Best Picture of 2006

Here we are again, only a mere three and a half months since the last verdict... Sarcasm aside, I will obviously need to pick up the pace a bit. At this rate, it will take another 20 years to finish this project. Not ideal. Nonetheless, we're all having fun, right?

The nominees for Best Picture of 2006 are:

• Babel
• The Departed
• Letters from Iwo Jima
• Little Miss Sunshine
• The Queen

The five contenders for 2006 are quite an impressive bunch. All five are engaging and thought-provoking, and any of them could appropriately be named my favourite. But a five-way tie is not what this verdict is about, so...

Little Miss Sunshine is quirky and lovable, and while its climax is deeply moving, it doesn't quite match the consistent intensity of the other films. Call it the comedy curse, but such is the tendency of those who give out accolades, even insignificant ones like mine. I will remove The Queen from the running also, for similar reasons. It's not a comedy, obviously, but its simplicity, while enhancing the film's enjoyment, is overshadowed by more complex stories from the other nominees.

Babel, The Departed and Letters from Iwo Jima are all deeply absorbing and include many heart-stopping moments. Choosing a favourite from this trio is no easy task. So, through no failing of the other two, I will declare The Departed as my pick of the 2006 Best Picture competition, another match the Academy's decision.

Best Picture of 2006
Academy's choice: The Departed	Matt's choice: The Departed

Your choice:

Make your own selection by voting in the poll above. Next up, we move to the 1950s for yet another diverse selection of cinematic classics.

And the nominees for Best Picture of 1959 are:

• Anatomy of a Murder
• Ben-Hur
• The Diary of Anne Frank
• The Nun's Story
• Room at the Top

If you'd like to follow along with me, check out these titles at Amazon.

2006 - Little Miss Sunshine

As we finally wind down the current year of review, don't forget to cast your vote for the next one. Just use the poll sitting on the right hand side of your screen.

The final nominee to ponder from 2006's Best Picture competition is...

Little Miss Sunshine
Directors:
Jonathan Dayton & Valerie Faris
Screenplay:
Michael Arndt
Starring:
Greg Kinnear, Toni Collette, Steve Carell, Paul Dano, Abigail Breslin, Alan Arkin
Academy Awards:
4 nominations
2 wins, including Best Supporting Actor (Arkin) and Best Original Screenplay

The dysfunctional Hoover family is certainly unique. Dad Richard (Kinnear) is a less than successful motivational speaker with a disdain for losers. His long-suffering wife Sheryl (Collette) tries to keep the family together as best she can. When their naive daughter Olive (Breslin) is unexpectedly selected to participate in the Little Miss Sunshine beauty pageant in Redondo Beach, California, the family packs into their yellow and white Kombi van to make the journey. Reluctantly joining them are eldest son Dwayne (Dano) who has taken a vow of silence until he gets his pilot's license, and Sheryl's depressed brother Frank (Carell), a Proust scholar now on suicide watch. For the talent portion of the beauty contest, Olive is learning a dance routine taught to her by her Grandpa (Arkin), the crude senior member of the family who has taken up heroin in his old age because, well, why not?

Little Miss Sunshine is about as charming and quirky as independent cinema gets. The characters are subtly outrageous, finding themselves in funny and awkward situations scene after scene. From the relentlessly uncooperative vehicle to stealing a dead body from a hospital, some of the circumstances may stretch the verisimilitude beyond silly, but the sense of charm remains nonetheless. And it wouldn't be a quirky indie film without its fair share of poignancy. Michael Arndt's Oscar-winning screenplay satirically explores America's arguably unhealthy attitude towards winning and competition, and there is perhaps no greater example of this than the child beauty pageant.

There is awkwardness in Richard's obsession with losers (his 9-step motivational program is entitled Refuse to Lose), especially when he imparts his unsustainable goal of always winning to his young daughter. But the rest of the family is always waiting in the wings to encourage Olive again and remind her that giving it your best is more important and, besides, she's still a kid. While these poignant moments occasionally drift into sentimentality, albeit only slightly, directors Dayton and Faris are careful to keep it to a minimum. Perfection is found, however, in the climactic scene when Olive's family joins her up on stage for her dance routine. Both silly and heartwarming, it is one of those rarities that elicits simultaneous laughter and tears.

As is so often the case in this project (undoubtedly influenced by my choice of career), I find myself praising the cast, who all deliver brilliant performances. Paul Dano brings a touching edge to brooding teenage angst. 10-year-old Abigail Breslin is obliviously cheerful, earning herself a Supporting Actress Oscar nomination. And of course Alan Arkin's natural portrayal of a brutally honest man, too old to care about what people think of him any more, is a pure delight, winning him a well-deserved Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor.

2006 - Letters from Iwo Jima

And the Oscars have come and gone for another year. There were a couple of minor surprises - Meryl Streep winning again for the first time in almost 30 years, and the editing team of Angus Wall and Aussie Kirk Baxter scoring back-to-back wins in Film Editing. It was also nice to see Billy Crystal again. He's like a comfortable blanket. It just feels like the Oscars when he hosts. My predictions were not too embarrassing. I correctly pegged 16 winners, one better than last year, so I'll take it.

For a chuckle, take a look at the menu for my annual Oscars party.

The next nominee from the Best Picture competition of 2006 is...

Letters from Iwo Jima
Director:
Clint Eastwood
Screenplay:
Iris Yamashita and Paul Haggis
(based on the book Picture Letters from the Commander in Chief by Tadamichi Kuribayashi, edited by Tsuyuko Yoshida)
Starring:
Ken Watanabe, Kazunari Ninomiya, Tsuyoshi Ihara, Ryo Kase, Shido Nakamura, Hiroshi Watanabe, Takumi Bando, Yuki, Matsuzaki
Academy Awards:
4 nominations
1 win, for Best Sound Editing

The fierce Battle of Iwo Jima is told from a Japanese perspective, the story giving focus to two particular men, representing different extremes of military personnel. General Kuribayashi (Watanabe) is the commander, newly assigned to defend the island, and acutely aware of the near impossibility of that task against the might of the US military. His job is made all the more difficult as his subordinates begin acting ... well, insubordinately. At the other end of the spectrum is Private Saigo (Ninomiya), a reluctant conscript with a determination to survive in the face of a less than pleasant superior officer.

The story is based partly on letters written by the real General Kuribayashi and, as the title indicates, they are used as one of the main thematic devices. Characters often inexplicably find the time to sit down and write their inner most thoughts (audible to us through voice over) to their loved ones waiting at home. Oddly, that particular element of the film doesn't really resonate, seeming like an old-fashioned cliche in an otherwise excellent film.

Letters from Iwo Jima features some amazing battle scenes, and lots of them. The superb cinematography and Oscar-winning sound make for gripping viewing. Not to mention the insanely graphic visual effects that allow the camera to remain focused on a soldier as he intentionally blows himself up with a hand grenade. Combined with the emotional intensity of the situation, portrayed in riveting conversations about strategy, honour and the glory of the homeland, the result is a highly engaging entry into the war genre.

Speaking of glory, the film questions the skewed concept of honour that lingered in Japanese culture. Rather than working together to defeat the enemy, many soldiers selfishly concentrate on their own failures, preferring to die completing a mission than suffer the perceived shame of retreating, even if the retreat would enable them to assist in a potentially more useful way. I mean, it seems rather obvious that you're a lot less helpful to your army after you've committed suicide, yet for many of these men, suicide is the only honourable option under the circumstances. And suicide by their own grenades, no less. Perhaps they took the phrase, "no guts, no glory" a little too literally.

It's always somewhat difficult to understand nuance in a language that you don't speak, so there is undoubtedly something in this film that non-Japanese speakers like myself will miss. Nonetheless, Ken Watanabe's performance as the commander in chief is clearly excellent, even if you have to read his lines yourself. Not known outside his home country, Japanese boy band member Kazunari Ninomiya also delivers a superbly amiable performance as the green but smart Saigo. And for the trivia buffs, if I'm not mistaken, Letters from Iwo Jima is the only American film to win the Golden Globe for Best Foreign Language Film.

2006 - The Departed

After a whirlwind two weeks in Sydney, I'm back in New York, gearing up for the Oscars this weekend. In preparation, I've selected my predictions for who will take home each award. Let me know how they match up with your picks.

But before this year's Oscars, we continue our look at the race from 5 years ago with another 2006 Best Picture nominee...

The Departed

Director:

Martin Scorsese

Screenplay:

William Monahan

(based on the film Infernal Affairs, written by Alan Mak and Felix Chong)

Starring:

Leonardo DiCaprio, Matt Damon, Jack Nicholson, Mark Wahlberg, Martin Sheen, Ray Winstone, Vera Farmiga, Anthony Anderson, Alec Baldwin, Kevin Corrigan

Academy Awards:

5 nominations

4 wins, including Best Picture and Best Director

The ultimate double cross story, The Departed follows two fresh police academy recruits who operate on separate sides of the law. Colin Sullivan (Damon) is immediately assigned to the unit investigating organised crime, but his loyalty lies with his childhood mentor Frank Costello (Nicholson), the main target of the crime unit. In contrast, Billy Costigan (DiCaprio) is given a long-term undercover assignment to infiltrate Costello's crew, while faithfully reporting his findings to Captain Queenan (Sheen) and Sergeant Dignam (Wahlberg). The two double agents spend a great deal of time attempting to discover the identity of the other, a task made all the more precarious since they are both carrying on a relationship with the same police psychiatrist, Madolyn Madden (Farmiga).

The Departed is about as tight as crime thrillers get. The tension is deliciously high throughout, a necessary consequence of such a brilliantly structured central conceit. Several scenes position the audience precariously on the edge of their seats with their eyes glued to the screen. A particularly novel instance involves a phone call in which both parties remain entirely silent. And just when you get comfortable with the suspense, traditional thriller conventions are then thrown out the window during the Shakespearean tragedy of an ending. No warning is given before characters meet their demises, each of which I still found unexpected even though I'd seen the film before, as paradoxical as that sounds.

Not only does this picture succeed as a thriller, it also explores some poignant psychological issues, the most obvious of which is the human tendency to lie. Trust issues abound among the main characters and keeping secrets is a way of life for most of them. To varying degrees, they all struggle with their deception, perhaps none more so than Madolyn, whose unfaithfulness is of a more intimate nature.

Director Martin Scorsese is in top form here, earning his first (and to date only) Best Director Oscar. He also assembled a dream cast, including the unique personas of Jack Nicholson, Mark Wahlberg and Alec Baldwin, all three delivering humour laden performances. Vera Farmiga is superb in her role, providing some much needed estrogen to an otherwise male-dominated story. And while Wahlberg's was the only Oscar-nominated performance, Matt Damon (pictured) and Leonardo DiCaprio carry the film together extremely well, despite only rarely appearing on screen at the same time.

2006 - The Queen

I am writing to you now from cloudy Sydney, where Kat and I are visiting friends and family. Despite the lack of sunshine, it is still warm here and certainly more preferable than a New York winter.

My predictions for the Oscar nominations (in the last post) resulted in a fairly average hit rate overall. However, I managed to peg eight of the nine Best Picture nominees, and scored five for five in both the Best Director and Best Cinematography categories. On the other end of the spectrum, I had selected five tunes to be nominated for Best Song and still didn't manage to correctly guess either of the two actual nominees.

We now turn our attention to another nominee from the Best Picture race of 2006...

The Queen
Director:
Stephen Frears
Screenplay:
Peter Morgan
Starring:
Helen Mirren, Michael Sheen, James Cromwell, Helen McCrory, Alex Jennings, Roger Allam, Sylvia Syms, Tim McMullan, Mark Bazeley
Academy Awards:
6 nominations
1 win, for Best Actress (Mirren)

Tony Blair (Sheen) has just been elected Prime Minister, anxious about developing a working relationship with Queen Elizabeth II (Mirren). When the world reels from the shock of Princess Diana's death, all eyes are on the Royal Family and how they will respond. The Queen's decision to mourn privately and make no public statement is met with confusion and anger by some, leaving Blair with the responsibility of managing the British people's expectations.

The story of The Queen is relatively straightforward, the majority of the action taking place over the course of one week. Unfettered by subplots, the main focus of attention is the Royal Family's reaction to the tragic death of the woman who was once a part of that family. As such, there is a sort of self-referential irony that arises whenever the characters discuss the way in which the press makes headlines out of the Royal Family's lack of response, refusing to let up about it.

For most of the picture, there appears to be a potent anti-royalty sentiment. The Queen and her family are portrayed as out of touch and often inexcusably unfeeling. Contrast that with the charming characterisation of Tony Blair, who comes across as the voice of reason, rescuing the Royal Family from their own inability to relate to their subjects.

However, by the film's climax, that sentiment is well and truly challenged, which is perhaps the script's cleverest surprise. As Blair articulates in his defense of the Queen, she has served the British people with dignity for over 50 years in a position she never asked for and is now being demonised for not showing enough grief at the death of a woman who attempted to undermine everything she believes in. Seen from that perspective, we realise how quick we were to fall into the trap laid out for us, the same trap into which the British public fell, foisted onto us by the press.

With the possible exception of Alex Jennings as Prince Charles, the actors do not attempt impersonations of the real-life characters they portray, which creates an interesting atmosphere. It's hard to buy them as the Royal Family due to the casual nature of the performances, but in another sense, it is that casualness that makes the story more accessible. After all, the film's subjects are human, just like the rest of us, so it shouldn't be a surprise that they behave informally when in the privacy of their own homes. Helen Mirren's (pictured) Oscar-winning performance is top notch, finding a way to present a well-rounded portrayal of a somewhat stoic woman who keeps emotional displays to a minimum. She is joined on screen by a very effective Michael Sheen, who is charismatic and affable as the fledgling Prime Minister.

2006 - Babel

Well, that was an unexpectedly lengthy hiatus. Late December contained a fair bit of catering work for me, plus a new job that was initially intended to be part time, but somehow took over every waking moment of my life until this past weekend. The timing couldn't have been better, though, since tomorrow morning the Oscar nominations will be announced, allowing just enough time to get my predictions in order. If you're interested, here are my somewhat educated guesses as to which films will be cited by the Academy.

The Best Supporting Actor contest was by far the toughest to figure out. It could go a number of different ways. If I were braver, I would have backed Jim Broadbent to upset Jonah Hill by taking that final spot ... but I'm not brave. And keep in mind, the Best Picture category will have somewhere between five and ten nominees. I have listed ten predictions in order of nomination likelihood. I'll let the rest of the predictions speak for themselves for now, and over the next month, leading up to the ceremony, I'll discuss the race in more detail.

Meanwhile, to kick us off for the new year, we take a look at the first of 2006's Best Picture contenders...

Babel
Director:
Alejandro González Iñárritu
Screenplay:
Guillermo Arriaga
(based on an idea by Arriaga and  Iñárritu)
Starring:
Brad Pitt, Cate Blanchett, Gael García Bernal, Kôji Yakusho, Adriana Barraza, Rinko Kikuchi
Academy Awards:
7 nominations
1 win, for Best Original Score

With interconnected stories taking place across three continents in several languages, Babel is certainly diverse. In Morocco, a goat herder buys a rifle, giving it to his two young sons and instructing them to kill jackals. The boys test out the weapon's range by taking pot shots at a tour bus in the distance. Meanwhile, Richard (Pitt) and Susan (Blanchett) are vacationing in Morocco as a way to deal with the sudden death of their baby a few months ago. The trip is anything but healing, however, when Susan is unluckily shot in the shoulder while on the tour bus, the nearest hospital four hours away. In the USA, Amelia (Barraza), Richard's and Susan's nanny, is now left to take care of their two children despite needing to attend her own son's wedding in Mexico. After several unsuccessful attempts at finding someone to watch the kids, she has no option but to bring them across the border with her. In Japan, Chieko (Kikuchi), a troubled deaf-mute girl, is desperate for a sexual awakening. She is coping with the tragic suicide of her mother almost a year ago and a strained relationship with her father (Yakuhso), who, as it turns out, recently took a hunting trip to Morocco, gifting his rifle to his guide.

Babel is high-stakes drama at its most intense. From being stranded in remote Morocco without the necessary medical assistance to being stranded in the Southern Californian desert with two young children, the picture unfurls one life-changing (and life-threatening) scene after another. The urgency is conveyed expertly by the film makers, creating an edge-of-your-seat, involving cinematic experience.

In a way, all the major events that occur in the Morocco and US/Mexico stories might make Chieko's story seem frivolous. But far from being a tale of a young girl who just wants to get laid, hers is perhaps the most intimate exploration of the human condition since there is more time in her story thread to dig deep. She doesn't have the same urgent necessity that befalls the other characters in the film, who are often literally scrambling for their lives, yet her desperate need for male attention could be seen as her attempt, however misguided, to save herself from suffering the same fate as her mother.

The main theme of the film, as I see it, is the unfortunate lack of compassion we all have for other people's problems. The title seems to reference the Tower of Babel, the biblical story of how mankind was given myriad languages, thus preventing us from understanding each other. Yet in this story, language is ultimately not the barrier to understanding. While speaking different languages makes things more difficult, it's a problem easily overcome by translators (or notepads in the case of the deaf characters). The real obstacle to understanding is inconsideration. Each character is so caught up in his or her own issues that they are unable to see the problems of others, no matter how much more or less significant they may be. Despite their desperation to be understood, they rarely attempt to understand, often resulting in actions that merely blow situations unnecessarily out of proportion.

Shot on location in the four countries depicted, there is a genuineness to Babel, enhanced by the use of local actors, who are all simply amazing. Brad Pitt (pictured) delivers a superb performance in an intensely challenging role. But it was two supporting actresses who received Oscar nominations, Rinko Kikuchi and Adriana Barraza, both deservedly cited for their excellent work.