Hey, That’s My Name

I don’t generally put a lot of stock in what wins Best Picture each year. As I mentioned in a previous post, I tend to look more fondly at the winners and nominees of the screenplay awards. There’s usually at least one nominee in this category that disappoints, but this year, the Academy has excelled at mediocrity in the their list of the five best films of the year. I don’t think it was a particularly great year for film, but I still think that even they could have done far better.

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This one is pretty transparent. Not to minimize some of the other nominees (well, actually, I will be doing that with at least two of them), but this is one man’s Oscar to lose. Continue Reading »

The screenplay awards are always my personal favorites. Many of my more favorite films tend to get nominated in these categories (though it tends to occur more in Original Screenplay). Sadly, though, this year’s crop of Adapted Screenplay nominees is fairly uninventive and I definitely think that at least two of these should have been left off the list in favor of others. What should and could have been a more interesting and competitive race has been reduced to a fairly transparent sure-thing of a category.

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I always find the supporting categories to be much more interesting than the leads and this year is no exception. I don’t actually have a real preference for a winner, I’d be fine with any of them taking home the gold dude, though there seems to be general consensus that there’s only one option for the win.

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Thus begins my first entry in my dissection of this year’s Oscars. I’ll be going through all the major categories – and possibly some minor ones – to discuss likely winners, deserving winners and who got snubbed. I haven’t been this displeased with Oscar nominations in a very long time, and considering how lukewarm I feel about the crop of 2008 films, that’s an impressive feat. So, working my way down the list at oscars.com, we’re starting with Best Actor, which is actually one of the few categories are pretty okay, but still, there’s always things to say.

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