Slim Top Ten Pickings
The holiday season is upon us, meaning frantic shopping expeditions, cookie baking, and for a film critic, summing up the year with a best ten list. While perusing 50 weeks of movie reviews, I found myself at a loss as to how I will fill my dance card. There were more chunks of coal than goodies in my sum-up-the-year stocking.
There was only one movie that really blew me away in 2006 and it was a documentary, An Inconvenient Truth. I’m leaning towards a few more documentaries for my list, plus a few smaller scale genre films that tried to do less and therefore accomplished more than the big-ticket movies. Of course since Atlantic City is in the boonies when it comes to film releases, unlike critics from the major metropolitan areas, I’ll have to wait until Christmas Day to see a few more possibilities for my list. Those heralded films include the Japanese side of Clint Eastwood’s double barrel salute to the futility of war, Letters From Iwo Jima; Notes on a Scandal with Judi Dench; the musical Dreamgirls; the CIA story a.k.a. The Good Shepherd; a post-war drama, The Good German; a look at a terrible future in Children of Men and the fantasy Pan’s Labyrinth, a film I missed at the Toronto Film Festival.
If forced to choose the best of the year now, here is my list:
An Inconvenient Truth
The Departed
United 93
Inside Man
Over the Hedge
Dixie Chicks: Shut Up and Sing
Shortbus
Casino Royale
For Your Consideration
Who Killed The Electric Car?
Later