Here's the annual post for Neville's sake...

I am using the 2006 list found here, so if any of these movies are not actually from 2006, talk to them.

2006 movies I either wanted to see or felt obligated to see, but have now made their way to my Netflix queue: A Guide to Recognizing Your Saints, A Prairie Home Companion, A Scanner Darkly, An Inconvenient Truth, Apocalypto, Babel, Blood Diamond, Borat, Cars, Charlotte’s Web, Children of Men, Fast Food Nation, Flags of Our Fathers, Lady in the Water, L’Enfant, Letters from Iwo Jima, Marie Antoinette, On a Clear Day, Over the Hedge, Running with Scissors, Sketches of Frank Gehry, Sophie Scholl-The Final Days, Stranger than Fiction, Strangers with Candy, The Departed, The Fountain, The Illusionist, The Last King of Scotland, The Queen, V for Vendetta, Volver, Why We Fight, World Trade Center

2006 movies I actually saw:Akeelah and the Bee, For Your Consideration, Friends with Money, Half Nelson, Iraq in Fragments, Jesus Camp, Little Children, Little Miss Sunshine, Mission Impossible III, Nacho Libre, Pan’s Labyrinth, Quinceanera, Sherrybaby, Thank You for Smoking, The Break-Up, The Devil Wears Prada, The Devil and Daniel Johnston, The Heart of the Game, The Prestige, The Pursuit of Happyness, The Science of Sleep, Tsotsi, United 93, Wordplay, X-Men: The Last Stand

2006 movies I'm still wondering why exactly I saw: The Break-Up, X-Men: The Last Stand

2006 movies where the indie-hype should have been ignored: Akeelah and the Bee, Friends with Money, Quinceanera, Sherrybaby, Tsotsi

2006 movies I really enjoyed that don't quite deserve a spot on the list: For Your Consideration, Thank You for Smoking, Nacho Libre (I'm not ashamed), The Prestige

Best Documentaries of 2006:

5. Wordplay...an enjoyable watch and put together well, but it didn't have the characters needed to carry such a film.

4. Jesus Camp...a respectable documentary that isn't as unfair as some Christians would like to believe.

3. The Devil and Daniel Johnston...a heartbreaking look at an intriguing artist.

2. The Heart of the Game...I have my complaints about this one, but in the end it's an incredibly lucky documentary filled with great characters, a great story, and great themes.

1. Iraq in Fragments...an intimate look at matters overseas, a look no one else is taking, looking in a way no one else is looking, and looking absolutely beautifully, at that.

And now...Top Five movies of 2006:

5. The Science of Sleep...Most people tore this apart because of an unengaging plot, and I can completely understand that. I'm not an artist, but I empathize with artists enough to know a little bit how it feels to be one. When it comes down to it, I've never seen a movie that not only presents a beautiful, innovative work of art while also capturing exactly what it feels like to be trapped in an artist's world and temperment. From what I gather, the movie is largely autobiographical, and I think Gondry is really trying to show us what it feels like to be in his world. My friend Dan put it well when he matched this movie up with the artistic manic-depressive state seen in The Devil and Daniel Johnston. So many movies out there are talking about isolation and loneliness, but few are are talking about it in the context of being an artist seeing the world through child-like imagination, wonder, beauty...things far too underappreciated by the majority of our world. Maybe this movie works best when paired with other movies...I've seen it paired also with Marie Antoinette or Amelie, both of which also shed an intriguing light on the ideas.

4. Little Children...Not a movie recommended for, well, most anyone, really. But this movie was well written, well filmed, well acted, well told. Everything was put together so perfectly, telling an absolutely heart-breaking story of immaturity, depravity, empathy, isolation, pride, self-esteem, and on we could go. What makes it all the more heart-breaking is that it is a true story, the true story of every neighborhood in America, whether we choose to believe it or not. And while I typically don't go for hopeful endings, at least not when they are offering an unrealistic, false hope, I thought this ray of a hopeful ending was well-done because it wasn't overdone; it was realistic and set your heart at ease just enough to not leave you absolutely completely utterly depressed when the credits begin to roll. (Again, this one's pretty graphic and not necessarily recommended.)

3. Half Nelson...I don't have anything to say about this movie that everyone hasn't already said. It's genuine rather than trite or cliche. It communicates so deeply our need for others. It illustrates the grueling battle for change. And, as I've said, it simply tells a simple story, and when directors let their movie do just that, that is when layer upon layer upon layer of depth and meaning surfaces. That's true art.

2. Pan's Labyrinth...I didn't want to see this movie. I went because Dan wanted me to, and because every review I read said, "I hate fantasy, but I loved this..." So I went. And it was unlike any other movie I've seen. The imagery and storytelling were excellent. That's really all I can say. I don't typically like fantasy, but I loved this.

1. Little Miss Sunshine...I've recently read people talking about the magic of watching movies with your girlfriend or wife, basking in the glow of the movie screen with the one you love. I can't say I've experienced that feeling too often (mostly because one of the two of us is usually miserable, with either a chick flick or a documentary...), but I experienced it with Little Miss Sunshine. I can remember very clearly sitting next to Erica and enjoying this movie together, hearing her laugh loudly with me through the entire thing. And walking out of the lobby of the theater, seeing the large poster of the family running after their yellow bus, I knew it was a special movie, hands down the best movie of 2006.