundaries with the incisive Bubble and underrated The Good German.

Some of the better films I saw this year have yet to find distribution in the U.S. They include two Tribeca entries: the Italian masterwork Romanzo Criminale (Crime Novel) and Britain’s Colour Me Kubrick which features an award worthy performance by John Malkovich. I’d also like to mention a New Directors entry titled Texas as well as an Open Roads presentation of Kim Rossi Stuart’s Anche Libero Va Bene (Along the Ridge), both Italian, both fantastic. Both shown thanks to the Film Society of Lincoln Center.

The best film I saw in a movie house this year is 25 years old--Warren Beatty’s brilliant Reds--but that doesn’t mean this year’s favorites aren’t worthy. As a matter of fact, the following runners-up could have easily made a top ten list, any other year. They are (alphabetically):

Dreamgirls (the return of the splashy and dynamic musical)
L’Enfant (incredible filmmaking)
Infamous (the better Truman Capote movie)
Marie Antoinette (sumptuous and spectacular)
Pan’s Labyrinth (startling and original)
Tristram Shandy: A Cock and Bull’ Story (genius work)
World Trade Center (the better 9/11 movie by a mile!)

as well as three extraordinary and potent documentaries:
49 Up
Deliver Us From Evil
Shut Up and Sing!

Deliver Us is a powerful and frightening look at the Catholic sex abuse scandal and how the current Archbishop of Los Angeles covered up crimes against children for his own personal political gain. 49 Up represents Michael Apted's astonishing five-decade study of a group of British people that began when they were seven. And Shut Up and Sing! is quite an important warning about how quickly our free speech can be taken away if we’re not careful. Any of these films are worthy to be among the best.

Now, the Best of the Best:

10. Manderlay -- Maverick Lars Von Trier continues his lacerating “attack” on America with this sequel-of-sorts to the groundbreaking, Dogville and it’s quite effective, even without Nicole Kidman.

9. A Prairie Home Companion --The master, Robert Altman, managed to create his own personal swan song that dealt, ironically, with death. Directing a pitch perfect ensemble that included perennial Altman-ite Lily Tomlin and marvelous Meryl Streep, he had us looking up at the celluloid screen with sheer wonder and joy. His death creates a creative void that will never be filled.

8. Volver -- One of the handful of filmmakers working today who rarely disappoints and continues to explore his deep love for women, Pedro Almodovar hits another creative peak here. Finally reunited with the terrific Carmen Maura, Almodovar also gives Penelope Cruz the role of her life!

Volver

7. Babel -- Long, depressing-as-hell, yet staggering in its scope and power and featuring a kick-ass ensemble, Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu creates a work that forces viewers to examine their prejudices in a real and transcendent way.

Babel

6. Flags of Our Fathers -- A complex, atypical and angering study of the politics involved in war. Auteur Clint Eastwood recreates the bloody battle of Iwo Jima and then follows the Flag boys home to a government that is only interested in how they can use the boys to keep Americans interested in the war. It’s a painful and unsettling account and only Clint could make it work so well...and get away with it!

5. The Queen -- Helen Mirren gives one of the year’s outstanding performances in Stephen Frears’ edgy and fascinating chronicle of the death of Princess Diana and the Royal reaction to it. The film is rich in nuance and Michael Sheen is a riveting Tony Blair. Long live Dame Helen!

The Queen

4. Notes on a Scandal -- The acting coup of the year in the most delectably nasty thriller of 2006, Another Dame, Judi Dench, proves that even in her seventies, she has what it takes to act the blood out of a part. As the spinster-schoolteacher with a dangerous crush, she is nothing short of astounding.  And Cate Blanchett’s performance is so risky and raw that it scared me to watch her. She cuts to the core of Sheba. It’s the best acting I have seen in any film this year (and that is saying a lot!!!) Deftly directed by Richard Eyre from a smart and tight script by Patrick Marber, Notes is electrifying cinema!

3. The Departed -- The return of the Scorsese of Christmas past is great cause for celebration as he has fashioned the most explosive and  exciting thrill ride of the year with the best ensemble cast of the year. They include: Leonardo DiCaprio in his best role to date; Matt Damon, who continues to nicely surprise; scene-stealer Mark Wahlberg and the dastardly Jack Nicholson who is nothing short of sensational! Gritty, grisly and especially bloody in the final reel, The Departed is also wickedly witty with moments of intense and dizzying suspense.

The Departed

2. Little Children --  The always mesmerizing Kate Winslet delivers another flawless turn in this exploration of a group of damaged suburbanites. Astutely directed by Todd Field, Little Children is a deeply disturbing yet richly rewarding motion picture.

Little Children

1. Letters from Iwo Jima -- Eastwood’s triumphant tour de force tells
a simple story (completely from the Japanese perspective) in a new and exciting way.  As he did in Flags, Clint takes a known genre and then implodes it. And his decision to daringly explore the Japanese mindset is to be commended. Letters from Iwo Jima is a brutal, devastating and profound cinematic gem and placed with Flags, one of the most astonishing filmic experiences in the history of the medium.

Letters from Iwo Jima

Best Director:
Clint Eastwood for Letters from Iwo Jima & Flags of Our Fathers

Runners-up:
Martin Scorsese for The Departed
Todd Field for Little Children
Stephen Frears for The Queen
Robert Altman for A Prairie Home Companion

Best Actor:
Leonardo DiCaprio for The Departed

Runners-up:
Peter O’Toole in Venus
Forest Whitaker in The Last King of Scotland
Sacha Baron Cohen in Borat
Ryan Gosling in Half Nelson

Best Actress:
Kate Winslet in Little Children

Runners-up:
Helen Mirren in The Queen
Judi Dench in Notes on a Scandal
Meryl Streep in The Devil Wears Prada
Penelope Cruz in Volver

Best Supporting Actor:
Jack Nicholson in The Departed

Runners-up:
Mark Wahlberg in The Departed
Jackie Earle Haley in Little Children
Michael Sheen in The Queen
Brad Pitt in Babel

Best Supporting Actress:
Cate Blanchett in Notes on a Scandal

Runners-up:
Jennifer Hudson in Dreamgirls
Frances de la Tour in The History Boys
Adriana Barraza in Babel
Emily Blunt in The Devil Wears Prada