The Reader does not belong as a Best Picture Nomination. There is nothing dazzling about it and yes we have seen it all before and better. Could it be a tribute to the film's producers who died before it was completed...Sydney Pollock and Anthony Minghella? The Reader is a good performance by Winslet but not her best. But Oscar never cares about the person's best performance for an award. Winslet shows great range however if you look at both films. She is very quiet and subtle in the Reader while in Revolutionary Road she is loud and in melodramatic (in a good way). It is much like Kevin Spacey when he won his first Oscar. He was quiet and thoughtful villain in Usual Suspects (for which he won the Oscar) and a loud melodramatic villain in the film Swimming with the Sharks. Melissa Leo is the best female performance in my opinion. I wish the Academy would see that!I think Penn will take it. His speech for his SAG win touched on "equal rights to all" without being preachy. This could be the mood of Hollywood because of the backlash after the passing of Prop 8. They ay feel the performance is "important" and gave it an Oscar. Not to say the performance is not worthy in its own merit. Penn is great in Milk. He does not play it too gay but plays it gay enough. Mickey Rourke gives one of the gentlest emotional performances of the year. But does the Academy wanna give him an Oscar? I go with Penn right now.
I hated Benj Button. It does not deserve its Oscar Nom for picture, actor, director, or screenplay. Yes...the story was rehashed themes from Forrest Gump and Big fish. How much of the performance was Brad Pitt and how much of it was CG or make-up or both? I feel like Fincher has directed way better films such as Se7en or Fight Club because they had a look and a feeling that I think works on all your senses. Button is a slick Hollywood film. I guess I am saying Fincher kinda sold out.
The music of Slumdog became a driving force of the film. It is the ultimate example of Micky Mousing where the actions of the characters go along with the music. The kids running thru the slums with a driving beat burned into the back of my head. And I won't make your blood boil Will. I won't go into the songs of Slumdog (or the foot stomping) but yes the song from the Wrestler was robbed out of a nomination.
Doubt is the strangest of the nominations. It got 4 acting nominations and no Best Picture nomination. The last time this happened in Oscar history was in 1965 ith the film Othello. It deserved a best picture nomination certainly over Benj Button or the Reader, maybe even Frost/Nixon. The latter I put in the category of the film Capote which Ithought did not deserve a Best Picture Nomination.
I can’t totally go with Viola Davis. Penelope Cruz could become the first Spanish woman to win (Does the Academy think this way?) and then there is the Woody Allen factor. He has directed Dianne Weist to 2 Oscars and Mira Sorvino to an Oscar.
In the tech categories if you look critics and guild awards as an indicator of what could win, Slumdog Millionaire looks like it could sweep. It has won Critic’s Choice, Golden Globe, BFTA, PGA, SAG, WGA, DGA, ACE Eddie (editing), CSA (cinematography), and Cinema Audio Society.
I expect Slumdog to win Best Picture, Best Director, Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Editing, Best Score, and Best Song for “Jai Ho” It could win Cinematography. I don’t expect it to win sound or sound editing (Dark Kinight is likely to take sound awards) but if it did it could go 9 for 9.
Here are my predictions...Slumdog/Boyle//Penn/Winslet/Davis or Cruz (haven't decided), Ledger/Adapted Slumdog/Original Milk/Animated Wall-E.
Tech Awards …Slumdog takes Editing, Score, Song (Jai Ho), Cinematography (maybe?), Both Sound awards for Dark Knight, Best Make-up and Visual Effects Benj Button, Best Documentry Man on Wire (only one I have seen), Foreign Language (have not seen any) Waltz with Bashir
Sean Marshall
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