Indiwire's The Best Films of 2006 (was: The Village Voice's critic's poll)

If you need a little history on the poll.

Or if not: essentially, some slick new owners have bought up and eviscerated The Village Voice's film section, once one of the most important champions of alternative cinema, now mostly the stomping ground of morons who think Alfred Hitchcock's Notorious is dated (I like one comment to his post: "I can't believe your parents let you use the computer."). In which case, real film critics like Dennis Lim and Michael Atkinson have moved their end-of-the-year critic's poll to Indiewire, where it has found a new (and far friendlier) home.

So there. Most readers of my articles know (at least I hope they do) that I'm not a big fan of compiled lists, votes tallied and mathematically digested until the results come out as meaningless pap (as Samuel Langhorne Clemens once said (or so I thought): "There are lies, damn lies, and statistics." Fortunately, this list includes those of every critic who voted, and those I appreciate, if only because I can always find titles worth looking for.

All that said, I do appreciate the mentions of Ang Pagdadalaga ni Maximo Oliveros (The Blossoming of Maximo Oliveros) which I liked very much, and Cavite, which I haven't seen, but would like to (especially after all the recommends).

So--enjoy. And I know there's some bigger, glitzier horse race involving some gold-plated doorstop coming up, but the name's slipped my mind. Fuhgedaboudat, this is the real deal.