The Coolest Flicks of 2006
Casino Royale
Daniel Craig has created the best James Bond in many years, and possibly
the truest characterization of Ian Fleming’s hero ever to see the
screen. Casino Royale is also the best James Bond movie in many,
many years. Until now, I would have told you that my favorite James Bond
film was From Russia with Love, but Casino Royale has offered
real competition for that first-place title.
The Devil Wears Prada
This is a better than average novel adaptation as well as a better than
average comedy. Rather than humiliating its characters, it loves them, and
rather than parodying its subject, it respects it. This is an old-fashioned,
adult comedy of the type that is rarely made these days, a film in which
no first impression remains a lasting impression. Broadly, Anne Hathaway
is the tyro and Meryl Streep is the tyrant, but both make more of their
characters than that. Streep especially (and unsurprisingly) finds depths
in her character that do not appear to be in the script, but rather spring
forth wholly from within her. Be sure to take notice also of Emily Blunt’s
careful characterization of Hathaway’s put-upon predecessor.
Friends With Money
This film honestly doesn’t amount to a whole lot, but if you are a
fan of Jennifer Anniston you will appreciate that once again she has shown
that she actually can act and has chosen to do so, once again, in a little
film that managed to fly under everyone’s radar.
The Illusionist
If you enjoy a good mystery, if you enjoy magic, if you enjoy an interesting
love story, or if you simply enjoy a good costume drama, then you will probably
enjoy The Illusionist. After the screening we attended, the audience
discussed the film out loud, and like we did, seemed to appreciate it a
great deal.
An Inconvenient Truth
It is perhaps too simplistic to say that you will either hate this film
or love this film, depending upon your political beliefs. The film’s
director has chosen, perhaps in the name of entertainment, to spend too
much time with Al Gore the man and not nearly enough time on the salient
facts about global warming. Scientifically speaking, it’s been done
better on television. Nevertheless, if you are unfamiliar with the science
and current research behind the facts of global warming, An Inconvenient
Truth is a fine starting point.
Junebug
This is another little film that managed to slip under almost everyone’s
radar, that deserves greater recognition, most notably for the performances
of Amy Adams and Embeth Davidtz.
King Kong
Was it necessary to re-create the 1933 fantasy classic King Kong?
Probably not. But was the recreation successful? Absolutely. One might argue
that perhaps Peter Jackson’s version of King Kong is a bit
too long in the middle, and one might also argue that Jack Black is somewhat
miscast; but no one can argue that the special effects aren’t stunning,
that the recreation of 1933’s New York City is fabulous, and that
Naomi Watts gives an indelibly nuanced performance that makes even jaded
audiences care about the relationship between Ann Darrow and the greatest
of the great apes.
Kinky Boots
Chiwetel Ejiofor (Chewie to his friends), who has by now proven he can play
just about anyone in films ranging from Serenity to Dirty Pretty
Things, presents us in this outing with Lola, a drag-queen and cabaret
singer (with a surprising voice) who helps a family-run shoe factory survive
foreign competition through the creation of an innovative new product line.
This is a nice film, the type with no bad-guys, only mistakes and challenges
to overcome.
Little Miss Sunshine
It’s a real shame that Alan Arkin isn’t used in more movies,
because he’s still a great actor. But everyone in this film was great
— Toni Collette, Greg Kinnear, Paul Dano, Steve Carell, and Abigail
Breslin — and each of them created a terrific individual that could
be at odds with other members of the family, and yet still love them. This
is a great comedy (although you should be aware that the beauty pageant
itself is loaded with cringe inducing moments).
Mrs Henderson Presents
This is another one those charming little pieces of fluff that the British
have become so very good at making over the last dozen years or so. It manages
to be risqué without being offensive, comic without resorting to
buffoonery, and touching without being maudlin. After Dirty Pretty Things,
this is a bit of a return to form for director Stephen Frears.
A Prairie Home Companion
Garrison Keillor wrote and Robert Altman directed the film version of Keillor’s
long-running radio program, and for the most part the collaborative adaptation
works. Like all of Altman’s films, some parts work better than others,
with the non-working others quickly fading from memory as his favored inconsequentialities
usually do, leaving us with pleasant memories of the parts that do work.
The parts that do work (this is the last time I’ll use the W-word
in this review) include Kevin Kline’s house detective Guy Noir; Woody
Harrelson and John C. Reilly as the potty-mouthed singing cowboys Dusty
and Lefty; Meryl Streep and Lily Tomlin as the country-western sister act
Yolanda and Rhonda Johnson; Tom Keith essentially playing himself as the
very vocally talented sound effects man; and Keillor, also playing himself,
or someone very like himself, who often wanders in and out of scenes like
the gnomic Teiresias. Meryl Streep’s fine singing voice is surprising.
Pride & Prejudice
In 2003 we saw Bend it Like Beckham, which introduced us to the beautiful
Parminder Nagra and the more mannish Keira Knightley. That same year we
saw Love Actually, which portrayed Knightley as the beautiful fantasy
woman of one lonely man’s dreams, and we first noticed her charming
flash of a smile. But in the third film we saw her in, Pride & Prejudice,
we were surprised to discover she could act well enough to carry a film.
Her previous films had not prepared us to expect that. Her Lizzie Bennet
is a fully-realized character, and Knightley, along with her co-stars Matthew
Macfadyen (of the brilliant TV program MI-5, A.K.A. Spooks),
Rosamund Pike (the only spark in the otherwise unbearable Die Another
Day), Brenda Blethyn, Donald Sutherland, and a surprising Jena Malone
(we had no idea she was American) bring us a fully-realized adaptation of
Jane Austen’s oft-filmed great novel.
The Queen
In thinking of Helen Mirren’s performance in The Queen, I’m
reminded of how Val Kilmer seemed to channel the spirit of Jim Morrison
in The Doors. Her performance is more than just an impersonation;
after watching her for only a few minutes, it truly seemed to us that we
were watching Queen Elizabeth II (although Her Majesty only wishes she looked
as good as Helen Mirren). Michael Sheen is also to be commended for his
performance as the newly elected Prime Minister Tony Blair. Mirren and Sheen,
together or separately, occupy nearly every minute of screen time, and keep
audiences enthralled throughout. This is historical fiction at its best,
and another fine film from director Stephen Frears.
Quinceañera
Mexican girls are traditionally fêted with a coming of age party called
a quinceañera when they turn fifteen years old. The quinceañera
is equally, but differently, important to the girls and to their families,
and anything that interrupts it or prevents it is certain to cause a great
deal of sadness and conflict. Especially when that anything is a miraculous
pregnancy. Unable to explain her pregnancy and forced to leave home by her
humiliated father, young Maria is taken in by her great-uncle Ernesto, who
has already taken in her shunned homosexual cousin Carlos. This is a sweet
little film about traditional family values among Mexican-American families
who live in a desirably nice neighborhood that is slowly undergoing the
changes associated with the evolving economic and social realities of Los
Angeles.
Shopgirl
Based on Steve Martin’s novella, Shopgirl stars Claire Danes
as the girl behind the glove counter at Saks, Steve Martin as the rich man
who assumes the role of her sugar daddy, and Jason Schwartzman as the man
who might actually love her. Danes’s Mirabelle lives an empty life,
but Martin’s Ray is an empty man who hopes that for a time at least
Mirabelle can fill him. Mirabelle agrees to this bargain essentially because
she is lonely. This is not Lost in Translation, but almost a perversion
of the relationship depicted in that earlier, better film, but the movie
does have sad merits of its own, especially in the return of Claire Danes.
Thank You for Smoking
Aaron Eckhart deftly plays a spinmeister for Big Tobacco in this satirical
comedy based on the novel by Christopher Buckley. This film is made somewhat
in the vein of Wag the Dog, but it is better, smarter, and funnier
than that earlier film, and has a heart that Wag the Dog lacked.
The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada
Tommy Lee Jones has directed and stars in this effective little movie about
justice and redemption. He plays a modern-day rancher whose best friend,
an illegal immigrant from Mexico, has been killed, more or less inadvertently,
by a racist Border Patrol officer, played by Barry Pepper. The film successfully
takes the audience, along with Barry Pepper, in directions few will expect.
Tristram Shandy: A Cock and Bull Story
Laurence Sterne’s novel The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy,
Gentleman has been widely considered to be unfilmable because the novel
lacks a story arc and a narrative structure, and consists primarily of a
long series of interruptions and asides that deliberately never seem to
get to the point. Thus Michael Winterbottom’s film Tristram Shandy:
A Cock and Bull Story. Winterbottom has crafted a film about the filming
of the novel consisting of a series of interruptions, seemingly random vignettes,
and asides, as various actors play themselves as well as the characters
in the novel, and the reality of the novel, the film of the novel, and the
filming of the film, intertwine and coexist. As in Sterne’s original
novel, penis jokes abound.
United 93
What happened aboard the airplanes on September 11, 2001, can never be known
with absolute certainty, and thus any account that attempts to create a
narrative must be fictionalized. This is true of all historical fiction,
but most historical fiction looks at events that took place in a more distant,
less painfully fresh past, whereas United 93 examines events that
happened a mere five years ago. There is bound to be controversy about the
veracity of the portrayal of such traumatic events, but fictionalized or
not, this film is gutwrenching, engrossing, maddening, and stunningly real.
Movies
Books
Television
Photo Galleries
Under the Blanketing Night
Steve’s Poetry
The Jesus Limericks
Plato’s Republic, Book 11
Cubicles
Jeffreviews
John’s Poetry
Army Cadences
Fun & Games
Commercial Writing
Personal & Contact Info
Copyrights
Home