"J. Edgar" Trailer

Today we get our first real look at Clint Eastwood's "J. Edgar."  While Eastwood has not had a film in serious competition since "Letters From Iwo Jima," never underestimate him.  That's how so many people lost money the year "The Aviator" was supposed to sweep the Oscars and give Marty his much coveted Oscar.  This film is an Eastwood film, and he's directed two Best Picture winners.  It stars Leonardo DiCaprio, who routinely shows up in the Best Actor category.  It has a screenplay by Dustin Lance Black, who won an Oscar just a couple of years ago for "Milk."  Finally, it's a biopic about a VERY controversial figure!  Yeah, we haven't seen it yet, but it might be best to consider it a contender.

Eastwood Receives Special Palm d'Or

The Cannes Film Festival has bestowed a special Palm d'Or on director Clint Eastwood for his great career in directing movies. The award comes a few months early to the festival actually taking place, but it is a well deserved award. The special award is actually nicknamed the Golden Palm, but it looks very similar to the real thing. This is like one of those Honorary Oscars that the Academy gives out to actors and directors who have an impressive body of work but has, for some reason, never actually won an Oscar. These Oscars are normally dubbed by people as the "Opps, Sorry We Screwed Up" award. Most actors and directors actually don't like receiving honorary awards though and would prefer to win the award right out (see Peter O' Toole, who asked the Academy if they could choose someone else because he wanted "to win the little bugger out right").

Cannes is usually more diverse and more forward thinking then the Oscars usually are. They gave Martin Scorsese a Palm d'Or for "Taxi Driver" way back in 1976 while it took the Academy until 2006 to honor him with an Oscar for "The Departed." That said Cannes also has yet to honor Spielberd with a Palm d'Or while the Academy has honored him with two Oscars for directing. I'm not exactly sure what the reasoning behing giving Eastwood this award since he is still very much active, but since he's getting old in age it may be one those things where Cannes felt it was crazy he hadn't won yet and decided to rectify that mistake before it was too late. Right now Eastwood is filming his latest film "The Human Factor," starring Morgan Freeman and Matt Damon. If released this year expect lots of Oscar potential.

Will Clint Sing His Way To Another Oscar?

Clint Eastwood is an Oscar darling. He's directed two Best Picture winners ("Unforgiven" and "Million Dollar Baby"), he's been nominated for several other films. He's also an acclaimed actor, writer, and producer. Like a fine wine he gets better with age. One thing he is not known for though is his musical talents. On top of writing, directing, producing, and (sometimes) acting in his films, he usually writes the music for his movies. His scores aren't always as good as scores that come from dedicated composers, but, hey, it's still one more talent he can add his name to. Though Clint's son, Kyle, has written the score for his latest movie, "Gran Torino," Clint himself wrote the title song for the album.

And what a beautiful song it is.

Right now, with all the Oscars Clint has, people are dubious on whether or not the Academy would give him another one (especially during a year of high competition). Well, I'm skeptical about him getting another Best Director award, but if he gets the multiple nominations I think he will, then the easiest way to honor that achievement (and not hurt too many peoples feelings) to give him an Oscar for this slow, moving, and haunting song. We'll first have to see if it even gets nominated, but I'm feeling pretty confident about this one.

Ebert Oscar Roundup

Just to get this out of the way; no, Ebert has not posted his yearly look at the Oscars. That won't start until the nominations are announced. What he has done is written some reviews for Oscar potential films. He gives "Valkyrie," Tom Cruises big "comeback" three stars. Clint Eastwood's "Gran Torino" gets a healthy three and a half stars. The much mangled (but Globe nominated) "The Reader" gets three and a half stars. "The Wrestler," Mickey Rourkes big comeback, gets the full four stars. And "The Curious Case of Benjiman Button," one of this years front-runners gets...two and a half stars? Wow, I have to say I didn't see that coming. I won't quote the whole review here, but here's a particularly savage excert from his review:

The movie's premise devalues any relationship, makes futile any friendship or romance, and spits, not into the face of destiny, but backward into the maw of time.

Rarely is a two and a half star review shredded so badly. His review for the latest Adam Sandler movie is kinder (and "Marley & Me," the movie about the dog, gets a passing grade with three stars). Ebert's been wrong on Oscar movies before (he gave bad reviews to "Unforgiven" and "Gladiator"), but it is nice to see a high profile critic dislike a movie that's been so widely praised before release. I doubt this will hurt Benjiman's Oscar chances, but it sure is interesting none-the-less.

P.S. On a side note, my fears about Frank Miller's adaptation of "The Spirit" might be warrented; Ebert gave it one measly star.

'Slumdog' Wins NBR

The National Board of Review has given out it's awards to what the voters felt were the best films of the year. Below is the full list of the awards given by the NBR:

• Best Film: SLUMDOG MILLIONAIRE
• Best Director: DAVID FINCHER, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
• Best Actor: CLINT EASTWOOD, Gran Torino
• Best Actress: ANNE HATHAWAY, Rachel Getting Married
• Best Supporting Actor: JOSH BROLIN, Milk
• Best Supporting Actress: PENELOPE CRUZ, Vicky Cristina Barcelona
• Best Foreign Language Film: MONGOL
• Best Documentary: MAN ON WIRE
• Best Animated Feature: WALL-E
• Best Ensemble Cast: DOUBT

• Breakthrough Performance by an Actor: DEV PATEL, Slumdog Millionaire
• Breakthrough Performance by an Actress: VIOLA DAVIS, Doubt
• Best Directorial Debut: COURTNEY HUNT, Frozen River
• Best Original Screenplay: NICK SCHENK, Gran Torino
• Best Adapted Screenplay: SIMON BEAUFOY, Slumdog Millionaire and
ERIC ROTH, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
• Spotlight Award: MELISSA LEO, Frozen River and
RICHARD JENKINS, The Visitor
• The BVLGARI Award for NBR Freedom of Expression: TRUMBO

• Top Ten Films:
(In alphabetical order)
BURN AFTER READING
CHANGELING
THE CURIOUS CASE OF BENJAMIN BUTTON
THE DARK KNIGHT
DEFIANCE
FROST/NIXON
GRAN TORINO
MILK
WALL-E
THE WRESTLER

• Top Five Foreign Language Films:
(In alphabetical order)
EDGE OF HEAVEN
LET THE RIGHT ONE IN
ROMAN DE GUERRE
A SECRET
WALTZ WITH BASHIR

• Top Five Documentary Films
(In alphabetical order)
AMERICAN TEEN
THE BETRAYAL (NERAKHOON)
DEAR ZACHARY
ENCOUNTERS AT THE END OF THE WORLD
ROMAN POLANSKI: WANTED AND DESIRED

• William K. Everson Film History Award: MOLLY HASKELL and ANDREW SARRIS

Now obviously the big deal for these results is that the independant film "Slumdog Millionaire" won the top prize, which should bode well for Fox Searchlight who released Oscar nominees "Little Miss Sunshine" and "Juno," and likely has similar Oscar hope with this film. Though I congradulate Fox on this win, this does not mean an Oscar win in the future (or even a nomination). The problem with this film is while it is critically acclaimed, unlike Sunshine and Juno, the audiences are ignoring this film completely at the box office, and so the word-of-mouth that drove the aforementioned films just isn't there. What is nice to know is that both "The Dark Knight" and "Wall•E" were among the top ten films of the year, which bodes well for their Oscar chances.

The Coen Brothers latest comedy "Burn After Reading" was also in this list, so we may see a screenplay nomination at the Oscars come yet. Of course "Wall•E" won the Best Animated Feature award, and Penelope Cruz won Best Supporting Actress for "Vicky Cristina Barcelon," proving what I suspected all along: That this performance would have legs and likely be remembered come awards season. Clint Eastwood won Best Actor for "Gran Torino," so this movie could be the big surprise at the Oscars. If there is an upset (and this can be considered so) is that Josh Brolin won Best Supporting Actor for "Milk." Which is all fine and good, seeing as how there are three potential Best Supporting Actor nominations coming from that movie. The thing that surprised people was that Heath Ledger was actually beat in this category.

It appears that while Heath may be considered a lock at the Oscars, he might not be a lock anywhere else. See folks, while I think we all agree he should win an Oscar for his role, there is a slight chance he'll lose. Now I post this list because it's interesting, but don't use these awards as a guide for how you should place your bets come Oscar night. The NBR and Academy rarely votes the same way, and the winners rarely match between the two. "No Country For Old Men" did but that was a rare exception. For now I'd like to congradulate "Slumdog Millionaire" for it's big win, and hoping it can go the distance come Oscar time.

Updating Sidebars

Now that I've got time to update this site again I've decided it was about time to revamp the predictions sidebar. The biggest difference you'll notice is that I've added "Changeling" to many different categories. I still don't think this is Best Picture material (though it was good), but the Academy loves Clint, and this has some stylish cimematography and good acting to make Oscar take notice should the nomination potentials look too grim (which they are starting to). I'm going to hold firm that I believe Clint other film, "Gran Torino," will be the film getting the Best Picture nomination. I've also moved "The Dark Knights" screenplay to Best Adapted Screenplay because that box looks so lonely (and "The Dark Knight" could go either way with the screenplay at this point). I've also removed "The Dark Knight" from the Best Score category, since the Academy officially anounced it was not eligdable for that award.

Also (and I know this is a long shot) I fell Kevin Smith's raunchy comedy "Zack and Miri Make A Porno" has a halfway decent shot at getting a Best Original Screenplay nomination, so I'm going to include it for now and see how it looks. Again, not likely, but I'm feeling a bit crazy right now. Other then that there are a few minor changes here and there. Looking forward to next week when "Australia" opens, and we can see how much Best Picture potential that epic troubled film has.

"Changeling" Trailer Released

And here's the trailer for Clint Eastwood's upcoming film "Changeling," one of the most anticipated releases of the year. I would pretty much count on this getting multiple Oscar nominations (including Best Picture). The Academy seems to really love Clint. So much so that they passed over awarding Marty a few times in honor of him. History aside I must say that I'm impressed with the trailer and can't wait to see this.

"Appaloosa" Trailer

Out of all the Oscar hopefuls I've heard about so far, "Appaloosa" seems to be the one with the most promise. Famous actor turned director? Check. Acclaimed cast? Check. Broad appeal? Sure looks like it. Ed Harris's first directorial effert since "Pollack" looks to be a sure bet for nominations. One thing that could help is that many "actors turned directors" have won Oscars for directing westerns. Just ask Kevin Costner ("Dances With Wolves") and Clint Eastwood ("Unforgiven"). This is the only upcoming movie I feel comfertable claiming to be a Best Picture nominee this year.