2006 was a good year for cinema, and an easy way to make that plain to see is by listing off some of the all-timers that came out that year, like Pan’s Labyrinth, The Departed, Little Miss Sunshine, Children of Men, The Lives of Others, and on and on. Maybe they’re the usual suspects, and there are other suspects of a very usual nature, none of them actually being focused on below.
Instead, here are a bunch of movies that came out in 2006, so they’re turning 20 in 2026 (if they haven’t already), none of them particularly well-remembered, or maybe not even very well-known in the first place. It’s another way of looking at some potentially forgotten movies, or just overlooked ones. They’re not all great, though some are, and the ones that aren’t particularly great are at least interesting/perhaps deserving of more attention than they tend to get.
8
‘Desperation’
There’s that quote about dimes and dozens, and it probably applies to Stephen King movie adaptations. Desperation is one of many, and also perhaps one of the more obscure, since the novel it’s based on isn’t as beloved as various others by King, and also, it’s a made-for-TV movie, so if that excludes it in your eyes, just pretend this entry wasn’t here. Pretend you’ve been zapped with that device from Men in Black or something.
Like its source material, Desperation (2006) is interesting and somewhat tense for a while, but falls apart thanks to its lack of a coherent conclusion. Actually, it’s more accurate to say that it drops off in its second half, so it’s not just a disappointing ending. There’s an intriguing premise and some compelling characters left adrift in a not-well-planned second half that includes a lackluster ending. But in adapting the novel of the same name, warts and all, and being a technically authentic adaptation as a result, Desperation (2006) isn’t too terrible.
7
‘Love and Honor’
Love and Honor is a samurai movie of sorts; just not an action-focused one. It’s more of a historical drama that just so happens to feature a samurai and his wife as the central characters. The former is blind and scorned by another samurai, which leads to him having to defend his honor, as the title suggests, and also relating to the title, the whole situation tests the love the samurai and his wife have for each other.
It really takes its time, but in a good way. Love and Honor ends up being engaging as a drama, so long as you’re okay without too much flash or fighting, and it solidly concludes what ended up being a thematic trilogy directed by Yōji Yamada (2002’s The Twilight Samurai, the first of them, remains easily the most well-known, and also the best).
6
‘Red Road’
A very low-key and unapologetically bleak psychological drama, Red Road is about a woman who works as a CCTV operator, and events that unfold when she recognizes someone from her past while at work. It’s best to keep things vague, because Red Road takes a very long time to lay out what it’s ultimately all about, and the slow progression runs the risk of not working if you have an idea of what’s being built to.
The whole movie succeeds in being gritty, somber, and oftentimes uncomfortably authentic, which makes it much easier to appreciate than actively enjoy. Still, enjoyment’s not really the point here, and Red Road does what it sets out to do in ways that make it hard to recommend to most people, or just hard to recommend in the way most movies are recommendable. It’s good, though. It’s just not a good time.
5
‘Crab Goalkeeper’
On the complete other end of things tonally is Crab Goalkeeper. This is a movie about a goalkeeper who is also a giant crab, and he plays soccer (or football, depending on what part of the world you’re in) in the position you’d expect. And he does a bunch of other things main characters in sports movies tend to do, with the joke here being that he is, of course, a crab, and that’s not something you tend to see in sports movies.
If you like absurd comedies and enjoy seeing the sports genre parodied in a very low-budget fashion, then Crab Goalkeeper could be your kind of thing.
Maybe that’s too dumb and simplistic a joke for some, but if you like absurd comedies and enjoy seeing the sports genre parodied in a very low-budget fashion, then Crab Goalkeeper could be your kind of thing. For better or worse, it gives you exactly what you’d expect out of a movie that has the guts to call itself “Crab Goalkeeper.”
4
‘Sleeping Dogs Lie’
Of all the movies here, there’s the strongest argument to be made that Sleeping Dogs Lie should stay forgotten, since the premise here is intentionally as bad-taste as a romantic comedy’s premise could be. Things have to be kept vague, and you can Google the premise in your own time if you feel like you really need to know for whatever reason, but it’s about an engaged couple having the future of their relationship called into question when the woman admits something shocking to the man.
It goes into wild territory right from the jump, taking a shocking concept and trying to explore it – and the fallout – in an uncompromising and, all things considered, realistic manner. It’s not as good as 1998’s Happiness, but it’s similarly surprising and difficult to both watch and then subsequently think about.
3
‘Ten Canoes’
A dramedy that takes place in Australia before British colonization, Ten Canoes is also a movie about storytelling, and it ends up being surprisingly layered, as a result. It’s done in a way that reflects how history was passed down between generations of Indigenous Australians across countless years, and all the individual stories told in Ten Canoes prove engaging, too (it’s not quite an anthology film, though).
It’s the kind of movie where just about everyone who’s seen it has positive things to say about it, but the number of people who’ve actually seen it – and talk about it 20 years later – is low. Ten Canoes deserves to be considered among the best Australian films released in the 21st century so far, and can be admired for being tonally unique and undeniably creative.
2
‘Gamera the Brave’
For a while, Gamera, as a movie series, was pretty much nothing but goofy, doing what Godzilla did but a little bit sillier and, for the most part, a little bit worse. That changed in the 1990s, though, when Gamera got a reboot of sorts that rivaled most of the Godzilla movies that came out that decade, if not exceeding them in quality. And that’s saying quite a lot, considering the last few films of Godzilla’s Heisei era were pretty great.
Then came 2006 and Gamera the Brave, which is sort of a return to the more light-hearted tone of the earlier movies, in turn backing away from the intensity of the 1990s trilogy. It’s of a slightly higher quality than most of the earlier movies, with a bit more by way of polish… just not as exciting as the peak of the series from the decade before, so it’s perhaps a little understandable why this film has been a bit overshadowed by various other monster movies made in the years preceding and following the turn of the century.
1
‘Electroma’
If you’re at least old enough to remember 2013, then there’s a very good chance you’re familiar with a Daft Punk song or two, at the very least. The duo made some incredible music for a regrettably short overall discography, and also ventured into the world of film a couple of times, most notably when they did the soundtrack/score for Tron: Legacy. They also directed a single movie called Electroma, and it’s a strange one.
The film’s about two robots trying to become human, possibly? It’s something that various Daft Punk songs (and even albums) try to explore, so that’s likely what’s going on here, though it’s all very much an arthouse movie and so much is up to one’s own interpretation, as a result. It’s similarly hard to say whether it’s good or not, though it is at least intriguing and, creatively speaking, adds another layer to the overall enigmatic duo that was Daft Punk.
Electroma
- Release Date
-
March 24, 2006
- Runtime
-
72 minutes
- Director
-
Guy-Manuel de Homem-Christo
- Writers
-
Cédric Hervet
Cast
-
Michael Reich
Hero Robot #2
-
Peter Hurteau
Hero Robot #1
-
-
Vance Hartwell
White Room Technician #1