Washington Critics Association Bestow Honor on Ledger, Year's Best

Award season is getting rolling and the Washington Critics Association is the first to pounce on proclaiming their best of the year including bestowing another posthumous honor on Heath Ledger (ya’ll know he’s winning that Oscar, right?).

But we have criticism for the critics. We think they only got it about 65% right.

Best Film: Slumdog Millionaire
Best Director: Danny Boyle (Slumdog Millionaire)
Best Actor: Mickey Rourke (The Wrestler)
Best Actress: Meryl Streep (Doubt)
Best Ensemble: Doubt
Best Supporting Actor: Heath Ledger (The Dark Knight)
Best Supporting Actress: Rosemarie DeWitt (Rachel Getting Married)
Best Breakthrough Performance: Dev Patel (Slumdog Millionaire)
Best Adapted Screenplay: Simon Beaufoy (Slumdog Millionaire)
Best Original Screenplay: Jenny Lumet (Rachel Getting Married)
Best Animated Feature: Wall-e
Best Foreign Language Film: Let the Right One In
Best Documentary: Man On Wire
Best Art Direction: The Curious Case of Benjamin Button

We completely agree about Slumdog being the best film of the year, Danny Boyle being a genius, obviously Rosemarie DeWitt and Heath Ledger were locks and Wall-E was brilliant but Mickey Rourke’s performance in The Wrestler was nothing compared to the work Sean Penn did in Milk.

We know people love a story of redemption but Rourke is walking on a cloud of PR spin. He is good, but not great in a film that is likewise unremarkable.

And Meryl in Doubt, though we love her, gives one of the most overblown turns of her career. She’s Meryl Streep so even at her worst, she’s still great. However, this IS her at her worst…wait, no, that’s Mamma Mia. Okay, so this might be her second worst but still...

We object!