By Anne Brodie Jan 6, 2007, 10:12 GMT
Yes, ladies and gentlemen, Monster and Critics very own film critic (her web page reads "entertainment specialist and reviewer") Anne Brodie has come up with her top ten favorite films for 2006.
Anne is a member of the Broadcast Film Critics' Association and the Toronto Film Critics' Association AND she is the only member of our movie staff with her own publicist/agent (Hey Anne, lets do lunch!)
Here is Anne’s top ten for ’06:
Letters from Iwo Jima (WB) - Clint Eastwood’s sympathetic and elegant epic puts a human face on the enemy - a much-needed lesson today, fifty years after the Korean War. A minimalist, nearly perfect film.
The Queen (Miramax) – Like Iwo Jima, The Queen puts a human face on the unknown. Her majesty’s face may be recognized around the world but no one knows her. Watching the Queen open plastic ware to take out buns at a family picnic, during the worst royal crisis in recent memory, is astonishing.
Babel (Paramount Vantage) – A painstakingly crafted anthology that spans the world, radiating out of a single act. Making it work, while transforming an international heartthrob into a suffering, tragic human – that’s some clever work!
United 93 (Universal) – One of the most wrenching films in years, its genius is in simplicity. It’s an arrow to the heart reawakening the pain of fall, 2001, America. Written and directed by Paul Greengrass, an Englishman.
The Departed (WB) – The ensemble, Scorsese’s frantic direction and a hell of yarn make for a memorable movie.
Little Children (New Line) – How clever are filmmakers who can make us cry for a child molester? The film goes against everything we accept as ‘normal’. It’s risky and repellant, challenging and rewarding.
A Prairie Home Companion (indie) – it’s a bittersweet study in the passing of everything. Garrison Keillor’s gently alarming fiction doesn’t feel like fiction. And the music’s great.
Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan (Fox) – He may have gone fifteen minutes too long, but Sacha Baron Cohen has established himself as an original. The hottest ticket this year.
Brick (indie) – A masterful reworking of the noir genre for a new generation. Not just masterful, a masterpiece that hardly made a beep at the box office.
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