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Macresarf1's 82nd ACADEMY AWARD PREDICTIONS -- From a Distance.Mar 06 '10 (Updated Mar 08 '10) Write an essay on this topic.The Bottom Line Once again, BAMBO-BAMBO and I admire our First Love: THE OSCARS. This year, we've seen few of the Nominees. Advantage? Check back next week: see how we do. =========== Every year for going on ten years now, as some of you will remember, my old friend and colleague BAMBO-BAMBO and I have been having a competion for lunch over the Oscars. This year, for various physical or financial reasons I won't go into, neither of us have seen as many of the films nominated for the 82nd Academy Awards as we might have liked to. [In my case, I've only seen one or two!] In other words, both of us are at a rare advantage for making predictions that we might not have had in previous years. ============ Here's the deal: I have taken the selections made by Mick LaSalle, the distinguished and (I'm always surprised to say) controversial critic of the San Francisco Chronicle, and added to them my own perceptions and prejudices. I've sent these to BAMBO-BAMBO, who has promised to add his own selections to mine and send them back to me. Sometime later, after Sunday, March 7, 2010, I shall post the yearly postmortem on who gets the free lunch. I'll be happy, however it turns out, just of see my wonderful old friend again, hopefully here in San Francisco. Meanwhile, let me say, for my part, I like neither the work of James Cameron nor Quentin Tarantino, but not having seen the work of either nominated, I can be more objective about their chances. We'll see how it works out! The BIG SEPTEMBER LUNCH for Macresarf1 and BAMBO-BAMBO is at steak [sic], when the BEST FRIEND(s) FOREVER cast bread upon the waters of San Francisco Bay. [Thank you for the card, BAMBO-BAMBO. And thank you for all you've ever done for me -- especially, for your friendship. Love you, man!] Onward! The (s) & (w) are the picks of Mick LaSalle of the SF Chronicle. We shall use (M) -- for me, and (B) -- for BAM [to be added later], just our choices for who will win. =========== Key: (s) - should win (LaSalle) (w) - will win (LaSalle) (M) - Macresarf1 (B) - BAMBOBAMBO [to be added at the Oscar postmortem] =========== 1) Picture: "Avatar" - (w) "The Blind Side" "District 9" "An Education" "The Hurt Locker" (M) "Inglourious Basterds" - (s) "Precious: Based on the Novel 'Push' by Sapphire" "A Serious Man" "Up" "Up in the Air" [THE HURT LOCKER is just about the only film nominated that I've seen this year. I saw it by accident, in the summer, when it came and went in San Francisco without much box office. I thought it was superb!] ***** 2) Director "Avatar" James Cameron "The Hurt Locker" Kathryn Bigelow - (w) (M) "Inglourious Basterds" Quentin Tarantino - (s) "Precious: Based on the Novel'Push' by Sapphire" Lee Daniels "Up in the Air" Jason Reitman [Once again, I think that Kathryn Bigelow could hardly be bested. James Cameron, "the King of the World," and Quentin Tarantino, the biggest blowhard in Movie History, may or may not cancel each other out. Lee Daniels looks like a comer, but this is his first film on the ground.] ***** 3) Actor Jeff Bridges in "Crazy Heart" - (w) (M) George Clooney in "Up in the Air" - (s) Colin Firth in "A Single Man" Morgan Freeman in "Invictus" Jeremy Renner in "The Hurt Locker" [I thought Jeremy Renner, a jaunty Jimmy Cagney-type, was astonding in THE HURT LOCKER, but he is a first-timer. My son, Guy, actually saw CRAZY HEART, and he loved Jeff Bridges' performance. That's good enough for me.] ****** 4) Supporting actor Matt Damon in "Invictus" Woody Harrelson in "The Messenger" Christopher Plummer in "The Last Station" Stanley Tucci in "The Lovely Bones" Christoph Waltz in "Inglourious Basterds" - (s) (w) (M) [Not having seen any of these films, I would love to give this award to either Christopher Plummer (who should have had one years ago) or to Woody Harrelson (who really takes chances in a variety of worthy pictures), but I'll agree with most critics that Christoph Waltz (doing a George Sanders) is what saves INGLOURIOUS BASTERDS from being simply an absurd exercise in historical fantasy (of the kind which has gotten us into the mess we are in today). ***** 5) Actress Sandra Bullock in "The Blind Side" - (w) Helen Mirren in "The Last Station" Carey Mulligan in "An Education" Gabourey Sidibe in "Precious: Based on the Novel 'Push' by Sapphire" Meryl Streep in "Julie & Julia" - (s) (M} [Even though there are strong arguments for the other nominees, and though nostalgia is not what it was in Hollywood, I think the oft nominated Meryl Streep is due for this Oscar.] ***** 6) Supporting actress Penélope Cruz in "Nine" Vera Farmiga in "Up in the Air" Maggie Gyllenhaal in "Crazy Heart" Anna Kendrick in "Up in the Air" Mo'Nique in "Precious: Based on the Novel 'Push' by Sapphire" - (s) (w) (M) [Because I did see Penelope Cruz in NINE, and because Vera Farmiga (always a favorite of mine) and Anna Kendrick cancel each other out in UP IN THE AIR, I believe Mo'Nique, in quite an amazing transformation, deserves the Oscar in PRECIOUS: BASED ON THE NOVEL PUSH BY SAPPHIRE.] ***** 7) Adapted screenplay "District 9" "An Education" - (w) "In the Loop" "Precious: Based on the Novel 'Push' by Sapphire" (M) "Up in the Air" - (s) [Once again, on the face of it, the difficult adaptation of the novel, Push, seems to me to deserve recognition.] ***** 8) Original screenplay "The Hurt Locker" (M) "Inglourious Basterds" - (s) (w) "The Messenger" "A Serious Man" "Up" [Let me see: Mick LaSalle believes that Tarantino's screenplay, which will teach a generation of ignorant teenagers that the Nazi Leadership, including Hitler, were assassinated in a Paris movie theater in 1944, deserves and WILL get the Oscar . . . Wow! A SERIOUS MAN, a screenplay by the Coen Brothers, should (as usual) get the Award, but I'm going down the line with THE HURT LOCKER. It's a screenplay tight and engrossing as any war drum!] ***** 9) Cinematography "Avatar" - (w) (M) "Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince" "The Hurt Locker" - (s) "Inglourious Basterds" "The White Ribbon" [There would seem to be no argument here.] ***** 10) Costume design "Bright Star" "Coco before Chanel "The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus" "Nine" - (s) (w) "The Young Victoria" (M) [NINE has one good sequence, and its merit depends on Fergie, not any of the costumes, there or in the rest of the film. Costumes, to me, mean THE YOUNG VICTORIA.] ***** 11) Animated feature "Coraline" - (s) "Fantastic Mr. Fox" (M) "The Princess and the Frog" "The Secret of Kells" "Up" - (w) [Animation is not my thing, but it is probably the future of Movies, as we all become, increasingly Androids, but my only serious Artiste friend, Eugenio de Arnal, liked THE FANTASIC MR. FOX. That's good enough for me.] ***** 12) Art direction "Avatar" (M) "The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus" "Nine" "Sherlock Holmes" "The Young Victoria" [Again, there seems little argument about the technical skills on display.] ***** 13) Documentary feature "Burma VJ" "The Cove" "Food, Inc." - (s) (w) (M) "The Most Dangerous Man in America: Daniel Ellsberg and the Pentagon Papers" "Which Way Home" [I would normally be drawn to THE MOST DANGEROUS MAN IN AMERICA: DANIEL ELLSBERG AND THE PENTAGON PAPERS, but my sense is that America is not only drifting but careening toward Fascism now, and that Daniel Ellsberg, a true Patriot of his time, is now "old news." "Time to Move On," you know, toward the Abys? We are more concerned today about our waistlines and health, perhaps rightly so, despite the fact that to correct our deadly diets would get in the way of Profit. And, therefore, is not going to happen. Still, it's nice that FOOD, INC, could get a theatrical release. Shows how confident the Big Food is that most of us will continue to gobble swill!] ***** 14) Documentary short "China's Unnatural Disaster: The Tears of Sichuan Province" "The Last Campaign of Gov. Booth Gardner" "The Last Truck: Closing of a GM Plant" (M) "Music by Prudence" "Rabbit À la Berlin" [This may be the only choice of mine that I don't think has much chance to win. It would be better for me to bet on the German Rabbit at the Berlin Wall!] ***** 15) Editing "Avatar" - (w) (M) "District 9" "The Hurt Locker" - (s) "Inglourious Basterds" "Precious: Based on the Novel 'Push' by Sapphire" [Right! If it's technical, AVATAR should win.] ***** 16) Foreign-language film "Ajami" Israel "The Milk of Sorrow (La Teta Asustada)" Peru "A Prophet (Un Prophète)" France - (s) (w) "The Secret in Their Eyes (El Secreto de Sus Ojos)" Argentina "The White Ribbon (Das Weisse Band)" Germany (M) [I've heard good things about A PROPHET (UN PROPHETE), but in this case, paradoxically, I think that a hundred year-old parable about how Germans became Nazis trumps a picture about how we are creating our own "contraries" today! Go figure, indeed.] ***** 17) Makeup "Il Divo" "Star Trek" "The Young Victoria" (M) [I can't understand why AVATAR is not here, since it is the technical excellence that lures one toward the film, right from first glance. In a lackluster trio [why only three?], THE YOUNG VICTORIA seems to have the nod.] ***** 18) Original score "Avatar" - (w) (M) "Fantastic Mr. Fox" "The Hurt Locker" - (s) "Sherlock Holmes" "Up" [I can't remember the score for THE HURT LOCKER, which is perhaps why it is so good. I'll go with the crowd on this one: AVATAR.] ***** 19) Sound editing "Avatar" - (w) (M) "The Hurt Locker" "Inglourious Basterds" - (s) "Star Trek" "Up" [Ditto!] ***** 20) Visual effects "Avatar" - (s) (w) (M) "District 9" "Star Trek" [Ditto . . . DITTO!] =============== See you all next week to find out who is buying who lunch in September! I'm rooting for BAMBO-BAMBO!  |
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