5) BORAT – This one just came out of nowhere. I'd never even heard of Sacha Baron Cohen's Kazakhstani reporter character or seen Da Ali G Show, but I was intrigued by the glowing reviews Borat was getting. They were well deserved. This is the funniest film I've seen since the South Park movie. Cohen interacts with mostly unsuspecting real Americans who are told that this foreign journalist is trying to learn about American culture. What they are not told is that Borat is ignorant, anti-Semitic, homophobic and not quite toilet trained.
Aside from the laughs, Borat is one of the more politically pointed films on the subject of intolerance and bigotry, specifically anti-Semitism. Cohen is Jewish and delights in mocking the most outrageous stereotypes of Jew hatred. For me the most powerful statements on this subject have come from hysterical comedies. In this, Borat belongs on a list with Blazing Saddles and All in the Family.
4) BRICK – The first 2006 film I saw was Brick, which is kind of an inverse of another fine film, The Good German, the last film I caught this year. The Good German is filmed with the black and white look and style of a 1940's film noir. Brick is filmed with a contemporary look, but the performances and plotting echo that classic noir period. It's about a high school outsider who gets caught up in drug deals gone wrong and violent double crosses.
But Joseph Gordon-Levitt (the kid from 3rd Rock From the Sun) plays the role as if he was Humphrey Bogart in The Maltese Falcon. Not an imitation – he succeeds in channeling the spirit of Sam Spade. Sure enough, the high school is filled with femme fatales, tough hoods and slimy villains with nicknames like "The Pin." The result is movie buff heaven.
3) HEART OF GOLD - Jonathan Demme's Neil Young concert film, Heart of Gold, is the best concert movie since The Talking Heads' Stop Making Sense back in 1984. It's probably not a coincidence that the earlier film was also directed by Jonathon Demme. I'm going to go out on a limb and suggest that Demme be required to direct all future concert films, because his camera has a way making music performances immediate and cinematic like no other director. It doesn't hurt that his subject is one of the all time greats of rock n roll, Neil Young. While Young can rock hard enough to be nicknamed "The Godfather of Grunge," here he's in his acoustic folk/country mode.
The first half of the concert is most of his latest album, Prairie Wind, his strongest in years. Having been diagnosed with a brain tumor that he has since recovered from, Young wrote with the passion of someone who felt he might not have much time left. The second half is devoted to tracks from the similarly styled albums Harvest, Comes a Time and Harvest Moon. Aside from Bob Dylan, Neil Young is the only aging rock star who has embraced getting older as a part of his music. The result sounds more vital than most artists less than half his age.
2) THE DEPARTED – Of course I was rooting for Martin Scorsese to win the directing Oscar for Gangs of New York or The Aviator. These were fine films, but the win would have been to right the injustice of his being passed over for his holy trinity of masterpieces: Taxi Driver, Raging Bull and Goodfellas. If he finally wins for The Departed, it won't a career award, it will be because he's returned to gritty form with a vengeance.
Like Alfred Hitchcock's thrillers or Woody Allen's dramadies, all Martin Scorsese's gangster films are kind of the same and kind of not. "Gimme Shelter" may be back but Jack Nicholson has replaced Robert DeNiro, the Irish replaced the Italians, cops are given a closer look than in previous films and the story is based on a Japanese thriller. This, plus a healthy dose of humor, are all like new instruments in Scorsese's hands.
Leonardo DiCaprio and Matt Damon give career best performances and it's been over twenty years since Nicholson's been this good.
1) UNITED 93 - United 93 is not an enjoyable or entertaining film in the traditional sense. It is, however an important one. It looks at 9/11 with a clear unflinching eye. There's none of the distracting sub-plots or flourishes that trivialized Olver Stone's World Trade Center. Using only information available from cell phone records and ground control eyewitnesses, director Paul Greengrass coldly and accurately recreates the events of that horrible morning.
For me, at least, it brought back many of the feelings I had on 9/11 itself. This film is almost unbearably intense, but because we know how it must end, that tension is not released with suspense. The only comparable film equivalent I can think of is Schindler's List.
One sign of United 93's authenticity, is the fact that the airport personnel on the ground were not actors, but the actual participants playing themselves. by choosing to focus on the one 9/11 attack in which the victims resisted and fought back, Greengrass does provide a glimmer of hope along with the sadness and horror. I was initially very skeptical that a 9/11 film could be made that was not exploitive. Sometimes it's good to be proven wrong.
While I'm at it, I may as well note what I consider the worst film of 2006: Superman Returns. Here are ten reasons it was such an utter disappointment:
1) The new Superman is just doing a Christopher Reeve impersonation.
2) It's nice that they found a beautiful actress to play Lois. It would have been nicer if they found one who could act or be even a little believable as a reporter.
3) The guy from X-Men who played Lois' boyfriend added nothing to the movie
4) Adding a kid to a story that absolutely does not need a kid is a sign of desperation.
5) What's with the whole Superman as Jesus analogy?
6) The entire premise of the film is based on Superman having been gone to find fragments of his old planet. No details are given regarding this mission, which means no thought was given to it and was just a manipulative plot device.
7) "Truth, justice and all that other stuff."? - It's "The American Way" you douchebags!!! Just cause you're trying to pander to an international market doesn't mean you fuck with a classic catchphrase.
8) Very liberal use of the old John Williams score and Marlon Brando outtakes from the first film. There's a fine line between homage and rip off.
9) Luthor's plan is to create earthquake like natural disasters. Gee, that sounds familiar.
10) Superman 1 and 2 exist. They are great movies and if more respect had been paid to why they succeeded, the rest of the sequels may not have sucked so bad.
Aside from the laughs, Borat is one of the more politically pointed films on the subject of intolerance and bigotry, specifically anti-Semitism. Cohen is Jewish and delights in mocking the most outrageous stereotypes of Jew hatred. For me the most powerful statements on this subject have come from hysterical comedies. In this, Borat belongs on a list with Blazing Saddles and All in the Family.
4) BRICK – The first 2006 film I saw was Brick, which is kind of an inverse of another fine film, The Good German, the last film I caught this year. The Good German is filmed with the black and white look and style of a 1940's film noir. Brick is filmed with a contemporary look, but the performances and plotting echo that classic noir period. It's about a high school outsider who gets caught up in drug deals gone wrong and violent double crosses.
But Joseph Gordon-Levitt (the kid from 3rd Rock From the Sun) plays the role as if he was Humphrey Bogart in The Maltese Falcon. Not an imitation – he succeeds in channeling the spirit of Sam Spade. Sure enough, the high school is filled with femme fatales, tough hoods and slimy villains with nicknames like "The Pin." The result is movie buff heaven.
3) HEART OF GOLD - Jonathan Demme's Neil Young concert film, Heart of Gold, is the best concert movie since The Talking Heads' Stop Making Sense back in 1984. It's probably not a coincidence that the earlier film was also directed by Jonathon Demme. I'm going to go out on a limb and suggest that Demme be required to direct all future concert films, because his camera has a way making music performances immediate and cinematic like no other director. It doesn't hurt that his subject is one of the all time greats of rock n roll, Neil Young. While Young can rock hard enough to be nicknamed "The Godfather of Grunge," here he's in his acoustic folk/country mode.
The first half of the concert is most of his latest album, Prairie Wind, his strongest in years. Having been diagnosed with a brain tumor that he has since recovered from, Young wrote with the passion of someone who felt he might not have much time left. The second half is devoted to tracks from the similarly styled albums Harvest, Comes a Time and Harvest Moon. Aside from Bob Dylan, Neil Young is the only aging rock star who has embraced getting older as a part of his music. The result sounds more vital than most artists less than half his age.
2) THE DEPARTED – Of course I was rooting for Martin Scorsese to win the directing Oscar for Gangs of New York or The Aviator. These were fine films, but the win would have been to right the injustice of his being passed over for his holy trinity of masterpieces: Taxi Driver, Raging Bull and Goodfellas. If he finally wins for The Departed, it won't a career award, it will be because he's returned to gritty form with a vengeance.
Like Alfred Hitchcock's thrillers or Woody Allen's dramadies, all Martin Scorsese's gangster films are kind of the same and kind of not. "Gimme Shelter" may be back but Jack Nicholson has replaced Robert DeNiro, the Irish replaced the Italians, cops are given a closer look than in previous films and the story is based on a Japanese thriller. This, plus a healthy dose of humor, are all like new instruments in Scorsese's hands.
Leonardo DiCaprio and Matt Damon give career best performances and it's been over twenty years since Nicholson's been this good.
1) UNITED 93 - United 93 is not an enjoyable or entertaining film in the traditional sense. It is, however an important one. It looks at 9/11 with a clear unflinching eye. There's none of the distracting sub-plots or flourishes that trivialized Olver Stone's World Trade Center. Using only information available from cell phone records and ground control eyewitnesses, director Paul Greengrass coldly and accurately recreates the events of that horrible morning.
For me, at least, it brought back many of the feelings I had on 9/11 itself. This film is almost unbearably intense, but because we know how it must end, that tension is not released with suspense. The only comparable film equivalent I can think of is Schindler's List.
One sign of United 93's authenticity, is the fact that the airport personnel on the ground were not actors, but the actual participants playing themselves. by choosing to focus on the one 9/11 attack in which the victims resisted and fought back, Greengrass does provide a glimmer of hope along with the sadness and horror. I was initially very skeptical that a 9/11 film could be made that was not exploitive. Sometimes it's good to be proven wrong.
While I'm at it, I may as well note what I consider the worst film of 2006: Superman Returns. Here are ten reasons it was such an utter disappointment:
1) The new Superman is just doing a Christopher Reeve impersonation.
2) It's nice that they found a beautiful actress to play Lois. It would have been nicer if they found one who could act or be even a little believable as a reporter.
3) The guy from X-Men who played Lois' boyfriend added nothing to the movie
4) Adding a kid to a story that absolutely does not need a kid is a sign of desperation.
5) What's with the whole Superman as Jesus analogy?
6) The entire premise of the film is based on Superman having been gone to find fragments of his old planet. No details are given regarding this mission, which means no thought was given to it and was just a manipulative plot device.
7) "Truth, justice and all that other stuff."? - It's "The American Way" you douchebags!!! Just cause you're trying to pander to an international market doesn't mean you fuck with a classic catchphrase.
8) Very liberal use of the old John Williams score and Marlon Brando outtakes from the first film. There's a fine line between homage and rip off.
9) Luthor's plan is to create earthquake like natural disasters. Gee, that sounds familiar.
10) Superman 1 and 2 exist. They are great movies and if more respect had been paid to why they succeeded, the rest of the sequels may not have sucked so bad.
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