The Best Films of 2006

December 25th, 2006 by Scott Marks

Marty broke my heart, Clint sided with Spielberg on the disappointing Sands of Private Ryan, and a grateful American public once again leaped head first into a steaming pile of Pirate shit.

The worst of times just kept getting worse at the movies this year.

Summer seemed to last forever. The only relief multiplexes offered came from the air conditioner, not the platter. It should have been the summer’s most enjoyable blockbuster, but V for Vendetta opened (and flopped) in mid-March. Even though the enormously entertaining French action flick District B13 miraculously found its way to the multiplexes, the challenge of subtitles kept the illiterate masses at bay, awaiting instead the pre-digested, idiot-friendly MI3.

There was even an attempt to revamp 007. No more gadgets or thudding throwaway lines. Instead, the series was plainly Bourne again.

If quality is your thing there were plenty of outstanding films that washed up from foreign shores. The Asian Film Festival was wise (and brave) enough to host the one night San Diego “premiere” of Hou-Hsiao hsien’s essential These Three.

At age 73, and with almost 70 features behind him, Claude Chabrol’s The Bridesmaid added more credence to the argument that the director is the most powerful force to emerge from the French New Wave this side of Godard.

Satire fared best. Not since the late 60s/early 70s, when Woody Allen, Mel Brooks and a pre-MPAA John Waters convulsed audiences has there been such cause for ground breaking and side-splitting laughter in movie theaters. Albert Brooks returned to form in the Muslim World. Laugh-for-laugh, the year’s funniest films, Borat and CSA: Confederate States of America proved to be two of the most dead on anti-racist satires period.

A salon called Shortbus provided a liberating and explicit glimpse into the kind of sexual hang-ups that give us all a reason to get out of bed in the morning. Thanks also to Jason Reitman for Thank You for Smoking as well as the painstakingly insensitive gang from Comedy Central’s Strangers with Candy.

Clip what follows and post it somewhere near your computer to reference for future Netflix rentals.

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