Miscellaneous Movie Musings

[innerSpaceman]

Cars fan, perhaps? That's the one I didn't get.

* * * * *

Well, I just finished by Oscar nominee sweep for 2007 with Away From Her and was impressed by Julie Christi's Best Actress-tapped perf. A bit of a tough film for me, considering what's happened and is happening with both my parents.


But ok ... so, with less than 48 hours to go and zero more time for me to catch any movies ... here's what I managed to miss...


Laua Linny for Best Actress in The Savages,

Hal Holbook for Best Supporting Actor in Into the Wild,

Cate Blanchette in I'm Not There, Amy Ryan in Gone Baby Gone and Ruby Dee in American Gangster, all for Best Supporting Actress

Surf's Up for Best Animated Film

American Gangster for Best Art Direction

The Diving Bell and the Butterfly for Best Cinematography

Julien Schnabel for Best Director of The Diving Bell and the Butterfly

All the nominees for Best Documentary Feature, except Sicko

All the nominees for Best Documentary Short Subject

Into the Wild, and The Diving Bell and the Butterfly for Best Editing

OMG, all the nominees for Best Foreign Language Film

Norbit, for Best Make-Up

The Kite Runner for Best Musical Score

"Raise It Up" from August Rush as Best Song (i never so much as heard of that movie.)

The Diving Bell and the Butterfly for Best Adapted Screenplay

and

Lars and the Real Girl, and The Savages for Best Original Screenplay


Other than those, I've seen all the nominated talents and performances. Looking at that list ... I guess the one to catch, if there's some miracle of time, would be The Diving Bell and the Butterfly. But I've had my fill of sad movies, so I'm glad there's no time left.








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[mousepod]

iSm, I was scanning your post, and I didn't read "managed to miss" - I thought I was reading your radical Oscar picks. Once I saw that you'd "picked" Surf's Up as your favorite animated film, I realized that I should go back and read your whole post more carefully.

[Gemini Cricket]

I just came back from Chernabog's. We watched Castle in the Sky. What a fantastic film. I think it ranks up at the top with Cagliostro as my two favorites. If you haven't seen it, it's magnificent. A lot of imagination and hard work went into this film. 4 stars.

[Alex]

I also watched Away from Her last night and it is indeed a rough movie. Not because I have any personal experience but really because it is my worst nightmare about growing old. It is pretty important to my life plan that either I die first or we die quickly at the same time.

Julie Christie was great but I must admit to a psychological block because of internally shouting "how can she get rewarded when Gordon Pinset gets nothing, he did all the really heavy lifting." I know the nominations from a movie aren't fair but still, he could easily replace Johnny Depp in the best actor list.

So that's probably the last Oscar nom I'm going to see before the awards.

I've seen all the nominees in the following categories (my pick in parentheses):
Best Picture (No Country for Old Men)
Best Actress (Marion Cotillard, La Vie en Rose)
Best Supporting Actress (Tilda Swinton, Michael Clayton)
Best Original Screenplay (Brad Bird, Ratatouille)
Best Art Direction (American Gangster)
Best Costume Design (Across the Universe)
Best Sound (3:10 to Yuma, mostly because I want that to get an award of some sort)
Best Sound Editing (no opinion other than that no one should ever be able to say this sentence fragment: "Academy Award winning Transformers...")
Best Visual Effects (Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End, mostly by default)
Best Animated Short Film (none but if tortured into it "Peter and the Wolf")
Best Live Action Short Film ("Tanghi argentini")

My worst non trivial category is Best Supoprting Actor where I've only seen two of the performances (missed Assassination of Jesse James, Charlie Wilson's War, and Into the Wild) but I still feel pretty confident in my pick of Javier Bardem and Anton Cigurh in No Country for Old Men.

In the leading actor category I also missed Tommy Lee Jones in In the Valley of Elah. Interestingly, for three of the four performances I've mentioned missing I have alternative performances by that actor in 2007 that I unconsciously use in my decision making. Casey Affleck was very good in Gone Baby Gone. Philip Seymour Hoffman was better than Laura Linney in The Savages. Tommy Lee Jones was great in No Country for Old Men. But I'll still pick Daniel Day-Lewis for There Will Be Blood even if I wasn't blown away by the movie itself.

The Diving Bell and the Butterfly is the big impediment to making informed decisions since it it the sole missed nomination in Best Director (the Coens), and Best Adapted Screenplay (the Coens).

[innerSpaceman]

Yep, i almost feel that i can't make real pics if i haven't seen that movie.


My most uninformed category turns out to be Best Supporting Actress, where I've seen only two of the nominated performances.


Really, Alex ... Marion Cotillard for Best Actress ... after your tirade about her?




And, Gemini Cricket ... mmmmm, i LoVe Castle in the Sky. One of my absolute fave Ghibli's.

[Alex]

Go reread what I said. I never offered any tirade about Marion Cotillard. Never said a single bad word against her.

It isn't her fault she's very good in a very boring movie. Plus, it isn't exactly the best year ever in that category. I'm actually puzzled as to why anybody would consider the Blanchett and Linney performances award worthy. Ellen Page was fine but I think most of what is great comes from the writing. So that leaves it down to Cotillard and Christie in my view and I'd almost call Christie's role a supporting one rather than lead (plus the psychological block I have since Pinset's is the more deserving performance).

[LSPoorEeyorick]

Bookies are picking Christie, but I'd almost put money on Cotillard - I think that'll be the "upset" of the night. At least I hope it will - I'll be grouchy if a film I don't like wins best picture three years in a row.

[LSPoorEeyorick]

BTW, other than "Away From Her," which I'll be seeing either today or tomorrow, we've missed Surf's Up, Assassination of Jesse James, American Gangster, Valley of Elah, Eastern Promises, Golden Age - of the big eight (plus animated.) Of tech and misc. awards, we've missed the foreigns, the docs, Bourne and Kite Runner... everything else, we've seen. Still, this is probably the first year in awhile I haven't seen damn near everything. I should feel handicapped in the Best Actor category, but I'd be hugely surprised if that didn't go to Day Lewis.

[Alex]

Which Best Picture nom is it you didn't like that might win? For me the weakest was There Will Be Blood but I still respect what it was trying to be.

[LSPoorEeyorick]

Originally Posted by Alex

Which Best Picture nom is it you didn't like that might win? For me the weakest was There Will Be Blood but I still respect what it was trying to be.

Same one. Though I saw some of its merits, I generally thought it didn't hit the mark.