| Oscar Picks |
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| Writer: | Rick Groen | Liam Lacey | Johanna Schneller |
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| Best Picture | The Diving Bell and the ButterflyThe film resonates far beyond the stock inspiration of one man's triumph over a severe handicap, insisting that all of us are "locked in" to our limited perspectives, and free to struggle outside the borders of the frame. Or not. | No Country for Old MenThe Coen brothers are about tone more than theme, but the melding of their technical virtuosity and black humour and Cormac McCarthy's apocalyptic western makes this the most startling and accomplished film of the year. | The Bourne UltimatumIt disseminates information lightning fast, moves people all around the globe, but remains just within the realm of the believable. And it's so much fun. |
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| No Country for Old MenA violent yet brilliant exploration of three men choosing their places on the ethical spectrum, each paying a different but singularly high price for the choice. | 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 DaysCareful choices and deeply felt minimalist acting combine for a powerful, atmospheric impression in Cristian Mungiu's portrait of life in late-eighties Romania. | The Diving Bell and the ButterflyIt puts thoughts and emotions on film, but in the most delicate way. Never pretentious. And it should be depressing but, wonderfully, it isn't. |
| 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 DaysThe story at the centre - an unflinching account of a terminated pregnancy in Communist Romania - is the hub for an equally intriguing tale at the periphery where grey is the dominant mood and lies are a daily necessity. | The Diving Bell and the ButterflyA study of humanity reduced to the cinematic essentials of seeing, hearing and memory. | No Country for Old MenThese wordless men moving through a chilling landscape. It feels post-apocalyptic, but T.S. Eliot-style. |
| JunoThis picture works superbly as a form of drawing room comedy, where everyone is too clever by half but we're too busy laughing to care. | RatatouilleBrad Bird's three-dimensional animated movie mixes perfectly timed slapstick, terrific craftsmanship and a winning fable. | Michael ClaytonGlossy, A-list, righteous American filmmaking. |
| OnceOkay, a somewhat perverse choice, but in a year of intriguing musicals, this Irish version is simple without being simplistic, sweet yet never cloying, and guaranteed to set your toes to tapping even as it plays a number on your heartstrings. | Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet StreetTim Burton has thoroughly Burtonized Stephen Sondheim's modern musical classic into a set-piece display of beautiful Victorian necrophilia. | There Will Be BloodMy favourite movie of the year, maybe the past 10 years. Though it's not easy to watch, I think we'll be watching it forever. |
| Best Director | Julian Schnabel, The Diving Bell and the ButterflySchnabel uses the camera both as a principal character and as a thematic tool, examining the tenuous relationship between our subjective existence and the world's surrounding whirl. | Joel and Ethan Coen, No Country for Old MenIdiosyncratic details, surgically exact action scenes and note-perfect performances add up to an audacious mixture of action, black comedy and elegy. | Paul Thomas Anderson, There Will Be BloodThe way he uses the landscape, the music, the camera and the actors to make these two men embody the whole world. It's thrilling. |
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| Joel and Ethan Coen, No Country for Old MenAlways a sign of terrific direction, the Coens' work here rewards repeat viewing, especially in their use of subtle echoes to link the three main characters and their moral place in an ever-expanding frontier of violence. | Julian Schnabel, The Diving Bell and the ButterflyUsing an array of camera techniques, and drawing from everyone from experimental filmmaker Stan Brakhage to Federico Fellini, Schnabel recreates the experience of being trapped in a body and liberated by the imagination. | Joel and Ethan Coen, No Country for Old MenNo hanky-panky, no smarty-pants tricks this time. The brothers go for straight-up storytelling, and it's riveting. |
| Cristian Mungiu, 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 DaysMungiu generates tense excitement within a fixed lens, and the film is at its most suspenseful when it's least in motion. | Paul Thomas Anderson, There Will Be BloodAnderson goes for greatness in his epic tale of an American capitalist's descent into insanity. | Paul Greengrass, The Bourne UltimatumHe orchestrated one of film's greatest chase scenes and one of the greatest fight scenes in the same movie. |
| Julie Taymor, Across the UniverseTaymor holds nothing back in this tour de force musical - even when the imagery is over the top, you can't help but shake your head in forgiving wonder. | David Cronenberg, Eastern PromisesA film that, in some ways, transcends its gangland script, Cronenberg's tale of Russian mobsters in London has scenes of startling violence and quiet sequences of multilevel implication. | Sean Penn, Into the WildPenn navigates so beautifully between his lead character's inner world and his encounters on the road. |
| Paul Thomas Anderson, There Will Be BloodHis direction is always composed and beautifully fluid, no more so than in the extended introductory frames - it takes a brave talent to start a movie with 15 minutes of gripping silence. | David Fincher, ZodiacFincher's fictional investigation into the identity of the real-life Zodiac killer feels like an obsessive investigation into obsession. | Julian Schnabel, The Diving Bell and the ButterflyHe makes thoughts and memories manifest, and so lyrically that the sight of a woman's hair blowing in the breeze can break your heart. |
| Best Actor | Javier Bardem, No Country for Old MenBardem digs into evil's mind and finds there something infinitely more frightening than evil itself - cold, brutal, unblinking logic. | Daniel Day-Lewis, There Will Be BloodDay-Lewis as a tightly-coiled, misanthropic, early 20th-century oil baron is the most hair-raising performance of the year. | Christian Bale, Rescue DawnI have the feeling that everyone on this film went a little crazy, but Bale brings a glee to his pilot character that is infectious. |
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| Daniel Day-Lewis, There Will Be BloodNo one overacts as magnetically as Day-Lewis and, here, he chews the scenery right to the screen. | Javier Bardem, No Country for Old MenBardem's performance will be classified as a "supporting" role in the Oscar lists but his alarmingly single-minded character is the roaring engine in this movie. | Daniel Day-Lewis, There Will Be BloodHe spends the first 20 minutes in silence, and he's magnetic. It's a classic performance, worthy of every minute of his Method immersion. I say the Oscar's his. |
| Philip Seymour Hoffman, Charlie Wilson's WarHoffman not only fires up a sputtering movie with his every appearance, but he also makes the actors around him a lot better. | Viggo Mortensen, Eastern PromisesIn his second role in a row in a David Cronenberg film in which he plays a man living a double life, Mortensen plays a sexy-scary demon or angel, with a flawless Russian accent and a quaint, compelling dandyism. | Emile Hirsch, Into the WildThis character has to be trippy, sweet, compelling, maddening; he has to carry long stretches of the movie alone; and then he has to hold his own in flashback encounters with great actors in peak form. |
| George Clooney, Michael ClaytonClooney is good at playing charm, but he's better at playing damaged, and this role gives him ample chance to nurse the blue bruises of a lawyer's tiny soul. | Gordon Pinsent, Away from HerWhile Julie Christie and Olympia Dukakis are getting Oscar talk for their performances, Gordon Pinsent's work has been rarely mentioned, a substantial oversight considering the whole film unfolds from his wounded, guilty point of view. | Tommy Lee Jones, In the Valley of ElahNo one saw this movie, but the bags under Jones' eyes alone did more acting than most actors. |
| Sam Riley, ControlThe film may be unheralded, but Riley's work in it is distinguished, capturing rocker Ian Curtis in all his jejune angst. | Casey Affleck, The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert FordThe look on Affleck's face, as the celebrity stalker who took his idol's life in the hopes of possessing his soul, suggests a man who can smell his own inner rot. | Viggo Mortensen, Eastern PromisesHis Russian mobster character has to have instant authority, and possess an almost comic-book resilience, played totally straight. Mortensen does it with cool brilliance. |
| Best Actress | Cate Blanchett, I'm Not ThereBecause I adore Blanchett and I revere Bob Dylan and who knew, back in the electric days of Just Like a Woman, that they were one and the same person. | Julie Christie, Away from HerThe fascinating thing about Christie's performance is that she plays her character, not an Alzheimer's patient, so the irony, coquettishness and eccentricity in her personality remain constant through the disease. | Julie Christie, Away from HerChristie has always been remote, gorgeous, irresistible, and all that comes into play here. Then it's seasoned with a lifetime of sadness and experience. Beautiful. |
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| Ellen Page, JunoFew actors can convey intelligence, wit, toughness and vulnerability in the same breath, yet our own Page is making a career of it. | Ellen Page, JunoFor all the praise for the script and direction, the success of Juno is really all about the performance of this 20-year-old Canadian actress, who finds the heart beneath the smart talk in this teen pregnancy tale. | Marion Cotillard, La Vie En RoseThis is a fierce performance, ultra-dramatic. She really tears it up. |
| Julie Christie, Away From HerUnlike most iconic stars taking on the challenge of a diseased character, Christie avoids the traps. | Angelina Jolie, A Mighty HeartMaybe it's not cool to like the serial-adopting power flirt, but when Jolie commits to a character, she does so fiercely. | Angelina Jolie, A Mighty HeartSay want you want about Angie, the woman can act. Her French accent is flawless, and she never lets Mariane Pearl stray into sainthood. |
| Anamaria Marinca, 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 DaysMarinca offers a display of naturalistic acting at its allusive best. | Cate Blanchett, I'm Not ThereDirector Todd Haynes employs an arsenal of Brechtian tricks in his experimental biography of Bob Dylan, but what makes the film achieve lift-off is Blanchett's mercurial performance. | Ellen Page, JunoThe debut of a major talent. This character could have been unbearable: mouthy, cutesy, irritating. It only works because Page keeps it so lean and clean. |
| Marina Hands, Lady ChatterleyHands brings to D.H. Lawrence's young lady a raw yet ambiguous sexuality seldom seen on the screen. | Nicole Kidman, Margot at the WeddingNo reflection on her personality, but Kidman tends to come alive as narcissistic, destructive characters, and the title character of Noah Baumbach's black comedy is one of the best examples. | Charlize Theron, In the Valley of ElahTheron digs deep here, and gives this quiet woman a palpable past. She and Tommy Lee Jones are great together. |
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