Dateline Nueva York:

We just got back in from seeing Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day (with the wonderful Frances McDormand as the title character and Amy Adams as Amy Adams), which was as delightfully insubstantial as a successful soufflé - and thanks to jmhm for the recommendation.

This was followed by dinner at Primola, a very decent Italian restaurant on 2nd Ave. Sitting at the next table was Barbara Walters and what, at first, appeared to be a table full of corpses. On second glance, the cadavers turned out to include John Updike, Liz Smith, Sumner Redstone, and several others who looked familiar, but whom we couldn't place. The again, how many people would recognize Updike (or even, sadly, know who he is). Sean wanted desperately to trip Redstone on his way out, thereby becoming something of a folk hero, but unfortunately he was out smoking a cigarette as the party was preparing to leave.

Whatever, Primola does a decent Pasta Fagioli, an excellent Veal Scallopine al Limone e Capperi (if a little heavy on the capers) and The. Best. Crème. Brûlée. that I have ever tasted.

Anyway, we're headed to the Jasper Johns exhibit at the Met in the morning, lunch at Patsy's (more decent Italian), then back to Pennsylvania for the foreseeable future.  :(  Yeah, well - it's been a pleasant enough couple of weeks on the road. Hopefully, I'll get a chance to post a few pics when I'm settled back in to Mennonite Country.

Tags: foodstuffs, movie madness, travelogue
humour: content

There were few surprises last night - and most of them were pleasant. A recap of the nominees and my predictions can be found ( behind the cut )

Meh - my predictions were correct in 15 out of 23 categories, which, for me, is pretty pathetic. One the other hand, anyone who can get over half of the categories correct is doing pretty well in this annual guess-fest (and those with whom I was competing all did - we had a 15, two 14s, a 13, and two 12s, with point scores of 55, 51, 46, 45, 40, and 38).

Tags: movie madness, tee-vee

Okay, onto the awards people actually care about - the ones that score four and five points in our annual competitions here. (The other nominees and my preferences, and predictions regarding them can be found in The Oscar Post - Part One.) As I'm so totally disappointed in this year's lackluster nominees, for some of these I'll be adding a "Should Have Been Nominated" category - and, again, my "Should Win" awards will sometimes be from outside the Academy's nominees.

       
Enough ado, on to the four-pointers:

BEST DOCUMENTARY FEATURE

No End In Sight
Operation Homecoming: Writing the Wartime Experience
Sicko
Taxi to the Dark Side
War/Dance

Should Win: Of the two I've seen, No End In Sight.

Will Win: No End In Sight. I think they'll go for it because it's political, but not Michael Moore again. Besides, Sicko wasn't really that great.

ACHIEVEMENT IN MUSIC WRITTEN FOR MOTION PICTURES (ORIGINAL SCORE)

Atonement
The Kite Runner
Michael Clayton
Ratatouille
3:10 to Yuma

Should Win: There Will Be Blood, which, of course, wasn't even nominated (again, there was some class of eligibility issue - which didn't stop them from nominating a song from the fucking awful Once). Of those that were, I'd go with Atonement, which cleverly underlines the centrality of reporting rather than experiencing events, as well as reminding us of the film's literary source.

Will Win: Atonement. I just don't think any of the other nominees are that memorable.

ACHIEVEMENT IN CINEMATOGRAPHY

The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford
Atonement
The Diving Bell and the Butterfly
No Country for Old Men
There Will Be Blood

Should Have Been Nominated: Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street, Michael Clayton, The Kingdom, and Redacted.

Should Win: Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street. Of the nominees, No Country for Old Men. If nothing else, it was beautifully photographed - as was The Assassination of Jesse James. Unsurprisingly, they both had the same cinematographer, Roger Deakins.

Will Win: There Will Be Blood. The vote will be split between the two Deakins films (No Country and Assassination of Jesse James) and it'll go the the other inexplicably popular favorite.

PERFORMANCE BY AN ACTOR IN A SUPPORTING ROLE

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

Should Have Been Nominated: There was a lot of great supporting work this year - unfortunately, most of it is going unrecognized by the Academy: Ethan Hawke for Before the Devil Knows You're Dead, Robert Downey, Jr. for Zodiac, Ryan Phillippe for Breach, Michael Cera and J.K. Simmons for Juno, Yigal Naor for Rendition, James Marsden for Enchanted, and Dillon Freasier for There Will Be Blood - each of whom was substantially better than Javier Bardem in his totally undemanding role. A lot of people are also saying Paul Dano should have been nominated for There Will Be Blood, but... nah. He took an inconsistent, one-dimensional character and made it inconsistent, one-dimensional, and loud. No great achievement. But the Freasier kid was terrific - and balanced the scenery-chewing of Day-Lewis much better than Dano did.

Should Win: Without Hawke in the running, I'd be happy with either Casey Affleck or Tom Wilkinson. It's a pity though: Ethan Hawke is a fine actor and Devil is one of his best performances ever.

Will Win: Javier Bardem in what will be one of the most inexplicable awards in Oscar history. Don't get me wrong - Bardem is a fine actor and deserved accolades for Jamón, jamón, Huevos de oro, Before Night Falls, and The Sea Inside. Here, it was like, "Okay, Javier - turn up, put on a stupid wig, read your lines - in an expressionless monotone - and go home. Thanks." If we're giving awards for wigs, there's no reason Johnny Depp shouldn't win for Sweeney Todd - he even acted.

PERFORMANCE BY AN ACTRESS IN A SUPPORTING ROLE

Cate Blanchett - I'm Not There
Ruby Dee - American Gangster
Saoirse Ronan - Atonement
Amy Ryan - Gone Baby Gone
Tilda Swinton - Michael Clayton

Should Have Been Nominated: Again, a lot of great supporting performances: Amy Madigan for Gone Baby Gone, Jennifer Garner for Juno, Marisa Tomei for Before The Devil Knows You're Dead, Catherine Keener for Into the Wild, and Kelly Macdonald for No Country for Old Men. I'd clearly nominate Macdonald for anything.  :)  And, hey, if we're giving awards for bizarre wigs, why no nod to Julia Roberts' coif in Charlie Wilson's War?

Should Win: Tilda Swinton and Amy Ryan would both be good choices, though I'd lean toward the former (especially as Amy Ryan and Amy Madigan should be cancelling each other out). I've never particulrly cared for Swinton (especially in the dreadful Orlando), but she was ten times scarier in Michael Clayton than Javier Bardem was in the Coen thing - and almost too convincing.

Will Win: Tilda Swinton. Ruby Dee has been getting a lot of buzz for being old and black, but mostly after the votes were cast. Besides, she was only in the film for about seven seconds.

       
And, finally, the Big Six five-point categories:

ADAPTED SCREENPLAY

Atonement
Away from Her
The Diving Bell and the Butterfly
No Country For Old Men
There Will Be Blood

Should Have Been Nominated: James Vanderbilt for Zodiac, Sean Penn for Into the Wild, Judd Apatow for Knocked Up, and Aaron Stockard for Gone Baby Gone.

Should Win: Zodiac. None of the nominated films, really. I guess Atonement by default, simply because I rather like Ian McEwan - and it is a decent adaptation of his novel. If only the Knightley creature weren't involved.

Will Win: No Country for Old Men. Obviously, a good screenplay is not going to win in this category, so it's a choice between worse and worser: No Country or There Will Be Blood. I'm thinking this may be part of a Coen Brothers mini-sweep.

ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY

Juno
Lars and The Real Girl
Michael Clayton
Ratatouille
The Savages

Should Have Been Nominated: Kelly Masterson for Before the Devil Knows You're Dead, Jeffrey Blitz for Rocket Science, and Steven Knight for Eastern Promises.

Should Win: Juno. I'm a bit torn between Juno and Michael Clayton - and if Before the Devil Knows You're Dead were in the running, I'd be really torn. This is one category that isn't too bad this year, so I won't be annoyed by whatever wins.

Will Win: Juno. This is one award with which comedies (especially indie dramadies) are often honored (Little Miss Sunshine Lost in Translation Sideways, for example) and I think that's what'll happen again this year. Lars is a bit too edgy and Ratatouille is a cartoon, so that leaves Juno. Of course, there could be a comedy split, leaving Michael Clayton with the award, but I doubt it.

PERFORMANCE BY AN ACTRESS IN A LEADING ROLE

Cate Blanchett - Elizabeth: The Golden Age
Julie Christie - Away from Her
Marion Cotillard - La Môme (La Vie en Rose)
Laura Linney - The Savages
Ellen Page - Juno

Should Have Been Nominated: Angelina Jolie for A Mighty Heart, Naomi Watts for Eastern Promises, Jodie Foster for The Brave One, and Helena Bonham Carter (whom I generally don't particularly care for) for Sweeney Todd.

Should Win: Ellen Page. Okay, I haven't seen The Savages and generally like Laura Linney, so she coulda been a contender in my preferences, as well. Marion Cotillard was fine in a very demanding role, so I'd be fine with her winning as well.

Will Win: Julie Christie - which will be the Oscar equivalent of criminal. Folks, Julie Christie is not a good actress. She never has been. Darling was a fluke and Christie won awards mostly for showing a lot of skin (and being the first woman in a commercial film to receive cunnilingus). Even in brilliant films like McCabe and Mrs. Miller, Christie was carried by everyone else rather than contributing anything herself. Just because she came out of a welcome retirement to be low-key and blank for two hours is no reason to even nominate her. But Hollywood has this bizarre sentiment for people who will probably be dead before they make another picture, so Christie it is.

PERFORMANCE BY AN ACTOR IN A LEADING ROLE

George Clooney - Michael Clayton
Daniel Day-Lewis - There Will Be Blood
Johnny Depp - Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street
Tommy Lee Jones - In The Valley of Elah
Viggo Mortensen - Eastern Promises

Should Have Been Nominated: Philip Seymour Hoffman for Before the Devil Knows You're Dead, Gordon Pinsent for Away from Her, Brad Pitt for The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford, Emile Hirsch for Into the Wild, and, maybe, Jake Gyllenhaal for Zodiac and James McAvoy for Atonement.

Should Win: Johnny Depp - with George Clooney a close second and Viggo Mortensen a more distant third.

Will Win: Daniel Day-Lewis. Okay, he's a great actor, he made a meal of a poorly written role, and he loved a show I directed several years ago, but this was not the best performance of the year (never mind of the millennium, as some morons are saying). That the Academy will be ignoring Depp yet again is depressing, to say the least. At least Clooney has Syriana.

ACHIEVEMENT IN DIRECTING

Julian Schnabel - The Diving Bell and the Butterfly
Jason Reitman - Juno
Tony Gilroy - Michael Clayton
The Coenheads - No Country for Old Men
P.T. Barnum Anderson - There Will Be Blood

Should Have Been Nominated: Tim Burton for Sweeney Todd and Sidney Lumet for Before the Devil Knows You're Dead. Sweeney Todd is some of Burton's best work ever - and the year's only work of art and it works brilliantly on every possible level. Like There Will Be Blood, it is a nihilistic portrait of a sociopath, but unlike Anderson, Burton manages to construct a tragedy that is operatic in scope and movingly cathartic in its realization and resolution. Before the Devil Knows You're Dead is Lumet back in peak form, getting terrific performances from a talented ensemble in a complex little drama that ironically plays with narrative structure (what the Coens where unsuccessfully attempting to do in No Country for Old Men), allowing the characters' actions and motivations to be slowly revealed rather than pointlessly obscured.

I would also have nominated the following before I would even have considered Anderson or the Coens: David Cronenberg for Eastern Promises, David Fincher for Zodiac, Sean Penn for Into the Wild, Julie Taymor for Across the Universe, Peter Berg for The Kingdom, John Sayles for Honeydripper, Joe Wright for Atonement, Brian De Palma for Redacted, Mike Nichols for Charlie Wilson's War, Andrew Dominik for The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford, Ridley Scott for American Gangster, Ben Affleck for Gone Baby Gone, and Brad Bird for Ratatouille. And that's just off the top of my head.

Should Win: Tim Burton for Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street. As he's not in the running, my support goes to Tony Gilroy for Michael Clayton.

Will Win: The Brothers Coen, I'm afraid. All right, the direction of No Country for Old Men isn't horrible, but it is far from the Coens' best work (that would be Blood Simple, Raising Arizona, Miller's Crossing, Fargo, and The Big Lebowski). Sadly, their only serious competition seems to be P.T. Anderson. Joel and Ethan Coen only have the edge because they have a longer resume. Anderson will need another few good films under his belt (and, so far, he only has one and a half) before he can win Best Director for a mediocre one, as the Coens will be doing. I might've found the direction of both of these films a bit more tolerable if the directors had been saddled with bum scripts and tried to make the best of things. But, in both cases, the directors also wrote the damned thing, so there's no fucking excuse.

BEST MOTION PICTURE OF THE YEAR

Atonement
Juno
Michael Clayton
No Country for Old Men
There Will Be Blood

Should Have Been Nominated: A lot of films could be added here (cf. Best Direction), but I'll restrict myself to Sweeney Todd, which was the best film of the year - indeed, of the past several years - and Before the Devil Knows You're Dead, which featured a great script, several terrific performances from great actors, and impeccable direction. I'm quite happy with Juno and Michael Clayton being in the running - and, apart from the presence of Kiera Knightley, this generation's Julie Christie, Atonement, too. Were these the five nominees, I'd be excited. Instead, it'll be like a Superbowl match between the Falcons and the Jets.

Should Win: Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street. Without the year's best film in the running, I don't really care who wins. But I hope it's either Juno or Michael Clayton.

Will Win: I suspect it will be No Country for Old Men. It could still be There Will Be Blood. Sean believes that these two serious dramas (yeah, that's what they're calling psycho killer flicks these days) will cancel each other out in the voting and that the award will go to Juno. I hope he's right. Juno was a smart, witty little film with uniformly good performances and some nice directorial touches. But I have a feeling that enough of the Freddy Kruger and Jason Voorhees fans - er, sorry, the Daniel Plainview and Anton Chigurh fans - have realized that without Daniel Day-Lewis impersonating John Huston for ten hours (or was it two and a half?) there would be very little indeed to There Will Be Blood. And that'll be enough to throw the award to the Coens (who, I believe, will already have won Sound Mixing, Film Editing, Supporting Actor, Adapted Screenplay, and Director, while There Will Be Blood will only have Art Direction, Cinematography, and Actor).

Heh - it's way later than I thought, so I won't go on about how lame I find the two main contenders this year. I'm a bit weary of defending my opinion real-time anyway - and if you've read this thing, you'll have a prety good idea of how I feel anyway. So, gee - that's it. Again, feel free to comment with your own preferences and predictions or anything else that bloats your goat.

A recap of the nominees and my predictions can be found ( behind the cut )

Tags: movie madness, pop kulture, tee-vee
humour: contemplative

This is a tough year to predict, especially since the actual best films and performances tended to be ignored altogether in favor of the emperor's entire wardrobe. Rather than just making this a grumble-fest from the outset, I'll try to disperse my disdain for the Academy's choices throughout my assessment. This year, though, my "Should Win" category will include some films from outside the nominees - there was a lot of overlooked achievement this year in lieu of the sub-par work of Hollywood favorites like the ridiculously uneven Coen Brothers and the mediocre Paul Mark David Thomas Anderson or whatever the hell his list of white bread names is.

       
So, let's get to it. I'll start with what I call the one-point - or "I Have No Clue" categories - the short films. Thanks to YouTube, one can at least see some of these films (especially the animated ones, for some reason), so this won't be complete guesswork this year.

BEST DOCUMENTARY SHORT SUBJECT

Freeheld
La Corona (The Crown)
Salim Baba
Sari's Mother

Should Win: Who knows? All I could find was a trailer for Freeheld. Sari's Mother sounds like the most compelling film to me.

Will Win: Freeheld. I suspect gay marriage and cancer will win out over AIDS and Iraq this year. La Corona and Salim Baba sound cute, but I expect the Academy will go with issues over charm - especially as the feature nominees, apart from Michael Clayton, are devoid of them. Of course, they're devoid of charm as well, but the Academy likes to look involved and concerned.

BEST ANIMATED SHORT FILM

I Met the Walrus
Madame Tutli-Putli
Même les pigeons vont au paradis (Even Pigeons Go To Heaven)
Moya Lyubov (My Love)
Peter and the Wolf

Should Win: Moya Lyubov for the stunning, Renoir-esque cel animation. Tutli-Putli from Canada and les Pigeons from France are pretty cool, but fairly similar in style. I'd make the Canadian film my second choice.

Will Win: I Met the Walrus. I expect the stop-action animations will cancel each other out - though Madame Tutli-Putli has stunning art direction and lighting and, if they go for stop-action, this should be the one - and Moya Lyubov is probably too long, so I'm guessing they'll go for the one with the John Lennon connection, even though it seems to have the most artless animation. Then again, this looks like the the year for The Triumph of the Mediocrities. (And wasn't Paul the Walrus??)

BEST LIVE ACTION SHORT FILM

At Night
Il Supplente (The Substitute)
Le Mozart des pickpockets (The Mozart Of Pickpockets)
Tanghi Argentini
The Tonto Woman

Should Win: Again, hard to say - apart from The Substitute, which boasts some of the coarsest acting in cinema history, only a few trailers are available for these. I'd probably lean toward Le Mozart des Pickpockets.

Will Win: Tanghi Argentini, for its naive charm. The Tonto Woman is also a major contender. It's in English and it's based on an Elmore Leonard story. 'Nuff said?

       
That was relatively painless. On to the "two-point" categories:

ACHIEVEMENT IN SOUND EDITING

The Bourne Ultimatum
No Country for Old Men
Ratatouille
There Will Be Blood
Transformers

Should Win: The Bourne Ultimatum. Given the shakycam cinematography, the rapid-fire film editing, and the hysteric direction, tying the sound together on this beast must have been a ridiculously daunting task. The fact that the sound seamlessly matches the focus of the shots without sounding like an erratic mess is one of this films few achievements.

Will Win: Transformers. Hollywood likes crashes and explosions in this category. Artistry is for wimps.

ACHIEVEMENT IN VISUAL EFFECTS

The Golden Compass
Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End
Transformers

Should Win: Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End. The whole Pirates series has been technically brilliant - and virtually ignored when divvying out awards, except - once - in this category.

Will Win: Transformers. Pirates won last year and the effects in Golden Compass weren't all that convincing - especially the central polar bear. Besides, the effects in Transformers, if nothing else, were pretty amazing.

ACHIEVEMENT IN MAKEUP

La Môme (La Vie en Rose)
Norbit
Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End

Should Win: Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street - not just for the standard Tim Burton goth look, but for the dozen or so victim effects, including convincing dummy heads for bouncing off the basement floor. To be honest, of those nominated, the body prosthetics in Norbit should win out over making Marion Cotillard look old and ugly and the makeup effects that originally appeared in Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest.

Will Win: La Môme (La Vie en Rose). Pirates are passé and Norbit is, well... Norbit.

ACHIEVEMENT IN MUSIC WRITTEN FOR MOTION PICTURES (ORIGINAL SONG)

"Falling Slowly" - Once
"Happy Working Song" - Enchanted
"Raise It Up" - August Rush
"So Close" - Enchanted
"That's How You Know" - Enchanted

Should Win: "China Doll" from John Sayles' underrated Honeydripper - or, possibly, one of the Eddie Vedder songs from Into the Wild, a few of which ("Hard Sun" and "Guaranteed", for example) were pretty decent. Of these, I'll go with the most innocuous of the Disney songs, "So Close". Anything but some piece of shit from Once.

Will Win: "So Close" from Enchanted. It's been seven years since Disney took the Best Song and they're jonesing for it. So they trotted out Alan Menken and Stephen Schwartz for another slate of songs - and I'm guessing the Academy will go for one of them. "Happy Working Song" is one of the best sequences in the film, but it's way too twee out of context, and "That's How You Know" is too eclectic, so I'm guessing "So Close" is it. There is a chance that all the Enchanted songs will cancel each other out and they'll give it to "Falling Slowly" from the execrable Once - despite the fact that it songs shouldn't even be eligible, according to the Academy rules. The music is bad enough to win, but the choice might be too "controversial" because of the eligibility debate. Otherwise, no one has seen August Rush, so no one has heard "Raise It Up" (which is a decent, if undistinguished gospel number).

       
And now the three-pointers:

BEST FOREIGN LANGUAGE FILM OF THE YEAR

Beaufort
The Counterfeiters
Katyń
Mongol
12

Should Win: Haven't seen any of them, but if all five were playing locally (ha!), I'd head for 12 first - it's a sorta Russian Twelve Angry Men dealing with Chechen prejudice.

Will Win: The Counterfeiters 'cause it's got Nazis in it. Hollywood loves Nazi flicks.

BEST ANIMATED FEATURE FILM OF THE YEAR

Persepolis
Ratatouille
Surf's Up

Should Win: Persepolis - mostly because I'm getting tired of CGI animation and LCD content. But, seriously - they nominated Surf's Up over The Simpson's Movie? What - we couldn't go one year without some damned penguin flick being nominated for something?

Will Win: Ratatouille, It's already nominated for screenplay, score, sound mixing, and sound editing, none of which it will win. So how can it miss in its native category?

ACHIEVEMENT IN FILM EDITING

The Bourne Ultimatum
The Diving Bell and the Butterfly
Into the Wild
No Country for Old Men
There Will Be Blood

Should Win: The Kingdom. Of the contenders, There Will Be Blood - with some of the boldest (lack of) editing this year.

Will Win: This one's tough. I could easily see it going to either Bourne Ultimatum or No Country. I'm going to make this part of the world's most disappointing sweep: No Country for Old Men and another award for The Brothers Coen (a.k.a. Roderick Jaynes). But it could still be Bourne. (Yeah, that was a hedge.)

ACHIEVEMENT IN ART DIRECTION

American Gangster
Atonement
The Golden Compass
Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street
There Will Be Blood

Should Win: Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street. The best film of the year also had the best look of the year, which totally supported the concept and the content. It should take all the design awards - yet won't come away with one.

Will Win: There Will Be Blood, mostly because No Country for Old Men wasn't nominated - and the Academy seems determined to honor these two undistinguished movies.

ACHIEVEMENT IN COSTUME DESIGN

Across the Universe
Atonement
Elizabeth: The Golden Age
La Môme (La Vie en Rose)
Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street

Should Win: Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street. The best film of the year also had the best look of the year, which totally supported the concept and the content. It should take all the design awards - yet won't come away with one.

Will Win: Atonement - everyone is too in love with the Knightley girl's green dress.

ACHIEVEMENT IN SOUND MIXING

The Bourne Ultimatum
No Country for Old Men
Ratatouille
3:10 to Yuma
Transformers

Should Win: There Will Be Blood. This was one of the areas in which this film excelled and it was bumped for 3:10 to Yuma? Go figure. So, maybe... Ratatouille, which had no live sound to work with - always a bit daunting.

Will Win: No Country for Old Men. As there's virtually no soundtrack, the voters will probably figure the sound must be good then, right? Plus it means another award for No Country. Hurrah. Transformers has a chance here, too - this is Kevin O'Connell's 20th nomination without a win in this category and the Academy often likes to reward longevity (cf. Julie Christie).


I'm gonna take a break here before the four- and five-point categories. Feel free to comment with your own preferences and predictions, criticisms of my criticisms, pictures of your genitals, defenses of middling filmmakers, or anything else that sizzles your bacon.

Tags: movie madness, pop kulture, tee-vee
humour: contemplative

Watch this space for my pre-Oscar assessment of the films of 2007, in which - yet again - I am destined to make a few enemies by failing to be overwhelmed by the appropriate bits of pop culture. Get yer hating tools ready...

Tags: movie madness
humour: mischievous