BEST
ACTION STAR:
NOMINEES:
Daniel
Craig
Lara
Croft: Tomb Raider, Layer Cake, Munich, Infamous, Casino Royale, The Golden
Compass, Quantum of Solace, Defiance
I’m going to
stop citing the script and just say what I think: he’s the best Bond ever.
Matt
Damon
The
Bourne Trilogy, The Ocean Trilogy, The Departed, Invictus
I’m leaving
out a large body of work that’s not action. Bourne is a mainstay of the decade.
I had trouble picking him instead of Mark Wahlberg, but Markey Mark’s action
resume is surprisingly slim. Not a born action star, it’s a credit to Damon
that he can make the crossover.
Hugh
Jackman
X-Men,
Swordfish, X2, Van Helsing, X3, The Prestige, Deception, Australia, X-Men
Origins: Wolverine
It’s mostly
Wolverine and a lot of failure. The Prestige isn’t action, but I put it on the
list just to help him out. You have to give him credit for keeping one foot in
musical theater and the other in comic books.
Dwayne
Johnson
The Mummy
Returns, The Scorpion King, The Rundown, Walking Tall, Doom, Southland Tales,
Gridiron Gang, The Game Plan, Get Smart, Race to Witch Mountain, Planet 51,
Given how
much time he spent in the ring, it’s incredible he has time for so many movies.
A lot of this career reads like a hard slog to establish himself as something
more than a wrestler. He’s really good and he’s only now starting to get the
roles he deserves. Hopefully his body can stand up to the wear long enough to
land him in a Terminator-level series.
Jason
Statham
Snatch,
Turn It Up, Ghosts of Mars, The One, Mean Machine, The Transporter, The Italian
Job, Collateral, Cellular, Transporter 2, Revolver, The Pink Panther, Crank,
War, The Bank Job, Death Race, Transporter 3, Crank: High Voltage
It’s hard
not to cheer on the bald, tiny Englishman who took himself from Guy Ritchie’s
ubiquitous huckster to Sylvester Stallone’s expendable through ten years of
creatine and no conscience as to his role choice.
WINNER:
Daniel Craig. In addition to rescuing Bond, he was the best thing in Munich and
knocked out some solid indie action movies. The Rock has more action chops but
spent too much time just trying to cement himself as a legitimate star.
BEST
COMEDIC ACTOR OR ACTRESS:
NOMINEES:
Sacha
Baron Cohen
Ali G
Indahouse, Madagascar, Talladega Nights, Borat, Sweeney Todd, Madagascar 2,
Bruno
Often more
uncomfortable than funny, when he’s willing to just play a character in a movie
rather than playing one in real life, he’s proven surprisingly talented.
Will Ferrell
Jay and
Silent Bob Strike Back, Old School, Elf, Starsky & Hutch, Anchorman,
Kicking & Screaming, Bewitched, Wedding Crashers, The Producers, Curious
George, Talladega Nights, Stranger Than Fiction, Blades of Glory, Semi-Pro,
Step Brothers, You’re Welcome America, Land of the Lost, The Goods: Live Hard,
Sell Hard
Ferrell’s
highs are the funniest movies of the decade. He’s also the only person on this
list who did serious work that wasn’t awful. But he also made more than a few
duds.
Seth
Rogen
Donnie
Darko, Anchorman, The 40 Year Old Virgin, You, Me, and Dupree, Knocked Up,
Shrek the Third, Superbad, Horton Hears a Who!, Kung Fu Panda, Step Brothers,
Pineapple Express, Zack and Miri Make a Porno, Fanboys, Monsters vs. Aliens,
Funny People
Rogen is
more just a funny person making movies than anything else. He never does any
acting and he always plays himself.
Ben
Stiller
Keeping
the Faith, Meet the Parents, Zoolander, The Royal Tenenbaums, Duplex, Along
Came Polly, Starsky & Hutch, Envy, Dodgeball, Anchorman, Meet the Fockers,
Madagascar 1-2, Tenacious D, Night at the Museum 1-2, The Heartbreak Kid, Tropic
Thunder
Stiller made
it big playing the straight man in There’s Something About Mary and Meet the
Parents. We’re left with that impression of him being buttoned-down in our
minds…unfairly. The majority of his decade was spent playing increasingly
preposterous roles – in movies, TV, and award shows.
Vince
Vaughn
Old
School, Starsky & Hutch, Dodgeball, Anchorman, Be Cool, Mr. & Mrs.
Smith, Wedding Crashers, The Break-Up, Fred Claus, Four Christmases, Couples
Retreat
The last one
in, barely, over Steve Carell. Like Rogen, he’s not an actor, just a funny
person making movies. He’s just a bigger jerk than Rogen.
WINNER: Will
Ferrell. A much closer victory than expected over Stiller. But if you’re not
first, you’re last.
BEST
ACTOR:
NOMINEES:
Christian
Bale
American
Psycho, Shaft, Captain Corelli’s Mandolin, Laurel Canyon, Reign of Fire, The
Machinist, Batman Begins, The New World, Rescue Dawn, The Prestige, 3:10 to
Yuma, I’m Not There, The Dark Knight, Terminator Salvation, Public Enemies
The deepest
dramatic resume, though terribly humorless and heavy on what-might-have-been
disappointments like 3:10 to Yuma, Terminator IV, and Public Enemies.
George
Clooney
O
Brother, Where Art Thou?, The Perfect Storm, Spy Kids, Ocean’s 11-12-13,
Solaris, Confessions of a Dangerous Mind, Intolerable Cruelty, Good Night and
Good Luck, Syriana, The Good German, Michael Clayton, Leatherheads, Burn After
Reading, Up In The Air, The Men Who Stare at Goats, Fantastic Mr. Fox
What stands
out about Clooney’s series of nominations is that he never fronted a big-money
picture. He’s a curiously big star for having never delivered, on his own, at
the box office.
Johnny
Depp
The Man
Who Cried, Chocolat, Blow, From Hell, Pirates of the Caribbean 1-3, Once Upon a
Time in Mexico, Secret Window, Finding Neverland, Charlie and the Chocolate
Factory, Corpse Bride, Sweeney Todd, Public Enemies
The broadest
resume, touching on every drama. Courageous and creative, if a bit heavy on Tim
Burton.
Robert
Downey Jr.
Wonder
Boys, Kiss Kiss Bang Bang, Good Night and Good Luck, A Scanner Darkly, Zodiac,
Iron Man, Tropic Thunder, The Soloist, Sherlock Holmes
Missing half
a decade due to drug addiction, he still puts together a resume that beats out
most of his generation. Thanks for staying back on the bandwagon.
Brad Pitt
Snatch,
The Mexican, Spy Game, Ocean’s 11-12-13, Sinbad: Legend of the Seven Seas, Troy,
Mr. & Mrs. Smith, Babel, The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward
Robert Ford, Burn After Reading, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, Inglourious
Basterds
Brad Pitt is
probably not the smartest person ever. He slept with Mike Tyson’s wife, for
example. But damned if that’s not a lot of good movies.
WINNER: Brad
Pitt. If Downey Jr. had a full decade of work, he’d probably win. Clooney may
be a better actor, Bale’s definitely a better actor, and Depp is much more
creative in addition to being more talented. But Pitt just has an inate star in
him that uplifts even his bad movies. He has enough range here to not be a John
Wayne star always playing himself, but he never creates something as forced as
Depp’s Willie Wonka or some of Clooney’s man of constant sorrow.
HONORABLE
MENTION: Russell Crowe, Matt Damon, Leonardo DiCaprio, Ian McKellan, Will
Smith
BEST
ACTRESS:
NOMINEES:
Cate
Blanchett
The Man
Who Cried, The Gift, Bandits, The Lord of the Rings 1-3, The Shipping News, The
Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou, The Aviator, Babel, The Good German, Notes on a
Scandal, I’m Not There, Elizabeth: The Gold Age, Indiana Jones IV, The Curious
Case of Benjamin Button
The other
Meryl Streep. Arguably the hardest set of characters to take on, in that she
doesn’t take Streep’s outsized cartoons, favoring instead subtle characters.
Angelina
Jolie
Gone in
Sixty Seconds, Lara Croft: Tomb Raider 1-2, Life or Something Like It, Sky
Captain and the World of Tomorrow, Mr. & Mrs. Smith, The Good Shepherd, A
Mighty Heart, Beowulf, Kung Fu Panda, Changeling, Wanted
The only big
starlet in Hollywood who can legitimately do action. Her attempts at drama have
been substantive from the acting respect but weak as actual films. What is
possibly the most interesting thing here is her complete disinterest in rom-com
and comedy.
Keira
Knightley
Bend It
Like Beckham, Pirates of the Caribbean 1-3, Love Actually, King Arthur, Pride
& Prejudice, Domino, Atonement, The Edge of Love, The Duchess
Unlike
Jolie, some of Knightley’s dramas are successful as movies rather than being semi-desperate
bids to be taken seriously. As for her action career, it’s bizarre that she has
one. She’s so skinny she can’t make a 3D movie. But it’s hard to argue with a
decade spent starring in a lot of beloved films.
Julia
Roberts
Erin
Brockovich, The Mexican, America’s Sweethearts, Ocean’s Eleven, Grand Champion,
Full Frontal, Mona Lisa Smile, Closer, Ocean’s Twelve, Charlie Wilson’s War,
Duplicity
It was a
strange decade for her as she aged. She found some good roles and she found
some real duds. Having to take a role in Closer, where she doesn’t belong,
raises real questions about what her place is going forward. I think she’s
breaking bad.
Meryl
Streep
A.I.,
Adaptation, The Hours, The Manchurian Candidate, Lemony Snicket’s A Series of
Unfortunate Events, A Prairie Home Companion, The Devil Wears Prada, Rendition,
Lions for Lambs, Mamma Mia!, Doubt, Julie & Julia, Fantastic Mr. Fox, It’s
Complicated
The award is
named after her. Still, there is some dismal decisionmaking in there – most
notably the failed turn to Iraq War movies in 2007 presumably trying to
recapture the Deer Hunter glory. Roberts should be taking notes – Hollywood is
very unkind to aging females. She has to start staking out Streep’s claim on an
annual role written for a mature female adult.
WINNER: Cate
Blanchett. If she wasn’t around, I’d actually go with Knightley, strange as
that may seem. Streep soaks up the best scripted roles, and it’s quite possible
Knightley just got lucky or has a great agent. But Blanchett is on top
talent-wise and should be getting roles written for her more often.
HONORABLE
MENTIONS: Sandra Bullock, Jennifer Connelly, Penelope Cruz, Nicole Kidman,
Cherlize Theron, Rachel Weisz, Reese Witherspoon
THE
DEPENDABLE SUPPORTING ACTOR OF THE DECADE: Philip Seymour Hoffman
State and
Main, Almost Famous, Punch-Drunk Love, Red Dragon, 25th Hour, Cold
Mountain, Along Came Polly, Strangers With Candy, Capote, Mission: Impossible
III, The Savages, Before the Devil Knows You’re Dead, Charlie Wilson’s War,
Synecdoche, New York, Doubt, Pirate Radio, The Invention of Lying
Special love
for Lester Bangs from Almost Famous. Cool is the booze they feed you.
THE
DEPENDABLE SUPPORTING ACTRESS OF THE DECADE: Judy Dench
Chocolat,
The Shipping News, Die Another Day, Home on the Range, The Chronicles of
Riddick, Pride & Prejudice, Mrs. Henderson Presents, Casino Royale, Notes
on a Scandal, Quantum of Solace, Rage, Nine
Between her,
Helen Mirren, and Maggie Smith, it was a great decade for grand British dames.
If only American actresses could look forward to such reliable late-career.
Come to think of it, Ian McKellan, Albert Finney, and various Dumbledores...either
there’s something about British theater that extends Britons’ careers or we, as
audiences, have a distinct positive prejudice towards elderly British gravitas.
Call it the Churchill Effect.
BEST
DIRECTOR:
NOMINEES:
Joel &
Ethan Coen
O
Brother, Where Art Thou?, The Man Who Wasn’t There, Intolerable Cruelty, The
Ladykillers, No Country for Old Men, Burn After Reading, A Serious Man
An
impressive catalogue that, to paraphrase one of their characters, “is a little
artsy-fartsy”. There’s something to be said for being able to talk to everyone.
Nevertheless, given how infrequently writer-directors get something up on
screen, that’s a lot of movies.
Clint
Eastwood
Space
Cowboys, Blood Work, Mystic River, Million Dollar Baby, Flags of Our Fathers, Letters
from Iwo Jima, Changeling, Gran Torino, Invictus
Consistently
above-average but never spectacular. Of those movies, I’d probably most want to
rewatch Space Cowboys. Not exactly transcendence.
Christopher
Nolan
Memento, Insomnia,
Batman Begins, The Prestige, The Dark Knight
Never a
false step, always something to say, and a very broad range. He can talk to any
audience and in multiple formats. But he could probably use a sense of humor.
Steven
Soderberg
Erin
Brockovich, Traffic, Ocean’s Eleven, Twelve, Thirteen, Full Frontal, Solaris, The
Good German Che: Part One, Part Two, The Informant!
The most
prolific but shallowest of the nominees. It’s hard to fathom how generous Mr. Soderberg
has been with his time. I had to cut some of his lesse-rknown stuff and compile
all of his sequels just to fit it into a reasonable text block. It’s a
surprisingly deep resume.
Quentin
Tarantino
Kill
Bill: Vol 1 & 2, Sin City, Grindhouse: Death Proof, Inglourious Basterds
Tarantino’s
work is truly style for its own sake. Good though it is, it’s never about
anything.
WINNER:
Christopher Nolan. “How’d they do that” technical prowess with real narrative
control. He’s yet to make a bad movie.
HONORABLE
MENTIONS: Wes Anderson, Judd Apatow, Brad Bird, Jon Favreau, Ron
Howard, Peter Jackson, Ang Lee, Sam Raimi, Jason Reitman, Guy Ritchie, Martin
Scorcese, Ridley Scott, Andrew Stanton, Gore Verbinski.
