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Director Updates

So I don't have a total breakdown for the category but the Director chart is posted on the sidebar. I still believe that Joe Wright could upset here with the "epic pic director" slot, and Tim Burton could appear for the overdue slot. Tony Gilroy feels weak right now.

What do you guys think?

Alright Kids

I have a had a rough few days with school starting and stress piling up. I will most definitely be posting some reactions to the Globes soon, and will be updating the charts.

Thanks for hanging with me.

DGA Nods!

Great line up here!

Julian Schnabel - The Diving Bell And The Butterfly
Joel and Ethan Coen - No Country For Old Men
Tony Gilroy - Michael Clayton
Paul Thomas Anderson - There Will Be Blood
Sean Penn - Into The Wild

Huge boost for Sean Penn and Tony Gilroy and their respective films, while There Will Be Blood continues to build momentum. Julian Schnabel needed this as well.

Good job DGA.

Directors update later.

Original Screenplay

Personally, I find the Original Screenplay category to be one of the most entertaining categories of any year. Here, we can find some of the most eclectic, enjoyable, thought-provoking projects of the year. It's always fun to delve in to the most original and creative projects of the year.



THE PLAYERS
1. Juno
2. Michael Clayton
3. Ratatouille
4. The Savages
5. Lars And The Real Girl

THE CHASERS
1. I'm Not There
2. Before The Devil Knows You're Dead
3. Eastern Promises

It's clear that this category loves to award the quirky comedy with an emotional foundation, and that is exactly what Juno delivers. Not only are the lines well scripted, but the characters are too. It's a vast improvement on the Little Miss Sunshine model, and it seems like the clear winner here.

Michael Clayton seemed to be building so much Best Picture steam, only to stumble into the "unlikely" slot. So, the witty and clever adult law drama is likely nominated in this category: often considered the place to say "Oh, I'm sorry you didn't get into Best Picture...but here's a screenplay nod!!!"

Ratatouille has long been praised as one of the best reviewed movies of the year, and will most likely receive a nod here like The Incredibles did a few years ago. It's near impossible for animated films to break into the top five whether or not they deserve it, so once again, this category is where this animated masterpiece will fall.

The Savages and Lars and The Real Girl seem to be building momentum with their precursor nominations. The Savages has racked up the LAFCA award along with some regional nominations, while Lars and The Real Girl picked up the NBR award, a Satellite Award nomination, and a BFCA nomination. These two seem very likely to receive the 4th and 5th slots in this category.

The Chasers represent a completely different tone of film making. I'm Not There could get the weird yet cool nomination. Before The Devil Knows Your Dead could get the thrilling and intense nomination. And Eastern Promises could get the foreign mystery thriller nomination. It's a very cool year, and the range of possibilities is as diverse as it has ever been.

Loves it.

Later Players.

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ASC Nominations

Cinematographers are weighing in with the ASC nominations.

The Assassination of Jesse James by The Coward Robert Ford
Atonement
There Will Be Blood
The Diving Bell and The Butterfly
No Country For Old Men

No Into The Wild huh?

Intriguing. What do you guys think?

Poll!!!

Surprisingly, Tilda Swinton won this weeks poll for most likely to be snubbed. I'm not sure if this is because most people don't really know her, or if they haven't seen Michael Clayton, but either way there is clearly a weakness to her performance that lead most of you to believe she could be snubbed.

The role is not as baity as others in the category and that could lead to the snub, but I don't really see the industry respect waivering that much.

My Pick: Atonement for Best Picture

It's too glossy and if the Academy decides to go gritty this year, Into The Wild, There Will Be Blood, and the many many others will overcome Joe Wright's Oscar-pleading project. It feels like Walk The Line.

BAFTA Long Lists

Variety has the BAFTA long lists up. These lists show the 15 contenders that the five for the short list will be chosen from. Atonement racks up 17 long list nominations, 4 of which in the Supporting Actress race (could not be happier about the Brenda Blethyn recognition!!!).

Here they are!

The Sweeney Todd snub in director and picture can be explained because screeners were not sent out. Don't read too much into this. Especially since it still received 9 long list nods without any publicity.

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USC Scripter Nominations

Awards Daily has the USC Scripter nominations up. And they are...

Atonement
Into The Wild
No Country For Old Men
There Will Be Blood
Zodiac

The Scripter Awards recognize the year's best effort in screen writing adaptation. Last year, only two of the five Scripter nominees matched up with the Oscar top five, those being winner Children of Men, and Notes On A Scandal.

I will take this opportunity to give my breakdown of the Adapted Screenplay chart and give the break down the way I see it.

Historically, the winner of the Scripter has been Best Picture nominated 12 out of 19 times. The winners that missed were Children of Men, A Civil Action, The Hurricane, Wonder Boys, A River Runs Through It, Fried Green Tomatoes, and 84 Charing Crossing Road.

The Scripters started nominating instead of just plain awarding in '97, and since then 33 out of their 50 nominees have gone on to receive adapted screenplay nominations. Generally, they average a 3 or 4 nomination match with what AMPAS declares the best of the year. Only once have they matched up perfectly, in 2005, when they nominated Syriana as Adapted, but AMPAS nominated it in Original.

Atonement and No Country For Old Men get in without fail, and Into The Wild gets this nod as either an industry love match to a Best Picture nomination, or an apology à la Hotel Rwanda for not making the Best Pic short list. There Will be Blood is gaining serious momentum and seems very likely. The Diving Bell and The Butterfly is falling fast and could get overtaken by the likes of Charlie Wilson's War, Sweeney Todd, Zodiac, or Gone Baby Gone. In the end, Scripter matches 3 or 4 to the Oscar list.

It's nice to see recognition for the brilliantly nuanced Zodiac finally come around at least a little bit, but I think it will pretty much stop here.

It's a great race.

THE PLAYERS
1. No Country For Old Men
2. Atonement
3. Into The Wild
4. There Will Be Blood
5. The Diving Bell and The Butterfly

THE CHASERS
1. Charlie Wilson's War
2. Gone Baby Gone
3. Sweeney Todd
4. Zodiac

Diet Reviews!!!

I have been needing to get caught up on a few reviews so I just decided to lump them together and do Diet Reviews: a trimmed down version of what could have been a much wordier diatribe full of descriptive but superfluous adjectives. Much like that last sentence.

ATONEMENT
Um, ya. So this film was pretty much near perfect in its technical execution, which may ultimately be its tragic flaw. The film appears so glossy-perfect in its stunning cinematography and art direction that the whole thing feels a little plastic. Classic case of style trumping substance, though James McAvoy is was just what I thought he would be ever since I saw The Last King Of Scotland: a growing leading man. Watch out for him. GRADE: A-

ALIEN VS. PREDATOR: REQUIEM
I have heard that the definition of an idiot is someone who does the same thing over and over but expects different results. I....am an idiot. I continuously see these new Alien or Predator movies because I loved the first two so much and hope that a return to brilliance will be just around the corner. This movie is horrible. Like as horrible as The Marine...horrible. Enough Said. GRADE: F

JUNO
I never bought into the cult love for Little Miss Sunshine last year, so I thought I would be particularly jaded to the apparently similar Juno this year. Remind me to never trust people because this film is anything but Little Miss Sunshine. Its gritty yet charming attitudes and truly original writing represent an enjoyable and original film, not a veneer of family awkwardness that both feigns originality and is shaped like a dancing Abigail Breslin. Ellen Page is incredible. And so is this movie. GRADE: A-

NO COUNTRY FOR OLD MEN
I need to see this again. I think it is brilliant, but I need to make sure I wasn't just vibing into a manipulative attempt to be complex for complexity's sake. But technically it was stunning. LOVE the no score choice. GRADE: A

I AM LEGEND
Just plain fun. Unfortunately the movie could have been a little less action and a little more "what should we think of this?" Often sacrifices truly thought-provoking, and inherently more interesting, questions for the cheesy jump-out-at-you moments that grew so annoying. Also, I kinda think it would have been amazing if they never really showed those baddies, and left it up to us as to whether he had gone insane. Just more interesting to me, I suppose. GRADE: B-

THE GREAT DEBATERS
Denzel Washington's second directorial effort is not as good as his first. This film is unfocused and often too wide ranging to garner any effective sentiment from an audience. In the effort to display many problems as a little wrong, the film sacrifices the importance of making one over arching issue WAY important. Very bleh to me. GRADE: C+

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A Mighty Heart

Well, I just got back from a wonderful family wedding and I will not be posting again today other than what I have to say here, and an FYC ad.

I finally got around to watching A Mighty Heart and as a whole, it is seriously flawed. Fractured editing, poor camera angles, emotionless lighting, and an overall underwhelming directorial sentiment are just a few of the technical problems with the film. It has some incredible moments, and I will give it that, but it seemed to be trying so hard to become an investigative preachy morality tale of differences and misunderstanding that it ended up becoming a lesson in the art of alienating international struggles as a simple plot device.

That being said, Jolie is pretty much stellar in this film. I have not seen her dig into a character so much since Girl, Interrupted, for which she won a Supporting Actress award. She was strong yet vulnerable in the same way Julianne Moore was in Far From Heaven, while displaying complete devastation in the style of Naomi Watts in 21 Grams.

I believe she should be nominated for this performance, but it is very possible she could be snubbed. If she does not get a nod at least, it is the fault of the director for pointing the camera in the wrong direction. Too many shots were focused on the recipient of Jolie's lines instead of on her. I think a lot of desperation and drive were missed from her because of those botched moments.

One hell of an emotional breakdown at the end though.

For these reasons...I have decided to bump Amy Adams from the top five on the sidebar and give it to Jolie. I don't think AMPAS can ignore this performance. I mean, the Globes, SAG, and BFCA couldn't...

Film: C+
Jolie: A-

Later Players.

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There Will Be Blood

Boxofficemojo is reporting an opening weekend performance of 186,000 for There Will Be Blood. Seems like it underperformed? Well considering that the movie showed in only two theaters with a per theater average of 93,000, it would seem like there is a level of anticipation that has not been seen since Brokeback Mountain averaged 109,000 in 5 theaters.

There Will Be Blood is building momentum in a big way, and feels like a darkhorse to win this year. I know that No Country For Old Men is on a war path to victory, but when one film wins that much, upsets tend to happen (Raging Bull, Brokeback Mountain, Saving Private Ryan, Goodfellas etc).

Watch out now.

P.S. I am at a family wedding right now, so I will most likely not be able to post until tomorrow, but who knows maybe I'll get around to something tonight.

Later Players.

Poll Results

Alright kids, most of you thought that Atonement would get the most nominations this year, followed up with Sweeney Todd.

Interesting, considering both films received no attention at the SAGs, and Into The Wild lead the BFCAs and the SAGs. However, I agree with most of you. It might just be a hunch, but I think AMPAS will not be able to resists a beautifully shot, British, sprawling epic and the new Joe Wright project will grab a bunch of nods.

My vote: Atonement.

Check the new poll!

"YOU'VE CHANGED THINGS. FOREVER. THERE'S NO GOING BACK. SEE, TO THEM YOU'RE JUST A FREAK. LIKE ME!"

::Chills::