Friday, February 23, 2007

Oscar predix: the technicals

ADAPTED SCREENPLAY. The Departed. A master class on how to successfully remake a movie. Greatly deserved.
ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY. Little Miss Sunshine. A supremely weak category.
FOREIGN LANGUAGE FILM. Pan's Labyrinth. Although everyone's predicting a Lives of Others upset. I'm fine either way. Both are good.
ANIMATED FEATURE. Cars. Who cares. Poor Richard Linklater. This is the second time AMPAS has snubbed his inventive animated movies.
CINEMATOGRAPHY. Children of Men. Greatly deserved.
ART DIRECTION. Pan's Labyrinth. Children of Men should've been nominated here, and won.
COSTUME DESIGN. The Devil Wears Prada. Here I go again, expecting AMPAS to have some imagination.
ORIGINAL SCORE. The Queen. Although Philip Glass has been nominated a whole bunch of times...
ORIGINAL SONG. "I Need to Wake Up." Etheridge slays Krieger.
FILM EDITING. United 93. Although Schoonmaker's work on The Departed is ravishing.
SOUND MIXING. Dreamgirls. The one bone it gets.
SOUND EDITING. Letters from Iwo Jima. The one bone it gets.
MAKEUP. Pan's Labyrinth.
VISUAL EFFECTS. Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest.

Next: my thoughts on best picture and director. Plus: my viewings of the shorts.

3 comments:

Mike z said...

Can A Scanner Darkly really be considered an animated movie? It's an after effects digital filter placed over live action. It's not animated.

J.J. said...

Hmm...I guess you're right. But still.

Anonymous said...

Stud:
Well, I may celebrate Oscar night by going out to see a movie.
PAN'S LABYRINTH or, if it's still playing at a cheap theater, APOCALYPTO.
I like to know who won, but watching the show drives me up a tree.
Anyways, that's the theory.
A movie at a theater... or bowling with my 81 year old dad.
Both solid alternatives to Oscar
madness.

Good luck to EVERYBODY who submitted a ballot!
Ha ha ha!
Hee hee hee!


Sorry, I've been listening to the Beatles' MAGICAL MYSTERY TOUR lately...