OSCAR SEASON - Best Movies of 2006

And finally, the best films of 2006.

I'll start with my honorable mentions. These films were all tops in their various genres, or just good movies. They may not have been quite top 10-worthy, but that doesn't mean there not nearly as good.

Best Films Honorable Mention (in no particular order)

CASINO ROYALE - The best cineplex action movie of the year. James Bond updated for the 21st century. Whether he needed updating or not, it was still a fun romp.

HALF NELSON - A great performance by Ryan Gosling drives this indy film about a drug-addicted history teacher and his students in the bad part of town.

AN INCONVENIENT TRUTH - It's surprising that a power point presentation by Al Gore on global warming worked so well as a movie. Easily the most important film of 2006.

BORAT ... - The funniest (and crudest) film of 2006, Sacha Baron Cohen has some scenes so funny it's hard not to fall out of your seat. A Kazakhstani reporter searches America for lessons on its culture, and for Pam Anderson.

LITTLE CHILDREN - A good crop of films kept this out of my top 10. Perhaps I should go up to 11. It's a funny documentary on the animal known as suburbanites.

THE PURSUIT OF HAPPYNESS - Probably the most accessible and uplifting of the good films this year. A great lead performance by Will Smith as a down on his luck salesman struggling to provide for his young son.

LITTLE MISS SUNSHINE - Those who love cutsie movies will love this. It was so sweet I may have gotten a little sick to my stomach. The story of a disfunctional family and the little girl who brings them all together.

FLAGS OF OUR FATHERS - A very good look at the battle of Iwo Jima and the power of marketing and symbols in the American culture.

NOTES ON A SCANDAL - (I thought) a ridiculous story, but with amazingly good characters and fantastic performances by Judy Dench and Cate Blanchett. A young teacher has a sexual relationship with a student, and then of course a creepy old lesbian tries to use that to her advantage. Yes, it's sounds dumb, but it's not as bad as it sounds.

TRISTRAM SHANDY: A COCK AND BULL STORY - A literate, intelligent and wickedly funny telling of actors making a movie about a supposedly unfilmable book. Twisted and smart.

THE DEVIL WEARS PRADA - Light stuff, but a fun and funny story about a young girl living her big dreams in the fasion industry. Great performances by Stanley Tucci and Meryl Streep and Emily Blount.

THE LAST KING OF SCOTLAND - An interesting look at the ebulient, and barbaric, former dictator of Uganda, Idi Amin. Great performance by Forrest Whitaker as Amin.

BLOOD DIAMOND - A horrible love story got tacked onto a powerful tale about the barbaric conditions in Africa. Very good performances by Leonardo DiCaprio as a South African smuggler and Djimon Hounsou as a father searching for his kidnapped son.

MARIE ANTOINETTE - Although incredibly slow, there was much that I found unique and wonderful in Sofia Coppola's follow-up to LOST IN TRANSLATION. It's just a story about a little girl who's rich.


Top 10 Films of 2006

10) DREAMGIRLS - First off, this musical worked very well as a story, and that's hard to do when characters periodically break out into song. Bill Condon deserves the credit for his direction. DREAMGIRLS is more or less based on the life of Diana Ross and the creation of Motown records. Great performances by Eddie Murphy and Jennifer Hudson.

9) THE PROPOSITION - A glorious bit of art. This cold and barbarically violent western set in the Australian outback manages to show some form of beauty in our violent natures. It's a cruel film, perhaps a little slow for the cineplex crowd, but a great work.

8) CHILDREN OF MEN - Alfonso Cuaron does a great bit of directing on this science fiction tale about the end of the world. People have suddenly lost the ability to reproduce and are slowly dying off, until a young immigrant shows the world a baby.

7) LETTERS FROM IWO JIMA - A wise and mature look at the Japanese culture during the battle of Iwo Jima. This is Clint Eastwood's matching bookend to FLAGS OF OUR FATHERS.

6) THE QUEEN - The story seems like a made-for-TV movie, but it's raised far above that level by some great direction, and acting, and writing, and well, everything else. This is the story of Queen Elizabeth II and Tony Blair after the death of Princess Diana, and it's wonderful.

5) BABEL - At times this picture feels intensely "real" and gritty. At others I found the script absurd, but it's nonetheless a success overall. BABEL tells 3 intertwined tales of miscommunication between our cultures and between ourselves.

4) VOLVER - I loved this screenplay and film from Pedro Almodovar. It's the story of women struggling with the same problems again and again down through the generations. A great performance by Penelope Cruz.

3) A PRAIRIE HOME COMPANION - My pick for the most underrated film of 2006. This wonderful elegy for the simple pleasures that pass away, is also an elegy for our own simple lives that pass away.

2) PAN'S LABYRINTH - A film that while flawed, still reached to new heights of filmmaking. This is a story of a little girl during the Spanish Civil War, and how the power of imagination can be the only thing allowing us to survive.

1) THE DEPARTED - It's not Scorsese's best picture by any measure, but it's the best this year. There were a lot of very good pictures, but no masterworks in 2006. The Departed is a Hollywood crime story amped up as high as it can go. The direction and acting was masterful.