Awards
Page Index
* OSCAR coverage here
'06 FiLM BiTCH
Awards
by Nathaniel
R
Traditional
Oscar categories:
Majors
/
Acting /
Technicals /
Technicals 2 (Tally of Noms)
Special Categories: Extras
/ Extras 2 / Scenes
1 / Scenes 2
(Tally of Noms) / Movie Mixers (Poll Games)
Best
Individual Line Reading
phraseology
that sticks in the head
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
| Ryan
Gosling Half Nelson |
Patrick
Wilson Little Children |
Judi
Dench Notes on a Scandal |
Meryl
Streep The Devil Wears Prada |
Mark
Wahlberg The Departed |
"OK" "Okayyyy" Navigating a strange friendship with a student and surprising himself in the process. With mouthful of sandwich |
"She's
a knockout" Swatting away a pest? Aimed to hurt? But shutting himself off somehow perhaps into an internalized conversation of his own |
"You're not young! I say this to help you" A sharp rebuke of a naughty child (at odds with the message) and an instant pulling back, flailing to recalibrate the control |
"Why
is no one reeady?" |
"Maybe. Maybe not. Maybe f*** yourself" a bulldog. a fine comic actor |
| Finalists:
In
regard to Emily
Blunt and Meryl Streep in The
Devil Wears Prada and Fiona
Shaw in The Black Dahlia. There's probably
not a single line of dialogue among them that isn't richly
spun from their mouths and fine tuned by their choices. But
choosing one? Forget it. I had to force myself to eeny-meeny-miny-mo
on Streep. Semi-Finalists: Jennifer Hudson and Anika Noni Rose both have a sung through line that I absolutely love in Dreamgirls . Jennifer sells her audience rousing comeback line with "this time Effie White is going to win" with utmost sass and vindication. Anika dumping Eddie "But Lorell and Jimmy are through" sad, angry, and a long time in coming * Toni Collette in Little Miss Sunshine. I love all the different levels of frustration, warning and feeling each time she calls her husband by name "Richard!" Gretchen Mol gorgeous understatement "it was a lifting up" in The Notorious Bettie Page * |
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Best
Actor in a Limited or Cameo Role
there
are no small parts
 |
 |
 |
|
Adam
Brody "Jack" Thank You For Smoking |
Alan
Mandell "The Mayor" Shortbus |
Liev
Schreiber "Charlie Townsend" The Painted Veil |
| A
memorable comic bit as a hyper assistant to a Hollywood superpower.
Will he be this fun in larger roles? They're coming |
Gets
the thesis scene at the salon and makes it moving and soulful.
"New York is where people come to be forgiven" |
Maybe
it's too large of a role to be here. But in 2 & 1/2 ish
scenes at the start, his arrogant, semi-disingenuous diplomat
makes a real mark |
| Not
a strong year for this category so I'm limiting the nominees
to three. Finalists: None Semi-Finalists: Dallas Roberts in The Notorious Bettie Page all 50s boyish to malevolent in just one scene * Peter Mullan as "Sid" in Children of Men: a fascist pig. * I love Jackie Beat even if she's just in the background singing "Shit Happens" in Adam & Steve * |
||
Best
Actress in a Limited or Cameo Role
there
are no small parts
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
|
Tina
Holmes "Rachel" Half Nelson |
Chus
Lampreave "Tía Paula" Volver |
Julia
McKenzie "Marjorie" Notes on a Scandal |
Sarah
Paulson "Bunny Yeager" The Notorious Bettie Page |
Grace
Zabriskie "Visitor #1"
INLAND EMPIRE |
Isn't
this the same role she played in Six Feet Under:
the sad not-quite love interest to a jerk? No matter. This
actress vibrates with backstory |
This
Almodóvar regular delights as a nearly blind and forgetful
auntie. The wary non-affection for Sole is comic gold |
With
just a handful of lines tiptoeing around her alien intimidating
sister Barbara ( Dench) she shows you how long this has been
going on |
Amusingly
sophisticated and period. Brings just the right note of cold
savvy as a key photographer in Bettie's career |
She
kicks off the bizarre-a-thon with a sinister warning / exposition.
"Evil was born..." --Was she its mother? because
she is freaking me out! |
 Finalists:
It's
probably hard not to make an impression while impaled
by a screwdriver but Julia Ormond distills
the psyche-terror well in INLAND EMPIRE *
Robin
Weigert "Hannelore" in The
Good German is unimpressed by Lena
(Cate Blanchett) and the men orbiting her, she adds a valuable
note of 'what's the fuss?' earthiness to a stylized piece
* Semi-Finalists: Jane Adams has played this role (neurotic loveless woman) several times before but she still brings that tremulous fragility for Little Children to exploit. I just wish someone would give her something else to do onscreen. Look how well she fared in Wonder Boys * Mary Louise Burke provides me with the usual giggles as Lunch Lady in A Prairie Home Companion * Mary Steenburgen is dazed and confused in INLAND EMPIRE * Matyelock Gibbs as "Miss Wiggin" provided fine comic foil on occassion in Miss Potter * Loretta Devine gets a nice shout out (and a song!) for being one of the original Dreamgirls * |
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Body
of Work
Doing
a little something different -This award used to be a lineup of
nominees
w/ multiple performances. From now on it will be an annual special
gold medal to the hardest
working person who doesn't let the quantity mess with the quality.
 |
Awarded to Maggie Gyllenhaal  |
She
gave one of last year's best
performances. So how did she follow it up? Oh, by giving five
more fine performances in 2006, none of them carbon copies
of the others. To ice the cake further all but one were significantly
better than the films which housed them. She tore through World Trade Center's sentimental goop with feverish worry, ignored Trust the Man's cheap laughs for wistful truth, delighted as a mean babysitter in Monster House and almost made Will Ferrel interesting in Stranger Than Fiction. For her final magic trick, she delivered a visceral and complex performance as Sherrybaby. I hope she takes a break to recharge the batteries but I hope she's in movies for a long long time to come. |
|
| Maggiebaby |
|
 |
|
this
year's MVP |
|
Breakthrough
Award
actors
who "arrived" this year, whether through a breakthrough
in exposure, a fine debut,
or graduation from tiny roles to the big leagues
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
|
Emily
Blunt in The Devil Wears Prada |
Abigail
Breslin in Little Miss Sunshine |
Jennifer
Hudson in Dreamgirls |
Sook-Yin
Lee in Shortbus |
Channing
Tatum in She's The Man, and Step Up |
She
saw what a primo opportunity Prada was and gleefully
seized it. That she was unrecognizable from My Summer
of Love indicates fine actorly range next project She's booked solid for awhile. |
She's
been in-demand as a child actor for a few years but
Sunshine might putthe adorable 11 year-old into Dakota
Fanning's league |
Brings
the house down in the flashy Dreamgirls. Once in
a generation pipes she's got there. next project With the movie debut out of the way, I'm sure it's all music all the time for the next few years |
Already
famous in Canada but largely unknown in the US. Bit part in
Hedwig led to a wonderful leading
role here to which she brought nuanced comic timing and fresh
energy next project Unknown but I want more |
A
meteoric year for the 26 year-old model turned actor starring
in two box office successes and snagging an Indie Spirit nom
to boot for a third film next project co-starring in Kimberly Peirce's follow up to Boys Don't Cry |
 Finalist:
Anika
Noni Rose may have been overshadowed by the star
wattage on every side of her and directorial choices made
for Dreamgirls but that didn't stop her from being
delightful and sharing those musical chops that some of us
are already fond of from her TONY winning Caroline or
Change performance * Lindsay Beamish
gave solid and charimatic debut as the lonely dominatrix
in Shortbus *Semi-Finalists: I hope we see more of singer/songwriter Jay Brannan (he sang "Soda Pop" right before getting --oh, well, you know) and actor Paul Dawson (who played the very depressed James) from Shortbus * I found Rose Byrne so boring in Troy (which was ostensibly meant to be a breakthrough) that her performance in The Dead Girl shocked me with its vulnerability and heart. Good stuff * |
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Best
Ensemble Work
they
are family
 |
The
Departed Leonardo DiCaprio, Matt Damon, Vera Farmiga, Jack Nicholson, Martin Sheen, Alec Baldwin, Mark Wahlberg Sprawling big name casts rarely feel this cohesive as a unit. So many fine performances it feels mean to single someone out. |
 |
Duck
Season Enrique Arreola, Diego Cataño, Daniel Miranda, and Danny Perea The movie depends on the chemistry between the four principals and their strange rivalries, truces, and friendships. It's all in there. |
 |
Little
Miss Sunshine Alan Arkin, Abigail Breslin, Steve Carell, Toni Collette, Paul Dano and Greg Kinnear Could've come across as indie clichés instead they feel like a cohesive and three dimensional (dysfunctional) family. Wonderful. |
 |
United
93 Lewis Alsamari, Peter Hermann, Ben Sliney, Christian Clemenson, Trish Gates, Omar Berdouni and Cheyenne Jackson Their palpable bravery, fear and confusion adds to the successful "you are there" illusion |
 |
Volver Yohana Cobo, Penélope Cruz, Carmen Maura, Lola Dueñas and Blanca Portillo Cannes did right by this team when they shared the "Best Actress" award. Together they're tremendous in the darkly comic melodrama. |
Finalists:
A
Prairie Home Companion fun group dynamics plus awesome
sing-alongs and duets (but a bit of a variance in quality
within the large team) * Half
Nelson the
lead may have hogged all the praise but
this entire cast is working hard: the relationships are intricate
and well drawn. Even the tiny roles pop.
Shortbus, like Prairie there's some
quality variance but they're all coming from the same genuine
place and the movie's improvisational community spirit is
wonderful |
|
Best
Casting
Had
a winning hand before filming began
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
|
The
Departed Ellen Lewis |
Dreamgirls Debra Zane |
Little
Children Belinda Monte & Todd M. Thaler |
Shortbus Susan Shopmaker |
Volver
Luis San Narciso |
Arguably
the two most gifted young male movie-stars
as mirror images, and supporting players with true fire and
show-off flair |
Casting so smart and sly it's like a mirror movie. Everyone
plays themselves (are they aware?) and versions of someone
else |
It's hard to imagine better filmic embodiments of the books
roles, both in looks and spirit -- particularly the leads |
Had
to get creative to cast this explicit film but for the most
part this is a talented,
winning and photogenic bunch of up & comers |
An
earthy re-think of Penélope Cruz, smartly chosen key
and bit players, and a resonant "coming back" to
Carmen Maura |
Finalists:
Casino Royale * Monster
House * The
Prestige * |
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