Oscar Predictions

I had my own private showing of The Queen last night, as I was the only one who showed up for the 10:20 show. Kelly and I caught The Departed again today at the dollar theatre. That is likely the end of my many trips to the cinema in recent weeks. Half Nelson is on its way from Netflix but that is likely the last Oscar contender I'll be able to see before Sunday's ceremony. After a slow start, I've now seen all the nominees in the picture and director races. So, now seems like a good time to state my predictions.

Best Picture: This is an interesting group. Little Miss Sunshine was enjoyable enough but shouldn't be in the race. Sadly, it actually has a shot at winning. I think The Departed takes it though.
*Who Will Win: Departed
*Who Should Win: Babel or Departed
*Who's Missing: Pan's Labyrinth, Volver, and maybe Dreamgirls.

Best Director: It is easy to say Martin Scorsese should win because he has (depressingly) never won before. It is more accurate to say Martin Scorsese should win because he did the best directing job this year. Take out his past accomplishments and Scorsese still should come out on top with The Departed.
*Will and Should: Scorsese
*Missing: Guillermo del Toro (Pan's Labyrinth) and Pedro Almodovar (Volver).

Best Actor: Forest Whitaker raked in just about all the critics' prizes in a film not too many people will see. Usually, that would mean Oscar would overlook him for an actor in a higher profile film. The reason this performance will actually win this year is because there is no high profile film in the running. Three of the other nominees represent the only Oscar nomination for their film. The other nominee, Leonard DiCaprio, would have a better shot if he had been nominated for The Departed instead of Blood Diamond. I have yet to see a single one of these performance.
*Will: Whitaker

Best Actress: Helen Mirren walks home with this one. Even though this is an extremely strong category, Mirren's win is as close to a lock as they come. She is a terrific actress and was splendid. I'll hold back a choice for who should win until after I see Kate Winslet in Little Children.
*Will: Mirren

Best Supporting Actor: Eddie Murphy is terrific and will likely win a close race, though his accomplishment is more about his screen presence and a return to using his talents wisely than doing the best acting job. Alan Arkin is a very good veteran actor giving a fun performance, and he could snatch the award away from Murphy. I'd like to see it go to Mark Wahlberg, who uses his fairly brief screen time brilliantly. Even with guys like Nicholson, DiCaprio, Damon, and Martin Sheen in the film - there's no way you take your eyes off Wahlberg when he's on the screen.
*Will: Murphy
*Should: Wahlberg
*Missing: Jack Nicholson (The Departed)

Best Supporting Actress: Jennifer Hudson has the same electric stage presence as her co-star and likely co-Oscar winner Eddie Murphy. She steals scenes and she sings wonderfully. Both of the women from Babel are superb. Ten-year-old Abigail Breslin, no offense, did fine with the part but doesn't deserve to be in the race. Cate Blanchett is one of the best actors of our generation and since I've yet to see Notes on a Scandal, I'll hold off on judging this category as well. As long as it is someone other than Breslin, I'll be happy.
*Will: Hudson

Best Original Screenplay: Quirky, little films generally fare better in the screenplay categories and given the (confusing) support Little Miss Sunshine has, it is probably the most likely to win. Both Babel and Pan's Labyrinth have a lot of passionate supporters, including myself, and either pull off an upset.
*Will: Little Miss Sunshine
*Should: Babel
*Missing: Volver

Best Adapted Screenplay: The Departed is the easy choice, but I'm going out on a limb. A lot of people absolutely loved Borat and saw something revolutionary in comedy. With one lone nomination, their support will have to be directed to this category. Maybe it will be enough for an upset. I compare it to when Bowling for Columbine took the honor from the Writers Guild of America. It wasn't for the screenplay but for the passion of the film itself and the uniqueness and daring of it, while having no way to honor it other than screenplay. Borat could do the same with the Oscars.
*Will: Borat
*Should: Departed

Documentary Feature: A strong category that would be even stronger if not for the absence of 49 Up. It comes down to global warming versus a pedophile priest.
*Will: An Inconvenient Truth
*Missing: 49 Up

Foreign Language Film: Volver would have made this a fun race. Without it, Pan's Labyrinth should be a solid winner.
*Will and Should: Pan's Labyrinth
*Missing: Volver

Animated Feature: Those folks at Pixar should come home happier than a tornado in a trailer park.
*Will and Should: Cars

Original Song: When one film takes up three nominations, it makes it hard to predict the winner. I still think Dreamgirls pulls off the win and I would vote for Listen.
*Will and Should: Listen

United 93

2006. Written and directed by Paul Greengrass.

I'm not sure I needed to see United 93. It is a good movie that respectfully tries to recapture the events aboard the hijacked plane that failed to reach its destination on September 11, 2001, as passengers bravely decided to take the plane back from the hijackers. The film impresses by what it doesn't do, easy traps that it avoided. It doesn't offer background information on anyone. We don't see the home lives of the passengers. It doesn't offer individual heroes, but views the group as a collective group. We know, through the course of this movie, only what we would have known had we actually been aboard that plane. There are no added love stories, no big moments or quotes designed to play to the audience. Most impressively, the end credits reveal that many of the real ground crew played themselves in the movie. The movie falters at various times but is quite solid as a whole and certainly keeps your attention. In the end, I don't think it offered me any new information I didn't already know or any new way to look at things. But perhaps it will for some. It just existed as a sober reminder of something we all remember too well.

My grade: B

A trip to the movies, in just under two hours

I didn't work today and my aunts were willing to watch the boys this afternoon. I headed out for a 1:45 showing of The Queen in Montrose (Akron area). I arrived about 1:40 and immediately stepped to the ticket window. Upon requesting The Queen, she politely informed me that the first showing of The Queen wasn't until after 4:00. I looked at showtimes on-line yesterday and forgot to factor in that movie times change on Fridays. Ouch. Completely my fault and I should know better. A quick glance didn't offer much hope. The Last King of Scotland started a half hour ago. Notes on a Scandal did show at 1:45 but Kelly wanted to see it too and I knew she'd be disappointed if I saw it without her. I glanced at my movie time notes. I had jotted down that Volver played at 2:15 at the Cedar Lee in Cleveland.

Volver would have been my first choice but I had decided I didn't want to drive the hour from home. Circumstances had changed. I hopped into my car. Montrose to Cleveland in a half hour was a possibility. The biggest problem was that I didn't know how to get to the Cedar Lee. I had my step-dad's cell phone with me (from my recent car problems) so I called information. She confirmed the showtime hadn't changed and transferred me so I could get directions. Unfortunately, she transferred me to an automated recording that listed each show's title, actors, rating, running time, and catering budget (only the last item is an exaggeration). Then after 4 minutes of this, the recording finally got to the number to call with other questions. After clearly pronouncing everything else, he speed through the phone number just one time. I jotted down what I hoped he said, but that number led to someone's personal voicemail. Ahhh. I called my sister at work so she could look directions up on-line. I got her voicemail. I tried again but no luck. I gave my sister-in-law a call on her cell phone, followed by my Uncle Jim at work. No answer either place.

So I called information again and explained they had given me a recorded line and I needed the live line for the theatre. No problem, she said, adding they would remove the charge from the first phone call. She then proceeded to transfer me to the same recorded line. So, again I listened to four minutes of worthless info waiting for that brief moment to come when I could try to check the phone number I had written down. I heard 321 this time, instead of the 221 I originally called. So I called the revised number and got a different person's personal voice mail.

All the while, I'm arriving in Cleveland and needing to make decisions. I remembered glancing at the directions on-line when I briefly entertained the idea of driving to Cleveland to see Volver. I was pretty sure it told me to go 480 West. So as I'm cluelessly driving west on 480, I try my sister again and this time, to my delight, she answers. She checks for directions and I ask her where I go from 480 West. "Lee Rd, Exit 24," she tells me, along with the rest of the directions. I thank her and hang up. I hadn't been paying attention to exit numbers yet, so I glanced at the next sign: Exit 10. The following one: Exit 9. I'm going the wrong way!

I hop off at the next exit and ring my sister again while I'm changing directions. "It said 480 West, didn't it?" It did, in fact, but it hadn't taken me up 77 as I had gone, or even up 71 which I had passed. The directions had me going up 271 which goes east of 77 and then you come back on 480 West. I had been going the wrong way the whole time. It was, by now, about 2:15: when Volver was to start. I'd be late but with previews, maybe I wouldn't miss much. Normally, I hate walking in after a movie has started but at this point, I was going to take what I could get. So I'm driving down 480, East this time, and eventually I start getting close. Exits 21, 22, 23, and next: Exit 25. What?! I glanced behind me, and sure enough I could see Exit 24: Lee Rd that only exited westbound. I took Exit 25 to turn around and head west. Of course, it was a right turn only at the end of the exit and I had to take a quick turn through a gas station to get headed towards the 480 East ramp.

Now, with no time to lose, I'm finally on Lee Rd and have five miles to go. Immediately, I hit a school zone. In a little bit, there is a train crossing with lights flashing and the bars down, but alas there is no train. The cars in front of me, at least ten of them, start driving around the barriers. It gets to be my turn and sure enough, no train in sight. I follow suit. Missing only the previews is no longer an option. I continue on. Now I slow down for a van stopped in the opposite lane with smoke coming out of its charred hood. Behind it sits a fire truck and two firemen stand beside the van with the water hose putting out what used to be a fire. I drive on and eventually see the Cedar Lee on my right. Parking is in the rear, I know this from the four minute message I was forced to listen through twice. It is now 3:00.

I park in the rear but have to scramble for enough lose change as the parking lot has parking meters. Finally, I enter the Cedar Lee and request a ticket for Volver. "The 2:15 or the 4:45?" the man asks. I enter just in time to hear Sole's mom calling to her from the trunk. I stand for awhile until my eyes have adjusted enough that I can confidently feel for a seat without sitting on someone. I sit for a mesmerizing movie that I thoroughly enjoy. It ends. I call home to update everyone on my delayed return. Then I wait, with the ticket taker's permission, for the 4:45 showing and watch, from the beginning this time, until after Sole hears the noises from her trunk again. I would have gladly finished the movie a second time, but I needed to get home.

On the slightly shorter, but still long, drive home, I again passed that same van sitting in the same spot. The smoke had stopped and the firemen had gone, but the van still sat right in the middle of the lane. I knew with a fair amount of certainty that my day's driving experience had at least gone better than the owner of that van.

Children of Men

2006. Directed by Alfonso Cuaron. Screenplay by Alfonso Cuaron and Timothy J. Sexton, based on the novel by P.D. James. Starring Clive Owen, Julianne Moore, Michael Caine, Claire-Hope Ashitey, Pam Ferris, and Danny Huston.

"As the sound of the playgrounds faded, the despair set in. Very odd, what happens in a world without children's voices."

I came into Children of Men with great expectations. I was on an unbelievable movie high, having seen four movies in a theatre within a weeks time; each one even better than the last terrific film (Letters from Iwo Jima, Dreamgirls, Babel, Pan's Labyrinth). I was pumped about Children of Men and expected it to fit right in with those experiences. So, while I enjoyed the movie, I came away disappointed and I'm having a hard time explaining why. It was a good movie with a good concept and a good cast. It was put together well. Still, I knew from the opening few minutes, it just quite the same level of filmmaking that I had been watching.

The movie is set in a not too distant and very bleak future where the world has collapsed and only England remains. The world, however, has become infertile. The world's youngest human has just been killed and he was eighteen years old. It reminded me in places of Brazil and Blade Runner. Clive Owen, a superb actor, is a cynical former activist who is reluctantly drawn back into action by his former lover. The movie throws out many themes - such as infertility, treatment of immigrants, power-grab opportunity of supposedly well-meaning groups. It doesn't try to explore the why's, it just lets its actions play out inside of them. It functions for quite a bit of the time as a bloody, brutal chase movie as Owen's Theo tries to transport the first pregnant woman in almost two decades to safety. Cuaron plays with a lot of important ideas and makes sure we leave thinking and talking. He also pulls a Janet Leigh on us with Julianne Moore. The more I think about the movie, the more respect I have for it. I'll be willing to check it out again on dvd. For now, it may be a disappointment, but it still ranks a B+ and an at least temporary spot at the bottom of my top ten list.

My grade: B+

Pan's Labyrinth

2006. Written and directed by Guillermo del Toro. Starring Ivana Baquero, Maribel Verdu, Ariadna Gil, Sergi Lopez, Doug Jones, and Alex Angulo.

My body was sitting in a theatre but my heart and imagination were captive inside another world. From the very first sounds, even before the first image appeared on screen until the credits began to roll, I was completely immersed in Pan's Labyrinth. I had no idea how long I was there, I only knew I didn't want to leave anytime soon. We were taken to Spain in 1944 after the Civil War had ended. A girl and her pregnant mother are coming to live with her new step-dad. It takes only a moment for us to distrust the man she is told to call father, and our distrust is more than justified. The girl, horrified by her new life, is less resistant than she might otherwise have been when she meets bizarre magical creatures and is asked to carry out dangerous tasks.

Pan's Labyrinth has a complete and consistent mood. It never breaks for a wink of humor or irony. It adds nothing that doesn't belong. It doesn't differentiate between reality and fantasy and lets the viewer be the judge of what is real. I was completely engaged; spellbound to the suspense and horror, the bizarre and grotesque. At the heart of the story is the girl, played very well by Ivana Baquero, and her heartache becomes ours. The film never drags and is fascinating in both its moments of fantasy and its equally terrifying reality. Pan's Labyrinth surrounds you in excellence in filmmaking as the sound, images, and imagination all work in perfect harmony while giving you characters you truly care about. It is an unforgettable experience and a tremendous movie.

My grade: A

Y el ganador es...

Reflecting back on the brilliance of Pan's Labyrinth, which Kelly and I saw this afternoon (my review to follow), I began to wonder how many foreign language films were up for the regular Oscar categories this year. Looking over the ballot, it's actually quite impressive. I'm going to count Babel as a foreign language film since over half the dialogue is not in English. I'll also throw out the short films and the Foreign Language Film category since that is a given. I count 23 nominations for films whose main dialogue is not in English. Twenty-three!! Could anyone have guessed this? And that's with only one nomination for Volver.

Best Picture: Babel and Letters from Iwo Jima
Director: Babel and Letters from Iwo Jima
Actress: Penelope Cruz (Volver)
Supporting Actress: Adriana Barraza and Rinko Kikuchi (Babel)
Cinematography: Pan's Labyrinth
Original Screenplay: Babel, Letters from Iwo Jima, Pan's Labyrinth
Documentary Feature: Irag in Fragments, My Country My Country
Film Editing: Babel
Makeup: Apocalypto and Pan's Labyrinth
Art Direction: Pan's Labyrinth
Sound Mixing: Apocalypto
Sound Editing: Apocalypto, Letters from Iwo Jima
Costume Design: Curse of the Golden Flower
Original Score: Babel and Pan's Labyrinth

The Devil Wears Prada

2006. Directed by David Frankel. Screenplay by Aline Brosh McKenna, based on the novel by Lauren Weisberger. Starring Meryl Streep, Anne Hathaway, Stanley Tucci, Emily Blunt, Simon Baker, and Adrian Grenier.

"You know what really just kills me about this whole thing is the clothes that you're gonna get. I mean, you don't deserve them. You eat carbs, for Christ's sake!"

The Devil Wears Prada is not spectacular but it is solid and enjoyable. The highlight, as should be expected, is the performance of Meryl Streep. As the editor of Runway fashion magazine, she makes the ultimate boss from hell. Her voice never raises but her comments and sarcasm cut harder than any yelling could. She expects and demands, at any hour, while never offering praise or encouragement. Anne Hathaway provides a nice contrast as the new assistant, a girl too nice for the business depicted. She holds tight to her values but slowly lets her ambition allow for sacrifices in those values. Stanley Tucci is a pleasure and Emily Blunt gets some of the film's best lines.

My grade: B

Babel

2006. Directed by Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu. Written by Guillermo Arriaga. Starring Adriana Barraza, Rinko Kikuchi, Brad Pitt, Cate Blanchett, Gael Garcia Bernal, Toji Yakusho

Babel is a brilliant film that switches between four storylines which are separate but interrelated, though the revelation of that connection isn't what drives the film. There is an American couple in Morocco (played by Brad Pitt and Cate Blanchett), vacating in an attempt to rebuild their marriage from the strain of their youngest child's death. There is a goatherder and his two sons who live in the hills of Morocco and come into possession of a new gun to scare the jackals away from their herds. There is a Mexican nanny looking after two children whose parents are away at the same time she needs to travel to Mexico for her son's wedding. There is a Japanese girl, who feels disconnected from society because she is deaf, and her father who struggle to reconnect after the mother's suicide. These stories are all fascinating and all offer insights into how humans react in drastic circumstances. The characters are terrific, the dialogue is superb, and the pacing is very effective. It is a gut-wrenching and emotionally devastating film that keeps you at the edge of your seat as you worry about the choices you think these people are about to make. I was so involved in this movie that it was an exhausting and yet extremely rewarding experience. Inarritu has made two previous films. 21 Grams was very good and featured stunning acting. Amorres Perros was the kind of film you don't want to miss and offers much of what Babel does. Babel is certainly equal, perhaps better, than Amorres Perros. It may be the best film of the year.

My grade: A

Dreamgirls

2006. Written for the screen and directed by Bill Condon. Starring Jamie Foxx, Beyonce Knowles, Eddie Murphy, Jennifer Hudson, Keith Robinson, Danny Glover, and Anika Noni Rose.

Some movies may be important to see on the big screen because their large scope is best suited to the giant screen. Dreamgirls was wonderful to see in the theatre because the energy of the crowd was contagious. Usually, I'm annoyed if someone at the theatre is making comments loud enough that I can hear them, but there was a man in the row in front of us who was a blast. He was so involved that the movie became interactive for him as he occasionally let a sound or hollered at a character. There were moments of applause. We as a crowd could sense each other's enjoyment and that enhanced our own.

Dreamgirls is an adaptation of a Broadway play and it, not unlike its recent predecessor Chicago, is a huge success. It is full of energy and excitement and has a great flow. The music is terrific and the entire cast, who all provide their own vocals on the songs, is very good. Jennifer Hudson and Eddie Murphy both earned supporting Oscar nominations and both have a commanding screen presence while they are on the screen, but the other actors are just as good. This is a terrific ensemble. Dreamgirls also features perhaps the best end credits I've ever seen. It starts off with picture credits for its cast, one of my favorite things, and then proceeds to highlight in split screen the other credits. While it lists the costume designer, it shows the drawing of the dress in one part of the screen while another part shows the dress being worn during the movie. This continues on for the other credits as well, a delightful ending to a terrific movie. Propelled by its drama and enhanced by its music, Dreamgirls is a very fun and rewarding experience.

My grade: A-

Letters From Iwo Jima

2006. Subtitled. Directed by Clint Eastwood. Screenplay by Iris Yamashita. Starring Ken Watanabe, Kazunari Ninomiya, and Ryo Kase.

Letters from Iwo Jima, Clint Eastwood's companion piece to Flags of Our Fathers from earlier this year, is an impressive film but ultimately it is a film you admire more than you love. Flags, which I have yet to see, looked at the WWII battle of Iwo Jima from the American side. While doing research for that film, Eastwood came across the story of a Japanese general and decided to examine the same battle from the Japanese side as well. Filmed in a fascinated muted gray where everything looks dreary and there is little hope from the start for these soldiers, Letters is an engrossing and well directed film. It is intense and disturbing; many times both my stepdad and myself were literally flinching in our seats at the actions and sounds on the screen. It does not shy away from the brutal reality of war or the debatable Japanese code of honor of the time. It is a powerful film that puts us in the middle of the war, surrounded by violence, and as Americans really makes us struggle to find a simple good and bad side. I never got terribly close to any of the characters. So I watched with horror for mankind but with only a few exceptions, I felt no more pain for one character than another. There is a moment in the film when Japanese soldiers listen to a letter an American mom wrote to her son and we see on their faces recognition of the humanity and similarity of their enemy; quite unlike the savage they were told they were fighting. This same scene could have taken place in Flags of Our Fathers and have been equally effective there. War is easier when you demonize the people you are killing; to have to look at them as sons and fathers with similar needs and desires makes it that much tougher to pull the trigger.

My grade: A-

Two stunning choices for Best Picture

I was fairly confident Letters From Iwo Jima would make the final five Best Picture nominees and that meant that one of the four movies on the bubble would get bumped out: The Queen, Dreamgirls, Babel, and Little Miss Sunshine (with a nomination reserved for The Departed). It ended up being Dreamgirls that lost out, but after seeing a few more films, I'm very surprised at the inclusion of two of the films. Babel and Little Miss Sunshine do not seem like Best Picture nominees, for entirely different reasons.

Little Miss Sunshine is an enjoyable, yet fairly insignificant film with good comic moments. It doesn't scream Oscar even before you factor in a weak dramatic element and a last half hour that drags. Usually Oscar doesn't pay much attention to films like this and I'm not quite sure why it did this time.

Babel, on the other hand, is a brilliant film. It is a unique, haunting, gut-wrenching film made using five different languages by a Mexican director. Amores Perros, the director's first film, was equally stunning and haunting and garnered only a Best Foreign Language Film nomination. Babel does have Brad Pitt, in a role of equal size to eight other parts, but he's hardly the attention grabbing star he was some years ago. This is the kind of original, intense film that usually gets recognized in the screenplay category if it gets noticed at all.

I'm thrilled with Babel being a Best Picture nominee but completely baffled by Little Miss Sunshine's inclusion. Dreamgirls would have been a much better choice.

Three movies in one day

I had the kind of movie-watching day I haven't had in years. My Mom agreed to watch the boys today and I headed to the theatre. I caught a 1:00 show with my stepdad, a 4:35 show with my sister, went back to my mom's for dinner and a visit with them and the boys, and then went out again for a 9:40 show. I was not disappointed once. Bob and I saw Letters From Iwo Jima, an impressively made flick that draws more admiration than love. Jennifer and I saw Dreamgirls and had a blast. Then I caught Babel at the end of the day and it was all that I could have hoped for. Babel jumps to the top of my top ten list, which is still raw but starting to take some shape. I'll have individual reviews soon for all three movies, but not right now. It's 2 am and I am headed for bed after a full day of the beauty of cinema.

Gentleman's Agreement

1947. Directed by Elia Kazan. Screenplay by Moss Hart, based on the novel by Laura Z. Hobson. Starring Gregory Peck, Dorothy McGuire, John Garfield, Celeste Holm, Anne Revere, and Dean Stockwell.

Gentleman's Agreement is a powerful film far more because of what it says and when it said it than because of the quality of the film itself. It is a courageous attack against anti-Semitism, and thus discrimination in all forms, coming in the late forties. Gregory Peck plays a reporter who decides to pass himself off as Jewish in order to write about anti-Semitism from first-hand knowledge. He certainly experiences anti-Semitism in many forms. The film's strongest virtue (and what keeps it relevant to this day) is that it concludes that the most frustrating aspect of prejudice isn't the outspoken attacks but rather the good people who sit still, perhaps feeling ashamed or guilty, and remain silent as anti-Semitism in the form of jokes, actions, and rules cross their paths. They may feel disgusted but they fail to stand up for their beliefs; their inaction strengthening the comfort of prejudice in others. The cast is a fairly mixed bag. Peck is solid but a little stuffy while Dorothy McGuire is fairly awkward in a rather weakly written role. John Garfield is very good as Peck's childhood friend and Celeste Holm is fun as a fashion editor for the magazine. The dialogue tries to be snappy at times but lacks the cleverness to excel at it. Elia Kazan has provided us much better films, but this is a solid film that has a good message that still holds meaning today.

My grade: B+