2006 in films
Friday, 29 Dec 2006 14:44
Borat stole the show in 2006 - in ways even he may have been surprised by
2006 was another year of contrasts in the ever-changing film world, as a whole host of differing characters queued up to make their mark on the silver screen. Superman returned only to find himself rubbing shoulders with citizen journalists from Kazakhstan, while second helpings of Pirates and X-Men competed for summer glory.
Those with political points to prove ranged from George Clooney risking life and limb for Syriana's torture scenes, to former US vice president Al Gore, who contented himself with trying to change the world using a Powerpoint presentation. Meanwhile, the year came to a close with establishment figures in the shape of the Queen and the country's premier secret agent taking centre stage. In case you missed any of it, here's a rundown of ten of the best that 2006 had to offer.
10. Pan's Labyrinth
A startling blend of fairy tale and unflinching Spanish Civil War drama, Pan's Labyrinth somehow managed to successfully combine a truly original imaginative sense with some of the most uncomfortable DIY emergency surgery scenes found this side of Dr Nick Riviera's backdoor clinic.
The story of a young girl who conjures up a fantasy world as a way to escape the troubles of her pregnant mother and iron-fisted army stepfather, the film's allegorical take on life under Franco recalls earlier Spanish films like Spirit of the Beehive. Though the wartime characters were perhaps slightly overdrawn, some of director Guillame del Toro's creature creations have to be seen to be believed.
9. The Queen
Focused on the Royal Family during the weeks following Diana's death, The Queen was a surprisingly sprightly look at the changing role of the monarchy in the eyes of a grieving public. The clash between public expectation and historical tradition was offset by more uncommon sites such as Her Majesty roaming the grounds of Balmoral in her Range Rover.
Helen Mirren's depiction of HRH was a masterclass in believability, while Michael Sheen stole many scenes in his role as the ever-pragmatic Tony Blair, but it was James Cromwell as Prince Philip who got the best line: "Sleeping in the streets and pulling out their hair for someone they never knew. And they think we're mad!"
8. Good Night and Good Luck
George Clooney's second directorial effort saw him take a concerted look at journalists' efforts to maintain his integrity and stand up to the hollow grandstanding of Senator Joe McCarthy's Communist witchhunts in 1950s America.
Shot in black and white, Good Night and Good Luck did not feature much in the way of subplots, suspense or dramatic twists, instead focusing solely on the intimate relationship between the news business and politics. Playing television presenter Edward R Murrow, David Strathairn's considered performance fascinates long after the credits have rolled.
7. Talledega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby
The latest film from the Anchorman team of director Adam McKay and actor Will Ferrell did not disappoint in the inspired ad-libbing stakes. The Nascar plot sees racing champion Ricky Bobby confronted by a new challenger in the shape of Sacha Baron Cohen, who somehow seems strangely familiar with his role as an inconsiderate foreigner inadvertently exposing the prejudices of conservative American culture.
Ricky Bobby's kitchen sink of a script throws up little more than scene after scene of inspired idiocy, but disengaging the brain was rarely this much fun.
6. Caché
One of the most-hyped foreign language films of recent times, Caché arrived on these shores on a wave of critical adulation and promptly took over £1 million at the UK box office. The unsettling storyline gives new meaning to the term 'video nasty', as a mysterious stalker sends a well-heeled French family ominously uneventful tapes of their everyday life.
The tension continues to rise as the messages become more and more disconcerting, slowly revealing several layers of repressed childhood memories, with the contrasting calm of the final scene providing one of the filmic talking points of the year.
5. Casino Royale
James Bond shook off his invisible-car embarrassment from Die Another Day and returned to a more realistic setting in the 24th entry in the franchise. Then defeated terrorism by playing poker. The world of a fictional superspy will always have its fair share of faintly ridiculous moments, but Daniel Craig's aura of steely menace briefly made anything seem possible.
Casino Royale showed Bond could still compete on the action front, with an exhilarating chase scene setting the tone for things to come, while the semblance of a real relationship for 007 took the series into territory not seen since Her Majesty's Secret Service.
4. The Squid and the Whale
A supposedly autobiographical tale about growing up in 1970s New York from writer/director Noah Baumbach, The Squid and the Whale gave a toe-curling account of two children slowly learning from the misguided literary influence provided by their parents. Cue 16-year-old Walt describing a Franz Kafka book as 'Kafkaesque' and 12-year-old Frank worrying that he may be a philistine.
Poking fun at the pressures of growing up in a household divided by divorce, the film's unflinching portrayal of the trauma of parental break-ups and the pressure of expectation was rivalled only by Jeff Daniels' brilliant performance as the self-deluded head of the family.
3. The Death of Mr Lazarescu
A two-hour plus Romanian film about the slow death of a grumpy pensioner may have sounded like the worst idea for a movie since the Police Academy series moved to Russia, but the Death of Mr Lazarescu was an unlikely triumph created from the bleakest of scenarios.
Much of the film was given over to farcical circumstances that saw the titular character shepherded from hospital to hospital by increasingly-exasperated ambulance attendants, with doctors continually writing off the patient as a drunk, a hypochondriac, or both. It all added up to what was without doubt 2006's best deadpan comedy about socialised medicine in eastern Europe.
2. The Departed
Martin Scorsese's remake of the 2002 Hong Kong film Internal Affairs abandoned the original's understated charm in favour of an overblown ode to over-the-top crime dramas. Killer dialogue, ultra suspenseful action sequences and a catalogue of A-list stars including Jack Nicholson, Matt Damon and Leonardo DiCaprio helped make this the most enjoyable thriller for many a year.
Those looking for any kind moral consideration of the violence on display were likely to leave disappointed, but the end result was 2006's most gloriously excessive film.
1. Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan
It was an elaborate con designed to fool audiences and participants alike, featured shoddy camerawork and the loosest of narrative threads. It resulted in its creators being both arrested and sued for their efforts and briefly threatened to cause an international diplomatic incident, but 2006's most-publicised film was also the most inspired.
Ignorance, offensiveness and downright depravity were the film's mainstays as Borat dealt with American culture, the less familiar subject of Kazakhstani potassium reserves and the altogether unwanted topic of what an obese film producer with no clothes on looks like.
Ali G In Da House showed that creating a movie vehicle for a sketch show character was harder than it looked, but Borat avoided such pitfalls thanks to a never-ending stream of side-splitting jokes that hardly gave audiences the chance to consider just what it was they were laughing at.
Missed the cut:
The New World, Superman Returns, L'Enfant, Syriana, A Cock and Bull Story
Daniel Jones
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