Best Movie of 2006?

[welliwont]

Well it's the time of year for more honours to be heaped on our beloved BBM.  The Belfast Telegraph has listed Brokeback Mountain as the # 1 movie for 2006.  Well of course!      If anyone else spots any similar accolades for our beloved movie, can you please post it in this thread?  Thanks, 

[welliwont]

http://www.sundaylife.co.uk/features/article2115036.ece

The Belfast Telegraph

Damon's top 5 movies

[Published: Sunday 31, December 2006 - 15:27]

By Damon Smith


1. BROKEBACK MOUNTAIN (released January 6)

The most controversial film of the year, Ang Lee's heartbreaking love story, based on a 30-page novella by Annie Proulx, wears its heart on its sleeve to chart the tempestuous 20-year love story of ranch hands Jack Twist (Jake Gyllenhaal) and Ennis Del Mar (Heath Ledger), who cross paths one summer in ultra-macho 1960s Wyoming.

This is a heartrending portrait of an enduring yet impossible love, distinguished by gorgeous cinematography, haunting orchestral score and an elegant screenplay.

Gyllenhaal's energetic turn as talkative dreamer Jack contrasts with Ledger's riveting portrayal of an introverted soul, simmering with self-loathing.

Michelle Williams and Anne Hathaway are stunning as the wives who end up casualties of Jack and Ennis's war with their true desires. As Jack puts it: "That ol' Brokeback got us good."


2. UNITED 93 (released June 2)

On September 11, 2001, the world as we knew it was changed forever. The events in New York City that fateful autumn still resonate today and are a stark reminder of mankind's terrifying capability for destruction.

Paul Greengrass' harrowing recreation of events on United Airlines Flight 93, the fourth hijacked plane, unfolds in real time, beginning with scenes of the hijackers in their hotel rooms, preparing for their mission.

Greengrass shoots events in the claustrophobic cabin and on the ground on handheld cameras, with a cast of largely unknown actors playing the passengers.

Key military and civilian personnel, including Ben Sliney (the man in charge of the FAA's command centre), play themselves, adding to the unsettling air of realism.

Even though we know, with sickening certainty, how the film will end, we pray for a different resolution.


3. THE DEATH OF MR LAZARESCU (released July 14)

Cristi Puiu's jet black comedy, charting one man's haphazard journey through the Romanian health system, is by turns hilarious and emotionally heartbreaking, shot with an unflinching eye for detail.
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4. LITTLE MISS SUNSHINE (released September 8 )

Husband and wife team Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Faris gearshift seamlessly from directing music videos to the vast canvas of big screen with their glorious celebration of 21st century family life in all of its perplexing, dysfunctional glory.
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5. RED ROAD (released October 27)

British writer-director Andrea Arnold, who collected the 2005 Oscar for best live action short, graduates effortlessly to feature film with this voyeuristic thriller that crawls under your skin and lingers in the memory long after the end credits roll.

CCTV operator Jackie (Kate Dickie) is one of the team of people charged with scouring the city, spotting trouble before it happens. While focusing one of the cameras on the Red Road estate, Jackie is shocked to see Clyde (Tony Curran), the man she thought was still in prison for killing her husband and child.
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http://www.sundaylife.co.uk/features/article2115036.ece
© Belfast Telegraph

[Lynne]

Thanks for posting this, Jane!

It seems that Brokeback Mountain was one of the few films Pittsburg viewers were impressed with last year:

"The numbers tell the tale: In 2006, Post-Gazette reviewers gave four-star ratings to just eight movies (and a couple, namely "Brokeback Mountain" and "Tsotsi," were 2005 movies that opened here late)."

http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/06363/749734-254.stm

[Front-Ranger]

The January 8 issue of The New Yorker says, "...the good small that do well, like "Brokeback Mountain" and "Borat" are, in relation to cost, among the most successful movies ever made."

It goes on to interview James Schamus.

[Front-Ranger]

The article also says that the marketing department, in researching how to market the movie, focused on older women who do volunteer work!

[Lynne]

We were getting off-topic so I split this thread and moved it over to Chez Treblay (Resurrecting the Movies Thread).  Here's the link:

http://72.232.132.224/forum/index.php/topic,5286.msg137780.html#msg137780

What I'd really *love* here is media accolades for Brokeback Mountain.

Thanks!
Lynne

 

[delalluvia]

I love to read things like this.  Thanks for posting.

[Lynne]

Brokeback Mountain: Top 10 Film of '06
SMH critics have named Brokeback Mountain as one of their Top 10 films of the year.

It was a film that caused so much controversy before its worldwide release, but ended up being one of the biggest movies this year. Brokeback Mountain won a lot of fans, including the critics of the newspaper Sydney Morning Herald.

In today's edition of the newspaper, Herald critics Sandra Hall and Paul Byrnes were asked to give their best Top 10 films of the year. Brokeback Mountain was the only film to appear on both lists.

Sandra Hall spoke of Heath Ledger's "pacesetting" of Australian actors; "Brokeback Mountain, Candy, and the insouciant Casanova came together to give us an actor whose range should take him just about anywhere he wants to go."

Paul Byrnes rated the film highly; "It's obvious from my list that I think Brokeback Mountain was a better film than Crash and should have won the Oscar."

Take your hat off once more Ennis Del Mar; you have done a wonderful job.

http://www.generationq.net/GenQCMS/viewarticle.php?article=1888

[Lynne]

Links to the Sydney Morning Herald articles:

http://www.smh.com.au/news/film/best-and-worst-flicks-of-06/2007/01/04/1167777216278.html
http://www.smh.com.au/news/film/paul-byrnes-top-10/2007/01/04/1167777218041.html

[Lynne]

"[Reviewer] Stone gave out two A pluses in '06. The first went to "Brokeback Mountain," which was an '05 movie that didn't come to Northeast Mississippi until '06'"

http://www.djournal.com/pages/story.asp?ID=234336&pub=1&div=Lifestyles