The Belated Post Oscar Post

Okay I haevn't been on here for weeks, but I just want to get my Oscar reaction thoughts off my chest real quick. I was supposed to write this the day after the Academy Awards, but shit happened. Anyway, we all know that the Hurt Locker won Best Picture. That's good because it is a very compelling movie with a lot of dramatic tension. Kathryn Bigelow did a fantastic job and really brings out the best in her actors, especially Jeremy Renner. She also won Best Director, which is well desrved too. However, I still stand by my statement of Up should have won Best Picture. To me the film is simply marvelous film. It is a perfect film, IMO of course. A lot of films are flawed (of course). However, Up has a heartwarming story, engaging characters, a good amount of humor, and deals with mature themes so well. Pixar really improves itself each year, which is amazing.

As far as Best Actor goes Jeff Bridges did deserve it. I didn't think I would like Crazy Heart cause I really can't stand country music (well except 4 the Man in Black). It was an engaging performance and Bridges' best performance. George Clooney came a real close second, but I know he'll win another one one day.

Best Actress went to Sandra Bullock, which I have mixed feelings about. I like her, but I just don't think her performance was Oscar worthy. I thought Meryl Streep did a much better job, even though it was a fluff role. Streep will win another one. She is the best actress working today.

Christop Waltz won Best Supporting Actor for Inglorious Basterds. The academy loves villains and he played a good one. Mon'Nique won Best Supporting Actress for Precious. Her performance speaks for itself and honestly I watched 10 minutes of Precious and she scared the shit out of me. Maybe I'll have the balls to watch the movie one day.

The thing that surprised me were the screenplay categories. Hurt Locker won Best Original script instead of Inglorious Basterds and Precious won Best Adapted Script. Tarantino's script had way more wit and awesomeness, but I should have trusted my instinct. I would have never guessed that Precious would win though. I thought that would Up in the Air. I think the guy who adapted it was the 1st black screenwriter to win the award so good for him.

As far as the other categories go it was hit or miss. Well mostly miss. Up won Best Animated Film (duh) and Avatar won Best Visual Effects (double duh). Hurt Locker ended up getting Best Sound awards, really? I picked the right documentary (The Cove), but I sucked ass on the short films. So I predicted about almost half of the awards. Much worse than last year, but I took a gamble this year. I chose Avatar for Best Pic against all my better judgement, but you know, as much as ppl hate on Avatar it will be remebered for a long time. Still Up shited on all these movies.

So no more Oscar talk for a while. Kind of an uneventful year, but still very solid. This year seems more interesting though. Mainly because Chris Nolan's Inception, which I really do not much about right now, but am still excited about.

The Final Oscar Thoughts

The Oscars are only one day away and I'm thrilled. This year should be a little bit more interesting than last year. Plus the hosts are more interesting this year (Steve Martin & Alec Baldwin). The academy is trying to spice the year up with 10 nominations for Best Picture, which hasn't happened for decades. It’s probably to make up for films like Wall-E (the best film 0f 2008) and The Dark Knight.

Best Picture

Who will win: Avatar - I say this because this one of those epic films that only comes out every once in a while. The visuals are the best I've ever seen. It has a huge B.O., but the story is shit. Titanic had a shit story too, but we see how all that turned out. Plus you know a film is not really Best Pic material if it didn't even get nominated for any screenplay awards. Still the academy is going to cop out and give it to this film. Plus he won the Globe, which really helped its chances.

Who Should Win: The Hurt Locker - Kathryn Bigelow has crafted a tense and gritty film about the Iraq War. Probably the best film about the Iraq War that I have ever seen. Jeremy Renner shines in his breakthrough role and Anthony Mackie should be given some accolades too. However, it has a low box office and that can hurt it. Plus there is criticism from vets about its portrayal of soldiers, and a lawsuit from a serviceman saying he was the inspiration for the movie. Ouch!

Who got subbed: Where the Wild Things Are, Star Trek, (500) Days of Summer, Funny People.

Best Actor:

Who Will Win: Jeff Bridges - His performance in Crazy Heart is not his best, but it’s still great. His performance as a down and out country singer has heart and humor to it too. He's won almost every award for Best Actor so he might as well pick up his Oscar now. It's surprising since his buzz came so late in the season. Plus he a vet actor that has been nominated four times already.

Who Should Win: George Clooney – It’s the best performance of his career. Ppl say that he's just playing his regular George Clooney character, but is playing a much more complicated role this time. He had it locked in the bag until Mr. Bridges came along.

Who Got Snubbed: Tobey Maguire, Michael Stuhlbarg, Johnny Depp, Adam Sandler

Best Actress:

Who Will Win: Sandra Bullock – She’s a very popular actress in Hollywood. This is her comeback year after a string of bad movies (anyone remember speed 2). Surprise B.O. for her film (Blindside) and she plays a biopic role (academy eats that shit up). She even won the BFCA, Globe, and SAG (wow). I didn't see it coming at all.

Who Should Win: Meryl Streep - This is a fluff role for Streep, but still better than Bullock. If you compare the two actresses it’s easy to see that Steep shits on Bullock. She plays a complicated biopic role and won the BFCA and Globe. She hasn't won an award in 25 years so it would be nice if she did. However, she already has two Oscars so they will make her wait...again.

Who Got Snubbed: Melanie Laurent (piss poor campaigning by the Weinsteins), Marion Cotillard (another example of piss poor campaigning by the Weinsteins), Saoirse Ronan.

Best Supporting Actor:

Who Will Win: Christoph Waltz - He plays an excellent villain and the academy loves villains. The standout performance and got best in show reviews. He has won just about every award in his category. It's his.

Who Should Win: Christoph Waltz - don't make me repeat myself.

Who Got Snubbed: Anthony Mackie, Alfred Molina, Christian McKay

Best Supporting Actress:

Who Will Win: Monique - One that I did not see coming. She plays a villainous role as a very abusive mom, but still complicated and human. She won just about every award in her category. She is also very humble, which is good

Who Should Win: Monique - don't make me repeat myself.

Who Got Snubbed: Juilanne Moore, Marion Cotillard (Public Enemies), Mariah Carey (seriously she was actually good this time).

Best Director:

Who Will Win: Kathryn Bigelow – Isn’t it obvious. She brought so much tension to film and really brought out the best in her actors. She has won just about every award in her category. It's time for a woman to win in the male driven Hollywood.

Who Should Win: It would be awesome if Tarantino won, but I know that will not happen. Bigelow already has this wrapped up.

Who Got Snubbed: Spike Jonze, Clint Eastwood, Neil Blomkamp

Best Orginal Screenplay:

Who Will Win: Quentin Tarantino – He’s one of the most talented scriptwriters I have ever seen. He writes and develops quirky character with a passion and is a great storyteller (especially with non linear structure).

Who Should Win: Tarantino - Hurt Locker was good, but Tarantino owns this category.

Who Got Snubbed: (500) Days of Summer, Funny People, and The Hangover. Another example of why the academy can be fucking idiots sometimes. Guess they don't like comedies...basterds!

Best Adapted Screenplay:

Who Will Win: Up in the Air – It’s a great adaptation of an excellent book. A great blend of drama and comedy that can be hard to pull off sometimes.

Who Should Win - Up in the Air – It will be a compensation prize for Jason Reitman not winning Best Director or Picture.

Who Got Snubbed: Fantastic Mr. Fox, Star Trek, Where the Wild Things are.

Animated Feature:

Who Will Win: Up - Best critically rated wide release film of the year. Plus it's the first Animated film 2 B nominated 4 Best Pic since 1991. It has a general appeal to every demographic.

Who Should Win: Fantastic Mr. Fox - As much as I enjoyed Up, I really dug Fox. It has that certain quirkiness of Wes Anderson's other movies. Plus stop motion combined with CGI delivers a very good movie. If it wins I will be jumping up in the air like a little school girl (LoL).

Who Got Snubbed: Hayao Miazaki’s Ponyo – It’s not as great as his other classics like Princess Mononoke or Spirited Away, but still pretty damn good. The English dub is actually almost as good as the original Japanese track.

The rest of them: Avatar has art direction and cinematography in the bag as well as visual effects (duh). I think Best Editing might go to Tarantino long time collaborator Sally Menke for Basterds. I have no idea about Best Sound mixing n editing. Costume Design will go to Young Victoria and Best Makeup will go to Star Trek. As far as best foreign film I'm betting on White ribbon since it did win the Palm d'ore at Cannes. Best Documentary goes to The Cove (very deep doc). The best Score goes to Up and Best song goes to The Weary kind. I don't care 4 country music, but I really dug that song. As far as the other categories goes I have no fucking idea (Best animated short/live action short...etc.).

The Oscars are this Sunday on ABC. I hope I can get some surprises this year. Last year the biggest surprise was Sean Penn winning Best Actor instead of Mickey Rourke. I was also surprised that the Reader got fucking nominated last year instead of Wall-E. So let the awards commence and let’s all be thankful that Nine didn’t get nominated. If it did then I would have never watched the Oscars again. Never doubt the power of the Weinstein Brothers!

The Snubs, pt. 2

Hey I forgot to label the previous article. Anyway here's pt. 2

Best Actress Snubs:

Kate Winslet - The Reader (2008)...Now this is a different scenario because Winslet had been nominated at 5 times before winning this award for her weakest performance. Plus this is more like a supporting role. There is a reason why the Golden Globe put this performance under supporting actress category. In this role it seemed like she was an ex S.S. guard just having hot sex with a teenage boy. I know it's more complicated, but thats my impression. Before the Reader, Winslet had been nominated for Sense an Sensibility, Titanic (eww), Iris, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (brilliant), and Little Children. She was really overdue for an Oscar and she gives a much better performance in the better movie Revolutionary Road. However, there was some kind of technicality and was labeled as Best Actress nomination for the Reader at the awards. In rare example the Globes made a much better decision than the Academy (OMG!).

Nicole Kidman - The Hours (2002)...This belonged to Julianne Moore for her stunning performance as a housewife in the 1950's who must deal with her husband's homosexual urges and her growing relationship with a black man, that stirs up controversy in her little New England town. This is a really good film and the ending is not a total downer like the Hours. Kidman is a wonderful actress, but it was not her year. Now she is inflicted by the Oscar curse (that's for another blog).

Reese Witherspoon - Walk the Line (2005)..Another great performance, but Felicity Huffman gave a better one. She plays a more complicated role than Witherspoon and succeeds. Huffman plays a transvestite who used to be a man, but now wants to be a woman. However, Huffman is a woman. She pulled off an amazing role and it had heart. She's the best thing about Desperate Housewives (more about that in another) and deserved the role. She is a better actress than Witherspoon, but not as pretty. If she decides to go back to film roles then she can potentially win a statue.

Sandra Bullock - The Blindside (2009)...I am really jumping the gun here, but it's a week away from the Oscars and she's going to win. If anyone would have told me she was going to be a true Oscar contender I would have slapped them silly. I read an article about some critic saying that Bullock gave an Oscar winning performance for the Blindside about a few months before its release. Her momentum launched her through the awards season like fire. People really liked the Blindside (don't know why) and she already had a hit with the Proposal (eww). She is very popular with the award voters so she's going to win. However, Meryl Streep deserves it more. Julie and Julia is a fluff piece of work, but Streep's performance is miles ahead of Bullock. However, popularity can carry an actress a long way. Oh and this a comeback year for her. It's hers.

How the Hell Did That Guy Win?

I just read something interesting on the website Awards Circuit.com. It's a really good site that tracks potential Oscar nominees throughout the year. Usually they are spoon, but of course the tables can turn really quickly. An example: I think George Clooney gives the best performance of his life in the brilliant Up in the Air (coming out on March 9 on DVD). It's very stellar and wonderful performance as Clooney brings so much charm and charisma to his character. To me, Clooney seems like a likable guy. He's the type of guy that you can have a beer with with. However, Crazy Heart comes out and Jeff Bridges steals Clooney's buzz. Bridges gives a good performance also, and is now poised to win.

Anyway there is an article on the website that talks about dumb Oscar wins for Best actor/actress. It's a very interesting article and for a while I see some actors and actresses who win for which is sometimes one of their weakest performances. The academy is very infamous for giving out awards to the wrong people (IMO). This also applies to Best Picture.

Best Actor wins:

Sean Penn - Milk (2008)...Penn is one of the best actors working today. Any other year this performance should have won, but this was clearly Mickey Rourke's year for his work in the Wrestler. A film specially made for Rourke who is a good actor that started off with promise, but outside factors hampered his success. This Rourke's comeback role and the Oscar should have been his. He basically won a lot of critics awards, but the Oscar snubbed him.

Roberto Benigni - Life is Beautiful (1998)...Fuck! This was a fucked up decision. Why? Yes, it was a decent performance. At the time I thought Tom Hanks gave a much better performance in Saving Private Ryan. Then, I saw American History X and realized the trophy should have gone to Norton. Benigni? Really? Jumping over chairs to accept his awards in one of the most energetic Oscar speeches. Even my mom was in shock. The last time I heard Benigni is when he made and starred in some kind of live action remake of Pinocchio are something. Anyway it has a 0% on Rotten Tomatoes and that is bad. Haven't from him since. Norton will get his Oscar someday.

Al Pacino - Scent of a Woman (1992)...I haven't seen this film, but accordingly it's a good movie, but obviously not his best performance. I think Denzel Washington gave his best performance in Malcolm X, which is Spike Lee greatest film IMO. Denzel Got his gold for Training Day, but definitely not his best performance.

Jamie Foxx - Ray (2004)...Jamie Foxx was really good, but Hotel Rwanda is a better film and I feel Don Cheadle gave a better performance. Simple as that.

Adrien Brody - The Pianist (2002)...Daniel Day-Lewis owned this. The best part of the uneven Gangs of New York is Lewis. However, I saw Adaptation several months ago and Nicolas Gage was brilliant playing Charlie Kaufman, which is the same name of the screenwriter, which is some kind of pseudo-character of himself. Okay, I don't know what I just said. Anyway Cage can pick some shitty roles. However, when he's hot he takes it to the highest plain.