just to have it somewhere

ten from 2006, that i loved, because i keep track of such things:

1. paul greengrass' United 93
Paul Greengrass did us the inestimable favor of looking objectively at the root of our sorrow and the public at large thanked him by cynically dismissing it as Hollywood crassness. (Paging Mr. Stone.) Those who did see it, though, not only walked out with a healthier perspective on that moment in our history but also having seen a peerless, visceral thriller intensified by, but not manipulative of, the deep emotions we've all had kicking around our heads and hearts for the past five years. I wouldn't press it on anyone who genuinely feels it's too soon for them to experience it, but otherwise it's essential viewing, and I'm confident that over time it will be recognized as such.

2. michel gondry's Dave Chappelle's Block Party
There was a whole lot of unpleasantness in all of its forms onscreen in 2006, so it didn't surprise me when I sat down at the end of the year and found that I favored Block Party above pretty much everything else, due almost entirely to its overwhelming pleasantness. On one hand it's a light-on-its-feet star-studded concert doc, and on the other it's a reminder of the ingratiating zest with which Dave Chappelle lives his life and does his best to let others share in his successes.

3. james gunn's Slither
4. alfonso cuaron's Children Of Men
5. spike lee's When The Levees Broke
6. guillermo del toro's Pan's Labyrinth
7. martin scorcese's The Departed
8. larry charles' Borat
9. neil marshall's The Descent
10. darren aronofsky's The Fountain

with an honorable mention going to the Shakespearean third season of HBO's Deadwood

past that:
 
REALLY LIKED
Volver, Duck Season, Talladega Nights: The Ballad Of Ricky Bobby, A Scanner Darkly, Happy Feet, Dreamgirls, The Prestige, Marie Antoinette, A Prairie Home Companion, Casino Royale, The Science Of Sleep, Idiocracy, An Inconvenient Truth, Brick, Hostel, The Devil And Daniel Johnston, Stranger Than Fiction, Nacho Libre, District B13, Flushed Away, V For Vendetta, Inside Man, Cars, The Lives Of Others Pirates Of The Caribbean 2: Dead Man's Chest, Tristram Shandy: A Cock And Bull Story, 13 Tzameti, The Proposition, Monster House, The Queen, Mission Impossible III, Apocalypto, Wordplay, Strangers With Candy
 
LIKED
Night Watch, X-Men: The Last Stand, Superman Returns, The Illusionist, Scoop, Little Miss Sunshine, Last Holiday, Snakes On A Plane, The Hills Have Eyes
 
DIDN'T SO MUCH LIKE
Thank You For Smoking, Lady In The Water, Art School Confidential
 
HATED
Silent Hill

i've yet to see Babel, Letters From Iwo Jima, Army Of Shadows, The Death of Mr. Lazarescu, Miami Vice, Little Children, or Tideland, among others which have a chance of cracking/expanding the ten. here's hoping.