Friday, April 6, 2007

April Fool's Day: Part II

This is the second part of the April Fool's Day celebration, with tiers of the films, performances and direction. The black signifies the nominees, the blue signifies the contenders and red signifies the long shots. Part II is Picture and Leading Actor/Actress. Part III is the less interesting part, with Director and Supporting Actor/Actress. With the exception of me, because Supporting Actress is just such a sexy category. Now excuse me while I run off to watch Grind House with zombies eating Fergalicious meat and getting shot down by Rose McGowan's undeniably sexy gun of leg.

Picture
Reservation Road
Charlie Wilson’s War
American Gangster
There Will be Blood
The Assassination of Jesse James...
Evening
In the Valley of Elah
The Golden Age
Stop Loss

Sweeney Todd
Rendition
My Blueberry Nights
A Mighty Heart
I’m Not There
The Golden Compass
Elegy: Dying Animal


Leading Actress
Angelina Jolie, A Mighty Heart
Cate Blanchett, The Golden Age
Catherine Keener, An American Crime
Nicole Kidman, Margot at the Wedding
Halle Berry, Things We Lost in the Fire
Marion Coitllard, La Vie en Rose
Keira Knightley, Atonement
Julia Roberts, Charlie Wilson’s War
Anna Paquin, Margaret
Reese Witherspoon, Rendition
Norah Jones, My Blueberry Nights
Jodie Foster, The Brave One
Vanessa Redgrave, Evening
Ashley Judd, Bug
Helena Bonham Carter, Sweeney Todd
Julie Christie, Away From Her

Leading Actor
Daniel Day-Lewis, There Will be Blood
Brad Pitt, The Assassination of Jesse James...
Tom Hanks, Charlie Wilson’s War
Joaquin Phoenix, Reservation Road
Denzel Washington, American Gangster
George Clooney, Michael Clayton
Tommy Lee Jones, In the Valley of Elah
Jake Gyllenhaal, Rendition
Don Cheadle, Talk to Me
John Cusack, Grace Is Gone
Christian Bale, Rescue Dawn
Johnny Depp, Sweeney Todd
Javier Bardem, Goya’s Ghosts
Ryan Phillippe, Stop Loss
James McAvoy, Atonement
Javier Bardem, Love in the Time of Cholera

5 comments:

ePastor James said...

Now that I see these, I'm guessing you're expecting Lions for Lambs to be this year's The Good Shepherd? I think I might be too...it's either that or Charlie Wilson's War. Meanwhile, The Other Boleyn Girl is this year's period-piece misfire, a la Marie Antoinette (which was underrated, but no masterpiece, as the Oscars clearly understood).

Have you thought much about The Savages (the major, LMS-like hit dramedy at Sundance) and/or Nothing Is Private (the now-titled and raved-at-early-test-screenings Alan Ball drama?

Naughty Jean-Baptiste said...

I was thinking of The Savages as being too funny. It might sound awkward, but LMS was more of a dramedy, while this seems more like a pure comedy. Remember The Squid and the Whale? And generally, I'll wait on Nothing Is Private.

ePastor James said...

Actually, The Savages is a blatant dramedy. It might even be more of one than Little Miss Sunshine. And The Squid and the Whale, in my opinion, wasn't laugh-out-loud funny either, so I wouldn't classify it as pure comedy. There was too many dramatic elements. I guess it would be a dark comedy if anything.

Here's the trailer for Savages, if you haven't seen it yet =). It's the perfect trailer, in my mind--subtle-but-promising:
The Savages - Trailer

Oh, and in response to your comment to me, there are a couple explanations for that placement:
1) Animated films are weighed a bit differently, giving Surf's Up preference;
2) The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford has been pushed back for far too long to be a true heavyweight. Most test screenings indicate that the main cause for celebration is Casey Affleck's performance. It has no chance for BP, or much else. Besides, There Will Be Blood is more likely the western flick to look out for.

ePastor James said...

Oh, and La Vie En Rose is now La Mome...and I have NO clue why.

Naughty Jean-Baptiste said...

The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford is not exactly a Western (see 3:10 to Yuma). There Will be Blood is around the time period of a Western, but it is definitely NOT a Western, Charlie Wilson's War is more a Western than There Will be Blood.

Has The Assassination... been pushed back too far? Pushing back is not generally a reason to be ignored. The reviews have generally been raves all around, not just for Affleck's performance.

The Academy has not been kind to darker comedies over the years, unless you consider The Departed fitting into the genre of darker comedy.

Marianne Jean-Baptiste

Marianne Jean-Baptiste
My namesake.