THE INDIE FILMS TOP 10 OF 2OO6
 

By Rob Goald


1. Old Joy

Sundance veteran (“River of Grass”, 1994) director Kelly Reichardt has directed a beautifully conceived and executed lyrical feature based on a short story “Old Joy” by Jonathan Raymond. The film tells the tale of two thirty something straight old buddies, Kurt (musician Will Oldham) and Mark (Daniel London) reuniting for a weekend camping trip in Oregon’s Cascade mountain wilderness. Kurt is a pothead who faces eviction from his apartment, while Mark is a modest family man with a pregnant wife (Tanya Smith). This camping trip demonstrates the chasm that has developed between the two men. Their inability to rekindle that which they once had is rendered poignantly as they search for the natural hot springs, a metaphor of their desire to return to a past they will never likely see again. The film which slipped in and out of Sundance without much brouhaha picked up a Tiger Prize at Rotterdam.

2. Half Nelson

Ryan Gosling (“The Believer”, The Notebook”) gives an amazing performance as an 8th grade social studies teacher with a drug problem and a passion for left-wing politics. Equally astonishing in a whole different way is Shareeka Epps as an African American middle school student who finds him strung out on crack on a toilet stall and tries to help him keep it together. The film is a feature length version of writer-director Ryan Fleck’s Sundance-winning short film “Gowanus, Brooklyn.

3. Little Miss Sunshine

Music video veterans (“Smashing Pumpkins”) Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Faris with a script from Michael Arndt have crafted a dysfunctional family road trip comedy that has that crazy feel of Napoleon Dynamite and Garden State combined. As Richard (Greg Kinnear-at his best)takes his wife (Toni Collette) and their emotionally unstable son ( Paul Dano) in their broken down VW bus from their home in Albuquerque, New Mexico to Redondo Beach, California so that their seven-year old daughter Olive ( Abigail Breslin) can compete in the Little Miss Sunshine contest.

4. The Descent

English director Neil Marshall’s (“Dog Soldiers”) sophomore outing is a brilliant horror infused tale of six female spelunkers exploring two miles under the Carolina Appalachians, who while fighting among themselves, encounter something truly dark and ugly. One of the most suspenseful and scary horror films in quite a while, Marshall’s mastery of this genre will delight horror devotees and put almost anyone on edge.

5. The Queen

Helen Mirren’s performance is Oscar worthy as Queen Elizabeth II in this tragicomedy of manners following England’s Royal family in and around the time of Diana’s untimely death. Stephen Frears directs this beautifully executed tale with subdued gestures and touch of iconoclasm.

6. 13 Tzameti

Georgian (the country) director-writer Gela Babluani’s debut grimy black and white feature begins harmlessly as a character study of immigrant life. A young impoverished Georgian named Sebastien (George Babluani)is working on the roof of an old morphine addict named Godon(Passon) Then, without any premonition, Godon drops dead; before Sebastien gets paid, but not before he overhears a conversation that suggests a big pay-off. Trying to take advantage of the circumstances, Sebastien follows the instructions meant for his deceased boss and shows up at a rendezvous pretending to be him. From here on out the story will shock and amaze you with a violent intensity of Tarantinoesque proportions

7. Sherrybaby

Maggie Gyllenhaal is pitch perfect in the role of a white trash mom-ex-junkie, ex-alcoholic, ex-convict who’s desperate to stay connected to her 6 year daughter, whom her brother and sister-in-law are raising, and who’s nearly forgotten her in this impressive first feature from writer-director Laurie Collye

8. The Proposition

Australian director John Hillcoat armed with a poignant script from rocker Nick Cave brings to life a nihilistic tale of life in the 1880’s outback. The story revolves around an outlaw named Charlie Burns (Guy Pearce) who will be pardoned from hanging if he kills his incorrigible brother Arthur (Danny Huston), a psychotic killer of such irredeemable values that not even the Aboriginal deputy will seek him out. If you can stomach the explosive violence and mangy looking characters you’ll be rewarded with a portrait of tough times, savage lands and an intense finale that will not disappoint.

9. TV Junkie

Filmmakers Michael Cain and Matt Radecki edited over 3,000 hours of video footage creating a compelling self-documented, self destructive documentary in the tradition of Capturing the Friedmans or Grizzly Man. This fascinating ride to hell and back chronicles the life of broadcast journalist (“Inside Edition” et al.) Rick Kirkham and his eventual plummet into alcoholism and drug addiction. It’s a ride you won’t forget as he struggles to balance his personal life as a father and husband with his dual career as professional journalist and crack addict.

10. Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan

Although distributed and backed by Fox, “BORAT” is a brand and attitude born of “indieweird”. Its opening week gross of over $26 million set an all-time record for a film opening on less than 1000 U.S. screens. Sasha Baron Cohen, the Orthodox Jewish star of this mockumentary, is a modern day Buster Keaton with a dash of Chaplin. He morphs into his Kazakh journalist's comical, racist, sexist homophobic anti-hero with such certitude that he becomes a “tool” to expose people's prejudices. His charade was so good that the government of the real Kazakhstan was considering suing him. As Borat, Sasha Baron Cohen replied “I'd like to state I have no connection with Mr. Cohen and fully support my government's decision to sue this Jew”.