Casino Royale
Children of Men
The Departed
The Devil Wears Prada
Inside Man
The Painted Veil
Pan's Labyrinth
A Prairie Home Companion
United 93
Volver
Gold: As long as I live I will never understand why Children of Men wasn't instantly hailed as a masterpiece. I sat in that theater for it, which I only saw because a friend requested, and was gobsmacked as to how good it was. One of the best pictures of the decade, and one of the easiest Best Picture calls I've ever made.
Silver: Behind it would be Guillermo del Toro's Pan's Labyrinth. I sometimes struggle with del Toro's indulgent filmmaker style, a strange combination of the macabre & the whimsical, but this comes alive in Pan's Labyrinth, a perfect marriage of the two (and such a pretty film).
Bronze: I'm going to give this slightly to United 93, a movie that totally blew me away the first time I saw it. Greengrass's approach to a story everyone knows the ending toward is so calculated, with such little fat, that you still find yourself rooting against a finale you know is coming.
Alfonso Cuaron (Children of Men)
Guillermo del Toro (Pan's Labyrinth)
Paul Greengrass (United 93)
Spike Lee (Inside Man)
Martin Scorsese (The Departed)
Gold: Cuaron is so good so often that it's easy to take for granted his skill as a director. But no one should take a movie as good as Children of Men for granted. His ability to quickly define a reconstructed modern-day, then show us a miracle in the form of the oldest story in mankind (a pregnant woman bringing life into the world), is a revelation.
Silver: As I mentioned above, I can't get past what Paul Greengrass does in United 93. A filmmaker that sometimes leans a bit too heavily into masculine energy, United 93 feels like a narrative film that doesn't need the documentary-style rhythm that other pictures of this nature might have borrowed from to underline the "it's a true story" approach.
Bronze: Martin Scorsese finally won an Oscar for a movie that might not be his greatest, but is certainly a correct film to give a statue for directing. He brings such a specific vision to this project, giving us an epic that is actually leading toward a fated conclusion.
Daniel Craig (Casino Royale)
Leonardo DiCaprio (The Departed)
Ryan Gosling (Half Nelson)
Clive Owen (Children of Men)
Denzel Washington (Inside Man)
Gold: Okay, you're going to need to adjust to Children of Men winning a lot of gold medals here, as that's what it deserves. It's particularly deserving when it comes to leading man Clive Owen, who brings an everyday schmo attitude to a man who doesn't fit the hero mold, even if others have seen that in him his whole, increasingly empty life.
Silver: Leonardo DiCaprio's best work for Scorsese? I tend to think so, as he not only totally overshadows his other leading man (sorry Matt, this isn't your day), but brings a haziness to this part (particularly his struggles with his financial station) that other actors would have forced into clarity (and potentially ruined the story).
Bronze: Daniel Craig's work in Casino Royale was the kind of jaw-dropping game-changer that the increasingly stale Bond franchise needed to stay afloat. It wasn't just that he brought a brutish sense of reality into his 007, but he also does it with a natural style that makes him the clear heir to Connery (and at least here, perhaps surpassing him?).
Penelope Cruz (Volver)
Judi Dench (Notes on a Scandal)
Helen Mirren (The Queen)
Meryl Streep (The Devil Wears Prada)
Kate Winslet (Little Children)
Gold: I guess if I'm going to copy Oscar's lineup verbatim (for the first, and perhaps only(?!?) time in an acting race) I might as well do it completely. Helen Mirren keeps her Elizabeth elusive, unknowable, a descendant of divine will who can't quite comprehend the situation she's found herself in...but is smart enough to know it requires finesse.
Silver: Meryl Streep's defining roles when we write the epitaph of her career might be Sophie Zawistowski & Miranda Priestley, both women who centered their existence around sacrifice (albeit very different sacrifices). Streep redefined her career with Miranda, bringing this "boss bitch" persona full throttle to a new generation ready to obsess over her.
Bronze: If Mirren is reaching the apex of her career & Streep reinventing hers, Penelope Cruz was finally defining hers. After years of being put in girlfriend/celebrity roles, Cruz landed a complicated, brilliant opportunity with Pedro Almodovar and took it. We consider Cruz a great actress today mostly because she was just so good in Volver that we had to readjust our expectations.
Michael Caine (Children of Men)
Jackie Earle Haley (Little Children)
Jack Nicholson (The Departed)
Stanley Tucci (The Devil Wears Prada)
Mark Wahlberg (The Departed)
Gold: I blame the critics a bit for not noticing Children of Men until it was too late for awards season to react. It's entirely on Oscar, though, that Jack Nicholson, one of their truly beloved actors, gives one of the best performances of his late career in The Departed (their Best Picture!) and they still skipped over him.
Silver: Michael Caine, another Oscar perennial, is in a similar boat. Caine is splendid as a hippie who still has faith in the world (that his friend Theo doesn't), but knows that he is too old to get to see the ending of this tale.
Bronze: In about ten minutes, Mark Wahlberg not only steals every scene that he's in, but he also gives us a complete creation, a live wire cop who feels authentic to a Boston Police Department. This couldn't be a bigger departure from Dirk Diggler, but it's his best performance since then (and sadly he's never approached this level in the years after).
Claire-Hope Ashitay (Children of Men)
Adriana Barraza (Babel)
Emily Blunt (The Devil Wears Prada)
Jennifer Hudson (Dreamgirls)
Meryl Streep (A Prairie Home Companion)
Gold: One could hardly look at Emily Blunt's career and think "unused potential"-she's been a legitimate movie star for a decade now, and has succeeded in virtually every genre. That said, I've never seen her better or so totally committed to a role as she is in The Devil Wears Prada-the kind of scene-stealing that basically invented this category.
Silver: Close behind her is Jennifer Hudson, who some might consider category fraud, but I think that's only because she makes Dreamgirls about her through her music. I mean, honestly-who is going to be able to compete with Effie White when Jennifer Hudson is using the whole piano to bring her to life.
Bronze: Adriana Barraza is the saving grace in Babel, not just by having the best & most compelling storyline, but also by not bothering with the framing device, and giving us a complete, heartbreaking tale of one woman caught in an impossible situation.
Children of Men
The Departed
The Devil Wears Prada
The Painted Veil
A Prairie Home Companion
Gold: Quickly investing in world-building, followed by a sprawling journey-tale that brings us through the lives of two individuals thrown together by chance, Children of Men is well-plotted & filled with throwaway lines that seem to define the meaning of life in the process.
Silver: Richly-dialogued (look at all of those great one-liners from Mark Wahlberg), I cannot stop thinking about the genius of how The Departed leads to such a thrilling, knowledgeable conclusion. That requires a skilled artist behind the typewriter.
Bronze: Robert Altman's films are, of course, a product of the actors as much as the writers. But A Prairie Home Companion, which is under-appreciated in my estimation, tells a story about how life moves on, even when we're not ready for it.
Inside Man
The Lives of Others
Pan's Labyrinth
The Queen
Volver
Gold: On the surface, Inside Man reads as mostly a commercial play from Spike Lee, him using a larger budget & a bunch of A-list actors to get the easy payday. But Spike Lee films are never about just what they seem, and Inside Man with its commentary on criminal justice & economic equity, is crackling with smart dialogue.
Silver: You couldn't find a more polar opposite film to Inside Man if you tried than Pan's Labyrinth, proving the difficulty of awards lists like this, but both films understand their audience, and are a complete vision. Del Toro's picture leans heavily & with great relish into its fairy tale motif.
Bronze: We'll finish this trio off with another director who is never satisfied with just what's on the page, Pedro Almodovar. Volver is at once a story of great atrocity & terrific fun (there's some heavy subject matter between the flashy costumes & throwaway comedy)-you need a skilled screenwriter to balance such a tale out.
Cars
Happy Feet
Monster House
Gold: A truly weak year, and so I'm going to rip off Oscar's lineup wholesale (and I did, in fact, seek out additional screenings to see if there was a missing gem in 2006-there isn't). The best of this bunch is Monster House, which uses a rather rudimentary animation style to its benefit, giving us a story of growing up (and the loneliness that can ensue in a life disregarded) without a lot of frills or detours.
Silver: Happy Feet is such a strange movie for George Miller to have an Oscar for, but the film's message of environmentalism and Robin Williams adding his signature brand of humor (that played so well in animation) make up for some of its struggles with the script.
Bronze: Like I said above, this isn't a great year for animation (I'm open to bump this in the comments, but I did see a few other pictures and they didn't stack up). Cars is not necessarily a bad film, it's just bad by Pixar standards. That said, it's easily the prettiest of these films, a dusty retreat that gets lost in the numerous sequels & spinoffs to the franchise it lost.
Children of Men
Inside Man
Pan's Labyrinth
A Prairie Home Companion
United 93
Gold: The sounds of a world starting to collapse in on itself are mesmerizing in Children of Men...the way that you can hear nature starting to peak out from every angle, reclaiming what is its from the background.
Silver: Gorgeous score work along with excellent sound structure, Pan's Labyrinth totally amps up the fantasy element through solid aural cues.
Bronze: Obviously a film that is reliant on Sound Editing more than mixing, United 93 manages to still use its sound design in early scenes leading up to the attacks to underscore the tension & urgency of the day, making it that much scarier when we get to hear some of the more familiar beats inputted by the editors.
Children of Men
Letters from Iwo Jima
Pan's Labyrinth
Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest
United 93
Gold: The entire sequence with the car crash is spectacular, but it's not just the sound editing in that sequence that gets Children of Men this medal. It's also the way that it inputs subtler sound editing cues, like the early explosion or the way that it can make a world dying on-itself into a place still brimming with people in rare crowd scenes.
Silver: The entire late plane crash sequence in United 93 is mesmerizing-the way that they work (on what I have to assume was a relatively tight budget for an action film) to make every pop, click, and noise feel real is what makes the film so compelling.
Bronze: The sounds of Pan's Labyrinth feel (appropriately) plucked from another world, which works marvelously against the more realistic jolt of bullets & battle scenes that juxtapose against our young protagonist's reality.
The Black Dahlia
Inside Man
Little Children
The Painted Veil
Pan's Labyrinth
Gold: The melodic cues of Pan's Labyrinth are impossible to forget-that stray piano against a solo violin, giving us an edgy, just-out-of-reach fairy tale that has harsh consequences for all involved.
Silver: Mark Isham is working within the long tradition of enigmatic scores that have littered neo-noirs for decades. The bells that double upon the piano are my favorite part, hinting at the way the film "doubles" up our look at this unknowable Black Dahlia.
Bronze: I know that Thomas Newman isn't for everyone, and there are times when even I have had too much of this clear disciple of John Williams. But I feel like his fast tempos in Little Children, the way that he gives a domestic drama a specific feel, are exactly what the movie needs to underline the simmering tensions in suburbia.
"I Need to Wake Up," (An Inconvenient Truth)
"Ju Hua Tai," (Curse of the Golden Flower)
"Listen," (Dreamgirls)
"Love You I Do," (Dreamgirls)
"You Know My Name," (Casino Royale)
Gold: It's hard to listen to Melissa Etheridge's "I Need to Wake Up" and not bemoan the lost years of Trump & McConnell that have pushed the climate to the brink (though we pray not over it)-her rock star prowess gives us a desperate, strong energy that such an issue deserves.
Silver: Chris Cornell's Bond theme was not well received at the time, but I liked the rock take that "You Know My Name" brings to a new chapter of Bond-it definitely still hints at John Barry, but it is bringing Bond into a new century.
Bronze: "Love You I Do" is my favorite of the new songs from Dreamgirls, not just because it's Jennifer Hudson on fire, but also because it gives the movie some of the "on the big screen" energy that it needs-we see an expansion of the style of 1960's music the movie is embodying.
Children of Men
Curse of the Golden Flower
Marie Antoinette
Pan's Labyrinth
Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest
Gold: One of the best tricks in Children of Men is the way that London and its countryside blend the modern with the technological with the dilapidated. Look at how in a world without a future how certain things (luxuries, conveniences) are prioritized over building & growth.
Silver: Pan's Labyrinth looks so much like a 17th Century oil painting, as if the art directors have gone through a stuffy old museum & found a landscape that will spring to life from the shadows. Totally immersive, brilliant work-it's iconic for a reason.
Bronze: Sometimes "most art direction" comes across as an insult-films that have too much going on don't give your eyes enough of a respite. But that's not needed when you're in the golden splendor of Curse of the Golden Flower, which is intended to be an over-the-top experience.
The Black Dahlia
Children of Men
Inside Man
Letters from Iwo Jima
Pan's Labyrinth
Gold: I told you you'd get a lot of gold medals for Children of Men. But honestly, how do you pick something else? Lubezki's camera is so crucial to the way this story unfolds in the background, and when it comes to the centerstage (the scene in the car), it upends our expectations of what is going to happen in this universe.
Silver: The way that Pan's Labyrinth's glowing blue and overwhelming white light permeates throughout the film gives it a distinctive feel. Every film feeds into del Toro's Grimm motif, but still with modern flares and action happening in each corner of the movie.
Bronze: Obviously there is an homage in The Black Dahlia to the neo-noir films from the 1970's that came before it, but the movie's camera sometimes does the heaviest lifting when it comes to the story. Look at the way we see a mangled shot of Elizabeth Short...and then pull away to different action instead of going toward this woman-the cinematographer knows that Short isn't even the headliner in her own story.
Curse of the Golden Flower
The Devil Wears Prada
Marie Antoinette
The Painted Veil
Pan's Labyrinth
Gold: With period dramas, you sometimes just have to yell "uncle" because what they're doing is on such a level that it doesn't matter that you might not want to give it the trophy. But Marie Antoinette is not such a movie-it adds modern flares, idiosyncrasies, and a ton of character into every over-the-top gown.
Silver: "You're not going to Paris" wouldn't be such a threat were it not for the cascade of couture on display in The Devil Wears Prada, with every outfit immaculately & effortlessly chosen to convey this fashion world (and how it's completely out-of-reach to mere mortals).
Bronze: Some might have gotten distracted by the gigantic golden bodice worn by Gong Li throughout the movie, but while this is an impressive character touch (my vote for the best single costume of the year), the entire team of Curse of the Golden Flower is bedecked with grand headdresses & arresting beauty.
Children of Men
The Departed
Inside Man
Pan's Labyrinth
United 93
Gold: I mean, at this point you know this song, but if you think I'm going to look at Children of Men, with its breakneck pacing, from-scratch modern-day world, and excellent use of long takes to heighten the suspense, and not give it the gold, you are sadly mistaken.
Silver: This is honestly a great list of contenders, and in a different year I'd have been very proud to give United 93 this trophy. Like CoM, it's an exhilarating thrill ride in terms of the way it approaches a heavy, real-life topic, and I know I've said it above, but taking a story you know the ending to and making it feel new is a tough trick.
Bronze: Thelma Schoonmaker is a wizard, and the way that she can make Scorsese's films not only feel short (when they never are), but also like they are filled with a specific vision that leans heavily into action sequences and deliberate dialogue breaks, is nothing short of spectacular in The Departed.
Children of Men
Curse of the Golden Flower
Pan's Labyrinth
Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest
X-Men: The Last Stand
Gold: Pan's Labyrinth not only gets my gold medal by the biggest margin in this article, it'd honestly make my Top 10 favorite makeup jobs of all time if I were to rank such things (someday, hopefully!). Absolutely mind-boggling recreations & elevated monster looks.
Silver: You'd be forgiven for thinking that the best things about Pirates are the effects, but there's tons of additional barnacles, wounds, and scrapes to abound & add realistic texture to this Disney sequel.
Bronze: Every one of these My Ballots I make a point of underlining not all makeup needs to be about making someone ugly. Curse of the Golden Flower takes already gorgeous movie stars and elevates their looks to that of the gods, totally radiant & matching the gaudy grandeur of the sets & costumes.
Children of Men
Pan's Labyrinth
Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest
Poseidon
Superman Returns
Gold: A total game-changer in the world of Visual Effects, Davy Jones and his Dead Man's Chest army of barnacled crewmen are one of those moments where a sequel takes some truly splendid original effects and just builds upon them in ways where every inch of the massive budget is on-display.
Silver: Pan's Labyrinth is obviously a movie that puts makeup in the forefront, but its special effects are not to be denied, particularly the single character design of Pan himself, and the different levels of realism between the fairy tale world & the war-torn country.
Bronze: Children of Men's effects work is proof that good visual work doesn't have to be showy to be splendid. The way that Cuaron approaches this world, oftentimes giving us a universe where humans have continued evolving, but also let other aspects crumble (what's the point without a future?) is so specific & totally adds to the scary "it could happen" aspects of the picture.
Also in 2006: Picture, Director, Actress, Actor, Supporting Actress, Supporting Actor, Original Screenplay, Adapted Screenplay, Foreign Language Film, Animated Feature Film, Sound Mixing, Sound Editing, Original Score, Original Song, Art Direction, Cinematography, Costume, Film Editing, Visual Effects, Makeup, Previously in 2006
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