Craig's MovieBlog

Oscar Nominations

When was the last time the leader in nominations (Dreamgirls) couldn't get nominated for Best Picture or Best Director?  Dreamgirls received 8, but 3 were for Best Song, followed by Babel with 7.

When was the last time that 9 of the 10 actor and actress nominees were NOT from one of the Best Pictures?  Let me put that another way... of the 5 Best Pictures, they only spawned 1 Actor or Actress nomination (Helen Mirren, The Queen).

When they said the field was wide open this year, I really had only thought of that in the Best Picture race, but the breadth of the field this year, the distinction between the Best Picture nominations and the rest of the nominees has never been more vast.

Are you telling me that Leo was better in Blood Diamond that he was in The Departed?

Check out the Best Actor nominees - outside of Blood Diamond, none of those movies received any other major nominations, no other actors, not best picture, no screenplay, nothing.  Just bizarre...

Does anyone else realize that Kate Winslet is about to lose her 5th Oscar nomination in 11 years?  Or that Meryl Streep is about to lose for the 12th time?  At least she has two wins... unlike Ms. Winslet.

Here we go...

BEST PICTURE
Babel
The Departed
Letters From Iwo Jima
Little Miss Sunshine
The Queen

BEST DIRECTOR
Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu, Babel
Martin Scorsese, The Departed
Clint Eastwood, Letters From Iwo Jima
Stephen Frears, The Queen
Paul Greengrass, United 93

BEST ACTOR
Leonardo DiCaprio, Blood Diamond
Ryan Gosling, Half Nelson
Peter O'Toole, Venus
Will Smith, The Pursuit of Happyness
Forrest Whitaker, The Last King Of Scotland

BEST ACTRESS
Penelope Cruz, Volver
Judi Dench, Notes on A Scandal
Helen Mirren, The Queen
Meryl Streep, The Devil Wears Prada
Kate Winslet, Little Children

BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR
Alan Arkin, Little Miss Sunshine
Jackie Earle Haley, Little Children
Djimon Hounsou, Blood Diamond
Eddie Murphy, Dreamgirls
Mark Wahlberg, The Departed

BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS
Adriana Barraza, Babel
Abigail Breslin, Little Miss Sunshine
Cate Blanchett, Notes on a Scandal
Jennifer Hudson, Dreamgirls
Rinko Kikuchi, Babel

BEST ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY
Babel
Letters From Iwo Jima
Little Miss Sunshine
Pan's Labyrinth
The Queen

BEST ADAPTED SCREENPLAY
Borat
Children Of Men
The Departed
Little Children
Notes On A Scandal

Funniest Post from Jeff Wells Ever

Enjoy:

"The Central Ohio Film Critics have named Alfonso Cuaron's Children of Men the year's best film, but handed the Best Director prize to The Departed's Martin Scorsese. The Northern, Southern, Southeastern, Northwestern and Southwestern Ohio Film Critics have yet to be heard from."

Viewer Mail

From a reader:

So called Best picture?  Well I don't know but it seems to me that racism is alive and well in the movie industry.  I won't say what race I am but the fact that Dreamgirls had limited openings on Christmas Day with an official opening to all theaters on Jan. 19th 2007 seems a bit strange!  Heaven forbid a Jewish producer; DreamWorks and an all black cast take 1 place in revenue. I personally witnessed packed crowds (mainly white over 50) fighting for tickets and only after the limited seating had sold out did they settle for other features.  Yet despite the opposition and distribution control placed on Dreamgirls by the powers in Hollywood it still managed to do 9 million and take 7th place with both hands tied behind its back!  I wonder what it would have done on a fair playing field?  Well the more things change the more they stay the same. We won't even talk about Borat!

My response:

Lots and lots of movies open on limited screens over the holidays to create demand, and then widen their screencount.  They do this to qualify for the Oscars by releasing in LA and/or NYC during 2006, but then build momentum throughout the months of January and February which are closer to the Oscars, hoping to affect how votes are cast. 

This happens every year, especially for movies that are aiming for Academy Awards.  Go back and look at the release patterns for Chicago, Syriana, Gangs of New York, The Hours, Brokeback Mountain, Capote, Million Dollar Baby, etc.... even films this year like Volver, Children of Men, and Notes on a Scandal are all being released the same way, and none of them have predominantly African-American casts.

Frankly, I think it's exciting from a racial perspective that you claim that there are "white" packed crowds who want to see this film.  That is enough for me to be optimistic.

But seriously... you think people with all the clout of Spielberg, Katzenberg, and Geffen are going to be "controlled" by some sort of master controller somewhere?  C'mon... this is nothing more than a PR team strategically releasing a film for the Oscars.

Happy new year,

Craig

Two Fantastic Posts

Before I sign off tonight, I just wanted to point you to two fantastic postings - one hilarious, one passionate about film.

First, go watch the new trailer for Halle Berry's Perfect Stranger.  If you are still breathing and remotely conscious after completing that task, I can't recommend visiting Burbanked strongly enough, where you'll get to "Choose Your Spoiler"!  Absolutely amazing stuff.  Plus, he uses the term "non-sucky."  Always a plus.

On a more serious note, I've been saving this link for a while because I'm just not talented enough as a writer to illustrate how I feel about this piece.  Basically, David Poland calls out several recent flawed films, albeit by extremely talented directors, to set up his review of Children of Men. 

I think what struck me most about the article is less of how he uses this trend of great directors misfiring to set up his story, but moreso for his overall optimism.  He fully acknowledges these films have problems, but he still can't wait to see what these directors do next.

In this world where everything is more and more binary, where you can't be right unless I'm wrong, where opinions are formed and broadcast without having all (or these days) any of the information needed to make an informed decision, I thought David's article was... (what's the word?) necessary.

Sofia Coppola's latest outing wasn't perfect... so what?  I still want to see what she does next.  And Alfonso Cuaron, and Steven Soderbergh, and Marc Forster, and Chris Nolan, and Darren Aronofsky, etc., etc.  Frankly, it's a miracle that almost any of these films got made in the first place.

Academy Awards: One Man's Odds for Best Picture

Yesterday's Los Angeles Times printed Patrick Goldstein's latest odds on the Best Picture candidates, as there are 7 weeks to go before the nominations are announced..  Check out the full article for all the detail, but in summary:

The Favorites:

• Dreamgirls: 4-1
• The Queen: 6-1
• The Departed: 9-1
• Little Miss Sunshine: 10-1

Contenders:

• Flags of our Fathers: 12-1
• Letters from Iwo Jima: 12-1
• The Good Shepherd: 14-1
• Babel: 15-1
• United 93: 16-1
• World Trade Center: 16-1
• Volver: 18-1

Longshots:

• Children of Men: 20-1
• The Pursuit of Happyness: 22-1
• Little Children: 25-1
• Blood Diamond: 30-1
• Bobby: 40-1
• Apocalypto: 60-1

Meanwhile, back at the Hall of Justice... I mean, Movie City News, The Gurus o' Gold have compiled their latest votes for all the categories.  Here's their top 10 for Best Picture Nominees:

1. Dreamgirls
2. The Departed
3. The Queen
4. Babel
5. Little Miss Sunshine
6. Letters from Iwo Jima
7. Volver
8. Flags of our Fathers
9. Little Children
10. The Pursuit of Happyness

Children of Men Trailer (Coolness Part 1)

So, first I watched this trailer for Children of Men, and thought, "whoa... that's a pretty cool concept, great director, good actors (Julianne Moore, Clive Owen).  I'm definitely going to see that."

(See next blog post for Part 2)