The Decade List: Paranoid Park (2007)

Paranoid Park – dir. Gus Van Sant

Paranoid Park represents the pinnacle of Gus Van Sant's career change. After receiving financial stability after Good Will Hunting and Finding Forrester, the director amiably drifted off-course with his Trilogy of Death (Gerry, Elephant, Last Days), and Paranoid Park stands as a kind of epilogue. It's certainly not as deconstructive or alienating as the Trilogy of Death, though death becomes the central focus of the film as a teenaged skater (Gabe Nevins) accidentally kills a security guard. Instead, Paranoid Park is more of a poetic narrative, pensive but not distant. In other words, it's Van Sant's revisit to his earlier work, specifically Mala Noche and My Own Private Idaho, with age on his side.

The strongest element to Paranoid Park is Christopher Doyle and Rain Kathy Li’s immaculate cinematography. Doyle and Van Sant previously collaborated on Psycho, which most of us would prefer to forget (coincidentally though, the most memorable scenes of both films have the lead characters showering), but Paranoid Park marks a change in Doyle's work, leaning toward subtle and grainy as opposed to sumptuous and beautiful, best seen in the various Wong Kar-wai films he lensed. It's actually when Van Sant and Doyle linger upon their wordless subjects that the film reaches its high points. One might also notice the use of Elliott Smith on the soundtrack, whose music was featured prominently (and Oscar-nominated) in Good Will Hunting. The use of Smith’s music posthumously certainly adds to tone of the film; hell, his music always had the taste of melancholy.

Though Paranoid Park marked a wonderful point in Van Sant's career, it's hard not to criticize the director for his unorthodox casting, finding the majority of his subjects via MySpace. He strives for naturalness in his subjects but gives his "actors" a lot more to do in Paranoid Park than Elephant, where the teenagers roam the hallways of the school zombie-like. The entire cast is quite lousy, and though Van Sant's heart was in the right place, they become a bit of a distraction when they have to open their mouths. Otherwise, Paranoid Park epitomizes the obsessions of a director who never followed the path expected of him.

With: Gabe Nevins, Dan Liu, Jake Miller, Taylor Momsen, Lauren McKinney, Scott Green, Christopher Doyle
Screenplay: Gus Van Sant, based on the novel by Blake Nelson
Cinematography: Christopher Doyle, Rain Kathy Li
Country of Origin: USA/France
US Distributor: IFC Films

Premiere: 21 May 2007 (Cannes Film Festival)
US Premiere: 7 October 2007 (New York Film Festival)

Awards: 60th Anniversary Prize (Cannes Film Festival); Producers Award – Neil Kopp (Independent Spirit Awards)

Millennium Mambo, Part 5

Glenn Kenny amends his own "70 Greatest Films of the Decade" by adding another 30, because, as he says, "my best-of-the-decade list of 70 slighted (inevitably, I insist) at least two dozen other worthy works, if not more, I hereby consider my readers' suggestions, and my own memory lapses, and give you thirty more outstanding motion pictures of the last decade." Check his site for the additional 30, but I was happy to see the inclusion of Gus Van Sant's Paranoid Park, Neil Marshall's The Descent, Hou Hsiao-hsien's Flight of the Red Balloon and Cristi Puiu's The Death of Mr. Lăzărescu.

The Onion's A.V. Club rolled out their second '00 list with "The Best Bad Movies of the '00s." Some of the obvious losers (The Happening, Battlefield Earth) made the list, as well as a few surprises (hello, The Perfect Man!). You can indulge in all the schadenfreude here, but keep in mind, they had to make the tough decision of narrowing down all the terrible Nicolas Cage and Uwe Boll films down to one a piece. That in itself could fill all 15 slots (I think, I'm not going to bother checking).

Millennium Mambo, Part 2-ish

Two more big lists have been published asserting the finest films of the decade. The haughtier of the two came from The Toronto International Film Festival Cinematheque, which surveyed a group of "film curators, historians, and festival programmers" and named, in a surprise move, Apichatpong Weerasethakul's Syndromes and a Century the best film of the 2000s. I'm in agreement with almost their entire list, aside from Claire Denis' Beau travail (not because I don't absolutely adore the film, but because by my own regulations, it counts as a 1999 film) [Abbas Kiarostami's The Wind Will Carry Us falls into the same place for me], Guillermo del Toro's Pan's Labyrinth (which is fine, but doesn't need to be that high) and Elephant, which should not be listed above Gerry (or Paranoid Park, which isn't on the list). I also don't have much affinity for I Don't Want to Sleep Alone, I'm Not There., Alexandra or Saraband (from what I remember of it), but that's part of the joy in lists like these, no? The list is as follows, with plenty of ties, the US distributor if applicable is listed after the title for assistance:

01. Syndromes and a Century, 2006, d. Apichatpong Weerasethakul, Thailand/France/Austria, Strand Releasing

02. Platform, 2000, d. Jia Zhang-ke, China/Hong Kong/Japan/France, New Yorker Films

03. Still Life, 2006, d. Jia Zhang-ke, China/Hong Kong, New Yorker Films

04. Beau travail, 1999/2000, d. Claire Denis, France, New Yorker Films

05. In the Mood for Love, 2000, d. Wong Kar-wai, Hong Kong/China/France, USA Films/Criterion

06. Tropical Malady, 2004, d. Apichatpong Weerasethakul, Thailand/France/Germany/Italy, Strand Releasing

07. (tie) The Death of Mr. Lăzărescu [Moartea domnului Lăzărescu], 2005, d. Cristi Puiu, Romania, Tartan Films
07. (tie) Werckmeister Harmonies [Werckmeister harmóniák], 2000, d. Béla Tarr, Ágnes Hranitzky, Hungary/Italy/Germany/France, Facets

08. Éloge de l'amour [In Praise of Love], 2001, d. Jean-Luc Godard, France/Switzerland, New Yorker Films

09. 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days [4 luni, 3 săptămâni şi 2 zile], 2007, d. Cristian Mungiu, Romania, IFC Films

10. Silent Light [Stellet licht], 2007, d. Carlos Reygadas, Mexico/France/Netherlands/Germany, Palisades Tartan

11. Russian Ark, 2002, d. Aleksandr Sokurov, Russia/Germany, Wellspring

12. The New World, 2005, d. Terrence Malick, USA/UK, New Line

13. Blissfully Yours, 2002, d. Apichatpong Weerasethakul, Thailand/France, Strand Releasing

14. Le fils [The Son], 2002, d. Jean-Pierre Dardenne, Luc Dardenne, Belgium/France, New Yorker Films

15. Colossal Youth [Juventude Em Marcha], 2006, d. Pedro Costa, Portugal/France/Switzerland, Criterion (unreleased as of yet)

16. (tie) Les glaneurs et la glaneuse [The Gleaners & I], 2000, d. Agnès Varda, France, Zeitgeist
16. (tie) In Vanda's Room [No Quarto da Vanda], 2000, d. Pedro Costa, Portugal/Germany/Switzerland/Italy, Criterion (unreleased as of yet)
16. (tie) Songs from the Second Floor [Sånger från andra våningen], 2000, d. Roy Andersson, Sweden/Norway/Denmark, New Yorker Films

17. (tie) Caché, 2005, d. Michael Haneke, France/Austria/Germany/Italy, Sony Pictures Classics
17. (tie) A History of Violence, 2005, d. David Cronenberg, USA/Germany, New Line
17. (tie) Mulholland Drive, 2001, d. David Lynch, France/USA, Universal Studios
17. (tie) Three Times, 2005, d. Hou Hsiao-hsien, Taiwan/France, IFC Films

18. Rois et reine [Kings and Queen], 2004, d. Arnaud Desplechin, France, Wellspring

19. Elephant, 2003, d. Gus Van Sant, USA, HBO Films

20. Talk to Her [Hable con ella], 2002, d. Pedro Almodóvar, Spain, Sony Pictures Classics

21. (tie) The Wind Will Carry Us, 1999/2000, d. Abbas Kiarostami, Iran/France, New Yorker Films
21. (tie) Yi yi: A One and Two, 2000, d. Edward Yang, Taiwan/Japan, Fox Lorber/Criterion

22. Pan's Labyrinth [El laberinto del Fauno], 2006, d. Guillermo del Toro, Mexico/Spain/USA, Picturehouse/New Line

23. (tie) L'enfant, 2005, d. Jean-Pierre Dardenne, Luc Dardenne, Belgium/France, Sony Pictures Classics
23. (tie) The Heart of the World, 2000, d. Guy Maddin, Canada, Zeitgeist
23. (tie) I Don't Want to Sleep Alone, 2006, d. Tsai Ming-liang, Taiwan/Malaysia/China/France/Austria, Strand Releasing
23. (tie) Star Spangled to Death, 2004, d. Ken Jacobs, USA, Big Commotion Pictures

24. The World, 2004, d. Jia Zhang-ke, China/Japan/France, Zeitgeist

25. (tie) Café Lumière, 2003, d. Hou Hsiao-hsien, Japan/Taiwan, Wellspring
25. (tie) The Headless Woman [La mujer sin cabeza], 2008, d. Lucrecia Martel, Argentina/France/Italy/Spain, Strand Releasing
25. (tie) L'intrus [The Intruder], 2004, d. Claire Denis, France, Wellspring
25. (tie) Millennium Mambo, 2001, d. Hou Hsiao-hsien, Taiwan/France, Palm Pictures
25. (tie) My Winnipeg, 2007, d. Guy Maddin, Canada, IFC Films
25. (tie) Saraband, 2003, d. Ingmar Bergman, Sweden/Italy/Germany/Finland/Denmark/Austria, Sony Pictures Classics
25. (tie) Spirited Away, 2001, d. Hayao Miyazaki, Japan, Studio Ghibli/Disney
25. (tie) I'm Not There., 2007, d. Todd Haynes, USA/Germany, The Weinstein Company

26. Gerry, 2002, d. Gus Van Sant, USA, Miramax

27. (tie) Distant [Uzak], 2002, d. Nuri Bilge Ceylan, Turkey, New Yorker Films
27. (tie) Dogville, 2003, d. Lars von Trier, Denmark/Sweden/UK/France/Germany/Norway/Finland/Netherlands, Lionsgate
27. (tie) The Royal Tenenbaums, 2001, d. Wes Anderson, USA, Touchstone/Criterion

28. (tie) Alexandra, 2007, d. Aleksandr Sokurov, Russia/France, Cinema Guild
28. (tie) demonlover, 2002, d. Olivier Assayas, France, Palm Pictures

29. (tie) Atanarjuat: The Fast Runner, 2001, d. Zacharias Kunuk, Canada, Lot 47 Films
29. (tie) Goodbye, Dragon Inn, 2003, d. Tsai Ming-liang, Taiwan, Wellspring

30. (tie) Longing [Sehnsucht], 2006, d. Valeska Grisebach, Germany, N/A
30. (tie) Secret Sunshine, 2007, d. Lee Chang-dong, South Korea, N/A
30. (tie) Vai e Vem [Come and Go], 2003, d. João César Monteiro, Portugal/France, N/A
30. (tie) Far from Heaven, 2002, d. Todd Haynes, USA/France, Focus Features

So to tally... directors with more than one showing: Apichatpong Weerasethakul (3), Hou Hsiao-hsien (3), Jia Zhang-ke (3), Gus Van Sant (2), Todd Haynes (2), Tsai Ming-liang (2), Aleksandr Sokurov (2), Claire Denis (2), Guy Maddin (2), the Dardenne brothers (2), Pedro Costa (2). Only 5 of the 54 are unavailable on DVD in the US, though both Pedro Costa films are planned (or at least strongly rumored) to be coming from Criterion. However, in looking at the list, there is a wave of sadness, seeing studios that are no more like New Yorker Films, Wellspring/Fox Lorber, USA Films, Lot 47 Films and Picturehouse, as well as ones that have fallen from grace but still existing in a smaller form like Palm Pictures and (meh) Miramax and New Line. Of course, a number of fabulous distribution studios have opened throughout the past ten years, from Cinema Guild, IFC Films, Benten Films and Oscilloscope as well as Palisades Tartan's restarting of the Tartan library, which brought Silent Light to screens this year. The biggest showing though for the studios still thriving would have to be Strand Releasing, who released 5 of the films above, including the "newest" of the lot, Lucrecia Martel's brilliant The Headless Woman [La mujer sin cabeza]. I wonder if it's an oversight that no 2009 film made the list or if the TIFF crowd was being overzealous with getting that list out. Also, notice only 2 documentaries and 1 short made the list, something I'm sure a handful of other lists will make up for.

Anyway, onto List #2 for Time Out New York, which polled a number of Big Apple-ish film critics, including Andrew Grant, Karina Longworth, Aaron Hillis and Kevin B. Lee (their individual top 10s can be found via this link). The list rounded to 50, but I'll only post the top 30 here, so you can check out the write-ups and #31-50 on their site.

01. Mulholland Drive, 2001, d. David Lynch, USA/France, Universal Studios
02. There Will Be Blood, 2007, d. Paul Thomas Anderson, USA, Paramount Vantage/Miramax
03. Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, 2004, d. Michel Gondry, USA, Focus Features
04. The New World, 2005, d. Terrence Malick, USA/UK, New Line
05. In the Mood for Love, 2000, d. Wong Kar-wai, Hong Kong/China/France, USA Films/Criterion
06. Yi yi: A One and Two, 2000, d. Edward Yang, Taiwan/Japan, Fox Lorber/Criterion
07. Dogville, 2003, d. Lars von Trier, Denmark/Sweden/UK/France/Germany/Norway/Finland/Netherlands, Lionsgate
08. Zodiac, 2007, d. David Fincher, USA, Paramount
09. A Christmas Tale [Un conte de Noël], 2008, d. Arnaud Desplechin, France, IFC Films/Criterion
10. Friday Night [Vendredi soir], 2002, d. Claire Denis, France, Wellspring
11. Spirited Away, 2001, d. Hayao Miyazaki, Japan, Studio Ghibli/Disney
12. American Psycho, 2000, d. Mary Harron, USA/Canada, Lionsgate
13. Inland Empire, 2006, d. David Lynch, USA/Poland/France, Absurda
14. Trouble Every Day, 2002, d. Claire Denis, France/Germany/Japan, Lot 47 Films
15. Domestic Violence, 2001, d. Frederick Wiseman, USA, Zippora Films
16. Punch-Drunk Love, 2002, d. Paul Thomas Anderson, USA, Columbia Pictures
17. Gosford Park, 2001, d. Robert Altman, UK/USA/Italy, Universal Studios
18. Femme Fatale, 2002, d. Brian De Palma, France/USA, Warner Bros.
19. I'm Not There., 2007, d. Todd Haynes, USA/Germany, The Weinstein Company
20. The Mad Songs of Fernanda Hussein, 2001, d. John Gianvito, USA, Extreme Low Frequency Productions
21. Brokeback Mountain, 2005, d. Ang Lee, USA/Canada, Focus Features
22. Synecdoche, New York, 2008, d. Charlie Kaufman, USA, Sony Pictures Classics
23. The Death of Mr. Lăzărescu [Moartea domnului Lăzărescu], 2005, d. Cristi Puiu, Romania, Tartan Films
24. I Heart Huckabees, 2004, d. David O. Russell, USA/Germany, Fox Searchlight
25. Inglourious Basterds, 2009, d. Quentin Tarantino, USA/Germany, The Weinstein Company/Universal Studios
26. Kings and Queen [Rois et reine], 2004, d. Arnaud Desplechin, France, Wellspring
27. Oldboy, 2003, d. Park Chan-wook, South Korea, Tartan Films
28. Before Sunset, 2004, d. Richard Linklater, USA, Warner Independent
29. Songs from the Second Floor [Sånger från andra våningen], 2000, d. Roy Andersson, Sweden/Norway/Denmark, New Yorker Films
30. Children of Men, 2006, d. Alfonso Cuarón, UK/USA/Japan, Universal Studios

While Time Out's list is certainly more US-centric than TIFF's, I can't find much bad to say about a list that includes Brian De Palma's Femme Fatale in the top 20 (and even included one film I'd never heard of: The Mad Songs of Fernanda Hussein... another highlight of checking out lists as these, if only that particular DVD wasn't already out-of-print). I don't know how I feel about Inglourious Basterds as the highest ranked 2009 film (and, in fact, the only one). The remainder of the list contains some real surprising and/or underrated treasures like Ramin Bahrani's Man Push Cart, Michael Mann's Miami Vice and Lukas Moodysson's Lilya 4-ever [Lilja 4-ever], as well as some contemptible ones like The 40-Year-Old Virgin (and, yeah, Donnie Darko). The only film that absolutely does not belong on the big 30 is I Heart Huckabees, while a few dangle on that line (American Psycho, Brokeback Mountain), keeping my personal preference against a couple out of the mix. So here's to the close of the '00s! More list, I'm sure, are on hitting the "printer" right now. I can't wait to hear what Cahiers du cinéma rounds up.

The Decade List: Wild Tigers I Have Known (2006)

Wild Tigers I Have Known - dir. Cam Archer

In thinking back on my Film 1 class, I seem to recall the way in which my professor defined cinema. All of the students were asked to present the ideas for their final projects in front of the class and place them into one of three categories: narrative, experimental or "experimental narrative." It was the first time I'd ever had to apply those specific labels to my idea of film, and for the most part, it was the last… at least until I saw Cam Archer's Wild Tigers I Have Known. The film perfectly represented that fleeting image I had of such a silly distinction and managed to suppress the negative connotations I associated with placing something in such strange parameters.

Borrowing heavily, but not irritatingly, from Kenneth Anger's Fireworks (which becomes explicit when the school principal introduces the "Tolerance Statue," which bares a strong resemblance to the Christmas tree in Fireworks), Wild Tigers I Have Known visualizes the soaring imagination of thirteen-year-old Logan (Malcolm Stumpf) through vibrant color schemes, kinetic editing, unsynchronized dialogue and gorgeous photography. Something of a visual contradiction, Logan's waïfish androgyny never quite aligns with his deep, masculine voice and rare lack of self-consciousness. That contrariety is, thankfully, not representative of the whole of Wild Tigers I Have Known in terms of perspective. Archer strives, with mostly success, for matching the dreaminess of youth with the film itself, keeping the old hat of nostalgia out of the equation.

While many of the more "vanguard" sequences are astounding (especially the ones where Logan disguises himself as a girl in order to coax his crush Rodeo into having phone sex), some of the finer moments of Wild Tigers I Have Known occur in its static "reality," the places where Logan is forced to step out of his own mind. Fairuza Balk, who appears to have barely aged since playing her own variations of teenage outcasts in the 1990s, provides a genuine tenderness as Logan's mother. In one scene, she endearingly cleans Logan's make-up off his face, sympathetically recalling her own struggles as a teenager. Balk, who is never given a name during the film, might as well be playing the grown-up version of her character from Allison Anders' Gas, Food Lodging, a teenager with similar confusion and restlessness (even one who, like Logan, dons a blonde wig to unsuccessfully woo the boy of her dreams). This association, whether intended by Archer or not, makes her relationship with her son all the more intimate.

Though he may be guilty of a certain fetishization of youth, which is most evident in the way he dresses his characters, Archer shouldn't be accused of exploiting his influences. With a bit of Derek Jarman and Gus Van Sant, who executive produced the film, tossed alongside Anger, Wild Tigers I Have Known mixes those elements into Archer's own distinguishing spectacle. Unlike, say, Lynne Ramsay's Ratcatcher, it functions and prevails on a small scale, but despite that, the film marks one of the finer directorial debuts in American independent cinema over the past ten years.

With: Malcolm Stumpf, Patrick White, Fairuza Balk, Max Paradise, Kim Dickens, Tom Gilroy
Screenplay: Cam Archer
Cinematography: Aaron Platt
Music: Nate Archer
Country of Origin: USA
US Distributor: IFC Films

Premiere: January 2006 (Sundance Film Festival)

Le mépris, Ran and Others on Blu-ray in the UK This Fall

Despite the bad news that Criterion's planned Blu-rays of Jean-Luc Godard' Contempt [Le mépris] and Akira Kurosawa's Ran were scrapped due to the loss of rights, Optimum Releasing in the UK has both, plus a bunch of other exciting titles, set for a Blu-ray release in September. The other titles include: David Lynch's The Elephant Man, Alain Resnais' Last Year at Marienbad [L'année dernière à Marienbad], Luis Buñuel's Belle de jour, Joseph Losey's The Go-Between (which isn't even out on DVD in the US), Michael Cimino's The Deer Hunter, Volker Schlöndorff and Margarethe von Trotta's The Lost Honor of Katharina Blum [Die verlorene Ehre der Katharina Blum oder: Wie Gewalt entstehen und wohin sie führen kann], Luc Besson's Le dernier combat, Angel-A, Léon: The Professional, Le grand bleu [The Big Blue], Atlantis, Subway and Nikita [La femme Nikita].

In August, Optimum will be releasing Blu-rays of Mathieu Kassovitz's La haine, Alan Parker's Angel Heart and Kathryn Bigelow's Near Dark; in July, Alexandre Aja's Haute tension (which is called Switchblade Romance in the UK), Roman Polanski's The Pianist, Michael Winterbottom's 9 Songs, Rian Johnson's Brick, Gus Van Sant's Elephant and Stephen Frears' The Grifters. Apparently, the UK is the place for great international cinema in high def.

Also, thanks to Eric for the heads up, Artificial Eye in the UK is releasing a Jacques Rivette box-set, which includes La belle noiseuse, Secret défense and Jeanne la Pucelle I and II. This may be the first official release of the uncut version of Jeanne, but that has yet to be confirmed.

Where I Am Felix To The Academy's Oscar

Tonight is the night when we feeble schlubs get to dip our toes in the lake of glamour that is the Academy Awards, staring in disbelief at the staggering beauty of our betters. I say this without sarcasm, as I am powerless to resist it. The award period is like my Christmas (with the summer season of robots, monsters, superheroes and explosions being my extended birthday). This year, though, has been particularly frustrating, as the likely winners seem more predictable than ever. It's obvious that, by now, Slumdog Millionaire is going to win most awards. That frustrates me enough as I'm on record as hating the damnable thing, but also because it has robbed us of some speculation fun. Last year I might have had a terrible time picking winners, but it was a lot more fun guessing.

Before revealing my picks (can you bear the suspense?), first the results of our poll to find out the most popular longshot Oscar winner from this year's nominations. It was pretty clear who was the favourite.

Kung Fu Panda (Animated Feature Film) - 6 (50%)

Martin McDonagh (Original Screenplay - In Bruges) - 3 (25%)

Richard Jenkins (Actor- The Visitor) - 2 (16%)

Melissa Leo (Actress - Frozen River) - 1 (8%)

Michael Shannon (Supporting Actor - Revolutionary Road) - 0 (0%)

Viola Davis (Supporting Actress - Doubt) - 0 (0%)

Gus Van Sant (Director - Milk) - 0 (0%)

Thomas Newman (Soundtrack - Wall*E) - 0 (0%)

Peter Morgan (Adapted Screenplay - Frost/Nixon) - 0 (0%)

Wally Pfister (Cinematography - The Dark Knight) - 0 (0%)

The Baader Meinhof Complex (Foreign Language Film) - 0 (0%)

Milk (Picture) - 0 (0%)

Iron Man (Visual Effects) - 0 (0%)

Hellboy II: The Golden Army (Makeup) - 0 (0%)

The Dark Knight (Sound Editing) - 0 (0%)

Wanted (Sound Mixing) - 0 (0%)

Kung Fu Panda's win in this most insignificant of polls warms my heart. KFP has been damned with faint praise since its release ("It's surprisingly good for a Dreamworks movie!" "It's a lot of fun, but it's not profound like the Pixar film!" etc.), though that didn't stop it sweeping the board at the Annies, recently. Recently I rewatched Wall*E, hoping I would like it more second time around, but sadly no. As usual, I offer the usual caveats. It's beautiful, it's got a lot of incredible ideas and imagery, and the sound design is stunning, but the second half is flat, and Wall*E spends far too much of the movie falling over or having things land on him. In Kung Fu Panda the slapstick has a purpose (Po's clumsiness is the source of his kung fu strengths, as his unpredictability makes him unstoppable), whereas in Wall*E it's more like punctuation at the end of scenes, something I have a real problem with. The analogy I ended up with was that Kung Fu Panda was a Buster Keaton movie (it's all about the story and the spectacle), and Wall*E was a Charlie Chaplin movie (convinced of its own importance, and deeply unfunny). Keaton beats Chaplin any day of the week. Sorry, Pixar.

The votes for Martin McDonagh, Richard Jenkins (who had a really good year with great work in Burn After Reading and Step Brothers as well), and Melissa Leo were cool too, but the latter two are in categories that seem decided already. Martin McDonagh has a better chance, as his category of Best Original Screenplay is kinda weak, but even so, In Bruges was too filthy and odd to win votes from the staid Academy members. Shame. No one else got a single vote. Maybe I chose badly, or maybe readers of this blog haven't seen the movies I picked. No matter. Thanks to everyone who participated.

And now, my picks for this year. Except for a couple of categories, it was a no-brainer. Even if the Weinsteins have been trying to turn people against Slumdog, it's just not going to happen. To be honest, I may have hated Slumdog, but I might hate The Reader more. Not only is it of questionable value as a comment on post-Nazi German guilt (I think these comments and these reviews sum up my feelings far better than I could express), it's also a really stupid and pompous movie, filled with wall-to-wall cliches and laughable dialogue. David Hare and Stephen Daldry should hang their heads in shame. The list of nominees seems even worse now that I've seen that fucking appalling exercise in static worthiness. And so, I think the Oscars will, should, and can't (due to stupidity) go to the following...

Best Picture:

Will Win: Slumdog Millionaire
Should Win: Milk
Should've Been Nominated: The Dark Knight / Rachel Getting Married / The Wrestler

I may have had some reservations about Milk, but it's far and away the best movie of a really poor bunch, and by an order of magnitude in the case of Slumdog and The Reader. The snubs for the three films I have listed truly grate on me. I've said it before, and I'll say it again; this is the worst nominations list I can remember, which is another thing that has robbed me of my enthusiasm.

Best Director:

Will Win: Danny Boyle – Slumdog Millionaire
Should Win: David Fincher – The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
Should've Been Nominated: Christopher Nolan - The Dark Knight / Jonathan Demme - Rachel Getting Married

An easy pick, though I chose Fincher as the Should Win as there was so much work done on Benjamin Button that I thought he edged it over Van Sant, who also did excellent work on Milk (though, as I've said before I would have liked a bit more unconventionality in it). None of this matters, though. Boyle will win it for the worst film of his career. Yuk.

Best Actor:

Will Win: Mickey Rourke – The Wrestler
Should Win: Mickey Rourke – The Wrestler
Should've Been Nominated: Robert Downey Jr. - Iron Man

This has to happen. If someone else won it would be the biggest upset of the night. And by upset, I mean, I would turn off the TV and not bother watching to the end. Come on, Mickey!

Best Actress:

Will Win: Kate Winslet – The Reader
Should Win: Anne Hathaway – Rachel Getting Married
Should've Been Nominated: Kate Winslet - Revolutionary Road / Julianne Moore - Blindness

I love Winslet and think she's one of the great actors of our time (seriously), but for The Reader? Nuh-uh. She's good in it, but that movie deserves no reward. Having her nominated for that and not the far superior (and not despicable) Revolutionary Road is testament to the efficacy of the Weinstein's strong-arming tactics, but that's little consolation to us. I'd love for Anne Hathaway to win instead, just to rob the Weinstein's of their little victory, but that would also rob Winslet, who has deserved Academy recognition for about ten years at least.

Best Supporting Actor:

Will Win: Heath Ledger – The Dark Knight
Should Win: Heath Ledger – The Dark Knight
Should've Been Nominated: Aaron Eckhart - The Dark Knight / Bill Irwin - Rachel Getting Married

Another no-brainer. And deservedly so.

Best Supporting Actress:

Will Win: Penélope Cruz – Vicky Cristina Barcelona
Should Win: Marisa Tomei – The Wrestler
Should've Been Nominated: Rosemarie DeWitt - Rachel Getting Married

I would have plumped for someone else in this category, but Tomei isn't winning (even though the Academy might like to legitimise her Vinny award), and Cruz will get it for losing out on a justified award for Volver.

Best Original Screenplay:

Will Win: Milk - Dustin Lance Black
Should Win: In Bruges - Martin McDonagh
Should've Been Nominated: The Wrestler - Robert D. Seigel

See above for my feelings on this. Milk wasn't a bad screenplay, but it was pretty unimaginative, and filled with clunky exposition. Seigel's work on The Wrestler, on the other hand, was feather-light. It would have been nice for a former Onion employee to get a nod.

Best Adapted Screenplay:

Will Win: Slumdog Millionaire - Simon Beaufoy
Should Win: Frost/Nixon - Peter Morgan
Should've Been Nominated: The Dark Knight - Christopher Nolan / Jonathan Nolan / David Goyer

A particularly weak field. Beaufoy's script is shockingly poor, a stream of one-dimensional characters, contrivance, phony uplift, and childish humour. That said, David Hare's adaptation of Bernard Schlink's novel is equally vapid. I would love for them both to lose to Peter Morgan, even if his screenplay was also loaded with some silly Cliff Notes-style exposition to help the viewer along (though the amount of contextual information in that film has to go somewhere if it's going to be less than fifteen hours long).


Best Animated Feature:

Will Win: WALL-E – Andrew Stanton
Should Win: Kung Fu Panda – Mark Osborne and John Stevenson
Should've Been Nominated: Fear(s) of the Dark - Various

I've not even seen Fear(s) of the Dark, but it sounds great, and it would be fun to see Charles Burns getting a nomination (read Black Hole; it's awesome). That would have meant Bolt misses out, which is a shame, as it's a lot of fun, and the nomination is a nice present to Disney Animation, which has had a difficult couple of years.

Best Foreign Language Film:

Will Win: The Class (France) in French - Laurent Cantet
Should Win: Waltz with Bashir (Israel) in Hebrew - Ari Folman
Should've Been Nominated: Gomorrah (Italy) - Matteo Girrone

I suspect The Class will win as much for its quality as for not being the far more controversial Waltz With Bashir. I've not yet seen The Class, and it might be amazing, but I can vouch for the incredible Bashir, a film that moved me to horrible tears. I just can't see something that bleak winning an Oscar. Though it would ruin my spread, I'm hoping for a Bashir win here.

Best Animated Short:

Will Win: This Way Up - Alan Smith and Adam Foulkes

As I've not seen anything in this category, I don't feel right commenting on what should or shouldn't have been nominated, but I will make this prediction, based on my super-scientific method of picking the one I've heard of (this short was profiled in the Times this week). Besides, it looks pretty cool.

Best Art Direction:

Will Win: The Curious Case of Benjamin Button – Donald Graham Burt, Victor J. Zolfo
Should Win: The Curious Case of Benjamin Button – Donald Graham Burt, Victor J. Zolfo
Should've Been Nominated: Hellboy II: The Golden Army - Stephen Scott

The wide-range of time periods for this movie, and the amount of work in replicating them, ensures this win. Either that or The Duchess will win for Removal of Contemporary Items From Stately Homes. Yawn.

Best Cinematography:

Will Win: The Curious Case of Benjamin Button – Claudio Miranda
Should Win: The Curious Case of Benjamin Button – Claudio Miranda
Should've Been Nominated: The Spiderwick Chronicles - Caleb Deschanel / The Fall - Colin Watkinson

It was ravishing! How can it lose? It won't win anything not in the non-technical categories, so this is a sure thing (he said with obnoxious over-confidence).

Best Costume Design:

Will Win: The Curious Case of Benjamin Button – Jacqueline West
Should Win: Milk – Danny Glicker
Should've Been Nominated: The Fall - Eiko Ishioka

As in the previous category, an egregious snub for The Fall. I know the movie wasn't seen by many people, but even just looking at the trailer should be enough of a showreel to get some attention. It was one of the most beautiful movies ever made, and no one noticed. I'd feel sorry for the director, for which this was a work of great personal significance, but I imagine worldly things do not matter to the mighty... TARSEM!

Best Documentary Feature:

Will Win: Trouble the Water
Should Win: Man on Wire
Should've Been Nominated: Standard Operating Procedure

Boy, I was looking forward to watching Trouble The Water on More4 this week, but our Sky+ record function has gone kerflooey, so that's not happening any time soon. I would think that will win over Man On Wire due to the subject matter, no matter how good it is (I hear it's wonderful, but I wouldn't know). Maybe I'm being too cynical. I'll happily eat my words later, if necessary.

Best Documentary Short:

Will Win: The Conscience of Nhem En – Steven Okazaki

As with the animation short, I've not seen any of the nominees in this category, so I won't insult everyone here, and will plump for this nominee as I have heard of it as well.

Best Film Editing:

Will Win: The Dark Knight – Lee Smith
Should Win: The Dark Knight – Lee Smith
Should've Been Nominated: Speed Racer - Roger Barton, Zach Staenberg

There is an awful error in The Dark Knight, during the Batpod sequence, where Batman shoots a glass door, drives through a building, shoots another glass door, and then is back in the building even though it should have driven out. GAH! It drives me crazy every time I watch it. Even so, the editors do an amazing job of cutting a big complex movie down to a manageable size (it should have been a lot longer).

Best Live Action Short:

Will Win: On the Line (Auf der Strecke)

Here is where my foolproof method for selecting the hard-to-find nominees fails. I've not heard anything about any of these movies. ::sigh:: Sorry, short film filmmakers. I'm going for On The Line as it's the top of the list. Oy, that's some crappy motivation.

Best Makeup:

Will Win: The Curious Case of Benjamin Button – Greg Cannom
Should Win: The Curious Case of Benjamin Button – Greg Cannom

I didn't select a film that should have been nominated, as I think they picked the best three films of the year, though I will say I suspect Tropic Thunder didn't get picked for Robert Downey Jr.'s blackface makeup as the Kodak theatre would explode from the white liberal confusion over it. I think Ben Stiller et al have a good defense when they say that the character of Kirk Lazarus is a lampoon of actorly pretension, and it's a hilarious turn, but I really don't think we're ready to be handing out awards for that kind of divisive and explosive makeup just yet.

Best Original Score:

Will Win: The Curious Case of Benjamin Button – Alexandre Desplat
Should Win: The Curious Case of Benjamin Button – Alexandre Desplat
Should've Been Nominated: The Dark Knight - Hans Zimmer, James Newton Howard

Doesn't it seem ironic now that The Dark Knight's ineligibility caused so much fuss, and all for nothing? Repeated viewings have shown how complex, unorthodox, and stirring that soundtrack is. The eventual snub is deeply frustrating. And why did I choose Desplat's soundtrack over A.R. Rahman? Because Desplat is super-awesome and I just don't want Slumdog to keep winning things. Please?!

Best Original Song:

Will Win: "Down to Earth" from WALL-E – Peter Gabriel and Thomas Newman (music), Peter Gabriel (lyrics)
Should Win: "Down to Earth" from WALL-E – Peter Gabriel and Thomas Newman (music), Peter Gabriel (lyrics)
Should've Been Nominated: "The Wrestler" from The Wrestler - Bruce Springsteen

This category is utter bullshit this year. I can understand Slumdog and Wall*E getting a nomination each, but leaving out Springsteen makes absolutely no sense. It's good news for Peter Gabriel, though. Slumdog should, again, win, but I suspect (as does Richard Corliss in his picks) that the Slumdog vote will be split, leaving Gabriel free and clear to win.

Best Sound Editing:

Will Win: WALL-E – Ben Burtt and Matthew Wood
Should Win: WALL-E – Ben Burtt and Matthew Wood
Should've Been Nominated: Speed Racer - Dane A. Davis, Mike Chock, Drew Yerys

Big no-brainer. Burtt's work is the main reason Wall*E works at all.

Best Sound Mixing:

Will Win: The Dark Knight – Lora Hirschberg, Gary Rizzo, Ed Novick
Should Win: The Dark Knight – Lora Hirschberg, Gary Rizzo, Ed Novick
Should've Been Nominated: Speed Racer - Felix Andriessens, Christian Wegner

The Dark Knight is the big action film of the year. This is the way this kind of voting goes.

Best Visual Effects:

Will Win: The Curious Case of Benjamin Button – Eric Barba, Steve Preeg, Burt Dalton, Craig Barron
Should Win: The Curious Case of Benjamin Button – Eric Barba, Steve Preeg, Burt Dalton, Craig Barron
Should've Been Nominated: Speed Racer - John Gaeta

The last no-brainer, though I'm still upset with the FX voters for yet again snubbing John Gaeta's work. The same thing happened with the two Matrix sequels. No matter what you think of those films, the effects were ground-breaking and beautiful. Who has this guy pissed off in the FX community to keep getting snubbed like this? I'd put Speed Racer above the competent Iron Man work any day of the week.

And that's that. Sorry for going on at such great length. After tonight I hope to stop thinking about this for at least eight months. Getting annoyed by something so trivial is exhausting.

Countdown to the Oscars (bleh), Part 2

I was inspired by someone else's blog (I don't remember who it was) to make a rundown of the decade at the Academy Awards. In this post, I'll list the ten best and worst Best Picture nominees, and after tabulating my list, I realize how pathetic it really is. I only really like the top four, and the remaining six I can only give faint praise (and, yes, Erin Brockovich really is better than Traffic). In the middle of posting this, I realized how stupid this whole list is, since I was cluelessly going by the year of the ceremonies instead of the year of the film's release. Double bleh. I suppose I'll keep going anyway. The Best Picture nominees I didn't see (and probably won't except for Master and Commander) are: The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers; Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World; The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King; Seabiscuit (well, more than ten minutes); Good Night, and Good Luck.; Munich; Letters from Iwo Jima.

The Ten Best "Best Picture" Nominees

1. No Country for Old Men (2008, Joel Coen, Ethan Coen)
2. There Will Be Blood (2008, Paul Thomas Anderson)
3. Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (2001, Ang Lee)
4. Milk (2009, Gus Van Sant)
5. The Insider (Michael Mann, 2000)
6. In the Bedroom (2002, Todd Field)
7. The Departed (2007, Martin Scorsese)
8. Brokeback Mountain (2006, Ang Lee)
9. Capote (2006, Bennett Miller)
10. Erin Brockovich (2001, Steven Soderbergh)

The Ten Worst "Best Picture" Nominees

1. Crash (2006, Paul Haggis)
2. The Reader (2009, Stephen Daldry)
3. Ray (2005, Taylor Hackford)
4. The Cider House Rules (2000, Lasse Hallström)
5. Moulin Rouge (2002, Baz Luhrmann)
6. Chocolat (2001, Lasse Hallström)
7. The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (2009, David Fincher)
8. A Beautiful Mind (2002, Ron Howard)
9. Babel (2007, Alejandro González Iñarritu)
10. Gangs of New York (2003, Martin Scorsese)

Countdown to the Oscars (bleh), Part 1

Now that I've watched all of the big Oscar nominees, from the main eight categories (I'd like to consider Foreign one of the "big categories," but as I've never been able to see all the nominees before the ceremony, I can't consider it such), I've ranked each of the nominees in descending order for your arguing pleasure. I've placed the titles in bold that actually deserved their nomination.

Best Picture

1. Milk
2. Frost/Nixon
3. Slumdog Millionaire
4. The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
5. The Reader

Best Director

1. Gus Van Sant, Milk
2. Ron Howard, Frost/Nixon
3. Danny Boyle, Slumdog Millionaire
4. David Fincher, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
5. Stephen Daldry, The Reader

Best Actor

1. Sean Penn, Milk
2. Mickey Rourke, The Wrestler
3. Frank Langella, Frost/Nixon
4. Richard Jenkins, The Visitor
5. Brad Pitt, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button

Best Actress

1. Meryl Streep, Doubt
2. Anne Hathaway, Rachel Getting Married
3. Melissa Leo, Frozen River
4. Kate Winslet, The Reader
5. Angelina Jolie, Changeling

Best Supporting Actor

1. Josh Brolin, Milk
2. Heath Ledger, The Dark Knight
3. Michael Shannon, Revolutionary Road
4. Philip Seymour Hoffman, Doubt
5. Robert Downey Jr., Tropic Thunder

Best Supporting Actress

1. Penélope Cruz, Vicky Cristina Barcelona
2. Marisa Tomei, The Wrestler
3. Amy Adams, Doubt
4. Viola Davis, Doubt
5. Taraji P. Henson, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button

Best Original Screenplay

1. Mike Leigh, Happy-Go-Lucky
2. Martin McDonagh, In Bruges
3. Courtney Hunt, Frozen River
4. Dustin Lance Black, Milk
5. Andrew Stanton, Pete Docter, Jim Reardon, WALL-E

Best Adapted Screenplay

1. Peter Morgan, Frost/Nixon
2. John Patrick Stanley, Doubt
3. Simon Beaufoy, Slumdog Millionaire
4. Eric Roth, Robin Swicord, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
5. David Hare, The Reader

Comments: Why is it that the original screenplay category is the only one in which all five nominees are worth praising? The Reader is easily the worst best picture nominee since Crash. I hate that in a few years, people will look back at the nominees for Best Picture and assume 2008 was a shitty year for film, when it was just the opposite. Let's just hope Hollywood's liberal guilt gives Milk just enough push to take the prize over its extremely less deserving nominees.

I Semi-Promise This Will Be The Last Oscar-Related Poll...

One last poll before the big day (Feb 22nd), when some really mediocre movies get handed awards, and hopefully, just to make the whole thing not a total disaster, Mickey Rourke and the FX teams on Benjamin Button get their gold-plated just desserts too. By now it's probable that even though Slumdog has mysteriously been hit with all sorts of unsavoury accusations of child exploitation and dismissal by India, it's going to romp home. Though I am on record as not being best pleased about that, I'll just be happy if people stop referring to it as the longshot. It really isn't. By now people desperately want it to succeed, and it will. Benjamin Button will go home with some technical stuff, and Slumdog will get the biggies, a decision that will be the sanity-twisting equivalent of this...


...and, eventually, just as regrettable and embarrassing for the Academy members and the folks at home as this.


That inevitability aside, there are some actual longshots in that list. The ones no one thinks to bet on. In some awards the longshot occasionally wins (no one expected Bryan Cranston to get an Emmy for his Breaking Bad work as there were other, better known nominees there), but with the Oscars it pretty much never does. That doesn't mean they should be ignored though. Hence this new poll. Which longshot nominee would you most like to see score an upset and win?

Richard Jenkins (Best Actor for The Visitor)

Melissa Leo (Best Actress for Frozen River)

Michael Shannon (Best Supporting Actor for Revolutionary Road)

Viola Davis (Best Supporting Actress for Doubt)

Gus Van Sant (Best Director for Milk)

Thomas Newman (Best Soundtrack for Wall*E)

Martin McDonagh (Best Original Screenplay for In Bruges)

Peter Morgan (Best Adapted Screenplay for Frost/Nixon)

Wally Pfister (Best Cinematography for The Dark Knight)

Kung Fu Panda (Best Animated Feature Film)

The Baader Meinhof Complex (Best Foreign Language Film)

Milk (Best Picture)

Iron Man (Best Visual Effects)

Hellboy II: The Golden Army (Best Makeup)

The Dark Knight (Best Sound Editing)

Wanted (Best Sound Mixing)

I will admit, I have no idea if Wanted really had amazingly well mixed sound. I just want to know if anyone out there is eager for a movie featuring a Loom of Fate, bullet-curving, and bomb-rats to win an Oscar. If anyone votes for it, I'll assume Mark Millar popped by. Anyway, have at it, my pretties.

Let Down By The Academy Again

The nominations are out as of yesterday, and in my annual mid-January funk I have looked at them, blinked, and mentally walked away to do something else (i.e. job searching). Recently I added a poll about outlandish potential nominations to the sidebar, and when I did it I figured I had come up with some odd choices, but maybe one or two long shots. Now I see that unless the movie's title contains the words Slumdog or Curious, or is about a Nazi cougar, its chances were slimmer than a creepily enyoungenised CGI Cate Blanchett. Here are the results of that ill-fated poll...

Which Highly Unlikely Oscar Nom Would Please You Most?

Actor - Robert Downey Jr. (Iron Man) - 7 (33%)

Original Screenplay - Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg (Pineapple Express) - 4 (19%)

Director - Martin McDonagh (In Bruges) - 3 (14%)

Supporting Actor - Aaron Eckhart (The Dark Knight) - 3 (14%)

Actress - Frances McDormand (Burn After Reading) - 1 (4%)

Photography - Caleb Deschanel (The Spiderwick Chronicles) - 1 (4%)

Art Direction - Peter Francis (Hellboy 2) - 1 (4%)

Visual Effects - Speed Racer - 1 (4%)

Supporting Actress - Emily Mortimer (Redbelt) - 0 (0%)

Costume Design - Eiko Ishioka (The Fall) - 0 (0%)

Foreign Language Picture - Let The Right One In - 0 (0%)

Adapted Screenplay - David Gordon Green (Snow Angels) - 0 (0%)

Winning the poll with ease was Robert Downey Jr. For his pitch-perfect personification of Tony Stark in Iron Man. As the nomination date approached it became increasingly obvious that he would be given a nod for his work as Kirk Lazarus in Tropic Thunder, but I had still hoped that we would see a superhero getting some Best Actor love. It's hard to be bitter about it, though. Of the four actor nominations I've seen, three are definitely worthy, and the fourth, Brad Pitt, was good but varied little through the running time of the film. We've not yet seen The Visitor, but Richard Jenkins is wonderful in everything (he's very funny in Step Brothers), so I can't imagine he would suddenly suck in this.


Next up is Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg for their Pineapple Express script, which shares Superbad's seemingly effortless air while being drumtight and superbly structured. In fact, possibly the only other original script that surpasses this for structural brilliance and comic genius is Martin McDonagh's phenomenally good work on In Bruges, which got a well-deserved nomination. Though I think McDonagh should walk it, I reckon Dustin Lance Black will get it for Milk. As Canyon said to me earlier, Best Original Script often goes to the movie that has been nominated for a few big prizes but doesn't win them (Good Will Hunting and Fargo spring to mind), and Milk won't get any of the more visible awards, so it'll win here instead. Wall*E is guaranteed Best Animated Picture, Frozen River might have a shot though it would be a very long one (another movie we've not yet seen so I can't judge that with 100% accuracy), and In Bruges and Happy-Go-Lucky have no other nominations to lose, so this one's in the bag for the Big Love writer. I may not have liked how closely it hewed to the biopic template, and it was on the nose a bit too often for my liking, but it was by no means terrible.


Speaking of In Bruges, some people agreed with me that McDonagh deserved a nomination for his sure-handed direction. Though I think the most impressive directorial debut of the year was Steve McQueen on Hunger, McDonagh did great work on In Bruges, especially on the low budget he had. Of the actual nominees, the most personally upsetting is David Fincher. I've long adored the guy's work, but now he gets praise for his flattest movie. I'll defend everything else he's done, and yes that means Alien3, The Game and Panic Room, all of which I like/love, but this is a nothing movie that just happens to contain some of the most amazing technical film work of the decade. If it were up to me, someone would hand over the award to Gus Van Sant right now (Canyon has even admitted a Ron Howard win would make her happy, as she loved Frost/Nixon so much), but instead it'll be Fincher or Boyle. The money is on the latter right now.


Aaron Eckhart's superb work as Harvey Dent didn't just thrill me, I'm very happy to say, but again, not enough Academy members agreed. I guess he could accept Heath Ledger's Oscar when he inevitably wins. Again, that would be a win I could live with, though it's hard to generate that much enthusiasm for it. No amount of awards is going to bring him back, after all. Other than that, I did enjoy Michael Shannon's hatstand performance as The Craziest Man In Suburbia in Revolutionary Road, but I don't think it should win.


Frances McDormand gets a single vote for her terrific work in Burn After Reading, and believe me, I considered adding Brad Pitt to this list as well; he's almost there in Benjamin Button but he totally nails it in this. His scenes with McDormand are the highlights of the movie. Anyway, she didn't get a nomination (for a comedy?!?! Are you mad?!!?!!?!?!???!), but Kate "Gather" Winslet did for The Reader, and not her blistering work as The Unhappiest Woman In Suburbia in Revolutionary Road. We've not yet see The Reader (actually, we've not seen any of the Best Actress films, shamefully, though we're working on it), but no matter how good she is, it does smack of self-parody that the Academy has given her a nomination for playing an illiterate former Nazi from youth to old age. They really don't give a shit about how ridiculous their choices seem, do they.


Someone else saw The Spiderwick Chronicles! And they loved Caleb Deschanel's radiant photography as much as I did, which is nice. It's one of the most visually impressive movies of the year, with some lovely naturalistic effects that look as beautifully lit as the sets. If only more people were interested in seeing it. Of the actual nominees, I'm pleased to see the awesome Wally Pfister get recognition for his Dark Knight photography, and am convinced Claudio Miranda will walk it for making Benjamin Button look so gorgeous. That said, I've not seen Changeling or The Reader, and Daldry's Nazi-sex-book-fest is lit by the unstoppable double-team of Chris Menges and King Deakin (whose work here is hopefully more interesting than Revolutionary Road), so that stands a very good chance. As long as Anthony Dod Mantle doesn't win for his gaudy Slumdog photography, a seriously headache-inducing melange of nasty colours, showy focus-tricks, and those fucking Dutch tilts. Compared to Robert Yeoman's pristine work on The Darjeeling Limited from 2007, Dod Mantle's obnoxious work looks empty, ugly, and needlessly complex.


Peter Francis' art direction on Hellboy II, which got a single vote here, was ignored by the Academy, and I have to say, this was one of the longshots I thought might pay off (the other being Eiko Ishioka's costume design for TARSEM!s sumptuous The Fall). Instead, the customary praise for the costume dramas means the Troll Market, the BPRD HQ, the Devil's Causeway, the Brooklyn Bridge set, and the home of the Golden Army gets snubbed, even though they comprise some of the most beautiful environments on screens last year. That snub genuinely angers me, as I had thought Hellboy II had sewn up nominations in a few categories. The make-up nom eases my pain a bit, but it's still not good enough. Even though I'm happy The Dark Knight got a nomination in this category, I'd rather that went to the Hellboy team instead. Very sad.


Speed Racer gets a little love, certainly more than was handed to it by the effects community that votes in this category. Just as with John Gaeta's effects work on Matrix Reloaded and Revolutions, the envelope was well and truly pushed, with new technologies developed, but none of that mattered. The effects work on the three nominees is certainly good (in the case of Benjamin Button, it's exemplary), but Speed Racer deserved recognition. I guess the Academy members are more desperate to avoid the taint of failure than I had imagined (see also E.T.'s victory over Blade Runner). Of course, if they had picked Speed Racer they would have been vindicated by history, but they are cowards. COWARDS! [/Crazy John Givings]


Sadly, some Oscar losers didn't even get a face-saving vote in this most prestigious of polls. Excluded from Best Supporting Actress, arguably the category containing the worst nominations (Penelope Cruz over Rebecca Hall for Vicky Cristina Barcelona? Taraji P. Henson for her wheezing overacting?), Emily Mortimer wuz robbed, but then she did appear in a limited release martial arts flick from a writer whose recent ramblings about politics have probably made him persona non grata in Hollywood. It's a shame, as Mortimer gets better with every film, and I gather she was even better in Brad Anderson's Transiberia.


I have little to say about the lack of a costume design nomination for Eiko Ishioka on The Fall other than that big blowsy gowns for Keira Knightley are worthy of praise but the astonishing imagination on display in Tarsem's mad vision get nothing? Are these costume dramas getting nominated solely for research and the amount of work put in? In what universe does The Fall lose out on a nomination, other than our stupid one with shitty taste? Probably none. It's rare that awesome clothes will make me want to see a movie, but that's pretty much what happened here. Clothes, people. That's how good that work was.


While I'm angry at the Academy voters for that error of judgement, I can't blame them for not including Let The Right One In, the most intentionally depressing vampire movie ever made. While I'd hesitate to call it ZOMG Best Vampire Tale Ever Told, it's still a startling and bold movie filled with memorable setpieces and a stunning performance by Lena Leandersson. And yet Sweden was not about to be represented by a horror movie, even one as critically adored as this one, and so entered Everlasting Moments into competition instead. I also gather Let The Right One In was released too late for Sweden to endorse it, so who knows, it might be around next year instead. To be honest, originally I was going to put Gomorrah in this section, but I figured it was bound to get a nomination. This time the snub was due to Academy rules, and this omission is one of many frustrating moviegoers and critics. Well, apparently The Class is very good, and Waltz With Bashir looks interesting even as just a technical showcase, but still, this category has made me sad.


And Snow Angels got nothing at all either. I honestly thought it would be one of those indies that caught people's attention even though it was released early in the year, but by December any chatter about Hott Sam Rockwell was about his performance in Choke, and Kate Beckinsale was attracting buzz about Nothing But The Truth with little mention of her impressive work here, and that was all she wrote. A shame. The actual adapted screenplay nominees contain zero surprises. At a push I would pick Frost/Nixon (though who knows what I will think of The Reader or Doubt), but I know it's going to Eric Roth for The Pointless Repeat of Forrest Gump. Either that or Slumdog. It makes me weep. Or consider weeping. Whatever. It makes me not happy, anyway.

Is this the worst list of nominees in memory? The little victories (Richard Jenkins, In Bruges) pale next to the wrong (Benjamin Button should not be leading the noms), the frustrating (Dark Knight missing out on Best Picture), the criminal (The Boss not getting Best Song), and the anomalous (Wanted got as many nominations as Frozen River and The Wrestler). ::sigh:: I'll find some things to root for on the night, but it's a dispiriting list, full of cowardice and compromise. Anyway, a new poll is on the way. Watch this sporadically updated space!