Author: Godfather

Only two more weeks until I’m done with this segment. This week I’ll be looking at the movie Doubt and next week I’ll write one up for Gran Torino and any other movie that has a shot at some major awards.

So this was, along with Frost/Nixon, one of the movies based of a Play. It was well made, and you could imagine this being done on a stage instead of a screen. But also like Frost/Nixon, it had some of the best performances of last year. They had a great cast, including Meryl Streep, Phillip Seymour Hoffman, and Amy Adams. All three did such a great job, its hard to imagine them not being nominated for Oscars. While I did say it was well made, I don’t think that it’ll be nominated for Best Picture or Director. The reason being that there have been better films that deserve those awards more. I also think that it will be a heavy contender for the Best Adapted Screenplay category with it’s great dialogue keeping me interested the whole time. Best Art Direction could also be a chance for it since the sets seemed to be well thought out, and Roger Deakens, the cinematographer, is always an Academy favorite. The only categories I think it could win though, are maybe Best Actress (Streep) and Best Supporting Actress (Amy Adams). If you get the chance, see Doubt, I can’t see too many people NOT enjoying it.

Best Picture- Long shot
Best Director- Long Shot
Best Actress- Lock
Best Supporting Actress- Very good chance
Best Supporting Actor- Nomination, but won’t win
Best Art Direction- Maybe
Best Cinematography- Maybe

Also, right now it seems that these are going to be the movies nominated for Best Picture.

The Dark Knight
Slumdog Millionaire
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
Milk
Frost/Nixon

Interesting title eh? Well, since I saw three contender movies this week, I decided to talk about 2 of them so this series doesn’t run too long. Frost/Nixon and Milk are the two topics for today.

Milk

The weakest of the three I saw, it was still a decent movie. The concept was good, but the emotional impact wasn’t what it should have been. I really didn’t feel to close to the characters, and it just didn’t do much for the inspiring factor. The funny thing is though, in my home town, its not being played because the only big movie theater is owned by a company that is against Gay Marriage. But with the moderate filmmaking of the rest, are there any oscars that are looking good? Yes, Sean Penn did a great job acting the character. I wouldn’t be surprised after seeing the movie to learn that he was gay himself. In fact, all the actors did a great job for their parts, and I hope that it does get some of these nominations, but not much more. The directing was good, but not to the level that other movies have been this year, and it shouldn’t get a Best Picture nod since there have also been better movies. But, we never know, the Academy loves to make the wrong choices.

Best Picture- To me a long shot, but a perfect Academy choice
Best Director- Not as long of a shot, but not a good shot
Best Writing- Average shot
Best Actor- Lock
Best Supporting Actor- Any of the other actors could be nominated, but James Franco and Emile Hersch would be my top two choices
And other awards I know less about could have ok shots

Frost/Nixon

It seemed that the movies got better and better throughout the week. If you can find this movie near you, go see it. Its in very few theaters in big cities, so be lucky to be one of those who does see it. While not a great movie, it does seem to be one of the better made movies of the year. It also is tied for the most Golden Globe nominations right now, so I wouldn’t be surprised or displeased if it gets just as many, or maybe more, Academy nominations. It is one of the Best Pictures of the year so far that I’ve seen, and did deserve the Globe nominations. Also, it should be nominated for Frank Langella, who played Nixon flawlessly. Michael Sheen did a good job too as Frost, but it wasn’t quite as good. The script, based off the play, is well done, as is the directing by Ron Howard. While still not as good as The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, Slumdog Millionare, or The Dark Knight, it is a solid, well made film that has a universal appeal.

Best Picture- Good chance, but shouldn’t win
Best Directing- Also a good chance, but shouldn’t win
Best Actor- Good chance, wouldn’t be sad if it won
Best Writing- Good chance, wouldn’t be sad if it won
Best Editing- It was good, but this category is mainly for action movies
Thats mostly it, but could have a small chance at others

This is what my personal Best Picture category would look line now…

Slumdog Millionaire (Won’t change)
The Dark Knight (Won’t change)
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (Most likely won’t change)
Frost/Nixon (Might Change)
Changeling (Subject to change)

I’m sure you are thinking one of two things right now. 1. But godfather, why are you writing this a day early? or 2. You actually think we notice that you’re writing a day early? Either way, I’ll explain to my fans out there why I’m messing with their Sunday schedule of reading my fresh new blog. Well, our esteemed webmistress and I are going on a little drive tomorrow, and I won’t have time to update. So, here is another new movie, Slumdog Millionare that has some Academy Award chances.

I’m sure none of you have heard of it, seeing as it is a smaller film that was made in India. But, it is quite possibly my 1st or 2nd favorite movie of the year. Normally, I don’t like romance movies and I just want them to be over, but this one is the exception. It develops so well that even a real man like myself can be rooting for the guy to kiss the girl of his dreams. Read any review, and they’ll agree that it is one of the best movies of the year. So, which Oscars is it looking towards then? Best Picture is almost a lock for it, seeing as it’s nominated for 4 Golden Globes including Best Drama and Best Director. Well, the same awards in the Academy could easily given to this one. Slumdog could also be nominated for Best Cinematography, seeing as it easily beats out any other movie I’ve seen this year in this category. Acting awards could be potentials, but aren’t a lock since there have been other, better performances and the academy likes to go with familiar faces. That should be about it, so I’ll make a little list for those of you who were too lazy to read this whole thing.

Best Picture- Almost Positive
Best Director- Almost Positive
Best Cinematography- Good Chance
Best Screenplay- Almost Positive
Best Actor- Long shot
Best Supporting Actress- Long shot
Best Editing- Mediocre chance
Best Score- Good Chance
and other awards I know less about also all have chances

Here are the other movies that I still want/have to see to have a well balanced view of this year’s awards. They’re ranked by how much I want to see them.

1. The Wrestler (Love this director’s earlier work, and looks like one of the best sports movies ever)
2. The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (Fincher made my favorite movie, and the writer wrote Forrest Gump, whats not to like?)
3. Gran Torino (My favorite director, and another great role for Clint)
4. Milk (An interesting story, and looks like it could be pretty powerful)
5. Frost/Nixon (Looks like it’s going for too much, but could be good)
6. The Reader (Could be good, but some reviews say otherwise)
7. Revolutionary Road (I’ll only see it if it gets nominated for some of the bigger awards, and the director made something similar about 9 years ago)

First off, I would like to add some potential nominees for The Dark Knight that I forgot last week. I watched it again last night, and it could have a chance at Sound Mixing, Sound Editing, and Best Editing.

So I went to see Australia yesterday with my mom, and about 4 months ago I would have thought it to be a big contender in the Oscars. But, the golden globe nominations are out, and Australia go 0, but for good reason. It was an average film, not wonderful, not horrible. There were parts that were good, and others that were just way to cliche and cheesy. So to me, Australia has almost no shot at Best Picture, but hey, we never know for sure. Cinematography could have a little shot, though I didn’t think it was too good, since there were moments of greatness and horribleness. But the main categories to watch out for are Art Direction and Costume Design. One thing I can say about Australia though, is that the sets felt real (for the most part) and the crew did a good job at making the movie seem like the 40s.

By the way, the Golden Globes nominations were announced this week, and Benjamin Button, Doubt, and Frost/Nixon were all tied for the most nominations. Hopefully, I’ll see Button in a few weeks, and the other two soon.

Watch out for:
Cinematography- Maybe
Art Direction- Good chance
Costume Design- Good Chance

So I guess I’ll be writing about current contenders for Oscars these next few weeks, and unfortunately, there were no new real contenders out this weekend in our theaters, so I’ll have to talk about this one. Hopefully there will at least be one good looking one here next week, or else I’ll go see Australia. Anyway, to the article.

As all of you should have seen (who HASN’T seen The Dark Knight??), Christopher Nolan’s latest Batman movie has easily surpassed any others ever made, even his previous installment Batman Begins. It was a hit with both casual movie goers and film lovers alike, and broke all the box office records for opening weekends. But was it good enough for the Academy, who have surpassed many great films in the past like Fight Club, Se7en, The Usual Suspects, Assassination of Jesse James, and countless more? Well, it seems to me like most people think it has a chance in this category, and I’m one of them. So far this year, no other film has come close to matching The Dark Knight in really any aspect, except for maybe visual effects (Iron Man). But not having THE best effects of the year shouldn’t dampen it’s prospect should it? Most of the public would agree with me on this, even the film lovers are adoring it, so shouldn’t it be a lock? It should, but the academy has made some horrible choices with their nominations. Juno (Enjoyable, but Best of the year???? I don’t think so), Forrest Gump (It was one of the better films of the year, and I have no problem with it’s nomination, but in a year with Shawshank Redemption and Pulp Fiction, there is no way it was best), and Jerry Maguire (Come on, really? Its like Juno, enjoyable but not amazing). It is definitely a contender for this spot, but I’m not so sure it’ll make it.

The other major award that it will be nominated for is Best Supporting Actor for Heath Ledger. Heath did a wonderful job with the great script and brought it to life with one of the greatest performances of all time, and he should be honored with this award even after his death. Oh, and Adapted Screenplay, its not a lock, but to me the whole reason the movie worked was that the screenplay was flawless, and allowed the actors to give great performances off it. So, awards to watch…

Best Picture (Maybe)
Best Supporting Actor (Lock)
Best Adapted Screenplay (Maybe)
Best Cinematography (Maybe)
Best Director (Maybe)

So, this is the time of year in which all the Oscar contenders come out and I want to know what you guys want me to write about. First, I could write about past winners of the award and what my take was on that year. So, for example, I would talk about last year’s Academy Awards and say that No Country for Old Men was the best movie, and that Juno, Michael Clayton, and Atonement were all poor choices for other nominees. Or, I could start talking more about this year’s movies. This would let you see an insight into some of the best movies to see over the holidays, and which ones would most likely be nominated for something. Changeling, for example, has a good chance at being nominated for Best Actress, Set Design, and maybe even costumes. Or, if you want me to just ignore the Oscars for right now, then vote for that option. I start next week, so get busy voting!