I’m not a big fan of top ten lists. Still, it’s a year end ritual, so here we go. The very best films of 2006, according to Sean the Movie Guy:

1- “Dreamgirls”

I’ll admit that I love musicals, but “Dreamgirls” is the best I’ve seen in decades. Beyonce and Jamie Foxx star in this Diana Ross and the Supremes-like story, but it’s the supporting work by Eddie Murphy and Jennifer Hudson that makes the film so special. And don’t forget the best soundtrack of the year. I’ve never seen a standing ovation in the middle of a movie before. “Dreamgirls” is my easy pick as the Best Film of the Year.

2- “The Departed”

Martin Scorsese’s best movie in a decade, which is high praise as his past few films have all been Oscar nominated. Scorsese takes us to the means streets of Boston with an all star cast of cops and robbers, each trying to find an undercover mole in their organization. Expect multiple Academy Award nominations from the best ensemble cast of the year.

3- “Babel”

Three separate stories converge with sad results in this story about how our lack of communication dooms us to tragedy. Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu and Guillermo Arriaga may be the best writing/directing team working today, and they certainly know how to wring searing performances out of their actors. Powerful stuff.

4- “Little Miss Sunshine”

One of the best feel-good black comedies that I’ve seen in years, “Little Miss Sunshine” takes a supremely dysfunctional family and forces them on a very funny road trip. They may be a bunch of nutcakes, but they’re also family, and it’s a real joy to watch them begrudgingly unite and support their little girl who doesn’t realize that she’s too weird to win her beauty pageant.

5- “United 93”

Easily the most difficult film on my list, “United 93” is an educated guess at what happened aboard the one airplane that didn’t hit its target on September 11th. Director Paul Greengrass mocks the story up as a documentary film, which lends the film an air of authenticity, but most of the power comes from the fact that despite their best efforts, everybody in the audience knows that the passengers are all fated to die. “United 93” is a gut-wrenching exercise in futility.

6- “The Queen”

Helen Mirren is a lock to win the Academy Award for best actress in this fictionalized account of the British royal family dealing with the media storm that erupted upon the death of Princess Diana in 1997. It’s fascinating to watch the insolated English nobility being forced to confront the celebrity-obsessed modern world.

7- “Brick”

Who says Film Noir is dead? “Brick” resurrects the jaded detective and infuses his story with new life by setting everything up as a high school mystery. Joseph Gordon-Levitt stars as an outsider trying to find an ex-girlfriend who has mysteriously disappeared. Think “Veronica Mars” as played by a very young Humphrey Bogart with some of the best writing of the year.