Oscar Got It Wrong!: Best Actress 2006

The Contenders:

Meryl Streep: The Devil Wears Prada
Kate Winslet: Little Children
Judi Dench: Notes on a Scandal
Helen Mirren: The Queen (winner)
Penelope Cruz: Volver

Oscar Got It Wrong: Best Adapted Screenplay 2006

The Contenders:

Borat
Children of Men
The Departed (winner)
Little Children
Notes on a Scandal

Dear Diary

Film: Notes on a Scandal
Format: DVD from NetFlix on rockin’ flatscreen.

I’ve been focusing heavily on Best Actress performances for some time because switching from movies on the 1001 Movies list to Oscars left me vastly behind in that category. I’ve been catching up slowly but surely, but it’s still the category where I have the furthest to go. So, because that’s where I’m trying to catch up, my NetFlix queue is currently heavily skewed toward that award. Thus we have Notes on a Scandal, since I’m also a little behind in that decade compared with the others.

This is a film I knew nothing about other than that it starred Judi Dench and Cate Blanchett, both of whom I love. It’s always fun to go into an acclaimed film with great actors and little to no background, and in this case, it was absolutely worth it. Notes on a Scandal is a movie with a simple premise and excellent execution. For something this simple, it’s surprisingly tense.