OK, so it was a Slumdog sweep. Yay, what a surprise. Years from now people will look at this the same way they did Titanic, Shakespear in Love, Gladiator and just sorta scratch their heads.
I woulda liked to see Milk win best pic, the ending is sooo Un-eFFin-believably powerful that you'd hafta have stone in your heart or between your ears to not break down in tears. That said, the entire middle section seemed kinda formulaic.
Political problem, protest scene, political problem, protest scene, political problem, protest scene... And this all takes away from the power of the most famous protest which happened after Harvey's murder while also not leaving enough time for White Night Riots which happened after Dan White's subsequent (Twinky defense) slap on the wrist.
Still, from the nominees, Milk was the best (Frost/Nixon a close second) despite not being nearly as PERFECT as the 1980's documentary The Life and Times of Harvey Milk was. A truly must see for all doc fans.
Actually, no movie was all that Goodfellas "great" this year (back in '91 Goodfellas didn't win best pic either) but I guess The Wrestler was the cream of an only "OK" crop.
A little formulaic too, but for it to not even get a nom, during a year where even Forrest Gump II got one, and Slumdog walked away with the grand prize, shows that the Oscars themselves were even weaker than this year's selection itself.
(Oh and I won't even get too into the injustice of the very real, very unforgiving Gomorrah not even getting a foreign film nod, or the very funny but still thought provoking Religulous not getting a doc nomination.
Anyways, so after all that, I present, the Vinnys!
It's a project I've been thinking about for a while. Go back, and fix every best pic nod Oscar has ever been wrong about. Prob is I've never seen most of the pre-New Hollywood mainstream films, let alone the docs and foreign ones.
Because of this, I then decided to start my list beginning with the late 60's New Hollywood Age, and focusing only on American narratives. An age which began with movies like Bonnie and Clyde, the Graduate, Midnight Cowboy, and Easy Rider.
Half way through, I realized that almost all of these flicks (minus Terrence Malick's incredibly strong efforts) were actually from my hometown.
Although generally speaking, New York movies were not as good once Hollywood went back to the old studio system, I also noticed that even after the "Golden 70's" Gotham was still producing some decent enough films. Goodfellas, the best of them all, came out a good 10-15 years after power shifted back to producers from directors.
So rather than simply beat on the Oscars, which I will do this time next year, I decided to make Vinny the best of NY/NY-area films.
Hopefully, NY movie fans in particular will have fun with this.
Either way, I'll have a more in depth look at all the Vinny winners (including movie posters) on this following site, shortly:
BrooklynAtlantic.com
First, however, I wanted to give my fellow Kossaks a sneak peak at the Vinny winners:
1969 - Midnight Cowboy....................John Schlesinger
1970 - The Out of Towners................Arthur Hiller
1971 - The French Connection...........William Friedkin
1972 - Fritz the Cat...........................Ralph Bakshi
1973 - Mean Streets.........................Martin Scorsese
1974 - Taking of Pelham 1-2-3..........Joseph Sargent
1975 - Dog Day Afternoon.................Sidney Lumet
1976 - Marathon Man........................John Schlesinger (2)
1977 - Saturday Night Fever.............John Badham
1978 - Girlfriends..............................Claudia Weill
1979 - Kramer vs. Kramer.................Robert Benton
1980 - Raging Bull............................Martin Scorsese (2)
1981 - Arthur....................................Steve Gordon
1982 - Sophie's Choice.....................Alan J. Pakula
1983 - The King of Comedy...............Martin Scorsese (3)
1984 - Stranger Than Paradise.........Jim Jarmusch
1985 - After Hours............................Martin Scorsese (4)
1986 - Something Wild......................Jonathan Demme
1987 - Wall Steet..............................Oliver Stone
1988 - Crossing Delancey .................Joan Micklin Silver
1989 - Do The Right Thing..................Spike Lee
1990 - Goodfellas...............................Martin Scorsese (5)
1991 - Hangin' With the Homeboys...Jospeh Vasquez
1992 - Glengary Glenn Ross...............James Foley
1993 - Searching for Bobby Fischer....Steve Zaillian
1994 - Bullets Over Broadway...........Woody Allen
1995 - Kids.........................................Larry Clark
1996 - Basquiat.................................Julian Schnabel
1997 - Private Parts...........................Betty Thomas
1998 - Pi.............................................Darren Aronofsky
1999 - Bringing Out the Dead.............Martin Scorsese (6)
2000 - American Psycho......................Mary Harron
2001 - Vanilla Sky..............................Cameron Crowe
2002 - 25th Hour...............................Spike Lee (2)
2003 - Elf...........................................Jon Favreau
2004 - Maria Full of Grace..................Joshua Marston
2005 - Broken Flowers......................Jim Jarmusch (2)
2006 - Inside Man.............................Spike Lee (3)
2007 - American Gangster.................Ridley Scott
2008 - Doubt.....................................John Patrick Shanley
UPDATE: You can get more info on the above selections by clicking here:
Complete list of Vinnys
Oh and remember, there were some weak years out there. If anyone has a better candidate than Hangin With The Homeboys, or Elf for example, write in your choices!