Daniel Soler's Top Ten for 2006
This was a good year for film. Last year, I was hard-pressed to find any new films that moved me; this year, they kept piling up. I finally got to see Aronofsky’s next film; the Bond franchise returned with surprising confidence and brio; and I discovered a director whose talent awes me. Here, then, is a list of ten films that stood out as memorable works. For those films I’ve previously reviewed, I’ve provided a link in the title.
Children of Men – I was tempted to list this film, and this film alone. Compared to most of the films I saw this year, Children of Men is a mature, involving, and thoughtful work from an artist who is in touch with something special, something unique – something that makes his films powerful. This is the year that I discovered the work of Alfonso Cuaron, and for that reason, I will remember this year well. I will also hold this film in high esteem for the rest of my days. Its lack of any artifice or stylization, the moments of compassion that bleed through the grim setting, the camera-work that follows the will of a careful, intelligent eye – everything about this film taught me that there are still a lot of things to say in cinema; you just need to find the language to express it. Cuaron is fluent in a tongue of his own, and it is to our good fortune that we can lend our senses, and listen.
The Fountain – I waited six years to see this film, and ignored nearly everything I saw or heard about it, other than the day that I would finally get to see it; now that I have, I look forward to watching it many more times. Though Aronofsky took this film in a direction that was contrary to my sense of what it would be like, I was nonetheless captivated by it. It is a gorgeous film, with so many memorable sequences of beautiful imagery, you can almost play it back to yourself after a single viewing. The mood hovers on the cusp of a painful, scary experience, and lingers there with a patience that feels both cruel and compassionate at the same time. I like to think of this film as a meditation on questions and themes that have been with us since the first shared awareness of our mortality.
Casino Royale – I summed it up best in my review: this is the Bond movie I have been waiting to see for years. The camp and gaudy trim that gilded the last round of films has been set aside, and in its place is a thriller about a young soldier who fulfills his job with a determination and passion that is awesome. Daniel Craig turned out to be an excellent choice for the undying role: he brings a tenacity and intent that gives the character a sense of importance that has been missing for too long. The action in this film is also well done, particularly the hand-to-hand combat. Here’s to the debut of a healthy chapter in the Bond franchise – and the hope that it continues in this fashion.
Radio Bikini – This is an hour-long documentary about the first peace-time atomic bomb tests. The title refers to the name of the army radio station that broadcasted from the test site, which was based in the Bikini Atoll islands. Today, the islands remain uninhabited, due to the severity of the radiation that was released by the tests. Opening with interviews and sequences that convey a sense of confidence in a country’s capacity for good acts, Radio Bikini gently introduces an element of dread that builds into a dour pestilence that left me hollow. The bomb shots are terrifying enough, but the final masterstroke is a single pull-away that reveals a more personal tragedy, one that is extension of that very self-serving confidence. This documentary really hit me hard, and I find myself running my fingers over the impression like a fascinating, ugly scab. Welcome to your birthright.
Slither – While watching this film in the theater, I thought to myself, Wow, someone got it right. Horror pictures are a frequent occurrence these days, due to a dependable audience, and low cost. What makes Slither stick out is its integrity: the filmmakers love what they do, and it shows. More than that, this film is fun. The story is well-paced, the characters are surprisingly round, and the thrills are fulfilled with ample creature antics – including a good degree of technically proficient gore. I only wish I experienced this kind of enjoyment in the theater more often.
Brokeback Mountain – I knew this film would end up on this list after the first hour; weeks later, I was still thinking about the characters and their fates. All I had to do was recall that slow, sliding guitar riff, and I was right there again, bearing witness to the frustrations of two lovers who cannot have each other, no matter how deep their need. Ang Lee is good at this sort of thing, and while he does stretch the canvas a bit too far in this effort, he taps into some potent emotions. The homosexual element is handled with frank honesty in terms of sexuality and passion, but there are surprisingly few intimate scenes between the major characters. This is a Hollywood romance, with a different set of players, and it is well done.
Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban – This is my surprise film of the year. I had heard that the third Harry Potter film was exceptional, but being indifferent to the series – both literary and cinematic – I filed that knowledge away, and lost track of it. When I finally saw Prisoner of Azkaban, I was astonished. For the first time, I actually cared about the characters, and understood their motivations. I was still indifferent to the usual setting and sense of play that accompanies Rowling’s creation, but the compassion that Cuaron put into the film had me floored. For that reason, and the fact that this film introduced me to Cuaron’s competent craft, this film has more than earned its place on this list.
Apocalypse Now Redux – This is one of those films I heard about all the time, but never felt compelled to watch. Seth Goodkind saw to it that I did, and I am thankful for it. I loved the imagery, the music, the strange conversations and random encounters, but more than anything else, I was impressed by how well Coppola captured the hysteria and confusion of the war. The latter is summed up in the exchange between Sheen and a soldier working a heavy machine gun: Who’s in charge here, he asks, and the soldier replies, Ain’t you? This film accepts the fact that war is a terrible experience, and gets down to an examination of what it does to the people caught up in its heady momentum.
Once Upon a Time in the West – Another older film that I needed to see; in this case, I have D_Davis to thank for the introduction. Once Upon a Time looks at the myth of the cowboy-cum-wandering-hero while adding to it with its gorgeous setting, great characters, and a slow pace that suits the theme well. There is a lot of symbolism, and it is made only more potent by the fact that the objects which embody these symbols were on the verge of spreading through our society. Money, advertising, the train – all of these objects were refined, then cast across the nation with a singular focus that only paused to check the second hand of a wind-up watch, while anyone not keeping pace with this change was left behind, no matter how strong they were otherwise. Leone was a skilled teller of tales, and his powers are in full effect in this film.
The Warrior’s Journey – This is a documentary that comes with the Special Edition of Enter the Dragon. It was put together and directed by John Little, a sportswriter who has become one of the leading authorities on Bruce Lee and his incredible corpus of writings. The documentary is good, and contains some interesting footage of Bruce Lee in different settings - but what really makes this a gem is the restored cut of every minute of Game of Death that Bruce Lee filmed; if you are an avowed Bruce Lee fan, and haven’t seen this footage yet, you are in for quite a treat. The eleven minutes that made it into the patchwork feature film are a crying shame compared to the beautiful 35 minutes that contain so much of Lee’s philosophy, and some of the best choreography he ever committed to celluloid. This was an awesome find for me, and I will probably return to it more frequently than I do Lee’s other films.
There are other meritorious films I saw this year, and their absence on this list is for the sake of brevity, not any deficiencies resulting from a comparison to the above films. This is not a best-of, but more of a retrospective look at film that found fertile ground in my thoughts, and continues to bear fruit. May you find them equally satisfying.
