The Best of 2006.

Here, for everyone's enjoyment and reading pleasure, are my picks for the very best in entertainment in 2006. For a year of entertainment that reveled in the darkness (death, chaos, poverty, terrorism, global warming) there still managed to be quite a few bright spots, all of which are critiqued and glorified below. I hope you agree with me (that means you saw, heard, and read some pretty great stuff this year) and if you didn't, tell me why. I'm always curious.

Top 10 Movies of 2006 -

1 - A Prairie Home Companion

It's as warm and inviting as a spot of cool shade on a hot summer day, it's funnier than it has any right to be and, from a structural standpoint, a mess. So what is it that makes this shambling movie about the (fictional) end of the (real) radio show "A Prairie Home Companion" so wonderful, so deserving of the title "Best Movie of the Year"? Perhaps it's the actors; after all they are the objects of Robert Altman's roaming camera. Those curious people who imbue their even more curious characters with the kind of ragged and lovely sensibility that we can relate to because we sometimes feel that way right after a particularly long day. Or perhaps it is something else. Maybe it's Garrison Keillor (who plays a riff of himself here), that narrator of the (real) radio show who, as a first-time screenwriter, wrote the script for this (fictional) movie. His hypnotic baritone has a tendency to launch off into 1,000 different variations of the same story when given even the slightest provocation and his pre-television era commercials are insular capsules of nostalgic delight. Or just maybe what makes this movie so good is the music. After all, the greatest moment in the movie comes as nearly the entire cast harmonizes together on a beautiful song that evokes a church choir in its faithful croon. I'm inclined to believe something different though: it's probably a combination of all three that makes this movie fabulous; that transforms it into a salty-and-sweet mixture that proves once again that Robert Altman is a master of portraying Americana in its entire riveting splendor. What a tragic and ironic fact though that Robert Altman's last movie would be a sterling mediation on death and the ineffable quality that makes life worth living.

2 - Marie Antoinette

Floating along on currents of deep sadness and spontaneous joy, Marie Antoinette is a movie that is both enthralling and melancholy. Gifted with an omnipotent sense of femininity, writer-director Sofia Coppola has crafted an epic character study of history's most notorious bad girl, French queen Marie Antoinette (played to perfection by Kirsten Dunst), that is as impressive in its narrative talent as in its glossy hipness. Coppola has envisioned a world where decadence is paraded as fashion instead of rot, where an outpouring of emotion is looked down on, and where girls just can't ever have fun. In between the moments when 80's New Wave music starts to blast and the monkey is exiled from the kingdom you realize something fantastically strange is going down. The magnificence of it all though is that when the queen grimaces at her various plights we know why. When she sobs unbeknownst to her palace in a quiet little drawing room, we know why. Never has the mind of a monarch been more intelligently dissected and never has it been such a pleasure to watch. There in lies the beauty and the tragedy of a girl who simply wanted to party and got her head handed to her.

3 - Casino Royale

Armed with grace and wit enough to carry two movies, James Bond's latest flick is also the series' best: an action flick that evokes laughter, joy, sadness, and thrills all in equal measure. Directed by a man of inventive glee and written with a bracing urgency, it would be foolish to call this a no-thrills spurt of adrenaline. However, luckily, it is hardly decadent. Instead it is something more along the lines of cheeky violence: a picture that is well aware that it may be considered "brainless" and smart enough to know it's anything but. When Daniel Craig first steps onto the screen as pre-007 secret agent James Bond, you know you're in for a ride. The second he leaves the screen you know you're left breathless. Though many will call it an action flick I'll go even farther: it's the best piece of commercial filmmaking all year.

4 - The Departed

No one makes them like Scorsese. With his 2006 return to form, and by return to form I mean "one mean, green gangster flick", director Martin Scorsese follows two warring organizations on the streets of Boston: the state police and the crime syndicate led by Frank Costello. Both decide to employ moles in which to infiltrate the other's infrastructure. Both moles are exquisite studies in the paranoia, fear, and white-knuckle tension involved in espionage and the toll it takes on the mind. As played by Matt Damon, Leonardo DiCaprio, and Jack Nicholson the three main players are sweating, grunting, and bleak individuals; people who are literally teetering on the brink and in some cases, as with Costello, have already rolled happily into oblivion. As guided by the steady hand of Scorsese the movie is gleefully, sadistically, interested in the pop and squish of human bodies but it never feels grotesque because the atmosphere of the movie is so realistically, sickeningly, alive. As every person – be they the highest mob boss or the lowliest bureaucrat - scurries back and forth over the streaming streets of Boston the audience finds itself reveling right along with Scorsese in the bruise black nature of racketeering and the ways to fight it.

5 - For Your Consideration

The best satirists are, at heart, their object of mockery's biggest fan and Christopher Guest, in his latest thrillingly improvised piece of hilarious comedy, again proves why that is true. Right when movie award season is reaching its most potent period of nomination woes and let downs comes along the story of exactly the same thing. Veteran actor Marilyn Hack (Catherine O'Hara) is happy toiling away on forgotten independent pictures. Her latest, Home For Purim, is an accented period drama directed by a director (Christopher Guest) who aims for Eraserhead cool and surpasses it. But the moment Marilyn picks up a tidbit of something posted somewhere by somebody about the possibility of an Oscar nomination (in this movie the phrase it pronounced with a touchy reverence) she goes crazy. The rest of the cast and crew (including comedic stalwarts Jennifer Coolidge, Eugene Levy, and Parker Posey among others) soon follow. Chronicling the rise and fall of a person's hopes sounds dark and mean, but Guest is more than poking fun at his eccentric actors and their eccentric dreams, he's idolizing them. And along the way manages to elicit more than a few peals of gut-busting laughter.

6 – United 93

Paul Greengrass stages the story of one of the most devastating events in our national history with an almost casual air. Minutes before the plane leaves on the morning of September 11th, a man barely makes it on. Breathing heavily, his face floods with relief and he settles into his seat for the ride. The flight attendants gab and gossip, preparing themselves for another day at work. The suicide bombers pray and bid their lives (and the lives of thousands more) farewell. Greengrass has crafted a movie that is as reverent as it is purposeful. It proposes things about the tragedy that may or may not be true but it's focus will haunt you for days. This is the ride of a lifetime: a thriller than enraptures and terrifies. Bringing us this close to the tragedy is cleansing and nauseating. Watchers beware: you'll be better for watching this movie but you won't feel it.

7 - The Queen

Every year there comes along a character study of such piercing insight, such spellbinding wit that people almost trip over themselves to applaud it. Two years ago it was Sideways. Last year it was Capote. And this year, I'm happy to report, it's Stephen Frear's excellent The Queen. Following a week after ex-Princess Diana's sudden death in a car crash, the movie tells the story from the most surprising point of view: Queen Elizabeth. What continually manages to grab me about this movie is that it never lets anyone fall too far into devilry, instead it continually enlightens without condescending. Based on one of the smartest scripts all year and anchored by the rapturous performances of Helen Mirren and Michael Sheen, the movie is a nearly flawless period piece. As Michael Sheen, playing new Prime Minister Tony Blair, tries to appease the people by bullying the Monarchy into a grand show of bereavement, the audience doesn't glare at him in anger so much as in understanding (thanks completely to the movie's ubiquitous human touch). By playing to the people's now all-consuming love with pop culture, The Queen is a movie that shows how even those atop the highest mountain can suddenly be shoved into the gutter and how they can start climbing out.

8 – Dreamgirls

Some have claimed that Dreamgirls is style without the substance, all flash and no depth. However, if you were to actually indulge yourself in this sassy musical adaptation of the 80's Broadway smash you'd find a movie that is both dark and gleaming. Where Chicago, writer-director Bill Condon's other musical movie amazement, was deliriously indulged and hilariously aware of it; Dreamgirls is girl power to the max: if anyone puts you down, you sing in their face! The story is the rise of "The Dreamettes" as well as the rise of black music in the national conscious played against the volatile political scene of the 60's. The players stumble, fall, drown, and succeed and all of them do it to pulse-pounding, shoe-tapping music. As played by Eddie Murphy, Beyonce, Jamie Foxx, and Danny Glover the black music scene is vividly alive and wonderful to watch. And Jennifer Hudson is a revelation, her rendition of the ballad "And I'm Telling You I'm Not Going" tells the audience one thing: a star has been born. Though sweeter than Chicago, Dreamgirls is more fun….and more flash.

9 - Quinceanera

As written and directed by Richard Glatzer and Wash Westmoreland, you can practically feel the tremors created from colliding cultures. Don't expect the screens to start shaking at your local multiplex though. These tremors manifest themselves as quiet glances, sharp looks, or a disapproving shake of the head. Familial love never looked so real, so palpable. Magdalena is a girl with a lot on her plate: she's coming up on her quinceanera, her 15 year old coming of age party, she's just found out she's pregnant, and her cousin has just come out of the closet. Promptly kicked out of her house, she and her cousin take refuge with their Yoda-like grandfather, Tomas. What ensues could have come off as "After School Special" but buoyed by a clever script and strikingly appealing performances, we're far more touched and involved than preached to. The movie was as sensation at Sundance this past year and rightfully so, it's everything Little Miss Sunshine wasn't: pointed without being showy, smart without being slapstick, and warm without being prickly. What makes it deserved of 10-bestness? The fact that it'll go down real easy and leave you wanting another.

10 – An Inconvenient Truth:

Al Gore: almost president (our loss) and eloquent trumpeter against the dangers of Global Warming (our gain). In this Davis Guggenheim directed documentary based on Gore's PowerPoint presentation, the famously boring politician proves himself a master of the stage. As he soars about on his motor vehicles and shows us disturbing facts with his laser pointer he invites us to partake of his outrage: how can an administration so involved with "helping the world" adamantly deny the facts of Global Warming? Gore himself is a witty charmer, and as he unspools graph after devastating graph he becomes more than that: he transforms into a prophet of unheralded doom, a fate we can change but are far too uninformed to. Hopefully, with this artfully enjoyable docu-film, we won't be any more.

Top 2 CDs of 2006 -

1 – St. Elsewhere: Gnarls Barkley

As extraordinary as this record is, it is as equally difficult to write about. With its ever changing musical styles and tracks that flip from sensational R&B to rapid-fire techno in the blink of an eye, a term like "musical schizophrenia" doesn't even begin to cover it. Gnarls Barkley, a duo that is comprised of Goodie Mobster Cee-Lo and Gorillaz producer Danger Mouse, is the most self-involved band around. With screwy, introverted tracks like "Just A Thought", "Crazy", and "Who Cares?" they examine in detail the inner-workings of a deranged man. Sounds preachy? Not when the delivered by Cee-Lo in his wacky, verbose lyrics (was knowing your weakness/what made you strong?) and seductive rasp. Armed with such a voice and a delivery that is powerfully seductive, Gnarls Barkley sucks you into a world filled with midnight monsters, "sexy suicide", and decorative house ware. Eclectic certainly and scrambled but it does manage to make one point over and over: this is the best album of the year.

2 - Taking The Long Way: The Dixie Chicks

Though rampantly controversial, The Dixie Chicks have never sounded all that angry. Their previous albums were quaint, folkie productions full of mandolin solos. Here though, that's all been replaced by the howling voice of Natalie Maines and a musical background just as fierce. Gifted with a red-hot pen, the Chicks crank out some of the toughest lyrics all year. When Maines belts out "I fought with a stranger…I found myself" it's apparent that a few years off have done anything but made her repentant. Of course, screaming doesn't prove anything. So when on "Easy Silence" the quiet lyric "watching war made us immune" pops up it's provocative but not surprising. Though outsized and powerful, "Taking The Long Way" is also personal and filled to the brim with guest producers and musicians (such as John Mayer); instead of a full house though we get some excellent guest spots. The CD is a mesmerizing, dark, grand, and soaring tribute to romance, love, life, and everything in between. Maybe The Dixie Chicks should get mad more often.

Top 2 Television Shows of 2006 -

1 - Battlestar Gallactica

Who ever said you could judge a book by its cover? If you ever believed that phrase then you've probably never indulged in the best thing currently on basic cable. Certainly there are reasons to be wary: it's a SciFi Channel "original series", it involves a lot of shiny robot things, and it features its own foreign vernacular (i.e. "frak"). However, if you're willing to be adventurous, you'll find a show that goes to places that few others do (certainly not the shows that air every night on Fox or NBC). In the process of following the ongoing saga of humanity's search for the lost colony of Earth away from the hostile Cylons, a race of immortal robotic beings governed by 7 factions of humanoids, there happens to be some of the sharpest writing out there (as well as one of the best ensemble casts). Ever thought there would be debates over mass genocide using nuclear weapons, as well as questioning the morals behind torture and terrorism while watching big shiny things explode? How about struggles against starvation, disease, infidelity, or anarchy? These are just a few surprises in store for the viewers of television's most powerful show.

2 – Friday Night Lights

What is so enjoyable about this show is the way that every break in dialogue, every desperate glance from each character toiling away in their own small-town unhappiness is equally heartbreaking and promising. What The Office did with comedy in a small town white-collar job, Friday Night Lights does with drama in small town sports. When the Dylan, Texas football team lost its star quarterback Jason Street the whole town collectively shook as one: his personal devastation became every ones. And the joys, perils, and grandly mundane struggles of each player as the team is rebuilt becomes not just theirs, but ours as well.

Top 2 Books of 2006 –

1 - Winkie: Clifford Chase

The most original book of the year is also the best. Stunningly poetic and gleefully insane, what starts out as a meditation on the nature of childhood toys (what do they think about while they sit, gathering dust, high up on a shelf?) effortlessly changes into a blunt satire of the Justice System. One day stuffed teddy bear Winkie discovers he/she (Winkie is both sexes) has the ability to move so he/she/it does. Winkie leaps off its shelf and begins to roam the neighborhood, soon finding itself in the woods and with child (Baby Winkie, who may be God). Through a series of ever stranger events Winkie is accused of being a terrorist and sent to trial. What follows is some of the most engaging storytelling all year, filled with heartbreaking memories and quick wit. Debut novelist Clifford Chase proves himself adept at writing numerous things: a pseudo-sequel to The Velveteen Rabbit, prose poetry, a heartrending study of love and memory, and a poisonous satire of just about everything to do with modern culture. The joy is that he manages to do it all in one tiny little masterpiece about an even tinier bear.

2 – The Ruins: Scott Smith

By changing the focus from the killer to the killed, Scott Smith has written a novel that is drenched in blood and fear at every turn. When six tourists decide that it would be just groovy to go hunting for one of their own on a seemingly domestic flower-covered hill, they unknowingly drop themselves into a gore-filled game of cat and mouse that is as wonderful to read as it is frightening. Ever character, from Amy the pessimist to Jeff the "hero", is written with such an elegant, steely intelligence that you can almost feel their hot breath blowing at you from off the page. Smith succeeds were few others do: he creates living, breathing specimens of psychological stereotypes to kill off in the most delightful ways. By repulsing and propelling us in equal measure, he's written one of the best books of the year and a horror novel that transcends its genre.