This nominations list is terrible. In a weak year, the second tier of lots of films were spotlighted. I long for 2007. My comments on each category below.
Best picture
"The Curious Case of Benjamin Button"
"Frost/Nixon"
"Milk"
"The Reader"
"Slumdog Millionaire"
This looks to be a disaster - no Wrestler, no Rachel Getting Married, no Revolutionary Road, no Gran Torino? Milk, Button and Slumdog I have no problem with, I haven't seen The Reader (but Priest says B-), but Frost/Nixon is just not that good at ALL. My guess is the older Academy members were influenced by their direct recollections of Nixon - but this is not a top notch film at all.
Full list after the jump:
Actor
Richard Jenkins, "The Visitor"
Frank Langella, "Frost/Nixon"
Sean Penn, "Milk"
Brad Pitt, "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button"
Mickey Rourke, "The Wrestler"
No big problems here, but I wasn't that impressed with Pitt, and I never really care for impressions (Langella). I think Clint Eastwood and Leonardo DiCaprio deserved nominations much more. DiCaprio in particular.
Actress
Anne Hathaway, "Rachel Getting Married"
Angelina Jolie, "Changeling"
Melissa Leo, "Frozen River"
Meryl Streep, "Doubt"
Kate Winslet, "The Reader"
I usually don't care for Streep, but she is great in Doubt. Hathaway is my pick, and I would've much rather seen Sally Hawkins in Happy Go Lucky than Jolie.
Supporting actor
Josh Brolin, "Milk"
Robert Downey Jr., "Tropic Thunder"
Philip Seymour Hoffman, "Doubt"
Heath Ledger, "The Dark Knight"
Michael Shannon, "Revolutionary Road"
Pumped about Shannon's nomination. Downey's performance and that movie are both so overrated it isn't funny. I would much prefer Emile Hirsch in Milk and Colin Farrel in In Bruges. Not that it matters. RIP Heath.
Supporting actress
Amy Adams, "Doubt"
Penelope Cruz, "Vicky Cristina Barcelona"
Viola Davis, "Doubt"
Taraji P. Henson, "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button"
Marisa Tomei, "The Wrestler"
Glad Tomei got this - deserved. Henson's is mightily undeserved, I prefer Blanchett in Button or Hathaway's sister in Rachel.
Director
David Fincher, "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button"
Ron Howard, "Frost/Nixon"
Gus Van Sant, "Milk"
Stephen Daldry, "The Reader"
Danny Boyle, "Slumdog Millionaire"
Christopher Nolan was robbed. Howard's nomination is a joke, and Daldry's is likely to be (I'll see that tonight to be sure). I'll take Mendes for RevRoad and Eastwood for Gran Torino instead.
Foreign-language film
"The Baader Meinhof Complex," Germany
"The Class," France
"Departures," Japan
"Revanche," Austria
"Waltz With Bashir," Israel
Haven't seen any of these, but the talk is that Italy's Gomorrah was robbed.
Adapted screenplay
Eric Roth and Robin Swicord, "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button"
John Patrick Shanley, "Doubt"
Peter Morgan, "Frost/Nixon"
David Hare, "The Reader"
Simon Beaufoy, "Slumdog Millionaire"
Button's screenplay is horrible.
Original screenplay
Courtney Hunt, "Frozen River"
Mike Leigh, "Happy-Go-Lucky"
Martin McDonagh, "In Bruges"
Dustin Lance Black, "Milk"
Andrew Stanton, Jim Reardon and Pete Docter, "WALL-E"
Jenny Lumet was robbed for her Rachel Getting Married screenplay. Wall-E was all about the direction, not the screenplay. Wrestler, obviously, should've been included.
Animated feature film
"Bolt"
"Kung Fu Panda"
"WALL-E"
COULD NOT CARE LESS.
Art direction
"Changeling"
"The Curious Case of Benjamin Button"
"The Dark Knight"
"The Duchess"
"Revolutionary Road"
Actually a good list, although Milk might deserve it more than Dark Knight.
Cinematography
"Changeling"
"The Curious Case of Benjamin Button"
"The Dark Knight"
"The Reader,"
"Slumdog Millionaire"
Milk is excellent here - more so than Changeling and likely Reader.
Sound mixing
"The Curious Case of Benjamin Button"
"The Dark Knight"
"Slumdog Millionaire"
"WALL-E"
"Wanted"
The fact that Wanted got any nominations at all is unbelievable.
Sound editing
"The Dark Knight"
"Iron Man"
"Slumdog Millionaire"
"WALL-E"
"Wanted"
Ditto.
Original score
Alexandre Desplat, "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button"
James Newton Howard, "Defiance"
Danny Elfman, "Milk"
A.R. Rahman, "Slumdog Millionaire"
Thomas Newman, "WALL-E"
Revolutionary Road's was the best of the year. I hate Newman and his singsongy crap.
Original song
"Down to Earth" from "WALL-E," Peter Gabriel and Thomas Newman
"Jai Ho" from "Slumdog Millionaire," A.R. Rahman and Gulzar
"O Saya" from "Slumdog Millionaire," A.R. Rahman and Maya Arulpragasam
Bruce's omission for "The Wrestler" is the biggest rip off of the whole list.
Costume design
"Australia"
"The Curious Case of Benjamin Button"
"The Duchess"
"Milk"
"Revolutionary Road"
Changeling was great.
Documentary feature
"The Betrayal (Nerakhoon)"
"Encounters at the End of the World"
"The Garden"
"Man on Wire"
"Trouble the Water"
Man on Wire is OVERRATED.
Documentary (short subject)
"The Conscience of Nhem En"
"The Final Inch"
"Smile Pinki"
"The Witness -- From the Balcony of Room 306"
?
Film editing
"The Curious Case of Benjamin Button"
"The Dark Knight"
"Frost/Nixon"
"Milk"
"Slumdog Millionaire"
?
Makeup
"The Curious Case of Benjamin Button"
"The Dark Knight"
"Hellboy II: The Golden Army"
?
Animated short film
"La Maison en Petits Cubes"
"Lavatory -- Lovestory"
"Oktapodi"
"Presto"
"This Way Up"
?
Live action short film
"Auf der Strecke (On the Line)"
"Manon on the Asphalt"
"New Boy"
"The Pig"
"Spielzeugland (Toyland)"
Visual effects
"The Curious Case of Benjamin Button"
"The Dark Knight"
"Iron Man"
Thursday, January 22, 2009
Oscar Nominations
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8 comments:
Re: Wall-E screenplay: Though the first third is basically silent, the writers still have to give Wall-E and Eve something to do. The story also gets points for originality. I'm betting you and I are in disagreement on the level of effectiveness.
Re: Tropic Thunder: One of the best parodies/comedies of recent years. Downey Jr.'s performance is a stunt but I love it.
Re: Man on Wire: It's the best reviewed film on Rottentomatoes.com of all time. So in that respect it's overrated. But only in small caps.
Re: Button's screenplay: It's obviously the weakest link in the film, but "horrible"? I'll settle for "disappointing".
Is your "singsongy crap" comment for Randy Newman (which I agree with) or Thomas Newman, the writer of the Shawshank Redemption and Cinderella Man scores? For the record, I don't much like the "Down to Earth" song.
I'll agree with you on Wanted, Henson, and Bruce. Otherwise, I have gaping holes in my 2008 movie viewings and I hope to catch a few more of the nominees before the ceremony.
Fair Warning: Expect "Changeling was great" to be quoted out of context forever.
I meant Randy Newman - I think he did one of the Wall-E songs - nice catch.
I found the Wall-E stuff pretty simple and the "Captain" character too cliched for my liking. Even if the screenplay structured the silent piece, I don't care much for kid movies, even good ones.
Tropic Thunder (I've seen it twice now) is 40% funny and 60% boring.
Man on Wire is this year's Diving Bell and the Butterfly. The 3 of us need to hide under a blanket at the next summit and whisper to recreate this.
Button screenplay isn't objectively horrible, but when you compare it against the source material and possibilities with its cast and director, I think it is horrible. You and I could've spent an afternoon with it and fixed most of the problems.
i obviously have been silent of late. sorry. that said, this list is awful. i've only seen two of the best picture noms, milk and the reader. milk is good if not transcendent. i'm interested in seeing what lawyer and the doc think of the reader. again, the last third leaves me cold and confused. maybe i'm missing it, but PICK AN ISSUE. i'd put it below gone baby gone from last year. Wall*E is better than either of those two, as is In Bruges, as is The Dark Knight.
Seriously, the exclusion of the Springsteen song invalidates this entire list. And it makes me hate Crapdog all the more. Those 2 songs have nothing - thematically or otherwise - to do with the film.
I'm defending Button more than I usually would since it seems to be the only one with a legitimate shot of taking down Crapdog.
alright, i finally saw slumdog last night, and i must admit i was pretty seriously disappointed. i had hoped to really like the movie, but to place a fairy tale ending on the type of pain and suffering shown in this film is ridiculous. the opening reminded me (and i'd say borrowed heavily from) city of god, but they took these horrific images and manipulated them for a feel good, crowdpleaser, leaving the unsuspecting audience to think they'd just watched a film that addressed some tough issues. bull crap. in that way it reminded me of traffic. my favorite of the one's i've seen is milk, but this is a ludicrously bad year for oscars. leaving in bruges out and the dark knight are both now obvious purposeful exclusions (and, although i'm alone of the three of us, ditto for wall*E). also, to leave eastwood out of the song category is a travesty. that song actually has some interesting lyrics and interesting things to say.
I like Wall-E quite a bit. TDK and Wall-E are the only films I've seen this year really going for something both unique and substantial.
I'll defend Traffic as a great film. It doesn't provide any real solutions - except talking and being honest, but I really like that about it. It doesn't try for a feel good ending and I don't find it manipulative at all. Soderbergh deserved that Oscar.
Put me in the Traffic defender club.
Also - I liked The Reader (I'll put my thoughts as a comment to Priest's review).
sorry. i didn't mean traffic, which i like a lot, i meant crash, which i hate.
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