Oscars of the Decade: Best Picture

Best Picture

Nominations

Children of Men

This moving is brilliant and disturbing. It is so thick with ideas and comments on the world. This is a great example of totally changing a book into a movie and it really working.

No Country For Old Men

This movie is rough, low budge, bleak, understated, and a total masterpiece. It is the kind of movie where you fell at any moment something bad might happen. It is not the violence on screen that drives it home, but the

There Will Be Blood

This movie had no hero and I still loved it.

The Reader

Winner
The Departed

I think there are more great acting performances in this movie than any other movie this decade. It has a great script and everything works so well. I cannot say enough good things about this movie

Oscars of the Decade: Best Actress

Yesterday the Oscar nominations came out. The other day I thought there should be an Oscars of the Decade. I am not sure there are any best of the decade awards. These awards were valid as yearly awards. I am posing my own best decade awards. I am also picking the winners. This list might be a little incomplete because I did not see that many movie this year. Let me know what you think.

Best Leading Actress

Nominations

Ellen Page – Juno

Ellen Page carries Juno on her back. The is the actress that makes the whole thing work. The character of Juno is a little too smart and a little too dumb for the whole situation. Ellen Page holds back just enough in this preformance to make it seem real. It is believable in a way few teen actresses seem real to me.

Helen Mirren - The Queen

This performance if full of nuance. I have always seen the Queen as someone who is not quite comfortable in the world around her. I think Helen Mirren shows us the queen in a way we believe and can understand.

Renée Zellweger - Chicago

There is only one way to put this, I love this movie because it is fun. Everything about it is fun. Renée Zellweger is the leader of the fun. She is the spark in this movie. That is great when it works this well.

Reese Witherspoon - Walk the Line

Reese Witherspoon did a great job showing June Carter-Cash's complexity. She helped Johnny Cash find his way out of the wilderness, but she had to find her way out also. I do not care if Reese Witherspoon was really like June Carter-Cash or not. What I care about is that Joaquin Phoenix spends much of the movie chewing up scenery and Reese Witherspoon never gets lost behind him. That is a good performance.

Winner

Kate Winslet – The Reader

The Reader is one of my favorite movies in the decade. It works because it takes a new and personal look on an issue that seems to be a very tired issue, World War 2 War Crimes. Kate Winslet plays Hanna Schmitz as both hard and soft. She is tough and confused. She is proud and simple. She brings this character to life in a believable way.