Intelligent and just plain cool

Rating: 9/10 (25 February 2006)

I left a recent screening of Good Night, and Good Luck with a great feeling, the best feeling I've had exiting a cinema this year. The film engaged my mind better than any film this year, and well, just also plainly made me feel so cool. David Strathairn's performance is exceptional, an awesome hybrid of intelligence, power, and style. The performance finds firm ground in the backdrop of an awesome jazz score, black and white cinematography, and a pervasive presence of cigarette smoke that brings you in the room.
The screenplay is beautiful, intelligent and even poetic.
If I were a member of the Academy, the film would easily get my vote. I'm sure the reason it wont win is because most will perceive it as of having a lack of emotion, surely the leading ingredient in an Oscar winning picture. But I argue the film is filled with emotion, not the traditional kind that laments the pain of unrequited love, but a raw emotion that finds shape in a rally cry for a better America in the words of Edward Murrow.