MIMI'S 2006 MOVIE LINKS

Mimi has seen and rated some of these movies. See ratings key.

BEST PICTURE

BROKEBACK MOUNTAIN -

Ang Lee directed this adaptation of a short story written by Annie Proulx detailing the epic love story between a Wyoming ranch hand and a rodeo cowboy who met in the summer of 1963. Starring Jake Gyllenhaal and Heath Ledger.

CAPOTE -

Starring Philip Seymour Hoffman as writer Truman Capote, as well as Catherine Keener, and Chris Cooper. Directed by Bennett Miller. Truman Capote, during his research for his book In Cold Blood, an account of the murder of a Kansas family, develops a close relationship with Perry Smith, one of the killers.

CRASH - WINNERAdults Only!

Drama about several intersecting lives in modern-day Los Angeles. Starring Sandra Bullock, Don Cheadle, Matt Dillon, and Brendan Fraser.

GOOD NIGHT, AND GOOD LUCK -

Directed by and starring George Clooney, plus David Strathairn, Patricia Clarkson, and Robert Downey Jr., chronicling the conflict between television journalist Edward R. Murrow and Senator Joseph McCarthy's House Un-American Activities Committee.

MUNICH -

Directed by Steven Spielberg, and starring Eric Bana as a man hired to lead a team of assassins to hunt down the men who murdered the athletes at the 1972 Munich Olympics. Based on true events.

BEST FOREIGN LANGUAGE FILM (BFLF)

DON'T TELL (La Bestia nel Cuore, Italy; U.S. title Don't Tell; a.k.a.,The Beast in the Heart). The Official Web Site is in Italian.

Directed by Cristina Comencini. Screenplay, Francesca Marciano, Comencini, and Giulia Calenda, based on Comencini's novel about Sabina (Giovanna Mezzogiorno) dubs TV films for a living, and lives with Franco (Alessio Boni.) They're very much in love and seem not to have a care in the world, until a nightmarish memory resurfaces from Sabina's early childhood. It regards her dead father, and what he did to her one night in their home. [I'm sure you can fill in the rest, and the literally translated title (The Beast in the Heart) would have been better.]

MERRY CHRISTMAS - (Joyeux Noel, France)

Drama written and directed by Christian Carion, featuring Diane Krüger, Guillaume Canet, Benno Fürmann, Dany Boon, Gary Lewis, and Daniel Brühl. The story is about a spontaneous temporary Christmas truce between German, British, and French soldiers fighting in the trenches during World War I.

PARADISE NOW - (Palestine) -

Depicting the choices made by two Palestinian men who are recruited as suicide bombers. Directed by Hany Abu-Assad.

SOPHIE SCHOLL - The Final Days (Germany). The Official Web Site is in German.

Sophie Scholl: Die letztenTage is directed by Marc Rothemund and featuring Julia Jentsch, Alexander Held, and Fabian Hinrichs. Tells the story of Sophie Scholl, a member of the White Rose resistance group, which fought the Third Reich from inside Nazi Germany.

TSOTSI - ("gangster," South Africa) - WINNER Adults Only!

Written and directed by Gavin Hood. Set in the Johannesburg township of Soweto, the movie traces six days in the life of a ruthless young gang leader who ends up caring for a baby accidentally kidnapped during a car-jacking.

BEST ANIMATED FEATURE FILM

WALLACE & GROMIT IN THE CURSE OF THE WERE-RABBIT - WINNER - - - .

This hand-crafted clay animated feature film from DreamWorks SKG, directed by Nick Parks, received the top Annie Award at this year's International Animation Awards. Wallace, a cheese-loving inventor, voiced by Peter Sallis, and his loyal dog Gromit set out to discover the mystery behind the garden sabotage that plagues their village and threatens the annual giant vegetable growing contest.

HOWL'S MOVING CASTLE (Hauru no Ugoku Shiro, Japan) - This is a special animated feature in today's movie business. It involved thousands of hand-drawn frames, the type of animation Walt Disney pioneered. The studio no longer uses the technique, has shutdown the division, and fired the artistic animators that remained on the payroll. However, Disney holds the world-wide (except Asia) theatrical and Video / DVD distribution rights to all language versions of HOWL'S, including English.

The production was directed by Hayao Miyazaki, and accomplished at Studio Ghibli Miyazaki, Tokyo. A former Disney executive, Stephen Alpert, is now senior vice-president of Miyazaki's Studio Ghibli, and his mission is to keep the art form alive.

When a less than confident young woman is cursed with an old body by a spiteful witch, her only chance of breaking the spell lies with a self-indulgent, yet insecure, young wizard and his companions who share his home that walks on legs.

TIM BURTON'S CORPSE BRIDE - This is a stop-motion animated feature film, directed by Mike Johnson, considered an expert in stop-motion animation. When a shy groom practices his wedding vows in the inadvertent presence of a deceased young woman, she rises from the grave assuming he has married her

BEST DOCUMENTARY FEATURE

WINNER - MARCH OF THE PENGUINS - - - .

Narrated by Morgan Freeman

The other nominated films were: DARWIN'S NIGHTMARE; ENRON: THE SMARTEST GUYS IN THE ROOM; MURDERBALL; and STREET FIGHT.

OTHER 2005 FEATURE MOVIES OF NOTE

CONSTANT GARDENER, THE , CHORUS, THE (Choristes, Les, France, 2004), HUSTLE & FLOW , MEMOIRS OF A GEISHA , KING KONG, MRS. HENDERSON PRESENTS , SYRIANA, and WALK THE LINE .