The 10 Best Movies of 2006

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High five! After a box-office slump, movies made money again in 2006. Kill-me-now depression sets in only when I list the big winners (Pirates of the Carribbean: Dead Man's Chest; X-Men: The Last Stand; The Da Vinci Code). Luckily, it wasn't just Borat that hit pay dirt without getting slimed by formula pap. Martin Scorsese had his biggest hit with The Departed. And Dreamgirls proved a musical could have grit as well as glitz. And what of terrific movies that barely made a dime? They, too, have pride of place on my list of movies that mattered this year.

1 The Departed
Directed by Martin Scorsese

Crime in the streets. A Martin Scorsese specialty, from Mean Streets to GoodFellas. So what's so special about The Departed that I'm calling it the best movie of 2006? For starters, it's a new high in a historic career. The Boston crime milieu scrupulously laid out in William Monahan's screenplay sparks something fresh in Scorsese about how moral corruption begins in childhood and festers in adult life. The acting, from Jack Nicholson's Irish mobster to Mark Wahlberg's hothead sergeant, is top of the line. And Leonardo DiCaprio, as an undercover cop, and Matt Damon, as an undercover criminal, give the performances of their lives. Scorsese orchestrates acting, writing, editing, production design and camera placement into a model of what directing is when craft rises to the level of art.

2 Dreamgirls
Directed by Bill Condon

Despite, or maybe because of, the smartasses who rag on this galvanizing musical as "the gay man's Lord of the Rings," Dreamgirls is a movie you take to heart. I sure did. Fictionalizing the story of Diana Ross and the Supremes into a cautionary tale of how 1960s R&B was ground into white pop, director-writer Bill Condon turns Michael Bennett's Broadway landmark into a movie powered by the unique magic of cinema. Give a shout-out to Condon -- he's got the goods. Beyonce excels as the lead singer of the Dreams, as does Jamie Foxx in the role of the manager who sells her out. But the roof of the multiplex is blown off by trumpet-tonsilled newcomer Jennifer Hudson as the diva who gets replaced for singing large and eating larger. And Eddie Murphy totally kills as a James Brown wild man buckling under the pressure of cultural assimilation. It's an all-black cast, which so-called experts insist will hurt at the box office. My guess is that audiences will have the savvy to know Dreamgirls is a story of America.