We had intended to watch three movies last night as part of our now-annual New Year’s Eve tradition, but timing didn’t work out and we missed the second show (The Queen). The good news is that both Dreamgirls (which we saw at the 1940s-movie-palace-style Uptown) and The Holiday were excellent and hopped into my top ten movies list for 2006:

1. Akeelah and the Bee, which I posted about way back here.
2. Little Miss Sunshine, which is the second paragraph of this post.
3. The Heart of the Game, which I posted about as the Third Beautiful Thing here.
4. Superman Returns, which I raved about here.
5. The Holiday — As I said above, we loved The Holiday last night. It was the movie we chose to end 2006 with, hoping that it would be a sweet, funny romantic comedy. And it is. I’m not a huge Jack Black fan because I think he flips over to taking himself too seriously at a moment’s notice, but he really didn’t in this movie. It was a restrained performance from him, which allowed his co-stars (who included Kate Winslet and Cameron Diaz) to be the funny, talented women they are. This may appear on no one else’s top 10 list, but it’s firmly anchored on mine.
6. Wild Parrots of Telegraph Hill, which I wrote about here.
7. Flushed Away merited being the second Beautiful Thing on this week’s list.
8. Dreamgirls — This is the movie that everyone is talking about and it’s worth the talk. Jennifer Hudson has amazing pipes and I would definitely buy any album she puts out. Beyoncé does a great job portraying how it’s possible for the lead singer of a group to look like she’s being a diva while, in fact, being controlled by someone else (in this case Jamie Foxx’s character). (That’s especially ironic given the history of Destiny’s Child.) Eddie Murphy has a surprisingly nice voice and was convincing in his role as an R&B star who has a tough time crossing over to a “whiter” sound on the pop charts. It would rank higher, but I think my expectations were just very high for it. I don’t discount this being a movie that grows on me over time….
9. Les Poupees Russes — Not as good as L’Auberge Espagnole, but still quite good. The characters from the earlier movie reunited for a wedding five years after they first met. Some of them played a bigger role. New characters were introduced. But it was still a touching tribute to the powerful bond that house- (or dorm-) mates can hold for one another and it truly reminded me of how lucky I’ve been in maintaining strong friendships with so many college friends.
10. Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest — I. love. Johnny Depp. Still funny as Captain Jack Sparrow, even if the writers are going to need to work on the script a bit for the third installment to keep it from just being one action scene followed by another.