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

• Best Film: Slumdog Millionaire

• Best Director: David Fincher, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button

• Best Actor: Clint Eastwood, Gran Torino

• Best Actress: Anne Hathaway, Rachel Getting Married

• Best Supporting Actor: Josh Brolin, Milk

• Best Supporting Actress: Penelope Cruz, Vicky Cristina Barcelona

• Best Foreign Foreign Language Film: Mongol

• Best Documentary: Man on Wire

• Best Animated Feature: WALL-E

• Best Ensemble Cast: Doubt

• Breakthrough Performance by an Actor: Dev Patel, Slumdog Millionaire

• Breakthrough Performance by an Actress: Viola Davis, Doubt

• Best Directorial Debut: Courtney Hunt, Frozen River

• Best Original Screenplay: Nick Schenk, Gran Torino

• Best Adapted Screenplay: Simon Beaufoy, Slumdog Millionaire and Eric
Roth, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button

• Spotlight Award: Melissa Leo, Frozen River and Richard Jenkins, The Visitor

• The BVLGARI Award for NBR Freedom of Expression: Trumbo

• 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 and Andrew Sarris

[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

[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. ritch:

[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)