Film Lists 2006

NOTE: I included all new movies, as well as all notable old movies. I included no bad movies and some, but not all, of the one-star movies. I also only included previously seen movies if my assessment changed. There may be additions over the last two weeks of the year. The best of certain groups have been bolded.

Best New Movies¹

1. Mutual Appreciation [Andrew Bujalski]
2. L'enfant [Luc & Jean-Pierre Dardenne]
3. The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada [Tommy Lee Jones]
4. The Death of Mr. Lazarescu [Cristi Puiu]
5. Half Nelson [Ryan Fleck]
6. Lady Vengeance [Park Chan-wook]
7. This Film Is Not Yet Rated [Kirby Dick]
8. Shortbus [John Cameron Mitchell]
9. Innocence [Lucile Hadzihalilovic]
10. Why We Fight [Eugene Jarecki]

Other New Movies

• Brick [Rian Johnson]
• Fast Food Nation [Richard Linklater]
• A Scanner Darkly [Richard Linklater]²
• Jonestown [Stanley Nelson]
• Match Point [Woody Allen]
• Volver [Pedro Almodovar]
• A Prairie Home Companion [Robert Altman]
• A Comedy of Power [Claude Chabrol]
• Police Beat [Robinson Devor]
• Flags of Our Fathers [Clint Eastwood]
• Seven Swords [Tsui Hark]
• Three Times [Hou Hsiao-hsien]
• The New World [Terence Malick]
• Capote [Bennett Miller]
• Tristram Shandy [Michael Winterbottom]
---

• The Bridesmaid [Claude Chabrol]
• The Intruder [Claire Denis]
• Stranger than Fiction [Marc Forster]
• Talladega Nights [Adam McKay]
• The Prestige [Christopher Nolan]
• Murderball [Henry Alex Rubin & Dana Shapiro]
• The Departed [Martin Scorsese]
• Maxed Out [James Scurlock]
• Bubble [Steven Soderbergh]
• Transamerica [Duncan Tucker]

Best Old Movies

• My Man Godfrey [Gregory La Cava, 1936]
• Rear Window [Alfred Hitchcock, 1954]
• Touchez pas au grisbi [Jacques Becker, 1956]
• Night and Fog [Alain Resnais, 1956]
• Touch of Evil [Orson Welles, 1958]
• Le Trou [Jacques Becker, 1960]
• Winter Light [Ingmar Bergman, 1962]
• The Last Picture Show [Peter Bogdanovich, 1971]
• The Long Goodbye [Robert Altman, 1973]
• Fanny & Alexander [Ingmar Bergman, 1983]
• Stranger than Paradise [Jim Jarmusch, 1984]
• Slacker [Richard Linklater, 1991]
• Satantango [Bela Tarr, 1994]
• The White Balloon [Jafar Panahi, 1995]
• La Ciénaga [Lucrecia Martel, 2000]
• J.S.A. [Park Chan-wook, 2000]
• Werckmeister Harmonies [Bela Tarr, 2000]
• Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter… and Spring [Kim Ki-duk, 2003]
• Oldboy [Park Chan-wook, 2003]
• 2046 [Wong Kar-wai, 2004]
• Broken Flowers [Jim Jarmusch, 2005]
• 3-Iron [Kim Ki-duk, 2005]
• Junebug [Phil Morrison, 2005]

Other Old Movies

• Head-On [Fatih Akin, 2004]
• Paper Moon [Peter Bogdanovich, 1973]
• Port of Shadows [Marcel Carné, 1938]
• The Conversation [Francis Ford Coppola, 1974]
• Holiday [George Cukor, 1938]
• Band of Outsiders [Jean-Luc Godard, 1964]
• Mystery Train [Jim Jarmusch, 1989]
• In the Mood for Love [Wong Kar-wai, 2000]
• Where Is the Friend's Home? [Abbas Kiarostami, 1987]
• Harlan County U.S.A. [Barbara Kopple, 1976]
• The Shining [Stanley Kubrick, 1980]
• Vera Drake [Mike Leigh, 2004]
• Harold & Kumar Go to White Castle [Danny Leiner, 2004]
• The Shop Around the Corner [Ernst Lubitsch, 1940]
• Heaven Can Wait [Ernst Lubitsch, 1943]
• Eraserhead [David Lynch, 1977]
• La Jetée [Chris Marker, 1962]
• Le Samourai [Jean-Pierre Melville, 1967]
• Howl's Moving Castle [Hayao Miyazaki, 2004]
• Floating Weeds [Yasujiro Ozu, 1959]
• Oldboy [Park Chan-wook, 2003]
• The Killers [Robert Siodmak, 1946]
• Sunset Boulevard [Billy Wilder, 1950]
• Days of Being Wild [Wong Kar-Wai, 1990]
---

• Blood Simple [Joel and Ethan Coen, 1984]
• A History of Violence [David Cronenberg, 2005]
• Kings and Queen [Arnaud Desplechin, 2005]
• Histoire(s) du Cinema [Jean-Luc Godard, 1997]
• Dazed & Confused [Richard Linklater, 1993]
• The Corporation [Mark Achbar & Jennifer Abbott, 2003]
• The Purple Rose of Cairo [Woody Allen, 1985]
• The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie [Luis Buñuel, 1972]
• Videodrome [David Cronenberg, 1982]
• Dead Ringers [David Cronenberg, 1988]
• Naked Lunch [David Cronenberg, 1991]
• Casablanca [Michael Curtiz, 1942]
• Night and the City [Jules Dassin, 1950]
• Unforgiven [Clint Eastwood, 1992]
• Pickup on South Street [Samuel Fuller, 1952]
• Pierrot le fou [Jean-Luc Godard, 1965]
• Week-End [Jean-Luc Godard, 1967]
• 21 Grams [Alejandro Gonzalez Iñarritu, 2003]
• Caché [Michael Haneke, 2004]
• Scarface [Howard Hawks, 1932]
• Grizzly Man [Werner Herzog, 2005]
• The 39 Steps [Alfred Hitchcock, 1935]
• Shadow of a Doubt [Alfred Hitchcock, 1942]
• Millennium Mambo [Hou Hsiao-hsien, 2001]
• Dead Man [Jim Jarmusch, 1995]
• Me and You and Everyone We Know [Miranda July, 2005]
• Donnie Darko: The Director's Cut [Richard Kelly, 2001]
• Infernal Affairs [Andrew Lau, 2002]
• To Be or Not to Be [Ernst Lubitsch, 1942]
• Days of Heaven [Terrence Malick, 1978]
• The Awful Truth [Leo McCarey, 1937]
• Charleen [Ross McElwee, 1978]
• Army of Shadows [Jean-Pierre Melville, 1969]
• The Thin Blue Line [Errol Morris, 1988]
• When a Woman Ascends the Stairs [Mikio Naruse, 1960]
• The Story of Floating Weeds [Yasujiro Ozu, 1934]
• Monterey Pop [D.A. Pennebaker, 1968]
• Force of Evil [Abraham Polonsky, 1948]
• The River [Jean Renoir, 1951]
• Schizopolis [Steven Soderbergh, 1996]
• Duel [Steven Spielberg, 1971]
• The Five Obstructions [Lars von Trier, 2004]
• Picnic at Hanging Rock [Peter Weir, 1975]
• Tristram Shandy [Michael Winterbottom, 2005]
• Fallen Angels [Wong Kar-wai, 1995]
• How to Steal a Million [William Wyler, 1966]
• Crumb [Terry Zwigoff, 1994]
---

• Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room [Alex Gibney, 2005]
• Eyes Wide Shut [Stanley Kubrick, 1999]
• The 40 Year-Old Virgin [Judd Apatow, 2005]
• Grosse Pointe Blank [George Armitage, 1997]
• Au Hasard Balthazar [Robert Bresson, 1966]
• The Intruder [Claire Denis, 2004]
• Wedding Crashers [David Dobkin, 2005]
• Days of Wine and Roses [Blake Edwards, 1962]
• Nanook of the North [Robert Flaherty, 1922]
• Nine Lives [Rodrigo Garcia, 2004]
• Every Man for Himself [Jean-Luc Godard, 1979]
• In Praise of Love [Jean-Luc Godard, 2001]
• Crash [Paul Haggis, 2005]
• The Aristocrats [Penn Jillette & Paul Provenza, 2005]
• My Architect [Nathaniel Kahn, 2003]
• The Ice Storm [Ang Lee, 1997]
• It's Impossible to Learn to Plow by Reading Books [Richard Linklater, 1988]
• Bad News Bears [Richard Linklater, 2005]
• Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me [David Lynch, 1992]
• Sans Soleil [Chris Marker, 1982]
• Backyard [Ross McElwee, 1976]
• Beyond the Valley of the Dolls [Russ Meyer, 1970]
• Vernon, Florida [Errol Morris, 1981]
• Control Room [Jehane Noujaim, 2004]
• Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance [Park Chan-wook, 2002]
• Johnny Guitar [Nicholas Ray, 1954]
• Classe Tous Risques [Claude Sautet, 1960]
• Off the Map [Campbell Scott, 2005]
• Stella Dallas [King Vidor, 1937]

¹I tried to include films that played most or all of their opening theatrical engagement in Seattle in 2006.
²Taken separately, I don't feel either of Richard Linklater's films this year are as good as those in the top ten. As a combined work, though, they certainly deserve some sort of extremely honorable mention.