The Best Films of 2006
By Nareg Torosian

2006 was a year of great political and personal uncertainty for many Americans, as evidenced by the familiarity of the movies that topped the box office. Billions were plunked down for the latest installments of still-lucrative franchises ("Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest," "X-Men: The Last Stand," "Superman Returns," "Casino Royale"), movies with cartoon animals ("Happy Feet," "Ice Age: The Meltdown," "Over the Hedge"), and all things NASCAR ("Cars" and "Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby"), though there were still some wild cards - namely from a pseudo-Kazakhstani journalist ("Borat"), a highly publicized celebrity romance that soon fizzled ("The Break-Up"), and features from a trio of polarizing filmmakers that were embraced by mainstream audiences (Martin Scorsese's "The Departed," Spike Lee's "Inside Man," and Oliver Stone's "World Trade Center").

Familiarity also pervaded critics' lists this year, as it seemed the same handful of movies and performances were recognized over and over again - "The Departed," "United 93," Helen Mirren's work in "The Queen," Forest Whitaker's performance in "The Last King of Scotland." Consensus was reached on the merits of this year's excellent crop of foreign films as well, as "Pan's Labyrinth," "Volver," "Letters from Iwo Jima," and "The Death of Mr. Lazarescu," among others, all gained considerable attention.

Before getting to my top 10, here’s a list of films that barely placed out but deserve recognition: “Little Children,” Todd Field's deeply flawed but unforgettable look at the dark underbelly of suburbia; “A Prairie Home Companion,” a fitting swan song to Robert Altman's storied career; “Brick,” an affecting combination of film noir and high school drama that transcends gimmckry; “The History Boys,” the superbly acted adaptation of Alan Bennett's Tony-winning play; “The Descent,” one of the smartest and most intense horror films in ages; “The Last King of Scotland,” Kevin Macdonald's bracing look at Idi Amin with a commanding, career-best performance by Forest Whitaker; “Tristram Shandy: A Cock & Bull Story,” Michael Winterbottom's quietly hilarious look at a film crew's attempt of filming Laurence Sterne's unfilmable novel; “Casino Royale,” easily the best Bond film since the Connery era, with Daniel Craig playing the agent more as bloodied brute than suave sophisticate; “Little Miss Sunshine,” one of the most endearing black comedies in recent memory, featuring the year's best ensemble cast; and “The Departed,” Martin Scorsese's solid Boston-ified remake of the Hong Kong police thriller “Infernal Affairs.”

Now, here are the films that I believe were the best of 2006. Please note that I exclude foreign films and documentaries from these lists, as I reward them in separate categories in my yearly film awards list (coming soon).

10. “Half Nelson” – Director: Ryan Fleck
Ryan Gosling's devastating performance as a drug-addicted junior high teacher who forms an unlikely bond with one of his students (outstanding newcomer Shareeka Epps) when she discovers his secret anchors this superb Sundance character study. Fleck's carefully observed writing and the interplay between Gosland and Epps prove that you can make an uplifting film without sidestepping social issues or resorting to cheap, overbearing theatrics (take THAT, "Pursuit of Happyness").

9. “Babel” – Director: Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu
Though it doesn't hold together as neatly as his previous films, Inarritu's final installation of his "chance" trilogy (following "Amores Perros" and "21 Grams") is still a potent examination of how language remains the world's great separator. Boasting a uniformly strong cast (Rinko Kikuchi, Adriana Barraza, and Brad Pitt are particular standouts) and Inarritu's fiercely cinematic eye, "Babel" forces you to live in the moment while questioning the bigger picture.

8. “The Proposition” – Director: John Hillcoat
Since the unofficial death of the Traditional Western decades ago, the darker, de-mystified Revisionist Western took its place, and this Aussie import is the best in the genre since Clint Eastwood's "Unforgiven." Written and scored by everyone's favorite gothic troubadour, Nick Cave, the film has a central conceit - lawman Ray Winstone asks outlaw Guy Pearce to kill his murderous older brother to save his younger one from the gallows - that tackles its themes of desolation and loyalty in ways few other movies have dared.

7. “The Science of Sleep” – Director: Michel Gondry
Working without screenwriter Charlie Kaufman ("Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind") for the first time in his feature film career, Gondry still managed to concoct a touching, funny, and overwhelmingly imaginative love story that is a testament to the power of dreams. Human elements are usually lost in movies like this one, but the sympathetic and engaging performances by Gael Garcia Bernal and Charlotte Gainsbourg ensure that the whimsy never feels forced or grows saccharine, even in the face of Gondry's enchanting wall-to-wall visuals.

6. “The Queen” – Director: Stephen Frears
The world has been agog over Helen Mirren's performance since the film's opening, and rightfully so - who on earth could have made a figure as stodgy and aloof as Queen Elizabeth II a sympathetic one? Peter Morgan's pitch-perfect script first plays to the audience's preconceived notions of the British Royals and Prime Minister Tony Blair (a terrific Michael Sheen) when dealing with the death of Princess Diana, then fleshes out the stereotypes to create characters as full-fledged as those in the most intimate chamber drama.

5. “Inland Empire” – Director: David Lynch
Easily the most challenging film of Lynch's career, this three-hour magnum opus combines the experimental narrative and nightmarish visuals of "Eraserhead" with the rapturous romanticism and Hollywood potshots of "Mulholland Drive." The result is a surreal, frightening mind fuck that unfurls like a product of the inner recesses of the subconscious, one that is as incomprehensible as it is compulsively watchable. This one is for die-hard Lynch fans only - all others, stay the hell away.

4. “The Fountain” – Director: Darren Aronofsky
It divided critics and audiences alike into "love it" and "hate it" camps, but no one could deck Aronofsky's third feature (his first since 2000's "Requiem for a Dream") for lack of ambition. A triptych of interconnected love stories - each set 500 years apart, each featuring Hugh Jackman and Rachel Weisz, and each centering on a search for a fountain of youth - this earnest, challenging meditation on love and loss harkens to "2001: A Space Odyssey," though Kubrick never made anything this heartfelt. Helping it along is Clint Mansell's beautiful score, easily the year's best.

3. “Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan” – Director: Larry Charles
The year's least likely cultural phenomenon took the guise of a mustachioed, clueless, faux-Kazakhstani journalist, and the world is better for it. Sacha Baron Cohen's creation took America by storm, using his subversive comedic tactics to painfully and hilariously uncover the hypocritical underpinnings of so-called polite society. Remarkably consistent, well constructed, and above all, meaningful, this is one of the smartest comedies in ages, leaving howling audiences, a handful of lawsuits, and a celebrity divorce in its wake.

2. “Marie Antoinette” – Director: Sofia Coppola
No one should call her daddy's little girl any more. With her third feature, Coppola has created a body of work with strong thematic resonance and has vaulted herself to the forefront of cinema's leading auteurs. Like the female leads in "The Virgin Suicides" and "Lost in Translation," this version of the titular queen is a girl who must uncomfortably come of age when faced with personal crises beyond her control, but what makes this film so remarkable is how Coppola conveys the untimeliness of this struggle through the lens of history. Employing a modern-day soundtrack (the year's best) that seems miraculously organic, and using tone, characterization, and imagery in ways that recall the work of Terrence Malick, "Marie Antoinette" feels like a life lived rather than a life observed.

1. “Children of Men” – Director: Alfonso Cuaron
Like the best science fiction, Cuaron's adaptation of the P.D. James novel relegates the science to the background and concentrates on the human aspect of its story. The film's central conceit - what would happen to the world if women suddenly became infertile? - should then not be taken literally but as a metaphor for the state of a society where younger generations do not continue the work of previous ones and thus no longer matter. The results of such a society are brought to stunningly palpable life by Cuaron, cinematographer Emmanuel Lubezki, and a small army of production designers, who create a world as fully realized as any in cinematic history. It unfolds at a breakneck pace and contains action sequences that are staggering in their breadth and audacity, but it never loses sight of its emotional core or - in its heart-pounding finale - of a hope for a better tomorrow.