Casey Affleck gave two of the greatest performances of all-time in that same year: with this, and
Gone, Baby, Gone. If I had a Top 25 performances for the 21st century both would make the cut.
As usual, I come to appreciate Brad Pitt more with time. His is truly an actor who ages like a fine wine. Outside of
12 Monkeys I'd say that every one of his acclaimed performances I have appreciated more as I've gotten older, or with repeated viewings.
The Departed was a monster, tough to argue with that, but it was a disgrace to nominate
The Queen and
Babel over those two films in the Best Picture category. The former was an actor's project, and the latter should have been restricted to writing and music for the artistic awards.
That year also had
The Lives of Others duking it out with
Pan's Labyrinth in the foreign film section.
Go watch the film in the OP, and watch this. It's a
City of God level foreign film, but so few have seen it. Cinema at its absolute finest:
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