Wednesday, February 18, 2009

Oscars!

I have always thought of the Academy Awards as sort of the Super Bowl for Gays.
This weekend we are having a small group of friends over to watch, to cheer and to sneer.
Until then I thought that I would give my picks for the bigger categories. This list is what I would pick from the nominated films......... NOT what will actually win.

BEST PICTURE: "Frost/Nixon"

BEST ACTOR: Mickey Rourke "The Wrestler"

BEST ACTRESS: Melissa Leo "Frozen River"

BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR: Heath Leger "The Dark Knight"

BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS: Viola Davis "Doubt"

BEST DIRECTOR: David Fincher "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button"

The only one that I think has a lock is Heath Leger, maybe Mickey Rourke but all of the others are long shots at best. I tend to prefer gritty down trodden stories and really had my fill with The Wrestler and Frozen River. They are films that show you that no matter how bad your life is somebody always has it worse.

I am of the opinion that it was a good year for films and hope that this trend continues in 2009!
Feel free to give me your opinions!

7 comments:

Kate Thornton said...

I think Slumdog Millionaire is going to take Best Foreign Film!

And there should be a special category just for Tim Burton - I thought The Nightmare Before Christmas was my favorite TB movie until I saw Coraline in 3-D. Henry Selick directs, but TB is the producer & designed the opening scene dolls. It's got the creepy TB stamp on it - surreal, gothic, creepy and sweet.

Love your oscar picks - Frost/Nixon is a winner!

Skrip said...

Yes! I just saw Coraline last week and I loved it. It's no Nightmare Before Christmas, but yes, there should be something for this type of movie.

John Clifford said...

So now that the event is over, what do we think of the show? Was Hugh Jackman a good host?

Kate: Slumdog wasn't nominated in best foreign film so BEST PICTURE.

Coraline will probably get a nod in next year's awards as animated feature. VERY hard for an animated film to break into the higher level awards categories.

John Clifford said...

Was I the only one who couldn't believe the paucity of songs for this year? The Academy has not always been a good judge of their own music, but this year seemed extremely bad. The Springsteen song from The Wrestler wasn't even nominated!!!!

My favorite past excess of the Academy was when Burt Bachrach's lovely The Look of Love which lost out to the inane Talk To The Animals in 1967.

The Daily News has their own list of awful Oscar song choices:

1) 1967 "Talk to the Animals" from "Dr. Doolittle" (over Burt Bacharach's "The Look of Love" from "Casino Royale," no less).

2) 1974 "We May Never Love Like This Again" from "The Towering Inferno"

3) 1977 "You Light up My Life" from "You Light Up My Life" (yes, the Debbie Boone atrocity).

4) 1981 "Arthur's Theme (The Best That You Can Do)" from "Arthur" (sung by wimp of the century Christopher Cross)

5) 1984 "I Just Called to Say I Love You" "The Woman In Red" (Stevie Wonder's sappiest song ever - which is saying something).

6) 1985 "Say You, Say Me" from "White Nights" (written and sung by Lionel Richie)

7) 1989 "Under the Sea" from "The Little Mermaid" (beginning a string of teeth-gnashingly terrible songs penned by Alan Menken).

C'mon Mark, as a music lover I'm sure you can add to this list.

Mark said...

Hi John.
I should let you know that I have "Under the Sea" on my ipod.
I would add to the list "It Ain't Easy Being a Pimp" from "Crash" which itself didn't deserve best picture.

Mark

Mark said...

Excuse me....It's from "Hustle & Flow"
I don't know where my head is these days.

John Clifford said...

Ah yes, another Oscars classic.

I actually don't agree that Under The Sea was all that bad, but it just goes to the quality of Oscar's winning songs. It's almost like the music division of the Academy doesn't even listen to the songs. Usually they're good with score, but lousy with songs.