Friday 22 February 2008

Oscar (sort of) watch

I have purposely kept this an Oscar free zone of late, for reasons previously outlined. But the continual blanket coverage of what will be this year's biggest media event (outside of the Olympics that is) has worn me down some what. I've been particularly intrigued by the supposed last-minute rallying of Juno as a possible Best Picture winner from certain quarters. The same quarters that predicted a win for Little Miss Sunshine last year and we all remember what went of to win then. No Country For Old Men has been the favourite for so long now, picking up virtually every critics and guild award going en route to O-Day, that it always seemed impossible that it wouldn't win despite the overwhelming love that's out there for There Will Be Blood. But suddenly the Oscars soothsayers are predicting an upset. Or rather one of two upsets. Because the current "wisdom" is that No Country and There Will Blood will split the vote and allow Juno to win. Or maybe Michael Clayton. Depending on who you believe. Now, I liked both Juno and Michael Clayton very much indeed. The former was in my top twelve films of the year, the latter was a bubbling under. But, to me, neither is a Best Picture winner. If you pushed me to pick a winner, out of the five nominated films, I'd have to give it to There Will Be Blood. I love the Coens, and I love the movie, but I have certain problems with it that I don't have with TWBB.

6 comments:

Gerard said...

I'm with you on Juno and Clayton. Both great (Juno in partic), but all the awards love is a bit baffling to me.

My vote goes to No Country. As much as I absolutely loved TWBB, No Country ranks right after Sweeney in my faves of the year list. I found it much more affecting than TWBB and genuinely frightening. Blood has really stuck with me also, but not as much.

Mark Salisbury said...

My vote would be for Jesse James, Sweeney or Zodiac.

But, alas, they're not eligible...

Gerard said...

As I'm sure you can guess, I'd go Sweeney all the way. Then No Country. Then Diving Bell, Jesse James and Blood all fight it out for third place.

But man I loved Zodiac. No word whether my lousy country is getting the director's cut DVD though...

Mark Salisbury said...

We have yet to get it in the UK either.

Anonymous said...

My vote would have been for Sweeney i guess, though i haven't seen TWBB yet (not released in France til next week!).
Anyway, i hope it's gonna be No Country, this film is so perfectly made...

Just in case, Marion Cotillard won the best actress french "César" for La vie en Rose yesterday evening!

Mark Salisbury said...

And if there's any justice, she'll win tomorrow night too.