Thursday, February 21, 2008

Oscar Forecast - Who Will/Who Should Win

I figured that since every Oscar site got their say that I would take my turn...

Best Picture:

Who Will Win/Should Win - No Country for Old Men
The film has been the beast of the season, and not since Lord of the Rings: Return of the King has a film one the DGA, WGA, PGA and SAG in the same year...let's remember what Return of the King did on Oscar night.

Who Should of Been Nominated:
I am extremely happy with this category this year, the strongest its been in my time of paying attention. There are some films that I would like to see up there, but they generally are not the kind of films Oscar goes for anyway.

Best Actor:

Who Will Win - Daniel Day-Lewis
Day-Lewis gives one of the all time over-the-top performances as Daniel Plainview in Paul Thomas Anderson's epic There will be Blood. It is as close to hystarical as a serious role can get without crossing into parody.

Who Should Win - Daniel Day-Lewis/George Clooney tie
I am perfectly happy with the fact that DDL will win this award, but I felt that George Clooney gave the best performance of his carrer in Michael Clayton. It was strong and subtle and he made Clayton everything Plainview wasn't: human

Who Should have been Nominated - Philip Seymor Hoffman
In a year with three great performances they give him the supporting actor nod for the weakest of the three, instead of his turn in Before the Devil Knows You're Dead or The Savages.

Best Actress:

Who Will Win - Julie Christie
Playing a woman suffering from alzheimers Julie Christie is stunning: in a supporting role. People seem to forget that the film was about her husband and not her. Beautiful none the less.

Who Should Win - Ellen Page
Well, the Best Actress in a Leading Role this year was Ms. Ellen Page for her turn as the title character in Juno. She carried this heartwarming film on her back and that is not easy to do playing a pregnent 16 year old in a comedy.

Who Should have been Nominated - N/A

Best Supporting Actor:

Who Will/Should Win - Javier Bardem
This character will go down in the history books. He was and is and will always be evil incarnate, and his name is Anton Chigurh.

Who Should have been Nominated - Tommy Lee Jones
Yes, just like Philip Seymor Hoffman, they placed him in the wrong category.

Best Supporting Actress:

Who Will/Should Win - Cate Blanchett
There has not been a more...interesting performance in my time seriously watching film. She found every nook and cranny of Bob Dylan and exploited it. And, as Peter Travers said: She would be the only person to win Oscars for playing Katherine Hepburn AND Bob Dylan.

Who Should have been Nominated -This category I am perfectly all right with

Best Original Screenplay:

Who Will/Should Win - Juno by Diablo Cody
This is the most bitingly original work of the year and it is just waiting for its name to be called on Sunday. This has been the only sureshot through the entire season and its time has almost come

Who Should have been Nominated - Before the Devil Knows You're Dead
From the moment the opening quote comes up on the screen "May you be in Heaven half an hour: Before the Devil Knows You're Dead" this crime malodrama is one of the most strikingly wonderful crime films by a true master of cinema. The overlook on the Academy's part to not only skip the screenplay but the entire film in every category is criminal

Best Adapted Screenplay:

Who Will/Should Win - No Country for Old Men by Joel and Ethan Coen
This is the cleanest adaptation I've ever had the pleasure to see and read. It is the most literary of almost all films and the Coen's masterpiece: which is a mouthful

Who Should have been Nominated - Gone Baby Gone by Ben Affleck and Aaron Stockard
In a category he has already won in, Affleck gets snubbed for writing is directorial debut, a stunning adaptation of Denis Lehane's book...you remember him, the guy that wrote Mystic River

Best Director:

Who Will/Should Win - Joel and Ethan Coen
There has never been a work by them so clean, so moving and so stark. Their masterpiece has come and the Academy owes them one. With the DGA on their side it is the safest statistical bet as well

Who Should have been Nominated - Sidney Lumet
The man is 83 years old and still at the top of his game. He should have won in 1976, but was snubbed and he was snubbed for a nomination here

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