Happy Nominations Day!
Jan. 22nd, 2009 08:59 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
cmk418Before I get into the main stuff, a note to the Chicago Blackhawks: START WINNING! Less than 10 shots combined(!) in the first two periods does not amuse me. I'll expect more from you after the All-Star break.
We now return you to our regular broadcast.
The nice thing about being here in the Midwest is not having to get up at 5:30 AM in order to watch the Academy Award nominations. I was awake, with my full Nominations Day breakfast in front of me, by the time they started the fanfare.
GOOD THINGS
Gus Van Sant was nominated for Best Director for "Milk". With the exception of "Paranoid Park", I have seen every film this man has made (including the "Psycho" remake and the tedious "Gerry") and he really deserved it.
"Milk" for Best Original Screenplay by Dustin Lance Black. The thing is perfect, y'all. What I found interesting and different about "Milk" than any other movie out there was that the trailers closed with the slide "Written by Dustin Lance Black". Things like that happen, well, never. (I'm not counting those "Written and Directed by" credits, because those could just as well be director's credits). But it's perfect.
Is this the point that I bring up Josh Brolin for "Milk"? Fine, fine, work. And yes, Sean Penn was nominated but that was a given.
Other things I liked, acting-wise - Richard Jenkins for "The Visitor" (haven't seen it yet, but I've heard nothing but good things and that was a bit of a surprise), Frank Langella for "Frost/Nixon", Robert Downey Jr for "Tropic Thunder" (I really loved that movie).
I really hope that "Wall-E" takes everything that it's nominated for (except the previously mentioned Original Screenplay category) and that "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button" (which was awful* IMO) is horribly shutout.
UNDECIDED
I'll leave the verdict on "Slumdog Millionaire" until I actually get to see it. Ditto "Frost/Nixon". If I see "The Reader", it'll be the last thing I see - thanks to Steven Spielberg, I can no longer watch films with the Holocaust as subject matter.
LESS THAN POSITIVE THINGS
There's not a lot of diversity out there. Fifteen films share the top nominations. There's none of the traditional nonsense where one best picture nominee doesn't have a director nominated.
And why does no one recognize Michael Sheen (the Frost in "Frost/Nixon")? I saw him in this PBS Mystery miniseries years ago called "Gallowglass" and he's definitely done very well for himself. It's just weird that they nominate the one and not the other (but that's something that I'll discuss after I see the film).
And "Benjamin Button"? 13 nominations? What is the Academy smoking?
If you haven't seen "Benjamin Button" you may want to stop reading now. I have a technical issue/plot issue with the film.
*When Benjamin is born, he's an old man in the body of a tiny baby, but at the end of the film after he's gone through 70-80 years of life, he's back to just being a tiny baby. If he physically grew from baby old man to Brad Pitt, wouldn't that make him a freakishly large baby-looking person at the end? I'll buy that old people shrink, but not that much. Think about it.
I'll write more about the films as I see them, and will give the usual run-down of predictions and the like before the main event.
We now return you to our regular broadcast.
The nice thing about being here in the Midwest is not having to get up at 5:30 AM in order to watch the Academy Award nominations. I was awake, with my full Nominations Day breakfast in front of me, by the time they started the fanfare.
GOOD THINGS
Gus Van Sant was nominated for Best Director for "Milk". With the exception of "Paranoid Park", I have seen every film this man has made (including the "Psycho" remake and the tedious "Gerry") and he really deserved it.
"Milk" for Best Original Screenplay by Dustin Lance Black. The thing is perfect, y'all. What I found interesting and different about "Milk" than any other movie out there was that the trailers closed with the slide "Written by Dustin Lance Black". Things like that happen, well, never. (I'm not counting those "Written and Directed by" credits, because those could just as well be director's credits). But it's perfect.
Is this the point that I bring up Josh Brolin for "Milk"? Fine, fine, work. And yes, Sean Penn was nominated but that was a given.
Other things I liked, acting-wise - Richard Jenkins for "The Visitor" (haven't seen it yet, but I've heard nothing but good things and that was a bit of a surprise), Frank Langella for "Frost/Nixon", Robert Downey Jr for "Tropic Thunder" (I really loved that movie).
I really hope that "Wall-E" takes everything that it's nominated for (except the previously mentioned Original Screenplay category) and that "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button" (which was awful* IMO) is horribly shutout.
UNDECIDED
I'll leave the verdict on "Slumdog Millionaire" until I actually get to see it. Ditto "Frost/Nixon". If I see "The Reader", it'll be the last thing I see - thanks to Steven Spielberg, I can no longer watch films with the Holocaust as subject matter.
LESS THAN POSITIVE THINGS
There's not a lot of diversity out there. Fifteen films share the top nominations. There's none of the traditional nonsense where one best picture nominee doesn't have a director nominated.
And why does no one recognize Michael Sheen (the Frost in "Frost/Nixon")? I saw him in this PBS Mystery miniseries years ago called "Gallowglass" and he's definitely done very well for himself. It's just weird that they nominate the one and not the other (but that's something that I'll discuss after I see the film).
And "Benjamin Button"? 13 nominations? What is the Academy smoking?
If you haven't seen "Benjamin Button" you may want to stop reading now. I have a technical issue/plot issue with the film.
*When Benjamin is born, he's an old man in the body of a tiny baby, but at the end of the film after he's gone through 70-80 years of life, he's back to just being a tiny baby. If he physically grew from baby old man to Brad Pitt, wouldn't that make him a freakishly large baby-looking person at the end? I'll buy that old people shrink, but not that much. Think about it.
I'll write more about the films as I see them, and will give the usual run-down of predictions and the like before the main event.
