Um, really?

Countdown to the Oscars (bleh), Part 2

I was inspired by someone else's blog (I don't remember who it was) to make a rundown of the decade at the Academy Awards. In this post, I'll list the ten best and worst Best Picture nominees, and after tabulating my list, I realize how pathetic it really is. I only really like the top four, and the remaining six I can only give faint praise (and, yes, Erin Brockovich really is better than Traffic). In the middle of posting this, I realized how stupid this whole list is, since I was cluelessly going by the year of the ceremonies instead of the year of the film's release. Double bleh. I suppose I'll keep going anyway. The Best Picture nominees I didn't see (and probably won't except for Master and Commander) are: The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers; Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World; The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King; Seabiscuit (well, more than ten minutes); Good Night, and Good Luck.; Munich; Letters from Iwo Jima.

The Ten Best "Best Picture" Nominees

1. No Country for Old Men (2008, Joel Coen, Ethan Coen)
2. There Will Be Blood (2008, Paul Thomas Anderson)
3. Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (2001, Ang Lee)
4. Milk (2009, Gus Van Sant)
5. The Insider (Michael Mann, 2000)
6. In the Bedroom (2002, Todd Field)
7. The Departed (2007, Martin Scorsese)
8. Brokeback Mountain (2006, Ang Lee)
9. Capote (2006, Bennett Miller)
10. Erin Brockovich (2001, Steven Soderbergh)

The Ten Worst "Best Picture" Nominees

1. Crash (2006, Paul Haggis)
2. The Reader (2009, Stephen Daldry)
3. Ray (2005, Taylor Hackford)
4. The Cider House Rules (2000, Lasse Hallström)
5. Moulin Rouge (2002, Baz Luhrmann)
6. Chocolat (2001, Lasse Hallström)
7. The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (2009, David Fincher)
8. A Beautiful Mind (2002, Ron Howard)
9. Babel (2007, Alejandro González Iñarritu)
10. Gangs of New York (2003, Martin Scorsese)

Countdown to the Oscars (bleh), Part 1

Now that I've watched all of the big Oscar nominees, from the main eight categories (I'd like to consider Foreign one of the "big categories," but as I've never been able to see all the nominees before the ceremony, I can't consider it such), I've ranked each of the nominees in descending order for your arguing pleasure. I've placed the titles in bold that actually deserved their nomination.

Best Picture

1. Milk
2. Frost/Nixon
3. Slumdog Millionaire
4. The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
5. The Reader

Best Director

1. Gus Van Sant, Milk
2. Ron Howard, Frost/Nixon
3. Danny Boyle, Slumdog Millionaire
4. David Fincher, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
5. Stephen Daldry, The Reader

Best Actor

1. Sean Penn, Milk
2. Mickey Rourke, The Wrestler
3. Frank Langella, Frost/Nixon
4. Richard Jenkins, The Visitor
5. Brad Pitt, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button

Best Actress

1. Meryl Streep, Doubt
2. Anne Hathaway, Rachel Getting Married
3. Melissa Leo, Frozen River
4. Kate Winslet, The Reader
5. Angelina Jolie, Changeling

Best Supporting Actor

1. Josh Brolin, Milk
2. Heath Ledger, The Dark Knight
3. Michael Shannon, Revolutionary Road
4. Philip Seymour Hoffman, Doubt
5. Robert Downey Jr., Tropic Thunder

Best Supporting Actress

1. Penélope Cruz, Vicky Cristina Barcelona
2. Marisa Tomei, The Wrestler
3. Amy Adams, Doubt
4. Viola Davis, Doubt
5. Taraji P. Henson, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button

Best Original Screenplay

1. Mike Leigh, Happy-Go-Lucky
2. Martin McDonagh, In Bruges
3. Courtney Hunt, Frozen River
4. Dustin Lance Black, Milk
5. Andrew Stanton, Pete Docter, Jim Reardon, WALL-E

Best Adapted Screenplay

1. Peter Morgan, Frost/Nixon
2. John Patrick Stanley, Doubt
3. Simon Beaufoy, Slumdog Millionaire
4. Eric Roth, Robin Swicord, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
5. David Hare, The Reader

Comments: Why is it that the original screenplay category is the only one in which all five nominees are worth praising? The Reader is easily the worst best picture nominee since Crash. I hate that in a few years, people will look back at the nominees for Best Picture and assume 2008 was a shitty year for film, when it was just the opposite. Let's just hope Hollywood's liberal guilt gives Milk just enough push to take the prize over its extremely less deserving nominees.

Bitch List: Oscar Nomination Edition

Now that I've had to time to ponder the Oscar nominations instead of debating whether or not I'm going to continue watching Lost or not after the grave irritations last night, I've decided to express my thoughts on the whole shebang. The biggest upset, as many others have concurred, is the Academy's snub of Sally Hawkins for Happy-Go-Lucky, easily the finest performance of all the Best Actress hopefuls and one of the few that actually carried the film. What's worse is that it looks like Angelina Jolie in Changeling was the substitute, which only leads me to imagine they thought it would be cute to see both Brad Pitt and Jolie nominated in the same year, despite both being undeserving. At least Pitt was forgettable; Jolie, on the other hand, was sort of a disaster, though working in Clint Eastwood's Dirty Harry-in-red-lipstick mode, I suppose it wasn't solely her fault. If the Academy was going for "cute" factor, wouldn't it have been more appealing to nominate Heath Ledger's ex-wife Michelle Williams for Wendy & Lucy? And, if we want "cute" to turn into "dead sexy," how about delivering that Oscar to Penélope Cruz, especially considering she'll be handed the award by her co-star and beau Javier Bardem, who won last year for No Country for Old Men? It'll be just like the Adrien Brody/Halle Berry kiss, only without Adrien Brody and Halle Berry!

For the first time in a long, long while, the foreign language category wasn't a total sham, which proves that, even if Gomorrah was overlooked, the new policy for the category might actually be working in the favor of people who know good cinema. We'll have to hold our our applause until the award is officially given out as the winner is often tough to predict. Waltz with Bashir is the obvious frontrunner, but you know I'm rooting for The Class, which was my favorite film of 2008. I wouldn't be too sad if Revanche took home the trophy either though I suspect the film might be too dark and without pressing social interest to the voters. I've read excellent things about Japan's Departures, so it looks like The Baader Meinhof Complex is the "one of these things is not like the other," garnering pretty terrible reviews around Europe and among those in the US who've actually seen it.

No Revolutionary Road? Thank Christ! Michael Shannon was the only thing salvagable in that mess, and even though the Oscar voters can't resist a Kate Winslet weepie, they chose The Reader over Revolutionary Road. I still haven't seen The Reader, but how could it be worse than Road? How?

Best Picture and Director nominees lining up is always a total bore, even if it's clear that the guy whose film isn't up for best picture won't ever win (see David Lynch, Julian Schnabel)... but this gets me to ol' Benjamin Button. While you know I was pleased that Revolutionary Road was the big shut-out of the year (or maybe The Dark Knight, depending on who you ask), Benjamin Button probably should have been. It's the second-least-interesting film Fincher has directed (hello Panic Room!), and the fact that it bares more than just a passing resemblance to one of the shittiest Best Picture winners of the 90s doesn't help this cause. Pitt's boring, Blanchett's miscast and for such a strange premise for a film and from a director as good as Fincher, it doesn't take a lot of risks. I guess risk-taking isn't a favorite pasttime of the Academy.

If Woody Allen was nominated for Best Original Screenplay for Match Point, there's no discernable reason why Vicky Cristina Barcelona was missing from this year's list. It's his most vibrant and winning film in years, but I've spoken enough about my affinity with the film. However, it wasn't competition that kept it away; only one of the Best Picture dullards was based on an "original screenplay," even though it's a "biopic." So where was Woody?

I'm still a bit miffed that Dear Zachary wasn't even shortlisted for the documentaries, but as usual, the doc nominations were the most assure of the whole list. I'll be happy to see Man on Wire take the fall (fuck, I didn't even realize the pun when I was typing that), particularly if it's for Werner Herzog, who received his first nomination for Encounters at the End of the World after being brutally overlooked for Grizzly Man.

With such a weak year for "respectable" Hollywood cinema, 2008 should have been the year "independent" and foreign cinema stormed the podium. The Class, Gomorrah, Waltz with Bashir, Let the Right One In, Tell No One and A Christmas Tale could have easily (or maybe not) emerged as nominees in the directing or screenwriting categories, but no dice. I often forget that the Oscars are just a way for Hollywood to pass along HJs to one another, because if that weren't the case, each of these films should have made some showing if only to prove to Hollywood that we aren't buying what they're (usually) selling.

No Clint Eastwood? It's about time.

So here's the point where I make my early predictions. I'm pretty sure that the director/picture wins will be split, though I can't decide precisely how. Milk and Slumdog Millionaire look like the big picks as Hollywood loves to be "political," and Milk is considerably more deserving than Brokeback Mountain (even if Mountain losing did allow for the worst film in Academy history to take the top prize). As for Actress, I can't even entertain the possibility of Jolie winning or I might lose that Qdoba burrito I just ate. Winslet is probably your best bet as she's still got that empty place on her mantle. Mickey Rourke is the likely frontrunner for the Actor race, although, other than Pitt, I was impressed with all the contenders. There'll be speculation up till Oscar night as to whether Heath Ledger will receive his tribute or not, even though I thought he should have won for Mountain. My night will be crushed if Cruz leaves empty-handed.

As last year was the first time I've ever seen all of the films nominated in the big categories (Picture, Director, Actors, Actresses, Screeplays, Animated Film), it'll be a lot easier this year to repeat that, as I only have to see Frozen River, Doubt, The Reader, Bolt and Kung-fu Panda. The likelihood that I'll catch The Baader Meinhof Complex or Departures before Oscar night is slim. Anyway, we'll see how pissed we all get come 22 March.

And the ball is rolling...

The National Board of Review has started critics' award month for cinema, giving Danny Boyle's Slumdog Millionaire the top prize. There appears to be too many awards for actors given out by NBR, but so be it... The NBR usually ranks as one of the less sophisticated of the year's awards. The rest are as follows:

Picture: Slumdog Millionaire - dir. Danny Boyle
Director: David Fincher (The Curious Case of Benjamin Button)
Actor: Clint Eastwood (Gran Torino)
Actress: Anne Hathaway (Rachel Getting Married)
Supporting Actor: Josh Brolin (Milk)
Supporting Actress: Penélope Cruz (Vicky Cristina Barcelona)
Foreign Film: Mongol - dir. Sergei Bodrov
Documentary: Man on Wire - dir. James Marsh
Animated Feature: WALL·E - dir. Andrew Stanton
Breakthrough Actor: Dev Patel (Slumdog Millionaire)
Breakthrough Actress: Viola David (Doubt)
Directorial Debut: Courtney Hunt (Frozen River)
Original Screenplay: Nick Schenk (Gran Torino)
Adapted Screenplay: (tie) Eric Roth (The Curious Case of Benjamin Button); Simon Beaufoy (Slumdog Millionaire)
Spotlight Award: Melissa Leo (Frozen River); Richard Jenkins (The Visitor)

Top 10 Films (That Aren't Slumdog, "Independent" or "Foreign," but Can Be Animated)
Burn After Reading - dir. Ethan Coen, Joel Coen
Changeling - dir. Clint Eastwood
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button - dir. David Fincher
The Dark Knight - dir. Christopher Nolan
Defiance - dir. Edward Zwick
Frost/Nixon - dir. Ron Howard
Gran Torino - dir. Clint Eastwood
Milk - dir. Gus Van Sant
WALL·E - dir. Andrew Stanton
The Wrestler - dir. Darren Aronofsky

Top 10 "Independent Films"
Frozen River - dir. Courtney Hunt
In Bruges - dir. Martin McDonagh
In Search of a Midnight Kiss - dir. Alex Holdridge
Mister Foe [Hallam Foe] - dir. David Mackenzie
Rachel Getting Married - dir. Jonathan Demme
Snow Angels - dir. David Gordon Green
Son of Rambow - dir. Garth Jennings
Wendy and Lucy - dir. Kelly Reichardt
Vicky Cristina Barcelona - dir. Woody Allen
The Visitor - dir. Thomas McCarthy

Top 5 "Foreign" Films (That Aren't Mongol)
The Edge of Heaven [Auf der anderen Seite] - dir. Fatih Akin
Let the Right One In [Låt den rätte komma in] - dir. Tomas Alfredson
Roman de gare - dir. Claude Lelouch
A Secret [Un secret] - dir. Claude Miller
Waltz with Bashir - dir. Ari Folman

Top 5 "Documentaries" (That Aren't Man on Wire)
American Teen - dir. Nanette Burstein
The Betrayal - dir. Ellen Kuras, Thavisouk Prasavath
Dear Zachary - dir. Kurt Kuenne
Encounters at the End of the World - dir. Werner Herzog
Roman Polanski: Wanted and Desired - dir. Marina Zenovich