If you were giving the awards

[Gerald Cooperberg]

who would you hand them out to tonight among the nominees? Or for that matter, take it back one step further-- who would you have nominated?

[RGA]

I have not seen Brokeback mountain so let's get that out of the way first -- I will see it this week I hope.

The films I would have nominated for best film are as follows with my choice in bold:

Cinderella Man (BY FAR Ron Howard's Best Film - too bad Ron's a recent winner and the prior year saw a boxing picture win best picture) A boxing story yes but this one makes Rocky look as like a Glass Jaw fighter. Rene Zellweger and Russell Crowe in terrific roles. A boxing film about family heart.

Constant Gardner, The (Probably needed a second view for some and the early release likely didn't help. The film is one of the most realistic thrillers mixed with a wonderful romance largely told in flashback present day and back to flashback as Fiennes grows from a stodgy weed into the wildflower of his luminous wife Tessa. No pulled punches of typical hollywood sillyness here.

Crash (The Shawshank Redemption of 2005 in that the dilm largely sold on word of mouth. Canadian Writer Director made offbeat television with Due South which was far better than it's unfortunate marketing in the U.S. He has a non preachy keen sense of racism and just lets these people crash into eachother. I didn;t pick it best film but ask me in 5 years -- because if any film makes me change my mind it will probably be Crash.

Good Night and Good Luck (The political commentary is immportant and the film is very tightly focussed on the issue. If I have a gripe it is twofold. One, the transitions from sequence to sequence is weakly handled with a a jazz singer which becomes repetitive. Two, there is no real broadening of supporting character development. This film is about Macarthyism and muurrow and the state of the news. And you know that's enough to be a nominated film. It does what it does very well but I would have preferred a more ambitious effort.

Munich (I chose this film whcih again reveals that Spielberg has numerous depths to draw upon. It's hard to imagine this but Spielberg made the best film I saw this year and also the worst film I saw this year in the laughably bad and paint dryingly boring War of the Worlds. Spielberg here is restrained and lets the matter of fact storytelling loose which reminded me of Schindler's List. The film is relevant and while it could be argued that Spielberg provides no answers or necessarily any more insight into terrorism than what we already know, it can also be pointed out that that is not necssarily the Director's job. His job is to get his audience to think of those issues. Close call.