American Gangster (2007)

Ruby Dee got nominated for this?? I can think of at least a dozen actresses (Jennifer Garner in Juno, Helena Bonham Carter in Sweeney Todd, Leslie Mann in Knocked Up, Jennifer Jason Leigh in Margot at the Wedding -- and that's just off the top of my head, people) who deserve a supporting actress nod more than Dee does for this teeny-tiny role that's not even, let's face it, very masterfully performed. If the Academy was hell-bent on honoring an older woman who barely clocked any screen time, it'd have been more sensible to go with Vanessa Redgrave in Atonement: might not have been a big role, but I'm pretty sure she had more lines than Dee did and Redgrave was perfect in it.

Now that I've gotten that off my chest: the rest of the movie plays like a dozen other movies/Law & Order episodes we've seen. Slick bad guy entrepreneur gets taken down by straight-arrow cop. I've seen this kind of story before -- wasn't worth the time to see another slight variation.

C