Top 13 Movies of 2006

You read that right: I’m back again one year later to recap my list of last year’s best movies. But first, the ten runners-up, in alphabetical order:

Bubble, Cars, Casino Royal, Flags of Our Fathers, The Good German, The Good Shepherd, Marie Antoinette, A Scanner Darkly, The Science of Sleep, Wordplay

13. Notes on a Scandal
Cate Blanchett is a goddess and rivals Kate Winslet as my favorite actress today. The fact that she holds her own with a scowling, scornful Judi Dench is high praise, but making you feel sorry for the deeply flawed Sheba is an even greater achievement.

12. The Prestige
Oila! This movie is one giant trick pulled on us, the audience. Christian Bale & Hugh Jackman duel with magic a dangerous game of oneupsmanship. The big reveal doesn’t cheapen the rest of the movie (like so many others these days), but leaves you aghast at how you never saw it coming.

11. Jesus Camp
Easily the scariest movie I have seen in years, this documentary absolutely blew my mind. Sure, I knew people and places like this existed, but I didn’t realize how pervasive they were, how vitriolic the “leaders” are, and how blind we all are to the near brain-washing kids are receiving. It was an amazing, sad, frustrating, thought-provoking film.

10. Stranger than Fiction
Quirky, meta, and outright absurd, it’s very difficult to believe this wasn’t a Charlie Kaufman screenplay. The thing wraps around itself like a Moebius strip that doesn’t make any sense when you stop and think about it… but who cares? A wry Dustin Hoffman, an under-played Will Ferrell, and a bit role for my favorite Arrested alum Tony Hale left me pleased.

9. Little Miss Sunshine
I wasn’t quite as enamored with this as so many other people were, which is odd considering my track record and my love for the directors (video vanguards Dayton & Ferris) and actors (Alan Arkin, Greg Kinnear). I really enjoyed the movie, but never believed it could stand the test of time like the rest of my list.

8. Borat
The funniest movie of the year was also, at times, the most frightening. When Borat goes to the rodeo and gets people to sing along with him, I cringe. When he goes to church and gets saved, I squirm in my seat. Sometimes there’s nothing funnier than the truth.

7. Blood Diamond
There are lots of great movies about Africa these days (see 2005’s The Constant Gardener), and this is one of them. Djimon Honsou gives his best performance since Amistad and absolutely steals the show from the equally strong Leo DiCaprio, who, as much as I want to dislike him, is indeed a great actor.

6. Pan’s Labyrinth
This is one twisted fantasy fable, but you have to admire Guillermo del Toro’s unique vision, even if the story comes off as a little distant and harsh at times.

5. The Departed
I didn’t expect to like this, not being a huge Scorcese fan, but it was just too zippy, too tricky, too well-acted to resist. Marky Mark and Matt Damon were especially good.

4. Babel
Some critics say this was a little too overwrought, a little too tangential. And while I would say the same thing about Iñarritu’s 21 Grams, this movie grabbed me from the start. The score, the diverse and beautiful locations and acting all melded in this parable about a flat, communication-starved world.

3. Letters from Iwo Jima
I watched both this and Flags nearly back to back, and this was the obvious winner. Eastwood’s direction in both was marvelous, but the tragic story of Ken Watanabe’s Japanese general provided a moral center that was strangely lacking in the other half of Eastwood’s great WWII epic.

2. Little Children
I’ll see anything Kate Winslet does. After this and In the Bedroom, I’ll see anything Todd Field does too. One of the most chilling movies I’ve seen in ages, thanks to a wonderfully sad/creepy performance by Jackie Earl Haley.

1. Children of Men
If only for that bravura sequence when the baby-hungry masses ambush our heroes out on a wooded highway, this would be my number one. Yet this isn’t just about Alfonso Cuaron’s nifty direction. The marvelous Clive Owen anchors this wonderful bit of sociopolitical commentary cleverly disguised as a sci-fi road movie.