And here's my nominations for the 2006 Get Out Your Swankies:
Best Picture - THE QUEEN - the secret lives of royalty, no less. Pretty darn swanky, any way you cut it. The private world of monarchs trumps all other nominees this year for swank.
Best Actress - MERYL STREEP in "The Devil Wears Prada." Though hardly the best performance of either the year or her career, she gets tons of swank points for her fashion bravada alone. The attitude of royal arrogance was borderline swanky, too. The lifestyle portrayed, definitely so.
Best Actor - A tie. LEONARDO DiCAPRIO did not play a swanky character in "Blood Diamond," but nailing a really sexy South Afrikan accent is a swankomplishment. PETER O'TOOLE exudes swank from his every pore in "Venus," but it's almost unfair to have him in a swank-off with anyone else on the planet. He plays growing old so gracefully, and gets major swank points for his performance as well as for his very self.
Best Supporting Actress - RINKO KIKUCHI in "Babel." Not the best performance out there (not even the best nominated performance in that movie ... her competition in this very same category has her beat in acting). But she was undeniably swanky as the teenage nymphet loose in Tokyo, blithely unaware or uncaring as she descended into total mania of the nympho variety. Mmmmm, Teenage Asian Nymphomania. Believe it or not, swankier than any of the other supporting actress roles this year.
Best Supporting Actor - I hate to say it, but EDDIE MURPHY in "Dreamgirls." My least favorite performance among the supporting actor noms was nonetheless the most swanky. And that's not to say that a fast-fading, drug-addicted Motown star was a particularly swanky role ... but there was ZERO swank to be found among the other, far better performed, nominated roles.
Best Director - STEPHEN FREARS for "The Queen." His direction was very understated and classy. I don't know why, but there was something decidedly swank about it. Honorable mention must go to PAUL GREENGRASS for the tres swanky move of casting real people to play themselves in "United 93."
Best Adapted Screenplay - CHILDREN OF MEN - because there were no kids anywhere in the world, in this movie. Adults only. Swankerific.
Best Original Screenplay - PAN'S LABYRINTH - the melding of a terrifying fantasy realm with a terrifying reality situation was somehow a swanky accomplishment.
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