It’s easy to think of at least a few films and performances that got robbed at Oscar nominations time. The Dark Knight for picture and director come to mind, as does WAll-E for the same,Cate Blanchett for Benjamin Button, Michelle Williams for Wendy and Lucy, and Debra Winger for Rachel Getting Married all were conspicuous. [...]
As the run-up to Academy Awards night enters its final week, I’ve noticed a particular amount of backlash for Slumdog Millionaire and especially The Curious Case of Benjamni Button. The Slumdog grumbling centers mostly on the usual handwringing over cultural appropriation – is it OK for a Western director to shoot and set his film [...]
Atonement could have been made by no other people than the British, and it’s fitting that it won the BAFTA award. Pity that it is so fatally flawed. Essentially the film feels like every British movie cliche in a blender — cheerfully cynical cockney war buddy, ornate country mansion, class barriers, snotty kids, World War [...]
This year’s Oscar picks are the toughest I can remember in a number of categories. Still, blogging is all about making the tough choices — that is when it’s not about carpal tunnel syndrome. The following are my picks in several major categories. I would toss my hat into the increasingly crowded prognostication ring but [...]
Slate.com has a great feature on the Oscar nominated films in the editing category. Mark Helfrich, Academy member and film editor and director explains what makes each clip interesting from an editing standpoint. He does make the inference that Sean Penn’s Into The Wild is something of an “editor’s movie”, but he steers clear of [...]
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