Saturday, December 09, 2006

film talk 5

episode five of film talk is now available - check it out if you'd like to hear jett loe and myself wax eloquent about such cinematic glories as 'happy feet', 'flushed away', 'pan's labyrinth' and robert altman's unique sci-fi ice-age paul newman film 'quintet'. you can download it here:

http://filmtalk.podbus.com/podcasts/film_talk_5.mp3

Tuesday, December 05, 2006

the list

Films of the year 2006

Well, the year is beginning to wind down, and though there’s still a few new releases to go yet, some of you have been asking me to let you know what I’ve enjoyed in 2006. So, here’s what I’d recommend:


what I probably consider to be the ten best films of the year, though of course we don't want to be too dogmatic about this:

10: a scanner darkly

9: cache

8: munich

7: syriana

6: the three burials of melquiades estrada

5: junebug

4: the new world

3: the fountain

2: little miss sunshine

1: children of men


honourable mentions for:
grizzly man
an inconvenient truth
good night, and good luck
paradise now
superman returns
walk the line
the beat that my heart skipped
pavee lackeen the traveller girl
babel
stranger than fiction
the prestige
the queen
the departed
borat
bobby
casino royale


biggest disappointment:
wim wenders’ don’t come knocking

worst film I endured this year:
the wicker man


three I haven’t seen that may change the make up of this list once I get around to it:
prairie home companion
little children
pan’s labyrinth

words of wisdom from walter wink


this is a lovely autobiographical piece from walter wink about negotiating the space between fundamentalism and cynicism when it comes to the bible. i think felt something approaching inner peace when i read it.

http://www.westarinstitute.org/Periodicals/4R_Articles/Wink_bio/wink_bio.html