CHOP CHOP CHOP

I think when we do an Oscar preview I'll have our editor friend Jawn come in and explain what a good Film Editor actually does. Until then, let's let a young John Travolta present my nominees for Best Film Editing and pretend we understand!


NOM/NEES:

- Chris Innis and Bob Murawski for The Hurt Locker
It's hard to recall an action movie this decade with so much tension, and I think tension is an achievement that can at least partially be credited to sharp, patient editing.

- Mark Jakubowicz and Fernando Villena for Crank: High Voltage
I don't know for a fact that Crank has more cuts than any other 2009 movie, but it sure seems like it. Neveldine/Taylor's mission of maximum visceral impact relies a lot on sudden, unexpected but meaningful ("WTF" is a meaning) edits.

- Sally Menke for Inglourious Basterds
Quentin's trusty editor again does a great job both in ramping up both the tension (the opening, the dessert scene, the bar scene) and the comedy (any scene with the Basterds and their victims). It's to her and the films credit that none of the scenes I used as examples of tension are free of comedy, and vice-versa.

- Joe Walker for Hunger
The film has three sections, all edited completely differently (rapid images of violence and squalor, a long, one-shot conversation, and juxtaposition of nature and a man dying) and successfully.

- Ti West for The House of the Devil
Ti West wrote, directed, and edited this 80s throwback, and the combination of slow dread, unexpected introductions ("are you the babysitter?"), and violent climax (not as good as the rest of the movie, but that was always going to be impossible) make this exquisitely-paced film an easy candidate for our editing prize.

W*NN*R:
At the risk of being like AMPAS and confusing "Best" with "Most" in a technical category, I'm giving the award to Misters Jakubowicz and Villena for Crank: High Voltage. "ADD," "MTV," and "short attention span" have been complaints about action movies for decades now, but no one has owned those things with nearly this much flair and insanity. It's an Achievement in Editing indeed.

MAKE UP BREAK UP

In proud award show tradition, we retreat immediately from the glamour of an acting category into the depths of a so-called Technical Award. Here to present Best Makeup, the corpse of Jack Lemmon and the shockingly lively Cloris Leachman:


NOM NOMS (make-up design teams are huge, so whoever is most responsible for the winner can step up and pick the award up or have it mailed, lemme know):

- District 9
I think a lot of its best effects were combinations between Makeup and CGI, but the prosthetic work in District 9 is the most impressive makeup achievement in a Sci-Fi movie this year. I was suitably grossed out and interested in the transformation.

- Drag Me to Hell
Sam Raimi doing a B-horror movie was sure to mean some wonderful, gross prosthetic work, and there was definitely a lot of that in Drag Me to Hell. Most importantly, Lorna Raver gets turned into a walking old-person disease and the world is better for it.

- Hunger
You can't do a movie about a dude starving himself to death without a very committed actor and some good makeup, and Hunger thankfully has both. It's not just Bobby Sands though, and the hair and makeup of the other prisoners in the no wash protest is quite convincing as well.

- Moon
There's a lot of Sam Rockwell in this movie, and while the difference in his clean-cut character and his unshaven one isn't staggering, it definitely helps his character's considerably twisted arc.

- the Road
Viggo gets real gaunt and dirty, and while the movie itself may not be all that great, the look of the characters is never less than convincing.

A WINNER IS:

It's a two horse race here, and I'll take the silly horror make up of Drag Me to Hell in a photo finish over the sci-fi monstrosity of District 9. What can I say, I can't not reward a slobbery old hag with her teeth knocked out biting Allison Lohman's chin.

SPORTING ACTORS

To introduce our first award of the evening, a very talented actress who you may know as the pre-Fred Thompson DA on Law & Order (or as a two time Academy Award Winner), the always elegant Dianne Wiest presenting Best Supporting Actor:


THEE NOMINEES IS:

- Peter Capaldi (In the Loop)
Everyone spits darts in In the Loop, but Capaldi gets the best lines and, even when his character is at a disadvantage, always seems like the most likely to either kill several people or implode completely.

- Woody Harrelson (the Messenger)
In retrospect, it's almost inevitable that Woody was eventually gonna get a part as a a troubled but hilarious alcoholic and hit it out of the park.

- Fred Melamed (A Serious Man)
There were some great monsters in the movies last year, and Fred Melamed's terrifyingly "nice" Sy Ableman is definitely one of them. I cringed every time he touched Michael Stuhlbarg's cuckold, and I'll take him here over Richard Kind's yelling from the bathroom (which was also great).

- Hilmi Sözer (Jerichow)
This is maybe, slightly category fraud-ish, but Sözer doesn't actually have the lion's share of the screen time in Jerichow and I need to honor him somewhere. The film simply doesn't work unless his performance is amazing, and it is.

- Christoph Waltz (Inglorious Basterds)
He really is just so damn good in every scene of the movie he's in. Watching IB a second time, knowing the choice that Hans Landa makes at the end of the movie, made the way he builds the character seem even more impressive.

¡WINNER!:

Hilmi Sözer. Waltz deserves every award that he's getting (it's not like the Oscars were going to nom Jerichow), but I have to rep for Sözer here. He's tasked with giving a real emotional performance opposite actors who are being purposefully one-dimensional and he does it brilliantly. This awesome movie would be a disaster if he wasn't so good in it.

The Maciejs

So the Oscars are coming up in two weeks, and we here at YMD HQ are busy planning the menu for our Oscar party and catching up on the last few pieces of terrible Oscar bait that we have yet to see. And, just like last year, we will get our epic Oscar preview some time next week. But this year, I'd like to spend some more time talking about movies I actually like. So, for the next few days, this blog will be the domain of the Maciejs:


Maciej Elegibility Requirements:
Debut, one-week theatrical run in NYC in 2009.

Oscar Categories that aren't Maciej Categories:
Best Song (they suck), Best Score (Up was the only one I remember standing out this year), Best Foreign Language Film (they're real movies!), Best Animated Feature Film (them too!), All shorts (I'll only get to see the Oscar nominees), Best Documentary (I've seen like two this year), Best Sound Mixing/Editing (I'm just not good with sound), Best Visual Effects (because Avatar ain't gettin' shit).

I've done entirely too much terrible Photoshopping for this. See ya tomorrow morning.

You'se a Holmes (HOLMES!)

I saw Guy Ritchie's Sherlock Holmes yesterday (you know how seriously I take my Best Art Direction nominees) and I enjoyed it for the most part, though certainly not for the edgy-Dickens art direction nor the Original Score, which was fine or whatever (though, to be honest, paying attention to scores is not one of my critical strong suits). And Ritchie is still very far from an intelligent director; he makes something look interesting once in a while (there's a pretty cool looking scene on a dock with explosions and characters on different planes of action) but he still has absolutely no interest in subtext (the Holmes/Watson relationship here is not a subtext, btw, it's just out there, which is fine). And in a reboot that seems wholly focused on "updating" Sherlock Holmes for a new generation (a fast-paced one that doesn't have attention spans, as we've been told for 2 decades now), they really could barely have found a way to make the denouement any more obvious, clunky, or boring.

Now to Downey's Holmes, which is more obviously human (emotionally) than any Holmes I've seen on the screen. But that's not actually a compliment, just a symptom of the Modern Superhero Cinema, which requires that every Superhero (this is a Superhero movie for sure) be serious and deep (I must thank the screenwriters for sparing us a scene of young Holmes being ignored by his parents or something). It's a tribute to Downey that he is able take this less than interesting rewrite of an iconic character and makes him so goddamn fun (this applies on a smaller scale to Jude Law). Even when the mechanics of the plot, the shallow female characters, and the boring visuals grate, Downey's intelligence and physical skill (he def has some Chaplin in him here, it's not just the hat) keep this movie afloat whenever he's on screen. The Golden Globe nomination for Best Actor in a Comedy was completely on point, it turns out. He's every bit as good here as he was in Iron Man, and probably even more impressive considering the kinda shitty movie he and Law are required to make fun.

YMD's Golden Globes drinking game

This will be added to throughout the broadcast (maybe make that the first rule; drink every time something worthy of a drink happens). Anyways, some basic points that should get you nice and happy. Take a drink anytime:

- Ricky Gervais mentions being drunk (1 drink)
- Anyone else is obviously drunk (3 drinks)
- Anyone brings a drink on stage (1 drink + 1 drink for every drink they take on stage)
- Ricky jokes about how attractive/unattractive he is relative to an actor (1 drink)
- Anyone mentions how handsome George Clooney is (1 drink) (note: if Gervais compares himself to Clooney, you drink for both of these)
- Ricky mentions not being nominated this year (1 drink)
- Anyone mentions the NBC late night situation (1 drink)
- A pair of presenters are both from the same recently/soon to be released show/movie (1 drink)
- The show cuts from a shot of James Cameron to a shot of Kathryn Bigelow, or vice versa (2 drinks)
- The show cuts from a shot of Meryl Streep to a shot of Sandra Bullock, or vice versa (1 drink)
- The camera mistakenly cuts to the wrong person (i.e. Paul Dano instead of Paul Thomas Anderson) (1 drink)
- Anyone mentions Haiti (1 drink)
- As per Mary in the comments, anytime someone thanks God (1 drink)

Please post any other ideas in the comments.

Julia

I cannot recommend Tilda Swinton enough in this. She acts like she's interpreting Gena Rowlands through the lens of Charles Nelson Reilly and I'm only like a quarter joking about CNR. She's so wonderful as a promiscuous, drunk, annoying mess that I had to think for a bit to realize that this is a fairly new type of character for her and not one she's been playing her whole career. It's 2.5 hours of heavily-mannered self-destruction that could scarcely be more interesting even when it's hard to watch.

[end movie talk, begin award talk]

Barring some majorly impressive performances, I can't imagine this not making MY top 5 for the year, but it doesn't seem to be getting a major amount of award buzz. Too small of a film by too small of a director through too small of a studio, I guess? This is major though, I promise (It's on Netflix Instant).

The Maciejs

The awards that happened in my head last night, cuz why the hell not?

Best Picture
- Entre les murs (the Class)
- My Winnipeg
- Rachel Getting Married **winner**
- Synecdoche, NY
- WALL•E

Achievement in Directing
- Jonathan Demme for Rachel Getting Married
- Charlie Kauffman for Synecdoche, NY
- Guy Maddin for My Winnipeg **winner**
- Andrew Stanton for WALL•E
- Gus Van Sant for Milk

Best Actor in a Leading Role
- Robert Downey Jr. for Iron Man
- Colin Farrell for In Bruges
- Sean Penn for Milk
- Mickey Rourke for the Wrestler **winner**
- Michael Shannon for Shotgun Stories

Best Actress in a Leading Role
- Juliette Binoche for Flight of the Red Balloon
- Anne Hathaway for Rachel Getting Married **winner**
- Sally Hawkins for Happy-Go-Lucky
- Melissa Leo for Frozen River
- Michelle Williams for Wendy and Lucy

Best Actor in a Supporting Role
- Robert Downey Jr. for Tropic Thunder
- Bill Irwin for Rachel Getting Married
- Heath Ledger for the Dark Knight **winner**
- Eddie Marsan in Happy-Go-Lucky
- Tom Noonan for Synecdoche, NY

Best Actress in a Supporting Role
- Penelope Cruz for Vicki Cristina Barcelona
- Rosemary DeWitt for Rachel Getting Married **winner**
- Samantha Morton for Synecdoche, NY
- Allison Pill for Milk
- Marisa Tomei for the Wrestler

Achievement in Writing (Adapted Screenplay)
- François Bégaudeau for Entre les murs (the Class) **winner**
- Mark Fergus, Matt Holloway, Art Marcum and Hawk Ostby for Iron Man
- Jonathan Nolan for the Dark Knight
- Jon Raymond and Kelly Reichardt for Wendy and Lucy
- Gus Van Sant for Paranoid Park

Achievement in Writing (Original Screenplay)
- Pete Docter, Jim Reardon and Andrew Stanton for WALL•E
- Charlie Kauffman for Synecdoche, NY **winner**
- Mike Leigh for Happy-Go-Lucky
- Jenny Lumet for Rachel Getting Married
- Martin Mcdonagh for In Bruges


Best Foreign Language Film: Entre les murs (The Class) (France)
Best Documentary Feature: the Order of Myths
Best Song: "O Saya" from Slumdog Millionaire
Best Animated Feature: WALL•E
Best Animated Short: This Way Up
Best Live Action Short: New Boy
Achievement in Art Direction: Speed Racer
Achievement in Costume Design: the Fall
Achievement in Make-Up: Hellboy 2: The Golden Army
Achievement in Visual Effects: the Curious Case of Benjamin Button
Achievement in Cinematography: the Dark Knight
Best Documentary Short, Achievement in Editing, Best Score, Achievement in Sound Editing, Achievement in Sound Mixing: I don't give a shit.

OK, done with 2008 Oscars/year-end movie stuff forever. Can u tell I'm bored?

Oscar Death Race pt. 13 (THE BIG SHABLAMMO)

Well here it is folks, the two final awards on our journey, two that have seemingly been decided for months now. Whatevs. Let's do this all together now.



Best Motion Picture of the Year

- The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
- Frost/Nixon
- Milk
- The Reader
- Slumdog Millionaire

Best Achievement in Directing

- the Curious Case of Benjamin Button - David Fincher
- Frost/Nixon - Ron Howard
- Milk - Gus Van Sant
- the Reader- Stephen Daldry
- Slumdog Millionaire - Danny Boyle

Who Should Win?: Milk is the only one of these films that belongs anywhere near this list. It might not be in my top 5 of the year, but it wouldn't be far outside it. The other ones wouldn't in my top 30. Also, Gus Van Sant directed two movies better than anything these directors did this year. Fucking Ron Howard and Stephen Daldry.

Who Will Win?: Danny Boyle. Slumpoop. Mark it down.

Who Got Snubbed?: Look, people are gonna try to tell you that it was a shit year for movies. It wasn't. It was just a shit year for Oscar nominations. My lovely Rachel Getting Married, the freeform doc magic of My Winnipeg, the crazy ambition of Synecdoche NY, the topical, beautiful WALL-E, Kelly Reichardt's great Wendy and Lucy, the visual splendor of the Fall, I could go on and on and on and on. There are more than 30 movies I saw from last year that I like better than Slumdog. It's been a great year, now let's sit down and enjoy as the wrong things from it get Oscars. xoxo.

Oscar Death Race pt. 12 (SAUSAGEFEST)

Well I'll be fucked if last nite wasn't an epic journey back to the long lost days of college friends and debauchery. Tonight will be a journey into Hollywood boredom, and I can't wait. I made a tapenade. It's called "I Have Soooooo Maaaany Olives". DEATHRACE(JASONSTATHAMSHOULDBENOMINATEDHERE!)GO!



Best Performance by an Actor in a Lead Role

- the Curious Case of Benjamin Button - Brad Pitt
- Frost/Nixon - Frank Langella
- Milk - Sean Penn
- the Visitor - Richard Jenkins
- the Wrestler - Mickey Rourke

Who Should Win?: Langella was fine, but that's it. It's nice to see Richard Jenkins getting some recognition. I don't think he quite deserves the award for this one, but he was good in it, just as he was in Step Brothers and Burn After Reading, and is in pretty much everything he's in. I'm not actually upset about Pitt being here either, though I could maybe think of a few more worthy choices. As much as I didn't like Benjamin Zippers, he definitely did his job in it, and no one else could have appeared by Cate Blanchett's bedside as a young Benji, looking like more or less the perfect man. Now, one can argue that that's just good casting, not good acting, but whatever it is, it gets the job done.

The casting vs. acting thing is also something I've heard a lot of as a reason that Sean Penn's performance is better than Mickey Rourke's, but I don't think I buy it. Penn was great, don't get me wrong, but Rourke should not be punished for working his own demons (as they (who?) say) into Randy the Ram Robinson, he should be praised. No one else could've played the Ram, but that's as much a testament to the awesomeness of Rourke's performance as it is a reflection of his life. Plus I really wanna see how this will be adapted for the Oscars.

Who Will Win?: Maybe the force of the fans of Sean Penn will be too much, but fuck it, Mickey Rourke ftw. The story is just too damn good, and Oscar loves a good story, right? I mean wot else that isn't boring could possibly happen during these awards? Again, if you didn't click on this link a paragraph ago, run don't walk.

Who Got Snubbed: To start, I would rather see both of the fellas from In Bruges there than Pitt or Langella. Martin McDonagh's screenplay was sharp and hilarious, but it takes a certain amount of talent to deliver those lines and not sound stupid. Not a very strong year for lead actor performances I guess, though I haven't seen Hunger or Che. One day Jason Statham will be nominated in this category and I will die a happy man.

Almost dunn. I'll do best Director and Best Pic right before showtime, when I get to Matty's house. Holler.

Oscar Death Race pt. 11 (GIRLSGIRLSGIRLS)

All the single ladies! (All the single ladies!) All the single ladies! (All the single ladies!) Now put your hands up!



Best Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role

- Changeling - Angelina Jolie
- Doubt - Meryl Streep
- Frozen River - Melissa Leo
- Rachel Getting Married - Anne Hathaway
- The Reader - Kate Winslet

Who Should Win?: Jolie was okay. Winslet was okay, I guess, in one of the worst movies I've ever seen. Streep was fun, especially cuz she seems to be playing the stupid screenplay for laughs a lot more than the rest of the cast or, indeed, the director. Her last scene is awful though. Melissa Leo is really good in Frozen River, but if you've been paying attention to these last few posts, you know I'm going with Anne Hathaway, whose performance in Rachel Getting Married I can't praise enough. She makes you really, really care about this annoying, selfish character, doesn't go for cheap tears nearly as much as you might expect her too, and has really great chemistry with the rest of the cast. I'm pretty sure she's not gonna win this, but if she did, it would make me happier than any other award that's still possible for Sunday.

Who Will Win?: Betting against Meryl Streep is always a shaky proposition, but this really seems like Winslet's year. So Kate Winslet, a usually awesome actress, will get the Oscar for maybe the worst performance (in definitely the worst movie) of her career. That's just how the Oscars go.

Who Got Snubbed?: First of all, I gotta rep for Michelle Williams, who, if Wendy and Lucy was a bigger deal, would totally be getting the Pretty Young Actress With No Makeup Oscar Nomination. She's really great in that movie, though. And then there's Sally Hawkins, who has probably won more Oscar precursors without getting a nomination than anyone ever, which is a goddamn crime. Her character in Happy-Go-Lucky is a very interesting one, but one with a lesser actress could've been too annoying and too one-dimensional. Instead, Poppy is one of the most interesting characters of the year. Once again, academy, you suck.

Oscar Death Race pt. 10 (WHAT'S A HAND-DRAWN?)

Aaight, only a few more chances to watch this sweet graphic. I didn't know whether I was gonna be able to see all of these movies in time, but luckily Panda came in on Netflix this morning and I was able to purchase Bolt from one of the trusty bootleg ladies at my laundromat. So here we go, OSCARDEATHCAR(TOON)RACEGREENFLAG!



Best Animated Feature Film

- Bolt - dir. Chris Williams; Byron Howard
- Kung Fu Panda - dir. John Stevenson; Mark Osborne
- WALL·E - dir. Andrew Stanton

Who Should Win?: I mean, WALL·E should won, hands down. It's one of the best movies of the year animated or not, and I think, though it doesn't reach the epic heights of its first fifteen minutes for the rest of the film, it's still better than all the Best Picture nominees (with Milk the only one that's even close). But let me say that the other two movies in this category were both very well animated, well plotted, well voice-acted, and all-around fun films. KFP is a really funny movie, and a lot of that is down to the little details in the animation and movements of the various characters. Bolt is too, and has it's more or less by the numbers plotting after the initial premise, it is executed almost perfectly. Also, many many points for casting Miley Cyrus as a young actress in a movie about a dog who because of his handlers is unaware of the barrier between the character he plays on TV and himself in real life. Seriously, genius.

Who Will Win?: WALL·E. I know it lost the Annies, god knows why, but it'll win here like it has to and should.

Who Got Snubbed?: Waltz With Bashir is the only other animated movie I remember seeing in 2008, and it was great, but it is at least getting lurve in the Foreign section so I'm not too upset.

Actors, Actresses, Directors, and Pictures to come. Holler holler holler.

Oscar Death Race pt. 9 (SUPPORT HOS)

Since we (read: Matt) are gon be pretty busy this weekend (well, I guess I'll be pretty busy getting drnk amirite?), we decided to get these supporting categories out of the way right quick via iChat. Here are the juicy results. OSCARDEATHTENNISMATCHGO!



Best Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role

- The Curious Case of Benjamin Button - Taraji P. Henson
- Doubt - Amy Adams
- Doubt - Viola Davis
- Vicky Cristina Barcelona - Penélope Cruz
- The Wrestler - Marisa Tomei

RachelGettingMaciejd: Okay, so we have 4 pretty good performances here, by my count (sorry Taraji), even though only one of them was in a good movie. Who do you think should get the little bald man?
ihavesoooomanymatts: Ew, don't be sorry. I'm going to have to vote my heart on this one, and I'm using boobs to make my decision. Sorry Penelope, Marisa one upped you.
RachelGettingMaciejd: Yeah, tho Penelope was pretty good in that movie you might actually enjoy cuz you liked Match Point (ARGH!) and this was not as bad as that. Also, I confess that I missed a little of what Penelope was saying cuz my bootleg didn't have the subtitles, but I swear, she was gr8. Not as great as Marisa though, so boobs it is.
ihavesoooomanymatts: OK that's settled. Now I think it's a pretty tough call for who will win, I mean really it's anybody's HAHAHA JKLOL, Penelope Cruz, right? I know the Academy likes to mix things up and surprise everybody at least once, but I don't think it's going to be here. Adams and Davis cancel each other out (plus Doubt blows), I haven't spoken to a single human being that didn't hate Henson's character, and The Wrestler is winning Best Actor, and I think stopping there.
RachelGettingMaciejd: I guess if yr so confident then Cruz will have to be YMD's official pick (LOLZ), but despite the vote splitting, I'd think Davis might have a shot here. She does kinda upstage Streep in that one park scene and there's been buzzzz, wotever that is. Let's get on to the snubbery. Wotcha got? (I'll just start typing up my Synecdoche/Rachel steez)
ihavesoooomanymatts: That was some pretty Oscar worthy snot-drippage in that park scene. Ummm, I'm not sure I have any subs in this category. I would like to have seen Beyonce nominated for Cadillac Records, but I didn't see it, I just like Beyonce. Aren't there like 24 actresses in fancy indie darling movies you're about to talk about? I'll let you take this one.
RachelGettingMaciejd: Rosemary Dewitt, who plays the title character in Rachel Getting Married, should have this sown up. fuck the bullshit. Her and Hathaway have more chemistry than Marie Curie and shit, and she does the range of emotions required of her character to a t. Samantha Morton (not to be confused with Samantha Mathis, who it turned out wasn't in this movie) is the best of the Supporting Actresses in Synecdoche, NY. She plays through her house burning down for no reason wonderfully. And Allison Pill in Milk should reeeeealy be in more things (though she was great as a cripple on Criminal Intent as well).
ihavesoooomanymatts: She had great hair in that movie.

Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role

- The Dark Knight - Heath Ledger
- Doubt - Philip Seymour Hoffman
- Milk - Josh Brolin
- Revolutionary Road - Michael Shannon
- Tropic Thunder - Robert Downey Jr.

ihavesoooomanymatts:Onto Supporting Actor which is bound to be far and away the single closet race in Oscar history! We've got a homophobe, a dude in blackface, a pedophile, a lunatic, and some dead guy who I've never heard of before. Who YOU gon give it to Maciej?
RachelGettingMaciejd: This category is actually pretty sweet, huh? Besides PSH in that movie the title of which I can't remember despite its final line. I'm so fucking happy that Downey is nominated for Tropic Thunder, Brolin was good, and I guess we can forgive Shannon forBug now, maybe? (PS see Shotgun Stories folks). Okay, Heath Ledger should and undoubtedly will win this. Who is rightfully pissed that they're not here and PSH is?
ihavesoooomanymatts: Brendan Gleeson for In Bruges, JimMyron Ross for Ballast (WILL NO ONE SEE THIS MOVIE?!), Brad Pitt for Burn After Reading, Jimmy Franco for Milk (or even Pineapple Express if we're going to comedy route) and I'm told Bill Irwin for Rachel's Never Winning Anything.
RachelGettingMaciejd: Listen, it's not like you had the foresight to see Ballast in theaters, dammit. I'll see it when it's on the Netflix. Anyways, yes, Bill Irwin, he's the best. Holds the movie together like glue. And he's a well known clown in real life. Not like Chet from the Real World clown, like person who professionally clowns. Also, Eddie Marsan is wonderfully enraged in Happy-Go-Lucky. And yeah, word to Brad Pitt. I'm starting to like that movie the more I think about it.
RachelGettingMaciejd: See if you can guess who I think should win for Best Actress.

Oscar Death Race pt. 7 (THE WRITTEN WORD UP!)

Here it is. Finally. A category I'm actually excited about because I'm 100% sure that someone I like is going to win it. How do I know? Because I like all of these films and think their screenplays are super. Even the fact that my favorite movie of the year didn't get nominated here, in a category I was pretty sure it would get, can't really bring me down. Especially in comparison to the turgid Best Adapted Screenplay category (which Matty will have for you shortly, I think), this is just a ray of sunshine in an otherwise shit (or cloud, but hey, I do love mixing metaphors) filled year of nominations. GREEN FLAG GO!



Best Original Screenplay

- Frozen River - Courtney Hunt
- Happy-Go-Lucky - Mike Leigh
- In Bruges - Martin McDonagh
- Milk - Dustin Lance Black
- WALL·E - Andrew Stanton (screenplay/story); Jim Reardon (screenplay); Pete Docter (story)

Who Should Win?: This is a tough one. Frozen River is prolly my lest favorite of these, and even that's really good. WALL·E is just an amazing story (not forgetting here that a script is more than dialogue, folk), and really well written. Milk's screenplay does a great job avoiding biopic-by-numbers and making what could be an overly didactic, cliched Oscar-bait story into something with real emotional resonance, even past the immediate 2008 social context. In Bruges, which I would've totally missed had so many of my good friends not convinced me to see it, is absolutely hilarious and makes what I expected to be stock "gangsters with a conscience" characters incredibly multi-dimensional. And then there's poor Happy-Go-Lucky, robbed of a Best Actress nominations, which truly deserves something. As phenomenal as Sally Hawkins' acting in this movie is, Mike Leigh invents for her a truly bizarre, off-putting, and still quite fleshed out character, and one surrounded by a world of oddly believable yet still memorable characters and events. So, with all due respect to all these screenwriters, I'm giving it to Mike Leigh for Happy-Go-Lucky.

Who Will Win?: As much as I would love to see Mike Leigh get his first Oscar or Martin McDonagh his second, I really doubt either of those things will happen. The WALL·E folks have a slightly higher chance, I think, but still, it's Animated. So Dustin Lance Black, step up and get your prize. You're in the only one of these movies nominated for Best Picture, and while you wouldn't be my number one choice for this award, you'll prolly deserve your statue as much as anyone that wins all night. Keep doing a good job on Big Love too.

Who Got Snubbed?: Again, I'm really happy about these nominations, but that won't stop me from highlighting a few other screenwriting successes this year. Again, I loved loved loved loved loved loved Rachel Getting Married more or less as much as any movie in the last few years, and i don't care how much of it was improvised, a movie this good doesn't get made without Jenny Lumet's killer screenplay. Then there's Charlie Kaufman, who the Academy loves to nominate. I guess Synecdoche, NY was too dense and messy for lotsa folks, and that's fine, to each his own. But I found it immensely moving and immensely fun, the kind of movie you can get completely lost in and enjoy it all the more for the confusion, and I wish it hadn't been completely ignored by the Academy. But then encouraging ambition isn't exactly the Academy's strong suit this year, is it?

Oscar Death Race pt. 6 (LOUD NOISES and MELODEEZ NUTS)

I'm just gonna do all deez aural ones right now. Really, you might as well not read past Best Song. God knows I'll barely be writing.

Best Song has been cut down to three songs this year, much to the chagrin of some folks. To make things even more irrelevant, the songs will be cut down to a little over a minute each for a medley. Peter Gabriel is thus refusing to perform, and M.I.A. just had a baby so she might not be there either. Good times. Anyways, OSCARDEATHRACEON!




Best Achievement in Music Written for Motion Pictures, Original Song

- "O Saya" from Slumdog Millionaire - A.R. Rahman; Maya Arulpragasam
- "Jai Ho" from Slumdog Millionaire - A.R. Rahman (music); Sampooran Singh Gulzar (lyrics)
- "Down to Earth" from WALL·E - Peter Gabriel (music/lyrics); Thomas Newman (music)

Who should win?: "O Saya", no contest. I know we all love WALL·E a lot better than Slumdog Thrillionaire, but even if you take Maya out of the equation, "O Saya"'s awesome drums are easily the best thing about this category. Petey Gabriel's song is kind of animation theme song by numbers, and prefer "Jai Ho" to it too, but really, "O Saya" is gr8. Maya's rap on it is pretty typical of her, and it makes sense for her to be here, yeah? Where Slumdog succeeds it succeeds on the same levels as M.I.A., bright colors, quick cuts, multi-culturalism. However, where M.I.A. interacts with this the politics and consequences of this multi-culturalism, even if only at a superficial level, Slumdog stays completely away from them until the credits, and prefers old-fashioned melodrama to interrupt its brightly colored tornado of inner city life and game shows. "O Saya" definitely reminds me of the parts of Slumdog I enjoyed. (Sorry but I'm too uninvolved in this category to revise that and make it make sense).

Who will win?: On one hand Slumdog looks to roll through these Oscars and I hesitate to pick against it anywhere, but even with the Academy down to vote for it in any way possible, I still think that in a vote-splitting situation the classic Oscar-style "Down to Earth" takes it.

Who got snubbed?: Springsteen-gate is kind of odd, I think. Like, I think "the Wrestler" is a good movie song from a really good movie, but since when does anyone care so much about this stupid Oscar category? Whatever tho. I perused some of the other eligible selections, and while Matty McD faves Miley Cyrus, Jenny Lewis (both for Bolt), Regina Spektor (Narnia), and Beyonce(Cadillac Records) had eligible songs, here's a few other gems I found.

Danny Elfman, nominated this year for Milk's score, apparently did the theme song from Wanted, and it kind of kicks ass. Clint Eastwood's theme song for Gran Torino would possibly get us Clint growling on stage, so this is obviously a crime. Finally, Robin Hitchkock's "Up To Our Nex" makes it, if only as a prelude to all the righteous bitching I'm going to be doing in the next few days about Rachel Getting Married not getting enough love.

Best Achievement in Music Written for Motion Pictures, Original Score

- The Curious Case of Benjamin Button - Alexandre Desplat
- Defiance - James Newton Howard
- Milk - Danny Elfman
- Slumdog Millionaire - A.R. Rahman
- WALL·E - Thomas Newman

Who should win?: Lemme be honest with you. Maybe I have a blind (aural) spot this year, but I don't remember a goddamn thing about any of these scores except for Mumbai Poop Party. And it was pretty dope. I'm sure WALL·E's was great too, cuz the first bit of that movie was dialogue-free and perfect, so I imagine the music had something to do with that. I don't care, to be honest.
Who will win?: Who Wants to be an Oscarionnaire?.
Who got snubbed?: Waltz With Bashir I really liked musically, but a lot of that was its use of non-diagetic music that wasn't original score or song, which really isn't covered in either of these categories but whatever. I no cares.

Best Achievement in Sound Editing

- The Dark Knight - Richard King (I)
- Iron Man - Frank E. Eulner; Christopher Boyes
- Slumdog Millionaire - Tom Sayers; Glenn Freemantle
- WALL·E - Ben Burtt; Matthew Wood (I)
- Wanted - Wylie Stateman

Who Should Win?: Now, as I understand it, Sound Editing is what happens until the moment that all the individual sounds are recorded and processed, and sound mixing is what comes afterward. That might be wrong, and I still might have no clue who should win this, whatever the fuck, man, let's live. Give it to Iron Man. It was loud.

Who Will Win?: I know, I know, picking against Poopdog Indionaire, but this one goes to loud action movies with metal smashing against metal. Fucking Pearl Harbor won in this category. So I'm picking the Dark Knight, a) because it's loud as shit, and b) because it's a big movie that many folks feel should be up for more stuff and could easily reward in this category.

Best Achievement in Sound Mixing

- The Curious Case of Benjamin Button - David Parker; Michael Semanick; Ren Klyce; Mark Weingarten
- The Dark Knight - Lora Hirschberg; Gary Rizzo; Ed Novick
- Slumdog Millionaire - Ian Tapp; Richard Pryke; Resul Pookutty
- WALL·E - Tom Myers; Michael Semanick; Ben Burtt
- Wanted - Chris Jenkins; Frank A. Montaño; Petr Forejt

Who Should Win?: Yah, I dunno.

Who Will Win?: All the stuff I said about Sound Editing almost applies here, but they've thrown in some musicals (Chicago, Ray, Dreamgirls), in the past few years, and while City of Rama isn't quite a musical, there's enough of a combo of music and LOUD NOISES that I'll hedge my bets and go for the favorite. The Three Slumketeers ftw.

More categories we actually care about in the coming days.

Oscar Death Race pt. 4 (Making actors look pretty)

Today, two categories that, as usual, include a mix of the Big Oscar Movies and ones not nominated for anything. Clothes and make-up, let's go!



Best Achievement in Costume Design

- Australia - Catherine Martin
- The Curious Case of Benjamin Button - Jacqueline West
- The Duchess - Michael O'Connor
- Milk - Danny Glicker
- Revolutionary Road - Albert Wolsky

Who should win?: I haven't seen Australia or the Duchess, but from the trailers and stills I've seen, they are both very well dressed films. Some of Keira Knightley's dresses are damn spectacular as they were in last year's sadly only 1/3 good Atonement. Milk is notable for the fact that 70s movies don't normally get nominated for this thing, and it's nice to see that barrier broken. Benny Button, despite not being in my estimation a very good film overall is a gorgeous looking one, and that extends very much to the costuming. Rev Road I don't much care about in this category. I'd be fine with anything but that one winning, really, but I think Benny Butts gets my pick out of these; a movie that should be awarded for how it looks and nothing else.

Who will win?: Despite the fact that Australia's Catherine Martin and Rev Road's Albert Wolsky are the most decorated ones here and the fact that, well, they would give the gays the Costume Award, this one is between the Duchess and Benjamin Button. The former is pure, well done Best Costume bait, as the last two winners (Elizabeth the sequel and Marie Antoinette) have also featured wealthy, pre-1800 women. The latter features the costumes of the better part of a century, and I think its ambition in that might put it over the top despite it's lack of individual showy pieces. While in the last three years this award has gone to films that haven't been nominated for much else (the two mentioned above and Memoirs of a Geisha), in the rest of the decade it hasn't, so I don't think there's much to that as a trend. It'll be really close, but I'm giving this to the Curious Case of Benjamin Button.

Who Got Snubbed?: The Fall, The Fall, The Fall. Nothing subtle about the costumes in this one, but man are they gorgeous, imaginative, and central to the film. I'll also rep for Speed Racer's garish neon reimagining of cartoon outfits. Coincidentally, the two came out on the same day in May.

Achievement in Makeup

- The Curious Case of Benjamin Button - Greg Cannom
- The Dark Knight, The - John Caglione Jr.; Conor O'Sullivan
- Hellboy II: The Golden Army - Mike Elizalde; Thomas Floutz

Who Should Win?: The fact that a movie such as Hellboy is even nominated here makes me so happy that of course I'm going to pick it. Some of the creatures in here are awesome. Dark Knight of course gets mad points for the Joker's make up, which helps St. Ledger deliver that great performance. Benji I'm not sure about, as I really liked the CGI but thought some of the make-up, especially Daisy as an old lady, was kinda eh. At least the Reader didn't get nominated here.

Who Will Win?: Some folks thought Benji might have trouble in this category because of the amount of CGI used, but I think they like it enough to nominate it, they'll like it enough to pick it ahead of Batman and Hellboy. Benji Button to take it.

Who Got Snubbed?: Tropic Thunder for Bobby Downey Jr's face, hair, and eyes. Synecdoche, NY for, among other things, its old person makeup, which is considerably better than that of Benji Button and Winslet Holocaust.

Oscar Death Race pt. 3 (Foreigners and Docs)

So I haven't seen most of these movies. So what. We're rollin rollin rollin.



Best Documentary Feature

- The Betrayal - Nerakhoon - dir. Ellen Kuras; Thavisouk Phrasavath
- Encounters at the End of the World - dir. Werner Herzog
- The Garden - dir. Scott Hamilton Kennedy
- Man on Wire - dir. James Marsh
- Trouble the Water - dir. Tia Lessin; Carl Deal

Who should/will win?: I've only been lucky enough to enjoy two of these, neither of which is Trouble the Water a movie that I could see taking this based purely on subject matter, though it's been getting pretty great reviews as well. Betrayal and The Garden I don't expect will mount much of an effort here, and neither will Werner Herzog's Antarctica exploration Encounters at the End of the World, which was fun in parts and pretty hilariously narrated, but didn't really pull me in all the way. So that leaves us with Trouble the Water and Man on Wire, which has been winning enough awards for me to pick it here. It doesn't hurt that it's about the World Trade Center (though not explicitly about 9/11) and that it's pretty great. I've seen it twice now, and it manages to inspire a sense of awe as well as any other movie this year.

What got snubbed?: My favorite doc of 08 was Margaret Brown's the Order of Myths, about Mardi Gras in Mobile, Alabama, the oldest Mardi Gras celebration in the country. It's the best and most incisive thing I've seen about race in a while. It's available for instant viewing on Netflix so get to your Instant Queue/Roku immediately.

Best Documentary, Short Subject

- The Conscience of Nhem En - dir. Steven Okazaki
- The Final Inch - dir. Irene Taylor Brodsky
- Smile Pinki - dir. Megan Mylan
- The Witness from the Balcony of Room 306 - dir. Adam Pertofsky

Yeah, I got nothin'. Matty's seen the Final Inch. He says "It was about Polio". I'm picking The Conscience of Nhem En, which is about the Khmer Rouge. Why not?

Best Foreign Language Film

- The Baader Meinhof Komplex (Germany) - dir. Uli Edel
- Entre les murs (the Class) (France) - dir. Laurent Cantet
- Okuribito (Departures) (Japan) - dir. Yojiro Takita
- Revanche (Austria) - dir. Götz Spielmann
- Vals Im Bashir (Waltz With Bashir) (Israel) - dir. Ari Folman

The process behind this category is terrible, as countries around the world are forced to choose one film to submit the competition. So while the IndieWire poll's top 2 (Flight of the Red Balloon and A Christmas Tale) would prolly get nominated in an open field, they're shucked here in favor of the Class, which I saw today at Angelika and was pretty impressed with.

It's a movie about a teacher that doesn't suck! This in itself is quite an achievement. And though it does resort to kind of having a bit of plot for about 20 minutes towards the end, it's a fairly realist, matter-of-fact account life at a Paris school. The lead part is actually played by François Bégaudeau, who wrote the screenplay based on his semi-autobiographical book. This is the kind of conceit that I eat up with a large spoon (ideally out of a bread bowl of some sort). The kids are played by non-actors too. It's all very complex and good about language and education and failure and I love it so.

Waltz With Bashir is also quite fun and has a shot here, but I think the Palme d'or winner is gon bring it back to France. The Class it is.

BEST EDITING

The category of Film Editing is oft overlooked by Oscar watchers. While it's true, the names aren't recognizable, and who cares what they're wearing, the editing of a feature film truly determines its watchability. Take last year's winner, for example, The Bourne Ultimatum. Its fast cut, multi-directional action sequences were edited perfectly so that they matched the tone and pace of the rest of the movie. Without that style of editing, it would have been a different film entirely (although Damon would have totally still killed a dude with a book, which still would have been sweet). The fun thing about this award at the Oscars is that the favorite film doesn't have to take it all. Yes, sometimes the winner of this category coincides with the Best Picture winner (usually terrible winners such as Crash, The English Patient, Forrest Gump) but often the film that wins this category isn't even nominated for bigger prizes (The Matrix, Star Wars, Who Framed Roger Rabbit?). Let's take a look at this years incredibly disappointing nominees in the worst year for film in the history of celluloid:

The Curious Case of Benjamin Button - Kirk Baxter & Angus Wall
HAHA, wait no. You're not serious right? I can think of more than forty minutes off the top of my head that could have been edited out. Like all that old timey lightning shit. And the parts in New Orleans. Angus Wall is David Fincher's go to editor, so I'm surprised Wall isn't close enough with the director to have said "Hey David, this movie is a steaming pile of shit, hows about I cut some of it out for you?" And beyond the fact that I hate it, its odds of winning this category are slim, the backlash is strong for this "movie."

The Dark Knight - Lee Smith
This dude is Christopher Nolan's editor and Jane Campion's sound designer, so I'd be down for a win for this one. Plus, the Academy often recognizes achievements by action movies in this category, and this was the mother of all critically acclaimed action movies. I don't think this will pull it off in the end, but it could. It'll be close.

Frost/Nixon - Daniel P Hill & Mike Hill
I don't know how hard it is to edit a film to look like a documentary about a documentary, but they, uh, sure did it. So....good? No? Yeah whatever, no chance.

Milk - Elliot Graham & Gus Van Sant
Yes please. The editing here made the audience feel the movie was set in a certain place at a certain time without resorting to idiot time period referencing tactics (a la Forrest Button), and its tense pacing helped set the tone for the film. Winner. But probably not.

Slumdog Millionaire - Chris Dickens
I still haven't seen this. Get off my back. Maybe if you people didn't talk about how fucking awesome and inspiring this movie was all the goddamn time I'd be interested in seeing it.

Oh but yea, that'll win. F'sure.

Oscar nom nom nom nom nom

So, the proprietors of this here blog are somewhat obsessed with the annual Hollywood masturbation-fest that is the Academy Awards, so much so that my unemployed ass woke at 8 to watch the nominations on E! Obvi Slumdog Millionaire is gon win Best Picture, but hey, let's see who gets to compete for other shit.

8:27A - Holy shit, there's a show about six year old beauty pageant moms. This is scary.
8:29 - I mean, the moms aren't six years old. You know wot I mean. It's fucking early.
8:31 - FUCK IT'S BEN LYONS. Why the fuck did I wake up for Ben Lyons? Kill me. I am now cheering for the opposite of everything he says to happen.
8:35 - Word to the director of this program for switching cameras so as to confuse Ben Lyons, who apparently instantly forgot what actress he was watching in Changeling.
8:40 - Well this is all going rather quickly. Holy shit, best actress in a leading role is a giant mess. Kate Winslet for the Reader(!) and not Rev Road, and no Sally Hawkins, suck my dick Academy!
8:42 - Stephen Daldry and no Chris Nolan or Clint Eastwood the Reader is picking up noms despite terribly mixed reviews.
8:43 - Bolt instead of Waltz with Bashir for Animated, though Bashir gets the Foreign nom.
8:45 - The Academy totally didn't see the Kate Winslet episode of Extras.

God dammit, I dunno, maybe I'll like it, but I really didn't want to see the Reader, and now it looks like I'm going to have to. Benjamin Button, which of course is Ben Lyons' favorite movie of the year, the shit, got its 13 nominees, and if it wins for Eric Roth's terrible, terrible screenplay, I'm going to stab myself with a rusty knife. No Jenny Lumet for Best Original Screenplay makes me super sad, though I actually really like all the other nominees in that category (besides Frozer River, which I haven't seen but comes out DVD in a few weeks). We will have a comprehensive Oscar preview in the weeks before the show. Sorry, Dark Night fans. Go Milk.