Ip Man

“Ip Man”

Hong Kong. 2008. Directed by Wilson Yip. Screenplay written by Edmond Wong. Starring: Donnie Yen, Simon Yam, Ka-Tung Lam, Yu Xing, Siu-wong Fan, You-Nam Wong, Chen Zhi Hui, Lynn Xiong, Hiroyuki Ikeuchi, Yu-Tang Ho and Shibuya Tenma.

Rating: ★★★½

There is a point in the Hong Kong martial arts movie, Ip Man in which an angry, combative opponent of the titular hero mocks the latter for practicing a style of martial arts called the Wing Chun Fist that had been originally invented by a woman. I wonder if that man actually knew the rest of the old story. There have been various tales and legends debated over the years about the origin of the Wing Chun but the most widely told and accepted states that a woman named Yim Wing Chun invented it as a response to a man who tried to force her into marriage. He challenged that he would accept her refusal to marry him if she can beat him. She quickly went to a Buddhist nun, learned how to fight and invented her own boxing style to ultimately defeat the coercive man.

The film's title character, Grandmaster Ip Man, before becoming one of the most prominent proponents of Wing Chun and later the famed teacher of the late Bruce Lee, faced an even greater conflict and threat of subjugation during the Sino-Japanese War of 1937 and Wilson Yip's fictionalized account of his life is a worthy addition to the old wushu epics based on a real-life Chinese hero that crosses biography with a slight bit of lionized folklore. That trend seemed to have diminished in the face of overdone stylizations of martial arts such as Hero and House of Flying Daggers (both directed by Zhang Yimou). But I, for one, have always preferred the more traditional genre films that just let the martial arts style speak for itself such as the Once Upon a Time in China films and the recent Fearless and Ip Man is one of the most rousing to come along in a while.

Like the hero in Jet Li's Fearless, Ip Man (Donnie Yen, in a true career highlight performance and who incidentally played Wing Chun's later husband in the 1994 film version of Wing Chun with Michelle Yeoh) is already a proficient and virtually unbeatable martial artist, although he does not display the boastful arrogance in the beginning that propelled Huo from Fearless to seek out fights to test his might. The fights rather come to him as, in the opening scenes, masters from other martial arts schools constantly come to challenge him as he is rumored to be the best martial artist of Foshan, a town that has a historical reputation for breeding highly trained wushu experts. Although he himself deliberately chooses not to open a martial arts school despite the urging of his businessman friend, Zhou Qing Quan (Simon Yam) to take his son as a disciple, the repeated challenges that come to Ip's door annoy his wife (Lynn Xiong) who thinks he is too carried away with his fighting and training to pay attention to his family.

Thus, when a group of cocky out-of-town folks believe they can trample on the reputation of Foshan by beating all the martial artists, of course they will eventually land on Ip's doorstep as well. That sets up a terrific, prolonged fight sequence that shows the countless, lightning-quick punches Ip can land on his opponent's face and chest in the blink of an eye and how he uses merely the stick of a window duster to defeat an opponent with a large sword. When he wins the battle, the whole town including the local cop, Li Zhao (Ka Tung Lam) praises him as a hero despite having earlier criticized the validity of martial arts.

All of that fills the generally lighthearted half hour of the movie but it turns out to actually be a setup for the sudden transition into the darker historical event of Japanese military occupation that triggers the Sino-Japanese War during WWII. Information in captions reveal the town's population is decimated to a quarter by the Japanese soldiers, thriving factories are destroyed and the remaining people's properties are confiscated including Ip who is forced into abject poverty and must look for menial labor to barely feed his wife and son. He finally swallows his pride to work at the coal mines despite not having the right clothes to wear for the job (echoes here of Russell Crowe’s Jim Braddock during the Great Depression from Cinderella Man).

One day, Li who is now working as an interpreter for Japanese soldiers comes to the coal mine to try to recruit any Chinese people to challenge and fight students of a Japanese martial arts training school in order to win bags of rice. Ip is initially uninterested in this but a tragedy that hits close to home shakes up his personal patriotism and hence he goes to the training school himself, which sets up a far fiercer fight sequence where he challenges ten Japanese students and shows his fearsome and bone-crunching might and a style of punching for which the word, “swift” is a severe understatement. This, of course, grabs the attention of the head Japanese General Miura (Hiroyuki Heichi) and his sadistic guard, Sato (Shibuya Tenma) and embroils Ip in progressively greater conflict even though he quietly tries to work in the small fabric factory mill his friend, Zhou has just started.

This kind of general story outline will be familiar to fans of the martial arts genre whose films such as Bruce Lee’s Fist of Fury and Jet Li’s Fist of Legend in 1994 are very often propelled by the feeling of Chinese nationalistic pride and no wonder considering the endless tyrannical savagery that the Japanese people inflicted throughout Chinese history. The visual palette by cinematographer, Sing-Pui O reflects that when, once the occupation starts, it switches to a grayer, ashen-like color scheme that suggests the town Ip Man is in has become almost like a tomb both physically and mentally. Some people starve to death when unable to scrape a meager living and others who cannot find jobs become bandits wielding axes to extract money out of factory owners, and director Wilson Yip (who is a regular collaborator with Donnie Yen) and writer Edmond Wong subtly suggest more than show the almost dooming atmosphere to full dramatic weight within a brisk and efficiently paced 106 minute running time.

Against that backdrop are the brilliantly staged martial arts sequences that reminded me of how much I missed good old-fashioned, grounded, realistic choreography as opposed to the overused wire-assisted flying and scaling up on walls. The fights that are mostly hand-to-hand combat are some of the best from the veteran action director Sammo Hung (who is the best in the business alongside the better known Yuen Wo-ping). They are also some of his fiercest, which is justly fitting considering the untrammeled directness of the Wing Chun Fist that was founded on the notion that the shortest distance between two points is a straight line. The camerawork also very wisely goes back to basics in deftly shifting between medium-length spatial shots of combat with brutal close-ups of rapid fists and punches crunchily hitting faces without unnecessary slow-motion. The musical score by Kenji Kawai is also one of the more stirring in blending the tones of looming sadness with pulsating notes to compliment the action scenes.

Then there is Donnie Yen. He is not that well known in the US and has been under the shadow of some of his contemporaries like Jet Li whom he had fought on screen as an antagonist in a few movies like Once Upon a Time in China II and Hero. Some may initially think that Yen is the only remaining actor to be tapped on since Jet Li has announced his leaving the traditional wushu epic genre but the extra, edgy ferocity Yen usually brings in his combat style actually makes him a more ideal fit to the role regardless. And because he so thoroughly embodies such a thoughtful, composed and sane personality to ground the very intense physical requirements of the character (he had to train intensively for four months to learn the Wing Chun fist) and later his individual crisis of questioning the value of his own martial arts, it is difficult for me to picture anyone else who could have played this role.

The supporting cast including the ubiquitously reliable HK actor Simon Yam is all solid but one true standout performance comes from Ka Tung Lam playing the cop turned interpreter who, in many ways, is the most complex and dynamic character in the movie and also presents the biggest departure from the conventions of the martial arts genre. When we first see him, we hardly like him as he seems like such an oily weasel that frowns upon martial arts and later a coward and a “lackey” as Ip calls him when he is actually helping recruit Chinese martial artists to fight for bags of rice. But Lam and the screenplay modulate his unlikely character to become the one who may be subtly moved by Ip Man and his dramatic arc gradually reveals his own depth of patriotic loyalty and even defiant heroism rather than just standing in a helpless position of watching his countrymen die.

Yes, there may be some who complain the film as a biopic fudges some historical facts (and one detail the movie leaves out is that Ip Man himself in real life served as a police officer in pre-WWII China). But just as a boxing style is surrounded by so much folklore and legends, the truest things at the center are the integrity and elegance of the style and the concentration of body, mind and spirit that it builds in its practitioner in difficult times. By simply relying and focusing on those important elements and stripping away unnecessary stylistic flourishes to distract from them, Ip Man creates a fine, classical entertainment in the martial arts genre.

Observe and Report

“Observe and Report”

USA. 2009. Written and directed by Jody Hill. Starring: Seth Rogen, Ray Liotta, Michael Peňa, Anna Faris, Dan Pakkedahl, Collette Wolfe, Jesse Plemons, Celia Weston, John Yuan, Matt Yuan, Randy Gambill, Alston Brown, Cody Midthunder, Deborah Brown, Aziz Ansari, Patton Oswalt, Eddie Rouse, Lauren Miller, Rafael Herrera and Ben Best.

Rating: ★½

Observe and Report finally confirms two long-running suspicions I have gathered hints about in Seth Rogen as a comedian and an actor over the years. One is that there is a continual mean streak to his playing the same old clueless schlub he consistently typecasts himself in. The other is that his depth of range to play such a character does not go very far beyond that of an average sketch on Saturday Night Live. Thus, when he is given considerably darker comedic material here to work with in this film compared to the past raunchy sex and stoner comedies he has somehow built a household name through, he and the filmmakers make us feel squirmy rather than unsettlingly amused.

Now I am not saying that one cannot make a good, black comedy about Rogen's one-track mind security guard, Ronnie Barnhardt, whom some have described as Paul Blart: Mall Cop from earlier this year filtered through the mind of Travis Bickle. In fact, a character similar to that of Bickle in Taxi Driver was already seen through morbidly comedic lenses by Scorsese and Robert De Niro as Rupert Pupkin in The King of Comedy. But good comedy, no matter how morbid, requires a real basis in truth and heart in its backbone and writer/director, Jody Hill (whose first film was the lame and almost as mean-spirited The Foot Fist Way) lacks the skill to connect the laughs with what should be elements of character empathy. Hence, we cringe at some of the supposedly hilarious parts that are based entirely on shock value and we scratch our heads throughout when it later tries to take itself seriously with the antihero's bipolar disorder and sociopathic behavior.

We first meet Ronnie Barnhardt as he takes his job as head of security at a shopping mall very, very seriously. A flasher has been on the loose in the parking lot and when he ends up harassing Ronnie's long-time crush, Brandi (Anna Faris), who works at a cosmetic stand at a mall, Ronnie makes it his personal mission to find this flasher. The mall's CEO, Mark (Dan Bakkedahl), however, does not really trust Ronnie and since it is a criminal matter, he calls in Detective Harrison (Ray Liotta) to handle the case. But then when a store robbery takes place during the mall's closing hours, Ronnie, who has had dreams of being a real police officer, recruits his own “task force” consisting of his right-hand man, Dennis (Michael Peňa) and Asian twins, John and Matt Yuen (John and Matt Yuan). There is also Nell (Collette Wolfe), a coffee and donut shop worker who gets mocked by her fellow employees and especially her boss for merely being a little immobile due to a cast around her leg.

There are some funny one-liners here and there in these opening scenes but one-liners are all they are and they can already be found in the red-band trailer. Moreover, there is instantly a snaky, nasty streak that grows in Rogen's character as he poses and cruises around “investigating” but really just picking on minority concession stand owners such as the rather tastelessly named Saddamn (Aziz Ansari). The latter results in a big, long, unimaginative cursing match that simply goes on and on and on. Then there is a gaping misogynistic hole that the movie never recovers from when Ronnie forces Brandi to an odd date, watches her get drunk to the point of throwing up and commits what is essentially date rape, which is supposed to be outrageously funny and endearing because he says, “I accept you” and kisses her after she vomits. Anna Faris has gone on interviews to state that she thought this scene would never make the final cut and I think this scene should work as an acid test for the ladies unfortunate enough to see this as a date movie: If the guy is laughing at this scene, date the guy no more.

Then, about a third of the way through, the movie abruptly shifts to try to introduce the more serious elements in Rogen's character to try to explain his sociopath behavior and this is where it just about breaks into two. Just like drama, comedy, especially when it turns dark, requires a realistic entry point at its core and the only way we can care about this one-track minded guy with bipolar disorder is to treat it with at least a smidgen of gravitas. This, of course, puts the movie entirely on Seth Rogen's shoulders and this is where he is way behind his fellow comedic actors like Jim Carrey, Adam Sandler or even Will Ferrell in properly playing up enough drama to even be darkly comedic (which is probably why even in Knocked Up, his character's supposed transformation to end up with Katherine Heigl was frivolously rushed with a mere five-minute montage). When we see him strutting around acting up in brutal, lewd or hostile fashion with a squint and maybe a few tears, there is a flippant clownishness that he wears like an obnoxious funny hat he refuses to take off. Because he never takes his own role seriously, we cannot either and it is just as much writer/director Jody Hill's fault that he cannot properly gage in his star how much he wants his character to be mocked or embraced.

I know that some may think that I am just being high-minded and prudish but vulgarity and political rudeness are not necessarily what I am complaining about. I am complaining about the simple lack of an actual approach from director Hill in dealing with this material. He thinks that pushing as far as he can go in terms of political incorrectness and crudeness will be enough to get the laughs. But as I have said before, shock humor is the easiest and knee-jerk way to get a response as is the gratuitous violence on display when Rogen's nightstick graphically breaks bones. It takes real wit and a conviction in situation to redeem it for catharsis. Think of some of the dark British comedies like Hot Fuzz or Shaun of the Dead that alternate tones with ease and the key is that they manage to create a fully realized and somehow believable absurdity within their scenarios rather than having the characters just performing cheap vulgarities. But despite the opportunities to mix in smarter consumer satire scenarios within a shopping mall, Hill hardly explores any of them and without a consistent credibility in character or situation, you have a movie that is uneven and tone-deaf.

The dearth of overall inspiration extends to the casting as well. Besides Rogen who seems either unwilling or unable to take himself seriously enough to just dive into his character, most everyone else seems predictably and lazily typecast. Ray Liotta's hard-boiled cop ready to pop act is awfully trite by now and Anna Faris is once again playing up the overdone clueless blond stereotype from past movies that is rendered far worse here by the aforementioned horribly demeaning aspects in her character. Michael Peňa does extract precious few laughs with some exaggerated glances trying to look cool although not enough to move past being a comic caricature while John and Matt Yuan just seem to be there to be the token Asian twins as they are really given absolutely nothing to do except to be the butt of Rogen's silly line, “You are my infantry. If one of you dies, God gave me another one.” And what is a nice girl like the one played by Collette Wolfe doing in this movie? She seems transplanted from another movie that gives the mean-spirited protagonist some undeservedly sappy scenes where she inexplicably falls for him simply because he is the protagonist.

As for Rogen, I do not know: With every successive movie he headlines from Knocked Up and Pineapple Express to Zack and Miri Make a Porno, there simply grows an indignation inside me about how this guy is not cut out to be a comic leading man (his only decent role in my book was a supporting one in the still very funny The 40-Year-Old Virgin with Steve Carell). Now putting him in the muddier material of Observe and Report clarifies for me why. Moreover, he also seems stuck in his own world where he plays roles where he can continually get away with acting like the juvenile teenagers from Superbad and as jerky towards everyone around him, particularly women, in the veil of comedy. I do not mind dark, vulgar or raunchy comedies in and of themselves because I believe that comedy can redeem most anything but even as a guy, I get increasingly bothered by Rogen's characters and would like to tell him to get out of his own basement, grow up and learn some manners within his movies before he can pick up the refined tools for cathartic comedy. And you know what, even Kevin James as Paul Blart: Mall Cop, for all its various silly inanities, is way ahead of him.

Two Lovers

“Two Lovers”

USA. 2008. Directed by James Gray. Written by James Gray and Ric Menello. Starring: Joaquin Phoenix, Gwyneth Paltrow, Vinessa Shaw, Moni Moshonov, Isabella Rosselini, John Ortiz, Bob Ari, Julie Budd, Elias Koteas, Samantha Ivers, Jeanine Serralles, David Cale, Evan Lewis, Anne Joyce and Marion McCorry.

Rating: ★★★

Few actors working in movies today can essay inwardly tortured, brooding characters more convincingly than Joaquin Phoenix, which is why it is unfortunate that he has become the subject of publicity jokes since his announcement to quit acting. Part of it probably has to do with how many people shun the idea that a serious actor like Joaquin Phoenix would decide to become a hip-hop rap artist considering the majority of rap artists or singers who fail to make the leap to becoming a serious actor. Then there was that comic skit by Ben Stiller at the 81st Academy Awards ceremony that attempted to emulate Phoenix's new bearded look from his appearance on an episode of The David Letterman Show (and was embarrassing and actually horribly lame and unfunny).

All of that, along with the fact that writer/director James Gray publicly criticized Phoenix for complaining about tiring of acting on the set, may be contributive to why his latest film, Two Lovers has only gotten a muted release in the US. Despite that Phoenix may be somewhat at fault for that, that is still a shame because the movie is a fine acting showcase for his talents. It is also a more focused effort for writer/director James Gray who has a tendency to put way too many plot points in his movie blender but here creates a deeper character study of a man with bipolar disorder who incidentally finds himself shaken by the dilemma of falling for two radically different women at the same time. And after numerous years littered with feathery, lame romantic comedies, it is nice to see a romantic drama that actually contains some feelings we can empathize with.

The movie opens quite starkly as we see Phoenix's Leonard Kraditor suddenly jumping off a small bridge in New York City into a river in an attempt to drown himself. He is rescued by other passersby and returns to his Jewish home where his parents, Reuben (Moni Moshonov) and Ruth (Isabella Rosselini) quickly figure out that he had made yet another suicide attempt. Believing that perhaps being introduced to a new girl in his life might help him break out of his sad shell, they introduce Leonard to Sandra Cohen (Vinessa Shaw) who is the daughter of family friends, Michael (Bob Ari) and Carol (Julie Budd). As Reuben then explains to Leonard, the parents of both families also hope the union of the couple will help complete a merger of their Jewish families' laundromat businesses.

Then, one night on his way home, Leonard comes across an apartment neighbor, Michelle (Gwyneth Paltrow), who seems to be running away from someone in her apartment. Leonard offers to let her hide in his family's apartment for a little while and is instantly drawn to her feisty personality. He obviously knows who his parents would prefer and although Michelle brings out a little seen side of him when she invites him over to the dance club with her friends (which humorously shows some of Phoenix's break dancing moves), we start to see that she could potentially spell more unhealthy emotional trouble for Leonard. But he somehow seems more smitten with Michelle perhaps because he feels he can show more of his affectionate protective instincts around her as opposed to the other way around when he is with Sandra, who wants to share more of her own protective warmth around Leonard.

Director Gray, as he similarly did for the Russian crime neighborhoods in his previous efforts, Little Odessa, The Yards and We Own the Night, displays an instinctive visual feel for the middle-class Jewish neighborhood he depicts and also does not settle for obvious caricatures or clichés in familial relationships. There is no reason to doubt that both Leonard and Sandra come from loving and caring parents who have their best interests in mind. It also avoids the typical convention of the women knowing of each other's existence and that allows the eventual repercussions and rationale for Leonard's feelings and dilemmas to remain entirely interior and personal. That it works so well is largely due to Phoenix's nuanced portrayal of this withdrawn yet gentle character who may be unwise in letting his romantic longing be swayed by his urge to avoid his own problems rather than properly face them.

Besides Phoenix's anchoring performance, the two actresses playing his potential love interests also deliver fine work playing against their usual types, even though Vinessa Shaw ends up slightly getting the shorter end of the stick. Gwyneth Paltrow delivers some of her strongest work as a woman who is probably more manipulative and sneakily enabling of Leonard's problems than meets the eye but with enough of a dose of naiveté to evade admitting that even to herself. I only wish that Shaw was afforded the same amount of complexity and that Gray and his co-writer, Ric Menello wrote her to move beyond the obligatory and default nice girl that the family approves of. Isabella Rosselini, on the other hand, stands out among the parental figures as she has a subtle, crucial scene that reveals either a surprising trust and understanding in her son or a firm belief that her motherly patience with him will eventually be justified in the end. I should also mention the always reliable Elias Koteas who is in just two scenes in the film but establishes a key flesh-and-blood presence that I will leave you to discover.

For director James Gray, Two Lovers marks a departure from his usual crime fare. His previous films, while often skillfully directed in individual scenes, always fell short of winning me over due to a consistent, overambitious sense of plot crowding. But somehow his shift to observe the matters of a love triangle has freed him from that and allowed him to look more intently than most recent films in the romance genre. Based on this movie, he and Phoenix, who has now collaborated on three of the director's four movies, could have made even more interesting character pieces if the latter had not decided to give up his acting career in favor of his hop-hop rap phase. Well, even Sean Penn said that he wished to quit acting before and hopefully Phoenix will return to his serious acting roots again.

Watchmen

“Watchmen”

USA. 2009. Directed by Zack Snyder. Screenplay by David Hayter and Alex Tse. Based on the graphic novel by Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons. Starring: Malin Akerman, Billy Crudup, Matthew Goode, Jackie Earle Haley, Jeffrey Dean Morgan, Patrick Wilson, Stephen McHattie, Carla Gugino, Matt Frewer, Laura Mennell, Rob Labelle and Gary Houston.

Rating: ★★

You cannot blame Zack Snyder's long-awaited movie version of the graphic novel, Watchmen for straying too far away from its highly acclaimed original source but in this adaptation, it is strangely not a plus. Yes, the movie is almost slavishly faithful to the inspired, award-winning graphic novel (save most notably for a couple of key plot points towards the conclusion) but the key word is there is slavishly. It is one thing to see a film really cinematically interpret the material onto the screen and quite another to see one like Watchmen that just utilizes the graphic source novel as a superficial blueprint.

Now I did thoroughly enjoy the original 1986 graphic novel created by Alan Moore (who is so vehemently opposed to any of his works being filmed that he asked his name be removed from the credits) and illustrated by Dave Gibbons. It portrayed an alternate universe in which the Vietnam War was won through the use of superheroes, former President Richard Nixon was hence elected for four more terms until 1985 when the story is set and nuclear tensions between the US and USSR have only heightened. The film project was passed on through a couple of studios and several filmmakers including Paul Greengrass and Terry Gilliam who wanted to film it as a mini-series (which I would have preferred considering the multitude of back stories). As the director, Zack Snyder has now made it, the movie only disappointingly underscores his fanboy-appealing obsession with employing the same surface theatrics that he used in his last film, 300 rather than seriously depicting the more flesh-and-blood and less archetypal characteristics required for this story.

As in the graphic novel, the movie opens with one past superhero, Edward Blake aka The Comedian (Jeffrey Dean Morgan) being viciously attacked by an even stronger assassin and finally thrown out of his high-rise apartment. It may seem like a random killing but Rorshach (Jackie Earle Haley) believes there may be a larger plot to target the other Watchmen consisting of Dan Dreiberg aka Nite Owl II (Patrick Wilson), Laurie Juspeczyk aka Silk Spectre II (Malin Akerman), Adrian Veidt aka Ozymandias (Matthew Goode) and Jon Osterman aka Dr. Manhattan (Billy Crudup), whose skin radiates blue and whose superpowers helped him almost singlehandedly win the Vietnam War for the US. Despite that victory, it also ultimately propelled Nixon to outlaw superheroes after years of endorsing the Watchmen and the previous group they took the place of, the Minutemen that included Hollis Mason aka Nite Owl (Stephen McHattie), Sally Jupiter aka Silk Spectre (Carla Gugino), who is also the mother of her later predecessor, Silk Spectre II and The Comedian who stayed active throughout the span of both clans while being generally a hedonistic, vicious, uncouth lout.

Rorschach, who gets his name from his facial mask that keeps changing ink-blot patterns, pays a visit to each of the now retired Watchmen, as his diary presents his reflective musings and also serves as the voiceover narration throughout the film. The movie also keeps the same structure of inter-cutting various heroes' back stories at various points in the main present story; so much the same, in fact, that what worked in the comic occasionally becomes muted on the screen, as resorting to excessive flashbacks in movies often end up robbing some of the forward narrative momentum as it does here. In any case, the filmmakers have certainly scrambled to cover their bases within their 161-minute running time to try to get the fans to savor each character and the non-fans to come up to speed on the complicated, multi-layered story.

A story like this, however, needs standout performances at the center to bring the various dimensions of these characters to life and this is the part of the film that shows Snyder is far more interested in visuals than simply getting story and character interaction right first, which is quite apparently difficult given that the actors are in front of a blue screen throughout as in 300. Perhaps Snyder trusted the mostly first-rate cast including Billy Crudup and Patrick Wilson to let the acting take care of itself (except for Malin Akerman, whose acting skills everyone is picking on for good reason) but few of the actors ever seem completely at home in their roles. Only Jackie Earle Haley actually makes a lasting impression as he seems to truly absorb his character and reflect the tortured psyche that was permanently scarred by a heinous crime and thus propelled him to become a vigilante. Carla Gugino also adds in some sass and spice in her small role playing Silk Spectre as a 50s superhero vixen and later a 67-year old woman, although with Righteous Kill and this movie, she may want to take on a role that is somewhat less demeaning (with her character having a penchant for rough sex in the past one and almost getting raped here).

But one shocking disappointment is Matthew Goode, who had been good in past movies like The Lookout but comes across as a 90s pretty boy rapper type playing dress-up as opposed to the rich, confident tycoon he is supposed to be after being the only one who has revealed his true identity as one of the Watchmen to the world. As for Malin Akerman, well, her track record is not very good with past films like The Heartbreak Kid and 27 Dresses and seeing her faced with scenes here where she is called upon to strike some higher dramatic notes (as when she discovers a revelation about her origin late in the film) only underscores her decidedly narrow emotional range on screen. The Valley Girl speak she often inflects in her dialogue certainly does not help matters either.

To be sure, some of the visuals that copy directly off the comic book page are arresting particularly when Doctor Manhattan starts taking frequent detours to Mars after feeling increasingly detached from earthly human beings. But that is also part of the problem: The surface visual wizardry is way too glossy for its own good. The visual panache worked for a movie like 300 where the characters were all archetypes anyway as opposed to more human characters but here, combined with some lackluster acting, it repeatedly keeps us at arm's length to get into the personalities of the superheroes. Additionally, the endless freeze-frame zooms that Snyder employs to show some of the hard R-rated brutal impacts like a punch to the face or a graphic arm-break are getting quite tiresome now after 300. It also ends up actually lessening the full visceral impact of the violence itself and prevents the audience from feeling the physical and psychological pain and, within a story that attempts to explore the troubled and harsher psyche of superheroes, the splatter violence combined with the pyrotechnic flash becomes mindlessly quease-inducing rather than as appropriately unsettling or disturbing as the characters and the audience should be feeling.

It is all unfortunate that the visual whizzes and bangs get in the way of supplying a better dramatic backbone because actually the one thing that was admittedly improved in the film version was the ending. Some of the absurdities have been removed and the choices characters make seem a little bit more logical than in the graphic novel. But, by then, it is too little, too late. We are not fully engaged with these characters and the movie has not allowed us to ponder the moral balance in the brink of nuclear war to make the risky and audacious statement it wants to make at the end.

It may seem rather peculiar that a movie that stays so close to an accomplished work of art could end up being so mediocre and unmemorable but not when one considers what is really required in a real film adaptation. The fact that graphic novels practically provide moving storyboards to film can make a director think it might be enough to just lazily try to replicate the images on screen. True adaptation, faithful or not, is not just about visually filming the descriptions of its source but also about filmmakers providing their own personal interpretation to view the characters and story. Robert Rodriguez in his faithful film version of Sin City got it right because he treated the inherent drama in his operatic pulp story as seriously as his admiration for the pictures prepared for him by its source from Frank Miller. Watchmen, on the other hand, ultimately provides a textbook example of an adaptation where mindlessly faithful reverence of a comic book has drained out the greater potential for a singular, focused dramatic vision.

Reactions to the 2009 Oscars

“Reactions to the 2009 Oscars”

Even with the fresh presiding of host, Hugh Jackman, the Oscars this year was more of a ho-hum affair. You cannot fault Jackman for that, as his opening song and dance number was a welcome contrast to the usual, now somewhat tiresome routine of a stand up comic. The ceremony, however, was still too long and had a sense of overt smugness among celebrities in giving pats on each others’ backs and basically trying to please everyone. It also did not help that there were some disappointing wins based obviously more on general politics than true merit.

But first, some positives: Slumdog Millionaire won the Oscars for Best Picture and Best Director as widely expected as well as six other wins including Best Adapted Screenplay. Considering that the other small number of brilliant movies such as WALL·E, The Dark Knight, The Wrestler and The Visitor were ignored from the Best Picture race, it was the only sensible and valuable movie to win. It was also nice to see the kids from Mumbai getting their big, prestigious Oscar moment when the Best Picture winner was announced and the moment when director Danny Boyle jumped up and down like Tigger was priceless.

Also, as widely predicted, Heath Ledger received the first posthumous Oscar in 32 years for The Dark Knight and I am relieved that they kept the emotionality of the late Heath Ledger’s crowning moment fairly low-key. Heath’s parents and sister calmly came up to the stage to pay the most personal tribute to the distinctive work that he accomplished and no extraneous montage was needed to express the pervading sentiment that a great actor will be missed. And who knows, maybe his truly final onscreen role in Terry Gilliam’s The Imaginarium of Dr. Parnassus will also be worthy of a nomination next year.

Unfortunately, however, that was about the only thoroughly deserving acting win of the night. I know I am not alone in saying that the most disappointing was certainly Sean Penn in Milk upsetting Mickey Rourke in The Wrestler. Yes, Penn’s work was a technically great piece of acting but was nowhere near as raw or potent as that of Rourke who found the character that he could just commit and throw himself into. The Academy, however, often likes to try to “dictate” their own winners’ speeches, I think, and they wanted Penn to make an Oscar speech that would make a grandstanding political statement for the times. Well, once the political issues and baggage pass by, time will tell which performance in which movie will be better remembered in the years to come.

The Best Actress in a Leading Role went unsurprisingly to Kate Winslet for The Reader. Now she was passed over many times with her past nominations and arguably should have really won for her first nominated role in 1995’s Sense and Sensibility but I do not believe that her performance in The Reader is the one she ought to be remembered for (and I actually feel pretty confident in saying that it will not be). I also know that as consistently great of an actress as she has been, we have not seen the best from her just yet. Personally, equal to wanting to see Rourke up on the Oscar stage perhaps giving a blunt, most politically incorrect speech, I would rather have loved to see Melissa Leo humbly rewarded for her fearless, entrenched performance in Frozen River. If there is an optimistic way to look at this, however, it is that since the Oscar burden is past her at a relatively young age, Winslet will have freer reign to aspire to greater and higher artistic goals. Also, that moment when she asked her father to whistle and got it to be able to wave to her parents was kind of cute.

Penelope Cruz took the Best Supporting Actress prize for Vicky Cristina Barcelona, although I hoped that the Academy would show a little more imagination and depth to appreciate work like Marisa Tomei’s in The Wrestler or Viola Davis in Doubt. I, for one, felt, however, that Cruz did not even give the best performance in the movie itself; the lesser known British actress, Rebecca Hall did in a much less flashier and more understated way and should have received a nomination instead. But Cruz’s performance was compared in some circles to that which might have been given by a younger Sophia Loren and thus was probably deemed friendlier to win. She also had the benefit of a rather recent nomination in a more memorable performance in Pedro Almodovar’s Volver from 2006 and, much like Winslet’s award, this might have been another makeup Oscar that might not be completely deserved (right, Martin Scorsese?).

All the acting categories were presented in the new format of bringing five past winners within the given category and each of them picked one nominee to pay a direct and more personalized compliment speech to. This may have sounded good on paper but without showing the actual clips from the movie and with the unevenness of the quality of the speeches (and also some of the performances), some ended up coming across as sappy while others came as weak praise. Anthony Hopkins’ compliments to Brad Pitt’s work in The Curious Case of Benjamin Button was particularly faint with the only good specific thing he could say about the performance being that he aged backwards (also because it is true). As a result, along with the other categories' presentations showing a prolonged generalized montage of achievements before saying the actual nominees, the whole affair ended up feeling a little more self-congratulatory and dragging the ceremony way too long. Perhaps if they are going to try this again next time, they should also play the clips from the nominees so that they serve as a terse evidential guide on what makes the characters and performances in the respective films deserve their merit.

The host, Hugh Jackman, however, came away largely unscathed from many of the ceremony’s problems and, if anything, the great talent and showmanship he has shown in Broadway gained wider visibility and will earn him more notice. His opening number showcasing a literally cardboard cutout scenarios from the Oscar-nominated films (after cracking a joke that the current state of the economy has caused this downsizing) were quite hilarious from re-enacting the game show from Slumdog Millionaire, putting his face through holes on top of cardboard drawings of reverse aging or replaying the duel of Frost/Nixon in a surprising duet with Anne Hathaway. Then, the skit with Tina Fey and Steve Martin that followed and presented the screenplay Oscars was a comedic jewel, particularly the opening line when Fey said, “It has been said that to write is to live forever,” and Martin replied, “The man who wrote that is dead.”

There were two more distinctly memorable moments, however. One was when James Marsh’s Man on Wire won the Oscar for Best Documentary Feature and Philippe Petit came up on stage to perform a magic trick and then try balancing the Oscar trophy on his chin for several seconds. The other was the “In Memoriam” montage that had the brilliant background addition of Queen Latifah’s beautiful live rendition of “I’ll Be Seeing You.” Numerous significant people passed on in the last year such as Anthony Minghella and Sydney Pollack (who were posthumous nominees as producers of The Reader), Bernie Mac, Charlton Heston, Roy Scheider, Paul Scofield, Stan Winston, Ricardo Montalban, Isaac Hayes and, of course, Paul Newman. Having Queen Latifah’s smoothly legato jazz singing voice was a masterstroke and did wonders for capturing the perfectly reverent tone for the annual tribute.

What really, really fell flat though was the idea of performing the medley of the three songs nominated for Best Original Song right before announcing the winner. I had shivers thinking about how they will awkwardly combine the more Bollywood-styled songs like “Jai Ho” and “O Saya” from Slumdog Millionaire and the slower, more contemplative song, “Down to Earth” from WALL·E (which was performed in the ceremony by John Legend). When they actually shamelessly meshed “Down to Earth” with “Jai Ho” at the end, it was really like fingernails on a chalkboard and I was literally shaking my head in disbelief. They were not just ramming globalization down our throats but the entire globe itself. When they announced the final winner, “Jai Ho,” I was simply glad that it was over and maybe wished the Bollywood dancers and performers would do just that song again to make me forget what just happened.

In total tallies of awards, Slumdog Millionaire scored eight (besides the three major awards, it also won Best Original Score, Best Original Song, Best Editing, Best Cinematography and Best Sound Mixing), Milk scored two with Penn’s win and Best Original Screenplay for Dustin Lance Black and I was relieved that The Curious Case of Benjamin Button ended up taking home just three technical Academy Awards including Art Direction, Makeup and Visual Effects, all of which were deserving despite the movie’s general failure as a sweeping story. I can also understand why Best Sound Mixing ended up being awarded to Slumdog Millionaire because sound mixing is about controlling sound levels and getting that right was crucial to giving a sense of spatial reality in the slums of Mumbai, along with providing a great Bollywood musical number at the end. But why, oh why did WALL·E, which unsurprisingly won the Best Animated Feature Oscar, lose out the Oscar for Sound Editing (which gave The Dark Knight its second Oscar)? I guess that the flashy whiffs, booms and bangs are easier to notice than the carefully timed electronic noises and space object movement that are more subtly buried and notably crucial to the story.

Another shocking result was the awarding of Best Foreign Language Film that went to Departures from Japan, which has been seen by virtually no one in the US other than in the Hawaii Film Festival. I would have loved to see an innovative and daring film like Waltz with Bashir become the first animated film to ever win this category but since I have not seen Departures and the Academy requires voters to have seen all five films in this category, I will wait on full judgment. But I have to say it would have to be quite something to shoulder off Waltz with Bashir or even The Class and with the Academy’s questionable track record of properly judging merit in foreign films, the award leaves me somewhat skeptical to the point of guessing one of the following. In the case of Waltz with Bashir, either (a) they were not ready to award their first foreign film Oscar to an animated film or (b) they did not want to give the Oscar to Israel in light of the political conflict in the Gaza strip. And in the case of The Class, they perhaps did not want to stack up the Oscar along with the Palme d’Or it already received at Cannes.

Apropos to the overall ceremony, at least you have to give the director, Baz Luhrmann some points for trying to make a Broadway-styled Oscar show and I actually hope they try it once again. But I really wish that the Hollywood or government politics are toned way down so that there can be some truly deserving and credible wins and that even the deserving wins do not feel like they have ulterior agendas. Otherwise, if they continue this pattern, maybe people will (and quite possibly should) start to think that just getting recognized with a nomination has more value and merit to it than actually getting up to the Oscar podium, which consequently means that less people may choose to see the Oscar ceremony in the future.

2009 Oscar Winners Predictions

“2009 Oscar Winners Predictions”

It is time to predict who will actually take home Oscar and while the general nominations are relatively easy to guess, the actual winners are usually harder to predict. In a backwards way, I wish there was a year when many of my predictions are moot because that would mean I am not second-guessing political factors and other trends and the vote is based more solely on artistic quality. Of course, politics and quality are not always mutually exclusive but the politics should be minimized so that there can be some pleasant and truly deserving surprise wins. Anyways, enough of my rambling, here are my predictions for who will win the Oscars and my preferences for who deserves to win.

Best Picture: Slumdog Millionaire, of course. It has the PGA and DGA and, after the last few years’ Best Picture winners such as Million Dollar Baby, Crash, The Departed and No Country for Old Men have been so downbeat, the Academy will feel that this is their opportunity to honor an uplifting film. The fact that it is set in the Indian culture is a gigantic boost as well, as the Oscars are very enthusiastic about the theme of globalization these days and this is the friendliest one they can pick now.

In fact, it is the only particularly memorable movie in this category’s lineup (and the only one that cracked my top 10 or even my top 20 movies from last year), although it is getting ever clearer that the Academy tends to ignore films that really distend the realm of cinema. There are good movies here such as Milk, Frost/Nixon or The Reader but how many people will actually remember these movies after the next few years? And does The Curious Case of Benjamin Button really tell a story that exploits the possibilities of its wild premise beyond its slick technical and visual surface? Well, at least they will end up (hopefully) picking the one movie that stands out the most.

Prediction: Slumdog Millionaire
Preference: Slumdog Millionaire

Best Director: The Best Picture frontrunner will also carry the torch here for the director, Danny Boyle. He has been an ambitious director immersing himself in almost any genre and most people, including the DGA that has honored him, would agree that immersing himself so well in a foreign culture this time has allowed him to direct one of his best films yet. If there is a dark horse, I do not think it will be David Fincher for The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, as many people believe, but Gus Van Sant, as there might be votes of sympathy for him after not winning for Good Will Hunting and making a slew of movies that are strictly personal and outside the mainstream (although, of course, the Academy would choose to pick him for a more commercial movie like Milk rather than a more unconventional, ambitious film like his previous Paranoid Park). Ron Howard is already a past recent winner and Stephen Daldry should be happy just with his nomination here, although he may start to get restless after losing with all three nominations.

Prediction: Danny Boyle, Slumdog Millionaire
Preference: Danny Boyle, Slumdog Millionaire

Best Actor in a Leading Role: This category is honestly one of the hardest to predict in many a year. Richard Jenkins and Brad Pitt are likely the ones that can safely be crossed out (although I would like to see Richard Jenkins up here again in the near future) but a convincing prediction argument can be made for each of the other three nominees, Frank Langella, Sean Penn and Mickey Rourke. The Academy might choose Langella, as the older voters are often suckers for the older veteran character actor who gets the role of a lifetime (and he has more exposure and the advantage of a later December release compared to Richard Jenkins). Or they might vote for Penn, who already has the SAG and whose winning may make a timely political statement. Or they might go for Mickey Rourke in The Wrestler, as his victory would make his great comeback story complete.

It is hard to call on but here is how I weigh the factors based on past Oscar history. The veteran factor may come strong but it ends up coming more in the supporting category and people may feel Langella’s leading exposure here will lead him to be up soon enough for a nomination in the near future. Penn does have the SAG but he is a relatively recent Oscar winner and the SAG award was likely more of a make-up one for overlooking him for that Oscar-winning role in Mystic River (it went shockingly enough to Johnny Depp for Pirates of the Caribbean). I am also guessing that the writer, Dustin Lance Black winning for his original screenplay for Milk will likely make a stronger impression and political statement in the Academy’s eyes. That leaves Mickey Rourke and I think the Academy will consider the fact that he may not be up here in the Oscar lineup again and this may be the only chance they can reward him. They may also want to hear his Golden Globe speech once again where he even earnestly thanked his dog. And you know what, I want to hear it, too, and see him up there for the role on which he poured out his heart, body and soul and the surprising subtlety with which he embraced his empathy with the character.

Prediction: Mickey Rourke, The Wrestler
Preference: Mickey Rourke, The Wrestler

Best Actress in a Leading Role: People all around have been saying it is finally time for Kate Winslet to receive her due as one of the best actresses of her generation and the Academy will no doubt agree. She is already at her sixth nomination with no wins yet at the age of 33 and the Academy will want to prevent her from becoming the biggest loser in Academy history. Not even the fact that the SAG went to Meryl Streep for her work as the sternly unbending authoritarian principal nun in Doubt will hinder Winslet from winning this category (and in the SAG, Winslet was not competing against Streep for The Reader but for Revolutionary Road and she won Best Supporting Actress SAG for the former).

I do admire Kate Winslet’s work in The Reader in not only playing a wide range of ages but also keeping an enigmatic resilience to her highly secretive character that evokes our sympathy despite her ultimately callous and even monstrous nature. But my personal choice would be for Melissa Leo in Frozen River. Just the fact that she would risk an intense close-up of her naturally aged, wrinkled face to make her desperate but unusually heroic mother role so raw and powerful alone shows that she has more daring than any other actress, including the other nominees this year. If there were a time when honoring a hard-working veteran is not just political but actually meritorious, this would be it because she is truly able to use her natural age to her artistic advantage. But we all know that politics often come on stronger than merit at the Oscars and the “long-due” political favor is on Winslet’s side.

Prediction: Kate Winslet, The Reader
Preference: Melissa Leo, Frozen River

Best Actor in a Supporting Role: Well, we all know we would be fools to bet against Heath Ledger here, right? So I am going to take a moment to respond to the slight backlash that I have been reading and state why I think the posthumous award will not just be out of a sentimental vote but a truly deserving one. It is easy to think of his performance as the Joker as one-note because the character is one pitched at feverish, mythical levels and, as the film’s director, Christopher Nolan intended, seemingly without a past. But that would be ignoring the multitude of methods with which he wholly distinctly created a singularly terrifying character. He spanned the gamut from enigmatic calculation and a slightly comical morbidity to acting so thoroughly like a caged, wounded animal in his telling of conflicting past stories to almost draw on our sympathies until we realize that it is a more insidious strategy of deceptive intimidation. That he managed to find these various shades of subtlety within what is a larger-than-life creation is remarkable.

There are other worthy nominees whom I would like to see go on to win Oscars in the near future. Robert Downey Jr. was a refreshingly good choice to see honored for his comical method acting satire through method acting in Tropic Thunder. Josh Brolin has been on a roll with consistently great work in No Country for Old Men, W. and now his nominated role in Milk. Phillip Seymour Hoffman from Doubt is, of course, a past winner already and is never known for giving a dishonest performance. The only nomination I really question is that of Michael Shannon, as I am not usually in favor of the brief “scene-stealing” character that is compellingly played to be sure but is not necessarily a larger, crucially supporting drive to the overall film (although I do hope the nod opens the door for an accomplished stage actor like Shannon to make a more lasting mark in film). But this is Heath Ledger’s year and he earns the award, posthumous or not.

Prediction: Heath Ledger, The Dark Knight
Preference: Heath Ledger, The Dark Knight

Best Actress in a Supporting Role: Now we arrive at the category that is the toughest of all to predict. No real bona fide precursor wins to go on, since Kate Winslet from The Reader is no longer in this race anymore. That may leave Penelope Cruz as the frontrunner for her work as the sultry, jealous ex-wife in Vicky Cristina Barcelona but I am not sure that is so clean-cut despite that she has the BAFTA. With my prediction, I am going to go on a bit of a whim and call Viola Davis for Doubt. Despite her limited screen time in the film as the mother of the only African-American student in a 1964 Catholic school, her character transcends it and opens up a whole other perspective to the story that not only stuns Streep’s principal nun character but shows her unusual yet unusually strong maternal love adjusting to the unfair familial conditions and racial prejudice of the time. The role has made a strong impression with audiences on film, as it did on stage, and considering that hard-working character actors like Richard Jenkins and Melissa Leo may lose out on Oscar® night in the leading categories, this might be the Academy’s way to award at least one in Davis here and also at least one of the four acting nods for Doubt.

Davis is certainly a good choice as her performance is not just a “scene-stealing” role but one valuably contributing to the arc of the story. However, with a nudge and a wink in my admiration for Davis’ work, my personal vote would go for Marisa Tomei in The Wrestler. Her turn as the stripper who becomes the object of Mickey Rourke’s growing romantic affection is almost a lead role and really the textbook example of a supporting, complementary role to the lead. The impact of either performance would not become complete without the other and it is through her character that we draw the line through both the wrestling and pole dancing professions in the film and see that they are both essentially about selling a product towards the juvenile nature of men. She understands that, as Rourke’s character does not, and she is able to suggest this from the start almost completely without dialogue underneath her instinctive generosity towards the wrestler. It is great work that is easy to overlook because Tomei makes it look so easy, which is why I think more votes will probably go for Davis who pops out more visibly.

Prediction: Viola Davis, Doubt
Preference: Marisa Tomei, The Wrestler

Best Original Screenplay: This is the category I think will make the political statement of Oscar night. The screenwriter, Dustin Lance Black was one personally touched by the legacy of Harvey Milk to bring gay rights into the public front and reportedly inspired to come out amidst growing up in a Mormon family household. Those emotions will no doubt flow through an impassioned speech he will give on Oscar night.

The screenplay for Milk was a good one although, in my opinion, I felt it was a little too conventional a biopic and too predictably lionizing an account of Harvey Milk, as a more audacious screenplay would have been willing to portray a fuller human portrait of the man with more of his flaws addressed as well as his strengths. In terms of sheer quality, I would vote for my favorite film of the year, WALL·E, as all of the heart and emotion in that screenplay was not in human dialogue but in imagining the communication between robots and creating one of the most unusually romantic stories in years. All that and they also managed to write a terrific science-fiction story and a stark, foreboding environmental warning in the mix. Well, the Academy might give the Pixar people the trademark “long-due” award at some point in the future but the condescension towards animated films still lingers and since Milk also has the Best Picture nomination as well, it is the likely winner in this category.

Prediction: Dustin Lance Black, Milk
Preference: Andrew Stanton, Jim Reardon and Pete Docter, WALL·E

Best Adapted Screenplay: The buzz train of Slumdog Millionaire will be unstoppable here and it deserves it for the amount of gritty details of the Indian slums that it ties to the multitude of story threads as in a Dickensian fable and finally a very satisfying, classical Hollywood-styled entertainment (even though it is penned and directed by Brits). I only hope that the Academy does not consider the outside possibility of giving The Curious Case of Benjamin Button a consolation prize here, although more people seem to now realize how hollow and unambitious the screenplay is. Also, that fake YouTube trailer showing side-by-side comparisons (read: rip-offs) between Forrest Gump and this movie (both written by Eric Roth) cannot help matters. If Roth ends up on the Oscar podium, he will have to put his feet to the flame for stealing from himself in his speech. But he almost certainly will not be up there and he should not be ahead of Simon Beaufoy for Slumdog Millionaire this year.

Prediction: Simon Beaufoy, Slumdog Millionaire
Preference: Simon Beaufoy, Slumdog Millionaire

Best Animated Feature: Well, the Annie Awards threw a real whopper in late January when they shut out WALL·E completely and embraced Kung Fu Panda instead. Maybe they thought that Dreamworks do not frequently make very good animated features and decided to give it to them when one came along. But I am pretty certain that the Academy will not make the same mistake of overlooking the superior WALL·E, particularly since it has other significant nominations to boot including screenplay and was also speculated as a potential Best Picture contender. If any other movie ends up getting recognized, there might actually be some puzzled, head-scratching looks in the audience.

Prediction: WALL·E
Preference: WALL·E

Predictions in the remaining categories (except for the short films):

Best Art Direction: The Curious Case of Benjamin Button

Best Cinematography: Slumdog Millionaire

Best Costume Design: The Duchess

Best Film Editing: The Dark Knight

Best Makeup: The Curious Case of Benjamin Button

Best Original Score: Slumdog Millionaire

Best Original Song: “Down to Earth,” WALL·E (I may be off in predicting this over “Jai Ho” from Slumdog Millionaire but I have a sneaky feeling that the composer, Thomas Newman may get his long due here like his cousin, Randy Newman since A.R. Rahman will likely win Original Score for Slumdog Millionaire.)

Best Sound: Slumdog Millionaire

Best Sound Editing: WALL·E

Best Visual Effects: The Curious Case of Benjamin Button

Best Documentary Feature: Man on Wire

Best Foreign Language Film: Waltz with Bashir

Reactions to 2009 Oscar Nominations

“Reactions to 2009 Oscar Nominations”

So the Academy Award nominations are now finally out and there were some surprises and even greater disappointments. Here are the comparisons between my predictions and the actual nominations as well as my personal reactions to the latter by category. The titles and/or names that differ between my predictions and the actual nominations are noted in red. For the five that I did not predict: Best Foreign Language Film, Feature Documentary, Documentary Short, Live Action Short Film and Animated Short Film, I have simply listed the actual nominees in the end.

BEST PICTURE

Predicted: The Curious Case of Benjamin Button; The Dark Knight; Frost/Nixon; Milk; Slumdog Millionaire.

Actual: The Curious Case of Benjamin Button; Frost/Nixon; Milk; The Reader; Slumdog Millionaire.

I did not predict the Academy to get past their bias against animated films to nominate the best film of the year, Pixar’s WALL·E but I thought they would at least honor a distinguished summer blockbuster for the first time with The Dark Knight. I was wrong and very disappointed. When is the Academy going to wake up and get over their recurrent condescension towards great summer entertainments? Do they think that movies like Spider-Man 2, Batman Begins and now The Dark Knight are not worthy because they create pyrotechnic fury on top of a strong beating heart and manage to become accessible to mass audiences? Well, I think the low ceremony viewership within the last few years might go even lower because of this unfair snub (except to perhaps watch the tribute to Heath Ledger who is sure to win Supporting Actor).

Passing over that movie, the Academy caved into their inclination towards Holocaust-themed movies and gave a nod to The Reader. The nod may also partly be a sentimental vote for the movie’s late producers, Sydney Pollack and Anthony Minghella (interestingly, as of now, they are still yet determining the actual people to nominate). Milk and Frost/Nixon, of course, got in as the political issue films, as did the Oscar®-friendly The Curious Case of Benjamin Button and the likely frontrunner, Slumdog Millionaire. Seriously though, considering how stellar Pixar movies have been getting lately, I think the Academy should think about explicitly changing this Best Picture to Best Live Action Picture if they are going to continue ignoring animated films for general competition.

BEST DIRECTOR

Predicted: Danny Boyle, Slumdog Millionaire; David Fincher, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button; Ron Howard, Frost/Nixon; Christopher Nolan, The Dark Knight; Gus Van Sant, Milk.

Actual: Danny Boyle, Slumdog Millionaire; Stephen Daldry, The Reader; David Fincher, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button; Ron Howard, Frost/Nixon; Gus Van Sant, Milk.

The nominated movies are the same as Best Picture here and so my complaints from Best Picture spill over here more or less. Or maybe they are actually a little stronger because Christopher Nolan has had such a consistent track of efficiently directing good to great, small to big films and he really should have gotten recognition for pouring his visionary artistic and commercial sensibilities with The Dark Knight. That is more than you can say for David Fincher who, even though I predicted it, should not be nominated over Nolan for a technically superb but emotionally hollow film, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button. And I guess the Academy really loves nominating Stephen Daldry because he is 3/3 including his past films from Billy Elliot and The Hours. Well, at least it is nice that directors of usually “smaller” gems like Danny Boyle and Gus Van Sant are up there. It would have been really something if, besides Nolan, the Academy had shown some reach to nominate Darren Aronofsky for The Wrestler.

BEST ACTOR IN A LEADING ROLE

Predicted: Richard Jenkins, The Visitor; Frank Langella, Frost/Nixon; Sean Penn, Milk; Brad Pitt, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button; Mickey Rourke, The Wrestler.

Actual: Richard Jenkins, The Visitor; Frank Langella, Frost/Nixon; Sean Penn, Milk; Brad Pitt, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button; Mickey Rourke, The Wrestler.

No surprises here, even if I thought Leonardo DiCaprio in Revolutionary Road should have been nominated over Brad Pitt in The Curious Case of Benjamin Button. Sean Penn is deservedly up here, too, again for giving a performance unlike any other he has given, which the Academy always loves. But it is really the work of Richard Jenkins, Frank Langella and, of course, Mickey Rourke that turns this into the underdog category that I will be paying closest attention to.

BEST ACTRESS IN A LEADING ROLE

Predicted: Anne Hathaway, Rachel Getting Married; Angelina Jolie, Changeling; Melissa Leo, Frozen River; Meryl Streep, Doubt; Kate Winslet, Revolutionary Road.

Actual: Anne Hathaway, Rachel Getting Married; Angelina Jolie, Changeling; Melissa Leo, Frozen River; Meryl Streep, Doubt; Kate Winslet, The Reader.

Despite that I still do not like the fact that Anne Hathaway was nominated over Sally Hawkins or Kristin Scott-Thomas (even though I saw it coming as the Academy always tries to boost at least one young actress’ career with a nomination), this is a category for which I am happier with the actual lineup as opposed to my predicted one. Kate Winslet indeed gave a leading performance in The Reader and since the performance she gave in The Reader was more memorable than the one she delivered in Revolutionary Road, I think it has become a more worthwhile race. I am also happy to see Melissa Leo get her nod for her heart-wrenching work in Frozen River while Meryl Streep surpassed her own record with a 15th nod for Doubt. It also looks like Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie will now finally be able to walk down the red carpet together as fellow nominees this year.

One humorous footnote: There was an episode in the TV series, Extras (starring Ricky Gervais) in which Winslet played herself and was starring in a Holocaust movie within the show because she felt that it was the only way she could finally get the Oscar® she badly wants. I wonder if she will make a reference to that in her speech if she wins.

BEST ACTOR IN A SUPPORTING ROLE

Predicted: Josh Brolin, Milk; Robert Downey Jr., Tropic Thunder; Phillip Seymour Hoffman, Doubt; Heath Ledger, The Dark Knight; Dev Patel, Slumdog Millionaire.

Actual: Josh Brolin, Milk; Robert Downey Jr., Tropic Thunder; Phillip Seymour Hoffman, Doubt; Heath Ledger, The Dark Knight; Michael Shannon, Revolutionary Road.

Somehow I feel I should have seen this coming. The supporting categories tend to throw in their curveball by choosing a small, scene-stealing performance and there was no one who fit the bill more than Michael Shannon in Revolutionary Road. Well, they had to give that movie at least one acting nomination, right? Anyways, it is nice to see Robert Downey Jr. back for Tropic Thunder and see Josh Brolin finally get his due. Phillip Seymour Hoffman is becoming a regular at the Oscars® but, of course, this category is the late, great Heath Ledger’s to lose.

BEST ACTRESS IN A SUPPORTING ROLE

Predicted: Amy Adams, Doubt; Penelope Cruz, Vicky Cristina Barcelona; Viola Davis, Doubt; Marisa Tomei, The Wrestler; Kate Winslet, The Reader.

Actual: Amy Adams, Doubt; Penelope Cruz, Vicky Cristina Barcelona; Viola Davis, Doubt; Taraji P. Henson, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button; Marisa Tomei, The Wrestler;

It looks like Kate Winslet’s appropriate vacating left room open for Taraji P. Henson to sneak in for her surrogate motherly role in The Curious Case of Benjamin Button. It also might leave Penelope Cruz as the front-runner, although I really would like to see the attention shift to some of the other performers who play greater emotional notes. As expected, there are two nominations from Doubt for two performances from Amy Adams and Viola Davis that could not be more different. Marisa Tomei’s role was also crucial to the power and meaning of The Wrestler so it is nice to see the Academy saw that.

BEST ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY

Predicted: Dustin Lance Black, Milk; Woody Allen, Vicky Cristina Barcelona; Tom McCarthy, The Visitor; Andrew Stanton, Pete Docter and Jim Reardon, WALL·E; Robert D. Siegel, The Wrestler.

Actual: Courtney Hunt, Frozen River; Mike Leigh, Happy-Go-Lucky; Martin McDonagh, In Bruges; Dustin Lance Black, Milk; Andrew Stanton, Pete Docter and Jim Reardon, WALL·E.

This is the category that was most wide open and I did not do so well in predicting. I am a little bummed that the strength of Mickey Rourke’s or Richard Jenkins’ performances has strayed the attention away from how great the screenplays for The Wrestler and The Visitor were to respectively give them such memorable roles. But at least the Academy chose to nominate far worthier nominees than Woody Allen such as first-time writers, Courtney Hunt for Frozen River and Martin McDonagh for In Bruges. Of course, WALL-E­ had to get a nomination here and a screenplay honor almost always goes hand in hand with the Best Picture nod for Milk.

BEST ADAPTED SCREENPLAY

Predicted: Eric Roth and Robin Swicord, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button; John Patrick Shanley, Doubt; Peter Morgan, Frost/Nixon; David Hare, The Reader; Simon Beaufoy, Slumdog Millionaire.

Actual: Eric Roth and Robin Swicord, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button; John Patrick Shanley, Doubt; Peter Morgan, Frost/Nixon; David Hare, The Reader; Simon Beaufoy, Slumdog Millionaire.

No left-field nominations here, although I almost guessed that The Dark Knight might sneak in here, too, but then decided at the last minute they would go for the period novel adaptation, The Reader. Four of the five nominees are also Best Picture nominees so no surprises that they received screenplay nominations, too (although, of course, almost no one expected The Reader to turn up so big). I would have been happy and relieved to be wrong in my prediction of Eric Roth and Robin Swicord getting recognized for their screenplay, which was the core problem with The Curious Case of Benjamin Button.

BEST ANIMATED FEATURE

Predicted: Kung Fu Panda; WALL·E; Waltz with Bashir.

Actual: Bolt; Kung Fu Panda; WALL·E.

This year was a particularly good year for animation, although this category would have been even stronger with the inclusion of Waltz with Bashir, which is really a very close second to WALL·E. I should have suspected that they would think the Best Foreign Language category would suffice. In any case, this one has a triple-lock padded door for WALL·E to enter the winner circle and no one else, I would say.

BEST FILM EDITING

Predicted: Kirk Baxter and Angus Wall, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button; Lee Smith, The Dark Knight; Daniel P. Hanley and Mike Hill, Frost/Nixon; Elliot Graham, Milk; Chris Dickens, Slumdog Millionaire.

Actual: Kirk Baxter and Angus Wall, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button; Lee Smith, The Dark Knight; Daniel P. Hanley and Mike Hill, Frost/Nixon; Elliot Graham, Milk; Chris Dickens, Slumdog Millionaire.

BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY

Predicted: Mandy Walker, Australia; Claudio Miranda, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button; Wally Pfister, The Dark Knight; Roger Deakins, Revolutionary Road; Anthony Dod Mantle, Slumdog Millionaire.

Actual: Tom Stern, Changeling; Claudio Miranda, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button; Wally Pfister, The Dark Knight; Chris Menges and Roger Deakins, The Reader; Anthony Dod Mantle, Slumdog Millionaire.

BEST ORIGINAL SCORE

Predicted: Alexandre Desplat, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button; James Newton Howard and Hans Zimmer, The Dark Knight; Danny Elfman, Milk; A.R. Rahman, Slumdog Millionaire; Thomas Newman, WALL·E.

Actual: Alexandre Desplat, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, James Newton Howard, Defiance; Danny Elfman, Milk; Thomas Newman, WALL·E; A.R. Rahman, Slumdog Millionaire.

BEST ORIGINAL SONG

Predicted: Miley Cyrus – “I Thought I Lost You,” Bolt; Clint Eastwood, Jamie Cullum, Michael Stevens and Kyle Eastwood – “Gran Torino,” A.R. Rahman and Gulzar – “Jai Ho,” Slumdog Millionaire; Peter Gabriel and Thomas Newman – “Down to Earth,” WALL·E; Gran Torino; Bruce Springsteen – “The Wrestler,” The Wrestler.

Actual: A.R. Rahman and Gulzar – “Jai Ho,” Slumdog Millionaire; Peter Gabriel and Thomas Newman – “Down to Earth,” WALL·E; A.R. Rahman and Maya Arulpragasam – “O Saya,” Slumdog Millionaire.

The Academy only chose three nominees this year and two of them went to Slumdog Millionaire. The third went deservedly to WALL·E for the song, “Down to Earth” but I wonder why they decided to shut out Bruce Springsteen’s title song, “The Wrestler” and Clint Eastwood et al.’s “Gran Torino” though, as both songs were rather crucial to the final effect of the respective movies. Well, maybe they only chose three this time around so as to lower the chance of Miley Cyrus would sneak in.

BEST COSTUME DESIGN

Predicted: Australia; Changeling; The Curious Case of Benjamin Button; The Duchess; Revolutionary Road;

Actual: Australia; The Curious Case of Benjamin Button; The Duchess; Milk; Revolutionary Road.

BEST ART DIRECTION

Predicted: Changeling; The Curious Case of Benjamin Button; The Dark Knight; The Duchess; Revolutionary Road.

Actual: Changeling, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button; The Dark Knight; The Duchess; Revolutionary Road.

BEST MAKEUP

Predicted: The Curious Case of Benjamin Button; Hellboy II: The Golden Army; The Reader.

Actual: The Curious Case of Benjamin Button; The Dark Knight; Hellboy II: The Golden Army.

BEST SOUND MIXING

Predicted: The Curious Case of Benjamin Button; The Dark Knight; Iron Man; Slumdog Millionaire; WALL·E.

Actual: The Curious Case of Benjamin Button; The Dark Knight; Slumdog Millionaire; WALL·E; Wanted.

BEST SOUND EDITING

Predicted: The Curious Case of Benjamin Button; The Dark Knight; Iron Man; Quantum of Solace; WALL·E;

Actual: The Dark Knight; Iron Man; Slumdog Millionaire; WALL·E; Wanted.

BEST VISUAL EFFECTS

Predicted: The Curious Case of Benjamin Button; The Dark Knight; Iron Man.

Actual: The Curious Case of Benjamin Button; The Dark Knight; Iron Man.

Actual nominees of categories I did not predict:

BEST FOREIGN LANGUAGE FILM: The Baader-Meinhof Complex; The Class; Departures; Revanche; Waltz with Bashir.

BEST DOCUMENTARY, FEATURES: The Betrayal – Nerakhoon; Encounters at the End of the World; The Garden; Man on Wire; Trouble the Water.

BEST DOCUMENTARY, SHORT SUBJECTS: The Conscience of Nhem En; The Final Inch; Smile Pinki; The Witness from the Balcony of Room 386.

BEST SHORT FILM, ANIMATED: La Maison en Petits Cubes; Ubornaya istoriya – lyubovnaya istoriya; Oktapodi; Presto; This Way Up.

BEST SHORT FILM, LIVE ACTION: Auf der Strecke; Manon sur le bitumen; New Boy; Grisen; Spielzeugland.

All in all, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button got the most number of nominations at 13 followed by Slumdog Millionaire with 10. The Dark Knight took eight just with the technical nods and Heath Ledger’s for Supporting Actor, which could have meant that the Academy did not want to have two movies vying for the major AND technical categories so they picked the one friendlier to them. Milk is also up for eight nominations, WALL·E received six and Frost/Nixon, The Reader and Doubt each received five.