Oscar predictions: a king and a queen win big
Handy dandy list of Oscar predictions…
year in review
counting down the best films of 2006: No. 7, ‘United 93’
WHY IS THIS ONE OF THE BEST FILMS OF THE YEAR?: Without trivializing or sensationalizing the most traumatic day in recent American history, writer/director Paul Greengrass puts us in the middle of events we couldn’t have witnessed even if we spent the whole day in front of the TV — as many of us did … more…
counting down the best films of 2006: No. 8, ‘Bobby’
WHY IS THIS ONE OF THE BEST FILMS OF THE YEAR?: Emilio Estevez makes an enormous leap as a filmmaker, nay, as an artist, with this powerfully emotional tribute to the influence of Bobby Kennedy… and at the same time laments the absence today of his like in the public realm. As an American who … more…
counting down the best films of 2006: No. 9, ‘Letters from Iwo Jima’
WHY IS THIS ONE OF THE BEST FILMS OF THE YEAR?: War is hell … except when it comes to war movies, which, when done with sensitivity and keen perception, offer some of the more provocative insights into what it means to be human — at the most fundamental level, where we’re stripped of cultural … more…
counting down the best films of 2006: No. 10, ‘Happy Feet’
WHY IS THIS ONE OF THE BEST FILMS OF THE YEAR?: C’mon, dancing baby penguins? You’d have to have a heart of stone not to find yourself wrapped up in delicious warm fuzzies by this movie. Cute overload! NO, SERIOUSLY, WHY?: Okay, managing to be this exceptionally cute without descending into goopy sentimentality would have … more…
2006 best-ofs: best actor, best actress
Maybe even more so than debating the best movie of the year, we love arguing over which actors gave us the most astonishing, most surprising, most riveting performances of the year. And that makes sense: their faces are ones we become most acquainted with when we watch a movie (as opposed to, obviously, the director’s … more…
2006 best-ofs: best documentary, best foreign-language film, best animated feature
People who love films tend to love all kinds of films, but there are those with more specific tastes. Whether you’re looking for based-on-fact newsiness, the high-flying spiritedness of animated movies, or the challenge foreign-language films in which the underlying cultural rules that form the story space may be alien to your experience, there were … more…
2006 best-ofs: best director, best cinematographer
I pick the year’s best directors and best cinematographers.
2006 best-ofs: best original screenplay, best adapted screenplay
My picks for the best scripts of 2006.
2006 best-ofs: best supporting actor, best supporting actress
I pick the best supporting roles of 2006.
