NBR "Winners" - Hilarity

The National Board of Review announced their winners today, and I got a definite chuckle out of them. Oh, NBR how you make me laugh! The winners are:

Picture: Slumdog Millionaire - I'm guessing a Best Pic Oscar nom is almost locked
Director: David Fincher, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button

Actor: Clint Eastwood, Gran Turino - the Eastwood starf***ing continues
Actress: Anne Hathaway, Rachel Getting Married - a needed boost
Supporting Actor: Josh Brolin, Milk - could there be two Supp. Actor Oscar noms for Milk?
Supporting Actress: Penelope Cruz, Vicky Cristina Barcelona

Original Screenplay: Gran Turino - more Eastwood starf***king
Adapted Screenplay: The Curious Case of Benjamin Button

Foreign Language Film: Mongol
Documentary: Man On Fire
Animated Film: WALL-E - yeah
Ensemble Cast: Doubt - "we have to give it something"

Breakthrough Actor: Dev Patel, Slumdog Millionaire
Breakthrough Actress: Viola Davis, Doubt - even though she's been in how many movies
Directorial Debut: Courtney Hunt, Frozen River - good for them, recognizing new female directors

Spotlight Award: Melissa Leo, Frozen River & Richard Jenkins, The Visitor - it's funny how some years they'll just make up an award to bestow upon performances they don't have the nerve to give the actual Best Actor/Actress award to

Top Ten: including two Eatwood films
Burn After Reading
Changeling
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
The Dark Knight
Defiance
Frost/Nixon
Gran Turino
Milk
WALL-E
The Wrestler

Brief Comments on the Grammy Noms

The Grammy nominations were handed out yesterday, and to be perfectly honest, I'm not really a big fan of the Grammys as an awards body. Out of the four main awards, Oscars, Emmys, Tonys and Grammys, there the biggest joke, with the Emmys often a close second. I may have my grudges against the Oscars and their chosen winners, but they sometimes get it right, making surprise decisions, and even when they don't, the winners still reflect the time period in which they won. That cannot be said about the Grammys. Seriously does anyone consider Herbie Hancock's album one of the best of last year, or does anyone actually think it's relevant to the current music industry? No, of course not, but it still managed to pull an Album of the Year win over Kanye West and Amy Winehouse, not to mention all the great artists who weren't even nominated. Anyway, this year's nominees for Album are Coldplay, Ne-Yo, Lil' Wayne, Radiohead and Robert Plant & Alison Krauss. So I guess we can all assume Robert Plant and Alison Krauss will win this. Although, to be fair, their album did receive some great reviews, so it wouldn't be a total "WTF seriously" win. Is there anything I'm happy about, when it comes to this years nominees? Well I'm happy for the Duffy, Estelle, and Adele noms, but the three nominations that actually made me smile and chuckle were M.I.A.'s "Paper Planes" for Record of the Year, Rufus Wainwright's Rufus Does Judy at Carnegie Hall for Best Traditional Pop Album, and Kathy Griffin's For Your Consideration for Best Comedy Album. Those three made me happy.

Happy Belated Birthday to Woody Allen

I completely forgot Woody Allen's birthday was on Monday. For a man who just turned 73, he's still surprisingly active, making films that can receive kudos - Vicky Cristina Barcelona, Match Point. Allen is one of my favorite directors ever, right up there with Hitchcock, Wilder and Altman. So in honor of his birthday and career, here are my ten favorite Woody Allen films, all worthy of receiving a grade of A- or higher in my opinion.

1. Manhattan (1979)
2. The Purple Rose of Cairo (1985)
3. Interiors (1978)
4. Hannah and Her Sisters (1986)
5. Crimes and Misdemeanors (1989)
6. Annie Hall (1977)
7. Bullets Over Broadway (1994)
8. Match Point (2004)
9. Everyone Says I Love You (1996)
10. Sleeper (1973)

Indie Spirit Nominations

The Independent Spirit Award Nominations were announced yesterday, with Ballast, Frozen River and Rachel Getting Married leading the pack with six noms apiece. The nominees for the main categories were:

Best Feature:
Ballast
Frozen River
Rachel Getting Married
Wendy and Lucy
The Wrestler

Best Director:
Ramin Bahrani - Chop Shop
Jonathan Demme - Rachel Getting Married
Lance Hammer - Ballast
Courtney Hunt - Frozen River
Tom McCarthy - The Visitor

Best Female Lead:
Summer Bishil - Towelhead
Anne Hathaway - Rachel Getting Married
Melissa Leo - Frozen River
Tarra Riggs - Ballast
Michelle Williams - Wendy and Lucy

Best Male Lead:
Javier Bardem - Vicky Cristina Barcelona
Richard Jenkins - The Visitor
Sean Penn - Milk
Jeremy Renner - The Hurt Locker
Mickey Rourke - The Wrestler

Best Supporting Female:
Penelope Cruz - Vicky Cristina Barcelona
Rosemarie DeWitt - Rachel Getting Married
Rosie Perez - The Take
Misty Upham - Frozen River
Debra Winger - Rachel Getting Married

Best Supporting Male:
James Franco - Milk
Anthony Mackie - The Hurt Locker
Charlie McDermott - Frozen River
Jim Myron Ross - Ballast
Haaz Sleiman - The Visitor

Best Screenplay:
Sangre De Mi Sangre
Savage Grace
Sugar
Synecdoche, New York
Vicky Cristina Barcelona

Notable omissions include no Best Picture nod for The Visitor, no Best Female for Julianne Moore in Savage Grace, no Best Director for Darren Aronofsky for The Wrestler, and no Best Supporting for Josh Brolin in Milk. The biggest surprise, however, were the lack of Best Picture and Director nods for Milk, especially since Gus van Sant gets nominated for almost every movie he does. I suppose the people who decide the nominations could have felt the film would already receive attention by the Academy, and it didn't need the extra help. Although you would think that the indie community would have wanted to make a statement against Prop 8, by using the film. I don't know.

Is Batista Scary or Sexy?

Seriously. If I were to ever meet him in person, I don't know if I'd want to run away from him or jump in his arms. Maybe he's just scary sexy! If you've ever caught a glimpse of pro-wrestling on TV, you have to admit it's kind of gay, what with all the large muscley men wearing only little bikini briefs and tossing each other about. You have to wonder if a good chunk of its fanbase is a bunch of closet-cases fantasizing about Randy Orton or The Rock pile-driving them. I'm just saying... kinda gay.

Sight & Sound Top Ten

Sight & Sound Magazine has announced their Top Ten list and you can see it over at In Contention. The British film Hunger, by new director Steve McQueen, came in at number one. The list is based on release dates in the UK, which explains why There Will Be Blood is included, and as In Contention notes, it's interesting that only two American films made the list, There Will Be Blood and WALL-E. Hmm.

1. Hunger (Steve McQueen)
2. There Will Be Blood (Paul Thomas Anderson)
3. WALL-E (Andrew Stanton) - yay!
4. Gomorrah (Matteo Garrone)
5. A Christman Tale (Arnaud Desplechin) - I can't wait to see this, huge fan of Kings and Queen
5. The Class (Laurent Cantant)
7. Of Time and the Cities (Terence Davies)
8. Happy-Go-Lucky (Mike Leigh)
9. The Headless Woman (Lucrecia Martel)
9. Let the Right One In (Tomas Alfredson)

Golden Satellite Nominations - WTF?

The Golden Satellite Nominations were announced yesterday, and as per usual they were completely schizophrenic. There's rampant category fraud, glaring omissions, nominations for movies I've never even heard of, and they can't seem to decide on a specific number of nominees per category. The Satellites were at one time a fun awards body, who went their own way, recognizing worthy films that other groups would ignore, but now they're just - yeesh. Looking over the nominees, Lisa Kudrow was nominated for Kabluey and Mark Ruffalo was nominated for What Doesn't Kill You. Now I'm a big fan of both of these actors, and I haven't even heard of these films. Did they already come out? Are they being released later this month? I don't know. The film Choke got three nominations, including Best Picture, Comedy/Musical. Uh ok. Kung Fu Panda, a wonderful film, somehow got passed over for Best Animated Picture, even though there are six nominees in the category. Australia was nominated for Best Original Screenplay, but even people who liked the film concede its screenplay wasn't its strongest element. Looking at the other nominees in Best Original Screenplay, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button and Elegy had both been listed under that category last night, even though both are adapted works. This morning, however, they were moved to the Best Adapted Screenplay category, leaving only four nominees in Original Screenplay. Good job, Satellites! Then we get to the Best Supporting Actress category, which is usually good at predicting at least four of the future nominees for the Oscar. This year's nominations are odd and could indicate that the category will be all over the place with each awards group. Hurray for non-concensus. Anyway back to the category. The nominees:

Rosemarie Dewitt for Rachel Getting Married - ok, predictable
Penelope Cruz for Elegy - not for VCB, she's the lead in Elegy, category fraud
Angelica Huston for Choke - where'd this come from?, no further nominations I'm guessing
Sophie Okonedo for The Secret Life of Bees - really? I guess cause she plays retarded
Emma Thompson for Brideshead Revisited - ok, maybe some returning buzz
Beyonce Knowles for Cadillac Records - huh? is there something we don't know?

notable omissions: Viola Davis - Doubt, Taraji P. Henson - The Curious Case of..., Marisa Tomei - The Wrestler, Debra Winger - Rachel Getting Married

I wonder what the future holds for this category?