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Once again we enter that dangerous territory where
the film community pats itself on the back for the outstanding
work they did for 2007. Unfortunately, the Writer's Guild
of America strike is drawing to a conclusion just in time
for a group of writers to put together inane jokes, long
drawn out narcissistic love letters to the Academy and their
colleagues. ***
In other words, it's show time for the 2008 Academy
Awards let's hope they are ready for their close up. ***
This year's Academy Awards has a terrific crop of films,
actors, writers and directors nominated but is just as notable
for who was dissed by the Academy. I'm going to dive off
the high board here and hope I don't do a huge belly flop
by making some predictions. Usually my predictions have
been pretty good for the major awards we'll see how good
my accuracy rate is with this year's crop of unusual and
downright peculiar selection from the Academy. ***
Best Picture Nominees:
Atonement
Juno
Michael Clayton
No Country for Old Men
There Will Be Blood ***
Most notably absent is director David Cronenberg's
superb "Eastern Promises". The film didn't get any love
in a town that just doesn't care for peculiar directors
and if it did it would go for its home grown one (David
Lynch). ***
"Atonement" is a fine film whose director manages to
juggle, past, present, future and possible futures quite
well. In many respects "Atonement" is this year's "The English
Patient" but it lacks that films epic feeling. ***
"Juno" COULD get some love from the Academy. I'll have
to admit I was surprised by the inclusion of Jason Reitman's
sophomore feature. It's a fine film but it just doesn't
have the resonance of the two front runners "No Country
for Old Men" and "There Will Be Blood". ***
I'm predicting "No Country for Old Men" the Coen brothers'
brilliant film adaptation of writer Carson McCormick's novel
of the same name. Featuring a handful of outstanding performances,
sharp direction and brilliantly choreographed action sequences
that play well against and with the drama, it's an outstanding
film from a pair of writer-directors that deserve recognition
from the Academy. As good as "There Will Be Blood" is (and
look for it to win Best Adapted Screenplay for Paul Thomas
Anderson), "No Country for Old Men" is the better film plain
and simple. Anderson will have plenty more opportunities
and while his skills as a director have increased with each
feature, I feel that his best film was still his second.
***
Why Brad Bird didn't get nominated for Best Director
is beyond me. He does a terrific job with "Rataouille" easily
as entertaining and good as some of the "adult" fair (which
is why he didn't get the nomination no doubt). Nevertheless,
we have a great group of director's nominated but the biggest
omission is Sidney Lumet. Like Hitchcock Lumet has been
nominated a number of times and like Hitch he has never
won an award for any film. Instead, he was given an Honorary
Oscar for his contribution to film. While that's all good
and dandy (that's like an "oops we screwed up and should
have given this award to this talented guy at least a half
dozen times" award), he does a brilliant job with "Before
the Devil Knows You're Dead". Maybe Lumet (if he lives another
year) will finally get recognition for an individual project
for "Getting Out" which is coming out in 2009. This is the
same guy who directed "Prince of the City", "Dog Day Afternoon",
"Network", "The Anderson Tapes", "The Pawnbroker", "Serpico",
"The Verdict" and "12 Angry Men". Go figure. ***
With Lumet out of the running the Academy will go for
directors Joel and Ethan Cohen who have been nominated for
this award before but never own. Tony Gilroy and Jason Reitman
are both too young and too early in their careers as directors
to even get a whiff of Oscar and Julian Schnabel's "The
Diving Bell and The Butterfly" as fine a film as it is,
didn't get a Best Picture nomination. ***
Best Original Screenplay will go to either Diablo Cody
for "Juno" a well written comedy about teen pregnancy. It's
possible that Tony Gilroy will win as well for "Michael
Clayton" a well written drama that Lumet might have directed
in his prime but I'm giving the edge to "Juno" because 1)it's
popular and 2) it made much more money than "Michael Clayton".
***
Best Animated Feature will be picked up by "Rataouille".
It certainly deserves it. While I liked "Persepolis", it's
not quite as moving as I thought it would be. It's still
a fine picture and it would be a close call between both
of them. ***
Best Actor is a tough one. Daniel Day-Lewis won the
British Academy Award for his performance channeling John
Huston in "There Will Be Blood" and there's a good chance
he'll win here as well. He doesn't make that many films
any more so it's possible. I'm pulling for Viggo Mortensen
in "Eastern Promises" a brilliant performance by one of
our most underappreciated leading actors. OK, here goes--I'm
predicting Depp for his work in "Sweeney Todd" because he's
certainly proved his diversity as an actor and lights up
the box office two big factors that industry heavy weights
will consider. By the way, George Clooney was sharp in "Michael
Clayton" as was Tommy Lee Jones "In the Valley of Elah"
but both have won before. ***
By the way Josh Brolin should have been nominated for
his work in "No Country for Old Men" but I suspect that
the Academy didn't think it was much of a stretch for the
young actor to play a trailer-park living Texan. I thought
he was brilliant and the film would NOT have worked without
him or Tommy Lee Jones. ***
Best Actress will go to Julie Christie for his brilliant
performance in the little seen "Away from Her" about a woman
with Alzheimer's Disease. Laura Linney also deserves it
as well. I would like to see her get it but I think that
Christie is the sentimental favorite. ***
Best Supporting Actor has a series of great performances
so it's tough to choose. It will come down to which films
the Academy have seen. Casey Afflect demonstrated amazing
acting chops in the little seen "The Assassination of Jesse
James by the Coward Robert Ford" a film that sat on the
shelf for nearly two years after completion. ***
Hal Holbrook is seldom seen in major film roles and
he's one of our national treasures. His wise, moving performance
in "Into the Wild" (the film I would have picked over "Juno"
as a Best Picture Nominee) is outstanding. I'd love to see
him win as I would also like to see Philip Seymour Hoffman
for his devilish role in "Charlie Wilson's War" and Tom
Wilkinson for his supporting turn in "Michael Clayton" but
the award will go to our favorite villain of the year Javier
Bardem for "No Country for Old Men". ***
Best Supporting Actress will go to Ruby Dee for her
small role in "American Gangster". She gives a terrific
and powerful performance in her few scenes in the film and
is considered an national treasure. She also has never been
nominated before. Unfortunately, that means we'll have to
overlook the terrific performances of young Saoirse Ronan
in "Atonement", "Cate Blanchett" who was unrecognizable
in "I'm Not There" playing Bob Dylan(!) and Tilda Swinton's
great supporting turn in "Michael Clayton". ***
As to the rest:
Best Cinematography: "Atonement"
Best Costume Design: "Sweeney Todd"
Best Documentary: "Sicko"
Best Editing: "Into the Wild"
Best Foreign Language Film: "12"
Best Make Up: "Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's
End"
Best Original Score: "Atonement"
Best Original Song: "Falling Slowly"- Once
Best Sound Editing: "The Bourne Ultimatum"
Best Visual Effects: "Transformers" ---
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