Tapley To Academy: This Years Nominees Are A 'Tragedy'

Kristopher Tapley of In Contention.com has written a critical piece of the AMPAS choices for Best Picture nominations. Here's my favorite bit of the article:

This all brings us to the elephant in the room: “The Reader” was the film to steal the Bat’s thunder, not “Gran Torino” like I expected, not “WALL-E” as others had hoped. And I think we all knew it was coming once Stephen Daldry’s name was called. A pornographic account of a sympathetic Nazi, rushed through post-production and ultimately a sloppy piece of drama, rightly abandoned by its initial producer at a crucial time on the basis of principle on one hand, politics on the other — this is one of the Academy’s five Best Pictures of the year.

These people should have their cards taken away. This member-for-life shit has to go because you end up with crotchety fools that have no idea what good cinema is, let alone a care about how their organization’s choices will be looked upon in the future. Years from now, “The Reader” will be a blip on the map of film obscurity. “The Dark Knight” will live on in infamy as one of the year’s titans, both a popular blockbuster and a critically acclaimed work of art.

What an absolute tragedy.

I have to say I'm in agreement with him 100% here. I was in too much shock yesterday to voice my opinion on the nominations, so that's why you'll get them today instead. Stay tuned.

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.