Oscar Nominees are in (2007)

[Eric T. Jones]

Best Picture
Atonement
Juno (WILL WIN)
Michael Clayton
No Country for Old Men (SHOULD WIN)
There Will Be Blood (#2 pick)

Best Director
The Diving Bell and the Butterfly- Julian Schnabel (WILL AND SHOULD WIN)
Juno- Jason Reitman (it's called "should have nominated me for 'Thank You for Smoking'")
Michael Clayton- Tony Gilroy
No Country for Old Men- Joel Coen and Ethan Coen (#3 pick)
There Will Be Blood- Paul Thomas Anderson (#2 pick)

Best Adapted Screenplay
Atonement (WILL WIN)
Away from Her (haven't seen)
The Diving Bell and the Butterfly (SHOULD WIN)
No Country for Old Men (is it really an adaptation if it's word-for-word from the original novel?)
There Will Be Blood (#2 pick)

Best Original Screenplay
Juno (WILL WIN)
Lars and the Real Girl (SHOULD WIN)
Michael Clayton
Ratatouille
The Savages (haven't seen)

Best Actor
George Clooney- Michael Clayton
Daniel Day-Lewis- There Will Be Blood (WILL AND SHOULD WIN)
Johnny Depp- Sweeney Todd The Demon Barber of Fleet Street (no)
Tommy Lee Jones- In the Valley of Elah (haven't seen)
Viggo Mortensen- Eastern Promises

Best Supporting Actor
Casey Affleck- The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford (will see soon)
Javier Bardem- No Country for Old Men (WILL WIN)
Philip Seymour Hoffman- Charlie Wilson's War
Hal Holbrook- Into the Wild (but I might desire a win here)
Tom Wilkinson- Michael Clayton

Best Actress
Cate Blanchett- Elizabeth: The Golden Age
Julie Christie- Away from Her
Marion Cotillard- La Vie en Rose (WILL WIN)
Laura Linney- The Savages
Ellen Page- Juno

Best Supporting Actress
Cate Blanchett- I'm Not There (WILL WIN... unfortunately)
Ruby Dee- American Gangster
Saoirse Ronan- Atonement
Amy Ryan- Gone Baby Gone (NO)
Tilda Swinton- Michael Clayton (SHOULD WIN and have all 5 nomination slots for her)

Best Animated Feature
Persepolis (no)
Ratatouille (WILL AND SHOULD WIN)
Surf's Up (HELL NO!!)

Best Art Direction
American Gangster (what art direction?)
Atonement
The Golden Compass
Sweeney Todd The Demon Barber of Fleet Street (WILL WIN)
There Will Be Blood

Best Cinematography
The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford (haven't seen yet)
Atonement (#3 pick)
The Diving Bell and the Butterfly (WILL AND SHOULD WIN)
No Country for Old Men
There Will Be Blood (#2 pick)

Best Costume Design
Across the Universe (SHOULD WIN)
Atonement
Elizabeth: The Golden Age
La Vie en Rose
Sweeney Todd The Demon Barber of Fleet Street

Best Film Editing
The Bourne Ultimatum
The Diving Bell and the Butterfly (SHOULD WIN)
Into the Wild (#2 pick)
No Country for Old Men
There Will Be Blood

Best Foreign Film
Beaufort
The Counterfeiters
Katyn
Mongol
12

Best Makeup
La Vie en Rose
Norbit
Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End (SHOULD WIN)

Best Original Score
Atonement
The Kite Runner
Michael Clayton
Ratatouille
3:10 to Yuma (no)

Best Original Song
"Falling Slowly"- Once (ABSOLUTELY YES, YES, YES!!!)
"Happy Working Song"- Enchanted
"Raise It Up"- August Rush (NO)
"So Close"- Enchanted
"That's How You Know- Enchanted

Best Sound Editing
The Bourne Ultimatum
No Country for Old Men
Ratatouille
There Will Be Blood
Transformers

Best Sound Mixing
The Bourne Ultimatum
No Country for Old Men
Ratatouille
3:10 to Yuma (no)
Transformers (SHOULD WIN)

Best Visual Effects
The Golden Compass
Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End
Transformers (WILL AND SHOULD WIN)


* * *


Overall, these nominations are along the Oscars' usual lines of "not bad, but could be better", and the winners are likely to be in their usual category of awful. But this is a lot better than the mostly-pathetic critics' circles definitions of great films, and a step above the Golden Globes even.

Yet again, the Globes' Musical/Comedy winner has been snubbed, continuing a three-year pattern that began with "Walk the Line" and "Dreamgirls". I will comment that all three of these films deserved very much their lack of a Best Picture nomination.

The Academy put the Best Foreign Film category into something completely obscure because they change the rules constantly and have a problem with high-profile foreign releases now. Hence the shutting out of the critically-acclaimed "The Diving Bell and the Butterfly", and the severely-underrated "Lust, Caution", whose (well-earned) NC-17 rating inevitably sparked more discussion than the film itself.

Everything comes in fives, so I'll go for my own categories here:

Films That Were Friggin' Robbed!
The Diving Bell and the Butterfly
Into the Wild
The Lookout
Once
Hairspray (what's the matter, AMPAS? Too happy for you?)
Lust, Caution

plus Chris Cooper completely missing a Best Supporting Actor nomination. Y'know, AMPAS, studios wouldn't give us cinematic crap from their shelves every January and February if you didn't ignore the few great films they bother to release, like "Breach".

Joseph Gordon-Levitt for his stunning performance in "The Lookout" similarly was met with nothing.

And I better see "Cloverfield" up for a sound Oscar AT LEAST. You're doing an excellent job with the "Transformers" nominations, which I didn't think you'd swallow your pride and bring yourselves to do.

My Ideal Best Picture Nominees
Once
The Diving Bell and the Butterfly
The Lookout
Lars and the Real Girl
There Will Be Blood


I will also mention that I have NOT seen "The Diving Bell and the Butterfly", a film that virtually every critic had as their #1 film of the year; I don't expect to love it nearly as much as they did, and there's a slight chance I won't see it due to its inherently depressing nature.

Avoiding the acclaimed "La Vie En Rose", on the other hand, has always been deliberate. I've had enough musician biopics.

[Eric T. Jones]

Okay, I was SO wrong about "The Diving Bell and the Butterfly". It's not the happiest of movies, no, but it's certainly NOT depressing- certain to make you cry, but also certain to lift up your spirits in one of the most life-affirming films I've ever seen. Seeing it and finishing it is like being given that second chance.

I'm with every critic who had this at #1 on their Top 10 (even though this would be #2 on mine)- AMPAS, you and your rules are all full of shit! "Once" was expected, but "Diving Bell" is inexcusable. The only crime it committed is not being compatible with your constantly-changing Foreign Film rules and going for the big Best Picture prize. You're all assholes and all you love are depressing movies, and you SUCK! [/rant]



...no, but really, I do think part of their snubbing decision was that it was ultimately uplifting. (can you explain ZERO nominations for "Hairspray"?!) They love movies that are depressing to the point that they ruin your day, like "Atonement" and "Million Dollar Baby".

[Eric T. Jones]

My predictions have changed ever so slightly.

Over the past week, I've decided that "Juno" will likely take the Best Picture prize due to the Academy's recent love of shock decisions- and no better way to shock analysts and critics of the Oscars than to give Best Picture to a comedy. Another analyst predicts that voters will collide over "No Country for Old Men" and "There Will Be Blood".

Those two films I'm still conflicted over; I think "No Country" should take the top prize now, as I feel like I'd be rooting for a lifetime achievement award (rooting for "Magnolia" and "Punch-Drunk Love", in other words) rather than Paul Thomas Anderson's current accomplishment.


...and if you do give it to "Juno", you're still not off the hook. You won't be until comedies take just as much space as dramas in all your other categories, and you start nominating real comedies for Oscars- as in, movies that straight-up just want to make you laugh instead of dramas with funny scripts.

I'd imagine this industry would be a lot different if "Airplane" won Best Picture, and "The 40-Year-Old Virgin" was a real Oscar contender. Comedy is harder than drama, so I think the tremendous effort it takes to make people laugh deserves to be acknowledged. Bad drama can potentially be good comedy- bad comedy, as we all know, is just plain painful, so there's really a lot more at stake.

[this, on the other hand, I think is something that the Academy- or any component of the movie industry- is to blame for. For over a thousand years, comedies have been regarded as a vulgar form of literature and entertainment]

[Eric T. Jones]

Around halfway through the show, I had a few changes of heart; by that time, I swapped my prediction to "No Country for Old Men" winning, finding that my "Juno" prediction was built primarily from cynicism and with its 4 nominations (two of which it already went through), was ludicrous, and I wanted "There Will Be Blood" to win.

But although "Transformers" and "Pirates" came home with nothing (and AMPAS showed that there are just no points for imagination and effort in Costume Design, giving it to the Renaissance Faire AGAIN), this is rare since I actually got the two that I really, really wanted and wouldn't have any other way on:


"Falling Slowly" for Best Original Song, featured in the REAL Best Picture of 2007, "Once"

...and I'm STILL really, really happy and excited that TILDA SWINTON WON!!!!