Month: February 2009

How’d I do?

Alright.

The show started with Supporting Actress and they didn’t show any clips. They really ticked me off. You want to see the best example of their work in the film. Anyway, I didn’t watch any of these. For the other seventeen…

Winner me:

Original Screenplay – Milk
Art Direction – Ben Button
Costume Design – Dutchess
Makeup – Ben Button
Visual Effects – Ben Button
Sound Editing – Dark Knight
Actress – Kate Winslet

Lose:

Adapted Screenplay Skumdog won over Ben.
Animated Feature I was wrong… Wall-E beat Panda.
Cinematography, apparently a dog is better than some buttons.
Sound Mixing I had Dark Knight, and Skummy McSkum took it.
Supporting Actor: Heath won, as he should have… but Robert would have been awesome.
Score another win for the Slums, not Button.
Director was taken again by a Millionaire that is sweeping Ben out of the way.
Actor Sean did a really great job and I did not expect him to beat Frank.
Best Picture… meh.

Editing. Yes editing. Slumdog Millionaire was a film that was very well edited. I don’t want any mistake on that point. I have not lost faith in Oscar this time. There were five amazing choices for editing this year, and deserved to win. I let my emotions overpower my critical thinking. This film was a journey, and one that I have to admit was very, very smooth. For it is only when the ride is bumpy that we can see that the editing is bad. It was a good ride.

..again. I first hated the Oscars two years ago when I strongly disagreed with the winner of Best Editing. This time it’s looking to be a similar show, but with more disagreement. I will, of course, be ecstatic if I am wrong… but it’s looking to be disappointing. The disappointment being if/when Slumdog wins anything/everything.

NOTE: Of the 24 awards given, I have always thrown out the short films, documentaries, and the foreign films… this time I am also getting rid of best song. This brings the total down to 18, and 5 of which have a lot of hype around.

I have broken down my first five predictions into two choices: HYPE vs LIKE

The Hype has winners that in my (not-so-humble) opinion should not win. The Like are what I would like to win.

Best Picture – Slumdog vs Ben Button. I did not think Slumdog was all that good, and that Ben Button was one of the best films I’ve ever seen. That said, apparently the hype for the dog is overwhelming. So, if you like a harry potter reference, “Anything but Slumdog, Anything but Slumdog, Anything but Slumdog.”

Best Actor – Mickey Rouke vs Frank Langella. Or as you may better know it “The Wrestler” vs “Richard Nixon”. Frank was absolutely amazing as Nixon.

Best Supporting Actor – Heath Ledger vs Robert Downey Jr. Yes, Heath was amazing as the Joker, but Robert was fantastic in Tropic Thunder. Which was better? Honestly, Heath. But, seriously what good is an Oscar to him now? Yeah, yeah… hate me if you have to.

Best Animated Feature – Wall-E vs Kung Fu Panda. Wall-E was great, but the panda was better.

Best Editing – Oh, editing. After The Departed won, I gave up. I didn’t do any predictions last year. But then Bourne Ultimatum won, and so now I’m back. Because with one little sentence, you can restore my faith in Oscar again. This year? Dark Knight. I’ll totally except Ben Button… but if that dog barks… I’m out.

And the rest of my predictions:

Best Costume Design – The Dutchess -> the only real period film
Best Visual Effects – Ben Button -> Amazing, just amazing. (over Dark Knight and Iron Man)
Best Makeup – Ben Button -> I didn’t realize that was Cate. (over Dark Knight and Hellboy)
Best Sound Editing – Dark Knight (over Wall-E and Iron Man)
Best Sound Mixing – Dark Knight (over Slumdog and Wall-E)
Best Actress – Only saw the reader and Kate was great.
Best Supporting Actress – Didn’t see any of them.
Best Original Screenplay – Milk and Wall-E were both great, I’d give this to Milk.
Best Art Direction – Ben Button had so many decades to play with and did so very well.
Best Cinematography – Same here for Ben Button, amazing work. See this movie.

Best Director – Hard to say. Beyond Slumdog’s hype, there is an equal playing field here except for The Reader. I’d like to see Ben Button’s Director up there, or even Ron Howard, but the dog did actually have some great direction so this would be the only oscar I’d be okay with the dog taking.

Best Original Score – Another set of four great contenders with (in my order of preference) Ben Button, Wall-E, Milk, and even the dog.
Best Adapted Screenplay – Comes down to Button and the dog… and I think you know which I like.