An Intelectual and Canadian point of on the yearly Oscar Race, and various other Entertainment Issues

Sunday, January 25, 2009

Live Blogging the Screen Actors Guild

7:04 PM Central Time: I personally Love the Actors Intro, love how they call the award show a celebration. My Faves were Carell's, Arnet's and Garber's. Female Actor in a Comedy Show .... predix: Tina Fey.And the Award goes to ..... FEY, not surprinsing to say the least. I was hoping that Applegate would have won tonight, but I wont deny being an amid fan of 30 Rock. God Fey is on fire, as she always is love the whole Barack Obama anecdocte "when did looking like a famous politician become a good thing"

Best Comedy In a Comedy Series: My Predix: Carrell, he has never won before and is ,most probably saught out as overdue and the award goes to Alec Baldwin ... coarse, 3o Rock must win all of the categories their nominate him.

Ok, so i totally missed what that whole montage was about? Can anyone tell me what that was all about?

Best Ensemble Cast Telivision Comedy goes to ..... 30 Rock, didnt have time to Predict, but isnt this the most predictable race of the year. Good, the Television awards are booring

Thirty Minutes to go, very interesting night if you ask me. Just noticed on E! that Sean Penn showed his face tonight, something tells me he knows he's going to finally win his first Actor tonight. If you recall he lost the Best Actor award for Dead Man Walking to Nicolas Cage for Leaving LAs Vegas, he los the 2002 Best Actor award to I Am Sam to Russell Crowe for A Beautiful Mind; in 2004 he lost the Best Actor award to Johnny Depp for Pirates of the Carribbean and the Best Ensemble award (for Mystic River) to Lord of the Rings: Return of the King. One 0f the real reasons why the Oscar seasons is so exiting isnt due to the quality of the contenders but rather, due to the competitiveness. The night's only lock is Ledger of course. I guess this is the best segway to my actual predictions, I only have for Minutes to go, so only the picks for now and I'll include analysis throughout the night.

FILM:
Ensemble: Milk (alt: Benjamin Button
Actor: Sean Penn, Milk (alt: Mickey Rourke, The Wrestler)
Actress: Anne Hathaway, Rachel Getting Married (Alt: Kate Winslet, Revolutionary Road)
Sup Actor: Heath Ledger, The Dark Knight (alt: Josh Brolin, Milk)
Sup Actress: Kate Winslet, The Reader (alt: Viola Davis, Doubt)
Stunt Work: The Dark Knight (alt: Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Chrystal Skull)

Television stuff later

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Thursday, January 08, 2009

Thoughts and Prediction on Tonight's Broadcast Film Critics Awards

I guess it is time for me to resurrect Northern Oscar Lights. Don't ask me what happened, work, school and personal stuff, i guess I lost track of time yadda, yadda yadda. Anyways, awards season's almost over, its kind of a weird sensation for me. (Best Picture ramblings to follow) Everything seems set stone, as is always does at this time of year. I felt kinda shaky on The Dark Knight's prospects, but since the Guilds (more specifically the Directors, Producers and Writers guild) victoriously embraced the film, the film seems locked in loaded, for a nomination, at the very least. Don't ask me why, but I'm convinced on Frost/Nixon at the very least, despite the fact that it has a nabbed all of the necesary nominations throughout the season. Maybe, it has to do with the fact that I still haven't had the chance to see the film, but the film's critical reception have not been overwhelming in the very least. Considering the quality of Howard's later films, and given the fact that A Beautiful Mind won both, the best motion picture and the best directorial award back in 2001, doesnt the love associated to Frost/Nixon seem a bit pre-mature. Mostly everyone working on Frost/Nixon (with the exeption of Langhella of coarse) seem very much dued. WIERD

Anyways, the Broadcast Film Critics Association Awards are presented tonight live on VH1. The Association was founded in 1995 and is formed by the large margin of film, critics, who work substantially in the field of television broadcasting, radio broadcasting and on the internet. As I said before, the Oscar race is becoming a bit tedious as of late, but here's a quick breakdown of who's winning what tonight.

Best Picture: Slumdog Millionaire
Very Safe bet, Benjamin Button could possibly upset here (the film is Slumdog Millionaire's biggest compertition) thow I Strongly doubt it, despite it being a grand affair. The Shot in the dark out of nowhere possibilities could be if either The Wrestler, Milk or The Dark Knight taking home the prize. Highly unlikely, yet I would personally adore it, any of those films deserve the tital more then the two fronrunners.

Best Actor: Sean Penn
50/50, either it being Penn or Rourke. On a second thought the later could easily win this, but something tells me that Pennn has more love in the industry, and will squeeze through the cracks. I'll talk more about the Penn/Rourke Best Actor Race later Next week

Best Actress: Anne Hathaway
Wierdly enticing considering that neither Hawkins nor Winslet made the cut. My hate for everything Changeling is prombly clouding my vision, but does anyone consider Jolie's Performance anything more then skin deep? Blanchett has been snubbed everywhere else and Bekinsale's film wasnt sucessfully distributed, so both of them are out of the race. This leaves us with either Hathaway, Leo and Streep. Out of sheer boredom, I wouldn't be surprised if Streep wins this, but god i hope not. I was originally going to predict Leo with the win, but I'm sad to admit that I dont have the balls to do so. Realistically the possiblity of Leo upsetting tonight, isnt that far off base. The actress has remained steady throughout the award season, winning multitude of critical awards. Hathaway's film is equally as small as Leo's (Rachel Getting Married grossed 10 million, in comparisions to Frozen River's 2 million dollards gross).

Best Supporting Actor: Heath Ledger
Mark My Words, Brolin has a strong chance, and i mean STRONG, in winning tonight. Brolin has not only critical praized, but industry love on his side. Brolin has made a name for himself in the past two years, following a succesion of six stellar consiquetive film performances. His drunken scene with Penn is still resonating, due to the fact that Brolin inhibits so much humanity, into a role that could of possibly been a two dimentional fillm portrayal. Yet, the truth is, the BFCA will want to award TDK somewheres, and there's not many possible ulternatives of award it elsewhere.

Best Supporting Actress: Penelope Cruz
Nough said, not even Davis's stellar two scene extended cameo can match Cruz's frontrunner position. Will the BFCA want to award Winslet this year thow?

Best Acting Ensemble: Milk
The Dark Knight upset ?!?! .... wouldnt it be divine. I don't see any other possibility, even if Doubt has a couple of critic awards in this category under its belt.


Best Director: Gus Van Sant
No guts, no glory, Boyle's been sweeping these awards all season long, but why doesnt it feel like its his time. That goes without saying that Boyle does the he can to flurish Slumdog Millionaire. Does hollywood insiders really know the Boyle's filmotography post Trainspotting.

Best Screenplay: Simon Beaufroy, Slumdog Millionaire

Best Animated Feature: WALL-E
Lock

Best Young Actor: Dev Petal
Fanning's nomination is due to the fact,m that the BFCA feel oblidge to nominate her every year (she'll be back next year either for Push or Winged Creatures). Walter's has no chance ocnsidering the hate Australis's been getting; Kross is well ...... terrible.

Best Action Film: The Dark Knight
If Hell freezes over, Iron Man could possibly upset

Best Comedy Movie: Vicky Cristina Barcelona

TV Movie: Recount
Foreign Film: Gamorrah
Documentary: Man on a Wire

Song: "The Wrestler" Bruce Springsteen
Yet Jaiho is a sensation in its own right, and Miley Cirus will draw viewers

Original Score: Alexander Desplate