TOP 10 OF 2006
2006 is the year of the Latino. Almodovar's latest film
VOLVER proves the master at his top form. Mexican Guillermo del Toro
returns to Spain after a stab at Hollywood to direct the best film of
his career, EL LABERINTO DEL FAUNO and fellow Mexican Alfonso Cuaron
also fascinates with CHILDREN OF MEN. A major surprise is the largely
funny and offensive box-office hit, BORAT, a favourite with both critics
and public alike. But the best film of this year (and indeed of this
decade) is the French ROIS ET REIN (KINGS AND QUEEN), a 2004 film, which
had a limited run, courtesy of the Cinematheque Ontario. But 2006 had a
good variety of excellent films from all over the world right to down
under with THE PROPOSITION.
Many of the top 10 films are still playing during the
holiday season. But I would advise readers to take my advice and catch
the more obscure, subtitled ones. Nothing like an unexpected surprise
of a near masterpiece!
Below is the list in alphabetical order:-
"BORAT" (USA 2006)
Directed by Larry Charles
The full title of the new Ali G or Sacha Baron Cohen film is BORAT!
CULTURAL LEARNINGS OF AMERICA FOR MAKE BENEFIT GLORIOUS NATION FOR
KAZAKSTAN. Not only is the title outrageously long and almost
impossible to remember unless repeated a dozen times, the broken English
guarantees that no one will get the full title correct. The spirit of
the title is captured consistently throughout the film, arguably the
most blatantly deliberately offensive but the funniest film of 2006.
BORAT is a TV reporter from Kazakhstan sent to the U.S. to make a
documentary and thus learn more for his country. In his travels, done
road trip style, he, and producer Azamat Bagatov (Ken Davitian) get
detoured to California. Almost no group emerges unscathed in the film.
Women, homosexuals, rednecks and high society are all given their fair
share of insults. Surprisingly, the film has a moral message (the
search for finding real beauty) thrown in as well which thankfully, is
dished out effectively (short and sweet) at the end. But the big
surprise is how the film reveals and puts down some real prejudices of
certain groups.
"CHILDREN OF MEN" (UK/USA 2006)
Directed by Alfonso Cuaron
CHILDREN OF MEN tracks the journey undertaken by Theo, a former activist
(Clive Owen) and the miraculously pregnant woman, Kee (Clare-Hope
Ashitey), the first in 18 years to a sanctuary at sea. Based on the
1992 novel by P.D. James, the film works as an adult futuristic
nightmare chase movie set in the year 2027. One reason the film works
is that Cuaron's film feels frighteningly real and current. The
problems of illegal immigrants, terrorists, military brutality depicted
are just as hot as today's headlines. The London created is a bleak one
with gloomy and cloudy skies. Even when the sun shines in one scene,
the brightness emphasizes the grey that is around. The peripheral
characters, Julian (Julianne Moore), Miriam (Pam Ferris), Syd (Peter
Mullan) and Jasper (Michael Caine) are intriguing though they are
dispatched one after another at a pace as quick as the duo outrun their
captors. Cuaron captures the desperation of the situation very well.
The best chase segment has Theo frantically pushing and trying to
jump-start the runaway car with the pursuers not far behind. Curaon has
crafted a neat, gripping and realistic tale of a future.
"THE DEPARTED" (USA 2006)
Directed by Martin Scorsese
THE DEPARTED, the much awaited Hollywood Martin Scorsese remake of the
2002 Hong Kong gangster hit INFERNAL AFFAIRS puts Scorsese back in top
form Oscar material again (after THE AVIATOR). The main plot of THE
DEPARTED is kept identical though both films are radically different but
excellent. The story concerns two moles, one planted in the police
force and the other in an Irish mobster gang. THE DEPARTED is re-set in
South Boston. Billy Costigan (Leonardo DiCaprio) is expelled from the
police force but secretly hired to infiltrate the mob while Colin
Sullivan (Matt Damon) clandestinely reports to his mobster boss Costello
(Jack Nicholson, stealing every scene he is in again) while serving in
uniform. The rest of the film interweaves the action of the two
culminating in a confrontation as both discover each other's identity.
For a film running more than 150 minutes, Scorsese moves his film at a
pace that never slows down.
"FLUSHED AWAY" (UK/USA 2006)
Directed by David Bowers and Sam Fell
The first CGI product from Aardman Studios, FLUSHED AWAY is
fresh, funny, exciting, animated musical with more goings-on on screen
that meets the eye the first viewing. Still designed to give the
characters the look of clay-mated Wallace and Gromit, FLUSHED AWAY
retains the feel and look of the Nick Park product. FLUSHED AWAY begins
with Roddy St. James (Hugh Jackman), a pet mouse living in a Kensington
flat meeting a sewer rat, Sid (Shane Richie). Once Roddy is flushed
down the toilet to the underground city of Ratpolis, the film springs
into action with romance, high speed chases, fights with James Bond
style villains and other spirited high jinx. The new miniature world
down under the sewers, reprising a recognizable London complete with Big
Ben, Tower Bridge and Piccadilly Circus billboards created by the
Aardman Studios is a work of art.
"KINGS AND QUEEN" (France 2004)
Directed by Arnaud Desplechin
ROIS ET REINE translated in English, to plural KINGS and
singular queen refer to 35 year-old single mother Nora (Emmanuelle
Devos) and the four kings (father, first lover, son and ex-second lover)
in her life. The film deals with life, a subject so complicated that
writer/director Arnaud Desplechin attempts to match its diversity with
different methods of story-telling. Nora's life is in a shambles. She
is in the midst of her third lover when her father is taken ill to
hospital with cancer. But her main purpose is to convince her second
lover to adopt her son. Told in non-chronological order, comedy,
melodrama and using mythical means occasionally - example, the ghost of
Nora's first dead lover to reveal her true feelings towards her
pregnancy and first son, the film is intriguing in the manner of how
past relationships improve future ones, if one is bold enough to effect
a change. But for ROIS ET REINE, the story and plot is immaterial. It
is the way the film unfolds and how the Desplechin enthralls the viewer
with his view on life and relationships. ROIS ET REINE is about life,
living, dying, hope, hopelessness and is the most exhilarating
experience I have had in the theatre this year.
"PAN'S LABYRINTH" (Spain/Mexico/USA 2006)
Directed by Guillermo del Toro
The newest piece from director Guillermo de Toro (THE
DEVILS'S BACKBONE, CRONOS, HELLBOY) can be described as a fantasy (magic
portions and portals into other worlds), a horror (giant toads and
crawling bugs) or an adult fairy tale (complete with a kingdom). Del
Toro's film takes place within two twin worlds of fantasy and reality.
The opening voiceover relates the story of a princess who has escaped
her Underground World, only to die and forget her royalty. In the real
world of reality, her soul is reincarnated in the form of a young girl,
Ofelia (Ivana Baquero). Ofelia is being driven with her pregnant
mother, Carmen (Ariadna Gil) to join her stepfather, Captain Vidal
(Sergi Lopez), a sadistic monster of a man who is given the task of
ridding the region of the rebelling guerillas. Here, she is led by a
faun (Doug Jones) on her three tasks to regain the throne. Del Toro
creates magnificent scenes for PAN'S LABYRINTH. He also blends
old-fashioned spectacle and CGI, a feat not easily accomplished in
modern films. Del Toro's imagination into his horror fantasy land
include the classic elements of true love, a journey, sacrifice, beauty,
innocence and the quest for a fairy tale ending of living happily ever
after. There aren't enough superlatives to praise Del Toro's best film
to date.
"THE PROPOSITION" (Australia/UK 2005)
Directed by John Hillcoat
THE PROPOSITION plays like an outback western filled with drama and a
bit of action about loyalty, betrayal and conscience with a blurred line
between good and evil. With an international cast of Guy Pearce, Ray
Winstone, Danny Huston, John Hurt and Emily Watson - all of whom are
marvelous - this is the best film to come out of Australia in a long
time. The Burns Brothers have pillaged the Hopkins ranch killing all
the family members. Believing that the eldest, Arthur (Huston as the
most disturbed villain to be seen on the screen this year) is
responsible, Captain Stanley (Winstone of SEXY BEAST) captures other
brothers Charlie (Pearce) and Mikey (Richard Wilson). THE PROPOSITION
is to have both brothers Charlie and Mikey freed if Charlie (let free by
the Captain) kills Arthur by Christmas Day. THE PROPOSITION is also
handsomely shot, making use of the both the beauty (the weather, dawn
and sunset) and ugliness (the flies and barrenness) of the Australian
outback. But it is Winstone who makes the film. He shows what it is to
play a man without love, one that just functions, driven by confused
emotion.
"3 BURIALS OF MELQUIADES ESTRADA" (USA/France 2005)
Directed by Tommy Lee Jones
THE THREE BURIALS OF MELQUIADES ESTRADA is, according to
director Tommy Lee Jones a study of emotional, psychological, spiritual
and social implications of the U.S and Mexican borders separating two
highly different cultures. What is interesting is that each character
is a victim of unforeseen circumstances, which in the case of the story
happens to be the worst luck that can befall an innocent human being.
Melquiades Estrada is accidentally shot. The culprit is border
patrolman, Mike Norton (Barry Pepper - the bible quoting sniper in
SAVING PRIVATE RYAN) whose married life is mired in boredom. By chance,
local ranch foreman Pete Perkins (Tommy Lee Jones) discovers who killed
his best friend, who again he has promised, out of the blue, to grant
his last wish which is to be buried back in a little known spot in
Mexico. So the main story has Pete kidnapping Mike and with Estrada's
corpse in tow, heading out to the new burial ground. Written by
Guillermo Arriaga, who also penned AMORES PERROS and 21 GRAMS, THREE
BURIALS is a layered and compelling tale of the strong friendship
between two men, Pete and Estrada of different cultures.
"VERS LE SUD" (France/ Canada 2005)
Directed by Laurent Cantet
Laurent Cantet's VERS LE SUD is a disturbing film dealing
with prejudice of the worst kind, the kind in which both victim and
oppressor are unaware of. Secondly, both have no control of the
situation with the result that both become victims at the very end.
Set in the late 70's in Haiti where political turmoil was at its height
at the end of the 'Baby Doc' Duvalier's regime, director and co-writer
Laurent Cantet's VERS LE SUD deals with the stories of three American
women, Brenda (Karen Young), Ellen (Charlotte Rampling) and Sue (Louise
Portal) as they vacation on the sun drenched island of Haiti. This is
the pre-aids era. The trio look for love, sex and affection with the
local young boys and therefore satisfy their sexual desires, pride, need
to be loved and other human wants. Director Cantet's film is complex
and achieves contrasting issues. Everybody wears a mask, says a Haitian
lady at the start of the film - good and bad ones.
VERS LE SUD is a masterful work that accomplishes its goals.
"VOLVER" (Spain 2006)
Directed by Pedro Almodovar
VOLVER, director Pedro Almodovar's latest melodrama is a
tribute to all mothers and the clear message is that they should be
loved for all they do - though they might fart uncontrollably or show up
as a ghost trying to make amends for past sins. VOLVER contains the
best of past Almodovar from his quirky humor and his best actors, Carmen
Maura and Chus Lampreave to the settings of the old villages (La Mancha)
and his saturated coloured look of his films. An addition in VOLVER is
Almodovar's extensive use of the element - WIND. From the first
(gorgeous) shot of all the women cleaning the tombstones in the
cemetery, with the wind blowing their pretty skirts up into the air and
the flowers away, to the beauty of the new LA MANCHA (the place of
Almodovar's birth) with the wind turbines replacing the windmills of old
to the metaphor of the ill wind that brings madness to the village,
Almodovar creates a tale that brims with both beauty of hidden menace.
The story centres on Raimunda (Penelope Cruz). Life takes a turn when
her loutish husband is murdered. At the same time, her aunt (Chus
Lampreave) passes away, triggering the re-appearance of her mother
(Carmen Maura) as a ghost. If the story appears complicated, Almodovar
makes it all so easy to understand on screen as he is such an expert and
effortless storyteller. Perfect Almodovar!
- Gilbert Seah -