2012 OSCAR SEASON

 

Well the summer movie season is over and now the fall and holiday movie season is upon us.  This is the  time of year when almost all the movies that will be nominated for Oscars will be released.  For Oscar Junkies like myself it is a time of trying to guess what movies will be nominated and are a must see.  Of course the fun thing about Oscar season is that one week a movie looks like a sure bet then the next week it will be out of the question.  Plus smaller movies will get a big bounce and more buzz if they perform well at The Toronto Film Festival which hasn’t happened yet so there might be some movies that are still unknown to get some buzz. 

Right now here are the 10 movies that have the most buzz that will be coming out in the next couple of months and are sure to have some nominations. 

 

1.  The Master 9/14 -  Paul Thomas Anderson last gave us the Best Picture nominee There Will Be Blood in 2007.  Now he is back with a controversial move that seems to tell the rise of Scientology.  Looks like it has great performances by Philip Seymour Hoffman and Joaquin Phoenix.  The September release could mean it will be forgotten about by the time the nominations are due but right now it looks to be a strong contender.

 

2.  Argo 10/12 – Ben Affleck has been making a name for himself as a director after Gone Baby Gone and The Town.  This time he is directing himself in a movie that is not in Boston.  Based on true events during the Iran Hostage Crisis where the CIA sent operatives into Iran pretending to be Canadian filmmakers making fake movie called Argo.  The Iranians bought the story and now it is a movie.  Based on true events gives the movie an edge at Oscar time and many people think Affleck should have been nominated for The Town so this has a great chance of getting some nominations. 

 

3.  The Sessions 10/26- One of the big breakouts from Sundance earlier this year The Sessions is about a man in an iron lung who wants to lose his virginity at the age of 38.  His priest helps him hire a sex surrogate.   There is usually one small independent  comedy that  usually end up being nominated and this one has the best chances with a great cast of John Hawkes (Winter’s Bone), Helen Hunt and William H. Macy.  Probably will not win anything but is a must see.

 

4.  Lincoln 11/9 – This is the movie that screams Oscar more than any other.  Directed by Spielberg and staring Daniel Day-Lewis and based on true events.  Spielberg’s last movie War Horse had mixed reviews and still ended up being nominated for Best Picture so I don’t see how this one cannot be. 

 

5.  Anna Karenina 11/16 -  Joe Wright has had two movies nominated for Best Picture Pride and Prejudice and Atonement.  Both starred Keira Knightley and were based on a book.  Anna Karenina is no different.  Based on the famous novel by Leo Tolstoy about a Russian Princess this looks like it has everything Academy voters look for in a period piece. 

 

6.  Life of Pi 11/21 -  This looks like a visually stunning movie if the whole concept is a little weird.  But it is based on a popular book and if done right might be able to make it work.  But a movie about a guy on a boat with a tiger, a hyena, a zebra, and an orangutan floating in the ocean after a shipwreck sounds like strange story and might be a tough sell especially with no famous stars. 

 

7.  Hyde Park on the Hudson 12/7-  Another historic movie about a president this one about FDR.  With Bill Murray playing the president in what could be one of his best performances the movie will be getting a lot of buzz, but I don’t know if it will generate enough to get a Best Picture nomination or just a Best Actor for Murray which seems to be very likely. 

 

8.  The Hobbit 12/14-  The first in the Trilogy.  After score three Best Picture Nominations for The Lord of the Rings Trilogy Peter Jackson is back with the prequel.  As of now there is no reason to think it won’t be nominated.

 

9.  Zero Dark Thirty 12/19-  After becoming the first female to win Best Director for The Hurt Locker Kathryn Bigelow is back with another war movie.  A movie about the hunt for Osama Bin Laden she has been working on it since The Hurt Locker finished but had to change it after he was found and killed making it one of the most timely movies coming out. 

  

10.  Django Unchained. 12/25-  Quentin Tarantino makes some violent films and somehow ends up getting them nominated for Best Picture.  His first western about a slave who becomes a bounty hunter and searches for his wife looks like it will be no different.  Reteaming with Christoph Waltz who won Best Supporting Actor for Inglourious Basterds and an all-star cast including Jamie Fox, Leonardo DiCaprio and of course Samuel L. Jackson it looks like it will be a lot of fun and probably score another nom for Tarantino. 

 

Oscar Predictions

Here are my predictions for the 2012 Academy Awards. Some of the categories are complete guesses and some are upsets I am hoping for. For the most part I feel the great love of The Artist will have it winning many categories.

Best Picture – The Artist

Best Director – The Artist

Best Actor – The Artist

Best Actress – Viola Davis- The Help

Best Supporting Actor – Christopher Plummer – Beginners

Best Supporting Actress – Octavia Spencer – The Help

Best Original Screenplay – Woody Allen – Midnight in Paris

Best Adapted Screenplay – Moneyball- (This is one of the tightest races it is a close call with The Descendants but I am an Aaron Sorkin fan so going with Moneyball)

Best Animated Feature Film-Rango

Best Foreign Film- A Separation

Best Art Direction- Hugo

Best Costume- Jane Eyre (Always go with the movie that has the biggest costumes and it was either Jane Eyre or Anonymous)

Best Original Song- “Man or Muppet”

Best Original Score- The Artist (Since it is a silent movie the score makes the whole movie but in my opinion it wasn’t that great. I hope that John Williams wins for either War Horse or The Adventures of Tintin)

Best Documentary- Paradise Lost 3: Purgatory

Best Documentary (Short) – The Tsunami and the Cherry Blossom (complete guess)

Best Cinematography – The Tree of Life (the only thing people can agree on about The Tree of Life is the cinematography)

Best Editing – The Artist

Best Make-Up- Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2 (why not Harry Potter should win at least one award)

Best Sound Editing- Transformers: Dark of the Moon (no one is talking about Transformers winning any awards and Hugo is actually the frontrunner in the sound categories but I predict upset)

Best Sound Mixing - Transformers: Dark of the Moon

Best Visual Effects- Transformers: Dark of the Moon (Rise of the Planet of the Apes or Hugo are the frontrunners and both are better movies but Transformers is just one giant special effect and should get some recognition)

Best Short Film (Animated) - La Luna (complete guess)

Best Short Film (Live Action) – Time Freak ( I actually have seen 2 movies in this category and this is one of the funniest short movies and hope it gets the award)

Best Picture Nominees and Politics

I once read an article that said the movies that are nominated during an election year represent the issues of the day. I read this in 2000 when the movies nominated for Best Picture of 1999 included American Beauty, The Sixth Sense, The Cider House Rules, The Insider, and The Green Mile. The article claimed based on these movies the issues that were most on people’s minds were Family Values (American Beauty, The Sixth Sense and The Cider House Rules), corporate corruption (The Insider) and capital punishment (The Green Mile). Since then we have had 2 more elections and it hasn’t been to clear how the all the movies lined up with the issues although some movies are obvious. In 2004 Mystic River dealt with child molestation and violent crimes but what issues did Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King represent? In 2008 the issues were much clearer. We again had corporate corruption (Michael Clayton), the power of oil and religion (There Will be Blood), Teenage Pregnancy (Juno) and violence in society (No Country for Old Men).

So what about 2012? Well with 9 movies nominated it is harder to say. A recurring theme is the idea of looking for something. Hugo, Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close, and War Horse all have boys looking for something a key, a dad’s secret, and a horse. Midnight in Paris, Hugo, and The Artists take a nostalgic look at the past. But overall the social issues addressed are jobs, war, race, and care for the earth and others.

Here are the nominations and how they might represent the talking points of this year’s election. Some of these are a stretch and some are really easy, and since I didn't see Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close or War Horse I am just going on what I have heard about them.

The Artist- A movie about how new technology threatens ones lively hood. Issues addressed – Fear of the new and the loss of jobs. Jobs will be a big issue in the election.

The Descendants- About a man who struggles with to keep his family together during the sickness of his wife. Issues addressed – Family Values with side plots that involve capitalism vs. conservationism and end of life issues like living wills. This election cycle has not been so much about family values but the side plot of preserving a piece of land or using it to make money has been talked about.

Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close – About a boy dealing with the aftermath of 9/11. Issues addressed –After 10 years we are still dealing with our feelings about that day. 9/11 always seems to be a talking point during the elections.

The Help - About black maids in the South during the 50’s. Issues addressed- Racial tensions. Race is another talking point that always seems to find its way into the discussion.

Hugo – About a boy looking for the key to his robot and how he fits into the world, also the loss of ones lively hood after technology changes. Issues addressed- Dealing with loss and finding your place in the world. With a lot of people out of jobs everyone is looking for how they fit into the current picture.

Midnight in Paris – About a guy who looks back on the past as being a great time. Issues addressed – The way we romanticize the past and not look at how it really was. There have been lots of talk about returning to the policies of the past when everything was better.

Moneyball – About a poor team trying to compete with teams with more money. Issues addressed – The struggle between the rich and the poor. The perfect movie for the Occupy Wall Street crowd.

The Tree of Life – About spirituality and the struggle between human nature and grace. Issues addressed- The battle between doing what is good for the many vs. what is good for self. This can be another metaphor for the battle between socialism and capitalism.

War Horse – About a boy who looks for his horse during WWI. Issues addressed – The effects of war on people. With the country ending one war and the talk of a war with Iran you know that this will be a hot topic.

Academy Award Predictions

Tuesday January 24^th the Academy Award Nominations will be announced. Here are my predictions on who is going to be nominated in some of the major categories. 

.

Best Picture- This year for the first time there is no specific number of nominations for Best Picture. It can be anywhere from 5 – 10 with the actual number most likely coming somewhere in between. For my predictions I will go with the 7 movies I am pretty sure will get nominated.

1. The Artist-

2. The Descendants

3. The Help

4. Hugo

5. Midnight in Paris

6. Moneyball

7. War Horse- seemed a lock for Best Picture for a while but it’s recent snub by the Directors Guild it seems to be losing some ground

Three movies that are right on the cusp of getting nominated but I don’t think will are

8. The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo-With its recent nomination at the Directors Guild it seems to be getting some more attention but seems like it is too little too late.

9. The Tree of Life- A movie that really divided critics the question has always been will Academy voters give it enough first place votes. It seemed a long shot but it has been getting a lot of traction lately.

10. Bridesmaids- A movie that has gotten much love but raunchy comedies do not usually get Academy Nomination and there is no reason to think this year will be any different.

Best Director-With Spielberg’s recent snub at the DGA’s it makes this category a little more complicated.

1. Michel Hazanavicius-The Artist

2. Alexander Payne- The Descendants

3. Martin Scorsese- Hugo

4. Woody Allen- Midnight in Paris

5. Terrence Malick-Tree of Life - While I don’t think he will get a Best Picture nom I think they will give him a Best Director nom.

Best Actor-

1. Jean Dujardin – The Artist

2. George Clooney – The Descendants

3. Leonardo Dicaprio – J. Edgar

4. Brad Pitt – Moneyball

5. Michael Fassbender – Shame

Best Actress

1. Viola Davis – The Help

2. Meryl Streep – The Iron Lady

3. Michelle Williams – My Week with Marilyn

4. Tilda Swinton - We Need to Talk About Kevin

5. Charlize Theron - Young Adult

Best Supporting Actor – While I hope Ben Kingsley gets nominated for Hugo right now it doesn’t look good. And I do not think Andy Serkis will get nominated for Rise of the Planet of the Apes.

1. Christopher Plummer – Beginners

2. Albert Brooks - Drive

3. Jonah Hill – Moneyball

4. Kenneth Branagh – My Week with Marilyn

5. Nick Nolte – Warrior

Best Supporting Actress

1. Bérénice Bejo – The Artist

2. Mellissa McCarthy – Bridesmaids – I think the only chance Bridesmaids has of getting an Oscar nomination

3. Shailene Woodley – The Descendants

4. Octavia Spencer - The Help

5. Jessica Chastain – The Help (while she has been in 3 other movies she could be nominated for it looks like this is the one she will get. Although I think she was better in Take Shelter)

Best Original Screenplay- The big question is wheather or not Bridesmaids can sneak its way onto the list. There are not that many strong contenders so it is possible.

1. Will Reiser – 50/50

2. Michel Hazanavicius – The Artist

3. Woddy Allen- Midnight in Paris

4. Tom McCarthy – Win Win

5. Diablo Cody – Young Adult

Best Adapted Screenplay

1. Alexander Payne and Nat Faxon & Jim Rash – The Descendants

2. Steven Zaillian and Aaron Sorkin – Moneyball

3. John Logan- Hugo

4. Tate Taylor – The Help

5. Steven Zaillian – The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo

Best Animated Feature

1. The Adventurs of Tintin

2. Cars 2

3. Rango

4. Kung Fu Panda 2

5. Puss in Boots

Listomania Sunday: Best Picture Winners Since 1970

Well my blog is coming to an end.  So here are my favorite Best Picture Winners since 1970. Why since 1970 because that was the halfway point in my quest.  If you want to see the list for the first that list is here.  Listomania Sunday: Oscars

1.  Silence of the Lambs- One of only the few movies to win all 5 top Oscars and one of the only thrillers to win Best Picture. Doesn't get much better then Anthony Hopkins as Hannibal Lecter.
2.  Schidnlers List - One of the most moving and inspiring films of the last 30 years. Spielberg at his best. 
3.  The Godfather- A true masterpiece. 
4.  The Hurt Locker- Even though it is a recent movie I think it deserves to be on this list. Very well done with high intensity all the way through. 
5.  American Beauty- One of my favorite movies in one of my favorite years. 1999 was a great year for movies and while most critics and my dad hate this movie I still find something about it very good.

The Kings Speech

I can't believe I made it. The final movie in my Best Picture quest. There were so many times I thought about just giving up on it but I made it through. My wife will be happy now since she thought this was a waste of my time.

For the second year in a row there were 10 nominees for Best Picture and 2010 was a good year. And for the first time (and probably the last time) I managed to see all the movies nominated for Best Picture before the nominations were announced. Coming into Oscar night there were two movies battling it out for the top spot. The Social Network and The King's Speech. The Social Network won almost every critic award but when the award season really kicked in The King's Speech started winning all the awards so it was anyone's guess who would win the top prize. But The King's Speech ended up winning.

The Kings Speech is about King George VI or Bertie (Colin Firth) as he was known to his friends before he became king. Bertie who always had a stutter is thrust in the spotlight as radio became more popular in the 30's and monarchs needed to make speeches that went out to a larger population. Being embarrassed by a speech he had given and numerous failures with speech therapist he wife Elizabeth (Helena Bonham Carter) seeks out the help of the unconventional doctor Lionel Logue (Geoffrey Rush). As Logue challenges everything Bertie has heard from previous doctors Bertie becomes disillusioned and things Logue is just a hack. At the same time Bertie's older brother who is next in line to become king is fooling around with a number of married women and is told he must stop before he becomes king. But after their father dies and he is crowned King he refuses to change and is forced to renounce the throne. This makes Bertie next in line to become King and he turns to Logue to help him. As he works with Logue he learns tricks to help him and when WWII starts and he needs to make a big radio address about the war Logue is by his side helping him.

The movie is funny, inspirational, and uplifting which is a change of pace from the dark gritty films that had won in the oughts. It had great performances especially Geoffrey Rush. He brought so much personality to his character and really gave the movie the comedy to balance the drama. Colin Firth and Helena Bonham Carter were both great in their roles also. While it was a good movie it was very formulaic and felt like a typical Oscar movie. I also felt one of the more interesting parts of the story was rushed and that was the story of Renouncement of the throne. It was the first time a King of England gave up his throne. And after when Bertie becomes King he even says that this is the first time a King has taken a throne while the previous King is alive and well.

I would have liked to see the more modern tale of The Social Network win or even better the twisted Inception win. The Social Network told the true story of Mark Zuckerberg and his rise to power after he started Facebook. The movie written by Aaron Sorkin with his typical rapid fire dialogue (he deservingly won Best Adapted Screenplay) and with a main character that was both sympathetic and ruthless. I felt the complicated characters that made this movie more interesting instead of the cookie cutter characters from The King's Speech . An even more bold choice for Best Picture would have been Inception which was written and directed by Christopher Nolan and told the story about a group of people who try to implant a thought into someone's head while they are asleep. The movie is also well acted and very original. But I think most Academy voters just didn't get it and only ended up winning 4 technical awards. And its loss to the King's Speech for Best Original Screenplay was a big snub in my opinion. I feel it should have went to the movie that really was original and creative.

The biggest snub in my opinion was the omission of Waiting for Super from the Best Documentary nominees. It was about the education system in America and how it needs to be improved. It was a great documentary and won a bunch of awards prior to the Academy Awards but was not even nominated. It has been speculated that its portrayal of Unions as bad made it hard for the members of the Academy (most who are members of one union or another) to vote for it. The other movie that I thought should have been nominated was Blue Valentine. Which featured great performances by Ryan Gosling and Michelle Williams (she did get a Best Actress Nomination) as a married couple who are trying to save their marriage. The movie is sad and depressing but really has an emotional impact. Also Subbed was Mila Kunis as Best Supporting Actress for Black Swan. As rival to Best Actress Winner Natalie Portman she was a great villain and was one of the standout performances of the year.

Current Ranks on IMDB Top 250 for Best Picture nominated Films
Inception- #12
Toy Story 3- #29
The Black Swan-#123
The King's Speech-127
The Social Network-#236

The Hurt Locker

The little movie that could. The Hurt Locker went up against the highest grossing movie of all time and came out the victor. After a lot of criticism in 2008 for movies that get left off the Best Picture nominations (specifically The Dark Knight) the Academy decided to increase the number of Best Picture nominations to 10 in 2009. And it did what I think the Academy intended it to do, get a mix of small independent films with large blockbusters. Movies that would not otherwise be nominated like the sci-fi flick District 9, the animated movie Up, and the sports drama The Blind Side got a chance at glory. But the big showdown was between Avatar the highest grossing movie of all time vs. The Hurt Locker a small independent film and two directors that used to be married Kathryn Bigelow and James Cameron, with the Hurt Locker and Kathryn Bigelow coming out on top.

The Hurt Locker is about an elite bomb squad in Iraq. When a new leader SFC William James (Jeremy Renner) joins Bravo Company his leadership style causes conflict with his two subordinates, Sanborn (Anthony Mackie) and Eldridge (Brian Geraghty). His aggressive style goes against what they have been used too. Every call poses new problems and new bombs and they must try to figure out a way to work together to live. Meanwhile Eldridge is dealing with guilt for the death of their former leader.

 What makes this movie work is the intensity. Each bomb they are called out to defuse brings a new heightened sense of anxiety. The acting is great. Jeremy Renner is just pitch perfect as James. He is all gung ho without concern for his own safety and sometimes the safety of others. What I love about this movie besides all the suspense is that it feels real. Every character is believable. Each has their own psychiatric issues and they all feel multidimensional. The movie is very minimalist having very little score and no opening titles. It proves that you don't need a big budget to make a great movie.

On the flip side of that is Avatar, which proves that if you have a big budget doesn't mean you will have a great movie. I was surprised after the awards were announced how many people just assumed that Avatar would win. While Avatar did have some amazing special effects and great visuals the story was kind of bland. While the characters in The Hurt Locker felt well rounded in Avatar they felt very one dimensional (ironic since the movie was filmed in 3-D). It bothered me that everyone would assume that it would win without ever seeing The Hurt Locker.

 I was pleasantly surprised to see District 9 nominated for Best Picture as it was one of the most original Sci-Fi movies I had seen in a while. I am also glad Precious got nominated for Best Picture I just wish it would have received more attention as it was a dark, disturbing but incredibly well acted movie. With all the attention Kathryn Bigelow received about being the first women to win Best Director there was hardly any mention that Lee Daniels was only the second black man to be nominated. Not surprisingly The Hangover one of the funniest movies of the year didn't get nominated. The biggest snub in my opinion was The Lovely Bones which was one of my favorite movies of the year and deserved more nominations.

Oscar Trivia:

With her nomination for Best Actress for Julie and Julia Meryl Streep broke the record with 13 nominations for a leading role and a total of 16 nominations total.

Avatar and Up became the first 3-D movies to be nominated for Best Picture

On a personal note this is the first movie to win Best Picture since I started my Best Picture quest. Here is the link to my original review The Hurt Locker

Slumdog Millionaire

Looking at the 2008 Best Picture nominations you would guess that there were not many good movies that year.  There was no movies that I absolutely loved out of the five nominated. I think Slumdog Millionaire was the best out of the nominated movies but Milk was also a very good movie. 

Slumdog Millionaire is about a lower class kid Jamal (Dev Patel) from the slums of India who goes on a “Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?”  and is doing really well so the authorities think he is cheating.  During the interrogation he explains how he has come to know the answers to some of the questions.  The movie flashes back and forth between the game show, the interrogation, and his past.  His past is filled with violence and after his mother is killed he runs away with his brother Salim where they meet an orphaned girl Latika.  The three become very close and Jamal develops a crush on Latika.  After being taken in by a group of thieves they are forced to beg on the streets for money.  When Jamal and Salim are able to escape Latika doesn’t make it and is forced to stay behind.  As the years pass Jamal doesn’t forget about Latika and when he is older he sets out to find her again.  When they try to rescue her from the gang that has her Salim shoots and kills the boss.  Then Salim joins a rival gang and wants Latika as his own and kicks Jamal out.  After many years of wondering what happened to the both of them Jamal finally seeks out his brother and Latika.  Thinking the only way he can get Latika back is to make money he goes on the game show hopping she is watching. 

Danny Boyle's rapid editing and great storytelling really add the intensity to a movie that is ultimately a love story about a guy on a game show.  What could have been a boring story really was exciting.  What was unexpected was the mount of violence in the movie.  Especially the beginning you think you walked into the wrong movie as they torture Jamal trying to figure out how he is cheating.  What I love about the story is how it shows random things in someone’s life can lead to a wealth of knowledge.  And the kids in the movie really do a good job. Since half the movie is flashbacks they needed to be good so the love story was believable.  This is another movie where the ensemble cast is better than individuals which is one of the reasons this became only the 11^th movie to win Best Picture without having any acting nominations although I think Dev Patel should have been nominated.  The movie won 8 Awards out of its 10 nominations including Best Director, Best Adapted Screenplay, and Best Editing.  It also won Best Song for Jai Ho a Bollywood dance number at the end of the movie. 

The movie that had the biggest spotlight on it going into the Oscars was The Curious Case of Benjamin Button which had 13 nominations.  My least favorite David Fincher movie (Seven and Fight Club are my favorite), the big budget love story about a guy aging backwards ended up winning only 3 awards.  It was the smallest number of awards won by any movie that had that many nominations. 

The biggest story that year was not about what movies were nominated for Best Picture but the movies that were not nominated.  The biggest outcry came because one of the biggest movies of the year and most well reviewed movie The Dark Knight was left off the Best Picture and Best Director lists.  It did have 8 nominations in mostly technical awards but did win get Best Supporting Actor win for Heath Ledger in his last major role.  The omission of The Dark Knight was mostly viewed as snub against superhero movies but did cause the Academy to change their rules for the following year when they increased the Best Picture nominations to 10 movies.  A movie that got 5 nominations and 4 acting nominations but no Best Picture or Director nominations was Doubt.  The acting in Doubt just blew me away and the story was just captivating.  It was one of Meryl Streep’s best performances and her record 15 acting nomination and I think she should have won.  Going toe to toe with her was Phillip Seymour Hoffman who we never know if he is good or bad and when they are both in the room together you just feel like you are watching something special.  The last movie that very few people saw but everyone that did thinks it did get nominated for Best Picture was Gran Torino.  With great acting by Clint Eastwood and a story that is dark and hard to watch but very good. 

No Country for Old Men

The Best Picture nominations for 2007 were mostly dark and depressing movies. The only comedy nominated was Juno which was about a teenage pregnancy still not a real happy theme. The other movies nominated had to do with ruthless oilmen, lying siblings, and a corporate legal thriller. Then ultimate winner was No Country for Old Men by the Coen Brothers about a stealing and murder.

No Country for Old Men is dark tale about a guy (Josh Brolin) who finds money and drugs from a drug deal gone badly. After stealing the money he is hunted by a paid gunman named Anton Chigurh (Javier Bardem) who uses and an air gun as his weapon of choice. The sheriff (Tommy Lee Jones) is trying to piece everything together.

I hadn't seen the movie since I saw it in theatres and watching it again I forgot how good this movie really was. I love that the movie keeps you guessing and you're never really sure what will happen next. Javier Bardem won Best Supporting actor for his emotionless killer Chigurh, but it was Tommy Lee Jones' sheriff that I felt was the best acting in the movie. He really grounds the movie in some reality. While everything else is going horribly wrong he is trying to do his job and keep everyone safe. The Coen brothers are known for bizarre but great movies like Fargo and The Big Lebowski. But while this movie is good the ending is really strange. I felt the ending kind of took away from how great the rest of the movie was.

Even though I love The Coen Brothers I actually felt the movie that should have won Best Picture is the equally dark and odd movie There Will Be Blood. With great performances by Daniel Day-Lewis as oil man Daniel Plainview and Paul Dano as Eli Sunday a small time preacher. There is some amazing tension between the two as we see each one manipulate others one using faith and the other using money. There are no good guys in this movie as everyone has selfish motives. This is another movie that has a strange ending but I found it more satisfying than the ending for No Country for Old Men.
The biggest upset for me was that Into the Wild wasn't nominated for more awards. I loved the movie and totally expected it to get lots of nominations. In my opinion it should have been nominated for Best Picture, Best Screenplay and Best Director, Best Score, and Best Song for some of Eddie Vedder most haunting songs. Hal Holbrook did get nominated for Best Supporting Actor but there should have been way more nominations. The two biggest acting snubs in my opinion were for Tommy Lee Jones and Paul Dano being left off the Best Supporting Actor list. Both are amazing in their movies.

IMDB Top 250 rankings of 2007 movies
No Country for Old Men #130
Into the Wild #148
There Will be Blood #159
The Bourne Ultimatum #183
Ratatouille #195

The Departed

Martin Scorcese finally won a Best Picture and Best Director with the gritty, violent, and foul mouthed The Departed based on the Japanese film Infernal Affairs. Having lost Best Director 3 times to  actors (1980 Robert Redford, 1990 Kevin Costner, and 2004 Clint Eastwood) he finally won the rematch between him and Clint Eastwood who was nominated for Letter from Iwo Jima.

The Departed is about two cops on opposite sides of the Irish mob in South Boston.  Headed by the ruthless Frank Costello (Jack Nicholson) the mob is relentlessly hunted down by the police. To get inside information Costello grooms one of his guys (Matt Damon) from an early age to become a state police office.  On the opposite side the cops send one of their agents (Leonardo DiCaprio) undercover as a mob insider.  Each side senses there is a rat in their midst but are unable to figure out who it is. After everyone is double crossed at least once will the truth ever be revealed?

Filled with shoot outs and graphic fight scenes it is one of the edgiest and the most violent films to win Best Picture.  This movie is great for many reasons including the dark twisty tale, the great performances, and intense action.  Plus for me it was cool that it took place in South Boston since I used to work there and heard lots of stories about Whitey Bulger and the Irish mob there.  The use of the Dropkick Murphys song "Shipping up to Boston" was used to maximum effect.  Winning 4 awards for Best Picture, Best Director, Best Adapted Screenplay, and Best Editing and only one nomination for the acting a Best Supporting Actor nomination for Mark Wahlberg as the foul mouthed agent Dingham.  The biggest question is how did none of the other actors get nominated.  Leonardo DiCaprio and Matt Damon should have been nominated for Best Actor and Jack Nicholson should have been nominated for Best Supporting Actor.  All were great performances. 

In my opinion no other movie that year stood a chance to win over this masterpiece and it seemed a forgone conclusion baring any surprise upsets like the previous year.  While Clint Eastwood's Letters from Iwo Jima was considered the closest competition for Best Picture (it would have been the first foreign language movie to win Best Picture if it had won) for me it was Little Miss Sunshine the quirky comedy that was a distant second.  The movie that I thought was grossly overlooked was Children of Men.  Nominated for Best Adapted Screenplay it is a great sci-fi movie that was one of the best movies of the year and should have been nominated for Best Picture, Best Director, and Best Actor for Clive Owen.  The most ridiculous nomination was Borat for Best Screenplay which was mostly ad-libbed. 

The other category that got lots of attention this year was for Best Documentary.  The controversial  Al Gore documentary An Inconvenient Truth won.  The movie was an extended version of his power point presentation on global warming.  I found the movie to be very boring and thought Jesus Camp was a much more compelling documentary.  About a controversial religious summer camp the movie follows the kids and manages to not take sides about what is taught in the camp. 

Crash

2005 had one of the biggest upsets in Oscar history and one of the most hated movies by critics to win recently.  For some reason critics hated Crash and it was even a surprise nominee since it had won very few critic awards before the Oscars and wasn’t even nominated for a Golden Globe (only the Sting in 1973 won Best Picture without being nominated for a Golden Globe).

Crash is an ensemble movie about racial issues. It follows a diverse group (a racist cop, a Latino who people stereotype as a gang member, to a middle class white couple who are carjacked by two black guys, and a Muslim who is trying to protect his store) on an average day in Los Angeles. We see how everyone’s actions helps create racial stereotypes and tension as they all cross paths.

I loved this movie despite what all the critics seemed to think about it. There was an amazing and diverse cast. I think Sandra Bullock gave one of her best performances in this movie and she should have got a Best Supporting Actress. One of the few awards it did win before the Oscars was the SAG award for best ensemble cast. I think it was very fitting for this movie since there was not one main actor or actress but each person was a supporting player. While it was not subtle on its agenda (which is why I think a lot of critics did not like it) I found it very thought provoking and touched on some very difficult subjects. It ended up winning only 3 awards (Best Picture, Best Screenplay, and Best Editing) which is one of the lowest for a movie that won Best Picture.

The movie that had the most buzz going into the Oscars that year was Brokeback Mountain about two cowboys that fall in love and have to hide it from everyone. Another movie with some great performances especially by Heath Ledger and Jake Gyllenhaal . The movie was an unconventional love story and marked the first time a story about homosexuals got such high praise. The movie won almost all the pre-Oscar awards including The Writer’s Guild, Directors Guild, and Producer’s Guild and was the first time that a movie had won all three but lost Best Picture. It did win Best Director and Best Adapted Screenplay and Best Score. My problem with the movie is not that it is about gay cowboys but that it is a love story. I found the movie very boring and I am just not a fan of real dramatic love stories.

There are many theories on how Crash beat Brokeback Mountain and none of the theories has to do with the fact that Crash is a better movie as I believe it is. Of course the main theory is that a lot of the older members of the Academy are homophobic and wouldn’t vote for a movie about gay lovers. This point has been made over and over and now it seems like anyone that says they didn’t like it means they must be homophobic. Another theory why Crash won was the amount of money that Lionsgate put into promoting the film. The spend $4 million promoting a film that cost $6 million to make. But it was a movie that came out over the summer and very few people saw so they promoted it a lot. My theory on it is this. I think that the largest voting bloc in the Academy are actors and this was a movie that actors loved (as evidence by its win at the SAG Awards). While directors get to vote for Best Director and Screenwriters get to vote for best Screenwriting everyone votes for Best Picture. With the amazing and diverse acting in Crash I think it won over the actors and actresses more than critics or other people. But there is no telling what happened but it was a major upset and a lot of critics are still pissed, but you don’t hear any outrage over Shakespeare in Love beating Saving Private Ryan which I think is more egregious.

While there was a lot of press over these two movies there were actually other movies that came out that year. George Clooney had a big year. He was nominated for producing, directing and writing Good Night, and Good Luck (the last full black and white movie to be nominated for Best Picture) about Edward R. Murrow and for Best Supporting Actor in Syriana. With a total of 4 nominations for two separate movies his only win was for Syriana. Another one of my favorite films of the year was Memoirs of a Geisha which got 6 nominations but none for any major categories it should have at least won for John Williams Score. Walk the Line about the life of Johnny Cash was another good movie with some great performances by Reese Witherspoon and Joaquin Phoenix both earning nominations and Witherspoon winning for Best Actress.

Other movies that got no love from the Academy was The Chronicles of Narinia: The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe and The 40 Year Old Virgin (my two favorite movies of the year).

The other big surprise win at the Oscars that year was for Best Song which went to “It’s Hard out there for a Pimp” from Hustle and Flow beating out favorite Dolly Parton for “Travelin’ Thru” From Transamerica.

Million Dollar Baby

This was a pretty tight year for the Oscar race and there was no real front runners.  The Aviator was one of the bigger movies and had the most nominations with 11.  Three of the 5 nominated movies were biopics The Aviator was about Howard Hughes, Ray was about Ray Charles, and Finding Neverland was about James M. Barrie the writter of Peter Pan.  But it was the smaller boxing movie Million Dollar Baby that was the ultimate winner. 

Million Dollar Baby is about an aging boxing trainer Frank Dunn (Clint Eastwood) who reluctantly starts traing a girl Maggie Fitzgerald (Hilary Swank).   Maggie is a girl from a small town who works as a waitress to make ends meet but her dream has always been to become a boxer.  She seeks out the best trainer she can find and that is Frank.  Frank is haunted by demons of his past recently had a boxer fire him for a more aggressive manager.  Seeing as Maggie will not give and is constantly coming into the gym Frank decides to help her out.  She becomes a world wide phenomenon and finally gets her chance at the title shot.  The two develop a father-daughter relationship as Maggis father died when she was young and Frank has not talked to his daughter in a long time.  About halfway through the movie turns from a boxing movie to a medical drama with an ending I didn't see coming. 

It is hard to talk about this movie without talking about the ending, but I don't want to ruin it for anyone.  I am glad I saw the movie when I did because it was when it first came out and I had no idea what it was about.  But not only does it turn into a medical drama but also has a moral dilema at the very end.     When Award season first came around I had not heard of this movie and was one of the last movies to get a wide release in early 2005.  As Clint Eastwood proved the previous year with Mystic River he has a way of getting great performances out of his actors.  Hillary Swank won Best Actress and Morgan Freeman won Best Supporting Actor.  Clint Eastwood was nominated himself as Best Actor but lost to Jamie Foxx for Ray.  I love how this movie took me by suprise.  I went in not expecting much and just your typical boxing movie but left feeling like I saw one of the few movies that makes you question your beliefs.  Great thought provoking ending. 

The one movie that I thought should have got more attention come award season was Hotel Rwanda.  While it did have two nominations for Best Actor (Don Cheadle) and Best Supporting Actress (Sophie Okonedo) it should have been nominated for Best Picture.  A really moving story about the Rwandan genocide.  Also, the biggest upset for me was the fact that Super Size Me lot Best Documentary.  It remains one of my favorite documentaries to this day and is the first documentary I saw in the theatre. 

Not really a big suprise in  my opinion but one of the biggest stories to surround the Oscars this year was that Fahrenheit 9/11 and The Passion of the Christ didn't get nominated for any big awards.  The fact that Michael Moore wanted Fahrenheit 9/11 nominated for Best Picture and not Best Documentary means it had not chance of being nominated.  It was just pure propaganda.  The Passion of the Christ while one of the biggest movies of the year had a chance to get nominated but just a small chance since it was not in English and very rarely does a movie in a foreign language get nominated. 

Interesting many of the Best Actor and Supporting Actor nominees got there start on TV shows.
Best Actors: Clint Eastwood-Rawhide, Jamie Foxx-In Living Color, Johnny Depp-21 Jumpstreet, Don Cheadle-Picket Fences
Best Supporting Actors: Alan Alda-M.A.S.H., Thomas Hayden Church-Wings, Morgan Freeman-The Electric Company and Jamie Foxx again. 
Also of note Leonardo Dicaprio was nominated for Best Actor and did have a small role on Growing Pains right before it was cancelled. 

Oscar Trivia
For the third time Martin Scorsese lost Best Director to a former Actor (1980 to Robert Redford and 1990 to Kevin Costner)
Hilary Swank beat Annette Benning for the second time after upsetting her in 1999. Swank an unknown that year was a suprise upset for Boys Dont Cry over the heavily favorited Benning for American Beauty.  This year Swank was the favorite but Benning was unable to upset her. 
Million Dollar Baby was the last movie to date to be nominated for the Top 5 Awards (Best Picture, Director, Actor, Actress, and Screenplay) winning 4 out of the 5 awards.

Best 2004 movies according to IMDB Top 250
Eternal Sunshine on the Spotless Mind-64 (one of the most original moves of the year and very glad it won Best Original Screenplay. Most movies this unusual do not get recognized by the Academy.)
Hotel Rwanda-127
Million Dollar Baby-153
The Incredibles-219
Kill Bill Vol. 2-236

The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King

Well it was a no doubter in 2003. Everyone knew that The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King would win and win it did. It won all 11 awards it was nominated tying the record of 11 wins (All About Eve and Titanic) and becoming the largest sweep in Oscar history (Gigi and The Last Emperor both swept with 9 wins). It was seen as pretty much an award for the entire trilogy instead of a specific film. In total all three films had 30 nominations and 17 wins. It was also one of the few movies to win Best Picture without being nominated for any acting awards (the only acting nomination any of the films got was Ian McKellan as Gandalf for The Fellowship of the Rings). The Return of the King was the first one to win major awards including Best Picture, Best Adapted Screenplay, and Best Director (all three for Peter Jackson).


To sum up the three movies (approximately 9 hours in their theatrical version) LOTR is about a hobbit Frodo who gains possession of a powerful ring what gives the owner great power. He is tasked with destroying the ring before it can get in the hands of Sauron the Dark Lord. A fellowship is formed to help protect Frodo that includes Gandolf a wizard, Legolas the elf, Gimli the Dwarf, Aragorn a man and three of his hobbit friends Pippin, Merry, and Samwise. They must travel to Mount Doom to destroy the ring and along the way they must learn to work together and fight powerful orcs and other forces of the dark. When the fellowship breaks up Frodo and Sam head off on their own and after Pippin and Merry are kidnapped Legolas, Gimli, and Aragorn go and search for them. Each group faces their own tests. Frodo and Sam must find a way through the mountains and after getting lost they meet Gollum a previous owner of the ring who says he will help them find their way but very much covets his “precious”. As the powerful army of the Dark Lord descends on the cities of men the cities must put away their differences and join forces to overcome the onslaught. Frodo and Sam are led by Gollum through the mazes of the mountains the whole time Gollum is trying to figure out a way to get the ring back. After overcoming many obstacles Sam and Frodo manage to make it to Mount Doom just in time for the army of men to overtake the orc army.

The movies have many amazing battle scenes and one of my favorite are the Ents attack on Isengard in the Two Towers. Of course they saved the best for last and the battle sequences towards the end of Return of the King are amazing. The story taken as a whole is one of adventure, triumph of will, and redemption. Peter Jackson’s ability to keep all the different story lines fitting perfectly is a great achievement. There are some many plot lines in the movie but you never feel too overwhelmed. The biggest problem I had with the first two movies was the lack of ending, and the biggest problem I have with the last movie is there are too many endings. When I first saw this in the theatre I was halfway out of my seat before I realized the movie wasn’t really over yet. I really think he could have cut out one of the endings. But you have to love the scope and ambition of the movies and the great visuals. With the extended editions available on DVD and Blu-Ray now there is even more to the story and it feels more complete now.

While LOTR:TROTK was the big winner there were other good movies that year. One of the other big winners that year was a small crime drama Mystic River directed by Clint Eastwood. It won Best Actor for Sean Penn and Best Supporting Actor for Tim Robbins. The dark tale about three childhood friends in Boston who have a dark secret and many years later must face old demons when one of their daughters is killed. This was a superbly acted movie and proved that Clint Eastwood knows how to direct. Any other year this would have had a chance to win Best Picture. One of my other favorite movies of the year only had two acting nominations was The House of Sand and Fog with Ben Kingsley and Shohreh Aghdashloo getting nominated for Best Actor and Best Supporting Actress and missing from list of Best Actresses was the amazing performance by Jennifer Connelly. It definitely deserved more recognition. One of the pleasantly surprising nominations was Johnny Depp’s first Best Actor nomination as Jack Sparrow from Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl. One of the most talked about movies of the year was Lost in Translation written and directed by Sophia Coppola which you either loved or hated and I fall in to the latter category. The movie did nothing for me and I found it kind of boring. Coppola did become only the third women to be nominated for Best Director and did win for Best Original Screenplay. The small independent film thirteen only had one nomination for Best Supporting Actress for Holly Hunter but was a great movie and should have had more nominations then that.

Oscar Trivia:
The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King is the longest title ever to win Best Picture (second place goes to Around the World in 80 Days)
The Lord of the Rings Trilogy is only the second trilogy to have all three films nominated for Best Picture (The Godfather Trilogy is the only other one).

Chicago

Chicago became the first musical to win Best Picture in 34 years the last musical to win Best Picture was Oliver in 1968.  Again this year the stiffest competition for Best Picture was from a Lord of the Rings film. This was also the second year in a row that a musical was nominated for Best Picture following Moulin Rouge's nomination in 2001. 

Chicago is about a bored housewife Roxy (Renee Zellweger) who has dreams of becoming a big star on the vaudeville in Chicago during the 20's.  When she her dreams are dashed by the guy she thought was going to make those dreams come true she ends up killing him and is sent to jail.  Inside her head is a fantasy world where every event is turned into a musical number.  In jail she meets a some colorful characters. There Velma Kelly (Catherine Zeta Jones), Matron Mama Morton (Queen Latifah) and the flamboyant lawyer Billy Flynn (Richard Gere).  A rivalry begins between Kelly and Roxy over the attention of Billy and the tabloids.  Each trying to manipulate the press to see them not as murderess but as glamorous stars.  In the end Billy is going to "Razzle Dazzle" the jury and get both of them off. 

What I love about this movie is the creative way they used the music.  One of the biggest complaints about musicals are always "why would they start singing" and  they answered that by having it  all in Roxy's head (the only musical number that doesn't really work is Mr. Cellophane which is sung by Roxy's husband Amos when she is not around).  The movie is highly entertaining and the acting is superb.  But besides being a highly entertaining movie with great musical sequences the movie is much deeper then that too.  The movie is an exploration of how people become famous for nothing, how media outlets are always trying to find the newest biggest thing, and the public obsession with celebrity trials and how they have become just a big circus.  In the age of celebrities like Paris Hilton and celebrity trials like OJ Simpson's this movie felt very current.  And I look at it as one of the first movies of the decade to deal with social issues to win Best Picture (Million Dollar Baby in 2004 and Crash in 2005 also deal with social issues). 

So the biggest question again this year was should Lord of the Rings have won best picture.  Again I feel the answer is no. While The Two Towers was a great movie like the first one it didn't have an ending and this one didn't have a beginning. While I understand that it is part 2 of a trilogy and it won't have a beginning and end my argument (as it was when the first one didn't win) is that you have to take each movie on its own merit.  If you just watch this one with out watching the first or the third one then it doesn't make much sense.  What I don't understand is how come Peter Jackson wasn't nominated for Best Director. Granted I don't think he would have won but he deserved a nomination.  And after watching it again recently I realized Viggo Mortensen should have been nominated for Best Actor or Supporting Actor because he was really great. 

Other Snubs- Leonardo DiCaprio should have been nominated for either Gangs of New York or Catch Me if You Can.  Also, About a Boy was one of my favorite movie and I think deserved more then just a Best Screenplay Award. Also My Big Fat Greek Wedding was one of the biggest and most loved movies of the year and should have at least been nominated for Best Actress for Nia Vardalos (she did get a Best Original Screenplay Nomination).

Oscar Trivia:
John C. Reilly was nominated for Best Supporting Actor for Chicago but also had supporting roles in Best Picture nominated The Hours, and The Gangs of New York.  Making him one of the few people to be in three movies nominated for Best Picture in the same year but the first since the Best Picture field was limited to 5 movies.
At 29 Adrien Brody (The Pianist) became the youngest person to win Best Actor
Julianne Moore was nominated in both Best Actress and Best Supporting Actress the ninth time that has happened.
Meryl Streep was nominated for Best Supporting Actress for Adaptation with her 13th nomination she surpassed Katherine Hepburn as the most nominated performer in Oscar history. 
Adaptation was nominated for Best Adapted Screenplay for Charlie Kaufman and Donald Kaufman. Donald Kaufman was an alter ego used by Charlie Kaufman in the movie and is the only fictional person ever to be nominated for an Academy Award.
Roman Polanski won Best Director for The Pianist but could not be present to accept the award because he is a wanted criminal for statutory rape.

IMDB Top 250 for 2002 movies.
City of God-number 18
The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers-number 30
The Pianist- number 51