Film: best of 2006

From grizzly bears and French colonial guilt to dancing penguins and Irish Republicanism, Time Out‘s film reviewers pick their favourite movies of the past 12 months

'Borat'

YouTube
Edward Lawrenson
I know, I know, this kind of list is best used to champion unjustly neglected Albanian arthouse films and whatnot, but I’d be lying if I didn’t admit the most fun I’ve had in front of a screen in 2006 was YouTube. Bought this year by Google, the vast online emporium of clips, from excerpts of recondite, distantly recalled TV shows through stunts that out-‘Jackass’ Johnny Knoxville to brilliantly subversive remixes of movie trailers, is the final word in film-going as pick’n’mix consumerism – or, to be Pseuds Corner about it, the fullest expression of the surrealists’ collage-inspired approach to cinema.

Borat
Anna Smith
It’s rare to single out a film because it’s funny – more profound endeavours tend to win critics’ votes – but ‘Borat’ is an exceptional comedy. The adventures of Sacha Baron-Cohen’s alter-ego draw from many established comic genres (hidden-camera shows, innocent-abroad comedies, faux-naive documentary interviews) and the editing works hard to make the semi-improvised scenes as funny as possible. ‘Borat’ doesn’t settle for one punchline in a scene, cramming in layers of laughs carefully edited from many hours of footage. Its offensiveness may be up for debate, but in the year of US comedies like ‘Date Movie’ (both offensive and unfunny), ‘Borat’ has undeniably done Britain proud.

'Happy Feet'

Happy Feet
Derek Adams
A number of films this year could have topped my list, notably ‘Grizzly Man’, ‘Pierrepoint’ and ‘Borat’. But I’ve chosen an animated kids’ movie about dancing penguins. We’ve seen more bandwagon-esque CG animations this year (12) than the last four years put together. None, though, has impressed as much as this hugely entertaining curve-ball. ‘Happy Feet’ starts off in amusingly cute cabaret fashion, with some kitsch song and dance, before unexpectedly veering leftfield into dark, thought-provoking territory. And if it doesn’t win an Oscar for visual effects, I’ll eat the yellow snow.

Scarily ginger: Damien Lewis gave one of the performances of the year in 'Keane'

Keane
Trevor Johnston
Mental. Nutter. Bampot. Scarily ginger. Here’s a film whose protagonist we’d frankly cross the street to avoid, but Lodge Kerrigan puts us inside his head. It’s somewhere we don’t want to be, yet despite our resistance, ‘Keane’ shapes an extraordinary surge of compassion for this damaged individual. And the realisation that the crazy guy, but for the grace of whoever, could just as well be us. All this is accomplished without camera trickery or manipulative plot-spinning, just an intense imaginative investment in the material, and from Damian Lewis, a genuinely great, razor’s edge performance. Unquestionably a key American film of the decade.

Requiem
David Jenkins
At the fore of 2006’s revival of German cinema was this film from young director Hans-Christian Schmid, an effortless combination of the social-realist trappings of 1970s Germany with a horrific yarn involving demonic possession, mental illness and the breakdown of family, which delivers its chills via authentic human discord. Kudos to theatre actress Sandra Hüller, who imbues the enigmatic Michaela Klingler with a sense of such genuine vulnerability that the eventual upshot of her problems will stick with you long after leaving the cinema. Dramatically terse, overwhelmingly sad and profoundly disturbing – Schmid has produced a ‘Kaspar Hauser’ for our times. Looking forward to his next.

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