And B's Nominees Are...

And now for the post you have all been waiting for - The First Annual PB Award Nominees, Part I (B's Nominees). We'll be posting nominees in two parts, first my nominees, then P will post his sometime over the next week (from what I gather, P saw no more than 3 quality movies this year and is in the midst of a week-long 2007 movie-catch-up marathon). We'll be nominating for awards in the standard categories Best Screenplay, Best Director, Best Supporting Actress, Best Supporting Actor, Best Actress, and Best Actor, plus a few PB originals, like Most Entertaining Movie, Most Original Movie, Best "Bad" Movie, Best Ending, and Breakthrough Performer of the Year.

P and I will not be maintaining a requisite number of nominees per category. If we feel there were a ton of excellent performances in a particular category (e.g. Supporting Actor), there will be a ton of nominees. Likewise, if there was a dearth of quality in a category (e.g. Supporting Actress), we aren't going to give out charity nominees.

This year was a terrific year for quality film. After a few years in a row with only sporadic highlights, 2007 kept the good flicks and excellent performances coming one after the next. Without further ado, these were the best of the best:


Best Screenplay

• Diablo Cody – Juno: Hilarious but poignant dialogue in the mouths of Ellen Page, Michael Cera and J.K. Simmons takes Juno from a Knocked Up-esque summer comedy to a serious award-contender.

• Brad Bird – Ratatouille: The wittiest, most sophisticated animated movie I have ever seen. Particular highlights are the characters of Anton Ego, the food critic, and Gusteau, the deceased chef.

• Tony Gilroy – Michael Clayton: The scribe of the Bourne screenplays, in his directorial debut, provided some of the best dialogue of the year in the extremely talky, but riveting Michael Clayton.

• Paul Thomas Anderson – There Will Be Blood: The sheer weight of silence in There Will Be Blood magnifies the impact of what little dialogue there is.

Best Director

• Paul Thomas Anderson – There Will Be Blood: A work of originality and genius that succeeds as both a captivating character study and a commentary on the dark faults of humanity. Anderson deserves a lion's share of the credit for bringing the story together with tremendous cinematography and editing.

• Ridley Scott – American Gangster: Ridley Scott pulls off yet another epic, deftly combining terrific performances, engaging action, and an authentic re-creation of 1960s Harlem.

• Tony Gilroy – Michael Clayton: Michael Clayton is well paced, well acted, well shot, and extremely well written, all a credit to Gilroy.

Best Supporting Actress

• Tilda Swinton – Michael Clayton: In my opinion, Swinton's performance as the all-too-human General Counsel for evil fertilizer company UNorth was the best female performance of the year, period.

• Ruby Dee – American Gangster: If you can steal scenes from Denzel Washington, you deserve an award. Plus, Dee plays the main role in the most unintentionally hilarious bit from the film and trailer (Mama Lucas: Whose house is that? Frank Lucas: It's your house mama!).

Best Supporting Actor

• Robert Downey Jr – Zodiac: Zodiac didn't nearly satisfy my lofty expectations, but Downey Jr.'s performance as journalist Paul Avery single-handedly prevented me from fast-forwarding through the first half of the 2 hr 40 min film.

• Philip Seymour Hoffman – Charlie Wilson’s War: Hoffman is always a pleasure to watch, and his role as humorously irreverent CIA agent Gust Avrakotos is one of his best.

• Tommy Lee Jones – No Country for Old Men: As the "Old Man" in No Country, Tommy Lee Jones delivers one of the best performances of his career and provides the moral center to a film of violence and greed.

• Dillon Freasier – There Will Be Blood: While everyone seems to be giving Paul Dano all the credit for his supporting role as a small-town preacher, my vote for the best supporting performance in There Will Be Blood goes to the young boy Dillon Freasier who flawlessly plays Daniel Day-Lewis' character's adopted son in his first acting job ever (see how he got the role here).

• Tom Wilkinson – Michael Clayton: Wilkinson's dynamic performance as a mentally troubled lawyer with a newly developed conscience fuels the first half of Michael Clayton. In a lesser year, Wilkinson would walk away with this award. Unfortunately for him, this is the strongest slew of Supporting Actors I can remember.

Best Actress

• Ellen Page - Juno: I don't know where Ellen Page came from (supposedly she was in X-Men 3: The Last Stand, but I don't remember her), but I hope she's here to stay. She is hilarious and refreshingly frank as Juno's title character.

• Keri Russell – Waitress: Keri Russell is as delicious as the pies she bakes in Waitress.

Best Actor

• Daniel Day-Lewis – There Will Be Blood: Daniel Day-Lewis' performance as There Will Be Blood's Daniel Plainview is easily the best acting of the decade, and possibly the best since Dustin Hoffman in Rain Main or even Marlon Brando in The Godfather. It is that good.

• Ulrich Muhe – The Lives of Others: The Lives of Others won Best Foriegn Language Film at last year's Oscars, but it wasn't released in the U.S. until 2007. Muhe's performance as an eavesdropping Stasi (East German Communist Secret Police) captain makes the movie a masterpiece. Sadly, Muhe passed away this past July, leaving the incredible The Lives of Others behind as his legacy.
  

Now for a few original categories...

Most Entertaining Movie

• Shoot 'Em Up: Per my review earlier this year, Shoot 'Em Up was by far the most enjoyable 90 minutes I spent in a movie theater this year. If you still haven't seen it, this needs to be at the top of your rental queue.

• Superbad: Hilarious in the theater and equally hilarious upon repeat DVD viewing. Instant classic.

• Hot Fuzz: While the first 2/3rds of Hot Fuzz was enjoyable but not spectacular, the final 20 minutes of over-the-top mayhem is non-stop laugh, cringe, laugh, cringe.

Most Original Movie

• Once: This small-budget independent Irish film features two musicians acting the lead roles of "Guy" and "Girl," lending serious authenticity to the songs that make up the bulk of the dialogue. Equally heart warming and heart wrenching, Once is a dysfunctional love story, a romantic comedy, an inspirational drama, and a rock musical all at the same time. The feature song, "Falling Slowly," deserves to win an Oscar and be in your iPod.

• There Will Be Blood: I had never seen anything like There Will Be Blood before and I don't think I ever will again. I can't even really describe what it is other than to say that it sticks with you.

• Beowolf 3-D: I hope the box office success of Beowolf means that we will see quite a few more high-quality 3-D films in the years to come. I hadn't watched a movie in 3-D since going to Epcot Center more than fifteen years ago. The quality entertainment of Beowolf assured me that I would be returning for another 3-D adventure far sooner than that (particularly if it features a digitally enhanced Angelina Jolie).

Best "Bad" Movie

• Transformers: As bad as Transformers was, I loved watching blatant product placement ads (e.g. the Mountain Dew machine) turn into murderous robots. Plus, Shia LaBeouf made the most of bad material, Megan Fox was hot, and John Tuturro, though entirely unnecessary, was extremely entertaining.

• Shoot 'Em Up: Some critics said that Shoot 'Em Up was bad - The NYT even went so far as to call it a "worthless piece of garbage" - and bad it was... bad ass!

Best Ending

• The Lives of Others: The film seems to end twice, and both endings would have been sufficient, but it is the unexpected final scene that adds a perfect post-script to a perfect film and keeps resonating long after the credits have finished rolling.

• Bourne Ultimatum: I'll try not to spoil it for those who haven't seen the final Bourne - suffice to say, I enjoyed the swimming.

Breakthrough Performer of the Year

• Michael Cera: 2007 was the year Michael Cera broke out. With "Arrested Development" firmly in rearview, Cera gave us memorably hilarious turns in Superbad and Juno, while also co-leading the internet comedy revolution (see Cera at http://www.clarkandmichael.com/, and check out http://www.funnyordie.com/ for more internet comedy).

• Josh Brolin: Josh Brolin is the one actor who gets no credit for his solid performance in No Country for Old Men, and he certainly gets no credit for his equally solid performance in American Gangster. Maybe it is because he is so good at playing unlikeable sleaze balls? Regardless, he gets his props here on PB & Movies.