Sunday, February 25, 2007
The Oscars start in about six hours; approximately 1am UK time. I'm ready and my provisions are in. Fruit, coffee milk, crisps, spicy dips and cornflakes. (I eat like a pig all night and I will feel unwell tomorrow. It's the way it goes.) All that is needed now are my predictions.
Er... Bit fucked on that count, chief. I have no idea what is going to win. There are more films than normal nominated this year that I have not seen, and all of the categories, bar one, are totally wide open.
Oh, well... Here we go. The main awards.
Best Film: "The Departed". I've not seen it. I just didn't fancy it. Seemed just to be a load of tough guys being tough and I had no interest in seeing that film. No doubt I will see "The Departed" eventually. Everybody I know who has seen it rates it, and it is as good a guess as any of the other choices.
Best Director: Paul Greengrass for "United 93". Scorcese is due, blah, blah, blah, but I think that Greengrass' work was outstanding. I'll stick with that. I will probably be completely wrong.
Best Actor: Peter O'Toole for "Venus". My head says Forrest Whitaker, but my heart says Peter O'Toole. Yes, Forrest Whitaker has won various awards for his work in "The Last King Of Scotland", but the Oscar is the one that matters and the one that everyone remembers. There are parallels here with Al Pacino and Paul Newman, both of whom were nominated several times and did not win, only to win later in their careers for not career best performances. The difference here is that Peter O'Toole's performance in "Venus" is absolutely brilliant and is one of his best. Last chance saloon. I wouldn't bet against him.
Best Actress: Helen Mirren for "The Queen". Can anybody else win this? I don't think so. It's the only certain award, as far as I am concerned.
Best Supporting Actor: Jackie Earle Haley for "Little Children". I was absolutely knocked out by his performance. Very difficult part in a very underrated film.
Best Supporting Actress: Abigail Breslin for "Little Miss Sunshine". The Academy love giving awards to little girls with talent beyond their years. Tatum O'Neal, Anna Paquin, etc.
Best Original Screenplay: "Little Miss Sunshine". Not seen it, so cannot comment, but it is a very highly regarded film and I am sure that it will win something.
Best Adapted Screenplay: "Notes On A Scandal". A really good script and the only one from the list that I think could win it.
Go on. Take the piss. I don't care.
Last night Lorraine and I went to see "Martha, Josie and the Chinese Elvis" by Charlotte Jones at the Birmingham Rep. It was amazingly OK, but hardly anything special. The feeling I had was that it had all been done before by people like Willy Russell and Mike Leigh. Funny enough, I suppose, but with some abrupt shifts in tone. Lorraine said that she liked it a lot.
Today I went to see "School For Scoundrels".
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I only went to see this because I wanted to avoid the hordes of popcorn eating scum making their way into "Hot Fuzz". (I'll see that on a quiet midweek showing before I go back to work.) I won't say that I wish I hadn't bothered, because I'm of the opinion that any film is worth seeing, but "School For Scoundrels" is truly rubbish, crap and not very good. Lame is also good word.
Not funny enough. Not nasty enough. Not pacy enough. Way too polite and amiable. Where was the farce and the violence and the pain? Billy Bob Thornton sleepwalks his way through his part, and that is a shame because he could have been great, and we know that with the right material Jon Heder can be incredibly funny. Such a shame. What were they playing at? It should have been better.
According to IMDB "School For Scoundrels" was inspired by the 1960 movie "School for Scoundrels or How to Win Without Actually Cheating!". Don't believe a word of it. Practically the only elements they took from the original was the title and a comedy tennis match. If only they had remade that movie, which is a little British gem. Ian Carmichael, Terry-Thomas (the ultimate cad), Alistair Sim.
Sigh.
Er... Bit fucked on that count, chief. I have no idea what is going to win. There are more films than normal nominated this year that I have not seen, and all of the categories, bar one, are totally wide open.
Oh, well... Here we go. The main awards.
Best Film: "The Departed". I've not seen it. I just didn't fancy it. Seemed just to be a load of tough guys being tough and I had no interest in seeing that film. No doubt I will see "The Departed" eventually. Everybody I know who has seen it rates it, and it is as good a guess as any of the other choices.
Best Director: Paul Greengrass for "United 93". Scorcese is due, blah, blah, blah, but I think that Greengrass' work was outstanding. I'll stick with that. I will probably be completely wrong.
Best Actor: Peter O'Toole for "Venus". My head says Forrest Whitaker, but my heart says Peter O'Toole. Yes, Forrest Whitaker has won various awards for his work in "The Last King Of Scotland", but the Oscar is the one that matters and the one that everyone remembers. There are parallels here with Al Pacino and Paul Newman, both of whom were nominated several times and did not win, only to win later in their careers for not career best performances. The difference here is that Peter O'Toole's performance in "Venus" is absolutely brilliant and is one of his best. Last chance saloon. I wouldn't bet against him.
Best Actress: Helen Mirren for "The Queen". Can anybody else win this? I don't think so. It's the only certain award, as far as I am concerned.
Best Supporting Actor: Jackie Earle Haley for "Little Children". I was absolutely knocked out by his performance. Very difficult part in a very underrated film.
Best Supporting Actress: Abigail Breslin for "Little Miss Sunshine". The Academy love giving awards to little girls with talent beyond their years. Tatum O'Neal, Anna Paquin, etc.
Best Original Screenplay: "Little Miss Sunshine". Not seen it, so cannot comment, but it is a very highly regarded film and I am sure that it will win something.
Best Adapted Screenplay: "Notes On A Scandal". A really good script and the only one from the list that I think could win it.
Go on. Take the piss. I don't care.
Last night Lorraine and I went to see "Martha, Josie and the Chinese Elvis" by Charlotte Jones at the Birmingham Rep. It was amazingly OK, but hardly anything special. The feeling I had was that it had all been done before by people like Willy Russell and Mike Leigh. Funny enough, I suppose, but with some abrupt shifts in tone. Lorraine said that she liked it a lot.
Today I went to see "School For Scoundrels".
I only went to see this because I wanted to avoid the hordes of popcorn eating scum making their way into "Hot Fuzz". (I'll see that on a quiet midweek showing before I go back to work.) I won't say that I wish I hadn't bothered, because I'm of the opinion that any film is worth seeing, but "School For Scoundrels" is truly rubbish, crap and not very good. Lame is also good word.
Not funny enough. Not nasty enough. Not pacy enough. Way too polite and amiable. Where was the farce and the violence and the pain? Billy Bob Thornton sleepwalks his way through his part, and that is a shame because he could have been great, and we know that with the right material Jon Heder can be incredibly funny. Such a shame. What were they playing at? It should have been better.
According to IMDB "School For Scoundrels" was inspired by the 1960 movie "School for Scoundrels or How to Win Without Actually Cheating!". Don't believe a word of it. Practically the only elements they took from the original was the title and a comedy tennis match. If only they had remade that movie, which is a little British gem. Ian Carmichael, Terry-Thomas (the ultimate cad), Alistair Sim.
Sigh.
# posted by Pynchon @ 6:42 pm 
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