2008 Awards/Critical Lists Discussion Thread

[Raiders]

Let's get this started with the National Board of Review's 2008 awards:

National Board of Review Announces 2008 Winners

http://ia.media-imdb.com/images/M/MV5BMTg5OTM5Njg4MV5BMl5BanBnXk FtZTcwNTk4NjAwMg@@._V1._SY90_. jpg • Best Film: Slumdog Millionaire (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1010048/)

• Best Director: David Fincher (http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0000399/), The Curious Case of Benjamin (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0421715/) Button (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0421715/)

• Best Actor: Clint Eastwood (http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0000142/), Gran Torino (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1205489/)

• Best Actress: Anne Hathaway (http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0004266/), Rachel Getting Married (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1084950/)

• Best Supporting Actor: Josh Brolin (http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0000982/), Milk (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1013753/)

• Best Supporting Actress: Penelope Cruz (http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0004851/), Vicky Cristina Barcelona (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0497465/)

• Best Foreign Foreign Language Film: Mongol (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0416044/)

• Best Documentary: Man on Wire (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1155592/)

• Best Animated Feature: WALL-E (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0910970/)

• Best Ensemble Cast: Doubt (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0918927/)

• Breakthrough Performance by an Actor: Dev Patel (http://www.imdb.com/name/nm2353862/), Slumdog Millionaire (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1010048/)

• Breakthrough Performance by an Actress: Viola Davis (http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0205626/), Doubt (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0918927/)

• Best Directorial Debut: Courtney Hunt (http://www.imdb.com/name/nm2581581/), Frozen River (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0978759/)

• Best Original Screenplay: Nick Schenk (http://www.imdb.com/name/nm1010405/), Gran Torino (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1205489/)

• Best Adapted Screenplay: Simon Beaufoy (http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0064479/), Slumdog Millionaire (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1010048/) and Eric
Roth (http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0744839/), The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0421715/)

• Spotlight Award: Melissa Leo (http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0502425/), Frozen River (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0978759/) and Richard Jenkins (http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0420955/), The Visitor (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0857191/)

• The BVLGARI Award for NBR Freedom of Expression: Trumbo (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0889671/)

• Top Ten Films: (In alphabetical order) BURN AFTER READING, CHANGELING, THE CURIOUS CASE OF BENJAMIN BUTTON, THE DARK KNIGHT, DEFIANCE, FROST/NIXON, GRAN TORINO, MILK, WALL-E, THE WRESTLER


• Top Five Foreign Language Films: (In alphabetical order) EDGE OF HEAVEN, LET THE RIGHT ONE IN, ROMAN DE GUERRE, A SECRET, WALTZ WITH BASHIR


• Top Five Documentary Films (In alphabetical order) AMERICAN TEEN, THE BETRAYAL (NERAKHOON), DEAR ZACHARY, ENCOUNTERS AT THE END OF THE WORLD, ROMAN POLANSKI: WANTED AND DESIRED,


• William K. Everson Film History Award: Molly Haskell (http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0368141/) and Andrew Sarris (http://www.imdb.com/name/nm1048799/)

[Pop Trash]

Yawn.

[Watashi]

No complaints really. Seeing Slumdog tomorrow.

[Raiders]

Looks like Gran Torino isn't quite the "out there" pick some think when the Oscars roll around. Not to say it won't be another Crash, nor that the NBR is a good indicator of quality, but at the least it seems it may be due some Academy buzz.

[Watashi]

Looks like Gran Torino isn't quite the "out there" pick some think when the Oscars roll around. Not to say it won't be another Crash, nor that the NBR is a good indicator of quality, but at the least it seems it may be due some Academy buzz.
People who have seen the film are flipping out and disgusted by NBR's "Clintwoody". They are saying the film is as bad as the trailer plays out and worse.

Still can't wait to see it.

[Watashi]

NBR's Top Ten Independent Films (in alphabetical order):

* FROZEN RIVER
* IN BRUGES
* IN SEARCH OF A MIDNIGHT KISS
* MR. FOE
* RACHEL GETTING MARRIED
* SNOW ANGELS
* SON OF RAMBOW
* WENDY AND LUCY
* VICKY CRISTINA BARCELONA
* THE VISITOR

[Watashi]

Mike D'Angelo's 2008 Awards:

Best Picture: Silent Light
Best Director: Carlos Reygadas, Silent Light
Best Screenplay: Joel Coen & Ethan Coen, Burn After Reading
Best Actress: Annamaria Marinca, 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days
Best Actor: Fu'ad Aït Aattou, The Last Mistress
Best Supporting Actor: Russell Brand, Forgetting Sarah Marshall
Best Supporting Actress: Hafsia Herzi, The Secret of the Grain
Best Foreign Film: Silent Light
Best Animated Film: WALL•E
Best First Film: Nicholas Stoller, Forgetting Sarah Marshall
Best Documentary: Chicago 10
Best Cinematography: WALL•E; Alexis Zabe, Silent Light; Mark Lee Ping-bin, Flight of the Red Balloon

[Sycophant]

Mike D'Angelo's 2008 Awards:

Best Cinematography: WALL•E
Good. So far this year, it's what I'll be lobbying for.

[Boner M]

Best Supporting Actress: Hafsia Herzi, The Secret of the Grain
Awesome! It's too bad no one will get to see this film, as she is definitely my pick for that category as well. Liked the film a lot as well, but like every review has mentioned, many scenes do overstay their welcome. I feel a repeat is in order, however.

Speaking of supporting actresses, am I the only one who's a little bewildered by the love-in that Penelope Cruz is getting? It was a funny and fiery performance, but her character was so cartoonish, and she was much better in Volver (though I liked VCB a little more overall). Seems like slim pickings when compared to the female supporting performances of last year (Ryan, Swinton, Blanchett).

[Ezee E]

Best Actor, for right now, is pretty slim pickings as well.

[Watashi]

Best Actor, for right now, is pretty slim pickings as well.
Penn, Rourke, Pitt, DiCaprio, Langella, Eastwood, Jenkins?

This is the strongest Best Actor lineup in years.

[Ezee E]

Penn, Rourke, Pitt, DiCaprio, Langella, Eastwood, Jenkins?

This is the strongest Best Actor lineup in years.
Right now... most of those movies haven't come out yet.

[soitgoes...]

NBR's Top Ten Independent Films (in alphabetical order):

* FROZEN RIVER
* IN BRUGES
* IN SEARCH OF A MIDNIGHT KISS
* MR. FOE
* RACHEL GETTING MARRIED
* SNOW ANGELS
* SON OF RAMBOW
* WENDY AND LUCY
* VICKY CRISTINA BARCELONA
* THE VISITOR

My alphabet has V before W. Where did you get yours?

[Robby P]

Forgetting Sarah Marshall? Seriously?

And I refuse to accept any supporting actor award that doesn't go to either Downey Jr. or Ledger.

[Ezee E]

Gomorra sweeps the European Film Awards.


* Best film: “Gomorra”
* Best director: Matteo Garrone, “Gomorra”
* Best actor: Toni Servillo, “Gomorra”
* Best actress: Kristin Scott Thomas, “I’ve Loved You So Long”
* Best screenwriter: Maurizio Braucci, Ugo Chiti, Gianni di Gregorio, Matteo Garrone, Massimo Gaudioso and Roberto Saviano, “Gomorra”
* Carlo di Palma European Cinematographer Award: Marco Onorato, “Gomorra”
* European Film Academy Prix D’Excellence: Magdalena Biedrzycka for costume design, “Katyn”
* Best composer: Max Richter, “Waltz With Bashir”
* European Film Academy Critics Award - Prix FIPRESCI: Abdellatif Kechiche, “The Secret of the Grain”
* European Film Academy documentary - Prix Arte Rene: “Rene” Dir. Helena Trestikova
* European Film Academy short film - Prix UIP:“Frankie” by Darren Thornton
* European Film Academy Lifetime Achievement Award: Dame Judi Dench
* European Achievement in World Cinema: Soren Kragh-Jacobsen, Kristian Levring, Lars von Trier, and Thomas Vinterberg
* People’s Choice Award: “Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix”


And rightly so. Although I was initially disappointed, it's resonating well. If The Wire were adapted properly into a movie, this is what it seems like it would be.

[Mysterious Dude]

Ebert has listed his favorites of 2008.

link (http://rogerebert.suntimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20081205/COMMENTARY/812059997/1023)

[Sven]

I don't know why people prize D'Angelo so much. Has he ever done more than sometimes-incomprehensible short-form reactions?

[Boner M]

I don't know why people prize D'Angelo so much. Has he ever done more than sometimes-incomprehensible short-form reactions?
He writes longer reviews for Las Vegas Weekly, that can be found at his website.

I go back and forth on him, but generally I like his taste even when we disagree, and his acting awards for this year are rockin'. Also he accepted my friend request on Facebook, which is more than can be said about Rosenbaum.

[Ezee E]

I don't know why people prize D'Angelo so much. Has he ever done more than sometimes-incomprehensible short-form reactions?
I think people like him because he has a 1-100 scale.

[Rowland]

I'm sometimes baffled by his taste, but he frequently goes against the grain regarding critic consensus with provocative and unpretentious reasoning that I often agree with. For instance, he and Sicinski are two of just about the only critics who didn't like that lumbering bore of a documentary Into Great Silence. Why? It was fucking boring. Here here. Still, I'm more of a Theo guy. And I don't get Heilman at all.

[eternity]

Mike D'Angelo's 2008 Awards:

Best Picture: Silent Light
Best Director: Carlos Reygadas, Silent Light
Best Screenplay: Joel Coen & Ethan Coen, Burn After Reading
Best Actress: Annamaria Marinca, 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days
Best Actor: Fu'ad Aït Aattou, The Last Mistress
Best Supporting Actor: Russell Brand, Forgetting Sarah Marshall
Best Supporting Actress: Hafsia Herzi, The Secret of the Grain
Best Foreign Film: Silent Light
Best Animated Film: WALL•E
Best First Film: Nicholas Stoller, Forgetting Sarah Marshall
Best Documentary: Chicago 10
Best Cinematography: WALL•E; Alexis Zabe, Silent Light; Mark Lee Ping-bin, Flight of the Red Balloon

I am digging that.

[Derek]

I'm sometimes baffled by his taste, but he frequently goes against the grain regarding critic consensus with provocative and unpretentious reasoning that I often agree with. For instance, he and Sicinski are two of just about the only critics who didn't like that lumbering bore of a documentary Into Great Silence. Why? It was fucking boring. Here here. Still, I'm more of a Theo guy. And I don't get Heilman at all.

I can understand you liking D'Angelo and Theo, but your love of Sicinski has always baffled me given his general focus on and admiration for lumbering art-house films over mainstream genre fare. Not that you shouldn't like a critic with different taste, especially one as cogent and intelligent as Sicinski. I just wonder why you identify with him as much as you do. And I don't mean that as a knock, in case it's coming off that way, since you also write extremely intelligent, thoughtful reviews, but from what I can tell from (my possibly misguided) cursory knowledge of the films you see, you tend to come from cinema from nearly the opposite end of the spectrum. And maybe that's part of what you like about him...I'm simply curious to know.

And if this is getting too off topic, we can continue in the FDT...

[Rowland]

I can understand you liking D'Angelo and Theo, but your love of Sicinski has always baffled me given his general focus on and admiration for lumbering art-house films over mainstream genre fare. Not that you shouldn't like a critic with different taste, especially one as cogent and intelligent as Sicinski. I just wonder why you identify with him as much as you do. And I don't mean that as a knock, in case it's coming off that way, since you also write extremely intelligent, thoughtful reviews, but from what I can tell from (my possibly misguided) cursory knowledge of the films you see, you tend to come from cinema from nearly the opposite end of the spectrum. And maybe that's part of what you like about him...I'm simply curious to know.

And if this is getting too off topic, we can continue in the FDT...
Because he's frequently right. For instance, he seems to be the only one within his critical circle to acknowledge what a fucking mess Diary of the Dead was. He recognized how undisciplined Inland Empire was. He's the only critic I read who seemed to realize that The Science of Sleep was supposed to grow into a grating mess, and was all the better for it. He was caught under the spell of Spike Lee's spellbindingly entertaining Inside Man. He appreciates the brilliance in Johnnie To's formal playgrounds.

Also, you can't accuse someone who gave movies like 1408, Deja Vu, and Baby Mama higher scores than Into Great Silence as being too pretentious. And Ocean's Twelve is his favorite entry in the Ocean series. Ditto Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance in Park's Vengeance trilogy. etc. etc. :pritch:

[transmogrifier]

I don't know why people prize D'Angelo so much. Has he ever done more than sometimes-incomprehensible short-form reactions?

D'A >>> AW

[eternity]

* RT 100% — Revolutionary Road (9 reviews)
* RT 100% — The Wrestler (22 reviews)
* RT 92% — Frost/Nixon (66 reviews)
* RT 71% — The Reader (7 reviews)
* RT 64% — Doubt (11 reviews)
* RT 57% — Gran Torino (7 reviews)

[Spinal]

• Best Foreign Foreign Language Film: Mongol (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0416044/)



:crazy:

[Derek]

* RT 92% — Frost/Nixon (66 reviews)

Knocked that shit down to 91%.

[Boner M]

For instance, he seems to be the only one within his critical circle to acknowledge what a fucking mess Diary of the Dead was.
Adam Nayman also trashed it in Cinema Scope (http://cinema-scope.com/cs34/cur_nayman_diary.html) a few issues back.

[Boner M]

Sight and Sound (http://filmdetail.com/archives/2008/12/05/sight-and-sounds-top-films-of-2008/)'s top ten (going by UK dates):

1. Hunger (Steve McQueen, UK)
2. There Will Be Blood (Paul Thomas Anderson, USA)
3. WALL-E (Andrew Stanton, USA)
4. Gomorrah (Matteo Garrone, Italy)
=5. A Christmas Tale (Arnaud Desplechin, France)
=5. The Class (Laurent Cantet, France)
7. Of Time and the City (Terence Davies, UK)
8. Happy-Go-Lucky (Mike Leigh, UK)
=9. The Headless Woman (Lucrecia Martel, Argentina/France/Italy/Spain)
=9. Let the Right One In (Tomas Alfredson, Sweden).

[Winston*]

Sight and Sound (http://filmdetail.com/archives/2008/12/05/sight-and-sounds-top-films-of-2008/)'s top ten (going by UK dates):

1. Hunger (Steve McQueen, UK)
2. There Will Be Blood (Paul Thomas Anderson, USA)
3. WALL-E (Andrew Stanton, USA)
4. Gomorrah (Matteo Garrone, Italy)
=5. A Christmas Tale (Arnaud Desplechin, France)
=5. The Class (Laurent Cantet, France)
7. Of Time and the City (Terence Davies, UK)
8. Happy-Go-Lucky (Mike Leigh, UK)
=9. The Headless Woman (Lucrecia Martel, Argentina/France/Italy/Spain)
=9. Let the Right One In (Tomas Alfredson, Sweden).
Hey, I've see the top 4 in that list.

[Rowland]

Adam Nayman also trashed it in Cinema Scope (http://cinema-scope.com/cs34/cur_nayman_diary.html) a few issues back.Dead-on. I remain amazed by the sycophantic reviews for a movie so unabashedly amateurish and contemptful of its audience.

[Pop Trash]

I rather like Ebert's list. I also like that it's in no order since many of Ebert's past #1s became way overrated (ie Crash, Juno, Monster's Ball) I believe at least in part because Ebert dubbed them "the best" of the year.

[Hugh_Grant]

Washington DC Film Critics Association:

Best Film: Slumdog Millionaire/Fox Searchlight
Best Director: Danny Boyle (Slumdog Millionaire)
Best Actor: Mickey Rourke (The Wrestler)
Best Actress: Meryl Streep (Doubt)
Best Ensemble: Doubt/Miramax
Best Supporting Actor: Heath Ledger (The Dark Knight)
Best Supporting Actress: Rosemarie DeWitt (Rachel Getting Married)
Best Breakthrough Performance: Dev Patel (Slumdog Millionaire)
Best Adapted Screenplay: Simon Beaufoy (Slumdog Millionaire)
Best Original Screenplay: Jenny Lumet (Rachel Getting Married)
Best Animated Feature: Wall∙E /Disney & Pixar
Best Foreign Language Film: Let The Right One In/Magnolia Pictures and Magnet Releasing
Best Documentary: Man On Wire/Magnolia
Best Art Direction: The Curious Case of Benjamin Button/Paramount

[Qrazy]

I rather like Ebert's list. I also like that it's in no order since many of Ebert's past #1s became way overrated (ie Crash, Juno, Monster's Ball) I believe at least in part because Ebert dubbed them "the best" of the year.

Those are bad number ones even before they became overrated.

[Watashi]

WAFCA (Washington D.C. critics)

Best Film: Slumdog Millionaire/Fox Searchlight
Best Director: Danny Boyle (Slumdog Millionaire)
Best Actor: Mickey Rourke (The Wrestler)
Best Actress: Meryl Streep (Doubt)
Best Ensemble: Doubt/Miramax
Best Supporting Actor: Heath Ledger (The Dark Knight)
Best Supporting Actress: Rosemarie DeWitt (Rachel Getting Married)
Best Breakthrough Performance: Dev Patel (Slumdog Millionaire)
Best Adapted Screenplay: Simon Beaufoy (Slumdog Millionaire)
Best Original Screenplay: Jenny Lumet (Rachel Getting Married)
Best Animated Feature: Wall∙E /Disney & Pixar
Best Foreign Language Film: Let The Right One In/Magnolia Pictures and Magnet Releasing
Best Documentary: Man On Wire/Magnolia
Best Art Direction: The Curious Case of Benjamin Button/Paramount

[DavidSeven]

Hugh Grant is better at the internet than you, Wats.

[Hugh_Grant]

From Awards Daily, Time Magazine's Top Ten:

1. Wall-E
2. Synecdoche, New York
3. My Winnipeg
4. 4 Months, 3 Weeks & 2 Days
5. Milk
6. The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
7. Slumdog Millionaire
8. Iron Man
9. Speed Racer
10. Encounters at the End of the World

[Ezee E]

David Edelstein also called Wall-E his #1 for the year.

[Hugh_Grant]

David Edelstein also called Wall-E his #1 for the year.

#2, but close enough. ;)
Interesting list. Kit Kittredge?

1. Rachel Getting Married
2. Wall-E
3. Happy-Go-Lucky
4. Cadillac Records
5. The Class
6. Kit Kittredge: An American Girl
7. Waltz With Bashir
8. Shotgun Stories
9. Doubt
10. Trouble the Water

[NickGlass]

I better clear my throat, or simply grab for the tissues, since it doesn't appear Slumdog Millionaire is going away any time soon (just give it a year or two).

[eternity]

From Awards Daily, Time Magazine's Top Ten:

1. Wall-E
2. Synecdoche, New York
3. My Winnipeg
4. 4 Months, 3 Weeks & 2 Days
5. Milk
6. The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
7. Slumdog Millionaire
8. Iron Man
9. Speed Racer
10. Encounters at the End of the World
That is probably the best list I've seen yet or will see. :)

[Ezee E]

That is probably the best list I've seen yet or will see. :)
I personally like my list more. Weird.

[Watashi]

LA Film Critics:

Picture: “Wall-E”
Runner-up: “The Dark Knight”

Director: Danny Boyle, “Slumdog Millionaire”
Runner-up: Christopher Nolan, “The Dark Knight”

Actor: Sean Penn, “Milk”
Runner-up: Mickey Rourke, “The Wrestler”

Actress: Sally Hawkins, “Happy-Go-Lucky”
Runner-up: Melissa Leo, “Frozen River”

Supporting actor: Heath Ledger, “The Dark Knight”
Runner-up: Eddie Marsan, “Happy-Go-Lucky”

Supporting actress: Penelope Cruz, “Vicky Cristina Barcelona” and “Elegy”
Runner-up: Viola Davis, “Doubt”

Screenplay: Mike Leigh, “Happy-Go-Lucky”
Runner-up: Charlie Kaufman, “Synecdoche, New York”

Foreign-language film: “Still Life”
Runner-up: “The Class”

Documentary: “Man on Wire”
Runner-up: “Waltz With Bashir”

Animation: “Waltz With Bashir”

Cinematography: Yu Lik Wai, “Still Life”
Runner-up: Anthony Dod Mantle, “Slumdog Millionaire”

Production design: Mark Friedberg, “Synecdoche, New York”
Runner-up: Nathan Crowley, “The Dark Knight”

Music/score: A.R. Rahman, “Slumdog Millionaire”
Runner-up: Alexandre Desplat, “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button”

New Generation: Steve McQueen, “Hunger”

Douglas E. Edwards independent/experimental film/video: James Benning, “RR” and “Casting a Glance”

Huge win for WALL-E. It has a legitimate shot at a BP nom now.

[Duncan]

Wall-E won BP, but not Best Animated? That's kinda weird.

[Winston*]

If both Sally Hawkins and Eddie Marsan got nominated for Oscars, that would make my Oscars.

[Sven]

Wall-E won BP, but not Best Animated? That's kinda weird.

It may be an Academy-type deal, where it can only apply for one category, not the other. Like what Michael Moore did w/Fahrenheit 911

[Ezee E]

Love the Eddie Marsan pick. I have to think about that myself.

And right now, Slumdog does have the best score.

[Ezee E]

BFCAs


BEST PICTURE
Changeling
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
The Dark Knight
Doubt
Frost/Nixon
Milk
The Reader
Slumdog Millionaire
Wall-E
The Wrestler

BEST ACTOR
Clint Eastwood - Gran Torino
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

Kate Beckinsale - Nothing But the Truth
Cate Blanchett - The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
Anne Hathaway - Rachel Getting Married
Angelina Jolie - Changeling
Melissa Leo - Frozen River
Meryl Streep - Doubt

BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR
Josh Brolin - Milk
Robert Downey, Jr. - Tropic Thunder
Philip Seymour Hoffman - Doubt
Heath Ledger - The Dark Knight
James Franco - Milk

BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS
Penelope Cruz - Vicky Cristina Barcelona
Viola Davis - Doubt
Vera Farmiga - Nothing But the Truth
Taraji P. Henson - The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
Marisa Tomei - The Wrestler
Kate Winslet - The Reader

BEST ACTING ENSEMBLE
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
The Dark Knight
Doubt
Milk
Rachel Getting Married

BEST DIRECTOR
Danny Boyle - Slumdog Millionaire
David Fincher - The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
Ron Howard - Frost/Nixon
Christopher Nolan - The Dark Knight
Gus Van Sant - Milk

BEST WRITER (Original or Adapted Screenplay)
Simon Beaufoy - Slumdog Millionaire
Dustin Lance Black - Milk
Peter Morgan - Frost/Nixon
Eric Roth - The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
John Patrick Shanley - Doubt

BEST ANIMATED FEATURE
Bolt
Kung Fu Panda
Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa
Wall-E
Waltz With Bashir

BEST YOUNG ACTOR/ACTRESS (Under 21)
Dakota Fanning - The Secret Life of Bees
David Kross - The Reader
Dev Petal - Slumdog Millionaire
Brandon Walters - Australia

BEST ACTION MOVIE
The Dark Knight
Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull
Iron Man
Quantum of Solace
Wanted

BEST COMEDY MOVIE
Burn After Reading
Forgetting Sarah Marshall
Role Models
Tropic Thunder
Vicky Cristina Barcelona

BEST PICTURE MADE FOR TELEVISION
John Adams
Recount
Coco Chanel

BEST FOREIGN LANGUAGE FILM
A Christmas Tale
Gomorrah
I’ve Loved You So Long
Let the Right One In
Mongol
Waltz With Bashir

BEST DOCUMENTARY FEATURE
I.O.U.S.A.
Man On Wire
Roman Polanski: Wanted and Desired
Standard Operating Procedure
Young At Heart

BEST SONG
“Another Way to Die” (performed by Jack White and Alicia Keys, written by Jack White) - Quantum of Solace
“Down to Earth” (performed by Peter Gabriel, written by Peter Gabriel and Thomas Newman) - Wall-E
“I Thought I Lost You” (performed Miley Cyrus and John Travolta, written by Miley Cyrus and Jeffrey Steele) - Bolt
“Jaiho” (performed by Sukhwinder Singh, written by A.R. Rahman and Gulzar) - Slumdog Millionaire
“The Wrestler” (performed by Bruce Springsteen, written by Bruce Springsteen) - The Wrestler

BEST COMPOSER
Alexandre Desp lat - The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
Clint Eastwood - Changeling
Danny Elfman - Milk
Hans Zimmer/James Newton Howard - The Dark Knight
A.R. Rahman - Slumdog Millionaire


Pretty standard looking. So this is what to expect. However, no Revolutionary Road is interesting.

[Amnesiac]

If both Sally Hawkins and Eddie Marsan got nominated for Oscars, that would make my Oscars.

I wouldn't be complaining either.

[balmakboor]

If both Sally Hawkins and Eddie Marsan got nominated for Oscars, that would make my Oscars.

I'd go with that too. Sadly, it doesn't seem likely. But who knows.

[Pop Trash]

NYFCC Awards:

Best Picture - Milk
Best Director - Mike Leigh (Happy-Go-Lucky)
Best Actor - Sean Penn (Milk)
Best Actress - Sally Hawkins (Happy-Go-Lucky)
Best Supporting Actor - Josh Brolin (Milk)
Best Supporting Actress - Penelope Cruz (Vicky Cristina Barcelona)
Best Screenplay - Jenny Lumet (Rachel Getting Married)
Best Cinematographer - Anthony Dod Mantle (Slumdog Millionaire)
Best Foreign Film - 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days
Best Animated Film - WALL-E
Best First Film - Courtney Hunt (Frozen River)
Best Documentary - Man on Wire

[Ezee E]

You're killing me Pop Trash.

[Ezee E]

Golden Globe Predictions:

Drama:
Curious Case of Benjamin Button
The Dark Knight
Milk
Revolutionary Road
Slumdog Millionaire

Comedy:
Burn After Reading
Mamma Mia!
Sex and the City
Tropic Thunder
Vicki Cristina Barcelona

Reaching out there with Sex and the City, can't really think of something else they'd nominate there. Forgetting Sarah Marshall types never get it. Happy-Go-Lucky seems too small, and I'm not sure if Wall-E qualifies, otherwise I'd go with that.

[Pop Trash]

You're killing me Pop Trash.
:|

[NickGlass]

Reaching out there with Sex and the City, can't really think of something else they'd nominate there. Forgetting Sarah Marshall types never get it. Happy-Go-Lucky seems too small, and I'm not sure if Wall-E qualifies, otherwise I'd go with that.

I think Happy-Go-Lucky will snag a spot. And, for some bizarre reason, I actually believe Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist might get a nomination somewhere in the mix (for either the film, or one of the two leads).

Also, I'm fine with Pop Trash reposting the LAFCA awards, if only to see Eddie Marsan get another (minor) mention.

[Pop Trash]

Also, I'm fine with Pop Trash reposting the LAFCA awards, if only to see Eddie Marsan get another (minor) mention.
I deleted it, if only because Ezee E is a better poster alive than dead.

[Ezee E]

I deleted it, if only best Ezee E poster alive.

Gee whiz.

[Arthur Seaton]

Peter Travers' Top Ten:


1. Milk
2. Slumdog Millionaire
3. The Dark Knight
4. Frost/Nixon
5. WALL-E
6. Revolutionary Road
7. The Visitor
8. Doubt
9. Rachel Getting Married
10. Man on Wire

[Watashi]

Peter Travers' Top Ten:
Le yawn.

[Arthur Seaton]

Le yawn.
Yeah, pretty standard issue--seriously, did we expect anything else from Mr. Travers?--but I like seeing The Visitor on these year end lists. Thought it would have been forgotten.

[Raiders]

Travers does, uh, have my top three films (so far) in his top ten. But yeah, that's about as standard-issue as you can get, which is fine I guess, but pretty boring for discussion.

[Arthur Seaton]

Sorry.

[Kurosawa Fan]

Sorry.

Consider yourself warned.

[Arthur Seaton]

Consider yourself warned.

Okay, no more Peter Travers. I've learned my Match Cut lesson. In that case, i can't wait for Armond White's top ten (or whatever).

[Raiders]

It's fine to post it as we should post all we can find, but yeah, Travers isn't where I'm going to find astute opinions.

[Boner M]

John Waters' annual ArtForum list (http://www.artforum.com/inprint/id=21496) is always fun.


1 Sorry, it’s a tie: (A) Vicky Cristina Barcelona (Woody Allen) Does anybody not think this is the best American movie of the year (even though it was made in Spain)? Come on, it’s got a great script, the actors look like real movie stars, and Woody Allen films Scarlett Johansson with the same obsession Paul Morrissey had for Joe Dallesandro. Gives heterosexuality a good name! (B) Love Songs (Christophe Honoré) I may be the only person who would pick this as the best foreign-language movie of the year, but what do I care if you don’t like this hipper-than-thou bisexual French musical? When the sexy, smart-ass characters burst into songs about brain tumors, saliva, and human sandwiches, I get all teary inside and realize that this is the only romantic comedy I’ve ever really loved.

2 Mister Lonely (Harmony Korine) A Marilyn Monroe look-alike lures a Michael Jackson impersonator to an island that is sort of like a cinematic Jonestown without the suicide, except for nuns who jump out of a plane piloted by Werner Herzog. Korine’s most fully realized movie doesn’t copy anybody.

3 Savage Grace (Tom Kalin) Julianne Moore in the best Isabelle Huppert role of the year. When a bad mother with good clothes fucks her sexy son, we feel downright criminal in our celluloid enjoyment.

4 Man on Wire (James Marsh) To see Philippe Petit lie down on the tightrope strung between the World Trade Center buildings as the police attempt to arrest him is to experience the most joyous defiance of the law ever seen on film.

5 The Last Mistress (Catherine Breillat) A brilliant costume drama that gets down on its tripod to worship the amazingly pillowy lips of its male lead, Fu’ad Aït Aattou. The most seductively sexual on-screen storytelling since Salò.

6 My Winnipeg (Guy Maddin) I remain frozen in admiration of this homegrown masterpiece from the most reluctantly radical and humorously tortured maverick working in the movies today.

7 The Wrestler (Darren Aronofsky) The director may be channeling the Dardenne brothers, but Mickey Rourke eerily reminds me of Jean Marais bringing beauty to the Beast in Cocteau’s La Belle et la Bête. Just imagine Mickey’s Oscar speech!

8 Taxi to the Dark Side (Alex Gibney) Once you see this documentary about an Afghan cabbie who was at the wrong place at the wrong time in the US war on terror, you’ll feel like rioting in the streets. Go ahead. Turn over a car. It’s good for you.

9 Milk (Gus Van Sant) Sean Penn’s amazing performance as Harvey Milk will make everybody in America have a gay agenda. I also salute the director’s restraint in not showing Dan White eating Twinkies.

10 Cassandra’s Dream (Woody Allen) Colin Farrell’s best performance ever as a guilt-ridden murderer who lets his remorse eat him alive. And I’m certainly not sorry to tell you the critics were wrong on this one.

[Boner M]

Also for ArtForum (but not online, copied from here (http://www.girishshambu.com/blog/2008/12/recent-reading.html)), James Quandt's typically obscure but intriguing top ten:


1 & 2. Itinéraire de Jean Bricard (Jean-Marie Straub & Danièle Huillet) and Le Genou d'Artémide (Jean-Marie Straub).

3. The Headless Woman (Lucretia Martel). "Martel returns to the terrain of oblique unease among the rural bourgeoisie of Argentina in a trance film that leaves its audience as unmoored as its sleepwalking heroine."

4. Liverpool (Lisandro Alonso). "One expects formal precision from Alonso, here completing his trilogy about intractable men journeying solo through hinterland, but the film's emotional amplitude is new and welcome."

5. Tony Manero (Pablo Larrain). "...Alfredo Castro gives the year's male performance as a Travolta-obsessed psycho, fixated on Saturday Night Fever but living out Vengeance is Mine in Pinochet's Chile."

6. 24 City (Jia Zhang-ke). "The extent of Jia's nostalgia for pre-free market China becomes troublingly apparent in his latest bardic contemplation of the country's recent past."

7. United Red Army (Koji Wakamatsu). "In a resurgence of Japanese cinema, Wakamatsu's ferocious three-hour chronicle of Maoist student cadres in the 1960s vies with Hirokazu Kore-eda's lovely home drama, Still Walking. As a firsthand account of leftist infighting and auto-immolation, United Red Army readily joins Oshima's Night and Fog in Japan and Godard's La Chinoise."

8. Wonderful Town (Aditya Assarat) "...Thailand provided the year's best feature-fiction debut, Assarat's melancholy portrait of a young architect from Bangkok supervising reconstruction in a tsunami-afflicted town where occluded anguish quickly turns murderous."

9. Cleopatra (Julio Bressane). "Werner Schroeter's gorgeous but oddly impersonal requiem, Nuit de Chien, aside, Bressane's ultranutty vision of the Egyptian queen was the film maudit of 2008."

10. Summer Hours (Olivier Assayas).

[eternity]

"The most seductively sexual on-screen storytelling since Salò."

Good lord.

[Bosco B Thug]

Dead-on. I remain amazed by the sycophantic reviews for a movie so unabashedly amateurish and contemptful of its audience. For the record, I would so take issue with this post and that review (the friendliest sort of issue, of course, though Nayman probably deserves a little something or other) but sorry, I don't think I'm up to it. And noo it's not because Diary of the Dead really sucks. This'll probably end up as a "Whatever man" argument, because I'm sorry, Nayman's review is terrible.

Contemptful? I don't see it. And I know we're in general disagreement here, but were reviews sycophantic? I know Lee and Wood and Kenny etc. etcetera. They have enough clout to be able to go all hyperbolic with praise, without Romero deserving any blame for it. I got the gist reviews were hardly lavishing but that they recognized something in the film and its general eccentricity, which is currently where I've decided to place the nuance I personally see in the film.

[Arthur Seaton]

Golden Globe noms:

Best Motion Picture
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
Frost/Nixon
Reader
Revolutionary Road
Slumdog Millionaire

Best Motion Picture - Musical or Comedy
Burn After Reading
In Bruges
Happy-Go-Lucky
Mamma Mia
Vicky Cristina Barcelona

Best Supporting Actor
Tom Cruise - Tropic Thunder
Robert Downey Jr. - Tropic Thunder
Ralph Fiennes - The Duchess
Philip Seymour Hoffman - Doubt
Heath Ledger - The Dark Knight

Best Director
Danny Boyle - Slumdog Millionaire
Steven Daldry - The Reader
David Fincher - The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
Ron Howard - Frost/Nixon
Sam Mendes - Revolutionary Road

Best Actor
Leonardo DiCaprio - Revolutionary Road
Frank Langella - Frost/Nixon
Sean Penn - Milk
Brad Pitt - The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
Mickey Rourke - The Wrestler

Best Original Song
"Down to Earth" -- WALL-E
"Gran Torino" - Gran Torino
"I Thought I Lost You" -- Bolt
"Once in a Lifetime" -- Cadillac Records
"The Wrestler" -- The Wrestler

Best Original Score
Defiance
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
Slumdog Millionaire
Frost/Nixon
Changeling

Best Animated Film
Bolt
Kung Fu Panda
Wall-E

Best Foreign Language Film
The Baader Meinhof Complex
Gomorrah
I've Loved You So Long
Waltz with Bashir


Best Actor
Leonardo DiCaprio - Revolutionary Road
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
Meryl Streep - Doubt
Kristen Scott Thomas - I've Loved You So Long
Kate Winslet - Revolutionary Road

Best Actor - Musical or Comedy
Javier Bardem -- Vicki Cristina Barcelona
Colin Farrell - In Bruges
James Franco -- Pineapple Express
Brendan Gleeson - In Bruges
Dustin Hoffman - Last Chance Harvey

Best Actress - Musical or Comedy
Rebecca Hall - Vicki Cristina Barcelona
Sally Hawkins - Happy-Go-Lucky
Francis McDormand - Burn After Reading
Meryl Streep - Mamma Mia
Emma Thompson - Last Chance Harvey

Best Supporting Actress
Amy Adams - Doubt
Penelope Cruz - Vicky Cristina Barcelona
Viola Davis - Doubt
Marisa Tomei - The Wrestler
Kate Winslet - The Reader

[kamran]

Big snubs of Milk and The Dark Knight, but it still won't affect their Best Picture/Director chances.

[Ezee E]

Gran Torino slowly disappearing.

[Boner M]

Tom Cruise? WTF.

Yay for Franco and Gleeson, though.

[Watashi]

Well.... those were unexpected.

[Boner M]

Miley Cyrus FTW

[DavidSeven]

Hm. Weren't The Dark Knight and Milk supposed to be the sure things this season? Shows what people on the internet with absolutely no information know.

[Ezee E]

Hm. Weren't The Dark Knight and Milk supposed to be the sure things this season? Shows what people on the internet with absolutely no information know.
I still say they'll be nominated for Oscars.

[Watashi]

Hm. Weren't The Dark Knight and Milk supposed to be the sure things this season? Shows what people on the internet with absolutely no information know.
This is the Golden Globes, remember? They nominated The Great Debators last year.

Milk and Dark Knight will be fine.

[Ezee E]

But Tom Cruise. Still strange, even though I kinda like it.

[Spinal]

Two supporting actor nominations for Tropic Thunder and yet it doesn't get nominated for Best Comedy? Mamma Mia? :confused:

[Raiders]

I like that their Best Director and Best Drama noms are exactly the same.

[Kurosawa Fan]

I really couldn't care less about the Golden Globes, but kudos to them for nominating James Franco.

[Hugh_Grant]

Two supporting actor nominations for Tropic Thunder and yet it doesn't get nominated for Best Comedy? Mamma Mia? :confused:
Well, as the lone Mamma Mia! fan on this board, I have to defend that choice--but they should have found room for Tropic Thunder.

[Watashi]

The best actor choices for Musical or Comedy is terrible.

Mark Wahlberg should have been nominated for The Happening instead.

[Ezee E]

The best actor choices for Musical or Comedy is terrible.

Mark Wahlberg should have been nominated for The Happening instead.
I really like the In Bruges love.

[Hugh_Grant]

I really like the In Bruges love.
Me, too. Brendan Gleeson is the bee's knees.

[balmakboor]

Mamma Mia? :confused:

I know a lot of middle aged and older women who consider it the best movie of the year. How many of this demographic are on the nominating committee for the Golden Globes?

[Ezee E]

I know a lot of middle aged and older women who consider it the best movie of the year. How many of this demographic are on the nominating committee for the Golden Globes?
It's a small group. I think only 200 voters, which is why I think it's strange that the Golden Globes have such a narrow list of nominations.

[Grouchy]

Also for ArtForum (but not online, copied from here (http://www.girishshambu.com/blog/2008/12/recent-reading.html)), James Quandt's typically obscure but intriguing top ten:
I've not seen the Lisandro Alonso, but Martel's The Headless Woman... not so good. It goes further and further into that mysterious style and offbeat framing choices she does, but this time there's not an engaging story or characters. It's like the point about social classes she wants to make is already shown in the first 10 minutes. And it sounds like a good idea to make it a thriller of sorts, but it falls apart when Martel makes it purposefully anti-thrilling!

I liked The Holy Girl a lot.

[Sxottlan]

The Dark Knight snub by the Globes I find a little worrisome (wasn't until I got here that I noticed that Milk was also snubbed), but I'm glad Ledger was nominated. It'll be interesting to see if the buzz about the film getting nominated will be distilled over time to focus on the source of that buzz, that being Ledger. I however still hope it can snag a Best Pic nod.

A pleasant surprise for the multiple acting nomations for Tropic Thunder. While I'd like to think they want to recognize the bizarro performance by Cruise (too bad the Globes don't roll clips; I'd love to see what they pick), he was nominated because he's Tom Cruise and it's the Golden Globes. They need celebrities on the red carpet. This is the group that had something like eight nominations for acting in a TV movie last year because that's where film actors like to slum and it gets recognizeable butts in the seats at the awards for them to cut to.

Given the delay to The Soloist, which had seemed like an arbitrary choice to recognize Downey because they didn't feel comfortable doing so for Iron Man, it looks like an Oscar nod for for Downey in Tropic Thunder looks more likely as time passes. Here's hoping.

[Mysterious Dude]

Movie City News has started to keep track of critics' top ten lists (http://www.moviecitynews.com/awards/2009/top_ten/critics_01.html). They haven't started a scoreboard yet, but here's what I counted:

1. Wall-E (11 lists)
2. Slumdog Millionaire (9)
3. The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (8)
3. Milk (8)
5. The Dark Knight (7)
6. The Visitor (6)
7. 4 Months, 3 Weeks & 2 Days (5)
7. The Wrestler (5)
9. Doubt (4)
9. Frost/Nixon (4)
9. In Bruges (4)
9. Iron Man (4)
9. Rachel Getting Married (4)
9. Revolutionary Road (4)
9. Waltz with Bashir (4)
16. Defiance (3)
16. I've Loved You So Long (3)
16. Man on Wire (3)

I'm bored.

[Watashi]

Boston Film Critics:

Best Picture
TIE - Slumdog Millionaire and WALL-E

Best Director
Gus Van Sant - Milk and Paranoid Park

Best Actor
TIE - Sean Penn - Milk and Mickey Rourke - The Wrestler

Best Actress
Sally Hawkins - Happy-Go-Lucky

Best Supporting Actor
Heath Ledger - The Dark Knight

Best Supporting Actress
Penelope Cruz - Vicky Cristina Barcelona

Best Screenplay
Milk

Best Cinematography
Paranoid Park

Best Documentary
Man on Wire

Best Animated Film
WALL-E

Best Editing
Slumdog Millionaire

Best New Filmaker
Martin McDonagh - In Bruges

Best Ensemble
Tropic Thunder

[eternity]

Paranoid Park love, nice.

[Spinal]

Ties are lame. Pick a lane!

[DavidSeven]

Safe to assume that The Dark Knight is no longer a front runner and will be lucky to get a BP nomination at this point?

[Watashi]

Safe to assume that The Dark Knight is no longer a front runner and will be lucky to get a BP nomination at this point?
No.

[Ezee E]

Safe to assume that The Dark Knight is no longer a front runner and will be lucky to get a BP nomination at this point?
AFI Top Ten:

THE CURIOUS CASE OF BENJAMIN BUTTON
THE DARK KNIGHT
FROST/NIXON
FROZEN RIVER
GRAN TORINO
IRON MAN
MILK
WALL*E
WENDY AND LUCY
THE WRESTLER

[DavidSeven]

Ties are lame. Pick a lane!

All ties should be resolved by defering to a formulated ranking combining a fim's RT Percentage and Metacritic Score with minor points allotted to Strength of Box Office.

[Sxottlan]

While the steady release of these lists seem to build momentum one way or the other, in the end they don't seem do that much for the more major nominations and awards. I look more towards the buzz in the time period after the Globes but before the Oscar nominations are announced.

[dreamdead]

Slant's 2008 year in review (http://www.slantmagazine.com/film/features/2008yearinfilm.asp) is up.

Time to seek out Summer Palace and Rachel Getting Married, apparently. A bit surprised by Boarding Gate's inclusion in Nick's list, though I understand its appeal.

[Rowland]

A bit surprised by Boarding Gate's inclusion in Nick's list, though I understand its appeal.Yeah, he wrote this review (http://www.nickschager.com/nsfp/2008/11/boarding-gate-2008-a.html) for it on his site. I wish the movie I saw was as awesome as the one he describes.

[Raiders]

Time to seek out... Rachel Getting Married, apparently.

Dude.

[Rowland]

I'm happy to see that Ed included Redbelt in his honorable mentions. My Father My Lord played in my area a few months ago, I meant to see it after reading his review but never did. I'll have to Netflix it.

[Ezee E]

Dude.
Indeed.

[Pop Trash]

Schager's praise of The Strangers and dis of Funny Games is right on. Also, I liked Rachel Getting Married quite a bit but #1? Is it really that great? And Wall-E is only an honorable mention? Not down with that.

[Spinal]

When people use phrases like "a complex contemporary morality play" to describe The Dark Knight, it makes it very hard for me to remember that I liked it.

[Ezee E]

When people use phrases like "a complex contemporary morality play" to describe The Dark Knight, it makes it very hard for me to remember that I liked it.
There's some good ones out there for Slumdog Millionaire.

[Robby P]

It sure wasn't complex, but it was a contemporary morality play. I guess I don't understand the objection, unless you just think it sounds trite and obvious.

[Dead & Messed Up]

It sure wasn't complex, but it was a contemporary morality play. I guess I don't understand the objection, unless you just think it sounds trite and obvious.

I might call it complex in regard to its moral stance (since the three mains are all shades of gray and the problems suggested don't have an easy resolution). I don't think that makes it a brilliant film, but it does have more to chew on.

[Watashi]

San Francisco:

Best Picture - Milk
Best Director - Gus Van Sant, Milk
Screenplay, original - Dustin Lance Black, Milk
Screenplay, adapted - Peter Morgan, Frost/Nixon
Actor - (TIE) Sean Penn, Milk and Mickey Rourke, The Wrestler
Actress - Sally Hawkins, Happy-Go-Lucky
Supporting Actor - Heath Ledger, The Dark Knight
Supporting Actress - Marisa Tomei, The Wrestler
Cinematography - Wally Pfister, The Dark Knight
Doc - My Winnipeg
Foreign - Let the Right One In

St. Louis:

BEST PICTURE - The Curious Case Of Benjamin Button
BEST ACTOR - Sean Penn (Milk)
BEST ACTRESS - Kate Winslet (Revolutionary Road)
BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR - Heath Ledger (The Dark Knight)
BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS - Viola Davis (Doubt)
BEST DIRECTOR - Danny Boyle (Slumdog Millionaire)
BEST FOREIGN LANGUAGE FILM - Slumdog Millionaire - U.K./U.S.A/India
BEST DOCUMENTARY - Man On Wire
BEST COMEDY - Burn After Reading
BEST ANIMATED FILM - Wall-E
MOST ORIGINAL, INNOVATIVE OR CREATIVE FILM - The Curious Case Of Benjamin Button
BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY - Mandy Walker (Australia)
BEST SCREENPLAY (ORIGINAL OR ADAPTED) - Peter Morgan (Frost/Nixon)
BEST MUSIC (SOUNDTRACK OR SCORE, ORIGINAL OR ADAPTED) - The Visitor
BEST SPECIAL EFFECTS - The Dark Knight

San Diego:

Best Film: Slumdog Millionaire
Runner-up: The Dark Knight
Best Foreign Language Film: Let the Right One In
Best Documentary: Man on Wire
Best Animated Film: WALL-E
Best Director: Danny Boyle, Slumdog Millionaire
Best Actress: Kate Winslet, The Reader
Best Actor: Mickey Rourke, The Wrestler
Best Supporting Actress: Marisa Tomei, The Wrestler
Best Supporting Actor: Heath Ledger, The Dark Knight
Best Original Screenplay: Tom McCarthy, The Visitor
Best Adapted Screenplay: Simon Beaufoy, Slumdog Millionaire
Best Cinematography: Anthony Dod Mantle, Slumdog Millionaire
Best Production Design: Donald Graham Burt, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
Best Editing: Chris Dickens, Slumdog Millionaire
Best Score: A.R. Rahman, Slumdog Millionaire
Best Ensemble Performance: Frost/Nixon
Body of Work for 2008: Richard Jenkins for The Visitor, Burn After Reading, Step Brothers, and The Tale of Despereaux

Phoenix:

Best Picture
Slumdog Millionaire

Top Ten Films of 2008 (in alphabetical order)
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
The Dark Knight
Frost/Nixon
In Bruges
Milk
The Reader
Slumdog Millionaire
The Visitor
Wall-E
The Wrestler

Best Director
Danny Boyle, Slumdog Millionaire

Best Performance by an Actor in a Lead Role
Sean Penn, Milk

Best Performance by an Actress in a Lead Role
Meryl Streep, Doubt

Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role
Heath Ledger, The Dark Knight

Best Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role
Marisa Tomei, The Wrestler

Best Acting Ensemble
The cast of Milk

(winners in 19 more categories, after the cut)

Best screenplay written directly for the screen
In Bruges

Best screenplay adapted from another medium
Slumdog Millionaire

Best Live Action Family Film
High School Musical 3: Senior Year

Best Overlooked Film
In Bruges

Best Animated Film
Wall-E

Best Foreign Language Film
Let the Right One In

Best Documentary
Man on Wire

Best Original Song
“The Wrestler” from The Wrestler

Best Original Score
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button

Best Cinematography
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button

Best Film Editing
Slumdog Millionaire

Best Production Design
The Dark Knight

Best Costume Design
The Duchess

Best Visual Effects
The Dark Knight

Best Stunts
The Dark Knight

Breakout on Camera
Dev Patel, Slumdog Millionaire

Breakout Behind the Camera
Martin McDonagh, In Bruges

Best Performance by a Youth - Male
Ayush Mahesh Khedekar, Slumdog Millionaire

Best Performance by a Youth - Female
Dakota Fanning, Secret Life of Bees

[Watashi]

This Slumdog love is starting to irk me. Surely people can think of better films than this.

[Robby P]

San Francisco:

Best Picture - Milk
Best Director - Gus Van Sant, Milk
Screenplay, original - Dustin Lance Black, Milk


Shocking.

[Grouchy]

Yeah, he wrote this review (http://www.nickschager.com/nsfp/2008/11/boarding-gate-2008-a.html) for it on his site. I wish the movie I saw was as awesome as the one he describes.
I agree with everything on that review, despite getting a little lost in the words. Boarding Gate was a fucking great experience. The most rewarding one I've gotten from Assayas.

[Boner M]

Can this shitty year just be over with already.

[Raiders]

Can this shitty year just be over with already.

:: shrug ::

I hasn't really struck me as more/less shitty than most every other year in my memory. And I am in no hurry to get older.

[Ezee E]

Although it hasn't produced any movies that'll be in my all-time favorites, it's put out some enjoyable movies no less. 30-some movies that I really liked.

[Kurosawa Fan]

I'm with Boner. This year has been very underwhelming thus far.

[transmogrifier]

I'm with Boner.

Please, this is a family-friendly website. Take that shit to RT or something.

[Kurosawa Fan]

Please, this is a family-friendly website. Take that shit to RT or something.

Beware the wrath of Winston*!!

[transmogrifier]

Beware the wrath of Winston*!!

Is this self-advice? I think it is self-advice, because you are the one making disgusting use of an esteemed poster's name.

*shakes head*

[Ezee E]

I'm with Boner. This year has been very underwhelming thus far.
If it weren't for 5-6 amazing movies from last year, I'd say this year has more generally good films than last year.

[Pop Trash]

If it weren't for 5-6 amazing movies from last year, I'd say this year has more generally good films than last year.
Last year by this time, I think had about 15 or so movies I gave at least an 8 and two that I gave a 9. This year I have about 11 I'd give an 8 and zero I'd give a 9. Then again, there are still about ten films or so I'd like to see from 2008.

[Watashi]

Quality not Quantity.

Speed Racer, WALL-E, Happy-Go-Lucky, The Dark Knight.

Yep. It's been a good year.

[Watashi]

Nothing will top 2007 though.

[Bosco B Thug]

Can this shitty year just be over with already.
Nothing will top 2007 though.
Oh man I miss 2007. 2007 was so fun.

But maybe Revolutionary Road and Frost/Nixon and 'Slumdog' and Doubt will surprise me; and 'Curious Case' and The Wrestler and Milk are indeed totally awesome...

Gaaah, I hate to be superficial but man that line-up sounds so boring. Even the Fincher film. This year's been a limp year for genre flicks, that's for sure.

[Boner M]

2008 spawned two Seltzer/Friedberg joints. That's how much the movie gods hated us this year.

[Boner M]

The Indiewire/Village Voice (http://www.indiewire.com/movies/2008/12/indiewire_criti_21.html) poll is in effect, and a bunch of big names have already listed their top ten's. No final results, though.

[Hugh_Grant]

49 Songs to Compete for Oscar's Best Song (http://www.awardsdaily.com/?p=4949)

Go Rock Me Sexy Jesus!

[Mysterious Dude]

Movie City News has started a chart (http://www.moviecitynews.com/awards/2009/top_ten/00scoreboard.htm).

And so has this guy (http://criticstop10.com/), whoever he is.

[Yum-Yum]

Toronto Film Critics Association:

BEST PICTURE
Wendy and Lucy

Runners-up:
Rachel Getting Married
WALL*E

BEST PERFORMANCE, MALE
Mickey Rourke, The Wrestler
Runners-up:
Sean Penn, Milk
Jean-Claude Van Damme, JCVD

BEST PERFORMANCE, FEMALE
Michelle Williams, Wendy and Lucy
Runners-up:
Anne Hathaway, Rachel Getting Married
Meryl Streep, Doubt

BEST SUPPORTING PERFORMANCE, MALE
Heath Ledger, The Dark Knight
Runners-up:
Josh Brolin, Milk
Robert Downey, Jr, Tropic Thunder
Philip Seymour Hoffman, Doubt

BEST SUPPORTING PERFORMANCE, FEMALE
Rosemarie DeWitt, Rachel Getting Married
Runners-up:
Penelope Cruz, Vicky Cristina Barcelona
Viola Davis, Doubt

BEST DIRECTOR
Jonathan Demme, Rachel Getting Married
Runners-up:
Danny Boyle, Slumdog Millionaire
Andrew Stanton, WALL*E

BEST SCREENPLAY
Jenny Lumet, Rachel Getting Married
Runners-up:
John Patrick Shanley, Doubt
Peter Morgan, Frost/Nixon

BEST FIRST FEATURE
Ballast, directed by Lance Hammer
Runners-up:
The Band’s Visit, directed by Eran Kolirin
Frozen River, directed by Courtney Hunt

BEST ANIMATED FEATURE
WALL*E
Runners-up:
Kung-Fu Panda
Persepolis
Waltz with Bashir

BEST FOREIGN-LANGUAGE FILM
Let the Right One In
Runners-up:
A Christmas Tale
The Class
I’ve Loved You So Long

BEST DOCUMENTARY FEATURE
Man on Wire
Runners-up:
Standard Operating Procedure
Up the Yangtze

TFCA Awards 2008 (http://torontofilmcritics.com/blog/2008/12/17/tfca-awards-2008/)

[Duncan]

Things I've read about Wendy and Lucy have all been interesting, even the negative reviews. Apparently it doesn't actually open in Toronto until mid January though.

[Boner M]

I dig Old Joy and Michelle Williams, so I'm very keen on Wendy & Lucy.

[Pop Trash]

Things I've read about Wendy and Lucy have all been interesting, even the negative reviews. Apparently it doesn't actually open in Toronto until mid January though.
Old Joy was one of those films that I was pretty meh about until I watched it a second time, then I kind of loved it and wondered what I was thinking. I did that with Jules and Jim too.

[Boner M]

Old Joy was one of those films that I was pretty meh about until I watched it a second time, then I kind of loved it and wondered what I was thinking. I did that with Jules and Jim too.
I saw it at a festival a few years ago and thought it was admirable if a little slight, but it really crept up on me as well. I'd like to revisit it.

[Winston*]

Interested in Wendy and Lucy also, solely on the strength of Old Joy. I don't actually know what it's about.

Is it weird that I'm more interested in JCVD than most of these Best picture nominees/winners?

[Rowland]

Is it weird that I'm more interested in JCVD than most of these Best picture nominees/winners?I don't think so, since I share the sentiment. That said, I've seen an unhealthy number of JCVD pictures, so my perspective is biased. :P

[eternity]

Wendy and Lucy is my most anticipated for the rest of the year, along with Waltz with Bashir and Synecdoche.

JCVD is pretty damn good, it's online with subs right now, I'll provide a link if you can't find it.

[NickGlass]

Old Joy is my favorite film of 2006. Wendy and Lucy is fine, but it is much more simplistic and includes two unbearably obnoxious cameo-length supporting characters.

[Rowland]

The Indiewire/Village Voice (http://www.indiewire.com/movies/2008/12/indiewire_criti_21.html) poll is in effect, and a bunch of big names have already listed their top ten's. No final results, though.Nathan Lee has Death Race as his #10. :lol:

[Fezzik]

Straight from Capone at AICN (http://aintitcool.com/node/39497):

The Chicago Film Critics Association Awards:

BEST PICTURE: WALL-E

BEST DIRECTOR: Danny Boyle - Slumdog Millionaire

BEST ACTOR: Mickey Rourke - The Wrestler

BEST ACTRESS: Anne Hathaway - Rachel Getting Married

BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR: Heath Ledger - The Dark Knight

BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS: Kate Winslet - The Reader

BEST ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY: WALL-E (Andrew Stanton & Jim Reardon)

BEST ADAPTED SCREENPLAY: Slumdog Millionaire (Simon Beaufoy)

BEST FOREIGN LANGUAGE FILM: Let the Right One In

BEST DOCUMENTARY: Man On Wire

BEST ANIMATED FEATURE: WALL-E

BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY: The Dark Knight (Wally Pfister)

BEST ORIGINAL SCORE: WALL-E (Thomas Newman)

MOST PROMISING PERFORMER: Dev Patel - Slumdog Millionaire

MOST PROMISING DIRECTOR: Tomas Alfredson - Let the Right One In

[Duncan]

Yeah, I totally hate Slumdog Millionaire. It didn't take long for that to happen. A screenplay award? Really?

[NickGlass]

SAG, showing absolutely pathetic admiration for Slumdog Millionaire. If you enjoy the film's kinetic, faux-gritty aesthetic, whatever, you can still see through its terribly amateurish and stiff acting. The youngest children were the most natural actors, and they spent most of the film running, screaming, or batting their adorable eyes.

Best Actor
Frank Langella, “Frost/Nixon”
Richard Jenkins, “The Visitor”
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, “Revolutionary Road”

Best Supporting Actor
Josh Brolin, “Milk”
Robert Downey Jr., “Tropic Thunder”
Philip Seymour Hoffman, “Doubt”
Heath Ledger, “The Dark Knight”
Dev Patel, “Slumdog Millionaire”

Best Supporting Actress
Amy Adams, “Doubt”
Penelope Cruz, “Vicky Cristina Barcelona”
Viola Davis, “Doubt”
Taraji P. Henson, “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button”
Kate Winslet, “The Reader”

Best Ensemble
“The Curious Case of Benjamin Button”
“Doubt”
“Frost/Nixon”
“Milk”
“Slumdog Millionaire”

[Raiders]

I'll post this here:

http://sports.espn.go.com/espnmag/story?section=magazine&id=3773747

Pretty good piece by Simmons on The Wrestler for a non-film enthusiast, mainly for the part on pro-wrestling.

[Watashi]

How is Patel supporting?

He's the fucking lead of the fucking film!

Oh well, now he's going to get nominated. Stupid Oscars and their "branching out" to minorities.

[Ezee E]

How is Patel supporting?

He's the fucking lead of the fucking film!

Oh well, now he's going to get nominated. Stupid Oscars and their "branching out" to minorities.
Who's the female that will be the "out there" pick? Viola Davis? Taraji Henson?

[Watashi]

Who's the female that will be the "out there" pick? Viola Davis? Taraji Henson?
Davis and Henson won't be out there. They have had buzz since September.

[Melville]

Yeah, I totally hate Slumdog Millionaire. It didn't take long for that to happen. A screenplay award? Really?
Yeah, all this love for it is completely baffling. I mean, I can understand a lot of people liking it: it's stylish, humorous, and crowd-pleasing to a fault. But I thought there would be enough cynical and/or critically astute critics to average things out.

[Ezee E]

Yeah, all this love for it is completely baffling. I mean, I can understand a lot of people liking it: it's stylish, humorous, and crowd-pleasing to a fault. But I thought there would be enough cynical and/or critically astute critics to average things out.
I like it, but I will say that I am surprised at the amount of love it's receiving from critics. Even Juno had a good amount of detractors last year, but this one doesn't seem to.

Even as the person that seems to like it here the most, I'm only gushing over its score. Although I do really like the host. His revelation as being the bad guy completely fooled me, and I liked that twist a ton

[Watashi]

I like it, but I will say that I am surprised at the amount of love it's receiving from critics. Even Juno had a good amount of detractors last year, but this one doesn't seem to.

Even as the person that seems to like it here the most, I'm only gushing over its score. Although I do really like the host. His revelation as being the bad guy completely fooled me, and I liked that twist a ton

The problem with the score is that I can't tell when the soundtrack ends and when the score begins.

They tell you the "twist" in the first 10 minutes of the movie! How the hell were you fooled by it?

[SirNewt]

Thank god it's been a good year for books because it's been a terrible one for movies.

So did Synecdoche come out and just irredeemably suck. I haven't seen it on any lists for anything really.

[Sycophant]

So did Synecdoche come out and just irredeemably suck. I haven't seen it on any lists for anything really.

There's a big old effing thread about it in this very subforum. Some thought it was brilliant (a camp I'm getting ever closer to, as I think about it more--it'll require a second viewing before I can argue its merits and faults anywhere near cogently) and some thought it was a painful disaster. I think a slight majority on this board lean toward the former.

[Ezee E]

The problem with the score is that I can't tell when the soundtrack ends and when the score begins.

They tell you the "twist" in the first 10 minutes of the movie! How the hell were you fooled by it?
Ha. I dozed very briefly at the beginning of the movie. Didn't think it was long. Missed more than I thought, heh.

[Boner M]

Film Comment's Top Twenty (http://filmlinc.wordpress.com/2008/12/18/the-20-best-films-of-2008-a-sneak-peak-at-film-comments-year-end-list/)


1. Wendy and Lucy Kelly Reichardt, U.S. 580
2. Flight of the Red Balloon Hou Hsiao-hsien, Taiwan/France 564
3. A Christmas Tale Arnaud Desplechin, France 557
4. Happy-Go-Lucky Mike Leigh, U.K. 538
5. WALL·E Andrew Stanton, U.S. 534
6. Still Life Jia Zhang-ke, Hong Kong/China 521
7. Paranoid Park Gus Van Sant, France/U.S. 465
8. Waltz with Bashir Ari Folman, Israel/France/Germany 424
9. My Winnipeg Guy Maddin, Canada 406
10. Milk Gus Van Sant, U.S. 356
11. Let the Right One In Tomas Alfredson, Sweden 351
12. The Duchess of Langeais Jacques Rivette, France/Italy 335
13. The Class Laurence Cantet, France 334
14. Synecdoche, New York Charlie Kaufman, U.S. 297
15. Hunger Steve McQueen, U.K. 289
16. Silent Light Carlos Reygadas, Mexico/France/Netherlands 286
17. Ballast Lance Hammer, U.S. 283
18. Man on Wire James Marsh, U.K. 282
19. The Exiles Kent Mackenzie, U.S. 257
20. Gomorrah Matteo Garrone, Italy 253

The Exiles is great but FFS just 'cos it was remastered after nearly 50 years of obscurity and played for a few weeks at IFC doesn't make it 2008 release. Geez.

[Pop Trash]

Film Comment's Top Twenty (http://filmlinc.wordpress.com/2008/12/18/the-20-best-films-of-2008-a-sneak-peak-at-film-comments-year-end-list/)


Wow...this is clearly a bad year for American films. Or at least American films that might, you know, actually play in a theater outside of NYC.

[Duncan]

Film Comment's Top Twenty (http://filmlinc.wordpress.com/2008/12/18/the-20-best-films-of-2008-a-sneak-peak-at-film-comments-year-end-list/)
This is the first list I've seen that seems like a good guide to follow based on my own taste, partly because it's a top 20 and Slumdog Millionaire is nowhere to be found and partly because it resembles my own list.

[balmakboor]

Film Comment's Top Twenty (http://filmlinc.wordpress.com/2008/12/18/the-20-best-films-of-2008-a-sneak-peak-at-film-comments-year-end-list/)

Yay for Paranoid Park.

[Derek]

The Exiles is great but FFS just 'cos it was remastered after nearly 50 years of obscurity and played for a few weeks at IFC doesn't make it 2008 release. Geez.

WDFFSM? If it was never released in theaters before 2008, how is it not a 2008 "release"?

Film Comment's list is even better than usual. Easily the best I've seen so far this year for the exact reasons Duncan mentioned.

EDIT: GI, FFSM's "for f*ck's sake". kthx.

[Watashi]

I've only seen 7 of their 20. All good.

I really want to see The Class and Waltz with Bashir.

Kinda surprised that WALL-E was the only thing remotely commercial on the list.

No Rachel, Dark Knight, or The Visitor?

[Derek]

Tiny Mix Tapes (http://www.tinymixtapes.com/2008-Favorite-Films-of-2008) put up their top 25 films of the year, in random order for no conceivable reason. I did the write-up's for A Christmas Tale and Still Life. Pretty interesting list IMO, with a couple genuine WTF's.

[eternity]

Tiny Mix Tapes (http://www.tinymixtapes.com/2008-Favorite-Films-of-2008) put up their top 25 films of the year, in random order for no conceivable reason. I did the write-up's for A Christmas Tale and Still Life. Pretty interesting list IMO, with a couple genuine WTF's.

I wouldn't call Charlie Bartlett or Sukiyaki Western Django necessarily WTFs.

[Derek]

I wouldn't call Charlie Bartlett or Sukiyaki Western Django necessarily WTFs.

JCVD not the Miike being the second. I haven't seen either one, but they don't seem to be films that are ending up on year-end lists and certainly not collective lists. JCVD looks good and, well, considering you guessed Bartlett as being the other, that explains my surprise, doesn't it?

[Kurosawa Fan]

EW's Lisa Schwartzbaum's Top Ten:

1. Wall-E
2. Milk
3. The Dark Knight
4. Waltz With Bashir
5. Gomorra
6. Wendy and Lucy
7. Trouble the Water
8. Happy-Go-Lucky
9. Man on Wire
10. Tropic Thunder

Owen Gleiberman:

1. The Wrestler
2. The Dark Knight
3. Rachel Getting Married
4. Wall-E
5. Momma's Man
6. The Edge of Heaven
7. Burn After Reading
8. The Class
9. Milk
10. Tell No One

[Ivan Drago]

Yeah as much as I liked Slumdog Millionaire, the acting was not one of its best qualities.

[Rowland]

Vadim Rizov's Top and Bottom 10's. (http://www.thehousenextdooronline.com/2009/01/top-10-films-of-2008.html)

Kudos for the Step Brothers/Diary of the Dead/Tropic Thunder hate, and for citing both Speed Racer and My Blueberry Nights as underrated.

Walter Chaw and co. with their Top 10's. (http://filmfreakcentral.net/toptens/top102008.htm)

So many movies to catch up with...

[Ivan Drago]

Walter Chaw and co. with their Top 10's. (http://filmfreakcentral.net/toptens/top102008.htm)

Cloverfield at #4? Awesome.

Just out of interest, has Armond White came out with a best 10 list yet?

[Pop Trash]

Cloverfield at #4? Awesome.

Just out of interest, has Armond White came out with a best 10 list yet?
I saw a top something from him and I believe Happy Go Lucky and Rachel Getting Married were on the list. Not too much of surprise since Mike Leigh and Jonathan Demme are on his list of directors it's "OK" to like along with Spielberg and Wes Anderson.

[chrisnu]

I've only seen 7 of their 20. All good.
I've only seen one. Cripes. At least I have a list to go off of, once these hit DVD.

[Ezee E]

PGA Nominations, and most likely the Best Picture nominations:

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

[NickGlass]

PGA Nominations, and most likely the Best Picture nominations:

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

I suppose I prefer it to Slumdog and The Dark Knight, but Frost/Nixon is such a waste of a nomination.

[Ezee E]

I suppose I prefer it to Slumdog and The Dark Knight, but Frost/Nixon is such a waste of a nomination.
Indeed. There's always one though.

[Watashi]

The PGA has never match-up 5 for 5 for the Oscars.

I think Frost/Nixon gets bumped off.

[Ezee E]

The PGA has never match-up 5 for 5 for the Oscars.

I think Frost/Nixon gets bumped off.
Wall-E? The Wrestler?

Hopefully not The Reader... I haven't seen it, but it looks pretty lame.

Revolutionary Road?

[NickGlass]

The PGA has never match-up 5 for 5 for the Oscars.


Not recently, but the PGA and Academy went 5 for 5 in 1992, 1993 and 1994.

[transmogrifier]

IT ALWAYS COMES down to this: Movies you must experience versus movies that threaten to diminish you. That’s the point of making a Better-Than List rather than pretending that the typical over-hyped product constitutes a consensus of worthwhile movies. Most of these high-profile films insult one’s intelligence, while the year’s best movies vanish from the marketplace for lack of critical support. This tragedy is exemplified by the scary acclaim for the year’s worst: The atrocious Slumdog Millionaire and Pixar’s hideous Wall-E, the buzz-kill movie of all time. Trust no critic who endorses them.

Happy Go Lucky BETTER THAN 4 Months, 3 Weeks, and 2 Days Mike Leigh devises a thoroughly humane heroine (Sally Hawkins) whose anti-capitalist faith (deeper than bourgeois “feminism”) upbraids the pity-party of two abortionhorny Romanian co-eds.

The Witnesses, Jump the Broom BETTER THAN Milk Andre Téchiné’s AIDS history joined Ian-Patrik Polk’s gay-marriage rom-com to show how sexual politics enhance our lives. These films rendered silly the hindsight celebration of an ambitious pol—and the Prop. 8 protests that misread Gus Van Sant’s opportunism.

Rachel Getting Married BETTER THAN Frozen River Jonathan Demme rehearses multi-culti heaven rather than condescend to hard-luck working-class women.

Transporter 3 BETTER THAN The Dark Knight Olivier Megaton, Jason Statham and Luc Besson reinvent the action movie as kinetic art, but impressionable teenagers mistook Chris Nolan’s nihilistic graphic novel for kool fun.

CJ7 BETTER THAN Wall-E Stephen Chow endowed a poor kid’s action figure with numinous potential (a tribute to the still-extraordinary E.T.), while Pixar twisted its standard formula into ugly, end-ofhistory cynicism.

Shotgun Stories BETTER THAN The Wrestler Jeff Nichols’ moving Red State family feud tragedy was ignored by Blue State critics who prefer white-trash WWF stereotypes to encourage their sense of class superiority.

My Blueberry Nights BETTER THAN The Curious Case of Benjamin Button Wong Kar Wai’s visionary romanticism explores existential loneliness, but David Fincher merely remade Titanic as Forrest Gump—an endless, two-hankie Kubrick movie for fanboys.

RocknRolla BETTER THAN Slumdog Millionaire Guy Ritchie comes into his manhood with this rich, Dickensian gangster comedy, while Danny Boyle gives colonialist Britain the last laugh in his epic Indian game-show travesty—a defilement of what Dickens revealed about character and society, humor and pathos.


Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull BETTER THAN Iron Man Steven Spielberg’s par excellence genre expertise wrung fresh amazement out of the Indy Jones franchise; it exposed Iron Man’s dung-like banality.

Gunnin’ For That #1 Spot BETTER THAN Man on Wire Adam Yauch brings fresh imagination to this Rucker Park bball documentary, extolling youth, class and American splendor; the other commemorates an egotistical stunt.

Twilight BETTER THAN Let the Right One In Catherine Hardwicke finds her métier in an outsiders’ romance disguised as a vampire movie; she turns Stephenie Meyer’s book series into a Brontë-esque vision, especially compared to the dismal Scandinavian J-horror rip-off.

Cadillac Records BETTER THAN Synecdoche, New York Darnell Martin treats Black American history as R&B and her sizzling cast (Jeffrey Wright, Beyoncé, Eamonn Walker, Columbus Short, Mos Def, Cedric the Entertainer) salutes pop music legends. Charlie Kaufman’s Actors Studio cast merely imitated Fellini’s 8 1/2 like amateurs.

Chaos Theory BETTER THAN Flight of the Red Balloon Marcos Siega, screenwriter Daniel Taplitz and Ryan Reynolds found beauty in American sex farce, but Hou Hsiao Hsien shortchanged Gallic romanticism into high-brow desolation.

My Winnipeg BETTER THAN Paranoid Park Guy Maddin reinvented his sexual autobiography as a funny, touching sociological history, outclassing Gus Van Sant’s morbid celebration of Northwestern pedophilia.

The Romance of Astrea and Celadon BETTER THAN A Christmas Tale Eric Rohmer, a forgotten master, revives classical lit for an exquisite satire of modern sexual mores (where did he find such beautiful human icons?). But it was Desplechin’s sac c har i ne French-family sob story that got the national release.

Battle for Haditha BETTER THAN Frost/Nixon Nick Broomfield’s inspired treatment of the Iraq War shamed Ron Howard’s revenge-drama, the latest yawn of liberal self selfrighteousness.

Beautiful, just beautiful. Anyone harboring any delusons that Armond White isn't all about buffing his "I'm an Iconolclast!" belt-buckle and looking at himself in the mirror should be cured after reading this hilarious dribble.

[Watashi]

Other than Twilight/Let the Right One In, I don't understand what these movies have in common.

[Boner M]

I'll admit I giggled at the word "abortionhorny".

[transmogrifier]

I'll admit I giggled at the word "abortionhorny".

I told you it was hilarious. Empty calories though, right down the line. White doesn't know what he is talking about. He makes it all up as he goes along.

[Boner M]

I told you it was hilarious. Empty calories though, right down the line. White doesn't know what he is talking about. He makes it all up as he goes along.
Yeah it's funny that he doesn't come out about Wall-E until it's swept the critics awards; especially since it has all the things he usually champions (humanism, the uniting force of pop, etc). It's like he stayed for half the movie and left early so he feel justified in pointing his trademark cynicism-finger (not to be confused with the nihilism-finger, or the sentimentalisation-finger, or the directed-by-David-Fincher-finger).

[Boner M]

The accompanying pic is awesome though:

http://www.nypress.com/imgs/hed/art19237.jpg

[Spinal]

Trust no critic that endorses Wall-E?

That doesn't leave much.

[Boner M]

Trust no critic that endorses Wall-E?

That doesn't leave much.
But it leaves you Armond White!

[Spinal]

The average IMDb reviewer BETTER THAN Armond White

[Ivan Drago]

Transporter 3 BETTER THAN The Dark Knight Olivier Megaton, Jason Statham and Luc Besson reinvent the action movie as kinetic art, but impressionable teenagers mistook Chris Nolan’s nihilistic graphic novel for kool fun.

Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull BETTER THAN Iron Man Steven Spielberg’s par excellence genre expertise wrung fresh amazement out of the Indy Jones franchise; it exposed Iron Man’s dung-like banality.

Twilight BETTER THAN Let the Right One In Catherine Hardwicke finds her métier in an outsiders’ romance disguised as a vampire movie; she turns Stephenie Meyer’s book series into a Brontë-esque vision, especially compared to the dismal Scandinavian J-horror rip-off.


Wow. Whenever I become a movie critic, I do NOT want to end up like this guy. I understand why you guys hate him so much.

[DavidSeven]

Anything BETTER THAN Middle child-esque pleas for attention and notoriety.

[Ezee E]

For funs and gigles.

BFCA Predictions:
BFCA;
Best Picture - Slumdog Millionaire
Best Director: Christopher Nolan
Best Actor: Sean Penn
Best Actress: Anne Hathaway
Best Supporting Actor: Heath Ledger
Best Supporting Actress: Penelope Cruz
Best Ensemble: Milk
Best Writer: Dustin Lance Black
Best ANimated: Wall-E
Best Young Actor: David Kross
Best Action Movie: The Dark Knight
Best Comedy: Vicky Cristina Barcelona
Best Foreign Language Film: Gomorrah
Best Documentary: I.O.U.S.A.
Best Song: The Wrestler
Best Composer: Slumdog Millionaire

[Watashi]

DGA Nominations:

Gus Van Sant, Milk
Ron Howard, Frost/Nixon
David Fincher, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
Christopher Nolan, The Dark Knight
Danny Boyle, Slumdog Millionaire

[Derek]

DGA Nominations:

Gus Van Sant, Milk
Ron Howard, Frost/Nixon
David Fincher, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
Christopher Nolan, The Dark Knight
Danny Boyle, Slumdog Millionaire

http://breathebetterair.com/older-man-napping-in-cha.jpg

[Pop Trash]

My Blueberry Nights BETTER THAN The Curious Case of Benjamin Button Wong Kar Wai’s visionary romanticism explores existential loneliness, but David Fincher merely remade Titanic as Forrest Gump—an endless, two-hankie Kubrick movie for fanboys.

Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull BETTER THAN Iron Man Steven Spielberg’s par excellence genre expertise wrung fresh amazement out of the Indy Jones franchise; it exposed Iron Man’s dung-like banality.



I definately agree with the first one and sorta agree with the second, even though I would hardly call IJ4 "fresh amazement." It's a fun popcorn summer movie though. Don't understand the hate.

[Ezee E]

The lead comedy and best comedy are a tough one to figure out this year.

Mamma Mia? James Franco? Meryl Streep for Mamma Mia as well?

Could happen, but very strange.

[Bosco B Thug]

Beautiful, just beautiful. Anyone harboring any delusons that Armond White isn't all about buffing his "I'm an Iconolclast!" belt-buckle and looking at himself in the mirror should be cured after reading this hilarious dribble. Ugly article, he is a crank. I think Armond's got a good mind with a keen sense of film, it's just too bad his writing is often pompous and inadequate, and when he's blurbing, they just come off as clueless. And he just set the 'Let the Right One In isn't that good' movement back a couple days.

[DavidSeven]

Critics' Choice Award Winners (BFCA):

Best picture: Slumdog Millionaire

Best actor: Sean Penn (Milk)

Best actress (tie): Meryl Streep (Doubt), Anne Hathaway (Rachel Getting Married)

Best director: Danny Boyle (Slumdog Millionaire)

Best writer: Simon Beaufoy (Slumdog Millionaire)

Best supporting actor: Heath Ledger (The Dark Knight)

Best supporting actress: Kate Winslet (The Reader)

Best acting ensemble: Milk

Best young actor: Dev Patel (Slumdog Millionaire)

Best animated feature: Wall-E

Best action movie: The Dark Knight

Best comedy movie: Tropic Thunder

Best foreign language movie: Waltz with Bashir

Best documentary feature: Man on Wire

Best picture made for television: John Adams

Best composer: A.R. Rahman (Slumdog Millionaire)

Best song: Bruce Springsteen (The Wrestler)

[Boner M]

^ =


http://breathebetterair.com/older-man-napping-in-cha.jpg

[Watashi]

Slumdog sweeps the Golden Globes.

There. I saved you three hours.

[NickGlass]

Slumdog sweeps the Golden Globes.

There. I saved you three hours.

Thanks for the heads-up. You saved my carpet.

::grabs another bottle of wine and a garbage pail::

[Watashi]

The love for A.R. Rahman's score on Slumdog is absolutely sickening. Does anyone in Hollywood know what the difference between a score and soundtrack is?

[megladon8]

It's won two awards so far, how is that a sweep? (http://www.imdb.com/)

[Watashi]

It's won two awards so far, how is that a sweep? (http://www.imdb.com/)
It's won every award it's been nominated for and will win the rest. It's a sweep.

[megladon8]

It's won every award it's been nominated for and will win the rest. It's a sweep.


I still don't see how winning two awards is a "sweep".

A sweep was Titanic at the Oscars.

[Spinal]

Lots of likable people getting awards tonight.

[NickGlass]

The love for A.R. Rahman's score on Slumdog is absolutely sickening. Does anyone in Hollywood know what the difference between a score and soundtrack is?

Not if P. Diddy keeps referring to score as "soundtrack," as he did a number of times while presenting the award. I think Rahman felt obligated to thank M.I.A simply because of P. Diddy's multiple flubs.

Also, as you are aware, I'm partial towards drama/foreign films, so why do I like 3/4 of the nominated Musical/Comedy films I've seen and 0/4 of the nominated Drama pictures I've seen?

Screw the HFPA snubbing of Milk; I hope Sean Penn isn't there to except his award as a "fuck you " the Globe's ignorance. That is, unless Mickey Rourke wins, which I would be perfectly fine with as well.

[NickGlass]

Lots of likable people getting awards tonight.

Very true, which makes me wonder what will happen when Best Actor-Drama is announced, since it's between Sean Penn and Mickey Rourke. Maybe they'll decline to award anyone.

[Spinal]

Lots of likable people getting awards tonight.

Never mind.

Colin Farrell won.

[megladon8]

Mickey Rourke is likable.

[Watashi]

Very deserving for Colin but that entire award is pretty much a joke.

[Raiders]

Very deserving for Colin but that entire award is pretty much a joke.

Do you say that because obviously if he didn't have to compete against the #1 seeded film Slumdog Millionaire, it's not a real win?

[Spinal]

Hurrah for ...

Vicky Cristina!

[Watashi]

Happy-Go-Lucky should have won.

Woody has made funnier movies that didn't win before.

[Spinal]

Woody has made funnier movies that didn't win before.

The value of that film is not solely in how funny it is. Although I did find it to be very funny.

[Boner M]

I liked In Bruges, but found Farrell cloying at times. Every other nominee was better (sans Hoffman, who I haven't seen).

[Pop Trash]

I liked In Bruges, but found Farrell cloying at times. Every other nominee was better (sans Hoffman, who I haven't seen).
I totally agree.

Also: Have I mentioned how awesome Sacha Baron Cohen is?

[Pop Trash]

Wooo Mickey Rourke! That was a surprise. I figured Sean Penn would win.

[megladon8]

I wish I could have seen Christopher Nolan's acceptance speech for Heath Ledger's award.

If anyone finds it, there's rep in it for you :)

[Ezee E]

It was actually a pretty enjoyable show for what the Golden Globes typically put out.

I am perfectly fine with A.R. Rahman winning for the score. I've listened to the score/soundtrack, and the part that is the score is still better than any of the others from this year. The music in O...Saya, Riots, etc. Good stuff.

Sally Hawkins won, which is good enough for Happy-Go-Lucky.

Colin Farrell, really? Luckily it is the mostly forgotten about In Bruges. If that helps get the movie seen by more people, fair enough.

Let the Brits host the Oscars sometime. Cohen + Gervais would be gold.

[Ezee E]

I wish I could have seen Christopher Nolan's acceptance speech for Heath Ledger's award.

If anyone finds it, there's rep in it for you :)
Mostly cut and paste from the one he had at the BFCAs. Except they showed a clip to honor him, when he was being investigated by Batman, just before he got his ass kicked.

[Watashi]

It was actually a pretty enjoyable show for what the Golden Globes typically put out.

I am perfectly fine with A.R. Rahman winning for the score. I've listened to the score/soundtrack, and the part that is the score is still better than any of the others from this year. The music in O...Saya, Riots, etc. Good stuff.


You're fucking delusional.

[Pop Trash]

You're fucking delusional.
I agree with Ezee. I had problems with the film and find its by far one of the more overrated of the year but I had zero problem with the music.

[NickGlass]

Too many Slumdog awards. Too much red wine. Unsweet dreams.

[EyesWideOpen]

Colin Farrell's acceptance speech reminded me of Brad Pitt's performance in 12 Monkeys.

The Slumdog backlash is amusing so i can't wait for it to destroy at the oscars to keep the entertainment level here high.

[Boner M]

The Slumdog backlash is amusing so i can't wait for it to destroy at the oscars to keep the entertainment level here high.
Annoying sentence.

[Derek]

Annoying sentence.

You do not take pleasure in marginalizing the opinions of people who disagree with you? This is primary purpose of internet.

I'm going to run off to see what won Golden Globes so I know what to start hating.

[chrisnu]

So I guess I need to see this Slumdog film, eh?

Just seeing Tom Cruise appear is almost becoming intrinsically ironic.

Awards sweeps are always boring. John Adams, 30 Rock, Slumdog, I'm talking to you. Let someone else be recognized, for crying out loud.

The best acceptance speeches were, by far, Mickey Rourke and Kate Winslet's second speech.

[Dead & Messed Up]

I wish I could have seen Christopher Nolan's acceptance speech for Heath Ledger's award.

If anyone finds it, there's rep in it for you :)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ar1qWdpU49g

Funny how quick that went up.

[Dead & Messed Up]

Also, an article (http://articles.latimes.com/2008/jan/11/opinion/oe-waxman11) on the essential uselessness of the Golden Globes, although I assume it's common knowledge to most here.

[megladon8]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ar1qWdpU49g

Funny how quick that went up.


It's been taken down :(

Still, I'll give you rep for the thought :P

[Kurosawa Fan]

I loved Kate Winslett's speech. Very nice.

[megladon8]

I love Kate Winslett. Very nice.


Couldn't agree more.

[lovejuice]

not a big fan of slumdog, but i do like it enough to feel happy. especially on the night kate double scores, and mickey and bruce win their deserving award.

[Spinal]

Guess I'll be the party pooper and say that I am not really fond of award show speeches that are as emotionally out of control as Winslet's was. I have no doubt that she was being sincere, but I thought the speech was indulgent.

[Silencio]

It's been taken down :(

Still, I'll give you rep for the thought :Phttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Iwsf5rL48hs

[Kurosawa Fan]

Guess I'll be the party pooper and say that I am not really fond of award show speeches that are as emotionally out of control as Winslet's was. I have no doubt that she was being sincere, but I thought the speech was indulgent.

I much prefer those to the kind like Annette Benning, that kind of attitude like, yes, I deserved to win this, I was certainly better than everyone else. She was a bit scattered, but I think that has something to do with her history of being nominated but not winning. I'm not positive, but prior to this I think her only award was a SAG award. I think she was prepared to lose again this year, and it really threw her that her name was called.

I just really enjoy when people seem genuinely appreciative and humbled to be given an award.

[Spinal]

In other news ... OMG, you guys! Brangelina snubbed Ryan Seacrest! OMG!

OMG!

[Ezee E]

I much prefer those to the kind like Annette Benning, that kind of attitude like, yes, I deserved to win this, I was certainly better than everyone else. She was a bit scattered, but I think that has something to do with her history of being nominated but not winning. I'm not positive, but prior to this I think her only award was a SAG award. I think she was prepared to lose again this year, and it really threw her that her name was called.

I just really enjoy when people seem genuinely appreciative and humbled to be given an award.
Same here. Which is also why it was nice to see Rourke win as well. Although by the time he started thanking his dogs, it was okay for them to start playing the music.

[Ezee E]

Yeah, Kate hasn't won an award since Sense & Sensibility, where she got a SAG. Outside of that, she's probably gone to 15 award shows over 12 years, losing each time. Granted, she's had a top notch career, but enough losses and you have to get frustrated right?

[Boner M]

Reverse Shot's 11 Offenses of 2008 (http://www.reverseshot.com/article/reverse_shots_11_offenses_2008 )

Only one I'd take issue with is Pineapple Express, though I don't have any defense outside of 'it made me laugh'. Good to see The Wackness and Wanted on there.

[Rowland]

Only one I'd take issue with is Pineapple Express, though I don't have any defense outside of 'it made me laugh'. Strong comedic performances by much of the cast, a laid-back sense of style that is still more cinematic than most of the Apatow output, a pointed critique of marijuana illegalization, visually coherent and dynamic action sequences, a self-consciousness/skewering of buddy-action-film tropes, and a surprising tenderness regarding virtually all of its characters (even the brutal killers just desperately want to go home for dinner with their wives). Hell, the final scene in the diner is one of the most touchingly convincing scenes of friends bonding over shared experiences that I can recall. My primary criticism is actually that it's not as funny as I'd hoped, but this may change with repeat viewings.

[Robby P]

I didn't find Pineapple Express homophobic in the slightest. I didn't think it was very funny, but I sure didn't find it offensive or demeaning.

[Spinal]

Reverse Shot's 11 Offenses of 2008 (http://www.reverseshot.com/article/reverse_shots_11_offenses_2008 )


Love the pot shot at Rob Marshall.

[Pop Trash]

Reverse Shot's 11 Offenses of 2008 (http://www.reverseshot.com/article/reverse_shots_11_offenses_2008 )

Only one I'd take issue with is Pineapple Express, though I don't have any defense outside of 'it made me laugh'. Good to see The Wackness and Wanted on there.
Their dis on Pineapple Express is incredibly lame. It's fine to not think the movie is all that but the homophobic accusations are just :confused:

[Pop Trash]

Also, they need to switch out The Dark Knight with Benjamin Button. Getting the new Film Comment and having Kent Jones/Gavin Smith/Amy Taubin trying to convince everyone that it's a masterpiece and not Forrest Gump with lusher cinematography made me :frustrated: Are they on David Fincher's payroll or something?

[Watashi]

I liked 4 of those 11.

[Boner M]

The only possible homophobia in PE that I can think of is the scene where Rogen warns his gf that she'll end up going to college and becoming a lesbian. All the intimations between Franco and Rogen were just a playful skewering of 80's action film homoeroticism.

[Watashi]

If anything, the Apatow productions endorse homoeroticism with all their trademark dick shots. They love their full-frontal male nudity.

[NickGlass]

Finalists for Best Foreign Language Film Oscar:

Austria, “Revanche” (Gotz Spielmann, director)
Canada, “The Necessities of Life” (Benoit Pilon, director)
France, “The Class” (Laurent Cantet, director)
Germany, “The Baader Meinhof Complex” (Uli Edel, director)
Israel, “Waltz with Bashir” (Ari Folman, director)
Japan, “Departures” (Yojiro Takita, director)
Mexico, “Tear This Heart Out” (Roberto Sneider, director)
Sweden, “Everlasting Moments” (Jan Troell, director)
Turkey, “3 Monkeys” (Nuri Bilge Ceylan, director)

After the embarrassing snaffo last year, I'm so, so relieved The Class is still in the race; I thought it might be too fluid, layered and subtle for the Academy. I have not yet seen Gomorrah so I can not complain about it's snub; I do look forward to seeing it in February if the distributor doesn't back down because they didn't make this shortlist (shouldn't be much of a problem, though, since Scorsese is a part of its U.S. distribution)

[Ezee E]

No Gomorrah? Shame on them. Although not much is new when it comes to their Foreign and Documentary rules.

The Class will get nominated.

But Waltz will win. That was obvious though.

[Boner M]

I'm not too surprised by Gomorrah's snub, actually. It's a pretty audience-unfriendly film, to say nothing of the the Academy.

[transmogrifier]

Pineapple Express is the second best film of the year. Reverse Shot don't know shit.

[Rowland]

Reverse Shot's Get Over It (http://www.reverseshot.com/article/get_over_it2008) column, my personal favorite of their year-end round-ups. Yay for Happy-Go-Lucky, Tropic Thunder, and Diary of the Dead.

[Pop Trash]

Reverse Shot's Get Over It (http://www.reverseshot.com/article/get_over_it2008) column, my personal favorite of their year-end round-ups. Yay for Happy-Go-Lucky, Tropic Thunder, and Diary of the Dead.
Dear Movie Fans,

Hey remember how we listed a bunch of movies we thought were crappy? Well here's some more! Everything sucks!

Sincerely,
Reverse Shot

[Melville]

Dear Movie Fans,

Hey remember how we listed a bunch of movies we thought were crappy? Well here's some more! Everything sucks!

Sincerely,
Reverse Shot
Not nearly smug or snide enough.

[Rowland]

Dear Movie Fans,

Hey remember how we listed a bunch of movies we thought were crappy? Well here's some more! Everything sucks!

Sincerely,
Reverse ShotThey don't all agree on the choices. Note how there are different authors for each perspective. Over a dozen critics write for Reverse Shot. Happy-Go-Lucky and Silent Light were also featured in their top ten for the year.