2005... So Far

Since I am excited [understatement!] for the fall movie season to begin this Friday, I thought I'd list my favorites of the year so far (like Nick and Tim recently did) . My choices (which follow below) are the last 'reveal' as far as this sort of things goes until the end of the year. From here on out there's new movies hoping to mess with "best of" lists every week. And, most importantly, I don't like to give free samples until the whole meal is prepared! You'll lose your appetite.

But before we begin...
Pictures that I haven't seen yet (and therefore they can't figure into my choices) that I still hope to catch (dvd?) Broken Flowers, Cinderella Man, The Holy Girl, Kings and Queen, Land of the Dead, Last Days, Off the Map, Palindromes, and The Wedding Crashers Also I would like to say that Duck Season (from Mexico) and Whisky (from Uruguay) would've placed in some of these lineups if they'd ever see release.



Best Picture
2046 dir. Wong Kar-Wai (Hong Kong)
The Beat That My Heart Skipped dir. Jacques Audiard (France)
Brothers dir. Susanne Bier (Denmark)
Crash dir. Paul Haggis (USA)
Me, You, and Everyone We Know dir. Miranda July (USA)

I expect that two of those will make my top ten list come years end.

Best Director
Jacques Audiard, The Beat That My Heart Skipped
Susanne Bier, Brothers
Miranda July, Me, You, and Everyone We Know
Pawel Pawlikowski, My Summer of Love
Apichatpong Weerasethakul, Tropical Maladay

Best Actress
Joan Allen, The Upside of Anger and Yes
Glenn Close, Heights
Lisa Kudrow, Happy Endings
Connie Nielsen, Brothers
Natalie Press, My Summer of Love

Best Actor
Steve Carrell, The 40-Year-Old Virgin
Romain Duris, The Beat That My Heart Skipped
Ralph Fiennes, The Constant Gardener
Terrence Dashon Howard, Hustle & Flow
Tony Leung Chiu Wai, 2046

For the supporting categories I'm listing 7 people in each because it is too early in the year for me to put myself through the punishing dismissal phase of narrowing it down to 5 when these 14 people all made me smile in the movie theater. And even @ 14 there are some folks missing (sigh).

Best Supporting Actress
Amy Adams, Junebug
Dakota Fanning, War of the Worlds
Maggie Gyllenhaal, Happy Endings
Taraji P Henson, Hustle & Flow
Rachel Weisz, The Constant Gardener probably she's a lead... but i'm not ready to think about category conundrums just yet --Yeah, probably a lead [he whispers to himself.]
Celia Weston, Junebug
Ziyi Zhang, 2046

Best Supporting Actor
Tom Arnold, Happy Endings
Paddy Considine, My Summer of Love
Kevin Costner, The Upside of Anger
Matt Dillon, Crash
Terrence Dashon Howard, Crash
Michael Peña, Crash
Mickey Rourke, Sin City

Best Original Screenplay
Crash, Paul Haggis & Moresco
Happy Endings, Don Roos
Junebug, Angus Maclachlan
Me, You, and Everyone We Know, Miranda July
Melinda and Melinda, Woody Allen

Best Adapted Screenplay
Batman Begins, Nolan & Boyer
The Beat That My Heart Skipped, Jacques Audiard & Tonino Benacquista
The Constant Gardener, Jeffrey Caine
My Summer of Love, Pawel Pawlikowski & Michael Wynne
Mysterious Skin, Gregg Araki

Best Cinematography
2046, Doyle, Kwan, & Lai
The Beat That My Heart Skipped, Stéphane Fontaine
Brothers, Morten Soborg
My Summer of Love, Ryszard Lenczewski
Tropical Malady, Pengpanitch, Tanapanitch & Vialard

Best Costume Design
2046, William Chang
Batman Begins, Lindy Hemming
The Constant Gardener, Odile Dicks-Mireaux
The Kingdom of Heaven, Janty Yates
Mr & Mrs Smith, Michael Kaplan

Best Art Direction
2046
The Constant Gardener
Kingdom of Heaven
Me, You, and Everyone We Know
My Summer of Love

and if one calls this category 'production design' and maybe most people do given that the credited folk for Oscar nominations are Production Designers... than maybe Sin City But if you're referring to art & set decorations/designs etc... than no. There's no sets. Confusing.

Best Sound
The Beat That My Heart Skipped
The Constant Gardener
Star Wars Episode 3: Revenge of the Sith
Tropical Malady
War of the Worlds

that's all I can do for now... so very sleepy