Best movies of 2006?

I don't get out to the cinema very often. In fact, basically, never. There isn't much shown around here, and anyway, I have no car, etc. So, I tend to rely on DVDs for my movies — and for various reasons, renting is really inconvenient for me, so I have to know something is good (or take a risk) and just buy it.

Since 2006 is over (in most time zones), what were your favorite movies of this past year? I want to know what to look for when it comes to DVD (or, for movies from earlier in the year, good things that are already out on DVD).

I like a wide variety of movie genres; I guess I am partial to dramas, although I really enjoy all sorts of things, if well done. So, anything that you think is good, I might be interested in. A bit of spoiler-free summarization might be useful, though, as I'm pretty un-cool and might not have heard of the films you mention.


Any recommendations?

Children of Men hands-down.

NINJA STAR!

Dammit, I can't remember what movie that's from, you know where someone keeps threatening to use a ninja star? Anyone know? That's gonna keep me up all night.

top of my head reccomendations for 2006

Brick

Syriana

Science of Sleep

Casino Royale

that's it for now.

Here's three films that haven't been mentioned yet that definitely deserve a view or two:

A Scanner Darkly

Half Nelson

The Departed

I will let you know once I've seen Children of Men and Pan's Labyrinth. Right now...The Departed was very good. Nothing I've seen yet has really sent a bolt down my spine, though. I haven't seen Half Nelson or The Queen or Letters from Iwo Jima, either, so I'm optimistic that I'll find something I can definitively point to.

Right now, at Metacritic the top rated movie by score is Pan's Labyrinth, which looks absolutely incredible, in my opinion. I'm dying to see it.

Oh, and Little Miss Sunshine was very funny. And Brick is well worth watching if you're a fan of old noir movies.

Brick was the best film I saw last year.

V for Vendetta came out in 2006, right?

That was a great film. A must see. For sure!

The Prestige

That is a movie I still need to see!!! Looks very good.

snakes on a mother fucking plane

My favorite movie of the year is Little Miss Sunshine.

The list starts and ends with The Departed.

I have to agree.

Nevertheless I bought it first thing this morning.

Also I don't know if it was made in 2006, but as a drunk Beerfest was the funniest movie's I've seen all year.

Really?

A Scanner Darkly? Seriously? It got the source material right? Because to me it came across as a stoner film.

Hey does anyone know which movie I am talking about? It's driving me nuts!! I haven't sleep for days man!

I forgot to mention: if you're into horror movies, The Descent is really excellent. I'm not overly into them, actually, but I love good filmmaking. It's clever, it's a little funny, and it's gory, but not at the expense of scaring the bejeezus out of you. Great one to watch with the lights out.

Little Miss Sunshine and The Science of Sleep.

United 93. Very well done. I found it almost uncomfortably intense.

+1, though i'd like to say that the last 20-or-so minutes alone would be enough to put it on the list.

Also - MollyMolly, I don't know your exact circumstances, so this may be terribly unhelpful, but have you considered Netflix or a similar service? If you're in a smaller town it's probably not going to be as immediate as it is in the immediate vicinity of a shipping center, but it really does take all the work out of renting, especially for the carless like myself.

If nothing else, they have aggregated user ratings and reviews. Not that they're as trustworthy as the good folk of SG...

Winter Passing
Zooey Deschanel
Ed Harris
Will Ferrell

I loved this movie...

Cruising Jennaville (i don't know when it came out but i saw it in 2006)

most everything else I saw was crap.

although cruising jennaville wasn't that great either

The Departed, Pan's Labyrinth, The Queen, Borat.

I have not seen Children of Men or Casino Royale.