Best Picture - Drama Category Golden Globes

A multi-layered film of exquisite complexity as executed in a fashion only Iñarritu could pull off.

From the bustling metropolis of Tokyo, through the Atlas Mountains of Morocco, to the sweltering heat of the watchful sun peering down on the American-Mexican border... Babel brings three very different stories together through a wide array of characters, taking the most intimate details of their lives (including a Moroccan child's exploration of his sexual urges, a rebellious Japanese teenager rejecting all intimacy from his father, and the party-animal like instincts of Berñal's otherwise unlikeable role) and bloating them into larger, bridging events that do, at some point, llnk all the stories together.

It's a powerful comment on the contrast between the developing and third worlds, and how the inability to have a common language between the people eventually causes human beings to rely on the deceitful nature of their eyes. In the end, it all becomes a matter of interpretation and how one FEELS having seen otherwise small excerpts of these peoples' lives (each character is really only covered in detail over the span of 48 hours, but they are not the same 48 hours for each character...), and the final image... that of Rinko Kikuchi's deaf-mute teenager, embracing her father while wearing nothing at all... is poignant and deep at the same time. Looking out at a man who has the benefit of clothes (in this case, hearing) and his daughter, who has no clothes (cannot hear), and gazing away into a barren, dark, canyon of skyscrapers... and how very fitting it is. Indeed, one of the most indelible cinematic images I have experienced yet.

Do not pass this up.

What can I say? The film is... as the saying goes, unbelievably flat. Honestly, this had no chance of toppling Crash and I still cannot believe how it won the awards it did get.

The screenplay was jumpy at best, the dialogue of Annie Proulx's short story coming across as the most authentic, the rest of the adapted material boring, ineffective, and dire.

Its score, while effective, never actually strayed far from the core, from that guitar stringing away at the choral line. How it won the Adapted Screenplay and Original Score award over the gloriously superior The Constant Gardener remains a mystery.

As for its direction... well... Ang Lee is a fantastic director, but to think he should've won Best Director for this is a mallicious lie. It was a sympathy award, one given to him simply because he hadn't won before.

Awards aside, the film has its moments of poignancy, including a shocking revelation. But its all let down by an underwhelming finale, some poor make-up, and the ultimate message... that gays will forever be hunted down as pigs of our world.

I'm sure there are some messages hidden between the lines, but surely such final desperation, though honest, would only add to the underwhelming impact of those final frames.

Brokeback Mountain is a disappointment, and Annie Proulx should be slapped for complaining about not winning, or even assuming that it would win, the Best Picture Oscar.

This film was great, no denying it. But there's not too much in terms of pace and plausibility to keep it running. Eventually, it just becomes pretentious and overly sentimental, not to mention it only gives us a shred of Howard Hughes' life anyway.

BY FAR the worst of the "Eleven Oscar" triumvirate.

Yes, you heard me, I did just say this was worse than Ben-Hur and... don't hurt me... (like I could give a shit, pussies) Titanic.

Wonderful. You truly see the world through Nash's eyes at first. The twist itself will drag you down to the depths experienced by the character. As for Jennifer Connelly, her Oscar was well deserved.

A defining point in Joaquin Phoenix's career... if not for Walk The Line. A spectacular film that showcases Ridley Scott's true ability to handle an epic.

Spacey is hilarious and Benning having completely outdone herself. This is a flawless look at modern suburbia, though in a less graphic way (ala Happiness).

It has a spectacular opening sequence and immediately plummets into a thoroughly bland pathway of "help our fellow comrade". Hanks hams it up in a role that so nearly won an Oscar that it made me puke. Otherwise, the warfare is breathtakingly real, and well done. Nice to see Vin Diesel in a supporting role, where he should've stayed before doing "xXx".

A well conceived film. Nothing to really rant on about as far as the acting goes, but it weaves a fictional tale in perfectly with a true life event without shifting any facts about. Though... Cameron's Oscar speech was so pretentious and half-hearted that one would assume this was a dumbed down effort of anything else the man has done. Probably his best.

Yet another triumph for the incomparable Ralph Fiennes. This love story breaches the boundaries of allegiance and honor, and reveals human attraction for what it truly is, an entirely personal, and desperate fact of life, that must be fulfilled. Fiennes proves why he is the most human performer that ever was, is, and ever will be. Astoundingly perfect in every way.

An Oscar thief on many accounts, but still thoroughly enjoyable and easygoing fun each and every time.

In some ways, a disgusting attempt to rewrite history, but in others, painfully disturbing, and quite easily deserving of its awards not for its story, but for Ralph Fiennes' brilliantly complex and well performed Amon Goeth, whose inner demons haunt the viewer far more than any of the horrific killings that he personally carries out. If you see "Schindler's List" for one reason alone, you don't see it for Spielberg's attempt to re-enact something that occurred very differently from his depiction... you see it for the greatest performance of the 90s, Ralph Fiennes, in a role that isn't just a villain... but a spirit of its own.

On the surface, the elegance that has been taken into account while handling the oft-innocence of the subject at hand, Pu Yi, is charming. Though to look further, some characterization is painfully lacking.

On the other hand, its effect is likened to the superior yet also moving Kundun, in which a similar journey of innocence shattered by a whirlwind of modern events leads to a ruler in exile.

Though these similarities between two mostly different films can be put aside for now, The Last Emperor remains a pinnacle in historical reminiscing as far as cinema goes. It doesn't sell out for more intrigue like the dishonorable Braveheart, yet it doesn't find its charm by straying too far from history and admitting it (a la Gladiator). It's good, fine storytelling, and John Lone's depiction of the adulthood of Pu Yi himself is a wonder to watch, as is O'Toole's quaint, restrained Englishman.

9 Oscars is a bit much, but over-achieving aside and you'll see that this truly is a period-masterpiece.

Charlie Sheen does well in a serious role, and Dafoe proves that he is where he belongs in almost any role given to him. Platoon is haunting, though not necessarily as powerful as the infinitely superior Apocalypse Now.

Having rewatched it after so long, it's clear that this very slow and often lacking film has not aged well in its twenty-three year life span. I can see why many call it "perfect", but I can only manage a yawn when enduring what is essentially self-important comedic grandiosity of an almost pretentious nature.

When the only interesting thing that occurs is Drew Barrymore's appearance (which is more nostalgic than special), things start to become awry.

The opening stretch of shots personifies the elegant elongation that this film stands for. In essence, it's another suburban fable where something much darker lurks beneath the seemingly innocent surface. But unlike the otherwise superb American Beauty, this makes less ham-handed or over-the-top-American attempts at wrenching our heartstrings where it counts.

This just does it through the sheer power of a well written script and tour de force performances from a top cast.

Timothy Hutton, for example, takes a character that could've been seen as whining or "emo" and turns him into something scarier and more real: he turns him into the personification of who we are or were when we were his age. Hutton has struggled to even skim the magnificence of his performance here, and likewise the strong support from Sutherland and Moore adds to the building tension of the family's horribly internal situation.

People often whine about this winning Best Picture over Raging Bull, but when you pierce through De Niro's iconic role in that particular 1980 film, you find a film that is indeed inferior to this.

This sets a standard for suburban tension that I believe only Haneke's Caché has dared attaining a reputation for challenging in terms of surpassing.

Tear-inducing stuff, and Hoffman is absolutely amazing... maybe a more complete ending would've been nice.

Beautiful. A darkly powerful film that thrusts Brad Davis into arguably his best performance ever (the retrial-speech will remain in my mind as one of the angriest I've ever witnessed) and sends him into a horrific downward spiral into madness and insanity that is peaked by an outrageously satisfying yet maddeningly horrifying scene in which he literally destroys a fellow inmate, finishing him off by graphically tearing out his tongue.

The supporting cast is spectacular, and the pain you feel for Davis' character is as obvious as the pain you feel for, say, Hurt's character. Madness and hatred peaks within the Turkish prison, and by the end of this masterpiece, you won't wanna even consider drug-smuggling as a profession...

Eh. Not entirely for me, but whatever.

A masterful study on humanity as we know it. There are the good guys and there are the bad guys. You've got the parallels. Not only does Nicholson do well as the proverbial Anti-Hero, but Louise Fletcher is diabolical as one of the most sinister figures, bound to remind you of a teacher or two from school. A strangely heart-warming black comedy.

It's Chinatown. Seriously. The most twisted and well-executed screenplay I've ever seen. Nicholson himself is in fine Film Noir form in the king of all Film Noirs.

With an undeniable blood-curdling atmosphere, and being regarded as the scariest film of all, it's not hard to see why I've rated it five stars. It really is quite good, and also sets an impossible standard for horror to this very day. Watch it at night with no one to comfort you, I dare you.

Possibly Coppola's best, and the defining Crime-Epic, setting the standard for many others to come.

David Lean's masterpiece is thoroughly entertaining. Though nearly four hours long, the film is so coloured by a sense of epic excitement and the kind of classic David Lean gripping-feel that you'll wonder where the time went. Omar Sharif stands out the most from this amazing cast.