Post-Oscar Night thoughts

It's been a while since I've been so torn about my feelings of the Oscar outcome. On the one hand we've got winners like Christophe Waltz for Best Supporting Actor in "Inglourious Basterds", Jeff Bridges' Best Actor, Mo'Nique's Best Supporting Actress and of course Queen Kathryn Bigelow for Best Director. But on the other hand my distaste for "Up" winning Best Animated feature and Best Score is still there as well as "The Hurt Locker" managing wins in Best Original Screenplay and Best Picture. Granted the latter was one that everyone figured would happen, but part of me kept hoping for a non-safe Oscar movie to win.

Don't get me wrong "The Hurt Locker" is a very good and suspenseful war story on first watch. After that it becomes simply a good soldier's story, but loses the suspense and tension. It wasn't made as an Oscar movie and in some ways it's cool that an action picture took it, but at the same time I can't help but feel that "District 9", "A Serious Man" and "Inglourious Basterds" all endure and sometimes even strengthen with repeated viewing. I really dug "Avatar" was well, but it was, is and will always been just a really good sci-fi adventure picture and in my opinion was never posed to be the big Oscar movie the media tried to trump it up to be. Something that was done more so out of Cameron and Bigelow's former relationship than out of the quality of work. And the fact that people are playing into it makes them dim witted and blind to what they've been trying to do since December.

As for the Oscar tellacast itself, Steve Martin and Alex Baldwin were weirdly unfunny, the set design was wonderful, the tellacast directing and crowd camera work was awful, getting shots of James Cameron completely in the dark and cutting to people who didn't seem the slightest bit interested in whatever was going on. Ben Stiller's "Avatar" joke worked really well, although the other thirty of so "Avatar" jokes got old and I actually enjoyed some of the presenters humility realism when knowing their written jokes weren't too good (Elizabeth Banks, Tyler Perry) while some of the other ones that worked like Tina Fey and Robert Downey Jr.'s were perfect. If only Fey could make a movie that was equally that witty and funny. Waltz, Bullock and the screenwriter of "Precious" had some strong speeches that seemed pretty damn earnest. And I'm still flip flopping on the break dancing thing for the best scores. I still think Zimmer's "Sherlock Holmes" score was the best and most surprising.

So after I did some totaling last night I discovered that I got 12 correct.
Best Picture
Best Actress
Best Supporting Actor
Best Supporting Actress
Best Animated Feature
Best Documentary
Best Original Song
Best Film Editing
Best Director
Best Art Direction
Best Visual Effects
Best Sound Editing

Which is decent for the ones I did pick (I think I skipped the shorts category, but my picks are posted in the February section of my blog). So now it all re-sets and this time next year we'll see if things get a little less predictable. A lot of big names have movies this year (Fincher, Aronofsky, Coen's, Herzog etc) could they get their due? Time will tell.

Oscar Nominations!

2009 was a terrific year for cinema and I'm more than happy to see some of the more popular and well known films getting there due this award season in some of the more important spots.

BEST PICTURE
'Avatar'
'The Blind Side'
'District 9'
'An Education'
'The Hurt Locker'
'Inglourious Basterds'
'Precious'
'A Serious Man'
'Up'
'Up in the Air'

-Personally I think eight of these belong here. "Up" was a good film, but I fail to see why it's getting quite the love it's gotten as it looks and feels just like 95% of all Pixar released movies. And "The Blind Side"? Really, for Best Picture? I don't see it. In anycase my money has it between "Inglourious Basterds" and "The Hurt Locker" and really it's "Hurt Locker" for the win. Any time a war film is compared to Oliver Stone's "Platoon", the last war film to win best picture, I think that means something.

BEST ACTOR
Jeff Bridges, 'Crazy Heart'
George Clooney, 'Up in the Air'
Colin Firth, 'A Single Man'
Morgan Freeman, 'Invictus'
Jeremy Renner, 'The Hurt Locker'

-Despite Bridges deserving this award for his years of fantastic work, I have a feeling he won't win it this year. But neither will Clooney. Often with big ensemble films like "The Hurt Locker", if someone is nominated, they won't win. Especially if the film is winning everything else. However I think Jeremy Renner as underdog might happen OR Colin Firth with an underdog win.

BEST ACTRESS
Sandra Bullock, 'The Blind Side'
Helen Mirren, 'The Last Station'
Carey Mulligan, 'An Education'
Gabourey Sidibe, 'Precious'
Meryl Streep, 'Julie & Julia'

-I've been hearing raves about Carey Milligan in "An Education", but rare is it for the youngin' to win. That tells the same to Gabourey Sidibe for "Precious". However I actually think as much as it pains me that Bullock will win. But I'm rooting for either of the previous two.

Best Supporting Actor

Matt Damon, 'Invictus'
Woody Harrelson, 'The Messenger'
Christopher Plummer, 'The Last Station'
Stanley Tucci, 'The Lovely Bones'
Christoph Waltz, 'Inglourious Basterds'

-Waltz all the way. No one else will win, plain and simple.

Best Supporting Actress

Penelope Cruz, 'Nine'
Vera Farmiga, 'Up in the Air'
Maggie Gyllenhaal, 'Crazy Heart'
Anna Kendrick, 'Up in the Air'
Mo'nique, 'Precious'

-Penelope Cruz might have had a chance with a nod for Best Actress in "Broken Embraces", but not for "Nine". Mo'nique has killed with this award at just about every venue and while I think it could go the way of Eddie Murphy and "Dreamgirls" here... I believe it won't. She'll walk away with this one and hopefully continue doing work of this caliber.

Best Animated Feature Film

'Coraline'
'Fantastic Mr. Fox'
'The Princess and the Frog'
'The Secret of Kells'
'Up'

-"Up" will win whether I like it or not, but I'd flip if "Fantastic Mr. Fox" won. It or "Coraline" deserves it far more.

Best Foreign Film

Israel - 'Ajami'
Argentina - 'El Secreto de sus Ojos'
Peru - 'The Milk of Sorrow'
France - 'Un Prophete'
Germany - 'The White Ribbon'

-I've heard nothing but greatness about Hanke's "The White Ribbon".

Best Original Screenplay

Mark Boal, 'The Hurt Locker'
Quentin Tarantino, 'Inglourious Basterds'
Alessandro Camon and Oren Moverman, 'The Messenger'
Joel Coen and Ethan Coen, 'A Serious Man'
Peter Docter, Bob Peterson, Tom McCarthy, 'Up'

-This is one of the few things I could see "The Hurt Locker" not winning. Sadly though I could see "Up" winning, but I'm rooting for Tarantino big time or the Coen's "A Serious Man", which is their best comedy, drama, mystery since "Barton Fink".

Best Adapted Screenplay

Neill Blomkamp and Terri Tatchell, 'District 9'
Nick Hornby, 'An Education'
Jesse Armstron, Simon Blackwell, Armando Iannucci, Tony Roche, 'In the Loop'
Geoffrey Fletcher, 'Precious'
Jason Reitman, Sheldon Turner, 'Up in the Air'

-It'd be cool as hell if "District 9" won and as an underdog vote, I could see it happening. I'm going to see "In the Loop" FINALLY in the next few days and I've heard greatness from it, but I doubt it'll pull this off. Look for Hornby with the win and possibly Reitman and Turner for "Up in the Air".

Best Documentary Feature

'Burma VJ'
'The Cove'
'Food, Inc.'
'The Most Dangerous Man in America: Daniel Ellsberg and the Pentagon Papers'
'Which Way Home'

-"The Cove" all the way.

Best Original Score

'Avatar'
'Fantastic Mr. Fox'
'The Hurt Locker'
'Sherlock Holmes'
'Up'

-Despite being a major fan of Giachinno's work, the music for "Up" never got to me the way it did in "The Incredibles" or "Ratatouille" or even "Star Trek". "Avatar" was definitly not Horner's best music, but honestly I loved Hans Zimmer's very original music for "Sherlock Holmes". That's my vote.

Best Original Song

'Almost There' from 'The Princess and the Frog,' Music and Lyric by Randy Newman
'Down in New Orleans' from 'The Princess and the Frog,' Music and Lyric by Randy Newman
'Loin de Paname' from 'Paris 36,' Music by Reinhardt Wagner Lyric by Frank Thomas
'Take It All' from 'Nine,' Music and Lyric by Maury Yeston
'The Weary Kind (Theme from Crazy Heart)' from 'Crazy Heart,' Music and Lyric by Ryan Bingham and T Bone Burnett

-"Crazy Heart" will probably win it, although none of these songs are mind blowing in the least. My vote, bring back Springsteen's "The Wrestler" for a second go at it.

Best Film Editing

'Avatar'
'District 9'
'The Hurt Locker'
'Inglourious Basterds'
'Precious'

-"The Hurt Locker" I feel will have this. Super slow motion in HD=heavy, golden statue.

Best Cinematography

'Avatar'
'Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince'
'The Hurt Locker'
'Inglourious Basterds'
'The White Ribbon'

-"Basterds" and the God of cinematography Robert Richardson. The man that made me research what they did in films after watching his work on "JFK".

Best Costume Design

'Bright Star'
'Coco Before Chanel'
'The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus'
'Nine'
'The Young Victoria'

-From what I've seen and heard "Coco Before Chanel" has got it clamped.

Best Director

James Cameron, 'Avatar'
Kathryn Bigelow, 'The Hurt Locker'
Quentin Tarantino, 'Inglourious Basterds'
Lee Daniels, 'Precious'
Jason Reitman, 'Up in the Air'

-Kathryn Bigelow all the way. I'd love for QT to win, but this is her year plain and simple and she earned it.

Achievement in art direction

• "Avatar"

• "The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus"

• "Nine"

• "Sherlock Holmes"

• "The Young Victoria"

- "Avatar" with a big win for this.

Achievement in makeup

"II Divo"
"Star Trek"
"The Young Victoria"

-Hey, "Star Trek" made it for something! But "II Divo" will win.

Achievement in visual effects

"Avatar"
"District 9"
"Star Trek"

-I could see "District 9" winning due to what it accomplished with his small budget, but "Avatar" is much more deserving of it. When you can see $200 million dollars... well... that's something special onto itself.

Achievement in sound mixing

"Avatar"
"The Hurt Locker"
"Inglourious Basterds"
"Star Trek"
"Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen"

- Again, "Avatar".

Achievement in sound editing

"Avatar"
"The Hurt Locker"
"Inglourious Basterds"
"Star Trek"
"Up"

- War films tend to take this, so I'm saying "Hurt Locker" over "Avatar" and "Basterds".

Ok, so this will be my offical score card come awards night. I always like seeing how well/shitty I can pick em'. We'll see what happens on March 7th.