So another year and another bunch of movies that are mostly average vying for a golden statue to prove their status in the film world. This year has been more predictable than others insofar as every single nomination (bar one or two surprise ones) have been mentioned to death in the run up. Its no surprise whatsoever to see Sean Penn be nominated for Milk, Angeline Jolie for Changeling and Kate Winslet be nominated for something. Although its weird she wasn't nominated for Revolutionary Road after winning the best Actress Golden Globe for it, still at least she wasn't nominate twice and thus splitting the vote.
Its not surprising to see Heath Ledger get nominated for The Dark Knight although it is delighful and a tad refreshing but it actually makes me cry that it happened in the same year that Robert Downey Jr is nominated for Tropic Thunder which is totally out of left field but fucking brilliant altogether. I want Heath Ledger to win but I really want Downey Jr to pick up something for being awesome and this would have been the perfect choice. Oh well. Some other time.
Normally each year I try and watch as many of the nominated films as I can and I'm delighted that I don't have to spend every waking moment doing that now as I've seen a fair few already. Some good. Some bad.
Full nominations in the read more and my comments about each one.
BOLD - What I would like to win.
Italics - What I think will win
Best Film:
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
Frost/Nixon
Milk
The Reader
Slumdog Millionaire
None of these are particularly amazing but Slumdog Millionaire is a piece of schmaltzy shit whereas Button is, if nothing else, visually astounding.
Director:
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button - David Fincher
Frost/Nixon - Ron Howard
Milk - Gus Van Sant
The Reader - Stephen Daldry
Slumdog Millionaire - Danny Boyle
I'd love Danny Boyle to win an oscar. But not for this. Frost/Nixon is good but nothing special whereas as I said before Benjamin Button looks savage.
Actor In A Leading Role:
The Visitor - Richard Jenkins
Frost/Nixon - Frank Langella
Milk - Sean Penn
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button -
Brad Pitt
The Wrestler - Mickey Rourke
As Rob has pointed out The Wrestler is amazing and criminally not nominated for Best Film and Director. I can see Mickey Rourke win but Sean Penn has got all the right Oscar boxes ticked. Brad Pitt however shouldn't be here. They should have nominated Cate Blanchett for the same film in his stead.
Actor In A Supporting Role:
Milk - Josh Brolin
Tropic Thunder - Robert Downey Jr.
Doubt - Philip Seymour Hoffman
The Dark Knight - Heath Ledger
Revolutionary Road - Michael Shannon
If its Ledger I'll be happy. If its Downey Jr I'll be surprised but happy. Sorry Josh Brolin this isn't your year.
Actress In A Leading Role:
Rachel Getting Married - Anne Hathaway
Changeling - Angelina Jolie
Frozen River - Melissa Leo
Doubt - Meryl Streep
The Reader - Kate Winslet
I haven't seen The Reader yet but I can't imagine I'll think its anything particularly special. I just love Kate Winslet and think she should win everything.
Actress In A Supporting Role:
Doubt - Amy Adams
Vicky Cristina Barcelona - Penélope Cruz
Doubt - Viola Davis
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button - Taraji P. Henson
The Wrestler - Marisa Tomei
The fact that there's two people nominated for Doubt means that neither of them will win because of the split vote. I really want Marisa Tomei to win. Firstly because I think she's hot as fuck for a woman in her mid 40's and watch The Wrestler if you don't believe me but also because it would be hilarious if she won it again and people thought the wrong name was read out just like the last time she won.
I think they'll go with something a little less sultry though in all honesty.
Adapted Screenplay:
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button - Eric Roth, Robin Swicord
Doubt - John Patrick Shanley
Frost/Nixon - Peter Morgan
The Reader - David Hare
Slumdog Millionaire - Simon Beaufoy
No Idea. They're all adapted from prominent enough works. Slumdog Millionaires novel "Q&A" is awful as well and actually made worse on the screen. Why not go for an F. Scott Fitzgerald adaptation though as its so different from the book.
Original Screenplay:
Frozen River - Courtney Hunt
Happy-Go-Lucky - Mike Leigh
In Bruges - Martin McDonagh
Milk - Dustin Lance Black
WALL-E - Andrew Stanton, Jim Reardon, Pete Docter
In Bruges doesn't really count as the little Indie-Film-that-could. Or does it? I'm going for it anyway but Wall-E I reckon will take it.
Animated Feature
Bolt
Kung Fu Panda
WALL-E
Seriously. There's no contest.
At this point its anyones game. The Dark Knight will probably take a bunch of the technical awards. God knows Wanted doesn't deserve anything. And notice the lack of Indiana Jones?
Art Direction
Changeling
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
The Dark Knight
The Duchess
Revolutionary Road
Cinematography
Changeling
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
The Dark Knight
The Reader
Slumdog Millionaire
Costume Design
Australia
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
The Duchess
Milk
Revolutionary Road
Documentary Feature
The Betrayal (Nerakhoon)
Encounters at the End of the World
The Garden
Man on Wire
Trouble the Water
Documentary Short
The Conscience of Nhem En
The Final Inch
Smile Pinki
The Witness - From the Balcony of Room 306
Editing
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
The Dark Knight
Frost/Nixon
Milk
Slumdog Millionaire
Best Foreign Language Film
The Baader Meinhof Complex
The Class
Departures
Austria
Waltz with Bashir
Makeup
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
The Dark Knight
Hellboy II: The Golden Army
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
Original Song
WALL-E - "Down to Earth"
Slumdog Millionaire - "Jai Ho"
Slumdog Millionaire - "O Saya"
Sound Editing
The Dark Knight
Iron Man
Slumdog Millionaire
WALL-E
Wanted
Sound Mixing
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
The Dark Knight
Slumdog Millionaire
WALL-E
Wanted
Visual Effects
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
The Dark Knight
Iron Man
Animated Short
La Maison de Petits Cubes
Lavatory - Lovestory
Oktapodi
Presto
This Way Up
Live Action Short
Auf der Strecke (On the Line)
Manon on the Asphalt
New Boy
The Pig
Spielzeugland (Toyland)
Oscar nominations announced
Video Of The Day
Spent a lot of the weekend listening to Elliott Smith's eponymous second album which is so damn beautiful, I'm gonna have Smith on the brain for weeks.
To drag you all in with me, here's his performance of Miss Misery at the Oscars. Oh how far away from Celine Dion... :
Gary Busey does a "Busey" on the red carpet at Oscars
Not sure who the villain of this particular piece is.
Is it Gary Busey for being obnoxious and scary and possibly all fucked up?
Is it Jennifer Garner for being a little bit too hysterical in her reaction?
Is it Ryan Seacrest for being Ryan Seacrest (i.e. Cock)?
I'm really not sure what Busey's beef could possibly be with Seacrest or why Seacrest would even show up on his radar but one things for sure: There's a whole lot of crazy going on.
Kudos to Laura Linney however for exuding class.
Oscar Winners
The first year in ages where I've managed to accurately predict nearly every winner. Pity I didn't put any money on it though. Oh well.
Have a look below for main winners.
Best Picture: No Country for Old Men
Best Director: Joel & Ethan Coen
Best Actor: Daniel Day Lewis
Best Actress: Marion Cotillard
Best Supporting Actor: Javier Bardem
Best Supporting Actress: Tilda Swinton
Best Original Screenplay: Juno
Best Adapted Screenplay: No Country for Old Men
Best Animated Feature: Ratatouille
Then there's all the other smaller ones that most people dont' care about.
No Country for Old Men pretty much walked away with everything I expected it to and rightfully so and Daniel-Day Lewis got Best Actor which was inevitable. In fact the day that they actually change the acting awards names from Oscars to the Daniel-Days is surely just around the corner.
The actress awards were less clear. It was always going to be between Julie Christie and Marion Cotillard so it was a toss of the coin for that and I was expecting Cate Blanchett to get Best Supporting but Tilda Swinton was the close second so no major surprise there either. Anyway. Didn't watch them live so can't tell you if it was a good show or not.
Go here for full coverage.
BAFTA awards. Less shite than Oscars
Anybody who has sat through the whole Oscar ceremony like I have for the last 7 years will know how excruciatingly boring and cringeworthy it can be and will also be slightly refreshed by the not so crap Bafta ceremony. For one it was hosted by the mighty Jonathan Ross who, while not as funny as he is on his own programmes, did still manage to beat the shit out of Ellen Degeneres, Steve Martin and Whoopi Goldberg, all people who have sucked hosting the Oscars.
The winners weren't completely surprising in most categories as the films nominated this year have all succeeded in being pretty good.
Atonement won best pictures which isn't surprising seeing as this is the BRITISH film awards, what is suprising is that it didn't win Best British Film. Instead that award went to This is England. Considering all the other films in that category (Control, Eastern Promises, The Bourne Ultimatum, Atonement) were significantly better than Shane Meadows alright-for-an-hour-shite-for-the-end movie about Nazis in 80's England made this the biggest surprise of the night for me.
The Coen's won for best Director which is hopefully a sign of things to come next month. The lives of Others won best foreign film for what surely must he be the last awards ceremony that it can be nominated in (its awesome by the by). Daniel-Day and Javier Bardem won the Best Actor and Supporting Actors (Surprise Surprise) and Marion Cotillard won for La Vie en Rose (this will be watched tonight finally) proving that it might not be a runaway win for Julie Christie in two weeks time.
All the other jibber jabber can be found here and one thing I learnt from last night is that Joe Wright (Atonement Director) is one lucky bastard as he seems to have nabbed himself the lovely Rosamund Pike:
MMMMMMMMMMMMMMM!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Grammys Safe From Strike
The Writers Guild of America has given the Grammy Awards the go ahead. So I guess the Oscars are safe. Let's just hope Ellen doesn't get the hosting gig again.
Click for story
Once Oscar Probe
I'm not saying anything.
Just click the link.
Link
(See, that was dignified..)
Who Will Save Us From Glen Hansard's Ego?
In an attempt to reassure myself that Hansard will remain only ever 'Academy Award Nominee Glen Hansard', lets take a look at his competition in the Best Song category for the Oscars:
August Rush
'Raise It Up'
Hmmm.. not encouraging, Fairly standard cheese fair. An outside chance simply because it's sung by a cute little kid.
Enchanted
'Happy Working Song'
This movie looks good, and with three noms it's got to be the main competition, but I don't think there's enough in this particular tune to win.
Dang. Let's move on..
Enchanted
'So Close'
'So straightforward- not a hint of irony. So romantic..' Really have to watch this movie.. but dammit, this song sucks. Next:
Enchanted
'That's How You Know'
This has got to be the strongest competition. It's actually not bad. It's got that calypso thing going on that you can't argue with, and the comedy is pretty good (though I don't know if that'll be taken into account).
Dammit though, there just isn't really anything that can stand up to 'Falling Slowly'. As much as I don't like Hansard, I have to admit it's probably the best song on offer. I just don't think we can stand the ego. Well, on the bright side, if he wins he may become a big worldwide star and leave Ireland for good. For some reason (surely ego related) embedding on Falling Slowly is disabled, so you'll have to go elsewhere to see it.
Ok fine, here's the link. Just don't say I wasn't impartial.
A Goddamn Dirty Scandal
Click here to find out one of the most bloody unfair and scandalous pieces of news featuring the man in the picture. This guy should be given a Nobel Prize for the score never mind an oscar.
Okay I exaggerate but still.
Oscar Nominations Announced
I didn't realise yesterday when I posted my preview of the Oscars that the nominations would be announced so soon so apologies for the fact its been a whole 24 hours since we last mentioned anything about it.
Oh well. Here's the main nominations. As you can see I was scarily accurate with my predictions which just goes to show you that I'm awesome.
Best Picture
Atonement
Juno
Michael Clayton
No Country For Old Men
There Will Be Blood
Best Actor
George Clooney for Micheal Clayton
Daniel Day-Lewis for There Will Be Blood
Johnny Depp for Sweeney Todd
Tommy Lee Jones for In the Valley of Elah
Viggo Mortenson for Eastern Promises
Best Actress
Cate Blanchett for Elizabeth: The Golden Age
Julie Christie for Away From Her
Marion Cotillard for La Môme
Laura Linney for The Savages
Ellen Page for Juno
Best Supporting Actor
Casey Affleck for The Assassination of Jesse James by the... blah blah
Javier Bardem by No Country for Old Men
Philip Seymour Hoffman for Charlie Wilsons War
Hal Holbrook for Into the Wild
Tom Wilkinson for Michael Clayton
Best Supporting Actress
Cate Blanchett for I'm Not There
Ruby Dee for American Gangster
Saoirse Ronan for Atonement
Amy Ryan for Gone Baby Gone
Tilda Swinton for Michael Clayton
Best Director
Paul Thomas Anderson for There Will Be Blood
Ethan & Joel Coen for No Country for Old Men
Tony Gilroy for Michael Clayton
Jason Reitman for Juno
Julian Schnabel for The Diving Bell and the Butterfly
Best Original Screenplay
Juno
Lars and the Real Girl
Michael Clayton
Ratatouille
The Savages
The rest of the nominations you can find here because I'm too lazy to put them all in and lets face it, who gives a rats ass about best achievement in make-up.
So no real surprises in the main categories. Michael Clayton is getting more attention than I originally thought so I'm going to bother my arse watching that this weekend. Cate Blanchett gets double noms again. She's not likely to get it for Elizabeth as most people reckon the film wasn't all that, plus she was nominated and didn't get it for the first movie. She's more likely to get Best Supporting Actress for playing Bob Dylan in what looks like, but apparently isn't, the most pretentious movie ever.
One surprise was Casey Affleck being nominated for T.A.O.J.J.B.T.C.R.F. Yes thats right I said Casey Affleck. Never made much of an impression on me before, largely due to shite acting in pretty much everything so I'm going to have to reserve judgement for this until I see the flick.
Predictions: Just like I said before. Atonement for best film. Daniel Day for Best Actor (Viggo really is savage in Eastern Promises though). Julie Christie or Ellen Page for Best Actress. Javier Bardem for Best Supporting Actor. Best Original Screenplay for Juno (which should be a nice surprise for Diablo Cody who wrote the script while working as a stripper) and best adapted Screenplay for No Country for Old Men.
If there is a God then the Coens will get Best Director as they deserve it for the body of their work not to mention the fact that No Country is brilliant.
A very real possibility might be that the ceremony will be cancelled due to the Writers strike which will save us from seeing Glen Hansards smug bastard face performing (and probably accepting an award for) his nominated song "Falling Slowly"
Awards Season Movies
Always around this time of year we get to hear bits and bobs of whats going to be nominated for Oscars and such. As the Golden Globes have already taken place (sort of) and because what happens there is generally a preview of what will happen in Oscar Land, its become clearer at this stage which movies are going to be ones talked about next month but what is surprising is the quality of flicks this year, at least amongst the ones that will end up winning. Most of the time the movies they give the oscars too are ones that were made with Oscars in mind. This becomes quite tedious if you have to sit through another movie about a disabled person/troubled musician/little man fighting against the odds which normally win. I still have yet to see Capote, and Ray and A Beautiful Mind and Million Dollar Baby were shite so this year is a pleasant surprise. Here's 4 of the ones that you will hear of next month which are quite quite good.
ATONEMENT
I guarantee most of you have avoided this because you think its another fucking chick flick that your ma would love, which is a damn shame because this is easily one of the most
stunningly made films I have ever seen. The soundtrack is excellent. It has one of the best shots I've ever seen. It has one of the most realistic sex scenes I've ever seen. Keira Knightley is hot. All crucial elements.
The poster and advertising havn't really sold this that well because it seems to give the impression that this is a love story. In some ways it is but thats not the main point of the film. Its about making up for mistakes (hence the title) and I'm not going to spoil too much by saying that its far too bitter a film to be considered a love story. Watch it a see. Oh and James McAvoy is a legend and deserves to be getting all the kudos he's been getting the last few years.
This has already been and gone in the cinema so you'll have to wait for DVD to see it which should be in the next month or so.
NO COUNTRY FOR OLD MEN
There are only two reasons you need to see this film. 1) Its the Coen Brothers and 2) Its the Coen Brothers back on top form.
For anybody who thought the Coens had slipped in the last little while then you can all collectively breathe a big sigh of relief that they've made this masterpiece. Personally I though Intolerable Cruelty was great. It was the Coens doing a screwball comedy and succeeding marvelously. Admittedly The Ladykillers was a waste of space but now they've gone back to their Millers Crossing/Fargo days with possibly their most violent film to date and easily the evillest bad guy in their canon. A man so damn mean and violent that he makes Peter Stormare in Fargo seem like a pussy. No wood-chippers here. Who needs a wood-chipper when you can use a cattle gun. I will be absolutely amazed if Javier Bardem doesn't get nominated for an acting award which he probably will seeing as he already won the Golden Globe.
No Country for Old Men came out last week in Cinemas over here.
JUNO
Most years we have what is known as "the-little-indie-film-that-could". Just like Little Miss Sunshine and Lost in Translation it will come out of nowhere and be nominated for tons 
of stuff, in the end only winning Best Original Screenplay. Juno has already proved to be this years answer to that in the U.S. and there can be little doubt it will do the same here. The fact is that the film is funny as fuck and is very very moving without being mawkish and over-sentimental like lots of similar flicks. Ellen Page is cute as hell and proves, after Hard Candy, that she can pretty much do anything and her support cast is awesome too with two Arrested Development alumni in Michael Cera and Jason Bateman as well as Alison Janney who will always be in my mind the legendary CJ Craig from The West Wing.
Juno comes out early next month
THERE WILL BE BLOOD
asshole however unlike Gangs of New York this film isn't marred by fucking awful Irish accents. The following I havn't seen but are making some noise so no telling what will happen with them: The Diving Bell and the Butterfly; The Kite Runner; Michael Clayton; Sweeney Todd; I'm Not There; The Great Debaters. American Gangster and Eastern Promises are also being knocked about too. I doubt either will win anything though. Eastern Promises is excellent and contains the only great performance by Viggo Mortensen that I've seen but American Gangster is average at best.
Smug Alert
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