Best of 2006: Top 10 Experiences

1. Fantastic Fest
"I'm enjoying watching movies with people who know how to watch movies." That was my reaction after the second day of the festival, held in late September at the Alamo Drafthouse in Austin, Texas, and it held true throughout this marvelous event. Eight days, 32 films, and countless beers later, I had the good fortune to have seen some of the best films of the year (The Host, Pan's Labyrinth, Funky Forest, Severance, Isolation) and to have met some of the sharpest, funniest film fans in the world.

Family Dysfunction and Japanese Strangeness
The Hamster Cage Review
The Living and the Dead Review
Getting Mighty Crowded; Style Over Substance?
Abominable Review
Frostbite (Frostbiten) Review
Unrest Review
Apocalypto Now
Mad Cows and Even Madder Slashers
Monstrous Expectations
Lucky Times Two; Brit Brutality
A Spanish Fairy Tale, a Twisting Brit Tenant, an American Mystery, and a German/Danish Romance
Audience and Jury Awards Announced

2. Three Times
Some day I hope to be able to express in words how this movie expanded my cinematic boundaries in a single viewing. Other worthy "life changing" candidates include Old Joy, L'Enfant, and Woman on the Beach.

3. The Wire
Big thanks to the Twitch Forum poster who suggested I give this show (available via US premium channel HBO and soon on DVD) a fair chance. Even without seeing the first three series, the fourth proved to be a low-key masterpiece, densely layered, subtle in its characterizations, and even-tempered in the bleak reality it portrays of Big City America. Other terrific television experiences included Spike Lee's sprawling documentary When the Levees Broke and David Milch's magnificent, operatic Western Deadwood.

4. McCabe & Mrs. Miller
The most fascinating thing to me about all the blog posts written in the wake of Robert Altman's death last month is that nobody could agree on the masterpieces or the crapola. For years I've had reservations about a number of the revered director's films that have left me cold and/or baffled as to their generally exalted status in American Cinema (including Nashville and Short Cuts). But watching a very decent print of a film that has always looked too dark and muddy on the small screen -- courtesy of the American Cinematheque's Aero Theater -- simply swept me away.

5. Dog Bite Dog (Review)
The Hong Kong film industry may be down, but it's not out.

6. Life on Mars (Revew)
I know next to nothing about British TV, but I know what I like, and Series One is a humdinger.

7. Emperor of the North
Whenever you're feeling down and out, you simply must plug this movie into your DVD player. Lee Marvin and Ernest Borgnine are the grottiest-looking hero/villain duos ever displayed on any screen, the pace is brisk, the scenery is beautiful, and you may even learn a thing or two about human nature. Weren't the 70s grand? Very close runner-up (in the brisk 70s throwback, 'don't make 'em like they used to' entertainment category): The Seven-Ups (Review)

8. F*ck (Review | Interview with Steve Anderson)
You should know by now that I'm never going to miss a chance to plug this very entertaining documentary. Coming soon on DVD.

9. Head Trauma (Review)
Creepy, man, creepy. Kudos to Lance Weiler.

10. Last Rites (Interview with Duane Stinnett and Krissann Shipley)
Gangsters meet zombies in an abandoned warehouse. Imaginative and tense.

Special Recognition was awarded to three movies and a television show that made me laugh hard and consistently throughout their respective running times.

Time fails me -- each deserves their own story -- but I cannot allow the year to end without at least citing the following:

Most Gracious to a Quivering Fan: Richard Riehle (IMDB page)

Greatest Uplift in the Middle of a Festival: The Lives of Others (Review)
Still Unjustifiably Thrilling, Even on a 13-inch TV: Terminator 2: Judgment Day
Most Excellent Black and White Surprise: My Mother and Her Guest (Review)
Insanest Unofficial, Illegal Theater-Jumping Triplebill: Crank/Idiocracy/The Wicker Man
Most Memorable Audience Reaction: (tie) The Protector, Hatchet