You Can't Stop What's Coming: It's Here
At last, the Oscars have concluded and it's time for that final formality to my movie season. I now present to you:
(WARNING: IMAGE HEAVY)
The Top Ten Films
10
9
8
7
6
5
4
3
2
1
The Favored Few in Lead Performances
Julie Christie in Away From Her
(Forsook, forsooken, forsake this performance? Not a chance.)
Joseph Gordon-Levitt in The Lookout
(Is this man capable of giving a bad performance in a lead role?
Supporting roles are a whole different matter entirely unfortunately…)
Laura Dern in INLAND EMPIRE
(Laura Dern? Laura Dern. Laura Dern!)
James McAvoy in Atonement
(Minky as ever. That letter-writing scene. He tempts me. He tempts me.)
Judi Dench in Notes on a Scandal
Tommy Lee Jones in In the Valley of Elah
Tang Wei in Lust, Caution
(A great debut in a stylized aesthetic.)
Parker Posey in Fay Grim
(Because otherwise, you’re grounded, for like, forever.)
Luisa Williams in Day Night Day Night
(A great debut in an indie aesthetic.)
Chris Cooper in Breach
Fernanda Montenegro in House of Sand
(For making me realize how beautiful “nada” could be.)
Casey Affleck in The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford
Sophia Myles in Hallam Foe
Benicio Del Toro in Things We Lost in the Fire
(A range that has been inexplicably buried now unleashed.)
Tilda Swinton in Stephanie Daley
Catherine Frot and Deborah Francsois in The Page Turner
Laura Linney in Jindabyne
(The careful exposition of a woman’s implosion.)
The Favored Few in Featured Roles
Bodil Jorgensen in Hjemve (Just Like Home)
Winona Ryder in The Ten
(The movie was a cacophony but she was the funny kind of note.)
Vera Farmiga in Breaking and Entering
(Life-changing advice if you let her steal your car.)
Vanessa Redgrave in Atonement
(Thank goodness there are still roles that have escaped the clutches of Meryl Streep.)
Tilda Swinton in Michael Clayton
Sophie Marceau in La Disparue de Deauville
(A ghost.)
Sigourney Weaver in The TV Set
Saoirse Ronan in Atonement
(The next Tilda Swinton?)
Peter O’Toole in Ratatouille
Novella Nelson in The Ten
(She doesn't want to be a d!ck about it but she was really funny in that segment.)
Nicholas D’Agosto in Rocket Science
Melissa McCarthy in The Nines
Marie-Christine Barrault in La Disparue de Deauville
(One mother of a meltdown.)
Laura Linney in Breach
(Resentment and excitement conflicting in every delivery that she needed
a cellphone’s text message function to convey genuine emotion.)
Kate Winslet in Romance and Cigarettes
(For the filthiest mouth impossible not to kiss.)
Juliette Binoche in Breaking and Entering
Joan Chen in Lust, Caution
Jennifer Garner in Juno
Javier Bardem in No Country for Old Men
(The best written character this year.)
Hope Davis in The Nines
Frances Sternhagen in The Mist
(Because her improvised flamethrower >Ruby Dee’s slap.
And she still has enough peas left to change your mind!
This woman’s roles get better the longer she hangs around.)
Kelly McDonald in No Country for Old Men
(Deserves applause for how she stands up to Javier Bardem in her last scene)
Cate Blanchett in I’m Not There.
(A swell inhabitation.)
Danny Perea in Duck Season
(My new girlfriend.)
Favorite Ensemble
This is England
The Mist
I'm a Cyborg, But That's OK
The Featured Film Duo of the Season
Gong Li & Gaspard Ulliel in Hannibal Rising
(And THAT'S why we got the June slot.)
Special Citations
The Production of Paris Je T'aime
(For making me believe that not everything or every emotion has yet to be touched upon in cinema.)
Anton Corbijn’s photography in Control
(For successfully translating his aesthetic touch from one medium to another.)
The "Joanna" Sequence
(My favorite storytelling tactic for the season.)
Joe Wright's direction of Atonement
(Let's just say I now wear a "I Trust Joe Wright" button.)
Lines Read, Voices Heard
"Nada"
(Fernanda Montenegro in House of Sand)
"Yeah, but that's just teeth."
(Jude Law in Breaking and Entering)
"Why don't you want me?"
(Luisa Williams in Day Night Day Night)
"Nineteen share motherfucker!"
(Sigourney Weaver in The TV Set)
"That's God doing your laundry."
(Reece Thompson in Rocket Science)
"That was a lot of running. I'm out of breath."
(Nicole Kidman in Margot at the Wedding)
Worst of the Season's Offenders
Aqua Teen
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notice: animating a 15-minute joke written while on drugs may work on TV
late at night but writing the same joke to last 85-mintues while still on drugs does not work for the big screen.
Angel
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is it trying to chronicle the collapse of romanticism, that the concept is nowadays only “high” enough to be suited for pocketbooks? It’s not really clear what jabs are being taken at with this film’s mayonnaise-aesthetic approach to summon a discussion performance about the days of Madame Bovary-type of thinking. Our generation’s “Valley of the Dolls” only not as entertaining.
Death at a Funeral
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too many things going on that everything ends up not knowing what is going on. Predictable and a host of quirky touches that cross over to “wasn’t hilarity supposed to ensue?”
Marcia Gay Harden in The Hoax
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Marcia’s year (The Hoax, The Invisible, The Mist, Into the Wild) is the antithesis of Josh Brolin’s. Now allow me to put on my Supporting Actress Sunday Smackdowner cap on:
"It is the same artifice that she constructs to seem authentic that are the hurdles which she is unable to overcome. I oughta call her an idiot for that……."
And One Special Citation for One Thankless Year
Planet Terror. American Gangster. No Country for Old Men. In the Valley of Elah. You could argue as to whether or not the films would have been better but he sure upped the quality of every movie he was in. Ensemble awards aside, Josh Brolin did get to be one of the most prevalent voices and presences of the season. And he deserved all the attention.
That's it. I am done. Thanks for reading see you again in 2009!