Top Ten Movies of 2006

I made a list. I made up the numbers just now.

1. Pan’s Labyrinth (9.2): a tuber manages to elicit more sympathy than anyone in Babel.

2. Little Miss Sunshine (8.2): compelling characters can carry a loose plot any day.

3. Brick (7.9): so damn cool I couldn’t help myself, even if it leaves us cold.

4. Borat (7.6): a pornography of comedy; not deep or cutting, really, just funny.

(tie) Volver (7.6): middling Almodovar is still better than almost anything else.

6. The Departed (7.3): Martin knows what he’s doing.

7. Inside Man (7.2): Spike knows what he’s doing.

8. Children of Men (7.0): lame exposition followed by some serious exhilaration.

(tie) Apocalypto (7.0): a visceral chase set in the jungle; nothing more, nothing less.

10. The Last King of Scotland (6.8): Idi Amin, in the flesh.


Movies I haven’t seen: Inland Empire, The Queen, Half Nelson, Shortbus, etc.