Despite the glut of quality pictures that arrive from November to December promising to redeem each year’s cinematic buffet, it sometimes doesn’t work to save all the best dishes for last --the disappointment in the ten months of waiting can settle in hard and kill the appetite for moviegoing. I admit that I was a grouchier moviegoer this year as a result --I felt something lacking. It could be me. It could be the movies. I can’t tell the difference anymore now that I live and breathe cinema. But one thing I have come to understand about my own general response to movies is this: I love them more after I've spent some time with them. In this way I am, I suppose, the polar opposite of most Oscar voters and film critics who tend to vote for things they've just barely seen as their favorites.

So at this juncture, though I don’t consider any of the films gracing this top ten list an equal to last year’s Brokeback Mountain, A History of Violence or Caché (Hidden), that could change and I do emphatically hope that the love for 2006 grows. Time has a way of changing affection. Sometimes a movie gets better the further you get from it (Caché is a good example. It doesn’t fade even after you’ve spent a whole year with its mysteries) and sometimes love slips away and you wish you’d have pledged yourself to another instead. So the best one can do each year, contemplating ones favorite film experiences, is to tell it as you currently see it.

All things being nearly equal in a 'close but no cigar' type of year, I’ve erred on the side of affection in my final rankings --the list is a bit cuddlier than usual as a result, filled with regular favorites. I’ll be devouring an extra tub of popcorn with these ten.

 

For the completists: a list of the 97 films I did see in roughly ranked order (always subject to change --affection is fluid). As for the top ten runners up: I was very taken with Monster House, a smart adventure flick from first time feature director Gil Kenan. The true surprise of Monster House is how fresh it feels despite springing from the most well worn of horror stories: the haunted house. What a relief to see an animated picture that wasn't filled with anthropomorphic CG animals. It's also free of the winking pop culture references that are dragging cartoons down. Twenty years from now kids won't get half the jokes in Shrek. This movie will still rock. Little Children was also considered for the top ten but my feelings for it have varied wildly since I first saw it, running the gamut from love to frustration, landing somewhere inbetween. Though some find its underlined title thematics offputting, I'm not convinced it's not a well timed critique given how infantile our movies and politics (among other things) have become.
#10 Martin Scorsese, hot off the impressive biopic The Aviator, serves up a bracing entertainment that's become his biggest hit ever. Having seen the Hong Kong original Internal Affairs upon which this film is based I knew (mostly) what to expect. Still, it was a hoot to hear the audience reaction: the gasping and hollering kept driving home the sad knowledge that most movies don't take any chances with their plot or characters. Even their twists manage to feel safe. Not this one. How apt is the title The Departed? This picture just slays 'em. (full review)	#9 From the opening title sequence with that unexpected splash of Bollywood scoring, and Clive Owen's monologue happy anti-hero, I knew I was in good hands. Spike Lee's Inside Man was a director-for-hire gig. No matter. He manages to stay true to himself, buttering this popcorn heist flick with intelligent, but never intrusive, mulitcultural concerns. Ingenious plotting, smart direction and fun performances, particularly from a relaxed Denzel Washington, make this the best time I can recall having inside a bank.
#8 As standard measures of quality filmmaking go, The Devil Wears Prada is the least accomplished movie on this list but there's something to be said for less respected measures of success. Can you rewatch the film endlessly? Not many films are this quotable and funny. How often does a major screen icon (Meryl Streep in this case) get to reinvent him-or-herself to thunderous audience approval? What's more: not many films with a light touch are this unexpectedly rich in subject matter. The conflict between career building and personal life maintenance is a pretty universal one but the movies rarely address it as anything other than subplot or as a cheap shorthand way to describe someone (usually a neglectful husband). For all of these reasons but mostly because it's a total blast (a pop culture bullseye) I'm thrilled to give it major props as the best comedy of the year.	#7 Robert Altman (RIP) was such a maverick that he even had to deliver his eulogy by himself. A Prairie Home Companion, a loose fictional riff on the enduring radio program, is all about endings and death but it's more of a wake than a funeral. It's filled with delightful exit music and the laughter comes often and easily. Most movies treat death as either throwaway entertainment (high body counts abound) or an obstacle for protagonists to defeat or miraculously overcome. Rarely is death acknowledged as just a fact of life. Without much ado Prairie stands right beside this dread fact of life (personified here by the angelic Virginia Madsen). The radio stars inhabiting the film will occasionally give her the nervous once over but that’s the most fuss you’ll see. I don’t think I sat through a more relaxing or enjoyable movie this year. It has warmth and humanity to spare. (an appreciation of Meryl Streep as "Yolanda")
#6 Mexico's trio of acclaimed filmmakers (Cuarón, Innaritu, and Del Toro) have been dubbed "the three amigos" by the media and all three had a great year with critics and audiences. But lost in the celebratory hubbub was the best Mexican film of the year, Duck Season, from debut director Fernando Eimbcke. What his debut lacks in ambition and budget (one set. a handful of actors. static camera) it more than makes up for in cumulative effect. This simple story of two best friends who spend a full uneventful day with a neighbor girl and a pizza delivery man sneaks up on you. It's best watched without interruption since the very funny jokes often have long setups. That slow build with big payoff isn't just an apt description of the humor: both times I've seen it I've thought it slight but charming for the bulk of its running time only to be wowed by how craftily it manages its overall arc into emotional maturity. We've seen coming-of-age films a million times, but this one is special. This one you must see.	#5 Alfonso Cuarón's expert adaptation of the dystopian novel Children of Men proves again that he's one of the most skilled filmmakers in the world. He trusts his creative crew to provide ample visual and aural atmosphere, freeing the movie from the shackles of exposition by which speculative fiction and literary adaptations can get trapped. He trusts the audience to keep up as he storms through a narrative that could just as easily have filled an entire miniseries. He doesn't even give his protagonist (a fine Clive Owen) time to find his shoes. If movies were iceskating competitions and received separate scores for each of their components this sci-fi thinkpiece would get perfect 6.0s across the board for its technical craftsmanship. Each new move, be it startling tracking shots, sudden floods of difficult emotion, or award worthy production design leaves you breathless with its degree of difficulty and stunned by the grace of its improbable landings --even in muddy socks or flipflops.
#4 Were I to attempt a description of Darren Aronofsky's The Fountain it would come out something like "A time travelling Buddhist sci-fi medical drama wrapped around an epic love story" but, frankly, that description doesn't do it justice. It's not as difficult to follow its convoluted narrative as one supposes but it's not strictly satisfying on that level either I'd wager. Better to surrender to its white light visual splendor and attempt to let its spiritual wonderment wash over you. You'll be glad you did.	#3 John Cameron Mitchell's hard to classify ensemble picture about lost and lonely New Yorkers is already famous for its explicit sexuality which is all well and good (if you ask me we need more filmmakers who aren't afraid to grapple with the taboo subject) but it also deserves to be celebrated for its anthemic spirit, randy wit, and soul searching sincerity. There's a true shortage of originals in the movies. Mitchell (formerly of Hedwig and the Angry Inch fame) is one of them. ("personal ad" review)
#2 The opening shot of Pedro Almodovar’s latest melodrama is a thing of funny beauty. A camera pan tours a cemetery wherein women rapidly clean the graves of their loved ones. It’s a brilliantly succinct way to kick off Volver (“to return”) wherein women get very no nonsense about death but very discombobulated about any return to life. (As brilliant as the first shot is it's only the beginning of the visual sorcery. There are overhead shots of grieving women that stun in their hive-like humor and there’s one true jawdropper involving a group of men that has to be the year’s best meta-movie moment.) The narrative event that kickstarts the plot is the death of Raimunda's (Penelope Cruz) husband. This throws our gorgeous widow off but a little. The return of her already mourned mother (Carmen Maura)... well, this we know will throw her off a lot. Dying is easy. Living is way more complicated. Almodovar’s storytelling is so confident you'll barely blink at the nonsense served up -- all the better to accept supernatural plot elements like ghosts. The trust he instantly inspires allows him to pull the rug out from under you in surprisingly gentle fashion throughout. It's another classic from a cinematic wonder.	#1 Despite mining the same territory as she has in the past (dreamy young girl lost in hermetically sealed world) Sofia Coppola keeps on surprising with the flexibility and depth of feeling within what might be dismissed as a shallow worldview. With Marie Antoinette this young writer/director has delivered her third straight winner. If Scorsese can endlessly riff on violent men to great acclaim why can't she do the same with dreamy girls? Her new film continually makes brave inspired choices true to its point of view (Marie's in point of fact) rather than our moviegoing expectations or traditional narrative demands: Note if you will how major plot points like the death of the king are over as soon as they've begun while girlish moods conjured or Marie's pregnancy worries get strung out for several scenes. Even the much derided ending is note perfect -- this is the true ending of Marie Antoinette's world. Who needs a head in the basket? We've been in her head all the while. A recent second viewing only strengthened my respect for the movie. I could scarcely believe my eyes while watching it. This was the movie people thought a major disappointment -- an outright dud? Ah well, more cake for me.

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