Derek Daniels (middleeasternfilms)

A movie set in Brooklyn (shocker!) concerning a young guy who's being forced to choose between the neighborhood he's grown up in and what he really wants to do, photography and date a girl he met at school (even though he's actually engaged to another girl). He gets a job as a runner of diamonds for a mobster, who's one of his father's longtime friends. The plot sounds familiar, but is still barely interesting enough to keep your attention. The best acting jobs are from Titus Welliver (also excellent on Deadwood) and Vincent D'Onofrio (formerly of L&O: CI).

Ben Kingsley shocked me in this. He's Ghandi, for Christ's sakes! And Ghandi is dropping f-bombs like a drunken $2 whore. The dialogue is pretty good, but the cussing goes "just a bit" overboard (and is repetitive)while the story is actually pretty thin. Ray Winstone and Ian McShane were good in this, but they were kinda wasted a bit. Not bad, but could've been better. Maybe?

Paul Thomas Anderson's shining moment as a filmmaker (though most would now say it's There Will Be Blood), this is one movie that has had it's whole premise stolen over the years by such films as Crash, 11:14 and The Air I Breathe. The film follows an ensemble cast portraying characters within different stories that are all interrelated somehow and without the right casting and magnificent acting that this films supplies, it would fall flat as it relies on a lot of visuals to make it through the length. It would be very hard to pick out a best acting performance in this one, though Cruise won some awards for his role as a sexist and arrogant infomercial guru. Magnolia is just another chapter in the filmmaking wonderland of Anderson's career.

Ryan Gosling gave an Oscar-nominated performance as Daniel Dunn, an inner-city history teacher fighting his own personal demons while forming a friendship with a girl in his class. This movie, even moreso than Fracture, really showed how great of an actor Gosling really is. Combine this with incredible natural perfomances from Mackie and Epps and an almost perfect musical score by Canadian supergroup Broken Social Scene and this was certainly movie of the year quality!