mouton's best of 2006

[mouton]

Hello filmleaf peeps.

This is a cut and paste job directly from my blog where I am known as Black Sheep. This is my final list ... the only movie I did not get to see before I made the list that I wanted to was The Good German but seeing as how I saw 12 movies in the last 7 days to finish this by today, I think I did pretty good. The most nominated:

The Queen, 6
Little Children, 5
The Departed & Half Nelson, 4


Hope you like ...


BLACK SHEEP’S BEST OF 2006


2006, huh? Done and gone, you say? Would it be wrong to say good riddance? It was a good year for Black Sheep but not a great year for film. Before September rolled around, I thought we were doomed. I had only caught a handful of enjoyable films and been subjected to heaps of mediocrity. Enjoyable times but forgettable ones. Luckily, a few surprises came through in the fall quarter, making this yearend list possible (for a while I didn’t think it was going to happen).

Last year around this time, I had only been reviewing films for a few months. I’ve now banked an entire year’s worth of reviews that are being read by hundreds of strangers every month. It’s a beautiful progression and I thank you all for reading and showing your support.

I’ve been cramming so many movies in this last week and I’m happy to bring you … BLACK SHEEP’S BEST OF 2006. Before you get to the results, I’ll preface by saying that I try my darndest to see as many movies as I could but ’m not a professional with time to see everything that hits the theatres, I can’t see everything. I tend to avoid films I know I won’t like so this list is based on a long list of films I took chances on. I saw over 70 new movies in 2006 and I give you my favorites in all the regular categories. I’ve also added a category or two and tweaked others. This year, the screenplay category has been broken up into adapted and original. The best independent film has been changed to the Best Little Think Piece … the nominations there represent some of the smaller films of the year that speak volumes despite their small frames. And finally, I’ve also introduced an animation category, which I’ve named, The Trevor Adams Animated Feature Award, after my friend / roommate / business partner. He is a talented animator that makes me watch more animated features than I normally would.

Just like last year, I’m announcing my nominees two days before the Academy announces theirs and I will announce the winners two days before the Oscars are televised. Regular Black Sheep reviews will start back up in a couple of weeks. I think I need a tiny break because all these movies are starting to look the same. Enjoy the rest of awards season and here’s hoping the Academy doesn’t screw everything up this year like they did last.

Happy 2007!


BEST POPCORN MOVIE

- Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Making Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan
- Casino Royale
- The Departed
- Dreamgirls
- V for Vendetta


BEST LITTLE THINK PIECE

- Death of a President
- Half Nelson
- Hard Candy
- Little Children
- Little Miss Sunshine


THE WORST FILM I SAW ALL YEAR

- Bon Cop, Bad Cop
- For Your Consideration
- Idlewild
- The Omen
- Sorry, Haters


THE TREVOR ADAMS ANIMATED FEATURE AWARD

- Cars
- Happy Feet
- Monster House


BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR

- Alan Arkin, Little Miss Sunshine
- Jackie Earle Haley, Little Children
- Djimon Hounsou, Blood Diamond
- Eddie Murphy, Dreamgirls
- Michael Sheen, The Queen


BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS

- Cate Blanchette, Notes on a Scandal
- Shareeka Epps, Half Nelson
- Jennifer Hudson, Dreamgirls
- Rinko Kikuchi, Babel
- Meryl Streep, The Devil Wears Prada


BEST ADAPTED SCREENPLAY

- Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Making Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan, Sacha Baron Cohen, Anthony Hines, Peter Baynham, Dan Mazer, Todd Phillips
- The Departed, William Monahan
- Little Children, Todd Field and Tom Perrotta
- Notes on a Scandal, Patrick Marber
- The Painted Veil, Ron Nyswaner


BEST ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY

- Babel, Guillermo Arriaga
- Half Nelson, Anna Boden and Ryan Fleck
- The Queen, Peter Morgan
- Stranger than Fiction, Zach Helm
- United 93, Paul Greengrass


BEST ACTOR

- Sacha Baron Cohen, Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Making Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan
- Aaron Echkart, Thank You for Smoking
- Ryan Gosling, Half Nelson
- Will Smith, The Pursuit of Happyness
- Forest Whittaker, The Last King of Scotland

BEST ACTRESS

- Judi Dench, Notes on a Scandal
- Maggie Gyllenhaal, Sherrybaby
- Helen Mirren, The Queen
- Naomi Watts, The Painted Veil
- Kate Winslet. Little Children


BEST DIRECTOR

- Clint Eastwood, Letters from Iwo Jima
- Stephen Frears, The Queen
- Paul Greengrass, United 93
- Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu, Babel
- Martin Scorcese, The Departed


BEST PICTURE

- The Departed
- Letters from Iwo Jima
- Little Children
- The Queen
- United 93

[mouton]

BLACKSHEEP’S BEST OF 2006
AND THE MOUTON D’OR GOES TO …

That’s right. I called it a MOUTON D’OR. You got a problem with that? Wait. Why am I being so defensive? I guess because I anticipate a loud, collective groan being let out after I post this. Of course, that theory presumes that enough people would be logging on to the site to let out a groan that would be reasonably audible. Not to mention, they would all have to be online at the same time for it be collective. Anyway, no matter. It’s time to give away some MOUTON D’OR love to some very deserving films and performances. And seeing as how you are in fact here and reading my neurotic rambling, that is what matters most.

I think I’ve complained enough about how rotten 2006 was for film. Uninspired! Tired! Inconsistent! You name the film critic cliché and I’ve said it. Only, as I went through my nominations for the Best of 2006, something I was not expecting happened. It was actually difficult to choose a winner in some of these categories. Not all but definitely some. The films that did rise above the heaps of crap were somewhat spectacular. Yes, some were flawed but their flaws have become endearing with time. The movies that I cherished most this year have all grown in my esteem and touched or enlightened me in ways I did not think they would have been able to.

In January, I narrowed down my favorites from 2006 and the time has now come to further narrow these already short lists to even shorter lists made up of just one. That one is the winner of the highly coveted MOUTON D’OR … well, theoretically coveted, as a physical statuette does not actually exist at this moment. All in due time. And now the winners …


BEST POPCORN MOVIE

The nominees in this category are here because they succeeded in being big, enjoyable, and entertaining without being standard Hollywood fair, with all the trappings of a formula film.

CASINO ROYALE had a raw energy to its quick action and successfully reinvigorated the Bond franchise but I can’t let it win just because Daniel Craig was unbelievably delicious. THE DEPARTED blew me away. It was tense and full of life, not something I was expecting from Scorcese but it’s got holes that ultimately undermine the whole thing. The music from DREAMGIRLS is in constant rotation on my ipod but a great soundtrack does not make for an equally great film. V FOR VENDETTA was explosive, surprisingly witty and brave but only slightly less brave than the winner of this year’s MOUTON D’OR.
2006’s Best Popcorn Movie was bold and hilarious. There was rarely a moment I was not in stitches and I was constantly impressed with just how far and just how accusatory the film was willing to be. For literally being the ballsiest film of the year, the MOUTON D’OR for Best Popcorn Movie goes to

BORAT: CULTURAL LEARNINGS OF AMERICA FOR MAKING BENEFIT GLORIOUS NATION OF KAZAKHSTAN


BEST LITTLE THINK PIECE

The nominees in this category made the most of their small budgets and limited exposure to leave a deep mark on this here filmgoer that stayed long after the lights came up.

DEATH OF A PRESIDENT was classy, stylish and civilized. It made insinuations about the future of a Bush-run America without calling on easy attack points. HALF NELSON was a dizzying and honest look at a man in desperate need of change whose job it is to teach about historical change. HARD CANDY was the visual equivalent of eating an incredibly colorful candy that was entirely too difficult to swallow. LITTLE MISS SUNSHINE was beautiful, quirky and much more enjoyable the second time around for me. All of these movies give you more the more you watch them but none match the dark, twisted, hilarious depth of this year’s winner by director, Todd Field, a man I believe will one day be described as one of the greats. For exposing suburbia as the supposedly grown up elementary school playground it is, the 2006 MOUTON D’OR for Best Little Think Piece goes to …

LITTLE CHILDREN


THE WORST FILM I SAW ALL YEAR

Make no mistake, this category does not dishonour the worst movie of the year because I have not seen every movie released this year. However, of those I’ve seen, these were the most appalling by far.

Despite its record breaking success, I found BON COP, BAD COP to be entirely unfunny and I am still puzzled as to why it is considered a step forward for Canadian cinema when it is nothing more than LETHAL WEAPON 20 years later. FOR YOUR CONSIDERATION flies by but is awkwardly acted and edited into a confusing mess when it could have been a contender given its promising premise. The first few minutes of IDLEWILD are energizing and get you bouncing in your seat but it quickly turns into a sequence of pointless music videos that are only more frustrating to watch because you can see the obvious story that should have been followed waiting in the wings. SORRY, HATERS is a movie you have likely never heard of because it got no play. It has somehow managed to get recognized at the Independent Spirit Awards, which has made me wholly disinterested in their opinion. It is so horrible a look at post-September 11th angst that it only serves to further demonstrate how much I hated this year’s loser. For thinking it actually had style when it was nothing more than a poorly executed Ikea ad; for it’s laughably flat performances from leads Liev Schreiber and Julia Stiles; for sickeningly using footage of real life atrocities to further its own plot that the devil is coming; and for remaking a movie just because the year happened to have a convenient 6-6-6 release date, 2006’s MOUTON D’OR for The Worst Movie I Saw All Year goes to …

THE OMEN


THE TREVOR ADAMS ANIMATED FEATURE AWARD

2006 brought upon a new roommate to my life and though Trevor has been a friend for years, living with him has brought much more animation into my life, as animation is his passion. This award is meant to honour the animated feature that impresses from a technical standpoint while satisfying on a deeper level as well.

I must admit that I did not love CARS. It is nominated here because the folks at Pixar always push themselves creatively as far as they can. It is the perfect example of a film that should be happy just to be nominated. HAPPY FEET is infinitely more enjoyable and surprising. It’s a cross between MOULIN ROUGE and THE MARCH OF THE PENGUINS. Satisfying and technically well executed. Check out that combo, CARS. Meanwhile, another less recognized film manages to surpass them both in both execution and satisfaction. This year’s winner is both tender and tense, creating a realistic look at that time in everyone’s life when you realize you may be getting too old for trick or treating. Given that the award is named after him and I know he loved this film, I am happy to announce that the MOUTON D’OR for the first-ever Trevor Adams Animated Feature Award goes to …

MONSTER HOUSE


BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR

In LITTLE MISS SUNSHINE, Alan Arkin played the wise elder of the dysfunctional family. This was all a bit misguided as his advice ranged from telling his granddaughter that he loves her most for her looks and telling his grandson that he should fuck as many women as possible in his life ahead. Yet still you never doubted he cared. BLOOD DIAMOND gave Djimon Hounsou another chance to scream and shout but no one does it more passionately than he does and his perseverance was moving. Eddie Murphy showed everyone a much deeper side to his performance capabilities in DREAMGIRLS. His singing and dancing were impressive but it was the look in his eyes as a man broken by the machine he helped build that was most memorable. Throughout THE QUEEN, Michael Sheen, as newly elected Prime Minister, Tony Blair, is constantly bewildered by the actions of the Royal Family. He is a man torn between wanting to help and tear them down all at the same time.

Another torn man takes the prize though. Everyone hates this man except for his mother. Her love makes him want to be a better person but he knows better,. For wearing both that knowledge and a burning desire to change on his face and shoulders, the MOUTON D’OR for Best Supporting Actor goes to …

JACKIE EARLE HALEY in LITTLE CHILDREN


BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS

When is Cate Blanchett not incredible? In NOTES ON A SCANDAL, she cheats on her husband, abuses the friendship of a colleague and has an affair with a 15-year-old student yet you still manage to feel for her. As a young girl trying to choose between two paths that are equally wrong for her, newcomer, Shareeka Epps, is poised and curiously fascinating. Her performance in HALF NELSON shows incredible promise. Jennifer Hudson had big shows to fill with her role as Effie White in DREAMGIRLS and she did just that. She was a little shaky in them at first but by the time she belts out the character’s signature number, she planted those shoes firmly into the stage and brought me to tears and shivers. Meryl Streep is another actress who so rarely takes a wrong step. She is the best thing, if not the only good thing, in THE DEVIL WEARS PRADA. She plays an ice queen who lets her inner warmth show for a spilt second and shatters your entire perception of that character in that one tiny moment.

The winner of this category speaks volumes without saying anything at all. She is tragic and misunderstood, fragile and aggressive. Your heart goes out to her and breaks every time she tries to reach out. The MOUTON D’OR for Best Supporting Actress goes to …

RINKO KIKUCHI in BABEL


BEST ADAPTED SCREENPLAY

As far as the term “adapted” goes, I think it applies very loosely to BORAT. Sasha Baron Cohen & Co.’s script is at times low brow comic genius and sharp social commentary at others. However, the line between what is scripted and what it purely improvised is too blurry to distinguish. William Monahan took a Hong Kong crime tale, INFERNAL AFFAIRS, and translated it into American terms. Smoking out the moles becomes a great game where everyone’s motivations come into question but a couple of sizable holes ultimately undermine the film. NOTES ON A SCANDAL, by British playwright, Patrick Marber, pits two women against each other with only one realizing just how serious the game is. It is both thrilling and intellectual but it stops there. Ron Nyswaner’s script for THE PAINTED VEIL is delicate and romantic. Two people do what they think they should for all the wrong reasons which leads them to hate each other before a situation forces them to learn to love.

Despite all these solid examples of pointed writing, there is only one script that bites off more than it can chew and manages to swallow it all without choking. This tale of suburban sleepwalkers is deliciously dark and tensely erotic. Yet somehow, despite its disturbing nature, it also manages to be hilarious and telling. The 2006 MOUTON D’OR for Best Adapted Screenplay goes to …

TODD FIELD & TOM PERROTTA for LITTLE CHILDREN


BEST ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY

Guillermo Arriaga’s vast script for BABEL stretches far and wide to make its point. Individually, the stories are beautiful and harrowing but the distance is sometimes too far to make a connection. Anna Boden and Ryan Fleck’s HALF NELSON tells of how one experience, which becomes a secret, can connect the unlikeliest of people. Though one is a teacher and one is his student, it is the teacher that has more to learn from her. Zach Helm’s STRANGER THAN FICTION is structured and organized and balances these fine attributes in a world that has become increasingly more chaotic. Although eye-opening from the perspective of the subject, it is even more telling from the perspective of the author. Paul Greengrass deserves credit simply for his sensitivity. For UNITED 93, he spoke with the families of the victims from that famous flight to ensure that he got every detail right. He ended up writing words about nothing that said so much about where everyone’s head was at on that historical day.

As a writer myself though, I have to commend this year’s winner for taking a real life person who hides behind a castle gate. He recognized all the factors that lent to a tragic death becoming a turning point in British history and he did so with only a few years hindsight. Despite having no contact with his subject, the character he imagined seems so plausible as the real deal. The MOUTON D’OR for Best Original Screenplay goes to …

PETER MORGAN for THE QUEEN


BEST ACTOR

I would like to preface this category by saying that Peter O’Toole should have been nominated in this category but I had not had the privilege of seeing him in VENUS before these nominations were announced. He had childlike awe on his weathered face throughout a film that focused on showing what it was like in his last days.

As BORAT, Sasha Baron Cohen puts himself in countless dangerous and embarrassing situations all for the benefit of our own entertainment. His performance managed to pull legions into the theatres, many of whom he was laughing directly at. Aaron Eckhart is much more subtle but just as solid as a man whose job it is to lobby on behalf of big tobacco companies in THANK YOU FOR SMOKING. He is constantly attacked for the poor example he is setting for his child but what he is really teaching him is confidence. Will Smith hollowed me out in THE PURSUIT OF HAPPYNESS. Treading through despair is not common in Hollywood fare and Will Smith is as Hollywood as you can get. Yet his performance here strikes the right balance of film star admiration and genuine skill to make anyone who sees it feel their life is not as bad as they thought. Forrest Whitaker, well a lot is being said about Forrest Whitaker. In THE LAST KING OF SCOTLAND, as Ugandan dictator, Ida Amin, he is frighteningly unbalanced and unhinged. There is some level of nobility buried deep beneath all of his paranoia and selfishness that makes this monster still human.

Despite Whitaker winning mostly every major award, my vote goes to a man who has himself in a sleeper hold. He teaches of how history is made. He claims that change is inevitable, that turning points happen and that there is no looking back. When one such turning point happens in his own life, he isn’t able to accept it. The performance struggles to be simple but is held prisoner by years of self-abuse. The MOUTON D’OR for Best Actor goes to …

RYAN GOSLING in HALF NELSON


BEST ACTRESS

Anyone who knows me knows I love my girls so this category is always a difficult one. As a bitter, lonely woman in NOTES ON A SCANDAL, Judi Dench is at her usual finest. She is manipulative but so unhappy that one can’t help but forgive her when she lashes out. It’s hard to love someone so hateful but Dench makes it so you have to. I always say that Maggie Gyllenhaal may possibly be prettier than her brother, Jake. As the title character in SHERRYBABY, she plays a recovering drug addict just out of prison who tries to reconnect with her five-year-old daughter. She has the will to make a new life for her daughter and herself but her body quivers with urges she has been spending years trying to shake. Naomi Watts is one of my favorite modern actresses. In THE PAINTED VEIL, she transforms from a selfish person into one that is entirely giving. Her character simply matures before our eyes. If there is anyone I enjoy more than Watts, it is Kate Winslet. She can do almost any role it seems and in LITTLE CHILDREN, she treats her daughter with contempt, her neighbours with superiority and herself with no consideration at all. That is until she wakes from her sleep and her body comes back to life … again and again and again.

There can be only one woman to wear the crown and 2006 saw near unanimous praise for one performance. This actress breathed life into an already living historical figure that the public barely knows. Who knows if that’s how she truly is but this performance is so believable, it’s hard to imagine her any other way after seeing it. The MOUTON D’OR for Best Actress goes to …

HELEN MIRREN in THE QUEEN


BEST DIRECTOR

When narrowing down the nominations this year, this was by far the most difficult category. I had to leave a few names behind that I would never have imagined I would. I guess if you’re here, you damn well earned it. FLAGS OF OUR FATHERS was sappy and unfocused but Clint Eastwood’s second film in the same year to tackle the same battle, LETTERS FROM IWO JIMA, was a sensitive war story that hopefully enlightened many in North America to how the other side suffers the same. You can feel the director’s caring for his characters and he did it entirely in Japanese too! Stephen Frears’s THE QUEEN is incredibly tight. Bouncing back and forth between new and archival footage, between either side of the gates at Buckingham Palace, Frears creates a balance that does not take either side explicitly but shows sensitivity towards both. Paul Greengrass made more than a movie when he made UNITED 93; he made a tribute to the people who lost their lives on September 11th. As a director, he was calculated and precise without ever being melodramatic. For its sheer ambition, Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu finds himself in this list for his work on BABEL. Albeit I have issue with the film’s overall cohesiveness, he creates deeply personal situations that are revealing about both his characters and our understanding of them.

I will be playing it safe with the winner though. This is not to say he is undeserving. His last efforts felt forced as did the accolades they acquired. Here though, his skilled, steady hand guides throughout this film. You can always feel the presence of the director as God carrying the viewer through his tense, dizzying cat and mouse game … and you can just feel that he was having a blast doing it. This year’s MOUTON D’OR for Best Director goes to …

MARTIN SCORCESE for THE DEPARTED


BEST PICTURE

Are we finally here? Thank you for reading through … unless you just scrolled straight to the end. Well, I guess that’s alright too. Let’s get to it then. Everything has already been said about all five of these films throughout this article. So without any further ado, here again are the nominees for the MOUTON D’OR for Best Picture of 2006:

THE DEPARTED

LETTERS FROM IWO JIMA

LITTLE CHILDREN

THE QUEEN

UNITED 93


And the MOUTON D’OR goes to …

(drumroll)

UNITED 93

No film left a deeper impact on me this year. It is not a film everyone can watch and those who do will be hollowed out by the end but so much more healed for having been brave enough to experience this gritty, honest testament to heroism and the human will to survive. Congratulations to Mr. Greengrass and all the winners.
Happy 2007!

[Chris Knipp]

Being so involved in my own review-writing -- I just finished my reviews of BREACH and ZODIAC today -- I came upon this display of your taste and movie love a bit late. I enjoyed the way you let your hair down and the way you created some suspense and surprise on the way to naming your choices. Your youth, your point of view, and your candor are always welcome to this site and I'm grateful to you for staying around even when it may seem like your audience response has all the excitement of the sound of one hand clapping. I think I pointed this out before, but Infernal Affairs, the source of THE DEPARTED, is a Chinese movie, not Japanese. It stars the two most famous Hong Kong matinee idols, Andy Lau and Tony Leung Chiu Wai. I laughed at this: " I always say that Maggie Gyllenhaal may possibly be prettier than her brother, Jake. " you know you don't....but she surely may be as good an actress, or better, and she is endearing. Good choices. I want to see SHERRY BABY and it is on my rental list. My only huge disagreement in your list is BORAT, which I don't like. I wouldn't pick Ryan Gosling for HALF NELSON, but he should at least have been nominated for an Oscar for The Believer. It's a shame that got disqualified--it's a great movie and a great performance and even if in my opinion he didn't hit the bell with HALF NELSON, he was trying for the same kind of originality and challenge, for sure, and in the spirit of delayed awards as happens at the Oscars, giving him one is okay with me. Anyway, it doesn't matter if I agree or disagree with your choices; everybody has different ones; the point is the way you contextualize them is engaging and interesting.

United 93 is an original choice. I saw it too late to consider it, perhaps. By that time I had been tossing all the others around too long. Greenglass also talked to the flight controllers, by the way, and several of them including the head one who was just starting that day, played themselves.

Too bad maybe I don't have anybody making me see animations. I really wanted to see HAPPY FEET, even though the idea of "a cross between MOULIN ROUGE and THE MARCH OF THE PENGUINS" doesn't do much for me, since I didn't like either one. I certainly didn't feel like going to CARS, but the trouble is I need somebody or something to force me to go to almost any animations. I used to like the risque kind of anime, but I guess I got tired of it. The animation I had to watch this year was the Japanese PAPRIKA, because it was a selection of the NYFF.

[mouton]

Thanks, Chris. I didn't expect to get any response to this post. Well, I hoped to but stopped that when it didn't get any response right away. The Oscar folk are the only people it seems who can get away with announcing their 2006 favorites so late into 2007. That being said, I always appreciate your responses as they are always so thoughtful and constructive. If by let my hair down, you meant let my neurotic side show, then yes, I did and I'm glad. As a young writer, I am still discovering my voice and liking it more and more. Posting on this site is interesting for me because it sometimes brings debate to my views that enlightens me and other times, I feel that my youth prohibits me from truly leaving a mark. At this point, I should mention that I'm going to be 30 in a few weeks and I actually shave my head so have no hair to literally let down.

Yes, you had pointed out the actual originins of Infernal Affairs before. I guess it didn't sink in. This time, a lady from Hong Kong actually did the same on my blog. Somehow, being corrected is not so bad when you also realize that someone in Hong Kong is has visited your blog.

Thank God for the Gyllenhaal's. I just watched ZODIAC for the second time yesterday. (I will read your review after I get my coffee). And I just watched BROKEBACK MOUNTAIN for the fifth time last weekend. I could marry Jake tomorrow. Despite that, I think his sister is stunning and she is better than the movie itself in SHERRYBABY.

I didn't realize you didn't care for BORAT. I actually just watched that on DVD last night. I didn't laugh as hard the second time around but I was still in awe of how brave an actor Cohen is. He put himself in so many insane situations and he exposed so much American ignorance. The jokes may have faded but I found it to be just as poignant.

I apparently watch things a second time pretty often. I watched HALF NELSON again after I bought it. If you think that Ryan Gosling is better in THE BELIEVER than I should see that because my heart went out to him in HALF NELSON and young Shareeka Epps got me just as bad the second time around. Also inspiring was the script and the cinematography. Did you even end up seeing it a second time?

I didn't consider UNITED 93 to be an original choice. I found a lot of critic's circles went with it as Best Picture. It was too sharp and important to ignore.

As for animated film, I also get exposed to mediocre crap like OVER THE HEDGE through my roommate. Mind you, forget HAPPY FEET and see MONSTER HOUSE. It has some incredible composition and colour and a terrific voice performance by Maggie G.

Alright, time for coffee and your ZODIAC review. Thanks again, Chris, for all your encouragement.

[oscar jubis]

Originally posted by mouton
I apparently watch things a second time pretty often. I watched HALF NELSON again after I bought it. Did you even end up seeing it a second time?

Perhaps Chris could promise to watch HALF NELSON again if you promise to give A SCANNER DARKLY another chance. You both win.

[mouton]

Funny man, Oscar. I don't think I could endure watching A SCANNER DARKLY again. If that is to be the arrangement, Chirs, you're off the HALF NELSON hook.

[Chris Knipp]

Re-watching films is a whole subject in itself. It's a quirk of mine that re-watching even films I consider masterpieces isn't something I want to do very often--just as I can't listen to Beethoven's Ninth or Bach's solo violin suites very often. The experience is too intense, and must be used sparingly. I've given up drinking but I wouldn't want to drink Chateau Lafite (any First Growth Bourdeaux, the creme-de-la-creme of French wine) often either, there's another example. I've only watched Brokeback Mountain once because when I watched it, because as a gay man of a certain age who could strongly identify with the closet life, and because the film is so beautifully done and with such wonderful male leads, the experience was so powerfully moving that it tore me up emotionally in a way that lasted for a week. I have read the original Proulx story several times. For other films, I can simply revise my opinion without re-watching. I would re-watch Half Nelson if it came my way or somebody wanted to watch it with me. But I can just acknowledge that there is something in it that makes serious viewers consider it a very fine film. I don't think we have to rub our noses in films we haven't liked just because critical opinion favors them, but I do pay attention to what other people say, especially people here who I have a dialogue on film going on with day by day.

You definitely ought to watch The Believer, but expect something very different. That is an unsympathetic character. You won't want to identify with him. This is a very cool intellectual film, an intellectually challenging and daring one. Gosling's performance is brave and convincing.

Despite what I just said, by myself I do frequently re-watch films lately, Netflix French flicks, going over and over them to take notes on the vocabulary and idioms and hone my aural comprehension, but I do that with films that I first like and second ones where the language is approachable. It's not much use to do that with the subtitle-free version of L'Esquive, which is all in a sort of Paris-suburb ghetto dialect.

I didn't mean let your hair down literallyl, 30 is still very young to me, I'm in my 60's.

What I didn't know till last night is the Gyllenhaals are royalty in two senses. Paul Newman was Jake's godfather, but he also is descended from Swedish nobility, it said.

Cohen may be indeed brave and original. That's another topic I ought to know more about because I've been told that he's funny as a rapper and completely different. I found the film tasteless and that's not likely to change nor do I want to lower my standards of taste for it to change. If Jackass II is brave.....

United 93 seems an original choice to me even if a bunch of critics chose it as number one.

I will remember your tip that Monster House is way superior to Happy Feet. I really only wanted to watch the latter because I admire the tap dancing brilliance of Savion Glover.

About Zodiac--my review is true to my watching experience, when I say it's hard to slog through. But that's not the final word. It is thought provoking to me that both that and Breach just came out, both treating material usually made exciting and suspenseful in a relatively gray, mournful way, in the case of Zodiac without any real final payoff. This may be considered a more grown up approach, or, as Walter Chaw suggests, one suited to the new millennium. But I prefer Breach for several reasons. I can relate much more to intelligence than to police investigations and the endless clues and leads going nowhere eventually seemed numbingly boring; and Breach does have the conventional payoff of the villain being nabbed at the end.

You are much appreciated and needed on this site. Can you bring in anybody else? I've brought in a couple people, but they went away.