Better late than never. Here's the list of my top films of the year. Only six were strong enough to be included this year, although I missed or haven't had the opportunity to see many films that I have a feeling would make this list.
1. When the Levees Broke - Spike Lee's moving and elegiac documentary of the man-made disaster during and following Hurricane Katrina is the most comprehensive narrative of that event to date. Watching the premiere in the New Orleans Arena with 10,000 other New Orleanians was one of the most important events of the year for me and provided tremendous personal closure.
2. Marie Antoinette - This seemed to be the love it or hate it film of the year and I totally and completely loved it. The cinematography, the costumes, the art direction, and the soundtrack combined to produce a candy coated historical reconfiguration that I found irresistible.
3. The Departed - Scorsese's best work since Goodfellas. I loved the complexity of the characters and the direction as always was outstanding. If Scorsese doesn't win Best Director this year the entire Academy should be shot.
4. An Inconvenient Truth - Al Gore's return to the political stage was not only an important lesson in the grim future of climate change but it was also a very well executed little documentary.
5. Little Miss Sunshine - My sentimental pick featured an amazing family who were the cutest and most quirky ensemble of the year. I especially loved the grandpa. How can you deny the power of a heroin snorting retirement community lothario who teaches his granddaughther a stripper routine set to the tune of Rick James' "Superfreak"?
6. V for Vendetta - The slick direction and great acting overcomes the sometimes ham fisted anti-fascist narrative in this film version of Alan Moore's classic (and my favorite) graphic novel.
Films that will probably make this list that I missed or otherwise haven't seen yet:
Volver, A Scanner Darkly, Children of Men, Pan's Labyrinth
1. cache'
2. Jack Ass #2
3. the departed
4. Marie Antoinette
5. Klaus Effect - or otherwise a stupid year in movies
Posted by: stephen g rhodes | January 24, 2007 at 01:04 PM