I must say first, that this post is being created for more of an informative reason than for anything else. Although I have managed to suffer through just about every film nominated for a Golden Raspberry award, I have yet to see several of the Oscar nominees. Since my movie reviewing is confined largely to DVD viewing in the comfort of my own home, I have not yet seen Juno, No Country For Old Men, There Will Be Blood, Sweeny Todd, Michael Clayton, In The Valley of Elah, Into the Wild, Gone Baby Gone…and several others. Therefore, I am not qualified to comment on most of the categories. I have about two cents worth of opinions to add, but that’s it for now. Maybe in a few weeks, when I have seen everything, I will add to this post. Until then, for informative purposes, here are the nominees:
Category: Performance by an actor in a leading role.
Nominees: George Clooney in “Michael Clayton”. Daniel Day-Lewis in “There Will Be Blood”. Johnny Depp in “Sweeney Todd The Demon Barber of Fleet Street”. Tommy Lee Jones in “In the Valley of Elah”. Viggo Mortensen in “Eastern Promises”.
Who should win: I have seen only one of these performances. But I find it hard to believe anyone could have done a better job than Mortensen in Eastern Promises. The only one I could see beating this one is Daniel Day-Lewis, since he is always the best actor going, whenever he decides to work every five years.
Who was missed: I really think Russell Crowe deserved a spot here. Sure, 3:10 To Yuma was an action movie, a popcorn western, but he was absolutely electric. Also, his co-star in that movie, Christian Bale, certainly merited some consideration for Rescue Dawn. And Gordon Pinsent was fantastic in Away From Her.
Category: Performance by an actor in a supporting role.
Nominees: Casey Affleck in “The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford”. Javier Bardem in “No Country for Old Men”. Philip Seymour Hoffman in “Charlie Wilson’s War”. Hal Holbrook in “Into the Wild”. Tom Wilkinson in “Michael Clayton”.
Who should win: Unfortunately, I haven’t seen any of these movies. I have no idea who should win. I do, however, have a sense that Javier Bardem will win, since he has the most hype on him and his movie is getting the most hype at the right time.
Who was missed: Steve Zahn in Rescue Dawn.
Category: Performance by an actress in a leading role.
Nominees: Cate Blanchett in “Elizabeth: The Golden Age”. Julie Christie in “Away from Her”. Marion Cotillard in “La Vie en Rose”. Laura Linney in “The Savages”. Ellen Page in “Juno”.
Who should win: Julie Christie. Her performance as an elderly lady afflicted with Alzheimers was both heartbreaking and realistic. The best acting role of her career.
Who was missed: Naomi Watts in Eastern Promises. Somehow, this sensational acting job got overlooked.
Category: Performance by an actress in a supporting role.
Nominees: Cate Blanchett in “I’m Not There”. Ruby Dee in “American Gangster”. Saoirse Ronan in “Atonement”. Amy Ryan in “Gone Baby Gone”. Tilda Swinton in “Michael Clayton”.
Who should win: Again, I don’t know. I have not yet seen any of these. Based on the buzz and the nature of the role, I would put my money on Saoirse Ronan.
Who was missed: Christina Ricci…Black Snake Moan…yeah. OK, she wasn’t a supporting actress, I just wanted to mention her. This is a pretty thin category this year.
Category: Best animated feature film of the year.
Nominees: “Persepolis”. “Ratatouille”. “Surf’s Up”.
Who should win: Ratatouille is the best kids’ animated movie of the last five years. Surf’s Up was cute, but not that good, and Persepolis is fantastic but won’t appeal to enough voters. Why only three nominees each year in this category? Maybe because there are only six movies that qualify every year. And if you didn’t cut it off somewhere, you would have to include huge bombs like Happily N’Ever After.
Who was missed: Well…nothing. There were only two great animated movies made this year.
Category: Achievement in art direction.
Nominees: “American Gangster”. “Atonement”. “The Golden Compass”. “Sweeney Todd The Demon Barber of Fleet Street”. “There Will Be Blood”.
Who should win: Ummm…who cares? When was the last time you rented a movie because it had “Oscar Winner – Best Art Direction” on the DVD case?
Who was missed: Again, who cares?
Category: Achievement in cinematography.
Nominees: “The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford”. “Atonement”. “The Diving Bell and the Butterfly”. “No Country for Old Men”. “There Will Be Blood”.
Who should win: I don’t know. Still haven’t seen any of them.
Who was missed: Rescue Dawn.
Category: Achievement in costume design.
Nominees: “Across the Universe”. “Atonement”. “Elizabeth: The Golden Age”. “La Vie en Rose”. “Sweeney Todd The Demon Barber of Fleet Street”
Who should win: I don’t know.
Who was missed: No one, really. This is a category that really honours “best period piece”, and there haven’t been that many great ones this year.
Category: Achievement in directing.
Nominees: “The Diving Bell and the Butterfly”, Julian Schnabel. “Juno”, Jason Reitman. “Michael Clayton”, Tony Gilroy. “No Country for Old Men”, Joel Coen and Ethan Coen. “There Will Be Blood”, Paul Thomas Anderson.
Who should win: It seems likely that the Coen Brothers will win this one. Hollywood loves them, and they were pretty well shut out for their previous masterpiece, Fargo. (They did get a screenwriting Oscar for it, but no direction or best picture or anything else it deserved.)
Who was missed: David Cronenberg. For the second straight year he was not even nominated for yet another masterpiece. Mortensen got his best actor nomination as a “sorry we missed you last year”, why not Cronenberg too? I would also have liked to see Sarah Polley get a nomination for Away From Her.
Category: Best documentary feature.
Nominees: “No End in Sight”. “Operation Homecoming: Writing the Wartime Experience”. “Sicko”. “Taxi to the Dark Side”. “War/Dance”.
Who should win: No End in Sight was a fantastic look at the mismanagement of the war in Iraq. It would be ironic if Oscar didn’t honour Michael Moore this year, because he is “too political”. And this one won instead. But it shouldn’t. Sicko was the best documentary of the year, and Moore will always be able to make the most informative and entertaining documentaries out there.
Who was missed: The Ralph Nader doc, An Unreasonable Man.
Category: Best documentary short subject.
Nominees: “Freeheld”. “La Corona (The Crown)”. “Salim Baba”. “Sari’s Mother”.
Who should win: Has anyone seen any of these? Will anyone see them? If a tree falls in the forest…and a movie wins an Oscar but no one ever sees it, do you still get a trophy?
Who was missed: How would anyone know?
Category: Achievement in film editing.
Nominees: “The Bourne Ultimatum”. “The Diving Bell and the Butterfly”. “Into the Wild”. “No Country for Old Men”. “There Will Be Blood”.
Who should win: This is a category only other film editors will care about. I should leave the choice up to them, because I assume the rest of us won’t care.
Who was missed: I’ll leave this up to the film editors as well.
Category: Best foreign language film of the year.
Nominees: “Beaufort” Israel, “The Counterfeiters” Austria, “Katyn” Poland, “Mongol” Kazakhstan, “12″ Russia.
Who should win: No idea. I have seen none of these films, and I have rented every foregin film to come through my local video store.
Who was missed: The Host (Korea).
Category: Achievement in makeup.
Nominees: “La Vie en Rose” (Picturehouse) Didier Lavergne and Jan Archibald “Norbit” (DreamWorks, Distributed by Paramount): Rick Baker and Kazuhiro Tsuji “Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End” (Walt Disney): Ve Neill and Martin Samuel.
Who should win: I’m sure we’ll all be huddled around our TVs on Oscar night with bated breath waiting on the results of this one. Norbit? Pirates 3? Oh God, who cares?
Who was missed: La Vie En Rose was a good movie. What’s it doing in the “worst of the year” category?
Category: Achievement in music written for motion pictures (Original score).
Nominees: “Atonement” (Focus Features) Dario Marianelli “The Kite Runner” (DreamWorks, Sidney Kimmel Entertainment and Participant Productions, Distributed by Paramount Classics): Alberto Iglesias “Michael Clayton” (Warner Bros.) James Newton Howard “Ratatouille” (Walt Disney) Michael Giacchino “3:10 to Yuma” (Lionsgate) Marco Beltrami.
Who should win: 3:10 to Yuma. The score was perfect – a throwback to the old western Morricone-style soundtracks, never invasive, and always moving the action forward.
What was missed: Sunshine.
Category: Achievement in music written for motion pictures (Original song).
Nominees: “Falling Slowly” from “Once” (Fox Searchlight) Music and Lyric by Glen Hansard and: Marketa Irglova “Happy Working Song” from “Enchanted” (Walt Disney): Music by Alan Menken; Lyric by Stephen Schwartz “Raise It Up” from “August Rush” (Warner Bros.): Nominees to be determined “So Close” from “Enchanted” (Walt Disney): Music by Alan Menken; Lyric by Stephen Schwartz “That’s How You Know” from “Enchanted” (Walt Disney): Music by Alan Menken; Lyric by Stephen Schwartz.
Who should win: Once. The song is great, the movie is terrific. The others I haven’t seen.
What was missed: I don’t know. Can’t be much, if Enchanted has eleven songs in here.
Category: Best motion picture of the year.
Nominees: “Atonement”. “Juno”. “Michael Clayton”. “No Country for Old Men”. “There Will Be Blood”.
Who should win: According to most, No Country For Old Men ought to be the favourite. Juno is this year’s Little Miss Sunshine, and those rarely get real consideration for best picture. Michael Clayton will go the way of the other George Clooney movies of recent years – Syriana, Good Night and Good Luck, and it will not be a winner.
What was missed: Eastern Promises and The Hunting Party.
Category: Best animated short film.
Nominees: “I Met the Walrus”. “Madame Tutli-Putli”. “Même Les Pigeons Vont au Paradis (Even Pigeons Go to Heaven)”. “My Love (Moya Lyubov)”. “Peter & the Wolf”.
Who should win: Again, who has seen these? And therefore, who cares?
What was missed: Umm…same question.
Category: Best live action short film.
Nominees: “At Night”. “Il Supplente (The Substitute)”. “Le Mozart des Pickpockets (The Mozart of Pickpockets)”. “Tanghi Argentini”. “The Tonto Woman”.
Who should win: Again, who cares?
What was missed: An opportunity to create the category “best films seen only by friends and family”.
Category: Achievement in sound editing.
Nominees: “The Bourne Ultimatum”. “No Country for Old Men”. “Ratatouille”. “There Will Be Blood”. “Transformers”.
Who should win: Let’s give it to the Bourne Ultimatum. They deserve something for making a really good movie. And four, maybe five more people will rent the movie if it has this Oscar.
What was missed: Another twenty minutes of our life that we could have spent reading instead of watching an insipid Oscar telecast.
Category: Achievement in sound mixing.
Nominees: “The Bourne Ultimatum”. “No Country for Old Men”. “Ratatouille”. “3:10 to Yuma”. “Transformers”.
Who should win: Apparently, this is not the same category as sound editing. For some reason. Let’s give this one to 3:10 to Yuma. They deserve some Oscars too.
What was missed: The difference between sound mixing and sound editing.
Category: Achievement in visual effects.
Nominees: “The Golden Compass”. “Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End”. “Transformers”.
Who should win: This is really an award for “biggest budget”. So, Pirates, I guess.
What was missed: Other crap. Like Ghost Rider.
Category: Adapted screenplay.
Nominees: “Atonement”. “Away from Her”. “The Diving Bell and the Butterfly”. “No Country for Old Men”. “There Will Be Blood”.
Who should win: Sarah Polley for Away From Her. No Country For Old Men (I just read the book) is already pretty easily set up for the screen. Away From Her would have taken an enormous effort and a lot of intelligence to adapt to a screen version.
What was missed: Eastern Promises.
Category: Original screenplay.
Nominees: “Juno”. “Lars and the Real Girl”. “Michael Clayton”. “Ratatouille”. “The Savages”.
Who should win: Ratatouille. Writing a screenplay that is both intelligent AND appeals to kids might be the toughest thing to do, especially when you can make a kids’ movie with no intelligence and almost no effort at all. Ratatouille deserves serious credit here.
What was overlooked: The Lookout.
That’s it, in alphabetical order. I will revisit this a few times as I actually watch the movies that have been nominated. This is more than I can say for many of the Academy voters, which is why I still consider the Golden Raspberries to be more honest and accurate representations of moviedom.