Movie Talks Archives

Posted by: Monotreme at February 27, 2008, 11:00 am

Topic: The OSCAR chat thread...!! (and predictions) Forum: JoBlo

Alright! I came home especially to see the ceremony but had to go back to the base, so here are my (slightly belated) thoughts on all the awards handed out: Best Picture No Country for Old Men What George Clooney said about Daniel Day-Lewis more than applies for most of the rest of the major categories as well. I saw No Country for Old Men and absolutely loved it, labeled it a masterpiece and the best film of the year. But then There Will Be Blood came along, and it totally blew me away. It is the latter film that is my favourite of the year, although both are total masterpieces, Blood just takes the cake. So if at first I was ecstatic that this would be the Coen brothers’ (in my top 5 favourite directors of all time list) year, and that they and their film would get a pile of well-deserved Oscars, after taking in There Will Be Blood I couldn’t help but cross my fingers for P.T. Anderson and his mind-blowing masterpiece. But no matter – now that the Academy has given the Coens what they have deserved for a long time now but snubbed P.T. Anderson in the process, I think it’s safe to say that Anderson is now automatically a front-runner on the list of Oscar-less directors whom the Academy will inevitably give what they deserve, just like what the Coens got this year and Martin Scorsese last year. Best Director Joel Coen and Ethan Coen - No Country for Old Men Just like in the best picture category, this is a victory that I am really, really happy about, as the Coens deserved this as far back as 1990 and in 1996 should have got it for Fargo and yet, There Will Be Blood is even MORE brilliant than the already brilliant No Country, so I was rooting for P.T. Anderson in this category as well. Best Actor Daniel Day-Lewis - There Will Be Blood Nothing much to say here Day-Lewis deserved it for delivering one of the finest performances in any movie of all time; I was rooting for him but, like Helen Mirren last year, his win was pretty much the most inevitable of the night. All I can say is that I hope this will encourage the guy to keep acting in movies, and not retire like he said he would back when he made Gangs of New York. Best Actress Marion Cotillard - La Vie en Rose I make it a habit to view all of the Oscar nominees, at least in the major categories, before the awards ceremony. This year I got closer than ever, having only two titles from the major contenders missing: The Savages and La Vie en Rose. Having not seen the latter film made me ignorant of Cotillard’s performance and I was rooting for Ellen Page’s brilliant turn in Juno, although I was sure that Julie Christie would take it in a classic case of “we haven’t given this classic screen star an Oscar in a while, so we’d better do it now because we won’t get many more chances like this”. I was touched by Cotillard’s heartfelt, genuine humbleness and surprise at her win, and the clips of her performance inspired me more than anything to go out and rent La Vie en Rose immediately. Thank goodness I did, and it’s a pity that I overlooked the film pre-Oscars, because her performance is indeed nothing short of a revelation, an absolute revelation. A more than well-deserved win. Best Supporting Actor Javier Bardem - No Country for Old Men While the Actress categories this year were by far the most interesting and the hardest to guess, the actor categories were pretty much in the bag. Javier Bardem was expected to win by just about everyone, and definitely got what he deserved. Nothing much else to say while the other actors delivered great, solid performances, Bardem truly did dominate in his role and it is a brilliant turn. Also, after snubbing him in 2004 by not even nominating him for his great work in The Sea Inside, I’d say the Academy owed him one. Best Supporting Actress Tilda Swinton - Michael Clayton This turned out to be my favourite category of the night. I really couldn’t restrain my excitement from this surprise win, it pretty much lasted throughout all the rest of the ceremony. I have been a pretty huge Swinton fan for a while now, and while some of her filmography may not be the most incredible, even in those lower-quality films like The Beach and Constantine she left an impression. Between great supporting turns in Adaptation, Broken Flowers and The Chronicles of Narnia, Swinton always struck me as a unique actress who makes her own, special film choices instead of just acting in anything and who always finds something interesting to pepper her characters with. Now I saw Michael Clayton as early as October of last year, and even though I hadn’t seen Gone Baby Gone, I’m Not There or any of the other nominees in the category, I had already deemed her performance in the film as “stunning”, “remarkable” and a clear frontrunner as the best supporting performance of the year. Even though she was somewhat of a dark horse in the category she had my full support, which is why when her name was announced, I think I was pretty much just as shocked as she was, being convinced that either Cate Blanchett or Amy Ryan would take home the statue. And of course Swinton being the really awesome, cool, unique and down-to-earth person that she is reacted with great style. I just love this woman, she’s just so different than your average Hollywood actress, and I really hope that this Oscar win (surprisingly to me her first nomination) will further boost her clout in the industry and her ability to “sell” a movie just by her being in it. Go Tilda! Best Original Screenplay Juno - Diablo Cody Another one of the more obvious wins of the evening, it was predicted and well-deserved. Also, Diablo Cody, who I’m sure wasn’t oblivious to the talk that her screenplay will no doubt win, still managed to accept the prize with genuine excitement and grace. Best Adapted Screenplay No Country for Old Men - Joel Coen and Ethan Coen, from No Country for Old Men, novel by Cormac McCarthy Like with Best Director and Picture, although No Country was the obvious frontrunner and also deservedly won, I was still crossing my fingers for P.T. Anderson’s unbelievably good screenplay for his masterpiece. Oh well, he’s bound to get that golden boy sometime, and even if it’s a screenwriting prize and not director/picture, it’ll be a start. Best Animated Feature Ratatouille I have seen all three nominees, and once again encountered a small-scale version of the No Country for Old Men-There Will Be Blood complex. Persepolis is a wonderful film; unique, different, fresh it’s one of those rare nominees like Howl’s Moving Castle or Wallace and Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit that deserve nominations at least for being different than the computer-animated blockbusters that fill multiplexes most of the time. And if it weren’t for Ratatouille, the French film would have my full support. But with Ratatouille, Brad Bird has created something really, really special and just absolutely, utterly incredible; from the originality of the story to the uniqueness of the atmosphere to the mind-blowing, gorgeous and revolutionary animation. The Triplets of Belleville was snubbed in 2003, but Ratatouille definitely deserved to win this year. Best Art Direction Dante Ferretti and Francesca Lo Schiavo - Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street Nothing much to say except that this was well-deserved: Burton’s films reliably and consistently excel in everything that has to do with production value: set design, costumes, cinematography, etc. And so this win was satisfying and well-deserved, if not very surprising. Best Cinematography Robert Elswit - There Will Be Blood Now this was a real toss-up: Three of the greatest cinematographers working in Hollywood today, each one delivering amazing work. I honestly didn’t know whom to root for: the clear front-runner in my book was Janusz Kaminski, whose work in The Diving Bell and the Butterfly was absolutely, outrageously stunning and totally unique. Then again, Roger Deakins, one of the most prominent and talented of our cinematographers, hasn’t won an Oscar yet, and I thought that his double nominations would make him the well-deserved victor. And then there’s Elswit, who has only been nominated once before for brilliant work in Good Night and Good Luck, but whom has been delivering really great cinematography way before that, including in P.T. Anderson’s other movies Boogie Nights, Magnolia, and Punch-Drunk Love. Also, I was rooting for There Will Be Blood in pretty much all of the categories it was nominated in, so while all three (well actually all four; while he hasn’t really made a lasting impression in the past, Seamus McGarvey’s work on Atonement was nothing short of amazing) nominees each deserved the prize, and I would have been glad had any of them won, I am especially glad that There Will Be Blood was recognized beyond Day-Lewis’ revolutionary performance. Best Costume Design Alexandra Byrne - Elizabeth: The Golden Age This one came as a bit of a shock, and perhaps a disappointment even. While the costumes in this film were indeed excellent, I was sure Colleen Atwood would take it for Sweeney Todd: Period costume design is always interesting but mundane; but on the other hand, fantasy costume design is always interesting, dynamic and unique, and Atwood really outdid herself with Sweeney Todd. So, this was one of the few true disappointments of the evening for me. Best Documentary Feature Taxi to the Dark Side I actually haven’t seen any of the other nominees except for Sicko, which I also thought would win, but considering the lack of geo-political films in the major categories I should have guessed that one with such an agenda would take the documentary prize. I hear that this was a surprise victory, but I can’t tell for sure. I’ll be sure to check this out now that it has won, though. Best Film Editing Christopher Rouse - The Bourne Ultimatum A well-deserved victory. If there was one category I was sure The Bourne Ultimatum would take it in, it was this one. Greengrass’ frantic cinematography is cut to absolute perfection, with on-the-mark cuts and transitions and his action scenes are just really impeccably well constructed. Again, though, would have loved for There Will Be Blood to win just because I was rooting for it in all of its categories, and it would have also been interesting for No Country for Old Men to win because I think it would be the first time in Oscar history that a fictional person (Roderik Jaynes, who is actually the Coen Brothers themselves) would have won a statue. Best Foreign Language Film The Counterfeiters (Austria) As with the documentary category, this is a category that it is very rare for me to see any of the nominees before the ceremony, and even after the ceremony I’ll more than often only see the winner. The only film I had seen was Beaufort, and it representing Israel naturally I was rooting for it even though my expectations for it to actually win were low. I will surely have to check this one out, though. It definitely looks interesting. Best Makeup Didier Lavergne and Jan Archibald - La Vie en Rose During the ceremony, before I had the privilege to enjoy La Vie en Rose, the only thought that went through my head was “thank god Norbit didn’t win.” Seriously, if Norbit would have won I would have turned off the telecast right there and then. After seeing the winning film, though, I can definitely see how the victory was well-deserved: the young and gorgeous Marion Cotillard underwent a really well-done transformation to turn her into the slightly craggier and older Edith Piaf. It’s one of those “uglification” things that brought gold for Charlize Theron and Nicole Kidman in the past, and here it worked again (and, like the previous two actresses mentioned, deservedly so). Best Original Score Dario Marianelli - Atonement Those of you who know me a little will no doubt have noticed that I have a soft spot for movie musicals and for music in movies in general. Although considered minor, I take the two music categories very seriously – so seriously that if justice wasn’t served and if my picks wouldn’t have won, I would have turned off the telecast immediately. Luckily for me, the Academy members aren’t stupid (or deaf) and they chose to honour Marianelli’s amazing, staggering, marvelous, beautiful and brilliant score for Atonement. Had it not won, I would have truly lost faith in the Academy. Best Original Song Glen Hansard and Marketa Irglova - "Falling Slowly" from Once The same thing goes for this category: Once is such a sweet little movie, so unfortunately under looked and containing so beautiful a sound-track, that had this wonderful, magically beautiful song NOT ended up victorious in this category, I would have similarly shut off the telecast like if Atonement wouldn’t have won Best Original Score. It is a beautiful song, it was really great to see Hansard and Irglova so star-struck and humbled, going from a tiny, miniscule Irish indie film to performing (and winning!!!) at the Oscars. It was really sweet how they brought Irglova back out to give her acceptance speech. Best Sound Editing Karen Baker Landers and Per Hallberg - The Bourne Ultimatum Although not exactly disappointing per-se, both the sound category victories were very, very surprising for me. I was sure that No Country for Old Men had the sound categories in the bag, as the Coens truly took full advantage of the sound work and elevated it to the level of true art form. Best Sound Mixing Scott Millan, David Parker, and Kirk Francis - The Bourne Ultimatum The Bourne Ultimatum was, then again, one of the best big-budgeted Summer blockbusters in recent memory, so I guess a little Oscar glory, even in the technical categories, wasn’t that bad. But still, I was just particularly struck and impressed with No Country’s sound work, so I thought it would win. Best Visual Effects The Golden Compass In this category lies the only other major disappointment of the evening, in my opinion. As much as Daniel Day-Lewis was a lock for Best Actor, I was sure that Transformers was a lock in the Best Visual Effects category. Industrial Light & Magic’s work of not only creating 100% realistic and entirely convincing CGI creations but also seamlessly integrating them in live-action footage alongside practical effects was, at least as I saw it, some of the most incredible, convincing, revolutionary and best special effects work since the Lord of the Rings trilogy. Which is why I was surprised and really disappointed that the prize went to The Golden Compass, whose CGI work was very obvious, and “pretty good” at best.

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