teh Forum

So it seems the Oscar nominations have been announced. What be your picks?

Best Picture
Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King
Lost in Translation
Master and Commander
Mystic River
Seabiscuit

Woohoo! After I See LotR3 when it comes out here next week I will have actually seen all of the movies. They are all good, but I am not sure if M&C is as good as the others. How awesome is it to see Lost in Translation make the list. What a coup (sp?) for Sofia Coppola. My vote goes to that, but I imagine LotR will win.

Best Actor
Johnny Depp - Pirates
Ben Kingsley - House of Sand and Fog
Jude Law - Cold Mountain
Bill Murray - Lost in Translation
Sean Penn - Mystic River

Go Bill!! I haven't seen Cold Mtn or House but How can you top Murray's performance? I actually thought Tim Robbin's performance in Mystic River was a bit better than Penn's.

Best Actress
Keisha Castle-Hughes - Whale Rider
Diane Keaton - Something's Gotta Give
Samantha Morton - In America
Charlize Theron - Monster
Naomi Watts - 21 Grams

Of those I have only seen In America...but wait, is that Charlize Theron up for a Oscar?? I thought one of the women in Mona Lisa Smile or maybe Katherine Keener in Full Frontal would be recognized. When is Maggie Gylenhaal going to get the recognition she deserves?

Supporting Actor
Alec Baldwin - The Cooler
Benicio Del Toro - 21 Grams
Djimon Hounsou - In America
Tim Robbins - Mystic River
Ken Watanabe - Last Samurai

Hey! There is Robbins. Wow this is a hard one. After Robbins, Hounsou is really good in In America and how cool would it be if Watanabe won? Tough call, but I am rooting for Watanabe.

Supporting Actress
Shohreh Aghdashloo - House of Sand and Fog
Patricia Clarkson - Pieces of April
Marcia Gay Harden - Mystic River
Holly Hunter - Thirteen
Renee Zellweger - Cold Mountain

Does Mona Lisa Smile count for these Oscars? What an oversight if it does. What about Susan Sarandon in Moonlight Mile? Was that last year? I guess I am rooting for Aghdashloo because I like her name.

Director
Sofia Coppola - Lost in Translation
Clint Eastwood - Mystic River
Peter Jackson - LotR 3
Fernando Meirelles - Cidade de Deus (City of God)
Peter Weir - Mastar and Commandar

Toss up between Coppola and Meirelles, but Eastwood did a great job as well. Nice to see City of God recognized.

Cinematography
Cidade de Deus (City of God)
Cold Mountain
Girl with a Pearl Earring
Master and Commander
Seabiscuit

Maybe I need to see a non-bootlegged copy of GwaPE, because I thought that movie was drab. I though Last Samurai might show up in this field. City of God all the way!


Well all in all I am pretty happy with the nominations. It is a shame that Northfork didn't get recognized (art direction? hello?) but I guess no one saw it. Nuthin for School of Rock or Kill Bill either that were both box office hits.

So what do you think? Any glaring oversights? Let's hear your picks.

Let me be the first to chime in with a few picks:

Best Picture

Lost in Translation In a somewhat shocking scenario I have actually seen all of the nominations. Even more implausibly, I liked them all. But without a doubt my favorite of the five was this relentlessly engaging study of two mismatched souls sharing their insomnia together in Tokyo. Runnerup - A tie for the other four. Honorable mention Nowhere in Africa


Best Actor

Bill Murray Haven't seen 'House' or 'Mountain' so this one came down to Murray vs. Depp. Tough tough choice, both deserving, so I went with my namesake. It's a strange year isn't it when neither DeNiro or Pacino are in this category.

Best Actress

Charlize Theron Saw Monster just this weekend. Theron is magnificent in a role that most glamorous actresses I wager would have turned down. She gained 30 lbs. for it and wore false teeth, she looked skank most of the film, but played the character as if it were an autobiography. If it wasn't an Oscar-worthy performance there never has been one.

After seeing Return of the King I can now make a full judgement on best pic. I found it lived up to all of my expectations but I still would give the award to Lost in Translation. I think LotR was perfectly executed, but it is pretty violent and doesn't really break too much ground. Lost in Translation is such a beautifully made movie that is so different than most of what Hollywood makes. It would be great to see that rewarded. I wouldn't be upset if Jackson won the award for director though.

Best Picture
Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King - Enjoyed it alot, has some of the best digital effects i've ever seen, but It doesn't necessarily offer anything new in terms of storytelling. I also thought that the series as a whole relied too much on the plot device where odds stack up against the protagonists to a point that it seems theres no hope, then out of nowhere someone or something saves the day... (regardless, this movie will most definitely win)

* Lost in Translation - Lost in Translation is my pick out of the three of these movies I saw. Unconventionally good story with a perfect non-cliche ending.

Master and Commander - Havent seen it yet
Mystic River - ditto
Seabiscuit - Enjoyed this movie alot, but it wreaks of hollywood and good ole american love for the underdog type story.


Best Actor
* Johnny Depp - Always picks good, interesting movies and totally stole the show in Pirates.

Best Actress
Only movie I saw for this category was whale rider... and it was just OK.
I saw clips of Monster, and Charlize Theron looked like she gave a pretty wild performance.... really crazy shit.

Supporting Actor
I got nothing...

Supporting Actress
nothing again....

Director
* Peter Jackson - way to pull together a legendary story with a huge following, on film, and not have legions of LOTR nerds complaining about how it wasnt "true" to the books.


Cinematography
Cidade de Deus (City of God) - Havent seen all the movies in this category but I thought the grainy 70s vibe of CoG was great, and there were scenes in this movie that were (even for a jaded movie viewer), totally upsetting...

In any event, I kinda think the academy is a bit of a boring entity in general. Im much more interested in stuff coming out of sundance and other smaller indie festivals, or even the golden globes rather than what the academy has to say. Of course there are nice surprises sometimes, but their selections are usually political in some way, and they almost always go for movies and actors that pander to academy taste.

What about the Worst movies of the Year?

This year was huge for bombs:

From Justin to Kelly
Gigli
Dr. Seuss (how the hell do you ruin the cat in the hat?)
Just Married
Uptown Girls
Lara Croft (not sure which one it was)
The Four Feathers
The Dumb and Dumber prequel
Daredevil
Legally Blonde 2 (wasn't one enough?)
Everything Cuba Gooding Jr. was in 2003
A Mighty Wind
Seabiscuit
Hulk
Badboys 2
Secondhand Lions
Freaky Friday
The Core
Dark Blue
Honey (note to Jess Alba: ya ain't black sista)
Fast and Furious 2
Daddy DayCare
Bruce Almighty

I'm tired of typing.....
What a crap year for film.

Have you guys seen anything about this protest against "Lost in the Translation"?

What a bunch of hippies...

The film portrays the Japanese people as a collection of shallow stereotypes.

True

There are no redeeming Japanese roles in the film, nor is there any significant dialogue between the main characters and the Japanese characters.

Also true.

Had this film been set in Africa or Mexico, for example, we do not think Ms. Coppola would have given such an insensitive and racist portrayal of a people. This film is indicative of a level of mainstream tolerance and acceptance of Asian American discrimination that would otherwise be unacceptable if directed towards African and Hispanic Americans.

I've gotta agree there, as well.

I think what is overwhelmingly present in this film is realism. It portrays these two characters, exactly as they would react in real situations. The sarcastic Mr. Bob Harris would react that way in Japan if he was a real person. Johanssen's character tries to get into the culture a bit with her exploration of ikebana and trip to Kyoto. She also has Japanese friends that take her out. Nothing that happens in that movie isn't a completely believable expereince for a foreigner visiting Japan to have. While some of the stereotypes may be a bit exaggerated in Bill Murray's character's case, I don't think they are to a level of offense. ...but I am not Japanese either.

The movie is beautiful and so well done because of the realism it portrays. While it may be a bit controversial and offensive to some, that realism is not betrayed.