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The University of Utah's Independent Student Voice

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The Daily Utah Chronicle

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Our picks for the gold

By Chris Bellamy, Aaron Allen

Aaron AllenChris BellamyThe Daily Utah Chronicle

Best Picture

“Babel””The Departed””Letters from Iwo Jima””Little Miss Sunshine””The Queen”

Aaron: I will drop to my knees and scream to the movie gods, “Nooooooooo!” if “Little Miss Sunshine” is awarded Best Picture on Sunday, which is looking more and more like a possibility. It won the Best Ensemble award at the Screen Actors Guild vanity-fest a few weeks ago (the guild’s equivalent to a “Best Picture” award) and then the Producer’s Guild also gave it their big prize.

Really? Best Picture? It wouldn’t upset me because I don’t like the movie-I think it’s funny, features good acting and is so cuddly you just want to scratch it behind the ears and watch its foot thump on the sofa. It would upset me because the other four candidates are simply better.

Martin Scorsese’s “The Departed” is the most flat-out entertaining of the bunch–a violent pinball machine of backstabbing cops and robbers on the mean streets of Boston. Leonardo DiCaprio, Matt Damon, Jack Nicholson, Mark Wahlberg, Martin Sheen, Ray Winstone, Alec Baldwin-just look at that fantastic cast, pulsating with ferocious testosterone. Oh, and Vera Farmiga. There is a girl in there, too.

I love behind-closed-doors movies and “The Queen” is one of the best, a moving and urgently paced character study in which the stiff-upper-lipped values of Queen Elizabeth II are instantly deemed outmoded when she refuses to publicly mourn Princess Diana’s death. Her smack-down with Prime Minster Tony Blair, a modern thinker who urges the Queen to get with the times, made for delicious drama.

Alejandro González Inárritu’s “Babel” tells four interconnecting stories revolving around an errant bullet, a wounded American, an irresponsible nanny and a Japanese schoolgirl who prefers to go commando (I got your attention now, didn’t I?).

Inárritu loves leaping back and forth between his chronologically fractured storylines, but he has an irritating habit of jumping from one drama (like Brad Pitt tending to his gun-shot wife) to another, just as the former was getting good. He pulled off this technique better in “Amores Perros” and “21 Grams.”

And finally, my personal favorite of the five: Clint Eastwood’s emotionally wrenching “Letters from Iwo Jima,” which would have made my Best of ’06 list if I had seen it in time for publication. A companion piece to the meandering “Flags of Our Fathers,” “Iwo Jima” has the focus and fresh perspective that “Fathers” lacked.

Watching the battle from the Japanese point of view-the losing point of view-along with the clashing ideologies within the Japanese ranks made for the year’s second-best film (just behind “Children of Men,” which wasn’t even nominated for Best Picture. Damn those stuffy voters).

Will win: “Little Miss Sunshine”Should win: “Letters from Iwo Jima”

Chris: A Martin Scorsese-directed film has never won Best Picture, though his have often been deserving of the honor. Of the five nominees this year, his “The Departed” is the best-a savagely funny and exhilarating tour de force through channels in the Boston crime scene. “The Departed” plugs along at a furious pace, capturing the anxiety and paranoia of undercover cop Billy Costigan (Leonardo DiCaprio) in Frank Costello’s Irish mob, and the simultaneous arrogance and insecurity of Colin Sullivan (Matt Damon), the mafia’s mole inside the Special Investigations Unit.

This is Scorsese’s first return to the genre that made him famous since 1995’s “Casino,” and he proves once again that he does it better than everyone, elevating the formula-through intense character examination and, once again for Scorsese, themes of guilt, betrayal and moral ambiguity-to the level of an epic modern tragedy.

The man who has been portrayed as Scorsese’s Oscar “rival,” Clint Eastwood, crafted the second-best film of the five-the second half of his war epic, “Letters from Iwo Jima,” a brilliant and moving interpretation of the Japanese perspective of World War II.

Stephen Frears’ “The Queen” is anchored by two great performances from Helen Mirren and Michael Sheen, portraying two starkly genuine and passionate people completely divided by generational differences as they attempt to deal, in their own ways, with the sudden death of Princess Diana. While it is a very good film, and while Mirren deserves everything she gets, “The Queen” is nonetheless extremely conventional; and while the moral and ethical complexities give the story weight, the film lacks the ambition of much of Frears’ past work.

While it has somehow emerged as the category’s frontrunner, Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu’s “Babel,” an uneven but oft-powerful parable about globalization and the fragility of human contact, is not the director’s best work. Most people seem to agree on this, yet it remains the frontrunner. Call it the “Crash” complex.

The film isn’t without ambition, but when the poignant and subtle storyline involving a deaf-mute (played by Rinko Kikuchi) is followed up by the completely contrived children-getting-lost-in-the-middle-of-the Mexican-desert plot point, it’s hard to see why this is the year’s “best” movie.

Oh, and then there’s “Little Miss Sunshine.” If it wins, I’ll just start spitting blood.

Will win: “Babel”Should win: “The Departed”

Best Director

Clint Eastwood, “Letters from Iwo Jima”Stephen Frears, “The Queen”Paul Greengrass, “United 93″Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu, “Babel”Martin Scorsese, “The Departed”

Aaron: Do I even need to talk about all five nominees here? Martin Scorsese deserves this award not just because he’s been passed over five times before (movie geeks have dart-punctured photos of Robert Redford on their walls-the man won Best Director for “Ordinary People” over Scorsese for “Raging Bull” in 1980), but also because his slick, careening, fat-free direction of “The Departed” made for the leanest, meanest, butt-kickingest movie of 2006.

When Scorsese finally wins his Oscar Sunday night, I wouldn’t be surprised if he does cartwheels on the Kodak stage, going, “Wahoo! Wahoo! Wahoo!” like Daffy Duck on speed. I will weep.

Will and should win: Martin Scorsese, “The Departed”

Chris: Martin Scorsese, the best there ever was, has never won an Oscar. Hell, he wasn’t even nominated for “Taxi Driver.” While it would warm the cockles of my heart to see him win it this year-slightly making up for not winning for “Raging Bull,” “GoodFellas,” “Taxi Driver” and “The Last Temptation of Christ”-the best directorial effort of this bunch came from Paul Greengrass, an Irish filmmaker who made the most out of the 9/11 tragedy (without exploiting or sensationalizing it) than anyone could have possibly done. In contrast to Oliver Stone’s easy, cheap and weepy “World Trade Center,” Greengrass’ “United 93” grabs you with both arms and makes you feel the tension and fear of the doomed passengers of the infamous flight, without any John Williams music to amp up the tension or suspense.

Scorsese would be well-deserving of the honor, as would Eastwood for his potent mix of wartime horror and emotional fortitude in “Letters from Iwo Jima,” but the upset in the mix might be the director of the Best Picture lead horse, “Babel,” Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu. His work, in all three of his films, puts you in the moment with more urgency and vitality than you could imagine, but his vision crumbles in certain passages of “Babel” and soars in others. Meanwhile, as mentioned earlier, Frears has done better and more creative directorial work than he did with “The Queen.”

Will win: Martin Scorsese, “The Departed”Should win: Paul Greengrass, “United 93”

Best Actor in a Leading Role

Leondaro DiCaprio, “Blood Diamond”Ryan Gosling, “Half Nelson”Peter O’Toole, “Venus”Will Smith, “The Pursuit of Happyness”Forest Whitaker, “The Last King of Scotland”

Aaron: The Academy did the right thing nominating Leonardo DiCaprio for his doomed South African diamond
smuggler in “Blood Diamond” instead of his doomed undercover cop in “The Departed.” It was the more commanding of the two roles–the role that carried the movie, really.

Will Smith also carried his movie, “The Pursuit of Happyness,” on his uncharacteristically slumped shoulders, playing a struggling dad who juggles raising his kid and competing for a lucrative internship while living in near-poverty. Smith was excellent in a very physically and emotionally demanding role, acting opposite his real-life kid.

“The Last King of Scotland’s” Forest Whitaker has already taken home several sagging mantels-worth of acting awards for his portrayal of the brutal Ugandan dictator Idi Amin. He deserves all of those awards for a performance that pounces on us with its knee-jerk viciousness.

Apparently, Whitaker got so into character during the shoot that he found himself thinking and acting like Amin long afterward. Yikes.

Will and should win: Forest Whitaker, “The Last King of Scotland”

Chris: People are always impressed with false accents, and Leonardo DiCaprio’s well-portrayed South African accent in “Blood Diamond” once again did the trick. While he was better and more complex in “The Departed,” it doesn’t really matter which film he was nominated for-No. 1, he’s one of the best actors of his generation; and No. 2, he’s going to lose to Forest Whitaker.

Whitaker-long an underrated actor (just see his work in “The Crying Game”)-is powerful and terrifying as Idi Amin in “The Last King of Scotland,” even though the role is a supporting one, not a lead.

Will Smith received his second nomination, once again playing a real person in “The Pursuit of Happyness,” a compelling but pedestrian overcoming-the-odds feel-gooder. Smith has always had more depth as an actor than people have realized, and it is indeed refreshing to see that his agent finally allowed him to be in a movie in which he’s not playing the wise-cracking action hero.

Peter O’Toole was delightfully charming as an aging actor (a real stretch) in “Venus,” and while he’s never won a competitive Oscar, now is not the time to give him one. It’s Whitaker’s year. That said, the best performance of the bunch is Ryan Gosling’s in “Half Nelson.” Gosling was the surprise nominee but gave the most careful and subtle performance of the year as a pessimistically idealistic middle-school teacher with a drug habit. He plays the role not like you’d expect someone to play an addict; he goes for the human qualities of the character-the sadness, the regret-rather than seizures, shakes and freak-outs.

And even with that said, all of these pale in comparison to Sacha Baron Cohen in “Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan,” in which he gives the funniest, bravest and most creative comic performance in years. All the Academy members who refused to nominate him should probably be arrested.

Will win: Forest Whitaker, “The Last King of Scotland”Should win: Ryan Gosling, “Half Nelson”

Best Actress in a Leading Role

Penelope Cruz, “Volver”Judi Dench, “Notes on a Scandal”Helen Mirren, “The Queen”Meryl Streep, “The Devil Wears Prada”Kate Winslet, “Little Children”

Aaron: Again, do I need to devote much discussion to a category dominated by one performance so spot-on that it’s a lock (and deserves it) for the award? Helen Mirren plays Queen Elizabeth II in Stephen Frear’s “The Queen” with such force that I would support her campaign to usurp the actual royal throne so she could rule over England with an iron fist. Long live Queen Mirren!

Kate Winslet in “Little Children”? Lots of yearning, lots of skin–not her best role.

Judi Dench in “Notes on a Scandal”? Love the vamp thing.

Meryl Streep in “The Devil Wears Prada?” Ice queen headache!

Will and should win: Helen Mirren, “The Queen”

Chris: I can’t really add anything to the discussion. Everything that needs to be said about Helen Mirren has already been said. And again: She gives weight to her character’s ethical struggle and complexity to a woman whom most see as just a figurehead-an icon rather than a person. Her fellow dame, Judi Dench, gave one of her best performances as well in “Notes on a Scandal”-but still, the performance would have had more resonance if the filmmakers hadn’t decided to turn her character into a horror-movie villain in the third act. “Fatal Attraction” much?

Penelope Cruz, who owes much of her career to Pedro Almodovar, shines as brightly as she has in years in his “Volver.” Meanwhile, Meryl Streep-like Whitaker in the previous category-was honored for a great supporting performance rather than a lead. And I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: Kate Winslet (one of my favorite actresses working) at least deserves consideration for “Little Children,” not because of the movie, but because she somehow pulled off that Madame Bovary book club scene without erupting into embarrassed laughter.

Will and should win: Helen Mirren, “The Queen”

Best Actor in a Supporting Role

Alan Arkin, “Little Miss Sunshine”Jackie Earle Haley, “Little Children”Djimon Hounsou, “Blood Diamond”Eddie Murphy, “Dreamgirls”Mark Wahlberg, “The Departed”

Aaron: I’m rooting for Eddie Murphy to win this simply so I can remember him as a very happy man receiving an Oscar instead of a very sad man whose consolation prize is that he recently starred in “Norbit.” I say this even though he’s not my favorite in the category. Sure, he showed expansive range as the drug-addicted, lady-lovin’, James Brown clone in Bill Condon’s uneven “Dreamgirls,” but I didn’t really miss him after he left the story.

The one actor I did miss as soon as his character left was Mark Wahlberg in “The Departed.” His short-fused, potty-mouthed Sgt. Dignam stole every scene he was in-quite a feat, considering he shares space with much more established actors such as Alec Baldwin and Martin Sheen. In a movie full of colorful performances, he’s the most vivid, irreverent crayon in the box.

Alan Arkin was also delightfully irreverent as the perverted, coke-snuffing grandfather in “Little Miss Sunshine.” He’s a clich, but he wears it well.

Jackie Earle Haley’s self-loathing pedophile in “Little Children” was also fascinating-he creates sympathy for a character that could have been unwholesome and completely unlikable in another actor’s hands.

As for Djimon Hounsou in “Blood Diamond?” Eh. It’s DiCaprio’s show.

Will win: Eddie Murphy, “Dreamgirls”Should win: Mark Wahlberg, “The Departed”

Chris: The best performance in “Little Children” was that of Jackie Earle Haley, and it’s nice to see him recognized for it, even though the Academy had to ignore Nick Nolte in “Clean,” Ray Winstone in “The Proposition” and Robert Downey Jr. in “A Scanner Darkly” to get Haley the nod. The film doesn’t purport to understand Haley’s character-a pedophile with an all-too-close relationship with his mother-but does find both the human and inhumane elements of his psyche.

Alan Arkin said a few funny lines in “Little Miss Sunshine” and so they nominated him. Maybe it was the Nazi bullets in his body that made the Academy feel guilty. Or a lack of imagination-did they really have to nominate two actors from “Sunshine?”

Eddie Murphy was the only non-annoying thing about the shrill, superficial, shallow sham that is “Dreamgirls.” And Djimon Hounsou was as intense as ever in “Blood Diamond.” But nothing trumps Mark Wahlberg in “The Departed,” simply for delivering every hilarious line with pitch-perfect hard-boiled machismo. He’s come a long way since rapping with his pants down.

Will win: Eddie Murphy, “Dreamgirls”Should win: Mark Wahlberg, “The Departed”

Best Actress in a Supporting Role

Adriana Barraza, “Babel”Abigail Breslin, “Little Miss Sunshine”Cate Blanchett, “Notes on a Scandal”Jennifer Hudson, “Dreamgirls”Rinko Kikuchi, “Babel”

Aaron: Much snapping in a Z-formation has been made over former “American Idol” contestant Jennifer Hudson’s climb from one of Simon’s rejects to a conf
ident, Hollywood-embraced actress because of her sonically superb debut in “Dreamgirls.”

Everybody talks about how wonderfully she belts out “And I Am Telling You I’m Not Going” as Effie White, the pushy, outspoken third of the Supremes-esque trio, but she’s also very good in the non-singing parts, especially when she’s down on her luck in the second half.

Young Abigail Breslin as the Little Miss in “Little Miss Sunshine” provides the stable, not-yet-disappointed center of a family that would have been just quirk for quirk’s sake without her.

And Cate Blanchett is beautifully disheveled as the naughty schoolteacher in “Notes on a Scandal.” She and Judi Dench make a formidable pair.

Two actresses from “Babel” have been nominated: Rinko Kikuchi as the panty-less, deaf-mute teenager and Adriana Barraza as the Mexican nanny who makes a costly mistake. Kikuchi has the more interesting storyline, even if it has a very tenuous connection to the rest of the movie. She projects her character’s painful vulnerability without speaking a single word.

Perhaps if Kikuchi has connections to the Yakuza, the Japanese mafia, she could make Hudson “disappear,” clearing the way to an award that should be hers.

Will win: Jennifer Hudson, “Dreamgirls”Should win: Rinku Kikuchi, “Babel”

Chris: I will only acknowledge Jennifer Hudson for the power of her voice. Not her acting. I will penalize Adriana Barraza not for her performance, but the fact that she had to take part in that silly lost-children subplot. I will forgive the ridiculous third act of “Notes on a Scandal” only because Cate Blanchett is one of the absolute greats. I will pretend Abigail Breslin was not nominated. I will only accept Rinko Kikuchi for her devastating portrayal of an emotionally confused and shattered deaf-mute in “Babel.” She was the heart and soul of the film, and did more without saying a word than Jennifer Hudson could do with 20 show-stopping tunes.

Will win: Jennifer Hudson, “Dreamgirls”Should win: Rinko Kikuchi, “Babel”

Best Original Screenplay

“Babel,” Guillermo Arriaga”Letters from Iwo Jima,” Iris Yamashita, Paul Haggis (story)”Little Miss Sunshine,” Michael Arndt”Pan’s Labyrinth,” Guillermo del Toro”The Queen,” Peter Morgan

Aaron: Guillermo del Toro’s screenplay for “Pan’s Labyrinth” made strange and surprisingly compatible bedfellows out of the ghoulish and the tear-jerking. An intelligent little girl copes with the daily horror of 1940s Spanish fascism by engrossing herself in a fantasy realm that, sadly, offers her little relief. If this story isn’t considered the most original of the year, someone needs to blow the old-fogey dust off the Academy.

Iris Yamashita’s script for “Letters from Iwo Jima” also approaches World War II from an unlikely and revealing perspective.

Peter Morgan’s script for “The Queen” is remarkable in how it only guesses at what must have been going on in Buckingham Palace after Diana’s death, yet still rings with truth.

Guillermo Arriaga’s multi-layered script for “Babel” is a wonder of screenwriting structure, even if it doesn’t quite add up to anything in the end.

Michael Arndt’s script for “Little Miss Sunshine” finds humor not in broad jokes or witty asides, but in the disturbed behavior of its characters. The Academy loves disturbed suburbanites (see “American Beauty”).

Will win: “Little Miss Sunshine”Should win: “Pan’s Labyrinth”

Chris: “Little Miss Sunshine” is being bombarded with honors because people mistake contrived quirks (which make absolutely no sense) with character depth. It doesn’t seem like a difficult distinction, but for some, it is. Was there a more over-written movie this year? Was there a worse ending this year? Was the movie funny? Yes it was. Was it brilliant? Well, it sure seems to think it is, but no. When a movie tries to convince me that a well-read 16-year-old who simultaneously adores Nietzsche AND wants to join the Air Force has not realized in his entire life that he can’t tell colors apart, you’ve lost me. You must think we’re stupid, Michael Ardnt.

But it will win, because people seem to be enamored with its cutesy-ness and desperate I-really-want-to-be-loved charm. But the best of this bunch is Guillermo del Toro’s layered allegory in “Pan’s Labyrinth.” See above for my thoughts on the admirable “The Queen,” “Babel” and “Letters from Iwo Jima.”

Will win: “Little Miss Sunshine”Should win: “Pan’s Labyrinth”

Best Adapted Screenplay

“Borat: Cultural Learnings of American for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan,” Sacha Baron Cohen, Anthony Hines, Peter Baynham, Dan Mazer and Todd Phillips”Children of Men,” Alfonso Cuaron, Timothy Sexton, David Arata, Mark Fergus and Hawk Ostby”The Departed,” William Monahan”Little Children,” Todd Field and Tom Perrotta”Notes on a Scandal,” Patrick Marber

Aaron: “The Departed” scribe William Monahan deserves this award hands-down, not only for writing all those great Mark Wahlberg lines, but also for arranging such a complicated story in a way that’s understandable.

“Children of Men”? Best movie of the year, but more so because of Alfonso Cuarn’s guiding hand than the film’s script.

“Little Children”? The book was better. Duh.

“Notes on a Scandal”? Loved that wicked narration for Dench.

And finally?”Borat”? Wait, wasn’t this thing improvised? Eh, who cares. I’d vote for it simply to watch Sacha Baron Cohen’s acceptance speech. Remember him at the Globes? I want a repeat.

Will and should win: “The Departed”

Chris: For the Patriot Act line, the cranberry-juice scene, the Mark Wahlberg character, the “She fell funny” line, and the insidious hilarity that William Monahan gets from a world of violence and corruption, “The Departed” deserves the screenplay honor more than any other, though “Children of Men”-the best movie of the year-gives it a run for its money here. “Notes on a Scandal” had me until the last 30 minutes, and “Little Children” is so tonally uneven and structurally out of focus that it can’t possibly compete. And then there’s “Borat,” a curious selection because its brilliance relied on improvisation and other people’s reactions rather than actual writing.

Will and should win: “The Departed”

And the rest?(Aaron)

Best Film Editing

Will win: “Babel”

Should win: “United 93”

Best Cinematography

Will and should win: “Children of Men”

Best Art Direction

Will win: “Dreamgirls”

Should win: “Pan’s Labyrinth”

Best Costume Design

Will and should win: “Marie Antoinette”

Best Makeup

Will and should win: “Pan’s Labyrinth”

Best Visual Effects

Will and should win: “Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest”

Best Sound Mixing

Will win: “Dreamgirls”

Should win: “Blood Diamond”

Best Sound Effects Editing

Will win: “Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest”

Should win: “Letters from Iwo Jima”

Best Documentary

Will and should win: “An Inconvenient Truth”

Best Original Score

Will win: “The Queen”

Should win: “Pan’s Labyrinth”

Best Original Song

Will and should win: “Listen” from “Dreamgirls”

Best Animated Film

Will win: “Cars”

Should win: “Happy Feet”

Best Foreign Language Film

Will and should win: “Pan’s Labyrinth”

The rest?(Chris)

Best Film Editing

Will win: “Babel”

Should win: “Children of Men”

Best Cinematography

Will and should win: “Children of Men”

Best Art Direction:

Will and should win: “Pan’s Labyrinth”

Best Costume Design

Will win: “Dreamgirls”

Should win: “Marie Antoinette”

Best Makeup

Will and should win: “Pan’s Labyrinth”

Best Visual Effects

Will and should win: “Superman Returns”

Best Sound Mixing

Will win: “Dreamgirls”

Should win: “Apocalypto”

Best Sound Effects Editing

Will and should win: “Letters from Iwo Jima”

Best Original Score

Will win: “The Queen”

Should win:
“Pan’s Labyrinth”

Best Original Song

Will win: “Listen” from “Dreamgirls”

Should win: None of them

Best Animated Film

Will win: “Cars”

Should win: “Monster House”

Best Foreign Language Film

Will and should win: “Pan’s Labyrinth”

Best Documentary

Will and should win: “An Inconvenient Truth”

“Pan’s Labyrinth”

“Dreamgirls”

“Half Nelson”

“Babel”

“Little Miss Sunshine”

“Letters from Iwo Jima”

“The Departed”

“The Queen”

“The Last King of Scotland”

“Dreamgirls”

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