The 2006 Paulies (Archive)

*For those who haven't seen them, I am trying to get copies of all the old Paulies and post them here. If you have any pre-2006 Paulies lists, please send them to me.*

Idea for a Film: “Several loosely connected stories organized around a central…no, a universal…theme (maybe, oh, cross-cultural communications breakdowns or racism). The interconnected stories should offer the illusion of depth while building towards a suitably cathartic finish that will reinforce the predominantly wealthy, educated, and politically liberal target audience’s existing feelings of smugness and self satisfaction. A multi-racial cast is a must though most of the primary “life lessons” in the film should be learned by white characters with recognizable names as this will allow the audience to relate to the film and, incidentally, help during awards season. Accept major awards. Repeat.”

Ladies and gentlemen, after a brief hiatus, the Paulies have returned (lets just pretend last year never happened) and honestly I don’t think I could have picked a better year…since 2006 was a pretty crappy year for movies and people seem to like to read bad reviews more than good ones. The “blockbuster” output was predictably deplorable with lackluster sequels and computer generated talking animals dominating the box office (that movie starring 5,000 dancing animated penguins voiced by celebrities might be the 387th sign of the apocalypse…shockingly Nicole Kidman was prominently involved). However, the more disturbing trend was the increasingly prosaic output of the supposedly indie arms of the studios. Every year it seems like the end of the year prestige pieces and films purchased from festivals get less edgy and more predictable. However, as always, some good films slipped past the quality control executives at Fox and Paramount and actually hit the dwindling cineplexes for a few weeks or found their way into a few Netflix envelopes.



It was an especially good year for Mexican directors as Alfonso Cuaron and Guillermo del Toro’s films landed at the top of my list and Inarritu’s worst film to date (Babel) garnered critical praise and several awards. It was also a good year for the old guard as David Lynch, Martin Scorsese, and the late Robert Altman all turned in films that perfectly exemplified the individual styles they have honed over the past several decades.
So as not to make this list longer take longer to read than the Academy Awards took to watch, I only commented on a select few entries in categories other than “Best Film.” And, of course, my usual disclaimer applies: I am not a professional critic. For better or worse, I get paid to negotiate cable contracts not watch movies so I missed a few this year. Some significant films that I didn’t manage to see include: Letters from Iwo Jima, Three Times, Shortbus, L’Enfant, A Guide to Recognizing Your Saints, Apocalypto, Old Joy, Iraq in Fragments and Army of Shadows. Now, on to the picks…

Top-10 Films of 2006

1. Children of Men: Everything about Children of Men is deceptively simple, from the premise (a bleak near future where humans have mysteriously lost the ability to reproduce) to the hook (look, a mysterious pregnant woman that needs to be saved for humanity to have a chance) to the action (a familiar run through danger towards salvation). But Alfonso Cuaron sucks you in from the first shocking scene and just keeps hitting you with the soul crushing drudgery and sudden violence of his nightmarishly familiar world. His directorial skill and the work of his brilliant cast turn what could have been a run of the mill sci-fi thriller into a taut, heart rending journey through a doomed world towards a fleeting and uncertain dream of salvation. I can’t remember a film in recent years that so vividly depicts the remarkable impact that even a glimmer of hope can have for people who are completely without it. That alone is worth more than all of the contrived stories and superficial connections in Babel.

2. Pan’s Labyrinth: Like all classic fairy tales, Guillermo del Toro’s imaginative masterpiece is fantastic, frightening, and, suffused with a deep sense of melancholy. The main character, played by the Ivana Baquero, is a young girl caught in the middle of the Spanish Civil War who sees fairies and fauns around every turn and thinks herself to be a princess on a noble quest to return to her kingdom and family. Depending on your perspective, she either creates a fantastic world to explain and cope with the atrocities she witnesses or she is simply able to perceive a reality beyond the cruelty of her day-to-day existence. Del Toro’s imaginative visual landscapes are very impressive and manage to weave the “real” world and the world of his character’s story together seamlessly. It is a spellbinding journey that should leave adults filled with wonder and awe…but don’t bring the kids.

3. Inland Empire: I think David Lynch has been trying to make this film for over 30-years. Finally free of the constraints of studio funding, distribution deals, and cumbersome film-based technology that had constrained him for so long, Lynch let his over-active subconscious spew forth in this 3.5 hour digital montage. The narrative spirals and branches into interlocking and thematically repetitive stories spanning dream, reality, film, fact, fiction and the points in between where these media blur and become indistinguishable. Lynch fans will certainly notice that a number of themes and images are carried over from previous films but, by and large, Lynch creates a unique visual iconography for Inland Empire which is revealed in stages throughout the film. It is one of those rare avant0garde films that teaches you how to watch it as the reels are turning and will undoubtedly yield new insights on each subsequent viewing. It’s a challenge but well worth the extra effort.

4. United 93: I waited a long time before watching this movie. Like a lot of people who were in New York or DC on September 11th, I thought it was probably too soon to be dramatizing the all too real events of that fateful day. Paul Greengrass was up to the challenge and used an almost documentary style and a real time framework to give viewers a larger perspective on the confusion and fear felt by everyone involved in the events that we all watched play out on CNN. I won’t say that the movie was easy to watch…it wasn’t. I will say that it was tense, informative, and, above all, very respectful to the victims and their families.

5. A Prairie Home Companion: It is impossible not to consider A Prairie Home Companion, which chronicles the fictitious last day of the long running radio program of the same name, in the context of director Robert Altman’s own life which ended (from complications associated with leukemia) soon after the film was released. Altman’s elegiac swan song is a touching meditation on mortality and transience as well as celebration of the relationships, memories, and works that linger on for a while after we move on. This pitch perfect ensemble piece is quintessential Altman on par with any of his earlier, more celebrated films and aptly closes the curtain on the life and work of one of the greatest directors the world has ever known.

6. A Scanner Darkly: This is the second time this decade that Richard Linklater has made by far the best animated film of the year but failed to sniff an Oscar nomination (See also Waking Life). I guess he needs to add a wisecracking motorcycle or a herd of caribou singing showtunes to get some recognition. Regardless, the rotoscoped animation perfectly captured the ominous feel of Philip Dick’s frighteningly recognizable police state as well as the degenerating mental states of the drug addled characters in the film. As for the actors, it was amazing how the cast managed to play against their natural tendencies. I mean, who knew that Robert Downey Jr., Winona Ryder, and Woody Harrelson would be believable as drug addicts or that Keanu Reeves could play a clueless stoner.

7. The Fountain: What would you do if you wrote a book, turned it into a script, got the green light to direct it and then lost your stars (Brad Pitt and Cate Blanchett), your funding (originally $70M), and your crew? Pack it in? Become Michael Bay’s assistant director for Pearl Harbor 2? Darren Aronofsky just kept pushing ahead and eventually got his movie made with different actors on half the budget (three years later). His persistence paid off in spades as the lower budget forced him to forego large scale computer animation and use more innovative camera techniques to bring his unique time spanning vision to life. The result was the most visually stunning film of the year.

8. The Departed: Is Martin Scorsese the most American of directors? His best films tell the most classic of American stories: a working class immigrant pulls himself up by his bootstraps and achieves fame and fortune thanks to the opportunities presented by the American way of life. However, Scorsese’s hero would probably club Horatio Alger with a crowbar before eventually getting his throat slit while doing a line of blow. Everything Scorsese does is over the top. He lets his actors chew the scenery, makes liberal use of violence and bloodshed, and leaves subtlety and subtext somewhere along the wayside as he charges towards his goal (Nicholson’s dildo scene? The rat walking across the balcony to close the film?). Yet when he’s on his game, it all adds up to one monumentally gory, gratuitous, American tale. And this time it added up to a long overdue Oscar.

9. The Last King of Scotland: Of the roughly 12,000 movies that the Hollywood spewed out about Africa last year, this was easily the most powerful. Forrest Whitaker’s nuanced and frightening portrayal of Idi Amin was rightly hailed as the finest performance of the year but the film is much more than a character study of the megalomaniacal dictator. Using the tumultuous history of Uganda as his canvas, Director Kevin MacDonald paints a vivid picture of the seductive appeal and ghastly consequences of unfettered power. The ease with which Dr. Garrigan embraces his role as Amin’s advisor and turns a blind eye to the atrocities committed by his employer – until Amin’s sadistic gaze falls on him that is – should give every one of us pause.

10. Factotum: The pursuit of the American Dream depicted in Factotum undoubtedly hits closer to home for most people than Scorsese’s romanticized cops and robbers. Henry Chinaski is an aspiring writer who wanders from dead end job to dead end job, day to day, and bottle to bottle but never really gets anywhere. Somehow, through the haze of booze and cigarette smoke he manages to stay focused on the one thing that he genuinely cares about, his writing. Matt Dillon’s stellar performance and the carefully measured pace of the film easily lull the viewer into the same daze that Chinaski lives in. It’s a feeling that persists long after the film ends (or maybe it was just the six pack I drank while I watched it).

Honorable Mention: The Proposition, The Death of Mr. Lazarescu, Thank You for Smoking, Half Nelson, The Prestige, Blood Diamond

Best Director

1. David Lynch, Inland Empire
2. Alfonso Cuaron, Children of Men
3. Guillermo del Toro, Pan’s Labyrinth
4. Darren Aronofsky, The Fountain
5. Paul Greengrass, United 93

Best Actor

1. Forrest Whitaker, The Last King of Scotland
2. Aaron Eckhart, Thank You For Smoking: Eckhart’s career making turn as a slick amoral tobacco lobbyist was criminally overlooked at year’s end.
3. Matt Dillon, Factotum
4. Clive Owen, Children of Men
5. Ryan Gosling, Half Nelson

Best Actress

1. Laura Dern, Inland Empire: Dern is in almost every scene of Lynch’s phantasmagoric visual collage. She throws herself entirely into the role(s) she is given and gives the distinct impression that she at least has the key to Lynch’s visual code, even if the audience doesn’t.
2. Judi Dench, Notes on a Scandal
3. Ivana Baquero, Pan’s Labyrinth” Baquero, not Breslin, should have been the young actress with all the closeups at the Academy Awards.
4. Helen Mirren, The Queen
5. Penelope Cruz, Volver

Best Supporting Actress

1. Maribel Verdu, Pan’s Labyrinth
2. Shareeka Epps, Half Nelson
3. Charlotte Gainsbourg, The Science of Sleep
4. Meryl Streep, A Prairie Home Companion
5. Catherine O’Hara, For Your Consideration

Best Supporting Actor

1. Michael Caine, Children of Men: Let’s just give him a standing best supporting actor nomination every year and leave it at that. He could easily have been recognized for his work in The Prestige as well.
2. Djimon Hounsou, Blood Diamond
3. Robert Downey Jr., A Scanner Darkly
4. Sergi Lopez, Pan’s Labyrinth
5. Paul Giamatti, The Prestige

Best Screenplay

1. A Prairie Home Companion
2. Pan’s Labyrinth
3. Thank You For Smoking
4. A Scanner Darkly
5. Children of Men

Most Overrated Film

1. Babel: In Inarritu’s next movie a space cruiser crashes into a distant planet killing thousands. Several interlocking stories explore the tragic consequences of the accident and we all learn a lesson about cruelty or tolerance or something.

2. Little Children: Nothing about this movie was very good but the narrator took it from mediocre to awful. There’s really no point in paying actors if, every time someone starts to look melancholy, slow music plays and a voice intones something like “Sue was filled with an inescapable sadness as she thought of her dead puppy.” It was like watching a movie next to a bind man while his visual interpreter explained everything that happened on screen.

3. The Queen: But for Helen Mirren’s performance, this would have been a Lifetime Movie of the Week.

4. Little Miss Sunshine: This is the one I’m going to take some heat for. First off, I laughed ok. It was a pretty funny movie…not Borat funny or Talladega Nights funny… but funny nonetheless. But lets all stop pretending it was a cinematic masterpiece. The characters all had the depth of a two line pitch to a studio exec (“How about we make the kid a Nietzsche fanatic who won’t speak, the dad an unmotivational motivational speaker, and the grandpa a lewd heroin addict with a heart of gold…wouldn’t that be edgy?!”). I laughed at some of their jokes when they were trying to be funny but I didn’t care about them when they were trying to be serious because they struck me as caricatures rather than characters. But at least they were genuine enough to find a tubby little kid to play the girl who was supposed to teach us all the joys of being ourselves rather than conforming to stereotypes instead of just putting a skinny child actress in a fat suit…oh wait…

Dogville Memorial Worst Film of the Year Award (Formerly the “I would rather beat myself in the head repeatedly with a brick than watch this film again” Award)

Winner: The Black Dahlia: I had such high hopes for this movie. I loved the book and I used to respect Brian DePalma (It’s been 24 years since Scarface but I still keep hoping he’s got a return to form in him) but this movie was garbage. The story, which was changed radically from the book, barely made sense, the acting was beyond terrible, and I think Josh Hartnett has fewer facial expressions at his command than Luke Wilson. The Director’s Guild of America should handle atrocities like this the way baseball handles steroids. A two-year suspension for the first offense, three years for the second, and a lifetime working for Jerry Bruckheimer for the third.


Runner Up: Marie Antoinette

Nicole Kidman Award for Putrescence in Acting

Josh Hartnett, The Black Dahlia: Congratulations Josh, due to Ethan Hawke’s recent bout of competence, you and Sean Penn are neck and neck for the title of worst actor in Hollywood. Hartnett is so bad that he actually saps the talent from any other actor that he shares the screen with. It’s the only way I can explain how Scarlett Johannson and two time Academy Award Winner Hilary Swank managed to come off like the unholy offspring of Tara Reid and Courtney Love whenever they got close to him. I swear, if you listen closely, you can hear Swank’s unidentifiable accent getting worse the closer she gets to him.

Baz Luhrman Award for Atrocious Directing (and this year, I would rather watch Moulin Rouge on a loop for 24 hours rather than see the work product turned out by the “winner” of this award again)

Sofia Coppola, Marie Antoinette: It took a special kind of director to knock off DePalma this year but the underwhelming Sofia Coppola was more than up to the task. Coming off of the success of Lost in Translation, she had carte blanche to do whatever she wanted. Instead of making a real movie, she chose to dress Kirsten Dunst up in a bunch of pretty dresses and have her prance around Versailles to 80’s music. I tried to discern a plot somewhere amidst all of the elaborate shots of cakes, shoes, and dresses and the grating musical montages but I eventually gave up and turned the damned thing off. Not even the prospect of Dunst’s imminent beheading (which I later learned wasn’t even shown) was enough to keep me watching. No wonder the peasants revolted.

Well, I hope you enjoyed the 2006 Paulies. Remember, there are always good movies out there, sometimes you just have to look a little harder to find them. If you want to chat about any of what I wrote or just tell me I’m full of crap, drop me a line at displaceddodger@gmail.com.

Oh, and as a partial make up for not putting out the Paulies last year, here’s the Top-10 list for 2005 that I was going to put out last February. Consider it additional fuel for your Netflix queue.

Best Films of 2005

Mysterious Skin
Me and You and Everyone We Know
2046
The Squid and the Whale
Oldboy
The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada
Match Point
A History of Violence
Cache
King Kong