Further Thoughts on the Oscars - The Technicals

We've been through the major categories, but let's see what's happening in the tech categories. Once I've had a chance to get in as many of the shorts (I've seen several, but not enough to shape an opinion), we'll discuss the shorts categories.

Best Art Direction

Changeling
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
The Dark Knight
The Duchess
Revolutionary Road

I have the feeling that Benjamin Button is going to take a lot of these categories, since it seems less likely to win in the majors. However, it is also possible that those who are pissed off at The Dark Knight snubs in the majors might use these tech categories to make public their outrage, giving Nolan's team some awards. So, much of the techs are going to be a battle between these two films.

Your winner: The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
Hedge your bets: The Dark Knight

Best Cinematography

Changeling
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
The Dark Knight
The Reader
Slumdog Millionaire

This one is admittedly a much tougher call than Art Direction, only because Slumdog is a competitor here and has won previous awards. Not to mention that Wally Pfister's work on The Dark Knight - especially those amazing IMAX scenes - is also worthy of consideration. If your Oscar pool includes this category, I'm telling you now, don't blame me.

Your winner: Slumdog Millionaire
Hedge your bets: The Dark Knight

Best Costume Design

Australia
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
The Duchess
Milk
Revolutionary Road

Milk is a bit of a breakthrough in this category. Generally costuming the 70's is a death sentence for your awards consideration. Not so for Danny Glickers subtle 70's work. However, I don't think it can win. Period glamor is nearly always the winner here, and there's really only one entry that fits that bill.

Your winner: The Duchess
Hedge your bets: The Curious Case of Benjamin Button

Best Editing

The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
The Dark Knight
Frost/Nixon
Milk
Slumdog Millionaire

Generally speaking, this matches up with the Best Picture winner - unless there is a really well-edited action movie in the mix that can steal some of the thunder. So that makes this one a tough call as well.

The editing on Slumdog is part of what gives the movie its zip; so that certainly makes a strong case. But, The Dark Knight could be the one that comes through and I wouldn't be surprised if it did.

Your winner: The Dark Knight
Hedge your bets: Slumdog Millionaire

Best Make-Up

The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
The Dark Knight
Hellboy II: The Golden Army

I was pleasantly surprised that Benjamin Button made the cut for nomination. Why, you ask? Well, the make-up branch of the academy has a tendency to poo-poo any make-up work that is enhanced with CGI effects - and the make-up in Benjamin Button uses a lot of CGI. However, the two combine so smoothly and wonderfully that the results are the best age make-up that has graced the big screen.

So, now that it's nominated, it will likely win. That said, it's competitors are both very well-done.

Your winner: The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
Hedge your bets: The Dark Knight

Best Original Score

The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
Defiance
Milk
Slumdog Millionaire
WALL*E

The music branch certainly threw some surprises our way and they've offered up a unique mix of scores for the offering. I personally don't see how they'll resist the opportunity to reward A.R. Rahman, who is India's top composer. I think they'll find the internationalization angle all-too-exciting.

That said, they've also been protectionist at times and slow to welcome new composers into the fold. If the Academy should get isolationist, this will go to Desplat. And yes, I know Desplat is French, but he's been composing in the states long enough to have been taken into the fold.

Your winner: Slumdog Millionaire
Hedge your bets: The Curious Case of Benjamin Button

Best Original Song
"Down to Earth", from WALL*E
"Jai Ho", from Slumdog Millionaire
"O Saya", from Slumdog Millionaire

Unless the producers of the ceremony can somehow figure out how to make Bollywood numbers boring (and I wouldn't put it past them), the music performances should be a lot of fun this year.

This category may have sprung the biggest surprise of the year. Bruce Springsteen's song from The Wrestler was already the expected winner. Without that competition, Jai Ho should be the winner. However, with only three choices, the Slumdog selections could split, giving the trophy to Peter Gabriel's entry.

Your winner: Jai Ho, from Slumdog Millionaire
Hedge your bets: Down to Earth, from WALL*E

Best Sound Editing

The Dark Knight
Iron Man
Slumdog Millionaire
WALL*E
Wanted

Despite the pleasant inclusion of Iron Man, I just don't see how any of the entries here can topple The Dark Knight. When you pair its wonderful technical credits with its lack of inclusion in Best Director and Best Picture you end up with the clear winner in the sound categories.

Your winner: The Dark Knight
Hedge your bets: Iron Man

Best Sound Mixing

The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
The Dark Knight
Slumdog Millionaire
WALL*E
Wanted

I, like a lot of folks, are hard-pressed to really explain the differences between the two sound categories. In fact, I'd say the vast majority of the Academy would also be hard-pressed to explain the difference to you. My proof? The same film pretty much always wins both.

Your winner: The Dark Knight
Hedge your bets: The Curious Case of Benjamin Button

Best Visual Effects

The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
The Dark Knight
Iron Man

This is another good race. I could conceivably see Iron Man sneaking through. But I still have the feeling that those on the tech side are going to go for The Dark Knight where they can. Then again, Benjamin Button was a great use of effects in a subtle way.

Your winner: The Dark Knight
Hedge your bets: The Curious Case of Benjamin Button

I Was Slumdog When Slumdog Wasn't Cool...

Just a little fun knowing that I was at one of the screenings that broke this movie through to its utterly astonishing meteoric rise.

Okay, I'm not in that photo. But I took it.

And yeah, it's low quality, but I didn't get my head under the hood and the flashbulb was a little weak. When you buy your digital camera in the 18th Century, that's what happens.

From left to right, that's: Danny Boyle, Simon Beaufoy, Frieda Pinto, and Dev Patel.

A Few Surprises...and Annoyances...Thoughts on the Oscar Noms.

BEST PICTURE
Curiouse Case of Benjamin Button
Frost/Nixon
Milk
The Reader
Slumdog Millionaire


Best Picture did throw us a curveball. Unfortunately it was The Dark Knight that was shut out for The Reader. I did find myself surprised by that one. There didn't seem to be a great deal of buzz in the picture direction for the film.

Your winner: Likely Slumdog Millionaire.
Hedge your bets: The Curious Case of Benjamin Button.

Director
Danny Boyle -Slumdog
David Fincher -Benjamin
Ron Howard -Frost/Nixon
Gus Van Sant -Milk
Stephen Daldry -The Reader

The surprise here is the same. Daldry replaces Christopher Nolan. Many who even conceded that The Dark Knight was vulnerable in picture, thought Nolan could pull off this nomination. Guess not.

Interesting trivia note: Stephen Daldry has directed three motion picture features. He has been nominated for Best Director for all three. Don't bet against him for a nomination.

Your winner: Danny Boyle, Slumdog Millionaire.
Hedge your bets: David Fincher, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button.

Best Actor
Richard Jenkins, The Visitor
Frank Langella, Frost / Nixon
Sean Penn, Milk
Brad Pitt, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
Mickey Rourke, The Wrestler

All three of my favorites make the cut, which is nice. Picking a winner is tougher. It's clearly one of two actors - Penn or Rourke - but will they continue their love of Penn or will they keep the Mickey Rourke comeback train rolling? I think they go with what they know.

Your winner: Sean Penn, Milk
Hedge your bets: Mickey Rourke, The Wrestler

Best Actress
Ann Hathaway, Rachel Getting Married
Angelina Jolie, Changeling
Melissa Leo, Frozen River
Meryl Streep, Doubt
Kate Winslet, The Reader

I really would have rather seen Sally Hawkins in here over either Angelina Jolie (all screams and tears) or Meryl Streep (love her, but this isn't her best work - I wasn't enamoured with her interpretation of the role). But, you can't always get what you want, especially with the Oscars.

Your Winner: Kate Winslet, The Reader.
Hedge your bets: Anne Hathaway, Rachel Getting Married.

Best Supporting Actor
Josh Brolin, Milk
Robert Downey Jr., Tropic Thunder
Philip Seymour Hoffman, Doubt
Heath Ledger, The Dark Knight
Michael Shannon, Revolutionary Road

Michael Shannon is a surprise nominee (and not a bad choice), but this category is already sewn up.

Your Winner: Heath Ledger, The Dark Knight.
Hedge your bets: Better yet, don't.

Best Supporting Actress
Amy Adams, Doubt
Penelope Cruz, Vicky Cristina Barcelona
Viola Davis, Doubt
Taraji P. Henson, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
Marisa Tomei, The Wrestler

The surprise here is that Kate Winslet is nominated for Best Actress for The Reader and not (in a fraudulent way) Best Supporting Actress. This clears the way for Penelope Cruz.

Your Winner: Penelope Cruz, Vicky Christina Barcelona.
Hedge your bets: Viola Davis, Doubt.

Best Original Screenplay
Frozen River
Happy-Go-Lucky
In Bruges
Milk
WALL*E

Because nearly all of the best picture nominees come from the Adapted Screenplay category, this category is pretty wide open. However, the closest thing to an adaption would be Milk, and since it's the only Best Picture nominee, it's your likely winner. But, this could leave the door open for WALL*E love.

Your winner? Dustin Lance Black, Milk.
Hedge your bets: Andrew Stanton, Pete Docter, and Jim Reardon, for WALL*E.

Best Adapted Screenplay
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
Doubt
Frost / Nixon
The Reader
Slumdog Millionaire

Here's where the heavy hitters are, but unless there's a total Slumdog backlash (which is possible - but we can't know that for a few weeks), this one's obvious.

Your winner: Simon Beaufoy, Slumdog Millionaire.
Hedge your bets: David Hare, The Reader.

Best Foreign Language Film
Germany - The Baader Meinhof Complex
France - The Class
Japan - Departures
Austria - Revanche
Israel - Waltz with Bashir

Hoo-ray! Two of my top three films of the year are nominated here. Were they justice, they would have received other nominations, but when you love international cinema, you get used to these films being stuck in the Foreign Film ghetto. It's been on a role, so I expect Waltz with Bashir to continue winning - especially given its curious snub in Best Animated Film.

Your winner: Waltz with Bashir, from Israel.
Hedge your bets: Departures, from Japan.

Best Documentary
The Betrayal
Encounters at the End of the World
The Garden
Man on Wire
Trouble the Water

Some good docs on this list. Man on Wire has been rolling all year long in all of the precursors and I expect that to continue. There might be room for the first nominee to examine the impact of Katrina, though.

Your winner: Man on Wire.
Hedge your bets: Trouble the Water.

Best Animated Feature
Bolt
Kung Fu Panda
WALL*E

Egad, did they screw this one up. How odd, the foreign languge committee and the documentary committee - the two most derided parts of the Academy for cinephiles got it right (at least with what they had to work with - great docs like Young @ Heart and Waltz with Bashir were considered ineligble due to overly strict / odd Academy rules). And the animation branch, who has generally gotten things right every year - picking unique foreign entries like Persepolis and The Triplets of Belleville as nominees; and in most cases honing them down to the proper winner for each year since they've begun. But boy did they screw it up this year. Leaving out Waltz with Bashir for the pleasant but unremarkable Bolt is a slap in the face to the format altogether - suggesting that animation is only for kids movies. I'm just not sure what happened. Anyway, it's all academic as the winner was never in doubt.

Your winner: WALL*E
Hedge your bets: There is no such thing.

Over the next few days, we'll discuss tech categories and some of the other categories.

And Here They Are...

The Oscar Nominations are Here.


BEST PICTURE
Curiouse Case of Benjamin Button
Frost/Nixon
Milk
The Reader
Slumdog Millionaire

Director
Danny Boyle -Slumdog
David Fincher -Benjamin
Ron Howard -Frost/Nixon
Gus Van Sant -Milk
Stephen Daldry -The Reader

Best Actor
Richard Jenkins, The Visitor
Frank Langella, Frost / Nixon
Sean Penn, Milk
Brad Pitt, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
Mickey Rourke, The Wrestler

Best Actress
Anne Hathaway, Rachel Getting Married
Angelina Jolie, Changeling
Melissa Leo, Frozen River
Meryl Streep, Doubt
Kate Winslet, The Reader

Best Supporting Actor
Josh Brolin, Milk
Robert Downey Jr., Tropic Thunder
Philip Seymour Hoffman, Doubt
Heath Ledger, The Dark Knight
Michael Shannon, Revolutionary Road

Best Supporting Actress
Amy Adams, Doubt
Penelope Cruz, Vicky Cristina Barcelona
Viola Davis, Doubt
Taraji P. Henson, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
Marisa Tomei, The Wrestler

Best Original Screenplay
Frozen River
Happy-Go-Lucky
In Bruges
Milk
WALL*E

Best Adapted Screenplay
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
Doubt
Frost / Nixon
The Reader
Slumdog Millionaire

Best Foreign Language Film
Germany - The Baader Meinhof Complex
France - The Class
Japan - Departures
Austria - Revanche
Israel - Waltz with Bashir

Best Animated Feature
Bolt
Kung Fu Panda
WALL*E

Comments Coming Soon...

For a complete list of nominees...

Whew...All Caught Up and Ready for Oscar Nominations...

Well, that whole silly festival programming thing got in my way and I got a little behind schedule...but I completed on time.

Soon...we'll start talking Oscars.

Nominations coming soon. Followed by gnashing of teeth, growling, cheering, and eventually...analysis.

Finally - #2; and my best film of 2008

#2 - The Flight of the Red Balloon
directed by Hou Hsiao-hsien

I'll admit I'm predisposed to love a Hou Hsiao-hsien film. I don't know, maybe it's genetic? Anyway, when I knew this project was coming down the pike, I was almost giddy with anticipation. One of my favorite directors creating his interpretation of one of my favorite childhood movies? Sure!

Then I got to see it. Hou managed to do something remarkable. He created a completely familiar film, not shying away from the elements of the original - and something wholly new. The greatest change is the addition of the boy's (Simon in this version) home life. We meet the wonderful Juliette Binoche as Suzanne, Simon's mother - a voice actress for a puppet theater (somehow, that just seems right). She's a frazzled whirlwind of a woman. Her life's a wreck, but she wouldn't seemingly have it any other way. Then there's Song, the Chinese nanny of the boy who is studying cinema in Paris and is contantly filming (some of what we see comes through her lens). And then, there is, of couse, the balloon. Dilly-dallying around Paris. Following Simon, sort of like a pleasant stalker. Its presense in the film is somehow calming, reassuring. Amidst all the flurry of activity, it seems to settle things down.

The film is at once a fantasia and a realistic domestic drama. It's a combination that many filmmakers have tried - mixing the magical and the mundane - but Hou is one of few to get it right. He gets it so right, that the film leaves you with a warm feeling. As if a benevolent balloon were traveling with you, just over your shoulder, all the way home from the theater.

And...My best film of 2008.













#1 - The Class
directed by Laurent Cantet

I became familiar with Laurent Cantet, one of France's fastest-rising filmmakers, in 2001 with the remarkable slow-burn drama Time Out. That was a fascinating, cool (as in icy) story of a man who loses his job but doesn't have the capability of informing his family, leading him to create a second life outside the home that remains a secret from everyone he loves.

It was fascinating then to see The Class, a warm, unusual experience in the cinema. It is based on the memoir of a single school year by Francois Begaudeau. Begaudeau wrote the screenplay and stars as the teacher at the film's center. The class full of actors are all middle school students from the same school, all basically acting as themselves. It sounds like a documentary, but it most certainly isn't. None of the kids are exactly themselves. Begaudeau isn't playing himself, exactly. Begaudeau's comrades are all played by real teachers, but neither are they playing themselves.

Cantet, as director, by allowing non-professional actors to develop characters based on themselves and based on parts of the book, has developed a style of cinema rarely seen. It's almost an ethnographic study - the type of film that Robert J. Flaherty made (Nanook of the North). But it works so well as drama. Each person seems so real, in part because they are. In part, because a director wanted things to be that way.

I love films that defy categorization (see Waltz with Bashir) and The Class certainly does. It's a pure pleasure. The children are brats, or they're well-behaved. They're smart, or not-so-smart. The teacher has moments of inspiration and moments where you're sure his license should be revoked. It's not Stand and Deliver: one student doing unexpectedly well on one assignment is about as close as it gets. It's not Dead Poets Society: indeed, a lot of the students seem to hate their teacher. What it is is the best and most realistic dramatization of one year inside one classroom that has been put on screen. What it is is the best film of 2008.

More Top 10 - #4 & #3

#4 - WALL*E
directed by Andrew Stanton

The second time I saw WALL*E, I actually had the excuse of going to the film with a child, taking my college friend, her husband, and their three-year-old son to see it. But note: I said, second time. I couldn't wait that long before going to check out the latest offering from Pixar. Cars aside (which I didn't hate), I had not been disappointed by a Pixar feature.

With this brilliant robot romance, they may have crafted their finest film yet. While still attention-grabbing for children, the brilliant references and the use of silence make it one of the most adult-friendly animated features this side of my #3 film (see below).

The opening shot alone tells more story than any film that's starred Freddie Prinze, Jr. Our robot hero is working his way through an abandoned city, on his way back to his ramshackle makeshift home. It's clear that the city has been left behind by a human race that has consumed its way toward its own destruction. The images in the background look eerily familiar to the ever-conglomerating, easy-to-throw-away world we are creating daily. Of course, that's the whole point of the movie, but how many movies manage to make their point during the opening credits? Better yet, how many of them maintain interest after making their point?

The fact that Stanton and crew can give personality to dead-eyed mechanical and electronic creatures without overly relying on cutesy-cutesy gestures is the other thing that makes this a gen to behold. And the trip through the stars is worth the price of admission (or Blu-Ray) alone. Does it lose a little steam in the 2nd act? Yeah. It does. But when a movie offers as much as WALL*E does, it's easy to overlook a few awkward moments. And then you get the closing credits - again, taken alone, better than a lot of movies offered this year.

Pixar is known for constantly ramping up what computer animation can do, but what has made their films great is the fact that they pay as much attention to story as they do visuals. WALL*E is a prime example of how great they are at both.













#3 - Waltz with Bashir
directed by Ari Folman

Winner of the Golden Globe and the Critics' Choice Awards for Best Foreign Language film, Israel's Waltz with Bashir is a stunner of a movie.

It begins with a phone call director Ari Folman received from a friend. The friend describes a dream in which he's being chased by 26 dogs. Exactly 26. As the dream is described, it is stunningly animated, raising the adrenaline and establishing the films themes immediately. Waltz with Bashir is an analysis of memory (individual and cultural) and how the trauma of war (again, individual and national) shapes it.

The dream was inspired by events that occurred during the 1982 war with Lebanon. Folman served in that war as well. But after hearing his friend's dream, he realizes that he has absolutely no memory of that time period. None.

This sparks a search. He talks to his fellow soldiers from that time. To family. To psychologists. He's attempting to piece his own memories back together and discover the roots of his year-long black out.

As he does, the memories of his comrades are illustrated in sumptuous flash animation. Each scene was actually filmed in live action, but instead of rotoscoping (the technique used by Richard Linklater in Waking Life), the images are hand and computer illustrated based on the live footage. The results are haunting and beautiful to behold. They create a unique distance between the viewer and the events being depicted. While some have found this to be a little too intellectual, I find it to be wholly appropriate. We have to be distant from it because Folman was.

What he was distancing himself from was the massacres of Palestinian refugees by Lebanese Christian allies of Israel at Sabra and Shatila. As we approach those events with Folman, the horrors of war become darker and more urgent. The film's conclusion is a stunner.

Were the Academy's silly restrictions on documentary release dates not so...well, silly, Waltz with Bashir would have been nominated for Best Documentary. If they get things right, it will be nominated for Best Foreign Language Film and for Best Animated Film. For my tastes, it deserves all three nominations and could, perhaps should, win both. Were the world of the Academy more right, it would have had the chance at one of the most fascinating tri-fectas in film history. As it stands, it will be remembered in film history as being a truly remarkable work of cinema.

#6 - #5 - Trying to get caught up here...

#6 - Wendy & Lucy
directed by Kelly Reichardt

This was a wow moment for me. It's rare for an American film to be this...simple; and yet so profoundly moving. Michelle Williams (I done bragged about her, just scroll down a tad to read that) is Wendy; an Indiana drifter who has packed up everything she owns, filled her wallet with her last $600 or so and has headed off across the country to Alaska. She's seeking a job at a fishing cannery because she's heard about the good pay. Along for the ride is her only friend, an adorable Yellow Lab mix named Lucy (played wonderfully by director Kelly Reichardt's dog).

There's a lot we don't know about Wendy. There's a bandage on her leg for a wound that's never discussed. Is she running from something? Is she running too something? None of this is discernible from the film. And it's a better movie for it.

When I saw it at the AFI festival, director Kelly Reichardt (Old Joy) said that, while based on a short story, it was also based on her experience of encountering a Hispanic woman who was stranded along side the road with a dead car and no cell phone. Ms. Reichardt said she was inspired because we forget that there are people out there who don't possess the modern amenities that many of us consider everyday items. What happens to those people when life takes a challenging turn? Wendy & Lucy is that answer.

The film is casually-paced, but thanks to assured direction is actually suspenseful. Williams creates such a likable, vulnerable character that you can't help but worry for her everytime she either makes a bad decision or something bad happens to her. And bad thing do happen. Wendy's perserverence in the face of trouble is the crux of the film. Without Williams, I fear the film could have been the stuff of Lifetime. With her assured lead performance, it is, instead, one of the best portrayals of a life lived on the edge of poverty that I've seen in quite some time.












#5 - Rachel Getting Married
directed by Jonathan Demme

God bless Jonathan Demme. Where has he been? He's still been working, but concentrating on documentaries for the last several years (Jimmy Carter: Man from Plains, Neil Young: Heart of Gold). And that's good. His previous outings in the narrative world have been lacking. The Manchurian Candidate was okay, but utterly unnecessary considering the brilliance of the original. We should probably just leave The Truth About Charlie out of the conversation altogether. So, his recent spate of documentaries may be the very thing that's lent him the light hand that he used in creating Rachel Getting Married.

Shot with handheld cameras (frequently manned by the cast itself), Rachel is the story of Kym - a young woman on a weekend break from inpatient rehab to attend her sister's wedding. Kym is not an easy person to like - and that's what makes centering the film around her work so well. She's anxious; she lashes out; but she actually does make efforts to fit back into her family, despite exile. Rachel (Rosemarie DeWitt) is the sister who fears (rightfully) that Kym is going to attempt to steal her wedding spotlight. But Rachel, too, is imperfect - pointing out every neurotic flaw in her sister, contributing to her sister's behavior. The wonderul Bill Irwin is the father that attempts to keep everyone happy. Debra Winger is the estranged mother, reuniting only long enough to open old wounds.

This sounds like the stuff of annoying self-indulgence (some actually think so), but Demme deftly travels the landscape created by these characters, allowing the story to play itself out in what is unsaid. By the end, you feel as if you've attended a wedding - and a movie just happened to take place around it. I love the risk that Demme takes in letting the story play out around the edges of the screen, instead of dead center. The resulting film is the reinvigeration of a great director and the well-deserved upward trajectory of the career of an actress already worthy of great respect. Rachel is due out on DVD March 17, 2009. RSVP now.

Best Perfs of 08 - The Dudes Abide

This is one of the few years where a Top3 so stood out to me that it's not difficult at all to name them.

Richard Jenkins in The Visitor delivered the first great performance of the year. As the stifled widower, Walter Vale, Richard Jenkins finally got his chance to shine after years of relative obscurity in character roles. When Vale returns to the New York city apartment he basically abandoned after the death of his wife - only to find two illegal immigrants living there - Vale finds his spirit awakened in trying to help these two good-hearted people, who find themselves in tough circumstances. Jenkins manages to create a stifled personality just waiting to come to life. When he finally does learn to live again, it's a moment to celebrate - not just for the character, but for a long-neglected actor finally given the chance to show his great range.

Sean Penn is an amazing actor. However, despite how great he is, I've found myself getting a little tired of the constantly brooding performances he's given as of late. Sure, they're good, but take a Lexapro, man! If life was always as depressing as his characters, there'd be a lot more dead people. So, the irony of it all: in Milk, Penn plays a character who is doomed to die, and yet, gives his most lively performance since Fast Times at Ridgmont High. I'd seriously forgotten what his smile looked like. The story of Harvey Milk is both heart-breaking and inspiring; and so is Penn's performance. Thankfully, neither he, nor his co-stars shy away from the sexuality of the parts, unafraid of soiling their image with "gayiety" (thank God those days are over). Penn throws himself so completely into the role that he turns it into a celebration. Even better, he creates a human being out legend - a human being who took on life with gusto.

In almost any other year, my first two choices would have won my vote without a doubt. But this is the year of Mickey Rourke. His comeback role in The Wrestler is truly something to behold. Much has been made about this ressurection and it's really hard to over-hype it. As the sadsack, washed-up 80's professional wrestling celebrity, he brings a humanity that I would not have thought possible. I say that not just because Rourke has sabotaged his own career over the last decade plus; but because as someone who despises professional wrestling (and hair metal which makes up a good portion of the soundtrack), I never thought I'd like this film. That I did like it is testament to Darren Aronofsky, sure - one of this generation's best directors - but it's also testament to the vulnerability that Rourke displays. As the old hair metal song goes, I hate myself for loving him - but it's impossible not to. Time may prove this to be Rourke's On the Waterfront. It's a performance for the ages.

In supporting parts, it's kind of obvious, isn't it? But, before stating the obvious, some of the other great performances of note include, James Franco and Josh Brolin in Milk. Both actors are really shaping their careers into something to watch, and with their performances here, they strengthen them even further.

Brad Pitt gets some double-up credit like Kate Winslet. With his lead role in Benjamin Button and his hysterical supporting turn in Burn After Reading, he is deserving of recognition.

I have to give quick kudos to Bill Irwin as the enabling father in Rachel Getting Married and the remarkable counter-point to Sally Hawkins' joy in Happy-Go-Lucky, Eddie Marsan.

But, this is the year of the Joker. Heath Ledger's final complete role is the best supporting performance of the year.

Best Perfs of 2008 - The Ladies

Due to some brief Internet issues today, my schedule was set off a bit. So today, the ladies. Tomorrow, the dudes.

Just so you know. this will not include every good performance of the year, so if there's someone you like and they're not on here, that doesn't mean I hate them. It doesn't even mean I didn't like them. It either means I didn't have time to see them - or I liked them, just not enough to list them. Or maybe I hated them. Maybe I did and I'm just not going to tell you.

Anyway, let's keep this positive, shall we?

The Women (no, not the awful 2008 movie, the good female actors of 2008):

I absolutely loved Sally Hawkins in Happy-Go-Lucky. She took a role that easily could have been grating, but as the glass-is-always-half-full Poppy in Mike Leigh's light-hearted delight, Hawkins manages to add just enough weight to the part that she keeps the character - and the film - from floating away. She's off-kilter; she's happy; but she's grounded enough that she makes you wish you maintain such a positive outlook on life - even as the world seems to be collapsing around you.

Anne Hathaway is all nerves and inappropriately-released fury in Rachel Getting Married. She's always exhibited talent, even in under-written roles. Now, as Kym - a young woman given a weekend reprieve from rehab for her sister's wedding - she cements her spot at the forefront of her generation's best actresses. She's as real and raw as Declan Quinn's handheld cinematography. She exhibits a maturity that is (nearly) unrivaled by any young actress working today. Just check out her scene at an AA meeting for a moment of honesty seldom seen on the big screen.

To find a rival for a mature performance from a young actress, turn to Hathaway's Brokeback Mountain co-star. I think my favorite performance of the year (male or female) came from an actress that seems to be constantly evolving. Michelle Williams was a revelation in Wendy & Lucy (coming soon to Nashville). Williams is Wendy, a twenty-something Indiana drifter who's packed all of her belongings, her last $600, and her loyal dog Lucy into her beaten up car and is making her way to Alaska for the job that she sees as her salvation. After an overnight stop in northeastern Oregon, her car breaks down and Lucy is lost. Heartbreaking, yes. But Williams, in a mousy-brown bowl-cut and an unflattering pair of corduroy shorts, is so believable that there isn't a minute that goes by that doesn't leave you rooting for her success. Wendy is one of those characters that you hope you can somehow check back on in the future. She's someone you care about. Michelle Williams is the reason for that. That's why I loved this performance so much.

Some other great women of 2008:

Kate Winslet's end-of-the-year double punch in Revolutionary Road and The Reader is worthy of respect, but would we expect any less?

The other great Cate, Blanchett, manages to make what could have been a flat, love-interest role in Benjamin Button eminently watchable.

In supporting parts:
Penelope Cruz is fantastic in Vicky Christina Barcelona.
I also enjoyed Taraji P. Henson in Benjamin Button.

But, Viola Davis, in Doubt, manages to steal the film from a fine cast in just five short minutes.

The Top 10 Continues

#8 - A Christmas Tale
directed by Arnaud Desplachin.

I generally deplore Christmas movies. A Christmas Story aside, most Christmas movies these days are excuses to draw families to the theaters between Thanksgiving and December 25 (Four Christmases, par example). Not so, A Christmas Tale.

Desplachin is an auteur's auteur - approaching typical, almost generic, stories with a cinematic zing. The juxtapositions creates a happily unsettling dichotomy. In A Christmas Tale, Desplachin tackles the family melodrama with his typical flare and turns the old genre into an engrossing character study.

The Vuillards are a northern French family with a long and complicated history (much of which is told in a shadow puppet show). Junon and Abel (Catherine Deneuve and Jean-Paul Roussillon) lost their oldest boy to a rare blood cancer when he was six. Three kids later and three decades later, Junon is diagnosed with the same illness just before Christmas time. Thus, the brood is brought togehter, not just to celebrate the holiday, but to also see if anyone in the family is a matching donor to save the matriarch's life. In lesser hands (and with less talented actors), this would be the stuff of a Lifetime movie. In Desplachin's hands, the story of the Vuillards becomes a universal tale of family dysfunction as human mythology (note the names, Junon, Abel, Faunia, Ivna, Baptiste...).

All that makes it sound so academic, possibly depressing. Where the film shines is that it skips along lightly, blending wit, grace, and humor with fist-fights, arguments, and desperation. By the end, you've laughed, loved, cried, and been angered by these people. It's as if they've invited you to pull up a chair to the table, curl up under a blanket on the sofa, and given you a very unique, lasting Christmas present. Unwrap and enjoy.












#7 - In the City of Sylvia
directed by Jose Luis Guerin

If Jose Luis Guerin had made this charming minimalist exercise five or ten years ago, I doubt it would have had such a hard time finding a theater. A daring distributor like Wellspring or Palm (still going, but in a much weaker iteration) would have at least given it a shot in a few theaters here and there, and daring independent cinemas would pick it up a touring show. So, it seems odd that a low-budget Spanish / French co-production that runs only 78 minutes (and contains about three minutes of dialogue) would be a victim of the recession. But the recession has significantly dwindled the numbers of those willing to take the financial risk to back those willing to take such artistic risks.

But what a joyous risk Guerin takes. A man (simply credited as "El" or "him") returns to Strasbourg with the memory of a woman he met six years ago as his motivation. He sits in his hotel room, seeking the inspiration to sketch. He heads to a sidewalk cafe. Eventually, we realize - as he stares at the various women seated around him - this is where he met her. Is that her? What about her? The camera ponders the women, who all have similar enough features. And, then - in one of the most beautiful shots of the year, there she is...on the other side of the glass, inside the cafe.

This is a film that requires patience, and admittedly not all viewers have the patience for it - i'll reiterate - about 3 minutes of a dialogue in a 78 minutes film - but those who do have the patience are rewarded with a trip as light and breezey as a summer in Europe - a reminder of a time when one was young enough to seek lost love and dream of reunions.

Coming tomorrow: Great performances of 2008.

My Top 10 for 2008

#10 - The Dark Knight
directed by Christopher Nolan.

When Batman Begins hit big screens in 2005, it was proof that a respected director could make a good superhero movie. When The Dark Knight was announced, most fan boys and movie-lovers couldn't help but be excited. What was unexpected was just how good the movie turned out to be.

It's flawed, sure (I'm still bothered by the lack of a conclusion to the party scene, when Batman rescues Rachel. Seriously, what the hell happened to all those other party guests?). But it's also riveting, dark, disturbing, and features the best portrayal of comic book villainy in the history of cinema.

We mourn the loss of a talent like Heath Ledger. His Joker left some saying, "Imagine what he could have done." I look back at this performance, hi wonderfully subtle work in I'm Not There, and, of course his portrayal of Ennis del Mar in Brokeback Mountain and I can't help but be thankful for what he did do.

The Dark Knight successfully raises the bar on what a comic book film can be.

Honorable Mention: Iron Man, directed by Jon Favreau.

Part of Robert Downey Jr.'s great 2008, this stylish comic book adaptation was the light to The Dark Knight's dark.












#9 - Man on Wire
directed by James Marsh.

I am an of an age that I vaguely remembered when Philippe Petit committed the "Art Crime of the Century" by suspending a wire between the two still-under-construction towers of the World Trade Center and walking back and forth across that wire for nearly 45 minutes.

But I could not have conceivably recalled being as moved and inspired by his brazen actions as I felt when watching James Marsh's remarkable documentary, Man on Wire. Even a photo of Petit suspended 1,700 feet above ground - with no safety precautions - is enough to send chills down one's spine, but to get the behind-the-scenes details of how this incredible act of illegal circusry was actuall pulled off makes you feel a legitimate part of it. Whenever I see a documentary about a subject so far in the past, I always find myself so thankful that someone was smart enough to have a camera around. Thankfully, Petit and his may assistants did have a camera to record the hours of rehearsals, planning, and scheming that was necessary to make this stunt a success. And, of course, hanging over the film is what would happen if it didn't succeed.

What's most impressive about Marsh's direction is that he creates suspense where there really is none. The outcome of this stunt is well-known, and yet, as an audience member, you become palpably nervous for Petit and crew. One of the best documentaries of the decade.

Honorable Mention: Harvard Beats Yale, 29-29, directed by Kevin Rafferty.

Like Man on Wire, Rafferty creates suspense where there should be none (hell, the outcome is given away in the title!); and his interview subjects - players in the 1968 Harvard vs. Yale game including Tommy Lee Jones - are seemingly a crew of amateur comedians - each of them likably human with a great perspective on the game and the turbulent time in which it was played.
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Coming tomorrow: #8 & #7.
Sunday: Great performances of 2008.
Monday: #6 & #5.
Tuesday: #4 & #3.
Wednesday: #2 & #1.
Thursday: Oscar Nominations announced.

Christmas in January?

I get a little ashamed of myself this time of year. You see, in one week, the Academy will announce the nominees for the Oscars. Each year, I tell myself that they really don't mean anything. The odds are that the films that are my favorites on the year will get very few - if any - nominations.

And yet, each year, I get excited. I'm like the kid that knows Santa doesn't exist, but still can't wait to see what he puts under the tree each year.

Admittedly, with the Oscars, a lot of it's coal. And yet, I keep coming back.

Originally, it looked like this year was going to be difficult to predict. Now, it appears to be pretty easy. No - not pretty easy; it appears set in stone already.

Best Picture will be:
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (good enough)
The Dark Knight (I'll accept that)
Frost / Nixon (inexplicable - does anyone actually love this movie?)
Milk (deserved)
Slumdog Millionaire (unstoppable)

The only one with any real vulnerability is Frost / Nixon for precisely the reason I stated. I don't know anyone - inside the industry or out who loves this movie. It's respectable enough, but usually to get nominated, passion is required. Slumdog has passionate followers in spades, as does Milk. We all know about the absolute gonzo response to The Dark Knight. And Benjamin Button has oohed and aahed it's way into inevitability. But I haven't heard a single person make these same claims about Frost / Nixon.

So, what could possibly sneak in? The only ones that seem possible are Doubt - again, not overly passionate, but there is a lot of respect for the actors and that could lead to more than enough votes. The Wrestler could conceivably pick up enough steam to sneak into a fifth spot. But I'm rooting for WALL*E. It has a passionate following. It's deserving. And it would finally make nomination morning interesting.

The Oscar nominations are announced a week from today at 7:30 AM local time. We'll discuss more then. Between now and then, we'll begin counting down my 10 Best of 2008.

Starting tomorrow with numbers 10 & 9.

Early Word on Entries

Well, I can't tell you which ones are in just yet, but I can tell you that NaFF has broken a record for the number of entries received for the 2009 40th Anniversary Festival.

We received 1,923 entries from 86 nations. We'll be continuing to go through all of the entries for the final six weeks. In the near future, you'll begin to hear about some confirmed titles.












Just to give you an idea of how well the call for entries went, here's a map of the world. Nations from which we received entries are shaded in gray.

I'd like to have more of Africa covered, but not all nations there have an active film industry and the only major industry on the continent that did not submit a film was Nigeria.

Check back soon and you'll begin to see some confirmations of what's to come in April.