Thoughtful reviews, the Boulder film scene

Betty Blue

There can be beauty in tragedy, particularly when the key ingredient is the same in both —Marty Mapes (review...)

Betty arrives like a bolt from the Blue

" I know a guy married the same dame 3 times then turned around and married her aunt "
— William Demarest, The Lady Eve

MRQE Top Critic

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Movie Habit’s Top Ten of 2006 is a fairly respectable list. Decent people can agree to disagree on the particulars, but on the whole, it offers a nice mix of good, solid films, with an hint of originality.

Six writers contributed to the list. We weighted the votes by the number of contributions, the “currentness” of the contributions, and by the ranking of titles on individual lists.

In other words, a lot of thought from diverse personalities went into our top ten list. This page is where you can see some of the behind-the-scenes mess that went into our tidy little list.

First up are the collective runner-ups, followed by individual list submissions from Movie Habit contributors.

Enjoy!

The Next Twenty-Seven

  1. V for Vendetta
  2. A Prairie Home Companion
  3. Breaking and Entering
  4. A Scanner Darkly
  5. Stranger than Fiction
  6. The Civilization of Maxwell Bright
  7. Little Miss Sunshine
  8. Catch a Fire
  9. The Vice Guide to Travel
  10. 49 Up
  11. Opal Dream
  12. Superman Returns
  13. Beowulf & Grendel
  14. Mission: Impossible 3
  15. Lucky Number Slevin
  16. Devil & Daniel Johnston
  17. Who Killed The Electric Car
  18. Volver
  19. Casino Royale
  20. Beerfest
  21. Taladega Nights
  22. Tideland
  23. Pan’s Labyrinth
  24. Happy Feet
  25. 13 (Tzameti)
  26. Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan
  27. Russian Dolls

John Adams

It’s a funny thing but out of all those films, the only theatrical releases that I saw this year were SCANNER DARKLY and V which is also the order that I’ll put them in with SCANNER being the only one that I’d recommend (or see again for that matter).

Matt Anderson

I don’t think I could put together a legitimate Top Ten of my own this year. A Top Six is doable, though.

  1. Rocky Balboa
  2. Inside Man
  3. The Aura (El Aura) - SDIFF screener review “still” coming soon
  4. Factotum
  5. V for Vendetta
  6. An Inconvenient Truth

After dissing two high Tomatometer movies back-to-back (Borat and Casino Royale), it’s good to see the rest of the planet is back on track with Rocky Balboa and Dreamgirls. Crazy, crazy little world!

Merry Christmas!

Andrea Birgers

  1. Catch a Fire
  2. Little Miss Sunshine
  3. Why We Fight
  4. Flags of Our Fathers
  5. Inside Man
  6. A Prairie Home Companion
  7. Beowulf & Grendel
  8. The Departed
  9. Volver
  10. United 93

Risë Keller

Here are my picks:

  1. The Civilization of Maxwell Bright
  2. Breaking and Entering
  3. An Inconvenient Truth
  4. Stranger than Fiction
  5. 49 Up
  6. Opal Dream
  7. Black Gold
  8. Lucky Number Slevin
  9. Little Miss Sunshine
  10. Inside Man

Pablo Kjolseth

1) AN INCONVENIENT TRUTH - Kills me to put this at the top of the list since it’s the antithesis of cinema (a friggin’ power point presentation!)... but it’s an example of how movies are still a an important medium by which to communicate with the population at large with a timely message. Which, in this case, is that we’re all going to die!

2) BEER FEST - Because after digesting the message above, you’re going to want to drink.

3) A SCANNER DARKLY - What better time to see a film about addiction than when you’re hungover?

4) VOLVER - Rested and sober, you can now get back to your regular channel of straight-up arthouse cinema.

5)BEOWULF & GRENDEL - After runnning Almodovar’s estrogen gauntlet, a good dose of testosterone will be needed and this film delivers.

6) TIDELAND - Straddling the gender divide is this wrongfully maligned miscreant of a film, wherein Terry Gilliam (as he announces in the opening credits) discovers that his inner child is a little girl.

7) PAN’S LABYRINTH - A perfect film to see back-to-back with TIDELAND, as they both share a startling number of themes.

8) 13 (TZAMETI) - Beautiful B&W cinematography, eerie locations, a disturbing premise, all harkens to a strong debut that rightfully echoes early Polanski.

9) BORAT - He does some pretty slimey things, but it’s a film that gets people talking, and the scene at the rodeo is worth the price of admission.

10) RUSSIAN DOLLS - Fun good-hearted fluff, with one inspired scene where the protagonist walks down a dreamy street chasing a skirt that he’ll never get - like the obsessed cinephile chasing the perfect top ten film.

Marty Mapes

  1. Why We Fight
  2. Flags of Our Fathers, Letters from Iwo Jima
  3. An Inconvenient Truth
  4. The Departed
  5. Black Gold
  6. United 93
  7. Inside Man
  8. A Prairie Home Companion
  9. Breaking and Entering
  10. The Vice Guide to Travel

Anand Ramachandran

This is what I liked best in 2006 — AR ...

  1. Superman Returns
  2. Rocky Balboa
  3. Stranger Than Fiction
  4. MI-3
  5. Devil & Daniel Johnston
  6. Who Killed The Electric Car & An Inconvenient Truth (great double feature)
  7. Casino Royale
  8. Taladega Nights
  9. Happy Feet
  10. Borat
  11. Night at the Museum
  12. Apocalypto

Nick Reed

sorry i wasn’t able to get a top ten list this year, to be honest, i didn’t see a majority of the films that were up for selection, but if it helps, i’d have to say the departed was the best I saw on the list.

happy holidays!

nick