Best 2006 films

[Daniel Julius]

Filmic Faves, in completely random order:

* The Proposition (apparently from 2005, but I saw it in '06, and it was
absolutely great, so here you go...) - brutal, awesome re-interpretation of
the western in Australia.
* Cars - a tear-jerker, folks, and Larry the Cable Guy not making you want
to vom?  That alone is an achievement, but the rest of the movie rips as
well.
* Volver - a story of a community of strong funny women, with great
plotting, great acting, great visuals, great Hitchcock nods, my favorite
Almodovar.  Yep.
* Stranger than Fiction - also kinda skipped over critically, imo.  But I
saw it twice, liked it even better the second time 'round.  Metafictional
Will Ferrell: what more could you want?  And affirming the transformative
power of art is not an unimportant thesis for a film, right?
* Apocalypto - What's wrong with being "a jungle thriller," Ya?  Two-hour
chase scene, cool violence, nice imagery...let the heads roll.  My
own eschatological leanings, perhaps...
* The Prestige - Discussed here previously, but certainly not without good
reason.  Magic and science, revenge, the 19th century (my personal favorite)
= a true Pynchon-lover's popcorn movie.
* anything by Sergio Leone on DVD

That's tentative, y'all; I haven't seen Old Joy yet.  But that movie's an
exception to a rule I'm thinking of lately, namely, fuck independent
American movies (in general).  "INDIE?"  BARF.  The Architect?  Half
Nelson?  Infamous?  The Painted Veil?  Ahahahahahaha, what a joke.  If any
of you out there in the peanut gallery bring to my attention that one of
these four is released by like Sony or something and is therefore not wholly
"independent," I'll appreciate yr attention to detail, but counter that
"indie" now refers to a type of aesthetic/editorial flow/QUIRKINESS (uggh)
of characterization in a given film, and not merely its source of funding,
which may have been the case in the past.  I'll also suggest that my ability
to typecast these and other lamentable qualities of American Indie
Filmmaking may help account for the utter forgetability, boringness, lack of
imagination, and general worthlessness of many mediocre critical darlings of
the American Indie film market.

Ditto everything above, but switch out film terms for musical ones to
describe all of "indie" rock today, too.  Zach Braff figures into this whole
diseased schema at several key points, as well.

--
Dan
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