What the Flick

Is it wrong for me to love Jake Gyllenhaal so? I've admired this young actor since his work in the uplifting OCTOBER SKY and the intriguing DONNIE DARKO. To me, he seems like the thinking girl's hunk, a role in need of filling since David Duchovny's Agent Mulder turned in his badge. Now he's arrived on screen in 3 films over the past few months. In a nutshell, his best work this fall is in BROKEBACK MOUNTAIN, but JARHEAD is also of interest. PROOF, on the other hand, was one of those oddly unsatisfying movies: I can't really say what was missing from it, but at the end, it just felt not quite whole.

Ah, Awards Season -- a season as dear to the hearts of Angelenos as is spring to those in the Northern Latitudes -- has arrived. From early results, it looks to be an interesting year. Brokeback Mountain is leading the herd, but has strong competition. I'm rooting for some more recognition for Capote... but we shall see.

This new service from What The Flick will track the nominations as they come in and list the decided awards as they are announced (or shortly after, I am only human, after all), along with links to the honors-bestowing organizations. If you hear of others, please add them in a comment box.

GOLDEN GLOBE NOMINATIONS
Best Picture - Drama:
Brokeback Mountain; The Constant Gardener; Good Night, and Good Luck; A History of Violence; Match Point

Best Picture - Comedy or Musical:
Mrs Henderson Presents; Pride & Prejudice; The Producers; The Squid & The Whale; Walk the Line

Best Director:
Woody Allen (Match Point); George Clooney ( Good Night, and Good Luck); Peter Jackson (King Kong); Ang Lee (Brokeback Mountain); Fernando Meirelles (The Constant Gardener); Steven Spielbeg (Munich)

Best Actress - Drama:
Maria Bello (History of Violence); Felicity Huffman (Transamerica); Gwyneth Paltrow (Proof); Charlize Theron (North Country); Ziyi Zhang (Memoirs of a Geisha)

Best Actress - Musical/Comedy: Dame Judy Dench (Pride & Prejudice); Keira Knightly (Pride & Prejudice); Laura Linney (The Squid & The Whale); Sarah Jessica Parker (The Family Stone); Reese Witherspoon (Walk the Line)

Best Actor - Drama:
Russell Crowe (Cinderella Man); Philip Seymour Hoffman (Capote); Terence Howard (Hustle & Flow); Heath Ledger (Brokeback Mountain); David Straithairn (Good Night, and Good Luck)

Best Actor - Musical/Comedy:
Pierce Brosnan (The Matador); Jeff Daniels (The Squid & the Whale); Johnny Depp (Charlie & the Chocolate Factory); Nathan Lane (The Producers); Cillian Murphy (Breakfast on Pluto); Joaquin Phoenix (Walk the Line)

You know the old saying, "there's a lid for every pot?" I can't say I'm convinced this is true: too many good 'pots' who I know are still lid-less for me to put much stock in it. But in fiction at least, the pot and lid always find their way to each other, no matter how many obstacles or dish racks are in their path. Wait, what was I talking about? Oh, right, true love. Anyway, today let's talk about 2 very different love stories that excellently illustrate the maxim: PRIDE & PREJUDICE and WALK THE LINE.

Both NEWSWEEK and PEOPLE published their top 10 or "best and worst" lists this week, and they are listed here. After the new year, I'll put up my own top 10 and encourage you to add yours to the site through the comment boxes. List your own 'bests" and/or "worsts" and a short description of why they fit those categories, and I'll publish them on What the Flick.

Here are David Ansen's top 10 picks from NEWSWEEK
1. Head-On (in German)
2. Good Night, and Good Luck
3. Kings and Queen (in French)

Seeing the top 10 lists reminded me that I never got around to sharing my opinion of David Cronenberg's A HISTORY OF VIOLENCE, which I saw way back when in the fall. It was one of those movies that left me feeling very ambivalent -- it was good in its own way, but at the final scene I kind of felt like, "and then... what?" There was a 1970s feel about its ambiguity (think Carnal Knowledge, Chinatown, and The Conversation, just in the letter C); like many of the best movies of that decade, it left you without an easy answer or even a neatly tied ending. This is undoubtedly a good thing.