Craig's MovieBlog

My Head Hurts Just Thinking About It

Last week, Defamer reported that "The London Film Critics' Circle awarded The Queen its top British film and director awards, United 93 best film and director, and Volver best foreign film." 

They also said that this makes no sense whatsoever, and I think I would agree if my head didn't hurt so much.  Let's break this down:

• Okay, so they're in London.  Got it. 
• The Queen is the top "domestic" film for them.  Good, got it. 
• Then they announce that United 93 is the best film of the year.  Got it.  Please note that this American film would be "foreign" to them.  Keep that in mind for the next bullet.
• Then they announce that Volver is the best foreign film. 

Huh?!?!?  I honestly don't know if they think United 93 or Volver is the better film. 

This reminds me of the Grammy categories of Best Song, Best Album, and Best Record.  I still can't figure those out.

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

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

Golden Globe Nominations 2006

My notes on the nominations:

• Bobby?  Really?  Gosh, I wonder if Sharon Stone will finally show up at the Golden Globes this year...
• Leo vs. Leo in Best Actor and Clint vs. Clint in Best Director.  I guess that means Ryan Gosling doesn't get to bring Rachel McAdams to the party, and Bill Condon doesn't get a nomination for Dreamgirls.  Neither does Paul Greengrass for United 93.
• Look at the films nominated for Best Actress (Drama): Volver, Notes on a Scandal, Sherrybaby, The Queen, and Little Children.  Wow - are any of those playing anywhere in this country other than the coasts?  The combined box office take of those films is: $29.3 million, and $24.7 of that comes from The Queen.
• United 93 seems to have lost some momentum here, but the Hollywood Foreign Press likes to nominate stars... and the film had none - unlike Bobby.
• The real surprises to me are Babel racking up the most (7) nods, Mark Wahlberg and Thank You For Smoking getting noticed (deservedly), Notes on a Scandal getting 3, and going back to the Jack Sparrow well for a second time.
• Oh, and on the TV side, Alec Baldwin got nominated for his work on 30 Rock (perfect) but Studio 60 got zippo.  That's gotta hurt NBC, since they air the Golden Globes.  And I did not see a nomination for Dexter's Michael C. Hall coming...
• Best line from David Poland: "Harvey got his meaningless Bobby nomination. Thank God Roger Friedman will have somewhere to sit at the awards."

Best Picture (Drama)

• Babel
• Bobby
• The Departed
• Little Children
• The Queen

Best Actor (Drama)

• Leonardo DiCaprio - Blood Diamond
• Leonardo DiCaprio - The Departed
• Peter O'Toole - Venus
• Will Smith - The Pursuit of Happyness
• Forest Whitaker - The Last King of Scotland

Best Actress (Drama)

• Penelope Cruz - Volver
• Judi Dench - Notes on a Scandal
• Maggie Gyllenhall - Sherrybaby
• Helen Mirren - The Queen
• Kate Winslet - Little Children

Best Picture (Musical or Comedy)

• Borat
• The Devil Wears Prada
• Dreamgirls
• Little Miss Sunshine
• Thank You For Smoking

Best Actress (Musical or Comedy)

• Annette Bening - Running with Scissors
• Toni Collette - Little Miss Sunshine
• Beyonce Knowles - Dreamgirls
• Meryl Streep - The Devil Wears Prada
• Rene Zellweger - Miss Potter

Best Actor (Musical or Comedy)

• Sasha Baron Cohen - Borat
• Johnny Depp - Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest
• Aaron Eckhart - Thank You for Smoking
• Chiwetel Ejiofor - Kinky Boots
• Will Ferrell - Stranger Than Fiction

Best Supporting Actor

• Ben Affleck - Hollywoodland
• Eddie Murphy - Dreamgirls
• Jack Nicholson - The Departed
• Brad Pitt - Babel
• Mark Wahlberg - The Departed

Best Supporting Actress

• Adriana Barraza - Babel
• Kate Blanchett - Notes on a Scandal
• Emily Blunt - The Devil Wears Prada
• Jennifer Hudson - Dreamgirls
• Rinko Kikuchi - Babel

Best Director

• Clint Eastwood - Flags of Our Fathers
• Clint Eastwood - Letters from Iwo Jima
• Stephen Frears - The Queen
• Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu - Babel
• Martin Scorsese - The Departed

Best Screenplay

• Babel
• Little Children
• Notes on a Scandal
• The Departed
• The Queen

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