With the 79th annual Academy Awards only two weeks away (that would be Sunday, February 25th, and we’re making preparations, even as you read this), VanRamblings is attempting to publish a comprehensive set of reviews of the films up for Oscar consideration, as we began here and here.
At some point in the week prior to the Oscar ceremony, VanRamblings will publish our predictions of those who are likely to emerge as winners at the 2007 ceremony at the Kodak Theatre, along with a set of links and much speculation by other observers who spend, as VanRamblings does, far too much time on something quite so inconsequential as Tinseltown nonsense.
But still …
In this posting, we take a look at four more Oscar contenders …

With Leonardo DiCaprio up for Best Actor, Blood Diamond has deservedly won greater prominence in the Oscar sweepstakes, and at the box office, than otherwise might have been the case. Although, initially, the film has about it a whiff of ‘good for you’ advocacy filmmaking, by movie’s end this look at the bloody underbelly of the international diamond trade emerges as an entirely involving, wonderfully acted and thoughtful history lesson, even if it’s not quite up to the standards of The Constant Gardener.
The pick ‘o the bunch is Robert DeNiro’s The Good Shepherd, one of the most literate and engaging films of 2006. Woefully overlooked by the Academy (particularly Matt Damon, for Best Actor), this remarkable study of the corrosive effects of fear and power focuses on the life of a top CIA officer, from the inception of the CIA in WWII through the Bay of Pigs disaster in 1961. Even at nearly three hours, this tour-de-force film involves from beginning to end.
If there was any justice in the world (or within the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences), The Lives of Others (also championed by The New York Times’ A. O. Scott) would walk away with the Best Foreign Film award. Offering an unflinching look at East Germany under the Communists in the decade prior to the fall of the Berlin Wall, this is supremely intelligent, historical filmmaking at its very best. Due to open in Vancouver this coming week, you’ll want to rush right out to see it as soon as it hits town.
A British kitchen-sink drama — except this time it’s set at Buckingham Palace and those standing around in the kitchen are Queen Elizabeth, Princes Philip and Charles, and Prime Minister Tony Blair — we would like to be excited about The Queen (because it’s up for Best Picture, and Helen Mirren is a lock for Best Actress), but we can’t muster much enthusiasm. The movie seems little more involving than a TV drama, but Best Picture? We think not.
C’mon back early next week for four more reviews (including Letters From Iwo Jima), and later that same week for our all-encompassing Oscar post. You’ll be glad you did (we think …).

We’re back with 4 more reviews of films that are up for Oscar consideration, a couple of which are on DVD, so you can check ’em out at home.

First up, Children of Men, a fine, stark yet flawed dystopian thriller that, while sporting some dazzling filmmaking hardly involves with its story about a world plagued by infertility and on the verge of collapse. Clive Owen’s performance is actorly in a manner that fails to engage, while Julianne Moore is in the picture for such a short while it’s a wonder that her name even made it into the credits. Lots of critics liked this film, but VanRamblings is not among those that found it “gritty, disturbing, solemn or haunting.”
Half Nelson, on the other hand, now here’s a slice of life drama that is wholly absorbing despite its low budget and generally lacklustre production values. Ryan Gosling’s performance as a drug-addicted inner-city school teacher is human scale, watchable and near mesmerizing (and very much deserving of an Oscar), while 13-year-old newcomer Shareeka Epps gives as good as she gets. Absolutely one of the best films of 2006 — and now on DVD for rental.
Now, you’d think that The Last King of Scotland would be heavy fare and a slog to get through, but you’d be wrong. Forest Whitaker’s larger than life performance as African dictator, Idi Amin — charismatic, trained by the British, and home to create chaos in Uganda during his eight-year reign — may be menacing, but he’s also horrifically engaging and possessed of a wry sense of humour. Prediction: Whitaker will win Best Actor for his performance.
Little Miss Sunshine can garner all the accolades it wants, but you’re not gonna find unadulterated praise for this rather pedestrian film in this corner. A too cute and rather mundane road movie chock full of odd “characters” rather than relatable people, there’s a cleverness, no doubt, in this Oscar nominated picture, but when it comes to films emerging from January’s Sundance Film Festival, give me a Quinceañera any day of the week. Strained, foul-mouthed and verging on the grotesque, from VanRamblings’ standpoint Little Miss Sunshine is much ado about not very much. Don’t say you haven’t been warned.

As the 79th annual Academy Awards ceremony approaches (Sunday, February 25th), VanRamblings will set about to offer you our take on the various 2006 films up for Oscar consideration.

First up, there’s Babel, the pick o’ the bunch here, a powerful, melancholy, wholly transcendent film and, often, very difficult film to watch. Just when the conditions of a characters’ life becomes almost too unbearable to endure, the narrative switches — to the Moroccan desert, Los Angeles, Tijuana or Tokyo — to another one of the four interwoven stories. Heartbreaking, humane and devastatingly brilliant, Babel is the odds on favourite for Best Picture.
Absolutely one of the best films to come out of Hollywood in 2006, who knows why the members of the Academy slighted Dreamgirls? Conjecture runs from the supposition that producer David Geffen is hated in Hollywood, to allegations of racism and homophobia, but whatever the politics behind the snub, Dreamgirls remains one of the most important films of 2006, an entertaining and always involving celebration of the movie musical at its very best.
Delicious. Brilliantly adapted by playwright Patrick Marber from Zoë Heller’s acclaimed novel, Notes on a Scandal is elegant, pitch-black filmmaking at its very best, with a marvelous and stunningly gorgeous Cate Blanchett, and a scarily effective, misanthropic and unrelenting Dame Judi Dench, at its centre. Gothic, gripping filmmaking of the first order (à la Fatal Attraction, but with a great deal more wit), Notes on a Scandal offers a refreshingly literate battle royale involving colleagues undone by sexual desire, and another cineplex must-see Oscar contender.
Pedestrian, conventional filmmaking, The Pursuit of Happyness is a modest Tinseltown success at best, a quasi-inspirational, feel-good fairy tale that holds the accumulation of material wealth as the raison d’être of life. At least it’s not sappy, though. We’ve all been through tough times, but this film is so unrelentingly bleak at times it verges on unreality. If a slick and gleaming pull yourself up by your own bootstraps flick is your cup o’ tea, then this is likely the film for you.

(Click on the ‘picture’ above for a larger, more expansive version of the chart)

Yes, it’s that salutary time of year again, when the Hollywood floodgates open and movie lovers across the globe get to bathe themselves in the kind of serious, adult-minded movie fare that spells Oscar.
Over the course of the next six weeks, Tinseltown will release more than four dozen prestige pics, most of which will vie for Oscar attention. Of course, only five will be honoured with one of those cherished Best Picture nominations, but there’s always Best Actress / Supporting Actress, Best Actor / Supporting Actor, and Best Director to consider. In Hollywood, everyone deserving comes away with something, even if it’s just the Oscar nod that places a studio pic in contention, a prize itself of sorts.
Having taken a look at the insider websites and blogs which focus on the upcoming Oscar race — including Oscarwatch, The Gurus o’ Gold (from MovieCityNews), the Oscar Igloo, Gold Derby (from the Los Angeles Times), In Contention, and Jeffrey Wells’ Oscar Balloon, among others — VanRamblings is confident that the chart above pretty much covers the main contenders for 2006 — although, we’ll admit that we’re partial to Little Children, which we consider to be the best American film of the year, and were probably a bit kinder to the film than is the case with some critics.
All said, though, there are actors and actresses, other than those listed above, who may garner Oscar recognition, this upcoming February 25th.
In the Best Supporting Actress category, for instance, buzz continues to build for Vanessa Redgrave (Venus), Anika Noui Rose (Dreamgirls), Juliette Binoche (Breaking and Entering), Emma Thompson (Stranger Than Fiction), Gillian Anderson (The Last King of Scotland), Sandra Bullock (Infamous), Salma Hayek (Lonely Hearts), Demi Moore (Bobby), and Ellen Burstyn (The Fountain). Any one of these fine actresses could displace one of the Oscar contenders currently listed in the top five for this category.
In the Best Supporting Actor category, Ewan McGregor could get a nomination for Miss Potter, as could Michael Pena for World Trade Center. James McEvoy (The Last King Of Scotland), Freddy Rodriguez (Bobby), James Cromwell (The Queen), Michael Caine (Children of Men), and Albert Finney (A Good Year) are also receiving consideration.
In the Best Actor and Actress categories, the first four contenders would seem to be a lock, with fifth position up for grabs among the remaining eight contenders in each category.
Whatever the case, there are a good many films for you to see this upcoming holiday movie season.
Of those currently in release, VanRamblings highly recommends: Babel, a moving and often difficult to watch parable of disconnection and melancholy, but still one of the best American films of the year; The Last King of Scotland, a riveting portrait of Ugandan dictator Idi Amin, with an outstanding performance by Forest Whitaker in the lead role; Todd Field’s Little Children, the best American film of 2006, now playing exclusively at Tinseltown, just off Yaletown; Philip Noyce’s Catch A Fire (a very good film, even if no one is bothering to attend screenings of one of the better films of the year); Flags of Our Fathers, a not entirely successful film for director Clint Eastwood, but very well made nonetheless; and, the well-reviewed and unexpected late comer to the Oscar table, Casino Royale, a re-inventing of the Bond saga, gritty, taciturn and surprisingly often, poignant.
We’re not quite as enthused about Martin Scorsese’s The Departed, which VanRamblings believes is far from the director’s best work. Nor are we particularly excited about The Queen, which is workmanlike, but hardly thrilling, revelatory or moving in any meaningful way. As for Little Miss Sunshine, VanRamblings feels this indie film is much ado about not very much (we much preferred the Sundance winner, Quinceañera).
We eagerly await what is bound to be an overwhelmingly positive reception for the odds-on-favourite for a Best Picture Oscar, Dreamgirls (opening Christmas Day in Vancouver), the feel-good family film of the holiday season, with a breakout performance from newcomer Jennifer Hudson. VanRamblings loved this film when we saw it at an early media screening.
Other films to keep an eye out for include Robert DeNiro’s sophomore film behind the camera, The Good Shepherd; Steven Soderbergh’s, The Good German; Notes On A Scandal, starring probable Oscar nominees, Judi Dench and Cate Blanchett; and Miss Potter, the story of Beatrix Potter, the author of the beloved and best-selling children’s book, “The Tale of Peter Rabbit”, with possible Oscar nominee Renée Zelwegger in the title role.
Then, there’s the Tony award-winning, The History Boys; probable Oscar nominee Leonardo diCaprio, in Blood Diamond; The Pursuit of Happyness (set for release on December 15th), starring Will Smith (and his young son) in what should prove to be a box-office smash over the Christmas season; Peter O’Toole in Venus; Pedro Almodóvar’s Volver; Guillermo del Toro’s Pan’s Labyrinth; Sienna Miller in Factory Girl, the story of Andy Warhol protégé Edie Sedgwick; and, in the indie category, the Sundance film, Come Early Morning, among other worthy film fare to look forward to.
There’s lots to see. For video previews of all the films listed in this posting, surf on over to Apple’s Quicktime trailers site, or go to YouTube.
Chances are, we’ll be seeing you at the movies this holiday season.