OSCAR SEASON - Acting

2006 was a great year for actresses in starring roles. There were 3 performances that would have won in most years, and 1 or 2 more that easily could have won in down years. For the first time since I've been a movie fan I think the women outdid the men this year in quality and quantity at the top. Kudos.

And that's not to say that the men had a rotten year either. There were a handful of really good performances this year, just like always. What is strange this year on both sides of the gender divide is how obvious a separation there was between the top performances and the rest. My list this year of the best starring performances almost perfectly mirrors the Oscar nominations. Okay, it does perfectly mirror them. For all of my griping about the Oscars, I should probably feel badly about this. But I don't. There's a first time for everything.

Best Leading Actor

5) Leonardo DiCaprio - BLOOD DIAMOND
In both the Departed and Blood Diamond I completely believed DiCaprio as a tough guy. In his career up to this point I never thought that possible. Even though The Departed was a far better movie, his performance as the cynical South African aiding and abetting the struggles of sub-saharan Africa was superior, and superb.

4) Ryan Gosling - HALF NELSON
The hippest of this year's best performances, I give Gosling a whole lot of credit for taking a character I would normally have found laughably absurd, and making him intesely intriguing. A great job for the MTV crowd hearthrob, a onetime winner of the MTV 'best kiss' award. You go boy.

3) Peter O'Toole - VENUS
You've got to love the British classics actors, urbane, witty and raunchy at the same time. In Venus, O'Toole in many ways just plays himself, an aging urbane, raunchy actor, and it's great every step of the way.

2) Will Smith - THE PURSUIT OF HAPPYNESS
There are different kinds of great acting. There's great character acting, where an actor loses themselves in another persona, and then there's great movie stars, where a film is lifted up entirely by the actor's charisma. Will Smith is one of the great movie stars of this generation.

1) Forrest Whittacker - THE LAST KING OF SCOTLAND
The more I think about it, the more intrigued I am by the conflicting personas of dictators. On one hand they're almost always charming and popular. On another they're grusome barbarians willing to do anything to maintain power. I mean, who were these people in high school? Regardless, Whittacker nailed the childish emotions that ruled Idi Amin, which has a lot in common with what rules bad decision makers everywhere.

Best Leading Actress

5) Kate Winslet - LITTLE CHILDREN
Ms. Winslet's best performance to date, for the first time I felt she stepped out of herself in a role.

4) Penelope Cruz - VOLVER
I attribute this performance as much to Pedro Almodovar as to Ms. Cruz, but that's usually the case with the best roles. Almodovar may have thrown a fat pitch to Penelope with this character, but she's still the one who had to hit it out of the park.

3) Meryl Streep - THE DEVIL WEARS PRADA
An easy pick for best actress most years, Meryl Streep's intesely wicked and compelling performance was only third best this year. In many ways she was a comic equivilent to Forrest Whittacker's dictator in the fasion industry, ruling over her people with an iron fist, even if she was less popular.

2) Judy Dench - NOTES ON A SCANDAL
Ms. Dench's performance was great, great, great. Layered, creepy, wicked and sweet at the same time. It's disappointing she won't win because she gave on of the best performances of the last decade in Notes.

1) Helen Mirren - THE QUEEN
I'm a guy from Cleveland. One who likes ribs, football, and beer. And I fell in love with an elderly British monarch in this movie, and it's because of Mirren. Her portrayal of Elizabeth II during the death of Diana was marvelous, so compelling I couldn't look away.