Date: November 28
Location: Clifton Living Room

I really hate the Academy’s habit of giving Best Actor and Actress Oscars to people portraying historic figures. Ray Charles, June Carter, Truman Capote, Idi Amin, Queen Elizabeth II, Aileen Wournos, Virginia Woolf, Erin Brockovich, the list goes on and on, with most of those coming in the past several years. (Incidentally, that might be the first time the names of Queen Elizabeth and Aileen Wournos were so closely linked). Yes, I hate that tendency of the Academy. It strikes me as simple, lazy and dismissive of creation in favor of imitation.

So it is with some regret that I announce that Marion Cotillard better win the Best Actress award this year for her stunning portrayal of Edith Piaf. I don’t care that Piaf was a real person — and the truth is I knew so little of her that this movie may as well have been about a fictional character. The French actress embodies this bizarre, tragic character from a wide-eyed innocent at age 20 through a bitter, proud, decrepit faded star at age 47 (looking more like 70 thanks to a debilitating illness). Cotillard, a beautiful 32-year-old who resembles Audrey Tatou in the DVD interviews, absolutely disappears into Piaf. It’s a stunning performance, the best I’ve seen by anybody so far this year.

The film itself is less successful. It is beautifully shot but the time-leaping chronology is distracting and at times it slips into the cliches of other musical biopics (newspaper clippings floating by to signal success, for example). The childhood scenes, where young Edith is raised alternately by whores and circus performers, are surreal and satisfying, and Edith’s final days are handled with a delicate touch. The middle section, however, is something of a jumble (intentionally, I believe) and I wasn’t always sure what was happening when, or why.

Still, I highly recommend taking in Cotillard’s performance. She is a shoo-in for an Oscar nod, and would be a sure winner were her performance not in French. Even so, I think she might pull off the first foreign-language acting win since Roberto Benigni scored a trophy for Life is Beautiful. I’ll certainly be cheering her on.

Date: November 13
Location: Clifton Living Room

Master of excess Paul Verhooven brings his signature pulpy style to a most somber topic — World War Two — and delivers a rousing old-school Hollywood movie-movie. Carice van Houten does Oscar-worthy work as the main character, a Jewish songstress who joins the Dutch resistance and goes undercover as the girlfriend of an SS officer. Filled with double-crosses, shootouts and steamy sex scenes, Black Book is the most fun you can have watching Nazis. It also has a moral complexity and a somber pessimism about human nature and the ubiquity of war. Certainly the best thing Veerhoven has done since Robocop, and one of the nicest surprises of the year.

Date: September 26
Location: Clifton Living Room

Released in theaters as part of a double-feautre titled Grindhouse, this Quentin Tarantino film has been expanded by 30 minutes and given the solo treatment on DVD. The extra footage is unnecessary, and basically amounts to more scenes of people talking… and talking… and talking. Yes, Tarantino is a great writer of dialogue, but he’s not at his best here. More so than any QT film, this thing is absent a single recognizable human emotion. It’s all about the style. And stylish it certainly is — but Tarantino needs to grow up and stop reimagining B-movie schlock if he wants to regain his status as one of America’s finest filmmakers.

Date: September 21
Location: Clifton Living Room

Writer-director Sarah Polley makes a striking debut with this haunting tale of a long-married couple dealing with Alzheimer’s. Polley clearly learned some tricks under the tutelage of her Sweet Hereafter director Atom Egoyan (who is a producer here) — the snowy setting, fractured timeline and emotional restraint are all reminiscent of that great film. Julie Christie is a marvel as the afflicted, but I was moved even more by Gordon Pinsent in the difficult role of the left-behind husband.

Date: September 14
Location: Clifton Living Room

A wildly stylish and often hilarious crime romp that would be much better if it was the 5th post-Tarantino exercise and not the 95th. It has some memorable action and dialogue, and a dozen or so excellent performances from a very impressive cast, but the “serious” moments fall flat and the plot turns ridiculous at the climax. Jason Bateman, though, practically steals the whole movie in a scene that can’t last more than 5 minutes. He should be in everything.