“United 93,” which unflinchingly depicts the hijacked 9/11 flight that crashed into a Pennsylvania field, was chosen Monday as best picture of the year by the New York Film Critics Circle.
Written and directed by Paul Greengrass and featuring a cast of unknowns to give it an authentic, documentary-style feel, the film painstakingly recreates the events of that morning. It culminates with passengers bursting into the cockpit and wrestling their attackers for control of the jet, which ultimately plummets nose-first into the ground.
Forest Whitaker and Helen Mirren continue to solidify their positions as Oscar front-runners — each won the top acting prize from the New York critics, Whitaker for his thunderous portrayal of Idi Amin in “The Last King of Scotland” and Helen Mirren for her withering take on Queen Elizabeth II in “The Queen.” Both have received the same awards in recent days from the National Board of Review of Motion Pictures, the Los Angeles Film Critics Association and the New York Film Critics Online.
Supporting-actor awards went to Jackie Earle Haley for his haunting turn as a sex offender in “Little Children” and Jennifer Hudson, who is emerging as an awards favorite for her showstopping performance in “Dreamgirls.” She received the same honor Sunday from the New York Film Critics Online and won a breakthrough-performance award last week from the National Board of Review.
Martin Scorsese was the group’s choice for best director for his Boston mob epic “The Departed.”
AP via The Envelope.com
Elsewhere, New Yorker critics David Denby and Anthony Lane offer their lists of memorable 2006 films.