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Jared and I took in the slate of Animated Short nominees each of the past two years. The 2007 nominees literally put me to sleep but in 2006 it was a pleasure taking in preparations of a singing bird before the big show (”Maestro”), that Ice Age squirrel’s attempt to protest his food (”No Time For Nuts”), and Disney’s wonderful and devastating watercolor take on Hans Christian Anderson’s “The Matchstick Girl.” The winner (and my favorite), however, was a Danish/Canadian entry called “The Danish Poet” with a distinct animation style and a wry look at love and fate.
Youtube is starting a program to feature short films called The Screening Room and “The Danish Poet” was one of its first selections. I highly recommend it. It’s embedded below or click through it to get to a high definition version.
It’s been over a week since the Oscar ceremony and I guess the eerie silence around these parts is an indication that all of us were a bit Oscared out, what with all the movie watching, review writing, predicting, and live blogging. So now that everyone and their mom has chimed in with their thoughts on the telecast, why not us?
I enjoyed it. I know it was the lowest rated Oscars in modern history, but it was fairly entertaining with a great host and good winners. Jon Stewart delivered a funny monologue and did a great job emceeing. He got poor reviews two years ago in what I thought was a fine performance but the reviews seem to be pretty universally positive this time around. He also gets a huge pat on the back for bringing Marketa Irglova back out to give her speech. The tribute to binoculars and periscopes was inspired.
The rest of the montages were pretty weak. On the one hand, we avoided some of the lame montages of recent years (writers on film! all the foreign films to have ever won the Oscar!), but on the other we didn’t get any good ones. These were clearly made in case the strike didn’t end in time and the Academy couldn’t get old movie clips for free, so naturally they used the footage they already owned. Kind of a yawn and self-congratulating. The Oscars presents… another montage about the Oscars!
But let’s talk about the winners. I’m very happy with how it all went down. In the series of articles we posted proclaiming our preferences, my favorite won all but one of the categories (and the one standout, Javier Bardem, is completely deserving anyway). I was happy to see Julie Christie lose and was pleased for the praise lavished on No Country for Old Men. If only their pseudonym Roderick Jaynes had won for Best Editing then the Coens would’ve picked up four Oscars. Tilda Swinton’s win was a very pleasant surprise because you had to think that Cate Blanchett, Ruby Dee, and Amy Ryan all had legs up on her.
Actually, my favorites won much more often than my predictions. And on that note, congratulations to Adam who walked away with the Oscar pool victory. Getting 16 of 24 in this year is a very nice score.
I wouldn’t say there were many upsets, save maybe for Swinton and Marion Cotillard. While the categories were often hard to pick, one of the front-runners generally won. I was a bit surprised to see The Bourne Ultimatum sweep the sound categories and editing. I guess I don’t know much about sound but it seems to me so much of No Country for Old Men was told through sound, while Bourne was more just loud and the editing was merely a case of quantity. The quick cuts sort of made me nauseous. The Transformers shut out was also somewhat surprising. It was a fairly good action flick and it looked really great. And with his loss, Transformers sound mixer Kevin O’Connell lost the Oscar for the 20th time without a win.
No weird shadow performance art this year, which was nice, but some of the song performances sort of fell flat. “Falling Slowly” sounded great, of course, and “Raise It Up” from August Rush came out well, but I don’t think any of Enchanted’s songs translated well to the Oscar stage. “That’s How You Know,” a big, rousing number in the film fell flat on stage. How neat would it have been to see Eddie Vedder or Dewey Cox up there instead?
And so another Oscar season is behind us. I thought it was a terrific year for film with a lot of very deserving nominees. I saw a lot of films for this project and only disliked a surprising few. So here’s to killing our braincells with sports comedies and superhero movies until this fall, when we’ll be back on the lookout for quirky comedies, lush period pieces, and bleak stories about the dark side of humanity full of moral ambiguity.
The Grouches have plowed their way through all of the films nominated for the big eight awards. Now we make the case for which film or performance we WANT to win. Doesn’t mean we think it will win or even have a shot at winning. But if we had a vote on the nominees, here’s who we would pick, and why:
BEST PICTURE NOMINEES: Atonement, Juno, Michael Clayton, No Country for Old Men, There Will Be Blood
Why are all these posts concentrating on little categories like “Best Actor” and “Best Director” when what we all really care about is Art Direction and Costumes? In the course of seeing all of the films nominated for the big eight I ended up seeing most of the films nominated for all those other categories they hand out awards to in the middle 2 hours of the Oscar telecast. Since you obviously care about my make-up preferences, please, read on!
Best Song
“Falling Slowly” Once, “Raise it Up” August Rush, “Happy Working Song” Enchanted, “So Close” Enchanted, “That’s How You Know” Enchanted
For some reason I feel like I already covered this category. But since the Academy stupidly ignored my recommendations, let’s take a look at these inferior choices.
The clear winner for me is “Falling Slowly.” It’s the central song in the wonderful musical Once that embodies the heartbreak and loneliness of the main characters. “Raise it Up” is actually fairly offbeat and I imagine it works well in the film, schmaltzy as it surely is. Nothing against Enchated, but if one of its triumvirate wins it better be “That’s How You Know,” a clever take on the Disney fairy tale tune set in modern times. “Happy Working Song” is a cute but uninspiring ditty while “So Close” is a toothless and unmemorable love song.
Snubs: See my breakdown of the eligible songs to find about a dozen songs I liked better than all the non-Once songs. Read the rest of this entry »
The Grouches have plowed their way through all of the films nominated for the big eight awards. Now we make the case for which film or performance we WANT to win. Doesn’t mean we think it will win or even have a shot at winning. But if we had a vote on the nominees, here’s who we would pick, and why:
BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR NOMINEES: Casey Affleck (The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford), Javier Bardem (No Country for Old Men), Philip Seymour Hoffman (Charlie Wilson’s War), Hal Holbrook (Into the Wild), Tom Wilkinson (Michael Clayton)
The Grouches have plowed their way through all of the films nominated for the big eight awards. Now we make the case for which film or performance we WANT to win. Doesn’t mean we think it will win or even have a shot at winning. But if we had a vote on the nominees, here’s who we would pick, and why:
BEST DIRECTOR NOMINEES: Paul Thomas Anderson (There Will Be Blood), Joel and Ethan Coen (No Country for Old Men), Tony Gilroy (Michael Clayton), Jason Reitman, (Juno), Julian Schnabel (The Diving Bell and the Butterfly)
The Grouches have plowed their way through all of the films nominated for the big eight awards. Now we make the case for which film or performance we WANT to win. Doesn’t mean we think it will win or even have a shot at winning. But if we had a vote on the nominees, here’s who we would pick, and why:
BEST ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY NOMINEES: Away from Her, Atonement, The Diving Bell and The Butterfly, No Country For Old Men, There Will Be Blood
The Grouches have plowed their way through all of the films nominated for the big eight awards. Now we make the case for which film or performance we WANT to win. Doesn’t mean we think it will win or even have a shot at winning. But if we had a vote on the nominees, here’s who we would pick, and why:
BEST ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY NOMINEES: Juno, Lars and the Real Girl, Michael Clayton, Ratatouille, The Savages
The Grouches have plowed their way through all of the films nominated for the big eight awards. Now we make the case for which film or performance we WANT to win. Doesn’t mean we think it will win or even have a shot at winning. But if we had a vote on the nominees, here’s who we would pick, and why:
BEST ACTOR NOMINEES: George Clooney (Michael Clayton), Daniel Day-Lewis (There Will Be Blood), Johnny Depp (Sweeney Todd), Viggo Mortensen (Eastern Promises), Tommy Lee Jones (In The Valley Of Elah)
Read the rest of this entry »
The Grouches have plowed their way through all of the films nominated for the big eight awards. Now we make the case for which film or performance we WANT to win. Doesn’t mean we think it will win or even have a shot at winning. But if we had a vote on the nominees, here’s who we would pick, and why:
BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS NOMINEES: Cate Blanchett (I’m Not There), Ruby Dee (American Gangster), Saorise Ronan (Atonement), Amy Ryan (Gone Baby Gone), Tilda Swinton (Michael Clayton)
The Grouches have plowed their way through all of the films nominated for the big eight awards. Now we make the case for which film or performance we WANT to win. Doesn’t mean we think it will win or even have a shot at winning. But if we had a vote on the nominees, here’s who we would pick, and why:
BEST ACTRESS NOMINEES: Cate Blanchett (Elizabeth: The Golden Age), Julie Christie (Away from Her), Marion Cotillard (La Vie En Rose), Laura Linney (The Savages), Ellen Page (Juno)
Jared, I’ll take your two-day delay and raise it by a day-and-a-half. So there. And John? I know I only have myself to blame, dammit, but I started writing this before you posted yours and now you stole most of my thoughts.
- Eddie Vedder’s non-nomination was clearly the biggest head-scratcher for me. If the Academy is going to withhold an Oscar eligibility for Best Score because it’s based mostly on songs, then at least nominate his damn song. I thought it was a shoo-in for the Oscar beforehand, and now it’s not even nominated?
- Along the same lines, I’m the only one to date who even saw Enchanted. “That’s How You Know” is your typical cheery Disney melody, and it deserves a nomination mostly because the song and dance number through Central Park is the sole highlight of the otherwise uninteresting movie.
- My biggest disappointment had to be the exclusion of Angelina Jolie from A Mighty Heart. As I wrote in my post, Jolie’s performance was nothing short of brilliant. I was looking forward to having the Page/Jolie debate with Jared and (in all likelihood Adam), but now I’m resigned to take my second choice. And is there an over/under on years before Cate Blanchett plays Queen Victoria? What about Catherine the Great? or Maria Theresa? I’d be convinced that Oscar voters don’t actually go to the movies if it weren’t for…
- Laura Linney. Yay. I know Gavin disagrees with the crew here (pipe up, dude), but her acting was superb throughout. She made a role that could have been overacted look easy.
- Original Score. This is my favorite category. And I agree with John on the technicality with the There Will be Blood score. It is awe-inspiring and matches the movie perfectly. In the future, in a music/video culture where mashups are becoming increasingly common, perhaps there will be changes in the award process. But Greenwood’s work wasn’t fully original, so the ruling makes sense.
- On that note…the actual nominees will bear more listening to. My favorite so far is Atonement, though I do remember liking 3:10 to Yuma on the XM Cinematical station on my flight out to California last month.
- And…Best Picture. I can’t figure why Michael Clayton has had such staying power. It’s a strong legal thriller with lots of strong acting. But it came out at the end of September, and for a movie that isn’t terribly original in scope or message, I don’t get the huge buzz. Oh wait, it stars George Clooney. Now I get it.
More below. Read the rest of this entry »
The biggest surprise is clearly Tommy Lee Jones’ nomination for In the Valley of Elah. He got absolutely no recognition for that role from critics groups or the SAG. And now Jared has to watch the latest Haggis film, which I admit amuses me some in a mean sort of way.
The only real big surprise is Surf’s Up taking the third Animated Feature Film slot. The Simpsons Movie was my sentimental choice, but I’d admit that the surprisingly sweet and trippy Meet the Robinsons was even better. Surf’s Up looks absolutely terrific, which might have given it a big boost. You feel like you’re surfing with those penguins. Plus the creators pioneered a new way of “filming” animation. The scenes were animated in 3-D and then a “cameraman” “walked” through the scene (really an empty space with motion sensors) “filming” the action, allowing it to really feel like a documentary.
But it’s not a very good movie. It’s like they spent all their time on the style and not enough on story or characters. Minus the spectacular imagery it’s mostly a big yawn.
I’m most upset that I spent all that time breaking down the Original Song contenders just to have such a bad list of nominees. It’s not even that the songs are bad, but that the list is so unoriginal. Three songs from Enchated? Are you kidding me? Pick one, sure, but three? Then after the requisite Once pick (and at least they got that right) and the three Enchanted songs they squeeze out Eddie Vedder’s awesome work for Into the Wild for an August Rush song? I do like “Raise it Up” and can give the Academy some credit for choosing a song outside the usual mold, but it’s nowhere close to Vedder’s work, which felt like another character in the film.
Ruby Dee popped up from mid-pack with her SAG nomination but we clearly missed the boat since not a single one of us mentioned her in our reviews.
I was very happy to see Laura Linney get nominated for The Savages. She got a “YES” and a fist pump when her name was announced (the only other nominee to get the same treatment was Juno for Best Picture).
Sad but not particularly surprising to see Knocked Up shut out of Original Screenplay, though it’s nice that Lars and the Real Girl got some love. The Adapted Screenplay nod for Away From Her was mildly surprisin.
Jared thinks the disqualification of the score from There Will Be Blood is a joke. Maybe it’s a joke that the decision only came out a day before the nominations, but it’s not a joke of a decision. Significantly less than half of the score was composed by Greenwood and he also relied heavily on a BBC-commissioned work he created a few years back. It’s called “Original” Score for a reason, otherwise everyone could just throw on some Beethoven and collect their trophy.
Anyway, it’s a good spread-out year this year (just one film - Michael Clayton - grabbed more than one acting nomination) and I’m looking forward to catching up with the films I’ve missed.
Some quick hit initial reactions (yeah, I know they’ve been out for like two days now, but I can’t surf the internet on my work computer!) to the Oscar noms. But first, congrats to us for crossing the 1,000 hit and 100 views on a post (Adam’s post on Juno) plateaus.
Read the rest of this entry »
With all the awards and nominations rolling in, the Grouches decided to look at the 8 big categories, predict who we think will win the Oscar, and jibber jabber a bit about the nominees. Next up is Best Director.
These predictions were made before the Golden Globes.
Brian: Paul Thomas Anderson
Adam: Tim Burton
John: Joen and Ethan Coen
Jared: Paul Thomas Anderson
With all the awards and nominations rolling in, the Grouches decided to look at the 8 big categories, predict who we think will win the Oscar, and jibber jabber a bit about the nominees. Next up is the big Kahuna, and perhaps the least exciting character, Best Picture:
Brian: No Country for Old Men
Adam: No Country for Old Men
John: No Country for Old Men
Jared: No Country for Old Men
With all the awards and nominations rolling in, the Grouches decided to look at the 8 big categories, predict who we think will win the Oscar, and jibber jabber a bit about the nominees. Next up is Best Supporting Actress.
Brian: Amy Ryan
Adam: Amy Ryan
John: Amy Ryan
Jared: Cate Blanchett
Unfortunately, I’m the only one who hasn’t seen Gone Baby Gone yet, but I look forward to what the hype over Amy Ryan is all about.
Below are the Grouches’ picks for the Golden Globes. I’ll be updating this in real time. I’m having trouble getting the embedding code to work, so in the meantime, here’s a link: Golden Globes Picks
With all the awards and nominations rolling in, the Grouches decided to look at the 8 big categories, predict who we think will win the Oscar, and jibber jabber a bit about the nominees. Next up is Best Actress.
Our picks:
John: Julie Christie
Brian: Ellen Page
Adam: Ellen Page
Jared: Julie Christie
Some disagreement here. Read the rest of this entry »
With all the awards and nominations rolling in, the Grouches decided to look at the 8 big categories, predict who we think will win the Oscar, and jibber jabber a bit about the nominees. Next up is Best Original Screenplay.
Our picks:
John: Juno
Brian: Juno
Adam: Juno
Jared: Michael Clayton
Jared, what’s wrong with you?!!
With all the awards and nominations rolling in, the Grouches decided to look at the 8 big categories, predict who we think will win the Oscar, and jibber jabber a bit about the nominees. First up is Best Supporting Actor.
Our picks:
John: Javier Bardem
Brian: Javier Bardem
Adam: Javier Bardem
Jared: Javier Bardem
Well, that wasn’t very fun! Read the rest of this entry »
Updated on Thursday afternoon. Scroll down for my analysis.
So some people wake up early before work to go to the gym, and others do it to clean up the house or get some errands done. I, on the other hand, know where my priorities are, so I’ve woken up early to be the first to give you some impressions on the Golden Globes. It’s not a liveblog, per se, but it’ll be a first draft of the morning’s announcements. Read the rest of this entry »
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