By Aaron 1/14/2008

So did everyone watch the Grammy’s? Yeah, I didn’t think so. But despite the strike taking our award show from us, there were winners and losers. In the hopes that some miraculous event will end the writer’s strike and pave the way for an entertaining Oscars, let’s break down the top ten movie categories. There were some big surprises, some expected victories, and a little bit of pure craziness (hint: lots of foreign success).

It should also be noted that SaltyStix’s own columnist, Bob was 6/10 on the categories below – pretty damn good considering some of the (poor) choices these folks made – and something Bob covered in his great article on who should win/who would win.

Best Drama: Atonement
I think I might be the only one on the site who really liked this movie. Or maybe I’m the only one who actually saw it, but I thought the first half was amazing. I won’t rehash my review, but I can accept this candidate sneaking into the top spot over No Country and Blood. Even if you don’t want to believe that this movie actually is better than those two, it was good enough that it shouldn’t be that hard for you to accept. As most dramas (in this category) stand a good chance of taking the whole cake for the Oscar, I think we will not see Atonement take that award as well. While Atonement could be an Academy choice, I think it is much more likely they will choose Blood, a more complete movie that comes with a Best Director statute to most likely (as the Academy often gives both awards to the same movie, Joe Wright, probably not gonna snag the statute, yet).

Best Musical/Comedy: Sweeney Todd
Boo! I made it crystal clear that I thought Juno deserved this category, but the dark musical/comedy Sweeney Todd ripped the globe from Juno’s hands. I saw both of these flicks and I thought that Sweeney was pretty good – for a musical. While I thought Juno was amazing as a movie, period. Every way you slice it, Juno was superior. When these films have to play with the big boys above, at the Oscars, it is unlikely they would emerge victorious. Although I will say that Sweeney stands the best chance of all the movies in this category because the Academy does award musicals, and this one would fit right in – especially if they want to give the movie a bunch of awards (Depp and Burton).

Best Drama Actor: Daniel Day-Lewis
Daniel Day-Lewis earned his keep for this one. Bob wrote about how amazing his performance was in his review, so I won’t repeat it. While I think Depp has a shot at the Oscar, I also think Day-Lewis stands an extremely high chance of bringing another award home.

Best Drama Actress: Julie Christie
Bob called this one right in a role that got a lot of Buzz but I thought Keira would take the award. Looking back I kind of understand that Keira wasn’t even in the movie a hell of a lot while Christie was integral to her movie. She will probably win the Oscar too unless dark horse candidate Ellen Page can swoop in and steal it from her considering the only other candidate, Angelina Jolie, is probably damaged by off-screen tabloid frenzy and a movie that few people saw.

Best Musical/Comedy Actor: Johnny Depp
This was, just like Day-Lewis’ victory was pretty much a foregone conclusion. But the questions you really have to ask are, was Depp better than Day-Lewis? Will the academy give him one out of “career” achievement? If I was a betting man I would probably say Day-Lewis gets his second Oscar. That is, of course, unless I got ridiculously good odds, and then it’s probably worth your money to take a shot on Depp.

Best Musical/Comedy Actress: Marion Cotillard
What? Who? She was nominated? What movie was that again? This one came out of left field. Seems like a great actress was able to sneak in and win with a movie that almost no one in the nation saw, besides the voters of course. I would be shocked if Cotillard is even nominated for an Oscar, but hey, good job, take that globe and plant it in your living room. Do I need to remind people that I wanted Ellen Page to win???

Best Supporting Actor: Javier Bardem
Bob got this one, but I disagree with his statement that Wilkinson deserves it more. Bardem was simply ridiculous. One of the best antagonists of the past couple years, giving his role a sort of seamless ease that made his character nothing less than perfect. Hell, I can act crazy, big deal. Anyways, I think Bardem stands a solid chance of winning the Oscar too, although he could get upset, just as Gyllenhal was for Brokeback.

Best Supporting Actress: Cate Blanchett
Cate Blanchett took this one home despite little screentime, most likely because of  very weak field. All things aside, I’m sure Cate was amazing, but must of the buzz seems to be all shock value. Roberts simply sucked, Amy Ryan was good enough, no one knows who Tilda Swinton is, and the voters thought Saoirse Ronan was too young. Will the Academy make the same assessment? I think they will have no qualms about giving an Oscar to Ronan, who I think had the best performance of these five. Sure, throw in a few different choices, but Ronan is the type of pick the Academy loves (remember Paquin?)

Best Director: Julian Schnabel for Le Scaphandre et le papillon
Huh? Another foreign dark horse took the day? This race, where Bob accurately pointed out a grievous omission (PT Anderson) still featured two strong candidates (and better ones) in the Coen brothers and Burton. Hell, even Joe Wright probably had a good shot. While I haven’t seen Schnabel’s movie (who has?) I still have to say that Coens would have been a better pick here. Now, at the Oscars, as I already said, I think Anderson will get what he deserves, and like I said with Cotillard, I would be surprised if the Academy had the guts to nominate a foreign director of a movie few people had seen (unlike Benigni’s Life is Beautiful).

Best Screenplay: No Country for Old Men
This was another category I REALLY wanted Juno to win. Especially because No Country was (1) an adaptation, (2) great for DIRECTION, not the script. The Former doesn’t require an explanation, but what I mean by the latter is that there was so much that was unsaid, and so much that was great with camera shots. Juno was both a great story and a great book of dialogue while Cormac McCarthy did a lot of leg work for the Coens.

Could “Avatar” Win Best Picture?

By Brett Hogan

 

Last week, the trailer for James Cameron’s sci-fi experiment “Avatar” debuted. While initially unimpressed with the teaser, I began to wonder: Could this film win best picture? 

 

Buzz has been generating for this movie for years. Years. The technology to make this movie didn’t exist when Cameron conceived it, so he invented it. When is the last time you heard of a director spearheading the invention of anything? The casting started in 2005. Most movies these days, even epics, are done in half that time. I could go on. 

 

The most important thing to take away from all of this is that people are saying this will be the future of movies. Now, I don’t agree with the idea that CGI will become more prevalent than it already is. But I do believe that this will set the bar miles higher for sci-fi. I mean, that is what Titanic did. And that won some awards if memory serves.

 

I’ll bet you’re asking yourself, how can you even suggest that a film like this will win Best Picture when the initial trailer was nothing better than visual stimulation? Well, there are a couple of reasons. First, the Academy has expanded Best Picture to ten films. This doesn’t guarantee anything other than improved chances for most films on the cusp.

 

Second, after last year’s Oscars debacle, which saw the best film of the year, “The Dark Knight,” not only get shafted in awards but nominations as well, the Academy is pulling out all the stops to appease those with the loudest voices in the film industry, the fanboys. Now, the Academy probably didn’t lose anything because of that other than some viewers of the award show. Perhaps if people are again outraged with the winners or nominees, the heads of the Academy would lose their jobs. So this is all about the Academy protecting itself, which is not so outrageous.  

 

 

Third, there is an economic motive here. I’ve heard this film will cost $190 million, not counting the R&D costs associated with Cameron’s inventions or the cost of getting 3-D cameras into every theater in the country. The Academy will do everything in its power to get people into the seats and make this the next “Titanic” or “The Dark Knight.” But the Academy doesn’t have much power, besides nominating and awarding, so they will slap the “Nominated for Best Picture” moniker onto every commercial and print ad to get the people who didn’t believe the critics to relent and see this movie.

 

Of course, all of this is pure conjecture, and no revolutionary film (Terminator 2, Jurassic Park, etc.) has ever won the Best Picture category because it changed the game. Except maybe Titanic. But still, could this movie actually win? My answer is no but a nomination is certain and who knows what could happen from there. We’ll know more come February 2010.