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Chicago Film Critics Awards
 From Chicago, this is The Dope Sheet... I'm Adam Kempenaar
Note: This will be the last Dope Sheet of 2006. See you in the new year!
Sam addressed the Golden Globe nominations in last week's Dope
Sheet, so I thought I would spend some time on a much more important
set of awards -- those handed out by the Chicago Film Critics
Association. Every year there are countless jokes about how nobody
knows who the hell the Hollywood Foreign Press is. Well, I'm a member
of the CFCA; so if you hate our picks, you can rip on me.
Some picks that make me proud: Paul Greengrass (pictured
right) nominated for Best Director and "United 93" for Best
Picture (both shamefully ignored by the Golden Globes) ... All five
Best Actor nominees --
Will Smith, Peter O'Toole, Leonardo DiCaprio, Forest Whitaker and Ryan Gosling
-- deserve to be there ...
Penelope Cruz and Maggie Gyllenhaal for Best Actress ...
Abigail Breslin for Best Supporting Actress ...
"Wordplay" for Best Documentary; it shouldn't win, but a
really fun movie I was constantly entertained by ...
Todd Field & Tom Perrotta ("Little Children") for Best Adapted
Screenplay, and also Garrison Keillor for "A Prairie Home
Companion"; as far as I know, the movie and book have little in
common, but I'm just glad to see it get some recognition ... And
finally, Rian Johnson ("Brick") for Most Promising Director.
He's going to lose to Jonathan Dayton & Valerie Faris for
"Little Miss Sunshine," which I'll have to find a way to live with.
Some picks that don't make me proud: "Babel" led all films
with 9 nominations. Last year's CFCA Best Picture winner was "Crash."
Apparently this year's winner is likely to be "Crash 2" ...
James McTeigue as Most Promising Director for "V For
Vendetta"; extremely depressing when you consider all the directors
who were more deserving, including second-time filmmakers John
Cameron Mitchell ("Shortbus") and Neil Burger ("The Illusionist"). I
would have also preferred Dito Montiel and Laurie Collyer for "A
Guide to Recognizing Your Saints" and "Sherrybaby," respectively.
The complete list of
CFCA nominees is available here.
The winners will be announced Dec. 28 on WGN-TV and on the CFCA site.
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Random Chatter
* Can you Digg Filmspotting?: Bill Polymenakos was one of many
listeners who wrote in with this suggestion regarding the 'social
content site' Digg.com. "Digg just added podcasts as 'diggable'
content and someone beat me to submitting Filmspotting on the site!
http://digg.com/podcasts/Filmspotting_5
I thought you might want to mention this on the show and get
Filmspotting promoted to the #1 podcast in the TV/Film category."
Consider it done, Bill. Please feel free to follow Bill's advice and
help promote the show.
* The ever-changing
Calendar: On
the Dec. 30 Chicago Public Radio show we will review "Dreamgirls" and
Soderbergh's "The Good German," which temporarily replaces "Children
of Men." It's simply a matter of our schedules and when/where
"Children" is playing ... The following week is a short show with two
reviews -- "Letters From Iwo Jima" in segment one and "The Good
Shepherd" and "We Are Marshall" in segment two ... On Jan. 10 we will
review "Children of Men" and countdown the top 10 films of the year.
* Rant AND rave: Just in case there was any confusion, the new
Filmranting section of The Dope Sheet that was introduced last week
doesn't have to be negative. We're looking for one good commentary
from you, the listener/reader, to feature every week. You shouldn't
feel like you necessarily have to scold anyone. But if you want to
get something off your chest, glowing or otherwise, regarding a
certain movie/director/performer or anything movie-related ...
Filmranting is your forum. Email your submission to:
dopesheet@filmspotting.net.
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Overlooked Performer: Anthony Mackie
 Instead of an overlooked movie, I thought I would try something new
this week and highlight an actor whose work impressed me this year --
and one who isn't likely to get any love from the Academy or various
critics groups.
When putting together my list of the best supporting male
performances of 2006 for this week's show, I strongly considered
Anthony Mackie for my top 5 -- and that was just based on his fine
turn as cornerback and team captain Nate Ruffin in
"We Are Marshall"
(opens today). We're going to discuss "We Are Marshall" after the new
year, so I won't say much except that Mackie is the heart and soul of
the movie, which is dominated by one actor (Matthew Fox) clearly out
to prove he is a serious actor and possibly earn an Oscar nomination,
and a star (Matthew McConaughey) who... well, just go see for
yourself. Seriously. It's worth the price of admission alone.
But I was reminded when reading David Edelstein's top 10 of the
year (see Dope Links below) that Mackie was also a standout in "Half
Nelson" as Frank, a drug dealer so smooth and reasonable that I would
probably start moving product for him. Look, everyone (including us)
overuses the word charisma to describe good actors. But unlike, say,
George Clooney, who rarely holds my attention on screen but seems
like he'd be a great guy to party with, Mackie has the kind of
charisma that draws you into every moment he is on screen.
Look for Mackie in brief but fairly memorable roles in "Million
Dollar Baby," "The Manchurian Candidate" and "8 Mile" (as Eminem's
rival Papa Doc). He's also the star of Spike Lee's "He Hate Me,"
which I have yet to see but NOBODY seems to have liked. Still, I know
I'll eventually check it out just to watch Mackie's performance.
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Dope Links
Soderbergh Goes Old School
The New York Times offers a multimedia presentation of Steven
Soderbergh discussing his inspirations behind "The Good German" --
specifically his commitment to not only craft a film that
looks like a movie from Hollywood's Golden Age, but one
literally made like a movie from that Age as well.
Faithful Sidekick John C. Reilly
If you liked last week's Will Ferrell interview, NPR also has a
38-minute sit-down with his multi-talented "Talladega" costar John C.
Reilly (The Magic Man -- now you see him, now you don't!). His
unassuming persona is as sincere as his wide array of performances,
and it belies his depth of insight and experience. And given Ricky
Bobby's preference for praying to "Baby Jesus", consider this The
Dope Sheet's official "Christmas-themed" link.
A Different Kind of Top 10
New York Magazine film critic David Edelstein's Top Ten List is a
cheat -- but a brilliant one. By ranking his Top Ten Themes rather
than Movies, he gets to include more than 10 films. But it's a valid
cheat as it's a completely different, and more thoughtful, approach
on how to rank, categorize and think about a year in film.
-- Dope Sheet editor Jeff Huston
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