Recent Features

Net-Works: The Best TV of 2006

By PopMatters Staff

You won't have to look far along your television dial to discover the Top TV picks from PopMatters staff. From 20 upward, each entry represents the boob tube at its best.

Time Encapsulating: The Best DVDs of 2006

By PopMatters Staff

From solid single issues to amazingly complete film and television compilations, the works highlighted here argue for DVD's continued importance.

War Stories: Top 12 Films of 2006

By Cynthia Fuchs

You hardly needed to duck into theaters to see war images this year. And yet, there it they were. War stories made for some of the most gripping, provocative, and outraged offerings of 2006.

Best TV Characters 2006

By Matt Cibula

Instant Replay: Best of TV on DVD

By Daynah Burnett

Primal Screens: Mark Savage and Australian Independent Cinema

By Bill Gibron

A promiment figure in Australia's burgeoning genre scene, Mark Savage is more or less unknown in America. Now, thanks to a stellar DVD overview of his two decades behind the camera, he's finally poised to take his place among independent cinema's standouts.

Best of TV’s Performers 2006

By Michael Abernethy

As TV leans increasingly towards game and reality shows, opportunities diminish... the chances to develop plots and characters are decreasing.

Geek Goes Mainstream

By Jack Patrick Rodgers

The year 2006 saw many examples of so-called geeks breaking into the mainstream.

Football Factory, Greek Style

By Michael Paterakis

A look inside a typical European derby, where hooliganism acts as a form of support.

The Year in Crime

By Jesse Hassenger

The best four films of the year are all essentially crime pictures. Though they are stylish, none could be deemed pulp, or at least not in the Tarantino/Rodriguez sense of the word.

Unkept Promises: Most Disappointing Films of 2006

By Daynah Burnett

If it's easy to get excited about a new film, it's just as easy to feel disenchanted with the results. Looking over 2006, there were lots of unkept promises.

Sex, Hope and Rock and Roll: A Conversation with Ellen Willis

By Chris O'Connell

Chris O'Connell remembers a very personal and poignant conversation with political essayist, journalist, and rock critic Ellen Willis.

Dreaming Out Loud: Robert Altman at the IFC Center

By Mike Ward

Robert Altman's films often reveal in dreams the strangeness of being alive. This more than anything sums up the timeless greatness of Altman at his best, and starts to convey what’s lost when cinema is thought of as commodity rather than art.

“Great Tenacity”: The Real Dirt Interview

By Ellise Fuchs

The Real Dirt on Farmer John combines home movies, archival footage, and recent imagery to consider the far from simple life of a flamboyant farmer. PopMatters interviews filmmaker and subject.

Soul Power

By William Glasspiegel

Though James Brown's body was lying in state at the Apollo Theater, on the streets of Harlem, his spirit seemed to be everywhere.

PopMatters Picks: The Best TV, Film, and DVDs of 2006

Series edited and produced by Bill Gibron, Cynthia Fuchs, Robert Wheaton and Sarah Zupko.

For the past week PopMatters has been presenting the best of 2006's visual entertainment. Last week was the best TV, DVDs and film of 2006. This week look for genre picks and best performances from a range of our staff critics. On tap today: Best TV Characters 2006 Best of TV on DVD.

The Last Soul Brother: James Brown (1933-2006)

By Mark Anthony Neal

The humanity of the man -- with its funky and messy flaws and frailties -- could never sustain the myth, so much so that the image of the man who gave Black Power its soundtrack became a harsh reminder of its fractured legacy.

The Quieter Side of Brian Borcherdt

By Sarah Elizabeth Feldman

If you've seen Brian Borcherdt on stage this year, chances are it was as a member of the noise-freak supergroup Holy Fuck. But it's in the quieter-but-equally-intense songs of his solo project, the Remains of Brian Borcherdt, that the singer-songwriter's talents appear in full force.

Best Albums of 2006

By PopMatters Staff

At long last, the annual rite of passage, the "best of" list... Here's PopMatters picks for the best 60 records of 2006. Stay tuned tomorrow for the best re-issues, as well as ongoing genre top 10s the rest of this week, culminating in the year's best musical events on Friday.

Best Reissues of 2006

By PopMatters Staff

At long last, the annual rite of passage, the "best of" list... Here's PopMatters picks for the best 20 reissues of 2006. Stay tuned tomorrow and Thursday for ongoing genre top 10s with our coverage culminating in the year's best musical events on Friday.