Michelle Monaghan in Trucker
Quentin Tarantino's INGLOURIOUS BASTERDS Is San Diego Critics' Big Winner
Colin Firth's best actor win for his gay college professor in Tom Ford's A Single Man, however well-deserved, wasn't really a surprise, but the San Diego critics' choice for best actress sure was: Michelle Monaghan for her portrayal of a carefree long-haul truck driver whose life suddenly undergoes a dramatic change in the concisely titled Trucker.
Among the critics' other unusual choices were best supporting actress Samantha Morton for her war widow in Oren Moverman's The Messenger; best editing to Alan Edward Bell for (500) Days of Summer, hardly one's idea of "showy" film editing work; and the best cinematography award for Javier Aguirresarobe's work on the Viggo Mortensen vehicle The Road, which has been all but ignored by critics groups elsewhere. (The Hollywood Foreign Press Association didn't find any room for John Hillcoat's bleak futuristic drama, either.)
But the most interesting choice of all was the SDFCS's pick for best foreign language film: Paolo Sorrentino's mordant Il Divo (above), the story of cunning, conniving, scheming Italian Prime Minister Giulio Andreotti (magisterially played by Toni Servillo). In the US, Il Divo struck and vanished like lightning (minus the fiery impact), but it deserves a better fate on DVD. Italian politics may be outside your sphere of interest, but great filmmaking and great acting shouldn't be. Il Divo offers both — and more. After all, what happens in the Italian Hallways of Power, can and does happen everywhere else.
And finally, Woody Harrelson won the Body of Work prize for The Messenger, Zombieland and 2012. 2012?? I told you the San Diego critics' go for some very unusual stuff. I wasn't kidding.
The SDFCS is comprised of print, television, radio and Internet critics working in San Diego County.
I applaud the SD critics for choosing Michelle Monaghan as the best actress for her incredible work in Trucker. I was completely blown away by her performance and the movie overall. I prefer movies about realistic, flawed characters like hers. I am bored by movies like An Education and glad that a gritty, gut-wrenching film like Trucker is getting so much recognition!
Hey there. I'm one of the SD critics. It's interesting, one of the most hotly debated choices was the Body of Work category. But just so we're clear, that vote wasn't a voice of support for "2012." A number of people thought, though, that Woody had already had a standout year in a long career, and that his role in that movie was the best–and possibly the only good–thing in it.