This is an unabashed look at the big eight Oscar categories. We will look at the nominees and the various categories. No prisoners are taken, so take head and gird your loins.
Nominees:
Frozen River, Courtney Hunt
Happy-Go-Lucky, Mike Leigh
In Bruges, Martin McDonagh
Milk, Dustin Lance Black
WALL-E, Andrew Stanton, Pete Doctor, Jim Reardon
Overall Feelings:
Despite the Academy’s God-awful, what-the-hell-where-you-thinking choices with Best Picture, Director, and Adapted Screenplay, they have put a murderers row in some categories. This is one of the better line-ups. The great thing is that they aren’t all the same thing. You have a female-driven indie-crime drama, a super-feel-good British comedy, a dark comedy featuring hitmen, a gay historical docu-drama disguised as a biopic, and an animated love film about robots. The diversity and quality of films aren’t the norm. Even if you were to predict this category one year ago, Milk would probably be the only one that would be predicted.
My Personal Choice:
In Bruges was a different take on the old hitmen-are-just-regular-people-who-are-much-more-interesting gimmick. How do you maximize the talents of Brendan Gleeson and Ralph Fiennes while bringing out the absolute best in Colin Farrell? By writing a script that is not only smart, funny, witty and affecting, but you write it in a way where the actors can obviously enjoy themselves while saying the lines. That being said, I’ll be perfectly happy with any of the nominees winning.
Who Should Have Been Nominated:
The bad part about having a great line-up is the fact that you could still leave out two or three real winners. That’s the situation here with the omission of Rachel Getting Married and The Wrestler. I understand leaving out The Wrestler, but Rachel Getting Married and Jenny Lumet’s near-perfect script are hard to pass over. But, who would they replace? If I had my way, it would be Mike Leigh and Happy-Go-Lucky to get replaced, not because of any bias against the film or the filmmaker, but for the fact that there never really is a script in a Mike Leigh film. It’s almost like giving the Emmy to the guys from Who’s Line is it Anyway? It’s not that the lines and feeling are smart, it’s just too loose and improvised to be a script.
Who Should Not Have Been Nominated:
Like I said, the Academy got it pretty good this year, but Happy-Go-Lucky would be the odd man out if I had to pick one.
Who Should Win:
Now, I don’t see this as the same as My Personal Choice because as much as I’d like In Bruges to win, I know it has no chance. Therefore, Milk has to be the one. Dustin Lance Black should win just based on the fact that he managed to craft this script into a well-founded character study. The two things that he did that still amazes me is how he figured out how to give Harvey Milk the tribute he deserved without turning it into a puff piece. On top of that, he figured out a way to write should-be-corny dialogue but put it in the context where it sounds more classic than clichéd.
Who Will Win:
It’s down to a two-horse race with WALL-E and the aforementioned Milk coming down to the wire. Ever since Beauty and the Beast was nominated for Best Picture back in 1991, animated features are coming more and more into the forefront and one of those animated films will win Screenplay, Director, Picture and maybe even acting awards in the future. I just don’t think Milk can be ignored. It’s one of those films that just cannot go home empty handed. I’ll tell you one thing, if WALL-E wins this category, pencil in Sean Penn for Best Actor.
A Best Original Screenplay Poem:
Frozen River really got there quick,
But no one saw it enough to stick.
Happy-Go-Lucky sure made us smile,
But we know Mike Leigh will be around a while.
In Bruges is somewhat hard to say,
But we know Martin McDonagh is here to stay.
WALL-E is great but gets number two,
So Best Animated Feature will have to do.
Milk is the film that gets the big win,
I wonder who gets it in 2010?
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