Nominees: Pride & Prejudice, Grizzly Man, Munich, Little Fish, The Gits, L'enfant, The Devil and Daniel Johnston, War of the Worlds
Oscars pick: Crash
Nominees: Brokeback Mountain, Capote, Good Night and Good Luck, Munich
In reassessing ‘05 I still found the Academy's top contenders, Crash and the overwrought, choppily paced soap opera Brokeback Mountain, frankly, overrated. Good Night and Good Luck was soft and superficially rendered. Of Oscar's nominees, only Munich impressed me. (Capote was fair).
That's not to say the season was bereft of goodies: Among them - 2 musical docs: The Gits - a heartfelt look at the life and murder of Seattle Grunge artist Mia Zapata. And a respectful exploration of a strange man's "15-minutes of fame" in, The Devil and Daniel Johnston.
There were dramas such as Little Fish, a raw character piece about a former heroin addict (wonderfully played by Cate Blanchett) who is trying to get her bearings and stay straight. And from Belgium, L’Enfant, the story of an amoral thief who does something unthinkable.
‘05 gave us interesting spins on classic noir, crime stories. Like the hilarious Kiss, Kiss, Bang, Bang with its superb casting of Robert Downey Jr. Val Kilmer and Michelle Monaghan - and Brick, which sets its hard-boiled tale in a High School.
There were literary adaptations as well, from Joe Wright's take on Jane Austen's Pride & Prejudice. With Kiera Knightly’s spot-on turn as Elizabeth Bennett. And of course, Christopher Nolan’s grand, humanistic riff on the dark knight detective in Batman Begins.
Among the years most memorable was my winner, The Death of Mr, Lazarescu, which is about an old man who feels ill one night and calls for an ambulance. But instead of receiving the immediate medical attention he needs, he winds up on a journey through hell. (It’s no accident that one of his names is Dante).
Sometimes called a black comedy, and while there are amusing lines of dialogue and whatnot, there’s nothing really funny about this situation. The film exposes the absurdity of a broken health system that allows people to fall through the cracks. Hospitals are understaffed, doctors and nurses are buried under red tape. Beyond that, the picture speaks to life and humanity in general. People can be well-meaning, compassionate, or they can be total assholes. They gossip and lecture, humiliate one another and get wrapped up in their own personal dramas, which doesn't allow much time for anything else, even a sick man -- Or it can just be the matter of a job being a job, and jobs are a pain in the neck... whether your a janitor or a healer or an ambulance driver.
The movie frustrates and hurts in its brutal honesty. And the documentary-style storytelling, filmed using shaky hand-held cameras, makes it feel lived in and real. But make no mistake, this is a well thought out, brilliantly constructed social commentary - a cry for human kindness and empathy and a better-organized system of treating those in need.
Other movies I liked (not previously mentioned) include Constantine, Serenity, The Brothers Grimm, Sky High, Walk the Line, Angel-A, Linda, Linda, Linda, A History of Violence, Sin City, The Corpse Bride, Millions, Mrs. Henderson Presents, Caché, The Proposition and many of these mentioned below...
Honorable Mentions:
Philip Seymour Hoffman, Capote * David Strathairn, Good Night, and Good Luck * Bill Murray, Broken Flowers * Issey Ogata, The Sun * Jérémie Renier, L'enfant * Tommy Lee Jones, The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada * Ray Winstone, The Proposition * Daniel Auteuil, Caché
Honorable Mentions:
Luminița Gheorghiu, The Death of Mr. Lazarescu * Sarah Polley, The Secret Life of Words * Gwyneth Paltrow, {Proof} * Julia Jentsch, Sophie Scholl: The Final Days * Cate Blanchett, Little Fish * Ellen Page, Hard Candy * Jennifer Connelly, Dark Water * Nathalie Baye, The Young Lieutenant * Juliette Binoche, Caché
