THIS IS THE YEAR THAT WAS
The 10 Best Movies Of 2006 (At Least We Think So)
By Robert Newton

In the days before the Internet (when the world was dark and barbaric), movie critics’ year-end Top-whatever lists were unassailable and perhaps a little too much like gospel. Now, though, with the godsend/unholy plague that is blogging, anyone with an opinion (and even a vague familiarity with the alphabet) can be an e-publisher. With all that in mind, please consider the official Worcester Movies Weekly Top 10 Movies List for 2006 (batteries not included).

10. STRANGER THAN FICTION
Just as Jim Carrey ascended to Serious Actor status with The Truman Show, so too did funnyman Will Ferrell, playing an IRS agent who suddenly starts hearing in his head the verbose narration of a word-blocked writer (Emma Thompson). It is one of the recent movies that reminds us of the simple joys of being alive and sharing it with others, and is a lovely treat.

9. MRS. PALFREY AT THE CLAREMONT
Lazy, thumbnail comparisons to Harold and Maude aside, Dan Ireland’s unassuming little dramatic comedy about a spirited septugenarian (Joan Plowright) who while on holiday meets a young artist (Rupert Friend) is a boundless wonder, warm to its core and quietly reveling in its synchronicity.

8. TSOTSI
A South African gangsta struggles with his humanity after inadvertently kidnapping a baby during a carjacking, and the result is a harrowing but cathartic journey into darkness and ultimately, light.
(more…)

NOT LOST IN TRANSLATION
A 10 Best Anime List
By Shamus Mahan

Ten years ago, a list of ten classic must-see anime would have been preceded by a long introduction to a clannish niche market. Nowadays, though, everybody from insurance companies to fast-food chains is taking advantage of the explosive popularity of this former subculture. For those who still have not jumped on the giant robot bandwagon, though, here is a list of ten anime series that have risen to the top as examples of what is great about the always-diverse medium of Japanese cartoons.

10) OURAN HIGH SCHOOL HOST CLUB (2006, SRP $TBD)
We start with a gender-bending high-school comedy that is definitely not standard fare. With an underlying theme of class struggle, it has a keen sense of humor and endearing characters in an exclusive private school who have more free time than they know what to do with. They decide to start a host club, a pay-for-dates service that leads to situations that to ridiculousness of hitherto unseen levels. Watch for it on DVD in 2007.

9) REVOLUTIONARY GIRL UTENA (1997, $120)
This show is a true head-trip. Technically a “shoujo” anime (aimed at young women), it holds appeal for anyone who enjoys exploring gender roles, the nature of reality and self-determination. For the guys, there are a lot of well-choreographed sword fights, and everyone will enjoy the thoughtful writing.

INU YASHA (2000, $MUC.HO)
Another anime with something for everyone, this is an epic-length program that showcases comic artist Rumiko Takahashi’s tremendous diversity of talents. Not without its flaws, it has nonetheless garnered a huge following internationally, and is certainly worth spending the several days it would take to watch it all.

7) ELFEN LIED (2004, $49.95)
A brilliantly disturbing cavalcade of violence and death about mysterious girls with telekinetic powers, and another example of beautiful animation paired with keen writing and a haunting score. From the opening credits (set to a Latin hymn), to the copious amount of blood, it is a study in contrasts and explores concepts of innocence and power.

6) AKIRA (1988, $39.98)
Every list about anime ends up having this film on it, but that is because it is such a phenomenal film. It is a stunningly animated story that not helped to define the post-apocalyptic cyberpunk archetype, but to launch America’s seemingly insatiable love for the entire anime artform. It does not show its age after almost twenty years, which is no mean feat for a cartoon made before the Internet existed.
(more…)

THE TOP 10 DVD’S OF 2006
By The Editors Of DVDJournal.com

10. STEPHEN TOBOLOWSKY’S BIRTHDAY PARTY (2005)
(Released May 30, 2006)
Stephen Tobolowsky is a Hollywood character actor. When you get him off the set and into the comfort of his Malibu home, with a pot of beer-boiled sausages for the BBQ, he is also a naturally affable raconteur at ease telling his friends funny, epiphanal, moving, and often-bizarre tales from his life. Think of Stephen (and we may call him Stephen) as a softer, rounder, more existentially content Spalding Gray, or the film as a My Dinner With Andre in a pullover sweater and sensible shoes. For DVD extras, we get 14 self-contained outtakes that together become a slightly raunchier ad hoc STBP: Part II.

9. TALLADEGA NIGHTS: THE BALLAD OF RICKY BOBBY (2006)
(Released Dec. 12, 2006)
The year’s most quotable comedy on DVD arrived just before the holidays, and fans are already screaming “Shake and Bake!” at each other while making bizarre references to Highlander, crepes, and the little baby Christmas Jesus. We think co-star John C. Reilly actually stole the movie out from under Will Ferrell’s nose. The evidence? Check out the deleted, extended, and alternate materials on the DVD to see just how hard the cast worked with their setups until they got it so perfect; it’s almost sublime.

8. JUNEBUG (2005)
(Released Jan. 17, 2006)
This little-seen indie comedy deserves more attention than it got, and not just because of Amy Adams’ ambrosial charms in the role that earned her an Oscar nom for Best Supporting Actress. With languid, understated knowingness, director Phil Morrison gives us a measuredly comic South not of Jeff Foxworthy, but a suburban Lost In Translation by way of Flannery O’Connor, where folks eating spaghetti hot dish at a church social can more freely reveal themselves than those at a wine-and-cheese soirée in a cosmopolitan art gallery. The cultures don’t clash, really, but they do scrape the chrome off each other’s fenders. Sony’s DVD includes a generous selection of extras that do a better job of giving us a behind-the-scenes experience than most “making-of” featurettes that are more scripted and budget-showy.
(more…)

WELL, IT’S NEW TO ME…
10 Not Necessarily New Films I Loved This Year
By Rogan Marshall (Self-Professed Netflix Junkie)

10. LEMORA: A CHILD’S TALE OF THE SUPERNATURAL (1973)
One of many misplaced independent classics recently rescued from thorough obscurity for DVD release, writer/director Richard Blackburn’s only feature concerns a Lolitaesque runaway whose search for her missing father leads to a town populated by vampires. Like the slicker but less lovable Company Of Wolves, Blackburn’s film walks a razor’s edge between fantasy and horror, seethes with uncomfortable erotic tension, and crawls with carefully deployed literary references, witty evocations of Lewis Carroll, H.P. Lovecraft, and other progenitors. An “adult fairy tale” that really lives up to such a
description.

9. SEVEN WOMEN FOR SATAN (1976)
Another putative “horror” movie now on DVD after many years of exile, prolific if obscure nudie director Michel Lemoine’s take on “The Most Dangerous Game” defies coherent description. Lemoine plays a bored Parisian Count whose second life, which may be entirely dreamed or hallucinated, revolves around seducing women in his castle in the country, then hunting and killing them. His movie plays advanced games with narrative “reality;” it has a nasty sense of humor, a wild surreal streak, a genuinely Sadian attitude problem and is just as beautiful to look at as the many unclothed actresses who adorn it.

8. 9 SONGS (2004)
Controversial idosyncratic British filmmaker Michael Winterbottom (24 Hour Party People) wrote and directed what may be the best hardcore porn movie ever made. The two leads improvise a summer romance Winterbottom then heavily edits, reducing a strict alternation of conversations, sexual encounters, and musical interludes to the semi-random bytes consisting one’s own memories of passionate doomed affairs. Winterbottom’s film is just as subjective as memory; its pretentions, and graphic sex, alienate many viewers attracted by Winterbottom’s other work. Not me: this is the only porn movie that has ever made me cry at the end.
(more…)