These are the nominations for the 81rst annual Academy Awards. What started as a cookout in my backyard has blossomed into a major event. About every single nomination was totally predictable but I am glad that The Dark Knight was kept out of the major categories. Batgeeks around the world will weep. Too bad. Build a better Batman. I made some comments on this list, my choice in each category is in BOLD.
ACTOR IN A LEADING ROLE
Richard Jenkins - The Visitor
Frank Langella - Frost / Nixon(This is the" Joel Grey Effect")
Sean Penn - Milk(Been there, done that,gay Jeff Spicoli)
Brad Pitt - The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
Mickey Rourke - The Wrestler
Rourke was once one of the best actors around-just watch his work in Diner, The Pope of Greenwich Village, Angel Heart or Year of the Dragon and you'll see what this guy could do. A Brando like combination of exterior toughness but with a very human vulnerability. His performance in The Wrestler is the biggest special effect of the year. There are moments which seem to completely transcend conventional acting and enter the realm of personal revelation in a way I don't know if I've seen since Brando in Last Tango in Paris.
ACTOR IN A SUPPORTING ROLE
Josh Brolin - Milk
Robert Downey Jr. - Tropic Thunder
Phillip Seymour Hoffman - Doubt
Heath Ledger - The Dark Knight(*Will not be present)
Michael Shannon - Revolutionary Road
I liked both of these performances equally. Michael Shannon is a good actor who was great in William Friedkin's Bug but he was not a character in Revolutionary Road so much as a bad literary device. Brolin along with James Franco stole Milk.
ACTRESS IN A LEADING ROLE
Anne Hathaway - Rachel Getting Married
Angelina Jolie - Changeling
Melissa Leo - Frozen
Meryl Streep - Doubt
Kate Winslet - The Reader
Winslet hands down-she should win, and will win. Glad this was not for Revolutionary Road as that was really a subpar performance and film.
ACTRESS IN A SUPPORTING ROLE
Amy Adams - Doubt
Penelope Cruz - Vicky Cristina Barcelona
Viola Davis - Doubt
Taraji P. Henson - The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
Marisa Tomei - The Wrestler
This is a hard category as all of these performances were excellent. Marisa Tomei was very efefctive at conveying a life full of emotional wounds in The Wrestler and Amy Adams was so wonderfully fragile in Doubt, a witness to the very personal war of wills between Hoffman and Streep. But I think Penelope was the best here. Very controlled and in command of herself in a way I haven't seen her achieve in the English language. Woody Allen helped a bit I think. Actually, I think this has been the key to his great success over the years: Woody writes dialogue that could almost play itself.
ANIMATED FEATURE FILM
Bolt
Kung Fu Panda
Wall-E
I have nothing to say about Animation.
DIRECTING
Danny Boyle - Slumdog Millionaire
Stephen Daldry - The Reader
Clint Eastwood - Changeling
David Fincher - The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
Ron Howard - Frost/Nixon
All of the nominees pale in comparison to Boyle's truly cinematic work. While the others made fine films they remain what Hitchcock once called "photographs of people talking" not cinema. Watch 10 seconds of Slumdog and you'll feel the electric charge that comes from a director who writes stories with his lens.
BEST PICTURE
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
Frost / Nixon
Milk
The Reader
Slumdog Millionaire
Milk is a run of the mill TV movie and doesn't deserve to be here.
WRITING (ADAPTED SCREENPLAY)
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
Doubt(play should be disqualified)
Frost/Nixon(play should be disqualified)
The Reader
Slumdog Millionaire
I still think it's funny how Hollywood just cannot stop from typecasting even their screenwriters. Eric Roth was hired to adapt F. Scott Fitzgerald's short story "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button" because he's the screenwriter of the very "Button" like Forrest Gump. In fact there is a great comparison video HERE of the major scenes from both films which illustrate the similarities.
WRITING (ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY)
Frozen River
Happy-Go-Lucky
In Bruges
Milk
Wall-E
MUSIC (SCORE)
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
Defiance
Milk
Slumdog Millionaire
Wall-E
A.R. Rahman's score is one of the key ingredients of Slumdog. But I'm actually disappointed not to see THE DARK KNIGHT here. That score was very subtle and clever and I think is one of the reasons why Heath Ledger's performance was so striking.
MUSIC (SONG)
"Down to Earth" - Wall-E (Peter Gabriel)
"Jai Ho" - Slumdog Millionaire (A.R. Rahman)
"O Saya" - Slumdog Millionaire (A.R. Rahman & Maya Arulpragasam)
Slumdog is driven by it's score and this song makes for a real crowd pleasing ending.
DOCUMENTARY FEATURE
The Betrayal (Nerakhoon)
Encounters at the End of the World
The Garden
Man on Wire
Trouble the Water
Man with Balls of Steel could be an alternate title for this film about a very unique madman.
FOREIGN LANGUAGE FILM
Der Bader Meinhof Komplex
The Class
Departures
Revanche
Waltz with Bashir
ART DIRECTION
Changeling
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
The Dark Knight
The Duchess
Revolutionary Road
The best part of the film. Amazing control of color and space. Partly authentic recreation of a time period, partly a nightmare catalog of '50s appliance hell.
CINEMATOGRAPHY
Changeling
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
The Dark Knight
The Reader
Slumdog Millionaire
COSTUME DESIGN
Australia
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
The Duchess
Milk
Revolutionary Road
You're guess is as good as mine.
FILM EDITING
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
The Dark Knight
Frost / Nixon
Milk
Slumdog Millionaire
I know good editing is supposed to be invisible-I just don't agree with the literary restraint of that concept. Orson Welles is my man and his editing was loud, graphic, and very tactile! Slumdog features this approach throughout and it's graphic montages of Mumbai's light and dark are dynamic and thrilling.
MAKEUP
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
The Dark Knight
Hellboy II: The Golden Army
SOUND EDITING
The Dark Knight
Iron Man
Slumdog Millionaire
Wall-E
Wanted
I know I said I didn't have anything to say about Animation but Wall-E's sound editing and design was done by the great Ben Burtt and he should and will win.
SOUND MIXING
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
The Dark Knight
Slumdog Millionaire
Wall-E
Wanted
Ditto.
VISUAL EFFECTS
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
Iron Man
The Dark Knight
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