La Vie en Rose

Date: November 28
Location: Clifton Living Room

I really hate the Academy's habit of giving Best Actor and Actress Oscars to people portraying historic figures. Ray Charles, June Carter, Truman Capote, Idi Amin, Queen Elizabeth II, Aileen Wournos, Virginia Woolf, Erin Brockovich, the list goes on and on, with most of those coming in the past several years. (Incidentally, that might be the first time the names of Queen Elizabeth and Aileen Wournos were so closely linked). Yes, I hate that tendency of the Academy. It strikes me as simple, lazy and dismissive of creation in favor of imitation.

So it is with some regret that I announce that Marion Cotillard better win the Best Actress award this year for her stunning portrayal of Edith Piaf. I don't care that Piaf was a real person — and the truth is I knew so little of her that this movie may as well have been about a fictional character. The French actress embodies this bizarre, tragic character from a wide-eyed innocent at age 20 through a bitter, proud, decrepit faded star at age 47 (looking more like 70 thanks to a debilitating illness). Cotillard, a beautiful 32-year-old who resembles Audrey Tatou in the DVD interviews, absolutely disappears into Piaf. It's a stunning performance, the best I've seen by anybody so far this year.

The film itself is less successful. It is beautifully shot but the time-leaping chronology is distracting and at times it slips into the cliches of other musical biopics (newspaper clippings floating by to signal success, for example). The childhood scenes, where young Edith is raised alternately by whores and circus performers, are surreal and satisfying, and Edith's final days are handled with a delicate touch. The middle section, however, is something of a jumble (intentionally, I believe) and I wasn't always sure what was happening when, or why.

Still, I highly recommend taking in Cotillard's performance. She is a shoo-in for an Oscar nod, and would be a sure winner were her performance not in French. Even so, I think she might pull off the first foreign-language acting win since Roberto Benigni scored a trophy for Life is Beautiful. I'll certainly be cheering her on.

Enchanted

Date: November 23
Location: AMC Aventura

Sophia, the Gallups and I braved the mall on Black Friday and actually didn't have much trouble at all. The theater itself was dead — no bargains to be had, I suppose. Enchanted didn't live up to it's 92% Tomato ranking, though it had some charming moments. James Marsden was very funny as the cartoon Prince Edward. He has carved out a great niche playing his comic-book good looks for laughs. The plot made very little sense — I was never clear on how the cartoon world and real world existed alongside one another. How is it that everybody in Central Park breaks into a choreographed musical number, for example? Does the infiltration of a couple cartoon characters make New Yorkers behave like cartoons? And if so, why was Patrick Dempsey's character not affected? Inconsistencies like that, along with some cliched plot turns and character types, keep this from being a special film. That said, Amy Adams is wonderful in the lead role and worthy of her inevitable Golden Globe nomination (not sure if she'll make the cut for the Oscar, however). She has definitely earned a spot on my 'girlfriend' list, and that's certainly the higher honor.

No Country For Old Men

Date: November 17
Location: Muvico Boca Raton

No Country For Old Men is not only the best movie of the year (so far), it's possibly the best thing the Coen Brothers have ever done. And if you know me, you know that's high praise. This is the first film I've seen since Pan's Labyrinth that I feel comfortable describing as a flat-out masterpiece. The film is surprising and memorable on so many levels that I don't want to give anything away in my description, so suffice it to say that it works as a heart-in-your-throat thriller, the blackest of comedies, a grungy crime flick and (not least) a powerful meditation on violence, society and the evil of which human beings are capable. Trading the bleak snowscapes of Fargo for the even bleaker deserts of Texas, the Coen Brothers have returned to form with a vengeance.

Black Book

Date: November 13
Location: Clifton Living Room

Master of excess Paul Verhooven brings his signature pulpy style to a most somber topic — World War Two — and delivers a rousing old-school Hollywood movie-movie. Carice van Houten does Oscar-worthy work as the main character, a Jewish songstress who joins the Dutch resistance and goes undercover as the girlfriend of an SS officer. Filled with double-crosses, shootouts and steamy sex scenes, Black Book is the most fun you can have watching Nazis. It also has a moral complexity and a somber pessimism about human nature and the ubiquity of war. Certainly the best thing Veerhoven has done since Robocop, and one of the nicest surprises of the year.

Best Oscar Race Yet?

I've been perusing the early Academy Award predictions and the following titles keep coming up: Atonement, American Gangster, No Country for Old Men, There Will Be Blood, Before the Devil Knows You're Dead, Juno.

Now, I haven't seen most of those, but they're all exactly the sort of movie I love, and would love to see vie for the Best Picture prize. Just imagine: the Coen Brothers facing off against Paul Thomas Anderson; three crime movies going head to head a year after The Departed was the unlikeliest of winners; Joe Wright's follow-up to the exquisite (and woefully underrated) Pride & Prejudice sitting alongside a quirky Jason Reitman comedy starring Jennifer Garner, Michael Cera and Jason Bateman. I'd be in Oscar Heaven.

Of course, things could change. We might be looking at, say, Into the Wild, In the Valley of Elah, Lions for Lambs and Lust, Caution. But those seem to be long shots, and there isn't much else on the horizon. I'm guessing I'll be pretty happy with the lineup come February.

American Gangster

Date: November 4
Location: Muvico Boca Raton

My father and I, the manliest of men, saw this manly movie together while our women went shopping. As it should be. As for the movie... it's a great one, one of the best so far this year. 2007 has been a great year for throwbacks to a 70s aesthetic, from Michael Clayton to Black Snake Moan, Zodiac to American Gangster. The latter two, in addition to being filmed and plotted like great crime movies of the 70s, are largely set in that decade. They share a cinematographer and production designer, too, with award-worthy results. I'd rank both films among the best crime movies I've seen — if not the equal of The Godfather and Goodfellas, at least shoulder-to-shoulder with The Departed and L.A. Confidential.

Ridley Scott does great, subtle work here, content to let his actors carry the weight. And what a lineup of actors he has at his disposal — Washington and Crowe are note-perfect as always (both should vie for the Best Actor award), but just as impressive is the excellent work by Ruby Dee, Armand Assante, John Ortiz, Joe Morton and Josh Brolin. And Chiwetel Ejiofor has great taste and/or a great agent — he picks one winner after another and shines in every one.

I'm a sucker for movies like this — movies that feel gritty and real and put you right in the center of the depraved but fascinating lives of criminals. American Gangster goes a step further and puts you in the center of the lead investigation as well. The back-and-forth between these very different worlds, and very different central figures, is fascinating. And the climax is beautifully staged, delivering all the thrills of an action movie plus the heft of a tragedy. The movies runs 2 1/2 hours but I didn't want it to end.