Well I suppose its a sure sign that I've been lax on the blog when I haven't posted since before the oscars! That's alright though. I used the time leading up to the academy awards to catch up on a lot of the films that had slipped through my fingers. I actually really love that Oscar crunch time. For the past few years I've done some hefty marathons trying to check out as many of the nominated films as I can before the big show, and this year despite my best efforts I still lost my Oscar pool miserably. Ah well... There's always next year.
Here in a nutshell are my two cents on some of the Oscar nominated films. The ones I saw at least :)
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button: A bit overrated. A solid film no doubt, with marvelous makeup fx and a great sense of art direction, but not worthy of a best picture nomination.
Frost / Nixon: great tension, and fantastic acting by everyone involved. It feels like a smaller film than people made it out to be, but still is definitely worth checking out.
Milk: very good film, with great performances by Penn, and especially James Franco (prob his best role). I think Josh Brolin was overrated, but this is a solid and important film.
Slumdog Millionaire: Great movie, great look, sound, acting, everything. This deserves the praise. Check it out if you haven't.
The Reader: I thought it would be an absolute chick flick, but its not. This is just a solid drama. A Love story. And a heartwrenching performance by Winslett makes it one definitely not to miss.
The Wrestler: I loved this film. Everytime you think Rourke's character is getting himself back together he does something to remind him and us what a total fuck up he is. Very real world, very sad in a way. The ending sinches the film for me. great movie.
The Visitor: a good little character piece starring the fantastic character actor Richard Jenkins. This is a really good film that was undoubtedly the underdog. Nothing flashy, no big stars, this is just a nice little film. That said, its not going to blow you away. This is just good.
The Changling: what a depressing film. Nothing good seems to happen to these people, and everything is soooo grey and dreary. I felt bad watching this movie, because life sucked so much. I suppose that might be the intention of the film, but while I thought it was well made and acted, I don't think this is one you need to see. And how does the guy writing Thor make this?!
The Duchess: Its it just me or do all of these films seem the same? Beautiful costumes and great performances aside, the stories are all the same. Some girl who is strong willed and free gets herself stuck in a marriage / romance she can't stand and is constrained by. That is unfortunately her lot in life though as her station will permit no happiness, until she meets the man of her dreams, and they have a torrid love affair. The entire mess usually ends with one or all of the people involved in the illicit tryst, beheaded, run through, or otherwise dispatched. The Duchess is no different. And Erica loved it.
The Dark Knight: Hooray for Batman! This is an awesome film, go buy it and enjoy. Batman rulz!!1!
Ok, and now for the official winners:
Best Motion Picture of the Year
SLUMDOG MILLIONAIRE
Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role
Sean Penn - MILK
Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role
Kate Winslet - THE READER
Achievement in Directing
SLUMDOG MILLIONAIRE
Best Foreign Language Film of the Year
Departures
Achievement in Music Written for Motion Pictures (Original Song) - SLUMDOG MILLIONAIRE
Achievement in Music Written for Motion Pictures (Original Score) - SLUMDOG MILLIONAIRE
Achievement in Film Editing
SLUMDOG MILLIONAIRE
Achievement in Sound Mixing
SLUMDOG MILLIONAIRE
Achievement in Sound Editing
THE DARK KNIGHT
Achievement in Visual Effects
THE CURIOUS CASE OF BENJAMIN BUTTON
Best Documentary Short Subject
SMILE PINKI
Best Documentary Feature
MAN ON WIRE
Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role
Heath Ledger - THE DARK KNIGHT
Best Live Action Short Film
SPIELZEUGLAND (TOYLAND)
Achievement in Cinematography
SLUMDOG MILLIONAIRE
Achievement in Makeup
THE CURIOUS CASE OF BENJAMIN BUTTON
Achievement in Costume Design
THE DUCHESS
Achievement in Art Direction
THE CURIOUS CASE OF BENJAMIN BUTTON
Best Animated Short Film
La Maison en Petits Cubes
Best Animated Feature Film of the Year
WALL-E
Adapted Screenplay
SLUMDOG MILLIONAIRE
Original Screenplay
MILK
Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role
Penelope Cruz - VICKY CRISTINA BARCELONA
Although I actually never base my ballot on oscar day on my ballot I pick online here is how I did in my online predictions... 7 of 26.
That is terrible... even in my pool at home I think I only got 14, very depressing. oh well. Its all in good fun right, and there were some good films this year. Not a lot of great ones, but a ton of really good ones. The only one I haven't seen that was nominated for quite a lot was Doubt. And for my money the best films that I'd recommend you see outiof this Oscar season, are Slumdog Millionaire, and The Wrestler. Otherwise, I'll look forward to doing this all again in a year.
Have fun all, I hope you did better than me in your Oscar pools :)
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Here in a nutshell are my two cents on some of the Oscar nominated films. The ones I saw at least :)
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button: A bit overrated. A solid film no doubt, with marvelous makeup fx and a great sense of art direction, but not worthy of a best picture nomination.
Frost / Nixon: great tension, and fantastic acting by everyone involved. It feels like a smaller film than people made it out to be, but still is definitely worth checking out.
Milk: very good film, with great performances by Penn, and especially James Franco (prob his best role). I think Josh Brolin was overrated, but this is a solid and important film.
Slumdog Millionaire: Great movie, great look, sound, acting, everything. This deserves the praise. Check it out if you haven't.
The Reader: I thought it would be an absolute chick flick, but its not. This is just a solid drama. A Love story. And a heartwrenching performance by Winslett makes it one definitely not to miss.
The Wrestler: I loved this film. Everytime you think Rourke's character is getting himself back together he does something to remind him and us what a total fuck up he is. Very real world, very sad in a way. The ending sinches the film for me. great movie.
The Visitor: a good little character piece starring the fantastic character actor Richard Jenkins. This is a really good film that was undoubtedly the underdog. Nothing flashy, no big stars, this is just a nice little film. That said, its not going to blow you away. This is just good.
The Changling: what a depressing film. Nothing good seems to happen to these people, and everything is soooo grey and dreary. I felt bad watching this movie, because life sucked so much. I suppose that might be the intention of the film, but while I thought it was well made and acted, I don't think this is one you need to see. And how does the guy writing Thor make this?!
The Duchess: Its it just me or do all of these films seem the same? Beautiful costumes and great performances aside, the stories are all the same. Some girl who is strong willed and free gets herself stuck in a marriage / romance she can't stand and is constrained by. That is unfortunately her lot in life though as her station will permit no happiness, until she meets the man of her dreams, and they have a torrid love affair. The entire mess usually ends with one or all of the people involved in the illicit tryst, beheaded, run through, or otherwise dispatched. The Duchess is no different. And Erica loved it.
The Dark Knight: Hooray for Batman! This is an awesome film, go buy it and enjoy. Batman rulz!!1!
Ok, and now for the official winners:
Best Motion Picture of the Year
SLUMDOG MILLIONAIRE
Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role
Sean Penn - MILK
Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role
Kate Winslet - THE READER
Achievement in Directing
SLUMDOG MILLIONAIRE
Best Foreign Language Film of the Year
Departures
Achievement in Music Written for Motion Pictures (Original Song) - SLUMDOG MILLIONAIRE
Achievement in Music Written for Motion Pictures (Original Score) - SLUMDOG MILLIONAIRE
Achievement in Film Editing
SLUMDOG MILLIONAIRE
Achievement in Sound Mixing
SLUMDOG MILLIONAIRE
Achievement in Sound Editing
THE DARK KNIGHT
Achievement in Visual Effects
THE CURIOUS CASE OF BENJAMIN BUTTON
Best Documentary Short Subject
SMILE PINKI
Best Documentary Feature
MAN ON WIRE
Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role
Heath Ledger - THE DARK KNIGHT
Best Live Action Short Film
SPIELZEUGLAND (TOYLAND)
Achievement in Cinematography
SLUMDOG MILLIONAIRE
Achievement in Makeup
THE CURIOUS CASE OF BENJAMIN BUTTON
Achievement in Costume Design
THE DUCHESS
Achievement in Art Direction
THE CURIOUS CASE OF BENJAMIN BUTTON
Best Animated Short Film
La Maison en Petits Cubes
Best Animated Feature Film of the Year
WALL-E
Adapted Screenplay
SLUMDOG MILLIONAIRE
Original Screenplay
MILK
Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role
Penelope Cruz - VICKY CRISTINA BARCELONA
Although I actually never base my ballot on oscar day on my ballot I pick online here is how I did in my online predictions... 7 of 26.
That is terrible... even in my pool at home I think I only got 14, very depressing. oh well. Its all in good fun right, and there were some good films this year. Not a lot of great ones, but a ton of really good ones. The only one I haven't seen that was nominated for quite a lot was Doubt. And for my money the best films that I'd recommend you see outiof this Oscar season, are Slumdog Millionaire, and The Wrestler. Otherwise, I'll look forward to doing this all again in a year.
Have fun all, I hope you did better than me in your Oscar pools :)
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