What?  No cultural rant?  No scathing commentary on the nature of the society in which we live?  Maybe I'm just mellowing out.  Or was too busy.  Or too overwhelmed by it all.  I refuse to believe it's because I'm too old.  But this year, I'm going to forego the rant and get right to my thoughts on the films that I saw, which sad to say, were fewer this year than ever before in my adult life.  I promise to be better next year.  Honest.  I swear.

So, with no sense of suspense, I'll start with my best and work down from there.

THE BEST

1.  CHILDREN OF MEN -- there must have been a time when BLADERUNNER seemed to present a bleak and pessimistic future derived from current concerns, but after watching CHILDREN OF MEN, BLADERUNNER seems naive and pretty much irrelevant to the world in which we find ourselves.  CHILDREN OF MEN brings us a future that is a heartbeat away and a frightening extrapolation of our evening news.  Basically the nativity story updated, this film is haunting and brutal and when it is all said and done, just a little bit hopeful.

2.  VOLVER -- murder, ghosts, incest, infidelity, deceit, family angst, you name it.  Somehow this film serves up every cliché you'd expect and yet remains so matter of fact and self-assured that it is fresh, sweet and touching.  There's an allegory somewhere in its basic conceit, but VOLVER is first and foremost a family romance, a film that I didn't want to end, because I had come to like the characters so much.  In many ways, this was the most emotionally satisfying film I saw this year.

3.  LITTLE MISS SUNSHINE -- my jaw dropped during the concluding beauty pageant, and my first thought was, "no," only to be convinced by the end credits that it is indeed the perfect comment and ending to the film.  LITTLE MISS SUNSHINE unflinchingly but comically confronts us with pageants' very nature and implications of sexualizing children as little adults, something we seem to ignore in all the gloss of big hair and makeup and doting mothers who supposedly have their children's best interests at heart.  This film works because everyone is struggling to keep their innocence and not become cynical, and each character is worthy of mention.  But two stand out for me: for every laugh the grandfather brings, the teenaged son breaks your heart.

4. PAN'S LABYRINTH -- this film is a dark mix of ruthless violence and nightmarish fantasy that seems to promise redemption for the little girl who becomes convinced that she a lost princess from the underworld.  Certainly the real world in which she lives is one to escape, but the underworld has its own dangers, and as she navigates between the two, she encounters ambiguous characters who might be friend or foe and a future that does not magically rescue her. 

5.  THE DEPARTED -- up until the last 10 minutes, this was an amazing filmic ride and the best Scorsese film in years, but ...  Even though I know he inherited the ending from the original film(s) he's remaking, the ending ultimately feels like the screenwriter ran out of ideas about how to conclude the increasingly crisscrossed parallel plotlines.  Scorsese clearly took liberties with earlier portions of the film in this remake, so why not rethink the ending into something more complex.  Though this film is long, I didn't notice (a rare thing for me) until it basically cheated itself out of really having to deal with the situations it had created.  I totally cared about these characters.  I would have gladly stayed another half hour if it had resulted in an ending that was less abrupt and more satisfying.

6.  CASINO ROYALE -- James Bond has become synonymous with over-the-top comic book gadgets, villains and storylines.  Most of the film franchise feels like an Anderson super-marionation movie that's designed for kids rather than adults.  Of course, one could argue that makes the series perfect escapist fare, but 2006 brought a stripped down (no pun intended) reboot of the franchise that is more layered and character-driven than we had any right to expect.  Though it might go on just a tad long, this is a James Bond for adults and the first in a long time that actually takes itself seriously as a film.

7.  LETTERS FROM IWO JIMA -- stylistically, this is one of the most cohesive of Eastwood's recent films, escaping the flaws of Mystic River and Million Dollar Baby.  There are a few moments that feel too contemporary for a period piece, but overall, this film mines the same territory as GALLIPOLI and in the process, uses tragedy to raise questions of patriotism, honor and duty.

8.  NOTES ON A SCANDAL -- this film somehow manages to be a period piece while set in the present.  That's because it basically takes the 50s and 60s viewpoints of repressed sexuality and does little to contemporize them.  Whether this is because we really haven't come very far at all or because it's an homage to those earlier films or just laziness on the part of the novelist, the story clearly owes to films like THE KILLING OF SISTER GEORGE.  With that said, it has some of the best performances of the year and an uneasy compassion for the illicit affair.

9.  UNITED 93 -- I'm not sure this is really a story; the events and technique seem so matter of fact that it's hard for me to see a narrative shape over and beyond a type of simple documented timeline.  Maybe that's the film's art.  It may not be the masterpiece that many critics implied, but it is haunting, and one of the best moments is when everyone on the plane, terrorists and passengers alike, are praying to the same God as the Pennsylvania landscape rushes towards them.

10.  REPRISE -- this Norwegian film is fragile and beautiful, particularly in its first third when a group of young men gingerly welcome the return of their friend who recently attempted suicide.  There's a vulnerability that comes through not just in the performances, but in the time-bending editing that captures the ways in which past and present can collide in our minds.  The story becomes less haunting and cinematically interesting as it progresses, though the basic concept comes into greater focus.

GUILTY PLEASURE:  THE LAKE HOUSE -- yeah, okay, it's improbable and the logic makes no sense after a certain point, but as a fantasy of romantic fate, the film is surprisingly cohesive.

ONLY TIME WILL TELL: Miami Vice
Is MIAMI VICE brilliant or awful?  It's certainly like no other film I can think of this past year.  What's interesting about it is that Mann seems to be trying to use cinema in a more cinematically subjective way than most filmmakers, and ultimately the film is Sonny's story with everyone else along for the (noisy) ride.

SEEING DOUBLE:  THE PRESTIGE and THE ILLUSIONIST.  You know, the two magician movies.  Both were fun, but ultimately THE PRESTIGE is more interesting in that it is an unexpected throwback to the Gothic lit of the 19th Century.

OVERRATED:  BABEL -- This is the kind of multiple-storyline filmmaking I usually like, but while this film boasted several great performances and a harrowing scene of children stranded in the desert, all of its weaving and globetrotting became too simplistic and too Hollywood in its resolution.

CRACKER AWARDS:  This year's lust objects are Penelope Cruz (VOLVER) and Daniel Craig (CASINO ROYALE).

BEST TV SERIES REBOOT IN 2006:  I had decided 24 had probably run its course and wasn't particularly interested in seeing another season, but with some daring moves (mainly, deaths of main characters), the writers/producers pulled me back in to what is clearly the best season ever.  Makes their task for the new 07 season pretty daunting.

THE WORST FILMS OF THE YEAR

Silent Hill

Freedomland

Crank

The Guardian

The Fountain