The Center Seat

As of last night, I've finally done it! I've had the chance to screen every movie that's nominated for a major Academy Award this year. And so, here you go: my Oscar picks for 2009.


Best Picture

Nominees: The Curious Case of Benjamin Button ~ Frost/Nixon ~ Milk ~ Slumdog Millionaire ~ The Reader

Who will win: Slumdog Millionaire. It's an underdog that's not under anything anymore. It's got 10 nominations overall, and has largely swept the awards circuit, getting major awards from BAFTA, the Golden Globes, the National Board of Review, the Producers Guild, the Screen Actors Guild, and the Writers Guild, among others. Plus, it's a great flick. This won't break my heart.

Who should win: The Curious Case of Benjamin Button. Despite everything I just said, Benjamin Button was the film that captured my heart this year. I've heard a lot of people deride this movie as slow, weird, the second Forrest Gump... whatever. It was beautiful, and it touched me. That plus Cate Blanchett is all I need for a Best Picture. Besides, it didn't end with jazz hands. WTF, Slumdog?


Best Director

Nominees: David Fincher for The Curious Case of Benjamin Button ~ Ron Howard for Frost/Nixon ~ Gus Van Sant for Milk ~ Danny Boyle for Slumdog Millionaire ~ Stephen Daldry for The Reader

Who will win: Danny Boyle. Besides the fact that Oscar likes to give Best Director and Best Picture to the same film, Boyle really did do a fantastic job with this one. On the other hand, it's cool that Stephen Daldry has gotten his third nomination...for his third film! No other director of at least three films has ever been nominated by the Academy for his entire body of work. Even so, Daldry will have to be happy with that. The Oscar goes to Boyle.

Who should win: David Fincher. Everything fit so well together in this movie: the flow of the story, the performance of the actors, the special effects, the overall feel. It was seamless, and for that I give credit to Fincher.


Best Actor

Nominees: Richard Jenkins for The Visitor ~ Frank Langella for Frost/Nixon ~ Sean Penn for Milk ~ Brad Pitt for The Curious Case of Benjamin Button ~ Mickey Rourke for The Wrestler

Who will win: Mickey Rourke. Everyone loves a comeback. And I'm thinking a lot of people just want to see what he'll do at the podium when he wins.

Who should win: Sean Penn. In all honesty, I think Sean Penn is kind of a tool. He's one of those people who takes himself way too seriously. But he can act. And he did a great job acquainting us with the flawed, brilliant, trailblazing Harvey Milk. Though I'm not a fan of his, Sean Penn did his job, and he deserves to be rewarded for it.


Best Actress

Nominees: Anne Hathaway for Rachel Getting Married ~ Angelina Jolie for Changeling ~ Melissa Leo for Frozen River ~ Meryl Streep for Doubt ~ Kate Winslet for The Reader

Who will win: Kate Winslet. She's been previously nominated for her acting five times, and has yet to win an Oscar. Besides, her performance was brilliant, conflicted, and moving. I'll be happy for her.

Who should win: Angelina Jolie. I have similar feelings for Ms. Jolie as I do for Sean Penn: not a big fan of her personally, but I can't deny her acting ability. She knocked me on my ass in Changeling. By the way, I'd also be thrilled if Anne Hathaway took this one home. Her performance was powerful, touching, and (it may seem weird to say this about an Oscar nominee) underrated.


Best Supporting Actor

Nominees: Josh Brolin for Milk ~ Robert Downey, Jr. for Tropic Thunder ~ Philip Seymour Hoffman for Doubt ~ Heath Ledger for The Dark Knight ~ Michael Shannon for Revolutionary Road

Who will win: Heath Ledger. It was an astounding, buzzed-about performance before Ledger's tragic death, and when he passed on, it became legendary. Voters will want to give him the Oscar he should have received for Brokeback Mountain.

Who should win: Heath Ledger. OK, I'll go along with that.


Best Supporting Actress

Nominees: Amy Adams for Doubt ~ Penelope Cruz for Vicky Cristina Barcelona ~ Viola Davis for Doubt ~ Taraji P. Henson for The Curious Case of Benjamin Button ~ Marisa Tomei for The Wrestler

Who will win: Viola Davis. She's a long-respected theater actress, and she blew our minds with just one scene. She managed to take a position which was unthinkable and make it relatable.

Who should win: Amy Adams. Same movie, not as flashy... but perfect. Plus, I gotta root for my hometown girl.


Best Original Screenplay

Nominees: Courtney Hunt for Frozen River ~ Mike Leigh for Happy-Go-Lucky ~ Martin McDonagh for In Bruges ~ Dustin Lance Black for Milk ~ Andrew Stanton, Jim Reardon, and Pete Docter for WALL-E

Who will win: Dustin Lance Black. The Academy won't want Milk to go home empty-handed, and Best Actor is not necessarily a lock for Sean Penn.

Who should win: Andrew Stanton, Jim Reardon, and Pete Docter. A story almost without dialogue that moved audiences so profoundly; this hasn't happened since The Red Balloon.


Best Adapted Screenplay

Nominees: Eric Roth and Robin Swicord for The Curious Case of Benjamin Button ~ John Patrick Shanley for Doubt ~ Peter Morgan for Frost/Nixon ~ David Hare for The Reader ~ Simon Beaufoy for Slumdog Millionaire

Who will win: Simon Beaufoy. Slumdog'll sweep it.

Who should win: David Hare. I was a fan of the book, The Reader, and Hare didn't make me hate the film. It's a rare achievement (adapted screenwriting is harder than anything most of us will ever do), and it should be rewarded.


Best Animated Film

Nominees: Bolt ~ Kung Fu Panda ~ WALL-E

Who will win: WALL-E. Pixar has never made a bad film; in fact, they seem to get better and better. This romantic, touching fable deserves an Oscar sweep.

Who should win: WALL-E.

So, there you have it. Tune in Sunday night to see how it all unfolds... and then come back here next week to see me gloat... or, more likely, take my lumps. ...Click here for the rest of this tasty post.

Yeah. I know. I'm massively late.

That tends to happen when I see a movie and can't bring myself to talk about it. Sometimes that's because my love for the movie runs so deeply (see: Forgetting Sarah Marshall), and sometimes it has more to do with a sense of disappointment, which ends up morphing into indifference.

That's the case here.

Before The Dark Knight's debut, buzz was running higher than I've ever seen it in my short tenure as a film geek. I was excited, too, but there was a definite vein of skepticism running through it. Obviously a big cause of that buzz is, of course, Heath Ledger's stunning performance followed by his untimely death. Hey, I was stunned by the trailers, too. I thought it looked great before he died. But then the tragedy came, and people were all jumping on the bandwagon, yelling, "Oscar!" As nice as that sounds, if he gets that Oscar I want it to be for the right reasons (a career-topping performance), not because of sympathy, or regret. That way it can be a real victory, undiminished by legitimate criticism. It's sad that a great performance may have been overshadowed by all this hysteria.

I hate to do it, people, but we need to get real. Heath Ledger was a fantastic actor. One of my favorites of all time. He almost always delivered a stellar, mind-blowing performance, from 10 Things I Hate About You, to A Knight's Tale, to The Dark Knight. But in my opinion, none of that, even his turn as the Joker, even came close to Brokeback Mountain. That performance actually haunted me for a few days. I'm really sorry, but Dark Knight is no Brokeback.

Others have been saying The Dark Knight was the best movie of 2008, or even the GREATEST MOVIE EVER. Not so. Sorry. It's a superhero movie. It's a good superhero movie, but it never reaches beyond the conventions and limitations of that genre. You always know what's coming... you can sit in the theater and say, OK, we're only an hour into it, so there will be about 3 more suspenseful climaxes....

And I'm sorry, but Christian Bale's voice modulation whenever he put that suit on was super-distracting. It's like the second he got in that mask, he needed to get his Darth Vader on too. I think the role would have been far more interesting if he had lost that weird affectation.

Now, I don't want you to think I didn't like this movie. I did. Ledger was great. Gyllenhaal was great. Freeman was great. Eckhart was great. Oldman was great. Bale was great (except for the whole voice thing). Et cetera.

It truly was, by far, better than any of the pre-Batman Begins Batman stuff. But it was not the best movie of 2008. Perspective, people. ...Click here for the rest of this tasty post.

Remember when you were a little kid, and you got in an argument with a playground rival, and there came a point when you resorted to sticking your fingers in your ears and yelling "La, la, la, la, la..." at the top of your lungs?

I'm nearly 30, and I've found myself doing that repeatedly over the last week or so.

This is the problem. Nathaniel. He's so great. We're going to see The Dark Knight on Sunday at noon. Now, those of you who know me even a little bit can see right away how much I like this guy... otherwise, there's no way in hell I'd wait so long to see a movie that's so highly anticipated, and so much of a sure thing, on top of essentially being Heath Ledger's swan song. But I am waiting--and I don't mind--except...

Except that The Dark Knight is EVERYWHERE. A quick search of my Google Reader reveals no less than 121 Batman-related items. That's thanks, in large part, to Big Mike's Movie Blog, which has been running a Batman Blogathon (if you're not at a Batman overload stage, you really should check him out; he's a fantastic blogger), though everyone's been hyping it up, from Slate to EW. (I'm actually adding to the hype too, huh? Irony. Hm.)

I'm one of those people who would prefer to have absolutely no information prior to a movie viewing; too much hype can kill my enjoyment of a film. So I've been avoiding Batman like he's the Ebola virus, but since this is such a monstrous story, that's damn near impossible.

Yesterday I was watching "The Today Show" in bed, as per my usual routine, when they announced they were going to review The Dark Knight in the next segment. Groaning, I dragged my ass out of bed and went into the bathroom. I turned on my radio, and my favorite morning people were--you guessed it--discussing The Dark Knight. Ugh. I got ready for work in silence. It was maddening, to say the least.

So it's Friday, and The Dark Knight is actually in theaters. Now I have to avoid friends as well as media, and all my favorite bloggers... until Sunday. I suppose I could sneak into a theater and see it early... but, no, I can't do that. Nathaniel reads this blog (hi, cutie), so he would know. And I really am looking forward to seeing a fantastic movie with an equally fantastic guy. I don't know, maybe a little self-denial is good for me?

And of course you know as soon as I've seen it, Batman will be splashed all over this blog too. So I don't know what my point is. Maybe I just needed to whine a bit. ...Click here for the rest of this tasty post.

Looks like Heath Ledger's final role in The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus will be completed by three actors: Johnny Depp, Colin Farrell, and Jude Law.

Read the whole story here.

Uhh... really? This could be either really good, or really bad. The producers say that "each of the parts played by Johnny, Colin and Jude is representative of the many aspects of the character that Heath was playing." So, are we going for an I'm Not There thing?

Please, please, please don't fug this one up.

I'm a very naughty girl. I have The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford sitting in its Netflix envelope on my coffee table, untouched. I caucussed yesterday, so maybe I have an excuse? I'll try to get to it tomorrow; tonight, Captain Crash and I are catching an advance screening of Taxi to the Dark Side.

I did see No End In Sight this weekend, though. The critics all seemed to love it (a rare "A" rating from Entertainment Weekly and a 94% on the Tomatometer), and Mark Harris of EW's back page feature wrote a full column just on why this movie was a must-see. That's generally more than enough to get me to throw it on my Netflix queue, but then it got its very own Oscar nod for Best Documentary Feature. OK, done deal.



I don't know what I was expecting. This was the year I saw Sicko and Ghosts of Abu Ghraib... so I was braced for another angry documentary, bellowing for political change. Instead, it was more like a cool-headed History Channel presentation. No End In Sight walks the viewer carefully, methodically, almost dispassionately, through the myriad mistakes that transformed the liberation of Iraq into a violent insurgency, and then civil war. There was no political posturing, just a cold recounting of events. Of course it made me angry (how could it not?), but the facts were presented in such a calm, matter-of-fact way that the anger came from inside me, not from the words of the filmmakers.

Even if you have what Mark Harris calls "outrage fatigue", you've got to see this movie. It's not outrage ... It's just chilling, distilled truth.

P.S. The press are reporting that Heath Ledger died of an accidental overdose from prescription medication. We all knew he wouldn't have left his little girl on purpose, but it's nice to have it confirmed. Such a devastating tragedy... there will always be a Heath-shaped hole in American cinema. Rest in peace. ...Click here for the rest of this tasty post.

WHAT???? NO!!!!!
Heath Ledger is dead.