Here is the current (but occasionally updated) list of my favorite films from 2006.
In order to understand the color-coding, the purpose, and meaning of this list, please read my introduction to the Looking Closer Favorite Films lists here.
Red = Treasures
Purple = Favorites
Blue = Achievements
Gray = Decent/Noteworthy
Green = Unseen or Undecided
* = This film was discovered after the year in question and added in a list revision.
2006
- The New World* (2nd review)
- Children of Men
- Pan’s Labyrinth
- Little Children
- Paprika
- Once
- Syndromes and a Century
- Army of Shadows*
- The Lives of Others
- Little Miss Sunshine
- Paris Je T’aime
- United 93
- Miami Vice
- The Queen
- Babel
- This is England
- Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest
- Still Life*
- Casino Royale
- The Prestige
- The Science of Sleep
- The Departed
- Stranger Than Fiction
- The Host
- Cars
- Marie Antoinette
- The Fall
- Half Nelson
- The Painted Veil
- A Prairie Home Companion (review)
- Letters from Iwo Jima
- Marie Antoinette
- Offside
- Away from Her
- When the Levees Broke: A Requiem in Four Acts
- The Namesake
- Amazing Grace (review)
- Inland Empire
- The Illusionist
- Tell No One*
- The Wind that Shakes the Barley*
- Rescue Dawn*
- The Fountain
- Old Joy
- A Scanner Darkly (review)
- Flags of Our Fathers
- Private Fears in Public Places
- Longford
- Climates
- Inside Man
- Perfume: Story of a Murderer
- Black Snake Moan
- Manufactured Landscapes
- Volver
- Bella
- Monster House
- For Your Consideration
- God Grew Tired of Us
- The Black Dahlia
- Mission: Impossible III
- The Devil Wears Prada
- Wordplay
- Notes on a Scandal
- Penelope (review)
- Fay Grim
- The Second Chance
- Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby
- Akeelah and the Bee
As-yet Unseen or Unratable Films of 2006
10 Items or Less
12:08 East of Bucharest (Corneliu Porumboiu)
16 Blocks (Richard Donner)
300
A Comedy of Power (Claude Chabrol)
Adama Meshuga’at
After the Wedding
American Dreamz
Americanese
An Inconvenient Truth
An Unreasonable Man
Art School Confidential
Bamako (Abderrahmane Sissako)
Been Rich All My Life
Big Bang Love, Juvenile A (Takashi Miike)
Billy Wilder Speaks
Black Book (Paul Verhoeven)
Blame it on Fidel
Bled Number One (Rabah Ameur-Zaïmeche)
Bobby
Brand Upon the Brain! (Guy Maddin)
Breaking and Entering
Broken Trail (Walter Hill)
Bug (William Friedkin)
Catch a Fire
Click
Colossal Youth (Pedro Costa)
Crank (Neveldine/Taylor)
Curious George
Curse of the Golden Flower
Dans Paris
Daratt
Day Night Day Night (Julia Loktev)
Days of Glory
Death of a President
Deep Water
Deja Vu (Tony Scott)
Delirious
Deliver Us from Evil
Distant (Zeki Demirkubuz)
Dreamgirls
Dreamland
Driving Lessons
Ejforija
Enemies of Happiness
Exiled (Johnny To)
Fallen
Fast Food Nation
Find Me Guilty (Sidney Lumet)
First Flight
Flandres
Flandres (Bruno Dumont)
Flicka
Flushed Away
Flyboys
Friends with Money
Fur: An Imaginary Portrait of Diane Arbus
Grbavica: The Land of My Dreams
Hamilton (Matthew Porterfield)
Happy Feet
Heremias, Book One: The Legend of the Lizard Princess (Lav Diaz)
Hollywoodland
I Don’t Want to Sleep Alone (Tsai Ming-liang)
I Served the King of England
Ice Age: The Meltdown
Idiocracy (Mike Judge)
I’m a Cyborg But That’s Okay (Park Chan-wook)
In the Pit
Industrial Strength Keaton
Infamous
Invincible
Keeping Up with the Steins
Klimt (Raul Ruiz)
La Stella che non c’è
Lady Chatterley (Pascale Ferran)
Lake of Fire
Last Holiday
Lights in the Dusk
Longing (Valeska Grisebach)
Memories of Tomorrow
Millions: A Lottery Story
Miss Potter
Monkey Warfare
Mukhsin (Yasmin Ahmad)
Mushi-Shi
My Best Friend
My Country My Country
Neil Young: Heart of Gold
Open Season
Opera Jawa (Garin Nugroho)
Priceless
Private Property
Puccini for Beginners
Quei loro incontri
Quinceañera
Rain Dogs (Ho Yuhang)
Rang De Basanti
Red Road
Renaissance
Reprise
Roving Mars
RV
Saving Shiloh
Scoop
Shortbus
Shut Up and Sing
Snakes on a Plane
Something New
Soul Kitchen (Fatih Akın)
South Pacific: In Concert from Carnegie Hall
Stardust: The Bette Davis Story
Stephanie Daley
Superman II: The Richard Donner Cut
Superman Returns
Svend Asmussen: The Extraordinary Life and Music of a Jazz Legend
The Astronaut Farmer
The Boss of It All (Lars Von Trier)
The Break-Up (Peyton Reed)
The Bridge
The Da Vinci Code
The Dead Girl
The Golden Door
The Good German (Steven Soderbergh)
The Good Shepherd (Robert De Niro)
The Ground Truth
The Guardian
The History Boys
The Hoax
The Holiday
The Lake House
The Last Winter
The OH in Ohio
The Omen
The Pink Panther
The Poet Laureate of Radio
The Prisoner or: How I Planned to Kill Tony Blair
The Pursuit of Happyness
The Queen
The Road to Guantanamo
The Teacher (Brillante Mendoza)
The U.S. vs. John Lennon
The Untouchable
The World of Nat King Cole
This Film Is Not Yet Rated
Time (Kim Ki-duk)
Todo todo teros (John Torres)
Toots
Vanaja
Venus
Vitus
Woman on the Beach (Hong Sang-soo)
World Trade Center
You Called Me (Sky Hirschkron)
Looking Closer
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