Compiled with commentary by Scott Tobias
Last year, the Inaugural A.V. Club Film Poll was topped by David Cronenberg's A History Of Violence and filled out by several staff favorites such as Grizzly Man, Brokeback Mountain, The Squid And The Whale, and Oldboy. Based on those selections and the number of insightful comments that were submitted on the year in film, we could only come to the following conclusion: Our readers are a lot like us, only we're lucky enough to get paid. With a few notable exceptions, this year's film poll mirrored our critics' consensus Top 10 list to a remarkable degree, with each of the top six films appearing on both polls, including the same #1 and #2. Before I elaborate on the results, here's how the 96 ballots broke down:
1. Children Of Men (dir. Alfonso Cuaron) (238.5 pts., 63 ballots)
2. The Departed (dir. Martin Scorsese) 176 pts., 49 ballots)
3. The Prestige (dir. Christopher Nolan) (88 pts., 28 ballots)
4. Pan's Labyrinth (dir. Guillermo Del Toro) (85 pts., 25 ballots)
5. Brick (dir. Rian Johnson) (84 pts., 25 ballots)
6. United 93 (dir. Paul Greengrass) (74.5 pts., 22 ballots)
7. Borat (dir. Larry Charles) (57 pts., 26 ballots)
8. The Fountain (dir. Darren Aronofsky) (49 pts., 15 ballots)
9. Little Miss Sunshine (dir. Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Faris) (42 pts., 19 ballots)
10. The Science Of Sleep (dir. Michel Gondry) (36 pts., 11 ballots)
Others receiving significant points (in alphabetical order): Casino Royale, Dave Chappelle's Block Party, The Death Of Mr. Lazarescu, Idiocracy, Letters From Iwo Jima, A Prairie Home Companion, The Queen, A Scanner Darkly, Shortbus, Stranger Than Fiction, Volver
Considering that it's gotten little acknowledgement from any critics or awards-giving body, save for its extraordinary technical achievement, Children Of Men's resounding victory counts as a gratifying surprise at the top. Not only was it the runaway winner in terms of ballot and point totals, but it also inspired the most passionate support of any film on the list, with each voter allotting it an average of 3.79 points. It seems all the more remarkable (and shameful) how tepidly the film was promoted and received next to other end-of-the-year prize ponies, but in the alternate universe that is The A.V. Club, it's clearly a commanding favorite.
The other big surprises, to my mind, were The Fountain and The Science Of Sleep, both fantastical ventures that received mixed reviews and petered out quickly at the box office. It helps that their respective directors, Darren Aronofsky and Michel Gondry, each enjoy a significant cult following and it's obvious that a good chunk of them responded to two unmistakably personal visions. One man's folly is another man's masterpiece, it would seem.
Before moving on to the heart of the poll, a few more notes: Of the honorable mentions, Shortbus, A Prairie Home Companion, and A Scanner Darkly received the most points, and would have tied at #11, if we chose to go the Spinal Tap route. Though we tried to give readers plenty of time to catch up with end-of-the-year releases, it should be noted that Pan's Labyrinth performed best on later ballots, which leads me to believe that it would have finished a comfortable third had it rolled out earlier in 2006. This year, a majority of the ballots came with extensive comments, which it made it very hard to choose which ones to fill out this piece; special thanks to everyone who took the time to offer their thoughts and apologies to those who didn't make a very difficult cut.
On The Winners
Thanks to blockbuster franchises like The Lord of the Rings and The Chronicles of Narnia, as well as hit TV shows like Lost and Heroes, science fiction and fantasy are steadily climbing out of their niche markets and becoming part of mainstream culture. At the same time, a solid block of the general public still views genre films as kids' stuff, movies that offer escapism but little more. So it's only appropriate that the two most politically relevant and socially conscious movies of the year happen to be genre pictures. Guillermo Del Toro's Pan's Labyrinth is a potent and deeply emotional argument against blind obedience that's framed as a gothic fairy tale. It also features one of the most fully realized fantasy universes I've ever encountered in a film and one of the few that feels as if it could exist right alongside the real world. Meanwhile, Alfonso Cuaron's haunting sci-fi drama Children of Men offers the most convincing depiction of a dystopian future since Blade Runner. The film has won well-deserved raves for its technical brilliance—those dazzling tracking shots will be studied in film schools for decades to come—but its message of hope in the face of absolute despair is as stirring as the visuals. Together, Pan's Labyrinth and Children of Men represent a new standard for genre movies and filmmaking in general. —Ethan Alter
What made Children of Men so very terrifying and real to me is that it wasn't just dystopia—it was true dystopia that only appears 20 years off, if we keep going the way we're going. I know it's never fully explained why women stopped being able to have babies, but the way we treat the environment, the way we wage war, the horrific ways we as a society treat each other and our planet were all fully realized. —Stephanie Kuenn, Chicago, IL
The Departed: The study in contrasts doesn't just stop at Damon and DiCaprio. Martin Scorsese's direction is the loosest it's been all decade; meanwhile, the screenplay—a master class in the art of adaptation—is so tight you could spend all day bouncing Sacajaweas off it. Join the two together and you get the most viscerally satisfying entertainment of the year. "How's your mother?" "Good. Still tired from fucking my father." —Steve Carlson
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. —Nick Huinker, Knoxville, TN
United 93: Like the best art, United 93 is challenging, difficult, and compelling. It offers no answers, no resolution, and no release. But it is a haunting reminder of what happened that day, and more importantly, what it felt like to live through that day, a reminder that is more necessary than one might imagine, as our feelings of the situation have been numbed and hardened after years of exploitation of the event by our media, corporations, and politicians. —Andy Sayers, Calgary, Alberta
United 93: For all the focus on the depiction of the doomed plane, it's the scenes on the ground that slew me, as the helpless observers tried to figure out what the hell was going on that morning. A great movie can make viewers understand how it feels to be a different person in a different time, but United 93 reminds me with unflinching honesty how I myself felt that day. —Joe Arsenault, Toronto, Ontario
Brick: For the social outcast, high school is a lot like a Raymond Chandler novel: nobody likes a smart ass, all the pretty girls are doing something you don't understand, and you get beat up a lot. So it's funny that it took so long for someone to actually make the metaphor literal, and it's a relief that it was done with such a clear understanding of the grim realities of both worlds. The dialogue pops, and director Rian Johnson manages to get just the right amount of play out of the absurdity of the situation; but the last few moments gut you fierce, as they should. It's a perfect conclusion to a terrific flick: a knife in the stomach to remind you that nothing hurt quite like the moment you realized you were never going to be as old as you needed to be. —Zack "Marlowe" Handlen, Lewiston, ME
It's noir set in a high school! Listen to that hard-boiled dialogue! Most reviews of Rian Johnson's Brick came down to variations on these themes, and not for bad reason. Yes, Brick is a film noir—complete with slangy, speedy dialogue, murder, femmes fatale, and plot twists—transplanted to the world of high school. And yes, that's awesome. But it's not the end of the story. Some reviews caught on to the significance of the high school setting, where each emotion is outsized and every bit of drama feels like a life-or-death situation. But even these reviews tended to miss the bruised, beating heart beneath the film-school cleverness of the set-up. In Johnson's story and wide, empty compositions—as well as in Joseph Gordon-Levitt's astonishing performance—lies a deep sadness specifically attuned to the worlds of both high school and film noir. Gordon-Levitt's Brendan is two types: the cold, distant hero of noir and the ultra-smart loner of high school (he "eats alone" in more ways than one). Throughout the course of the film, Brendan's solitude helps him solve the case, but he loses everything in the process. In this sense, Brick functions as a sly and intensely moving deconstruction of noir tropes. This is no celebration of Humphrey Bogart's "cool" stoicism; it's an elegy for lost souls. —Matt Noller, Athens, GA
Brick fits with 2004's Primer in the heartening category of improbably masterful low-budget debuts by intelligent young filmmakers who came out of freakin' nowhere. Like the earlier film, Rian Johnson's brilliant combo of noir romances and teen films utilizes jargon-filled dialogue, intricate plotting, and minimal exposition to keep itself one or two (or eight) steps ahead of the viewer throughout, which seems like a very noble goal in these days of spoon-feeding. And while the film's concept may seem silly (picture the pitch: "Guys, it's gonna be like The Maltese Falcon meets The Breakfest Club. How awesome is that?"), Johnson wisely takes it dead seriously. If we can expect a fully-formed filmmaker like Carruth or Johnson miraculously appearing out of thin air once every couple of years, with a debut this clever and powerful, then yes, there's still a lot of hope for cinema. Otherwise, it'll just sit there and bleed at us. —Luis Calil, Brazil
The Prestige: Is there an actor alive that does obsession as well as Christian Bale? His standard expression looks like he's just getting his eyes set before he burns your face off. Between this movie and Batman Begins, director Christopher Nolan has found what might be the perfect muse for his fixated protagonists; and while Bale is just one part of an excellent overall cast, his stare seems to linger over the move entire as a constant reminder of the lengths and depths a person can go. The magic trick structure is quite lovely, and does what so many "twist ending" movies fail to; it enriches the two hours it took you to get to it, as opposed to turning everything you've seen before into a sort of elaborate, pointless joke. But what really sticks with me are those final moments, when the nature of the obsessions of both Bale and Hugh Jackman are revealed, and we realize there are no lines and no limits; just the barriers we erect in our lives in the hope of holding on to our souls. —Zack Handlen
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