What if the Oscars went to the best work? What if the Oscars were for something more than celebrating Hollywood, or the selected indies that Hollywood loves? What if the Independent Spirit awards were for ALL films? That might be what these picks would look like if I ran the world, which I actually do, but I have a sick sense of humor, so I let stuff like the Oscars go screamingly wrong. Remember Rob Lowe? That was an act of deliberate inattention on my part. OK? OK!
The result is my look at my picks for the best films, performances and technical work of 2008. Also.
Just to irritate people in advance, I would like you to know I have worked as a film critic for a number of years in the past, and I have developed esoteric tastes in film, and my picks reflect that high-falutin' attitude!
If you disagree with my picks (and you will), have fun in the comments. I'm not gonna live-blog this, because we have guests, but after the jump are my thoughts.
My picks from the field of nominees will be in bold type. My picks for the year's best will follow each category.
Performance by an actor in a leading role
Richard Jenkins in "The Visitor" (Overture Films)
Frank Langella in "Frost/Nixon" (Universal)
Sean Penn in "Milk" (Focus Features)
Brad Pitt in "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button" (Paramount and Warner Bros.)
Mickey Rourke in "The Wrestler" (Fox Searchlight)
Every once in a while the Academy gets one right. Mickey Rourke is the best I saw this year. I'm convinced Sean Penn is gay, so his performance where he essentially plays himself is a cheat. How they made up the guy from 9 1/2 Weeks to look like that, I'll never know.
UPDATE: I know Sean Penn Isn't gay. This is snark. Sheesh!
Performance by an actor in a supporting role
Josh Brolin in "Milk" (Focus Features)
Robert Downey Jr. in "Tropic Thunder" (DreamWorks, Distributed by DreamWorks/Paramount)
Philip Seymour Hoffman in "Doubt" (Miramax)
Heath Ledger in "The Dark Knight" (Warner Bros.)
Michael Shannon in "Revolutionary Road" (DreamWorks, Distributed by Paramount Vantage)
I didn't see Tropic Thunder, but the reading I have done lets me know that Robert Downey, Jr. gave the best "meta-performance" of the year, and that's good enough for me. The best performance I actually saw was John Malkovich in Burn after Reading. I don't vote for dead people, unless I think the deserve it. Heath should have won for Brokeback Mountain, so I've got at least that excuse.
Performance by an actress in a leading role
Anne Hathaway in "Rachel Getting Married" (Sony Pictures Classics)
Angelina Jolie in "Changeling" (Universal)
Melissa Leo in "Frozen River" (Sony Pictures Classics)
Meryl Streep in "Doubt" (Miramax)
Kate Winslet in "The Reader" (The Weinstein Company)
Believe it or not, the Academy got another thing kinda right. Melissa Leo was awesome! She was even sexier than the Dangerous Housewife who won for playing a confusing role about gender identity. Cool, that.
Performance by an actress in a supporting role
Amy Adams in "Doubt" (Miramax)
Penélope Cruz in "Vicky Cristina Barcelona" (The Weinstein Company)
Viola Davis in "Doubt" (Miramax)
Taraji P. Henson in "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button" (Paramount and Warner Bros.)
Marisa Tomei in "The Wrestler" (Fox Searchlight)
Marisa got seriously naked in her last two movies. I liked that about her. A lot! Penelope gets my vote, though.
Best animated feature film of the year
"Bolt" (Walt Disney)
Chris Williams and Byron Howard
"Kung Fu Panda" (DreamWorks Animation, Distributed by Paramount)
John Stevenson and Mark Osborne
"WALL-E" (Walt Disney) Andrew Stanton
The best Animated film of the year is.... Gah! I saw none of them. However, I have picked Wall-E for the quintessential Hollywood reason, a friend of mine scored the animated short "Presto," which is on the deluxe DVD of Wall-E, and I would like him to get paid a lot of money so he can invite me to Hollywood where I can forget about goddam credit default swaps.
Achievement in art direction
"Changeling" (Universal)
Art Direction: James J. Murakami
Set Decoration: Gary Fettis
"The Curious Case of Benjamin Button" (Paramount and Warner Bros.)
Art Direction: Donald Graham Burt
Set Decoration: Victor J. Zolfo
"The Dark Knight" (Warner Bros.)
Art Direction: Nathan Crowley
Set Decoration: Peter Lando
"The Duchess" (Paramount Vantage, Pathé and BBC Films)
Art Direction: Michael Carlin
Set Decoration: Rebecca Alleway
"Revolutionary Road" (DreamWorks, Distributed by Paramount Vantage)
Art Direction: Kristi Zea
Set Decoration: Debra Schutt
Actually, Revolutionary Road was the best by far. No snark here.
Achievement in cinematography
"Changeling" (Universal)
Tom Stern
"The Curious Case of Benjamin Button" (Paramount and Warner Bros.)
Claudio Miranda
"The Dark Knight" (Warner Bros.)
Wally Pfister
"The Reader" (The Weinstein Company)
Chris Menges and Roger Deakins
"Slumdog Millionaire" (Fox Searchlight)
Anthony Dod Mantle
I don't have a dog in this hunt. Slumdog is standard cinematography, but Button is photography masquerading as cinematography. None of the other nominees are anything more than very good. So, I pick Christophe Offenstein, Tell No One, which is apparently not elegible this year, but - MAN! - it's the best film of the year, period.
Achievement in costume design
"Australia" (20th Century Fox)
Catherine Martin
"The Curious Case of Benjamin Button" (Paramount and Warner Bros.)
acqueline West
J"The Duchess" (Paramount Vantage, Pathé and BBC Films)
Michael O'Connor
"Milk" (Focus Features)
Danny Glicker
"Revolutionary Road" (DreamWorks, Distributed by Paramount Vantage)
Albert Wolsky
I really, really don't care about this award. It's as relevant to my movie-going experience as the Westminster Dog Show is to my niece's pet pit-bull.
Achievement in directing
"The Curious Case of Benjamin Button" (Paramount and Warner Bros.)
David Fincher
"Frost/Nixon" (Universal)
Ron Howard
"Milk" (Focus Features)
Gus Van Sant
"The Reader" (The Weinstein Company)
Stephen Daldry
"Slumdog Millionaire" (Fox Searchlight)
Danny Boyle
This is a tough category. Out of the nominees, Danny Boyle made the best film, but the direction of Benjamin Button was much more difficult, and ultimately it was terrific work. Guillaume Canet made the best film of the year, Tell No One, and it wouldn't have worked at all without mastery by the director.
Obviously, I'm a Democrat. I actually like the fucking French!
Best documentary feature
"The Betrayal (Nerakhoon)" (Cinema Guild)
A Pandinlao Films Production
Ellen Kuras and Thavisouk Phrasavath
"Encounters at the End of the World" (THINKFilm and Image Entertainment)
A Creative Differences Production
Werner Herzog and Henry Kaiser
"The Garden"
A Black Valley Films Production
Scott Hamilton Kennedy
"Man on Wire" (Magnolia Pictures)
A Wall to Wall Production
James Marsh and Simon Chinn
"Trouble the Water" (Zeitgeist Films)
An Elsewhere Films Production
Tia Lessin and Carl Deal
Once again, I saw none of these, so I pick Trouble the Water, which is politically correct, and because Werner Herzog is too weird for words.
Best documentary short subject
"The Conscience of Nhem En"
A Farallon Films Production
Steven Okazaki
"The Final Inch"
A Vermilion Films Production
Irene Taylor Brodsky and Tom Grant
"Smile Pinki"
A Principe Production
Megan Mylan
"The Witness - From the Balcony of Room 306"
A Rock Paper Scissors Production
Adam Pertofsky and Margaret Hyde
These people need better lives. That's what documentary shorts are always about, unless they're about people who already died young. I actually agree with this sentiment, but I don't want to pay any money to encourage it. I picked the one that seemed likely to be the hardest to watch - which is the whole point, isn't it? Yup!
Achievement in film editing
"The Curious Case of Benjamin Button" (Paramount and Warner Bros.)
Kirk Baxter and Angus Wall
"The Dark Knight" (Warner Bros.)
Lee Smith
"Frost/Nixon" (Universal)
Mike Hill and Dan Hanley
"Milk" (Focus Features)
Elliot Graham
"Slumdog Millionaire" (Fox Searchlight)
Chris Dickens
here I have an opinion. It is that Slumdog Millionaire is an editor's film, and it's REALLY a terrific film. No contest!
Best foreign language film of the year
"The Baader Meinhof Complex" A Constantin Film Production - Germany
"The Class" (Sony Pictures Classics) A Haut et Court Production - France
"Departures" (Regent Releasing) A Departures Film Partners Production - Japan
"Revanche" (Janus Films) A Prisma Film/Fernseh Production - Austria
"Waltz with Bashir" (Sony Pictures Classics) A Bridgit Folman Film Gang Production - Israel
None of these films have been to Iowa yet, but I suspect I'll like The Class the best, since everybody says it's the best film of the year, although no-one apparently nominated it for anything, so I'll pick Waltz With Bashir, which will play well in the blogosphere, and it'll be here next week. We'll find out soon enough whether I have telepathy....
Achievement in makeup
"The Curious Case of Benjamin Button" (Paramount and Warner Bros.)
Greg Cannom
"The Dark Knight" (Warner Bros.)
John Caglione, Jr. and Conor O'Sullivan
"Hellboy II: The Golden Army" (Universal)
Mike Elizalde and Thom Floutz
They figured out a way to make Brad Pitt look really stupid for two hours of this film, and that's hard to do. So, WIN! Otherwise, I liked The Dark Knight in this category. Didn't love the film, but the makeup was killer!
Achievement in music written for motion pictures (Original score)
"The Curious Case of Benjamin Button" (Paramount and Warner Bros.)
Alexandre Desplat
"Defiance" (Paramount Vantage)
James Newton Howard
"Milk" (Focus Features)
Danny Elfman
"Slumdog Millionaire" (Fox Searchlight)
A.R. Rahman
"WALL-E" (Walt Disney)
Thomas Newman
Slumdog wins here by making 70s style disco hip for the very first time. However, I pick Wall-E, once again so I can fantasize that my buddy who scored the short on the DVD will send me money.
Achievement in music written for motion pictures (Original song)
"Down to Earth" from "WALL-E" (Walt Disney)
Music by Peter Gabriel and Thomas Newman
Lyric by Peter Gabriel
"Jai Ho" from "Slumdog Millionaire" (Fox Searchlight)
Music by A.R. Rahman
Lyric by Gulzar
"O Saya" from "Slumdog Millionaire" (Fox Searchlight)
Music and Lyric by A.R. Rahman and Maya Arulpragasam
This award is fucked up. Sprigsteen wrote a song for the Wrestler on spec for Mickey Rourke, and it nails the mood of the film perfectly, and it wasn't nominated. As much as I liked the score to Slumdog Millionaire, the songs were not what made it great, and TWO of them were nominated! Epic FAIL!
Best motion picture of the year
"The Curious Case of Benjamin Button" (Paramount and Warner Bros.)
A Kennedy/Marshall Production
Kathleen Kennedy, Frank Marshall and Ceán Chaffin, Producers
"Frost/Nixon" (Universal)
A Universal Pictures, Imagine Entertainment and Working Title Production
Brian Grazer, Ron Howard and Eric Fellner, Producers
"Milk" (Focus Features)
A Groundswell and Jinks/Cohen Company Production
Dan Jinks and Bruce Cohen, Producers
"The Reader" (The Weinstein Company)
A Mirage Enterprises and Neunte Babelsberg Film GmbH Production
Nominees to be determined
"Slumdog Millionaire" (Fox Searchlight)
A Celador Films Production
Christian Colson, Producer
This category sucks. Slumdog will win, and should win - except there were five better films released this last year than the other actual contenders:
Tell No One
Let the Right One In
The Visitor
Revolutionary Road
In Bruges
Tell No One has it all, sex murder, mystery and Catherine Deneueve. AND Kristin Scott Thomas speaking French. Ooohh la la!
Best animated short film
"La Maison en Petits Cubes"
A Robot Communications Production
Kunio Kato
"Lavatory - Lovestory"
A Melnitsa Animation Studio and CTB Film Company Production
Konstantin Bronzit
"Oktapodi" (Talantis Films)
A Gobelins, L'école de l'image Production
Emud Mokhberi and Thierry Marchand
"Presto" (Walt Disney)
A Pixar Animation Studios Production
Doug Sweetland
"This Way Up"
A Nexus Production
Alan Smith and Adam Foulkes
Presto. I have no shame. It's actually really great!
Best live action short film
"Auf der Strecke (On the Line)" (Hamburg Shortfilmagency)
An Academy of Media Arts Cologne Production
Reto Caffi
"Manon on the Asphalt" (La Luna Productions)
A La Luna Production
Elizabeth Marre and Olivier Pont
"New Boy" (Network Ireland Television)
A Zanzibar Films Production
Steph Green and Tamara Anghie
"The Pig"
An M & M Production
Tivi Magnusson and Dorte Høgh
"Spielzeugland (Toyland)"
A Mephisto Film Production
Jochen Alexander Freydank
These people are only one step above documentary short people in misery. So, I pick Manon on the Asphalt on the theory that it's a cunning satire of Manon of the Spring, which was great. Otherwise, I don't care. Get it? I don't care!!
Achievement in sound editing
"The Dark Knight" (Warner Bros.)
Richard King
"Iron Man" (Paramount and Marvel Entertainment)
Frank Eulner and Christopher Boyes
"Slumdog Millionaire" (Fox Searchlight)
Tom Sayers
"WALL-E" (Walt Disney)
Ben Burtt and Matthew Wood
"Wanted" (Universal)
Wylie Stateman
This is a great category because sound editing is what makes you hear explosions from the theater next door when you are trying to watch Marisa Tomei screw Phillip Seymour Hoffman. I liked the Explosions in Iron Man best, but Slumdog actually depends on sound (I actually mean this), and it really works.
Achievement in sound mixing
"The Curious Case of Benjamin Button" (Paramount and Warner Bros.)
David Parker, Michael Semanick, Ren Klyce and Mark Weingarten
"The Dark Knight" (Warner Bros.)
Lora Hirschberg, Gary Rizzo and Ed Novick
"Slumdog Millionaire" (Fox Searchlight)
Ian Tapp, Richard Pryke and Resul Pookutty
"WALL-E" (Walt Disney)
Tom Myers, Michael Semanick and Ben Burtt
"Wanted" (Universal)
Chris Jenkins, Frank A. Montaño and Petr Forejt
This is a great category because sound mixing is what makes you hear explosions from the theater next door when you are trying to watch Marisa Tomei screw Phillip Seymour Hoffman. I liked the Explosions in Iron Man best, but Slumdog actually depends on sound (I actually mean this), and it really works.
Yeah, I know.....
Achievement in visual effects
"The Curious Case of Benjamin Button" (Paramount and Warner Bros.)
Eric Barba, Steve Preeg, Burt Dalton and Craig Barron
"The Dark Knight" (Warner Bros.)
Nick Davis, Chris Corbould, Tim Webber and Paul Franklin
"Iron Man" (Paramount and Marvel Entertainment)
John Nelson, Ben Snow, Dan Sudick and Shane Mahan
The greatest visual effect is Marisa Tomei screwing Phillip Seymore Hoffman, but the winner will be Benjamin Button, which has the greatest NUMBER of visual effects and should therefore win. Frankly all visual effects are stupendous these days, so why even give a rat's ass about who made 'em the most noticeable?
Adapted screenplay
"The Curious Case of Benjamin Button" (Paramount and Warner Bros.)
Screenplay by Eric Roth
Screen story by Eric Roth and Robin Swicord
"Doubt" (Miramax)
Written by John Patrick Shanley
"Frost/Nixon" (Universal)
Screenplay by Peter Morgan
"The Reader" (The Weinstein Company)
Screenplay by David Hare
"Slumdog Millionaire" (Fox Searchlight)
Screenplay by Simon Beaufoy
Slumdog should win this without any problem at all. Seriously.
Original screenplay
"Frozen River" (Sony Pictures Classics)
Written by Courtney Hunt
"Happy-Go-Lucky" (Miramax)
Written by Mike Leigh
"In Bruges" (Focus Features)
Written by Martin McDonagh
"Milk" (Focus Features)
Written by Dustin Lance Black
"WALL-E" (Walt Disney)
Screenplay by Andrew Stanton, Jim Reardon
Original story by Andrew Stanton, Pete Docter
In Bruges will not win this, but it should. It's miraculous.