People are apparently thinking about Best Picture a lot these days. In my last post, I briefly went over what I thought a Best Picture movie was and voila! Awards Daily has an entry where they asked critics how they define Best Picture. It's worth taking a look at for all of those who are interested. I am particularly intrigued by the long response by Scott Foundas who really works through lots of the issues. Similar to what I was doing, except Foundas-style. (I typically like Foundas, for the record, and agree with a lot of what he says. My guess is if you don't like him to start with, you won't like the response much. Either way, though, I think it most fully incorporates everything that Oscars and awards shows are about. He's asking for a beating posting that on Awards Daily though...)
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Friday, October 17, 2008
How Do You Define Best Picture at Awards Daily
Thursday, October 16, 2008
Shoulda Been A Winner Meme
I sort of tagged myself to this meme, at the request of MovieMan at The Dancing Image, which started at Filmcability. Basically, you are supposed to go through every year since the Oscars have been awarded and make your selection for what should win Best Picture. Although Filmcability and The Dancing Image decided to revoke all rules for selection, I have chosen not to do so, although, admittedly, every once in a while, I break the own rules I am about to explain. (And just to tout my record for a moment, I actually have seen every film that won Best Picture. It's a project started in high school that I tore through for a while and then slowed down. Last summer I watched Platoon and only recently watched Wings to complete the list! And, from the looks of this list, I sure don't agree with the winners very often. I also learned that I really really love David Cronenberg...in case you didn't know.)
I think of the Best Picture Oscar as an American film award. It's by no means to discredit it, but when I think "Oscar" Godard doesn't really come to mind. Neither, for that matter, does straight-up experimental film. A film like Ernie Gehr's Side/Walk/Shuttle would easily be my favorite film of 1991, but should it be the Best Picture? If it is accepted in the mainstream can is still be avant-garde? I was getting myself bogged down in a hurry, so I just decided no avant-garde. Unless I felt like I should change my mind...
Anyways, I felt like I should stick with "American" movies. I'm in the clear now, right? Unfortunately, this gets more complicated with American releases from English speaking "foreign" directors and when Hollywood produces work from foreign directors. How do I decide what is American or what isn't? I just can't keep things simple. My mind only got more twisted from here, so I finally just said forget it. If it's American-enough, I let it slide. I am sure there more more issues with release years and I may have flubbed up when this films would have been valid for Oscars in the first place, but let's overlook that for now.
Maybe in the future I'll continue this rather productive meme by selecting foreign films and experimental films from each year. That will lead my mind to a whole variety of other problems with naming them, but I'll save those matters for a later time. Now that I have bored everyone with this meandering, here is my list.
One final note...I have decided to not italicize the titles because it would take a long time to highlight each of them and select it. Oh formatting. You are such a pain sometimes. And if anyone knows how to make italics from Word/Pages transfer to Blogger, please God send me an email and let me know. :)
1927- Sunrise (FW Murnau)
1928- The Wind (Victor Sjostrom)
1929- Pandora’s Box (GW Pabst)
1930- All Quiet on the Western Front (Lewis Milestone)
1931- City Lights (Charles Chaplin)
1932- Freaks (Tod Browning)
1933- King Kong (Merian C. Cooper & Ernest Schoedsack)
1934- It Happened One Night (Frank Capra)
1935- A Night At The Opera (Sam Wood)
1936- Modern Times (Charles Chaplin)
1937- Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (William Cottrell & Wilfred Jackson)
1938- The Citadel (King Vidor)
1939- The Wizard of Oz (Victor Fleming)
1940- His Girl Friday (Howard Hawks)
1941- Citizen Kane (Orson Welles)
1942- Casablanca (Michael Curtiz)
1943- Red Hot Riding Hood (Tex Avery)
1944- Hail The Conquering Hero (Preston Sturges)
1945- Topaz (Dave Tatsuno)
1946- It’s A Wonderful Life (Frank Capra)
1947- Out of the Past (Jacques Torneur)
1948- Letter From An Unknown Woman (Max Ophuls)
1949- Porky in Wackyland (Robert Clampett)
1950- Rabbit of Seville (Chuck Jones)
1951- The Day The Earth Stood Still (Robert Wise)
1952- Singin’ In The Rain (Gene Kelly, Stanley Donen)
1953- Pickup on South Street (Samuel Fuller)
1954- Rear Window (Alfred Hitchcock)
1955- The Night of the Hunter (Charles Laughton)
1956- The Searchers (John Ford)
1957- Bridge on the River Kwai (David Lean)
1958- Vertigo (Alfred Hitchcock)
1959- Shadows (John Cassavetes)
1960- The Apartment (Billy Wilder)
1961- Something Wild (Jack Garfein)
1962- Lawrence of Arabia (David Lean)
1963- Shock Corridor (Samuel Fuller)
1964- The Incredibly Strange Creatures Who Stopped Living and Became Mixed Up Zombies (Ray Dennis Steckler) or Dr. Strangelove (Stanley Kubrick)
1965- Faster Pussycat! Kill! Kill! (Russ Meyer)
1966- Chelsea Girls (Andy Warhol & Paul Morissey)
1967- Bonnie and Clyde (Arthur Penn)
1968- 2001: A Space Odyssey (Stanley Kubrick)
1969- Salesman (Albert & David Maysles)
1970- Zabriskie Point (Michaelangelo Antonioni)
1971- Punishment Park (Peter Watkins)
1972- Cocksucker Blues (Robert Frank)
1973- Badlands (Terence Malick)
1974- A Woman Under The Influence (John Cassavetes)
1975- Jaws (Steven Spielberg)
1976- Carrie (Brian De Palma)
1977- Killer of Sheep (Charles Burnett)
1978- Halloween (John Carpenter)
1979- Alien (Ridley Scott)
1980- Atlantic City (Louis Malle)
1981- Blow Out (Brian De Palma)
1982- The Thing (John Carpenter)
1983- Videodrome (David Cronenberg)
1984- Stranger Than Paradise (Jim Jarmusch)
1985- Prizzi’s Honor (John Huston)
1986- Blue Velvet (David Lynch)
1987- The Brave Little Toaster (Jerry Rees)
1988- Dead Ringers (David Cronenberg)
1989- Sex, Lies, and Videotape (Steven Soderbergh)
1990- GoodFellas (Martin Scorsese)
1991- My Own Private Idaho (Gus Van Sant)
1992- The Crying Game (Neil Jordan)
1993- Blue (Derek Jarman)...avant garde, I know I know...or Naked (Mike Leigh)
1994- Hoop Dreams (Steve James)
1995- Toy Story (John Lasseter)
1996- Fargo (Joel and Ethan Coen)
1997- Crash (David Cronenberg)
1998- The Thin Red Line (Terence Malick)
1999- Eyes Wide Shut (Stanley Kubrick)
2000- Traffic (Steven Soderbergh)
2001- Mulholland Drive (David Lynch)
2002- Spider (David Cronenberg)
2003- Elephant (Gus Van Sant)
2004- Million Dollar Baby (Clint Eastwood) or Primer (Shane Carruth)
2005- A History of Violence (David Cronenberg)
2006- Inland Empire (David Lynch) or Borat (Larry Charles)
2007- There Will Be Blood (Paul Thomas Anderson)
Wow...this took a long time to put together. Although I don't wish this kind of pain on anyone I tag the following people if they dare take up the task. And since I was working on this, you can push back my final NYFF entries to Friday and Sunday (most likely.) We'll see if I can stick to any kind of a schedule. Oh yeah, and if you wonder why I didn't select something feel free to bring it up, as I may have overlooked the films. I was using Wikipedia's pages for American films of each year so I think I got most of them, but I could always miss something. Thanks for reading!
Nathaniel R. at The Film Experience
Jeremy at Moon in the Gutter
Ibetolis at Film For The Soul
Adam at DVD Panache
Jacob W. at Mad Crazy Movie House
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Monday, February 25, 2008
Out 1's Oscars 2008
Presented here based on results from our Out 1 polls on the Oscars are Out 1's 2008 Oscar selections. Even though it is post-Oscars now, it is worthy of noting viewer response as to what should have won the evening and what will be the winners "in our hearts" coming out of this year's crazy ceremony. Thanks to everyone for voting. Please keep telling your friends about Out 1 and spreading our site, and our message, around. We really appreciate everyone coming and continuing to make Out 1 a growing and successful site. And now...on with the results!
-James Hansen
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Sunday, February 24, 2008
Liveblogging the Oscars
11:46 - The first person on his feet for No Country's Best Picture win is Cormac McCarthy. And you're damn right that counts as noteworthy. Goodnight, kids! It's been that singular kind of joy that's clocked in at under four hours. Keep swinging by Out 1. We'll do our best to stay classy.
11:44 - Julian Schnabel did not win! I do not have to eat a stick of butter! The day is mine!
11:31 - Despite some initial craziness, Daniel Day-Lewis gave a classy, lovely acceptance speech. Who could ask for anything more?
11:25 - I'm looking a Diablo Cody holding an Oscar. It's weird.
11:12 - Ho. Ly. Shit. They had a bunch of Baghdad-based soldiers present the short subject documentary Oscar mere minutes before presenting the feature documentary Oscar to Taxi to the Dark Side, a film that spends two hours painting said soldiers as war criminal mercenaries! The utterly sick and shameless gall of Hollywood.
11:01 - And the "In Memoriam" applause-o-meter winner is... Heath Ledger. Bergman was running away with it for a while.
10:57 - Jon Stewart brings out Marketa Irglova to finish her Conti-cut off speech. I don't know about your Oscar parties, but mine cheered.
10:48 - On Once's Best Song win:
JAMES: Juno, the little movie that could? My ass.
10:45 - On the introduction of the "versatile and talented" Patrick Dempsey:
ANDY: "He's versatile?"
JACOB: "Well, he was in Scream 3."
Incidentally, "So Close" is a much, much better set piece than "That's How You Know."
10:39 - I swear, this is the last time I'll mention Cormac McCarthy tonight unless something truely noteworthy goes down, but James just brought to my attention "Cormac McCarthy's" Facebook status, which is, "Cormac McCarthy is chillin' at the Oscars - no joke." Okey dokey.
10:34 - Pause your Tivos - Jennifer Garner is crying at the mere sight of an old, old man. So is Liz. Again.
10:31 - Know what they're not doing tonight? Introducing clips from the Best Picture nominees. Boo.
10:20 - Beautiful angle on Marketa Irglova during "Falling Slowly" with her in the foreground and the packed Kodak audience filling out the background. This little song's come a long way from the music shop, eh? (Little late on this post. Got caught up in a Best Picture montage discussion. Something more current: Bourne is 3-3 tonight. Yes.)
10:14 - James butting in. Is anyone else really bothered that they gave Best Actress before they gave out Documentary Short? Not trying to be a dick to the Doc Short candidates, but the Academy is retarded for handing this major award out so early. Be embarrassed, Academy...shame shame shame. I could totally do a feminist critique here and totally be right.
10:12 - Aaaand Marion Cotillard won. Inner cynic just did an Easter Sunday Jesus Christ.
10:10 - Cate Blanchett just made the most amazingly horrified face at her Best Actress Oscar clip. So did the rest of us, Cate. So did the rest of us.
10:06 - Transformers! Totally shut out! And I had it to win in three technical categories! All around disaster!
10:01 - Seth Rogan and Jonah Hill can present all the awards as far as I'm concerned. Also, I love how the best sound editing Oscar clip for There Will Be Blood waaaaaas... a spike falling into mud. That may actually be the biggest laugh of the night thus far.
9:53: Kristen Chenoweth opens her mouth.
LAURA: Oh no.
JAMES: Oh no.
ANDY: Oh no.
9:47. Wow. Ron Harwood. Look at that guy. He looks like would adapt The Diving Bell and the Butterfly. Great one line tribute from Joel Coen: "We've only adapted Homer and Cormac McCarthy."
9:44 - Technical Oscars. Piss break!
9:35 - Supporting actress - the most wide open category of the night! And the winner is... TILDA SWINTON!!! Didn't have this in my pool, but feeling much more satisfied that the academy didn't prove my inner cynic right and pick Cate Blanchett. Amazing speech, too.
9:32 - Whoa. WHOA. We were all afriad that they were going to play a clip from My Girl in the bee montage. Little early in the night to be traumatized, thanks.
9:24 - At long last, the Academy has become self-aware of it's aforementioned pointless montagery. At long... wait a minute... GOSPEL CHOIR!!1!1!!ONE!
9:14 - And we go from Cuba Gooding Jr.'s acceptance speech in the pointless montage to... Javier Bardem's. Tough act to follow, but loved the look on his mom's face. One of those moments where I'm almost glad I didn't understand what he was saying. Sure it'll be translated momentarily, though.
LIZ: "He just kissed his mom on the mouth."
LAURA: "They're Spanish. They're all crazy."
9:13 - Cate Blanchett as pit bull in No Country = biggest laugh of the night thus far.
9:11 - James here. I hacked in here just to yell. I AM SO PISSED JACK FISK DIDN'T WIN!!! AHHHH!!! Also... Golden Compass for visual effects? My pick em is already a disaster. I love you, Jack!
9:07 - DWAYNE JOHNSON - "It's a priviledge to be here to present the award for best visual effects."
JACOB: "PEOPLE'S ELBOW!"
8:59 - Speaking of people I love, Amy Adams is making my heart go pitter-patter with "Happy Working Song." But she's just kind of... standing there. This is a wasted opportunity for an incredible set piece. Guess they're saving up for "That's How You Know."
8:58 - Can you believe how happy Marion Cotillard is for her make up artists? I now love her.
8:55 - It's an odd way of putting this, but I have tremendous affection for Brad Bird. Dude's very much the next Walt Disney.
8:49 - "80 years of Oscar?!" I'm as sentimental as the next guy, but I feel as though I'm being... taken advantage of. Liz is crying.
8:43 - Fuck me. First award of the evening goes to Elizabeth: The Golden Age for costume design. None of us got it except for Liz, who not only knows nothing about the Oscars, but chose this film in this category as her "no guts, no glory" pick (pick a long shot, get an extra two points if it wins). She's now leading the Oscar pool by 3 points. Everybody else has zip.
8:34 - Great line from Stewart: "Before we spend the next four or five hours giving each other little gold statues, let's take a moment to congratulate ourselves." They should put that on next year's poster.
8:31 - That CG opening went down like a breakfast consisting of a single donut. Yikes.
8:19 - James and I are calling it, friend-o: Saoirse Ronan's Supporting Actress Oscar clip will feature some variation of the phrase, "I saw him, I saw him with my own eyes." EDIT, 9:37: HAAAAAAHAHAHAHAHA!!!
8:08 - Some Oscar parties freak out when George Clooney appears on screen. Or Brad Pitt. This Oscar party just had such a reaction to a glimpse of Cormac McCarthy.
8:00 - Oh hell. Apparently we get to spend half an hour with Regis before the ceremony starts.
JAMES: This is a joke.
ANDY: It isn't.
JAMES: I thought the show started at 8.
ANDY: It doesn't.
JAMES: Don't tell me we have to watch this.
ANDY: We do.
7:51 - Renee Zellweger's haircut: Shemp Howard or Moe Howard? Discuss.
7:41 - Things to remember: Kevin O'Connell, the sound mixer for Transformers, is up for his 20th Oscar. He's yet to win. I've got him on my ballot. That's probably stupid of me, though. 20th time's the charm? What?
7:22 - And here we is, watching E!'s coverage of the red carpet. Security is apparently lax at the Kodak seeing as Gary Busey's wandering around like an unleashed dog at a picnic, having just straight up molested poor Jennifer Garner during her interview with Ryan Seacrest. Ah, live TV. Oh, and there's Julian Schnabel with his Bee Movie glasses. Gonna be a great night. 40 minutes to magic time.
-Andy Hobin
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Thursday, February 21, 2008
Out 1 Oscar Predictions
BEST PICTURE
HANSEN WILL WIN: No Country For Old Men
HANSEN SHOULD WIN: There Will Be Blood
COLVIN/SHOAF WILL AND SHOULD WIN: No Country For Old Men
HANSEN WILL WIN: Ok...so Andy is supposed to do all the commenting here, but I must retort. Andy... you can take your hipster McSweeney's loving, Juno hating (but secretly loving) ass and go buy a stick of butter. You're gonna be eating it. For a film like Diving Bell, you can't expect a Best Picture nom and it is not an indicator for the support it has, especially from an American director making a "French" film that many critics (for some reason still not within my grasp) have fallen in love with it. And, to steal from Scott Foundas, I think the Academy will give an award for most directing per square inch of film, which makes Diving Bell gold. Call me way out on a limb, but Schnabel will upset the Coens here and be Diving Bell's only win of the night.
HANSEN SHOULD WIN: Anybody else...except for Reitman. Most deserving is PTA.
SHOAF WILL WIN: Coens
SHOAF SHOULD WIN: Paul Thomas Anderson...imagine what he'd do with an Oscar under his belt.
BEST ACTOR
EVERYONE ELSE WILL AND SHOULD WIN: Daniel Day Lewis
HANSEN WILL WIN: Ellen Page...wrong again, Andy! And I once called you an expert...
HANSEN SHOULD WIN: Laura Linney...why not?
COLVIN/SHOAF WILL AND SHOULD WIN: Julie Christie
BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR
HOBIN SHOULD WIN: Casey Affleck's titular Robert Ford still haunts. As I've said before, Bardem's was the supporting character of the year, Affleck's was the supporting performance.
COLVIN/HANSEN WILL WIN: Javier Bardem
COLVIN/HANSEN SHOULD WIN: Casey Affleck
SHOAF WILL AND SHOULD WIN: Javier Bardem (although Casey Affleck is deserving too)
BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS
HOBIN WILL WIN: I'm not tethering myself to this what with Tilda Swinton taking the BAFTA, Ruby Dee taking the SAG, and Amy Ryan cleaning up with the majority of the critics awards, but I'm giving the edge to Academy fav Cate Blanchett. Find me a higher profile impression this year than a chick playing a dude, and that dude is Bob Dylan. The Academy is a recovering alcoholic on the verge of a major relapse, and Blanchett's performance in I'm Not There is the half full bottle of vodka recently discovered in the back of the cabinet. Just try to resist. Okay so maybe I am tethering myself to this pick, but I'm using licorice rope.
HOBIN SHOULD NOT WIN: Saoirse (pronounced SEER-shuh, by the way) Ronan, but wouldn't that be a riot?
EVERYONE ELSE WILL AND SHOULD WIN: Cate Blanchett...did you see I'm Not There, Andy?...yeah, that's what we thought!
BEST ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY
HOBIN WILL WIN: Juno...and I ain't happy about it.
HOBIN SHOULD WIN: Michael Clayton struck a chord as a real writer's type of film. After penning potboilers like The Devil's Advocate, Dolores Claiborne, and the Bourne trilogy, Gilroy's script should be the reason that Michael Clayton doesn't go home empty handed.
HANSEN WILL WIN: Juno
HANSEN SHOULD WIN: The Savages
COLVIN WILL WIN: Juno
COLVIN SHOULD WIN: Ratatouille
SHOAF WILL WIN: Juno
SHOAF SHOULD WIN: Michael Clayton
BEST ADAPTED SCREENPLAY
HOBIN WILL AND SHOULD WIN: Cormac McCarthy began No Country For Old Men as a screenplay before turning it into a novel, which while not his best was certainly his most film-friendly. (I have limited hopes next year for John Hilcoat's adaptation of The Road and will withhold judgment of Ridley Scott's Blood Meridian until the first trailer.) His collaboration with the Coens is a textbook case of picking up a decent story and dipping it in gold.
HANSEN WILL WIN: No Country For Old Men
HANSEN SHOULD WIN: There Will Be Blood...I'll take its creativity in adaptation over the Coens' event by event literal adaptation.
COLVIN WILL WIN: Atonement
COLVIN SHOULD WIN: No Country For Old Men
SHOAF WILL AND SHOULD WIN: No Country For Old Men
BEST ANIMATED FEATURE
HOBIN WILL AND SHOULD WIN: Despite the gravitas of Persepolis (Fundamentalist Iran! Adapted from a graphic novel!) Ratatouille is Pixar's finest effort to date.
HOBIN SHOULD NOT WIN: I am tired of cartoon penguins.
EVERYONE ELSE WILL AND SHOULD WIN: Ratatouille
BEST DOCUMENTARY FEATURE
HOBIN WILL WIN: No End In Sight.
WHAT'S WRONG WITH MICHAEL MOORE? Bringing Fidel Castro to the Oscars would be a "ratings grabber?"
HANSEN/SHOAF WILL WIN: No End In Sight
HANSE/SHOAF SHOULD WIN: Sicko... we welcome you, Fidel!
BEST FOREIGN LANGUAGE FILM
UGH. HERE'S ME PULLING A NAME OUT OF A HAT: And it's... Beaufort. All right, Israel!
HANSEN WILL WIN: Beaufort
HANSEN SHOULD WIN: Katyn (ok...so I haven't seen it, but come on! Wajda!)
SHOAF WILL WIN: The Counterfeiters
SHOAF SHOULD WIN: Katyn
BEST ORIGINAL SONG
HOBIN WILL AND SHOULD WIN: "Falling Slowly," a song that would have been lost amongst small box office but for the glory of YouTube.
HANSEN WILL AND SHOULD WIN: "Falling Slowly"...sorry, Enchanted. I love you, but really...
SHOAF WILL WIN: Something from Enchanted..."That's How You Know" perhaps.
SHOAF SHOULD WIN: "Falling Slowly"
My day job precludes me from speculating at length on the rest of the categories. Don't forget to swing by during the telecast for liveblogging!- Andy
James here...some of us had some other categories we want to predict and since we have time (day job? please!) here they are...BEST EDITING
HANSEN WILL WIN: The Bourne Ultimatum
HANSEN SHOULD WIN: There Will Be Blood
COLVIN WILL WIN: The Bourne Ultimatum
COLVIN SHOULD WIN: The Diving Bell and the Butterfly
SHOAF WILL WIN: The Bourne Ultimatum
SHOAF SHOULD WIN: Bourne or No Country
BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY
HANSEN WILL AND SHOULD WIN: There Will Be Blood
COLVIN WILL AND SHOULD WIN: No Country For Old Men
SHOAF WILL WIN: Roger Deakins, No Country For Old Men
SHOAF SHOULD WIN: Roger Deakins, The Assassination of Jesse James By The Coward Robert Ford
And just because we actually went to see these...
BEST LIVE ACTION SHORT FILM
HANSEN WILL WIN: The Tonto Woman or At Night
HANSEN SHOULD WIN: None of them. I'm not trying to be a short film skeptic and there have been lots of good ones over the years in this category, but this year's batch is way weak. At Night is trite and overwrought. Tonto Woman is pretentious, poorly acted, and confused about what it wants to do. The other three are silly, cutesy, and that's about it. I'd take At Night because I like Denmark.
SHOAF WILL AND SHOULD WIN: The Tonto Woman
Happy Oscars everyone! We'll see you for Live Blogging starting at 8 on Sunday!
Friday, February 8, 2008
Oscar Poll Madness
In order to juice things up for the Oscars, and with the WGA Strike reportedly settled, there are 4 new polls up (one for each of the 4 most major categories) that everyone should vote in so that we can create Out 1's 2008 Reader's Choice Oscars. Each of the polls expires when the Oscars begin on February 24th. Immediately following the announcements of the "real" Oscars (and our sure-to-be-amazing live blogging of it), we will post the Out 1 Reader's Choices for what should have won the Oscars and see if they fall in line with what was actually selected.
Thanks in advance for your votes! Remember, you can change your vote up until the 24th based on new revelations or catching up on all of the films. Happy voting!
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Thursday, February 7, 2008
Out 1 "Oscar Snub Poll, Director Style" Results
We've hit a bit of a stand still here at Out 1, waiting for official word on the Oscars (be sure to come here for live blogging assuming the event happens!) and with a slow winter movie season, reviews will trickle in a little slower so we hope to come up with some new features to keep everyone happy! That said, our most recent poll has ended in voting for the best English language director to never win an Oscar. It was a really close vote between the top two vote getters. Thanks to all for voting and please keep checking back with us! We promise to get on a roll with posts as soon as we can!
David Lynch | 12 (28%) |
Spike Lee | 2 (4%) |
Nicolas Roeg | 4 (9%) |
Douglas Sirk | 1 (2%) |
Gus Van Sant | 1 (2%) |
John Cassavetes | 1 (2%) |
Paul Thomas Anderson | 2 (4%) |
Terrence Malick | 11 (26%) |
Other | 3 (7%) |
I hate the Oscars and I hate you | 5 (11%) |
Tuesday, January 22, 2008
I Drink Your Milkshake: Ruminations on the 2008 Oscar Nominees, Omissions, and Bastards in Baskets
Forethought: Heath Ledger's performance in Brokeback Mountain was one of the best male leads of the decade, right up there with Daniel Day-Lewis in Gangs of New York , Ken Wantanabe in Letters From Iwo Jima, and Russell Crowe in Gladiator. He did good work with what little time it turned out he had, and that counts for an awful lot as far as I'm concerned.
Now then. Oscars.
* Regarding the special effects nominees The Golden Compass, Pirates, and Transformers: Has anybody seen that episode of South Park, "Imaginationland," in which cartoon Michael Bay describes an invasion plan he's cooked up, "And then it'll be like POOOWWWRRGGHH!!!! And then these trains will fall off the tracks and it'll be all GGRRRAAGHGHGHGHGH!" That sums up my feelings toward the three nominees, and it made me a little nostalgic for the simpler yet infinitely craftier innovation of, shit you not, Death Becomes Her.
* Atonement did not surprise me. Juno did.
* What do Best Picture, Best Director, Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Cinematography, Best Editing, Best Sound Editing, and the number 8 have in common? They are all nominations received by No Country For Old Men and There Will Be Blood. This, you may be surprised to realize, is one exciting and close race.
So does either film have an edge? Well, lest I misread the scent in the wind and/or the New York Times be lying to me, "I... drink... your... milkshake!" is hurtling toward "Show me the money!" catchphrase ubiquity, and your one friend who still says "Call it, friend-o" may now be regarded by some as if he'd let loose a world-historical "Who let the dogs out?!" But that's only the way of the wind this morning. Keep in mind that had Jonny Greenwood's score not been ruled ineligible (much more on that later), it would have surely been nominated and TWBB's nomination tally would have been brought to nine. Bam, front runner status. I'm not the only numbers cruncher drawing this conclusion by a damn sight.
That's all the prognosticating I'm going to commit to print for the Best Picture dogfight at this juncture. I was very wrong about The Departed last year, and I'd like not to break my foot off in my mouth again.
I will say with great certitude that Anton Chigurh would own Daniel Plainview in a steel cage death match. Feel free to discuss.
* I said back when I saw it that Sarah Polley's beautiful, touching script for Away From Her should be remembered come Oscar time. Honestly, I didn't think it would be. This was the nicest surprise of my morning.
* You, the naysayers, the cynics, the haters. It was released too early in the year, you said. The Academy typically shuns comedy, you said. The fat suit was inferior to that of Hairspray, you said. Or Big Momma's House, you added. Well saddle up for your heaping helpings of crow, hipster douchebags, because as I write this the ink is barely dry in the history books proclaiming the DGA, PGA, WGA, and SAG-lauded Into the Wild as having only one more Oscar nomination than Norbit.
Norbit managed to score its single nomination for, let's face it, a fat suit. It's the kind of movie whose makeup could have been credibly nominated had Dogme 95 been a trend that not only outlasted the popularity of Pogs, but had mushroomed from its quiet beginnings into a stable mainstream genre. Meanwhile, the Academy snubbed the widely acclaimed Into the Wild and nominated it only for editing and supporting actor (Hal Holbrook).
This side-by-side comparison means nothing, but it's just one of those things that makes me a little sad. If only Sean Penn had put Emile Hirsch in a fat suit.
* Ruby Dee is the only black acting nominee this year and as much as I love her, she absolutely will not win. Ha ha, Jesse Jackson.
* Bad news: Amy Adams was stiffed out of a Best Actress nod. (Cate Blanchett again? Really? Anybody who makes a career out of doing that many impressions and isn't a stand up comic is not worth my time.) Good news: Three - three! - songs from Enchanted were nominated for Best Original Song. If God wants to take one opportunity to smile His brightest smile down on the Oscars, then He will fly straight down from Heaven and whisper into Gil Cates' very ear the idea to do a "Happy Working Song," "So Close," "That's How You Know" Amy Adams Good Old Fashioned Production Number Medley!
I know that I don't have much credibility as a critic or Oscar prognosticator. But I also know that I have more than most of you readers. That said, I would like to squander it right now by offering the following assessment of any potential Amy Adams song medley: Eeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!!
* You know what? Getting back to fat suits, Hairspray's fat suit should have been nominated simply by virtue of it having a better actor stuffed inside.
* This year there are four nominated feature documentaries roundaboutly or notsomuch roundaboutly condemning something the United States is doing. Last year there were five. (Progress!) It's bad enough that as far as Best Documentary goes, craft has taken a back seat to incendiary current events. But what really, really, really chaps my ass? We're not dealing with challenging subject matter, here. At all. War, sick 9/11 workers, and starving Africans are sad, unpleasant things. Every decent person on earth can agree with this. We all get it, and we have always gotten it. But where was the fearsome and meticulously crafted Lake of Fire this year, which forced us to stare down both sides of the abortion debate for almost three unblinking hours? Where was In the Shadow of the Moon, a stirring story of America's space race triumph? Whither Bukowski: Born Into This, Grizzly Man, 42 Up of years gone by? What of them, Academy? Sigh. And all they really had to do was feature a Dixie Chick calling the president a fucking idiot.
* All of the nominated directors are first time nominees. (Remember, it's "The Coens," not just "Joel Coen.") Cool!
* Where's Jonny Greenwood, you ask? Sidelined for reasons with the "oh come on!"-ness of not answering in the form of a question.
The music of TWBB is a meritage of Greenwood's original work and cuts from Brahms, Arvo Part and others. But as Variety informs us, "The disqualification has been attributed to a designation within Rule 16 of the Academy's Special Rules for Music Awards (5d under "Eligibility"), which excludes 'scores diluted by the use of tracked themes or other pre-existing music.'" Parst plays over a single long sequence if I remember correctly; Brahms over the credits. Thing is, Greenwood's work did not lead the pack screentime-wise. Something like 45 minutes unoriginal music, 35 original. Sorry Jonny, it was just too "diluted. " Ugh. This on top of lethal procedurals that KO'ed 4 Weeks, 3 Months, and 2 Days and Persepolis' eligibility in the foreign film category, the aircraft carrier still stuck in my craw from the Golden Globes telecast, and the fact that Greenwood's score really was so good that I devoted one sentence of my two sentence TWBB top ten list blurb to it... well excuse me for reacting like a bastard in a basket.
The Best Original Song category has lately been notably unforgiving to benders of the by-laws. Just in the last five years, two infamous instances. Moulin Rouge! saw its signature "Come What May" kicked to the curb because despite its originality, it was originally written for William Shakespeare's Romeo + Juliet, and "A Love That Will Never Grow Old" from Brokeback Mountain was disqualified when it appeared in only one scene and didn't play for long enough. Both of these songs, had they been nominated, would have very likely won Oscars. Greenwood's work is no different. When thing like that happen, you'll find cheerleaders like me wandering around like Shi'ites at Ashura. (Google it. There will be blood.) But be that as it may, the notion that the rules should be changed if a potential nominee that many see as inevitable, owed, anointed, whatever, is edged out of the final cut for reasons other than vote tallies is absurd. Certain circles are squawking about the need to do just that following the foreign film category debacle, but the voting system is the issue there as opposed to eligibility requirements. (Angry Lust, Caution boosters definitely have a thick side of beef to bring up concerning the latter, but that's another story.) It's a shame that the Academy didn't spring this technical violation on the TWBB folk earlier so that they could properly appeal it, but that appeal would be likely have been stopped dead in its tracks by little more than a stopwatch. So now what have we learned from all this? Same thing we learn every time. Follow the damn rules, folks.
As a bonus travesty, at the same time that Broadway's version of The Little Mermaid arrives on the express train from hell, Alan Mencken's score for Enchanted was also deemed inelegible at the eleventh hour because - Variety again - "both were disqualified due to the 'predominant use of songs.'" I know he just had three songs nominated but still, doesn't that just sound like your friend's petty, nasty mom that everybody hates?
Okay, writing that got me pissed off again. Academy, I know you're just doing your job, but with all of these mealy-mouthed, HR-sounding reasons for disqualification you're throwing around, are you trying to get me to watch the Oscars telecast like my own sainted mother watches it? Do you want me to watch every second of the Joan Rivers pre-show but read People Magazine during the technical categories? Do you want me to go to the bathroom during best director? Do you? I want to love my gloriously stupid annual Oscar party. I want it to be so good that I wake up the next morning on a bowling lane surrounded by the remnants of my steak dinner, and then make my hair of the dog a one-swallow couple pints of gin. I want this, Academy, and you need to do your part to make it happen too, but you're just not gonna make it easy this year, are you?
* At least Tyler Perry's fat suit didn't get nominated. I would give Osama bin Laden a nuclear bomb before I gave Tyler Perry an Oscar.
by Andy Hobin
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Sunday, January 20, 2008
Oscars Snub Poll, Director Style
Announcing our new poll for the greatest English language director never to win an Oscar. We have decided to limit the voting to those who have never won anything, honorary Oscars included. This limits the choices much more and even though Honorary Oscars are throwing a bone to people, it is better than nothing.
Also, get ready for Out 1's Top 10 Films of the Year coming out at some point (likely late) tomorrow! We will have four different lists from each of our writers. Get excited! And as always, if you vote 'Other' on the poll, please write some comments on what your choice was. And make sure that they have not won an Oscar before your 'Other' vote (a quick IMDB search oughta do it!)
Thanks so much for voting! Keep on telling your friends about us!
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Tuesday, January 15, 2008
Best Foreign Film?
The 63 submitted foreign films for best foreign language film were narrowed down to nine today. My only question... is this really the best list Oscar voters could come up with? Certainly some directors that are recognizable to the Oscar voters (Arcand, Tornatore, Wajda (!), Mikhalkov) but really...this is it?
Austria, The Counterfeiters, Stefan Ruzowitzky, director
Brazil, The Year My Parents Went on Vacation, Cao Hamburger, director
Canada, Days of Darkness, Denys Arcand, director
Israel, Beaufort, Joseph Cedar, director
Italy, The Unknown, Giuseppe Tornatore, director
Kazakhstan, Mongol, Sergei Bodrov, director
Poland, Katyn, Andrzej Wajda, director
Russia, 12, Nikita Mikhalkov, director
Serbia, The Trap, Srdan Golubovic, director
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