Oh, yeah, the Oscars are this weekend.

The Oscars used to be, like, the biggest night of my year when I was in high school. In the past few years, my excitement has waned a little, especially since I realized that the Academy honors movies that aren't that great while shutting out the smaller films that, in the long run, will make a bigger impact on film-making and -criticism. BUT this year is exciting, as the crop of films nominated are actually pretty good! And while I didn't see all of the nominated movies (I missed Michael Clayton and have yet to get it from Netflix), I saw enough to write a post about what will win. And we all know that all of my opinions are right.

So! Here are my picks and what I think will win. HERE WE GO:


Best Picture
Like I said, I didn't see Michael Clayton, but I think it's safe to say that it doesn't have much of a chance here. Juno was cute and funny, and I enjoyed it much more than I thought I would, but I don't particularly think it's Best Picture material. Atonement also exceeded my expectations: not only was it a faithful adaptation of one of my favorite novels, it was absolutely beautiful to watch; however, it only takes the Weepy-Romantic-War-Movie spot in the top five, so I don't think it will win. That leaves There Will Be Blood and No Country for Old Men. It's almost hard for me to pick, as both blew me away, but I think my favorite was No Country for Old Men, and I think it will take the prize at the end of the night.


Best Director
This one is tough, again because I think it's a toss-up between the Coen Brothers for No Country for Old Men and Paul Thomas Anderson for There Will Be Blood. I think I may have to go with PT on this one, if only because I don't expect the Academy to give the award (for the first time, by the way) to two directors.


Best Actor
I've only seen two of the nominees in this category, those being Daniel Day-Lewis for There Will Be Blood and Johnny Depp for Sweeney Todd. I think Day-Lewis has this one nailed. And I would like to point out, again, that Johnny Depp and Sweeney Todd suck my balls.


Best Actress
I'm kind of torn when it comes to declaring Marion Cotillard as the winner here for La Vie en Rose. The Academy loves loves loves to reward actors for playing real people (see: Reese Witherspoon for Walk the Line, Jamie Foxx for Ray, Philip Seymour Hoffman for Capote, Nicole Kidman for The Hours, Cate Blanchett for The Aviator, just to name a few of the recent cases). While Julie Christie is her biggest threat, and delivered a very beautiful, subtle performance in Away From Her. BUT: Marion Cotillard is huge, brash, bold; she disappears and completely transforms into Edith Piaf, who, to many American movie-goers, is basically a fictional character. And it's also exciting to see an actress take home the American award for a foreign-language performance.


Best Supporting Actor
I only saw one of the nominated films in this category (well, one and a third if you consider that I'm forty-five minutes into The Assassination of Jesse James and, sure, Casey Affleck is pretty good). This one is another safe category, like Daniel Day-Lewis, Javier Bardem has this one in the bag. His portrayal of Anton Chigurh in No Country for Old Men was one of the most memorable of the year, and Bardem deserves all of the accolades he's received this year. It's been a while since a character made me so nervous, and Bardem's quiet, yet incredibly powerful, presence left me shaking after I saw the film (twice!).


Best Supporting Actress
Cate Blanchett will win her second Oscar for her performance as the fictional Bob Dylan in I'm Not There. She was certainly impressive to watch, and as much as I loved the film, I'm happy to see it get some recognition (as it was way too polarizing to get any other nominations). This award, however, is too predictable (see above, when I talk about the Academy's love of caricature and impersonation). I would love to see Amy Ryan pick this one up for Gone Baby Gone; I feel like I was much more affected by her acting ability than I was with Blanchett's. (And, I might add, that it's a shame that Charlotte Gainsbourg has not been appropriately acknowledged for her role in I'm Not There, which was by far my favorite.)

Those are the big ones, and I'm not going to bore you (or myself) by writing about the rest of the categories in detail. I will say that I think Persepolis should win Best Animated Feature, if only to show that the category isn't actually Best Animated Feature That Pixar Released This Year, but I'm not going to hold my breath.

I'm sure you've been eagerly awating my Oscar nominations reaction post.

I used to get really excited about Oscar season because I was a big movie nerd when I was in high school. I actually would tape the press conference wherein the nominations were announced and watch it when I got home from school. One year, I won the Oscar pool at my local video store, and I got two free movie rentals every week for a year. (My parents blamed me for putting the video store out of business.)

Since college, however, I haven't been as excited. Sure, last year I won twenty bucks at an Oscar party, but I'm generally disappointed with both the nominees and the winners. Like most mainstream award shoes, the Oscars tend to shut-out independent offerings and hand out the top awards to fairly bland, crowd-pleasing films (I'm looking at you, Crash. And you, Chicago. And Gladiator. And Titanic. And Shakespeare in Love. And Forrest Gump. Etc.)

This year, however, I'm fairly excited. The best films of the year, There Will Be Blood and No Country for Old Men, tied for the most nominations. Of course, they will probably not win Best Picture (I've got a feeling they'll split the vote and it'll go to Atonement). I haven't seen Atonement, nor did I catch Michael Clayton during its brief theatrical run. I've got mixed feelings about Juno, and was going to wait for Netflix, but now I feel like I should give it a chance. And while Brittany is right, that it will most-likely win Best Original Screenplay despite the unrealistic dialogue, I'm already not as offended as I was about Little Miss Sunshine. (Don't get me started on that mess. It's NOT well-written, America.)

I share Adam's aggravation that Jonny Greenwood's score from There Will Be Blood was not nominated because it wasn't entirely scored for the film, but as I pointed out to him this morning, the nominated song from Once, "Falling Slowly," was released in 2006 on Glen Hansard and Marketa Irglova's album, The Swell Season. Ah, well.

On a related note, I saw Persepolis last night, and it was stunning. If Pixar wasn't guaranteed an Oscar for everything they release, I would expect it to nab the award for Best Animated Feature.

Notes from the Weekend.

After somehow managing to live without one for five months, Christina and I finally bought a microwave on Saturday. So, hooray for us, right? Now I can heat up leftover pizza and it won't take twenty minutes. I bet this is how my grandparents felt, if they ate pizza.

I watched No End in Sight on Saturday, which was very good, and will / should probably win the Oscar for Best Documentary. It's a very calm, well-paced study on how the United States completely bungled the war in Iraq, as told by people who were placed in charge of that country after we invaded and "accomplished" our mission. The idea that we fucked up isn't necessarily new, but the levels of incompetency and the poor planning are just astounding. The whole mess is probably a good example of why I am so cynical about political motivation these days; I spent so much energy worrying and fretting about the invasion five(!) years ago, and I saw how there was absolutely nothing I could do to make my voice heard or make an impact on the outcome. The administration was determined to do what they did, and they succeeded in screwing it all up. In any case, I expect this to be one of the defining early examinations of the war, as powerful (and hopefully not as forgotten) as Hearts and Minds.

On Saturday night, John and I went to see There Will Be Blood, which was simply stunning and blew me away. From the opening screeches of Jonny Greenwood's fantastic score (which I have since purchased on iTunes) to the final shocking image of Daniel Plainview's bowling alley, I sat there in awe of a chunk of perfection on film. Daniel Day-Lewis is masterful in the lead role, and Paul Dano is completely perfect as Eli Sunday. Paul Thomas Anderson is a simply astounding director who has proven he can't be put into one box. The movie has shot to the top of my list of films from 2007, and I'm struggling to figure out if I actually like it more than No Country for Old Men. You must see it, and you won't forget it.

After seeing TWBB, John and I watched Factory Girl. I was interested in seeing it, but I will admit that I didn't have great hopes for it. I wasn't surprised that I wasn't a fan. As Adam has said, the biopic genre is getting rather old. And it's one thing to watch a biographic film about a musician, actor, or a writer, but it's hard for me to even remotely care about the poor little society girl who flirted with the underground(?) art scene in 1960s New York. Try as it might, the film didn't make Edie Sedgwick seem like an interesting person; she was a mess before she started abusing drugs, and it was almost easier for me to watch her after the heroin than before. I've never been anything more than the casual Andy Warhol fan; I've always viewed his art as, well, poppy - it serves its purpose as "cool imagery," but I can't really say that I've been blown away by it. The movie seemed to be confused about who was the bigger asshole: Andy or Bob Dylan (who was played anonymously - as Dylan threatened to sue the filmmakers for defamation - by Hayden Christensen, who made me long for the five actors in I'm Not There again). Perhaps my cold, cold heart (and watching both The Wire and, more importantly, The Corner) have made me care less about rich girls who screw up their lives with drugs, but I just can't find any sympathy for Edie Sedgwick, who was basically a pretty face with a messed-up mind hiding behind it.

I know because it was there.

I saw I'm Not There on Saturday and absolutely loved it. Read my review on This Recording.

Cheer up, Mumblecore kid.

Last week I have discovered a new hip term that makes me want to die: MUMBLECORE.

According to Wikipedia, which is always right, "Mumblecore is an independent filmmaking movement in the United States characterized by ultra-low budget production, focus on personal relationships between twenty-somethings, improvised scripts, and non-professional actors.... It has also been called 'bedhead cinema' and 'Slackavettes,' a reference to independent film director John Cassavetes."

Ew.

This movement is getting press all of a sudden because the Independent Film Channel Center currently has an exhibition of Mumblecore films called "The New Talkies: Generation D. I. Y." Critics are creaming their pants over this and especially about Hannah Takes the Stairs, which premiered at the exhibit. (Not coincidentally, IFC Films is releasing the movie.) I'm rather dubious of "indie comedies," especially when they garner a lot of buzz before their release. You can interpret that statement as you will, but I'll tell you now that since I think most people are kind of dumb, most of the movies that they like are kind of dumb, as well. (See: Garden State, et al.) And now that this movie has launched "Mumblecore" into any sort of national dialogue, I am immediately turned-off, and that was before I even saw the trailer for it, which I will share with you now.



Also, um, I don't, like, um, really like it when people, um, talk like they can't, um, finish a sentence in real life, and I don't really, like, like it when, um, people do it on celluloid, either. Emily at Gawker, who I kind of want to marry, put it best: "There's nothing worse than when actresses try to convey 'quirky and neurotic' by basically acting drunk or stoned all the time and trying to convey 'incredibly naturalistic' by just taking forever to spit out a sentence." (See: Garden State, et al.)

I'll break here and admit that I did enjoy one Mumblecore film, Mutual Appreciation, which falls into all of these categories and, really, is about nothing. But I liked it, maybe because the dude from Bishop Allen is in it and it's essentially about him. But anyway, here's the trailer for that one:

That movie at least has the music aspect to keep me distracted from a dude wandering around and whining about random make-outs. Do people actually complain about making-out? I don't; I think it's terrific. Way to not be the voice of my generation, Andrew Bujalski.

My major problem with movies like these, however, is that the lack of a really interested story is lauded with praise, as if it's so goddamn difficult to write a script for an improvised film where the characters don't really change or progress in any way. Sure, it's "true to life," et shitera, et shitera, but doesn't anyone remember the line from Adaptation?

"Nothing happens in the world? Are you out of your fucking mind? People are murdered every day. There's genocide, war, corruption. Every fucking day, somewhere in the world, somebody sacrifices his life to save someone else. Every fucking day, someone, somewhere makes a conscious decision to destroy someone else. People find love, people lose it. For Christ's sake, a child watches her mother beaten to death on the steps of a church. Someone goes hungry. Somebody else betrays his best friend for a woman. If you can't find that stuff in life, then you, my friend, don't know crap about life. And why the FUCK are you wasting my two precious hours with your movie? I don't have any use for it. I don't have any bloody use for it."

I'm not saying I'm an expert at screen writing or anything, but I was three semester hours away from a minor in Film Studies, so I think I know what I'm talking about, K?


Related:
No, Megahyped Indie Hannah Takes The Stairs Is Not Good [Gawker]
In Which Mumblecore Mania Compels Us To Attend The Sort Of Premiere of Hannah Takes The Stairs [This Recording]

I don't "do" full screen.

Last night I rented The Departed from the Hollywood Video down the street from my apartment. When I got to Kristin's I realized I had accidentally picked up a FULL SCREEN copy, and I was really upset and said that we couldn't watch it. On my walk home from her apartment - after I had had a half bottle of cheap red wine (it was $6.99 at The Market Place, and, considering their price inflation, it was really about $4.99 at Normal Grocery Store) - I went back to Hollywood and told them I had to exchange the DVD. I felt bad for about five minutes - I even said, "I'm sorry, I feel really snobby about this, but I just can't watch a full screen DVD. Ha ha!" But then I realized I was talking to a grown man with a poorly-groomed goatee who had so much product in his hair that it was all standing on its end, and I immediately stopped caring.