The nominations for the 2006 Kaedrin Movie Awards were announced last week. This week, I’ll be announcing two winners every day, culminating in a post with my top 10 movies of the year and possibly some other wrap-up posts. Here comes the Best Comedic Performance and Breakthrough Performance awards:
Best Comedic Performance: Sacha Baron Cohen in Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan
There really wasn’t much of a choice here. Sacha Baron Cohen so completely embodies the Borat character and follows through on every detail, no matter how embarrassing or strange it may be. It’s probably not my favorite comedy of the year, but this is without a doubt the best comedic performance of the year. No one else lays it on the line quite like this. All of the other candidates were also great, but didn’t quite display the intensity that Sacha Baron Cohen does. One performance I should have mentioned is John C. Reilly in Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby. Reilly is one of those tireless character actors that you’ve seen a hundred times without ever really knowing who he is… and he held his own with Will Ferrell. If there was a Best Comedic Performance, Supporting Character he’d totally be all over that.
Breakthrough Performance: Rosario Dawson in Clerks II
This was a really, really difficult decision (perhaps because my criteria was so specific and personal that everyone who was nominated was a quality choice). After banging my head against the wall, I was able to whittle the list down to two performances: Rosario Dawson in Clerks II and Ellen Page in Hard Candy. Choosing between these two is nearly impossible because they couldn’t be more different. But if I was forced to choose, I think I’d have to go with Rosario Dawson. I knew of her and had seen her in a couple of other movies, but I never really noticed her much… and she was absolutely resplendant in Clerks II. Maybe it was because she was acting opposite a bunch of non-professional actors, but she totally out-performed everyone in the film. She was just a lot of fun and really cool, the type of girl you can see loving. Ellen Page gives an outstanding performance, especially when you consider her age. She scares me, though I guess that was the point (you have to see the movie to understand, but be forewarned, it’s no picnic). This is an extremely subjective category, so I don’t think I’d expect anyone else to agree with my selections (even some of the other nominations), but I think it’s a fun one. What do you think?
On deck: Most Visually Stunning and Best Sci-Fi or Horror Film
You’re not fooling anyone, Mark. It was the dancing on the roof scene that cemented it, wasn’t it?
Um, I don’t know what you’re talking about. *ahem*