Top Ten Madness

Top Ten Movies of 2006
*I will be fleshing this out in the coming days - keep checking back for more mini-reviews for the films listed!

10: Little Miss Sunshine - ***1/2 out of ****

Ah, what would we do without our yearly indie darlings? Try as I could, I could not dislike this movie - I went into the theater hoping to come out with a "meh" response that would allow me to stay smug and ignore the Independent Spirit Awards this year, but the damn movie wouldn't let me do it. In the end, it's the character work these actors do that lift this movie above its script and its concept - underneath the easy jokes about family disfunctionality (didn't we get enough of that with "Cheaper by the Dozen"?) lie some downright brutal scenes that push past the immediate laughs and reveal how anger and distrust and disappointment within a family can eat away at the bonds that we all know in our heads are so meaningful and important for, well, our sanity. You sense the reality of the scars underneath the cheap jabs these people take at one another, and not only do you end up hurting with them, you find yourself rooting for them on as a family because, as cheesy as it may sound, you think they deserve at least a minute's happiness. Getting that message across in a genre film as formulaic as this one was no easy task, and the cast and director deserve all the praise they get for pulling it off.

9: Borat - ***1/2 out of ****

This review needs to be kept brief, if only to keep me from quoting the movie so extensively that it might take away from your need - yes, need - to see it. Put simply, "Borat" is really, really funny. The humor is sharp and satirical, the laughs feel fresh and original, and the concept - to take a Daily Show-type faux-reporter and use him to expose the ignorance and prejudice of others - is one that, for better or worse, speaks intimately to the current generation. In fact, the movie ends up working so well as a comedy that much of its substantive agenda is easily overlooked in the first few viewings; it's hard to remember that even if "Borat" creator Sacha Baron Cohen isn't actually a Kazakh, he's not an American, either, and his journey through the heartland is significant not just for the laughs it brings, but also for what his outsider's perspective really does illuminate about who we really are in this country. Certainly, as an instructor and Ph.D. student at the University of South Carolina, I was affected and embarrassed by the way a handful of U.S.C. frat guys behaved in the movie, and to see "Borat," at least to me, was to see a movie that exposed our biases and prejudices in very real way. To use examples from the film, I may not buy a Hummer so I can use it to run over gypsies, but I might buy one for the factory-standard "pussy magnet" Borat insists must be hidden inside the glove compartment. Ouch, right? It's an odd thing to say "I laughed until I cried" and mean it, sincerely.

8: Letters from Iwo Jima - ***1/2 out of ****

7: Babel - ***1/2 out of ****

6: The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada - ***1/2 out of ****

5: Children of Men - ***1/2 out of ****

4: Apocalypto - **** out of ****

"Apocalypto" represents an astounding piece of kinetic filmmaking. Mel Gibson seems to embrace the challenges inherent not only in telling a story in a foreign language, but in making nearly all of the voices, moods and affective techniques of American cinema work in both a tongue and world that can best be described as entirely alien to an American audience. Specifically, "Apocalypto," using almost no dialogue, finds a way to make us laugh, empathize and fear for the lives of the characters we are watching simply through the careful control of camera, movement, color and rhythm: the movie is a case study on the active use of a film camera, and should be recognized and rewarded as such. Additionally, "Apocalypto" features several very fine performances and an attention to the graphic and gruesome that seems in some ways to be an appeal for Gibson's "The Passion of the Christ" - "I understand the roles violence and gore can play in a film," he seems to be saying, "and by using them for alternately comedic, dramatic and horrific effect here, my intentions in 'Passion' should be re-read as deliberate and meaningful." Not that I would ever put my words in a director's mouth (especially Gibson's).

3: Pan's Labyrinth - **** out of ****

2: The Departed - **** out of ****

1: United 93 - **** out of ****