Oscar season!
It is completely weird that I live a mere three blocks from the theater where the Oscars are held. Today I drove past the block the Kodak Theater is on (the block itself is closed off for the week), and they had those giant gold Oscar statues up, and there were scads of tourists. It was pretty cool.
I haven't seen all the Oscar-nominated films this year (although I've seen the majority of the major players), so I can't really try to predict all the categories, but here are some thoughts:
Best Picture: It's a tough call to say which one of these movies WILL win and which one SHOULD win. I feel like Letters From Iwo Jima probably SHOULD, but I also really liked all of the films, and they each have their merits, so it's hard for me to say that it's the only one that deserves it. It just seems the most Oscar-worthy, I guess. I would be thrilled to death if either Little Miss Sunshine or The Queen won, because they're both such small, well-crafted films that aren't all "look at me! I'm Martin Scorcese!" You know what I mean? The only one I'd be a little disappointed in if it won is Babel because I feel that, even though it's an amazing film, it's a little... sappy. Sappy is not the right word, but I can't find the right word, so deal. For the sake of predicting, I'm going to say Little Miss Sunshine wins, because Hollywood loves an upset (although what is it really upsetting? Again, there's no front runner.), as evidenced by last year's Crash debacle.
Best Director:
Will Win: Scorcese
Should Win: Stephen Frears
The Academy loves them some Eastwood, but I don't think he'll win because I don't think he'll win Best Picture. Does that make sense? Not really. One does not necessarily dictate the other. Stephen Frears should win because The Queen is quite literally unlike any movie in recent memory, but everything he does in it makes absolute sense. Scorcese WILL win because he's Scorcese, and he's tried so hard for so many years to no avail. If he doesn't win this time, I wouldn't be surprised if he just threw up his hands and stomped out of the theater.
Best Actor:
Will Win: Peter O'Toole
Shoud Win: Forest Whitaker
I haven't even SEEN The Last King of Scotland, but I have a fondness for Forest Whitaker, so I would like him to win. Ryan Gosling was pretty great in Half Nelson, though, so he might sneak in there. No, wait. What am I saying? O'Toole has this one locked. He's practically dead and he's pretty much the best actor ever and has never actually WON an Oscar, therefore he will win. In this case, one DOES necessarily dictate the other.
Best Actress:
Will Win: Helen Mirren
Should Win: Helen Mirren
I haven't seen Little Children, which I hear is amazing, and Penelope Cruz is great and all, but still, there's absolutely no contest here. I feel like they couldn't even find 5 Oscar-worthy performances, so they just said to hell with it and tossed Meryl Streep in there because she was a likely suspect. Not that she wasn't good in The Devil Wears Prada, but she wasn't Oscar-good. It is nice, though, to see someone nominated for a comedic performance.
Best Supporting Actor:
Will Win: Alan Arkin, cause he's old.
Should Win: I dunno, but it's not Eddie Murphy. Dear god, it's not Eddie Murphy. Maybe Mark Wahlberg.
Best Supporting Actress:
Will Win: Jennifer Hudson
Should Win: Abigail Breslin
This reality annoys me, because just about everything about Dreamgirls annoys me, yet it is a reality nonetheless. How boring. I honestly didn't think Jennifer Hudson was all that great. She was a great performer when it came to the songs, but I found her actual acting to be a little lackluster. No one else agrees with me, I know, because once people start screaming that a performance is the breakthrough role of the year, blah blah, everyone jumps on board and wets themselves over said performance. Crowd mentality, you know.
Best Cinematography:
Will Win: Emanuel Lubezki
Should Win: ...um... *BRAIN EXPLODES*
This is the greatest Best Cinematography slate I've seen in years. I would be thrilled to death if Lubezki, Navarro or Pfister won. I pretty much WANT Pfister to win. But blah, I also want Navarro to win! Lubezki is amazing (he really should have won for The New World last year) but he already has his ASC award, let's toss something the way of the other two. Dick Pope made The Illusionist look great, but the movie itself was only meh, so I don't want it to win (although Memoirs of a Geisha was a pretty craptastic movie, and Dion Beebe won for it, so who knows), and while Vilmos Zsigmond is a frickin icon and does amazing work, I don't want him to win. It would be boring if he won. Vilmos Zsigmond won another award! And yesterday the sun rose!
The only other one I really care enough about to predict is Best Documentary Feature, and I want An Inconvenient Truth to win just to bring even more attention to the global warming issue. That would be great. Also, I want Pan's Labyrinth to win just about everything it's nominated for, except that I hear The Lives of Others will probably win for Foreign Language Film.
I will be watching the Awards with Deirdre and Karl and some random friends of theirs and Nick Palmer. And I will probably be on the phone with Tim a lot. Because that's how these things work.
More soon, particularly about how Introducing Tammy Lake was received.
-Cam
I haven't seen all the Oscar-nominated films this year (although I've seen the majority of the major players), so I can't really try to predict all the categories, but here are some thoughts:
Best Picture: It's a tough call to say which one of these movies WILL win and which one SHOULD win. I feel like Letters From Iwo Jima probably SHOULD, but I also really liked all of the films, and they each have their merits, so it's hard for me to say that it's the only one that deserves it. It just seems the most Oscar-worthy, I guess. I would be thrilled to death if either Little Miss Sunshine or The Queen won, because they're both such small, well-crafted films that aren't all "look at me! I'm Martin Scorcese!" You know what I mean? The only one I'd be a little disappointed in if it won is Babel because I feel that, even though it's an amazing film, it's a little... sappy. Sappy is not the right word, but I can't find the right word, so deal. For the sake of predicting, I'm going to say Little Miss Sunshine wins, because Hollywood loves an upset (although what is it really upsetting? Again, there's no front runner.), as evidenced by last year's Crash debacle.
Best Director:
Will Win: Scorcese
Should Win: Stephen Frears
The Academy loves them some Eastwood, but I don't think he'll win because I don't think he'll win Best Picture. Does that make sense? Not really. One does not necessarily dictate the other. Stephen Frears should win because The Queen is quite literally unlike any movie in recent memory, but everything he does in it makes absolute sense. Scorcese WILL win because he's Scorcese, and he's tried so hard for so many years to no avail. If he doesn't win this time, I wouldn't be surprised if he just threw up his hands and stomped out of the theater.
Best Actor:
Will Win: Peter O'Toole
Shoud Win: Forest Whitaker
I haven't even SEEN The Last King of Scotland, but I have a fondness for Forest Whitaker, so I would like him to win. Ryan Gosling was pretty great in Half Nelson, though, so he might sneak in there. No, wait. What am I saying? O'Toole has this one locked. He's practically dead and he's pretty much the best actor ever and has never actually WON an Oscar, therefore he will win. In this case, one DOES necessarily dictate the other.
Best Actress:
Will Win: Helen Mirren
Should Win: Helen Mirren
I haven't seen Little Children, which I hear is amazing, and Penelope Cruz is great and all, but still, there's absolutely no contest here. I feel like they couldn't even find 5 Oscar-worthy performances, so they just said to hell with it and tossed Meryl Streep in there because she was a likely suspect. Not that she wasn't good in The Devil Wears Prada, but she wasn't Oscar-good. It is nice, though, to see someone nominated for a comedic performance.
Best Supporting Actor:
Will Win: Alan Arkin, cause he's old.
Should Win: I dunno, but it's not Eddie Murphy. Dear god, it's not Eddie Murphy. Maybe Mark Wahlberg.
Best Supporting Actress:
Will Win: Jennifer Hudson
Should Win: Abigail Breslin
This reality annoys me, because just about everything about Dreamgirls annoys me, yet it is a reality nonetheless. How boring. I honestly didn't think Jennifer Hudson was all that great. She was a great performer when it came to the songs, but I found her actual acting to be a little lackluster. No one else agrees with me, I know, because once people start screaming that a performance is the breakthrough role of the year, blah blah, everyone jumps on board and wets themselves over said performance. Crowd mentality, you know.
Best Cinematography:
Will Win: Emanuel Lubezki
Should Win: ...um... *BRAIN EXPLODES*
This is the greatest Best Cinematography slate I've seen in years. I would be thrilled to death if Lubezki, Navarro or Pfister won. I pretty much WANT Pfister to win. But blah, I also want Navarro to win! Lubezki is amazing (he really should have won for The New World last year) but he already has his ASC award, let's toss something the way of the other two. Dick Pope made The Illusionist look great, but the movie itself was only meh, so I don't want it to win (although Memoirs of a Geisha was a pretty craptastic movie, and Dion Beebe won for it, so who knows), and while Vilmos Zsigmond is a frickin icon and does amazing work, I don't want him to win. It would be boring if he won. Vilmos Zsigmond won another award! And yesterday the sun rose!
The only other one I really care enough about to predict is Best Documentary Feature, and I want An Inconvenient Truth to win just to bring even more attention to the global warming issue. That would be great. Also, I want Pan's Labyrinth to win just about everything it's nominated for, except that I hear The Lives of Others will probably win for Foreign Language Film.
I will be watching the Awards with Deirdre and Karl and some random friends of theirs and Nick Palmer. And I will probably be on the phone with Tim a lot. Because that's how these things work.
More soon, particularly about how Introducing Tammy Lake was received.
-Cam