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
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
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
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!
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