Oscar's 2008
Barry Nelson
ChicagoPosts: 1,508MI6 Agent
I haven't been on the forum in a while as I have been accompaning my wife on a serious of medical visits. She has been diagnosed with cancer so we have been busy seeing doctors and learning about things you hope you never will have to. Surgery and treatment starts this week so I will be away for a little while again. When we weren't seeing doctors we saw a lot of movies as we tried to stay busy so we wouldn't dwell on things. I saw many of the Oscar nominees so I thought I would give my opinion in some of the categories. These are my opinion, not predictions.
Best Picture - saw them all but Juno, and I would vote for Atonement. Very compelling story and beautifully filmed. I can find fault with all the others, so Atonement is my pick.
Best Actor - Daniel Day Lewis in There Will be Blood would be my pick. A performance that has to be seen.
Best Actress - didn't see any of the movies, and I would be surprised if many other people did either. No pick.
Best Supporting Actor - Casey Affleck was wonderful in Jesse James and Gone Baby Gone so that would be my pick. The nuances of his performance in Jesse James really captured the character.
Best Supporting Actress - first of all Ruby Dee has no business being nominated, she is on screen for about 3 minutes in American Gangster. I didn't see I'm Not There and I have a hunch Cate Blanchett will win, but I really liked Tilda Swinton in Michael Clayton. She had subtle movements and expressions that I thought really gave her character an identity without much dialogue.
Cinematography - My pick would be Jesse James, a film that I thought was overly long and slow moving at times, but was absolutly gorgeous to look at. Atonement was beautifully filmed too.
Original Score - Atonement had a wonderful score, one that I would not mind listening to on its own.
Sound Mixing - I am throwing this category in because I have seen every movie nominated in the category and would have a tough time choosing. Bourne, No Country, Ratatouille, 3:10 to Yuma and Transformers are the nominees. I would eliminate No Country because much of that movie has very little sound. My choice would be Bourne.
Original Song - Something from Enchanted.
Looking forward to watching tonight so I can see how my picks compare and to see who has the worst dress.
Best Picture - saw them all but Juno, and I would vote for Atonement. Very compelling story and beautifully filmed. I can find fault with all the others, so Atonement is my pick.
Best Actor - Daniel Day Lewis in There Will be Blood would be my pick. A performance that has to be seen.
Best Actress - didn't see any of the movies, and I would be surprised if many other people did either. No pick.
Best Supporting Actor - Casey Affleck was wonderful in Jesse James and Gone Baby Gone so that would be my pick. The nuances of his performance in Jesse James really captured the character.
Best Supporting Actress - first of all Ruby Dee has no business being nominated, she is on screen for about 3 minutes in American Gangster. I didn't see I'm Not There and I have a hunch Cate Blanchett will win, but I really liked Tilda Swinton in Michael Clayton. She had subtle movements and expressions that I thought really gave her character an identity without much dialogue.
Cinematography - My pick would be Jesse James, a film that I thought was overly long and slow moving at times, but was absolutly gorgeous to look at. Atonement was beautifully filmed too.
Original Score - Atonement had a wonderful score, one that I would not mind listening to on its own.
Sound Mixing - I am throwing this category in because I have seen every movie nominated in the category and would have a tough time choosing. Bourne, No Country, Ratatouille, 3:10 to Yuma and Transformers are the nominees. I would eliminate No Country because much of that movie has very little sound. My choice would be Bourne.
Original Song - Something from Enchanted.
Looking forward to watching tonight so I can see how my picks compare and to see who has the worst dress.
Comments
Juno really has no business being in the running. Pretty entertaining to a fault but nothing more.
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Quite right. I didn't see Atonement, but I can't imagine it being better than No Country. Amazing stuff.
Daniel Day Lewis should win for Best Actor, I agree with you there, Barry. His amazing performance lifted a boring, poorly paced movie to something great.
Javier Bardem should win Best Supporting Actor. The most haunting performance I've seen in a long time. This man can play evil.
Can't comment on much else.
3 for 3. Not bad. :007)
Tell me about it. 8-) An extremely overrated film IMO, I am really disappointed that it won Original Screenplay as its screenplay is a major reason why IMO it is not a great film in the slightest. The film is so 'hip' and 'cool,' I want to scream.
I'll just say a few words about the major categories:
Picture-no Country For Old Men. Completely deserved and IMO the most deserved Best Picture winner since American Beauty in 1999.
Director-Joel Coen & Ethan Coen for NCFOM. I think the only other director who would have been as deserving was Julian Schnabel for The Diving Bell and the Butterfly, but really I would have been shocked and extremely disappointed if the Coens had lost.
Actor-Daniel Day-Lewis for There Will Be Blood. IMO the best lead male performance of the year from one of the best actors of all time. I don't anyone else had a chance. Day-Lewis stuns me every time I see him, he truly deserves to be a dual Oscar winner. {[]
Actress-Marion Cotillard for La Vie en Rose. I was delighted that Cotillard won as not only is it IMO the best lead female performance of the year, but she was the best thing about an otherwise disappointing biopic. You Little Sparrow!
Supporting Actor-Javier Bardem for NCFOM. IMO the best performance of the year, male or female. I adore this performance and I believe that this will go down as one of the best of all time.
Supporting Actress-Tilda Swinton for Michael Clayton. I would have preferred Cate Blanchett for I'm Not There (the best female supporting performance of the year IMO) but I won't begrudge Swinton her Oscar. She was fantastic; plus, Ruby Dee didn't win for her un-Oscar worthy performance in American Gangster.
Adapted Screenplay: NCFOM. The best screenplay of the year, original or adapted IMO. I would have been extremely disappointed if it had lost.
Original Screenplay: Juno. I don't think it should have been nominated, so I am rather disappointed (although not surprised) that it won. I don't think it's a particularly good screenplay, and I think its Oscar is this years least deserved Oscar.
Juno aside, I don't really have any complaints about this year's Oscars. I would have loved for Cate to have won, but Swinton was great, and I am delighted that NCFOM won the Oscars that it did, and Cotillard won lead actress. Plus Day-Lewis is yet another deserved lead actor winner, so really, this IMO has been a great 80th birthday for Oscar!
Seriously, is it just me, or were Foreign Language Film and Documentary Short not shown?
I have never got the Daniel Day Lewis thing.He bores the socks of me.I'm obviously missing something here ....
Same.None of the major films have appealed to me at all and when I watch the ceremony tonight on the TV, I'll be watching for the outfits
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Can anyone explain to me how Karen Baker Landers and Per Hallberg could have beaten Ethan Van der Ryn and Mike Hopkins for best sound mixing? I mean, come on. I know Oscar loves winners and that the The Bourne Ultimatum was a critical and commercial darling. And yes, the crowd noises in the Victoria Station scene were well-done, even if the newspaper vendor on track 3 could have been lowered a Pascal or two. But on the whole it was pretty standard stuff. Van der Ryn and Hopkins' work on the other hand grabbed you by the Eustachian tubes for the full 90 minutes. My cochlea had never been so tickled, and isn't likely to be again, at least until Van der Ryn and Hopkins complete Transformers 2.
It's a sad commentary on our entertainment industry that Oscar after all these years still holds a bias against movies about large, shape-changing robots from outer space. I thought Tinseltown had moved beyond that, but I guess not.
It was most deserving and the Academy got it right on that.
However, due to such a watered down variety of films this year, I felt that the Academy snubbed alot of other actors/pictures for consideration:
Josh Brolin for NCFOM
Denzel Washington for American Gangster (Perhaps because he's already won for a similiar role in Training Day a few years ago & it would have been seen as typecasting ). Good film though...
Russell Crowe for AG as well although I'm starting to think that Crowe isn't very likeable in certain circles despite his amazing range. I've read a few rumors...
I could be wrong but the cast/crew involved with Waitress weren't even recognized and I've heard that it's better than Juno...Maybe I have the wrong year.
Congrats to Daniel Day-Lewis who is a chameleon and even though I haven't seen TWBB, it's pretty safe to say his win was a no-brainer...I would've loved to see what he could have done with James Bond.
Did anyone think that George Clooney had a chance of walking away with a Baldy for Michael Clayton? Even the Academy hasn't forgiven him for killing the Batman franchise.
Batman: "The Hammer Of Justice is UNISEX!"
-Batman: The Brave & The Bold -
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He was indeed great. I think he was very unlucky to have missed out, and I probably would have had him replace Johnny Depp for Sweeny Todd (sorry JD. :v)
I don't agree that Crowe should have been nominated for AG, however I do agree that Crowe is underappreciated. I was quite disappointed that he wasn't nominated for Master and Commander in 2003.
Clearly coming out sooner than I had anticipated.
Go get it; IMO, it's worth the purchase. B-)
Batman: "The Hammer Of Justice is UNISEX!"
-Batman: The Brave & The Bold -