My buddy Dave Thomas (old
My buddy Dave Thomas (old friend from college) has provided the funniest commentary yet on tomorrow night’s Academy Awards. Here’s Part 1, kinda long but worth it.
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OSCAR PREVIEW
Gonna work this from the bottom up for those of you in
on the pool. (And those of you not, go to
http://moviegames.yahoo.com/oscars and join the “I
love hot dogs” group – group ID # 6859, password:
carrere)
BEST VISUAL EFFECTS
AI
LOTR
Pearl Harbor
Will Win: Lord of the Rings
Should Win: Lord of the Rings
The first of many this will win, but none of the big
ones. And as truly awesome as some of the AI fx were,
the Rings fx created a far more complete, complicated
world.
BEST LIVE ACTION SHORT FILM
the accountant
Copy Shop
Gregor’s Greatest Invention
A Man Thing (Meska Sprawa)
Speed for Thespians
Will Win: Copy Shop
Should Win: Speed for Thespians
As usual, I haven’t seen any of these. I hear Copy
Shop is good, so I’m giving it the win. I’m giving
“Speed” the should cos’ I like the title.
BEST ANIMATED SHORT FILM
Fifty Percent Grey
For the Birds
Give Up Yer Aul Sins
Strange Invaders
Stubble Trouble
Will Win: For the Birds
Should Win: Lily & Jim
For once I’ve actually seen one of these! “For the
Birds” is the short that comes before “Monsters, Inc.”
It’s actually pretty good. That’s not why it’ll win.
It’ll win because it came before “Monsters, Inc.” so
Academy members will have actually seen it. “Lily &
Jim” should win cos’ it’s the funniest damn short I’ve
seen in years, even if it came out 5 years ago.
BEST MAKE-UP
A Beautiful Mind
The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring
Moulin Rouge
Will Win: LOTR
Should Win: Planet of the Apes!!!
I’m sorry, but where the hell is the Rick Baker award
this year? The ONLY good thing about that movie was
the make-up. I’d hate to think that I sat through
that crap in vain. (Well, Estella Warren was cute,
but still – I have the internet).
Yeah, LOTR will snag it. It’s a technical award.
Note the theme.
BEST FILM EDITING
A Beautiful Mind
Black Hawk Down
The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring
Memento
Moulin Rouge
Will Win: Moulin Rouge
Should Win: Memento
Most of the time this award goes to the Best Picture.
Not this time. This is gonna be a “Matrix” year.
Moulin Rouge is gonna get SOMETHING. It’s not gonna
win the Producer’s Guild award and then walk away
empty handed from the Oscars. But whatever could it
win? It ain’t gonna get Best Picture. Nicole’s no
match for two of the other actresses. And most
technical stuff is gonna be nabbed by the 400 lb.
gorilla that is LOTR. So it gets editing. And it
almost deserves it. The editing was crucial to this
film. And manic. And crazy. And not as crucial asŠ
Memento. If ever a movie needed perfect editing (w/
the possible exception of JFK, which won) this is it.
To tell a story that jumps around this much and still
carry the audience with it is an achievement not just
of direction or screenwriting (which we’ll get to
later) but of sheer precision editing. The
juxtapositions, especially at the end of the film,
have to be just right. And the cut of Sammy Jenkis
turning into Leonard Shelby for a split second is
practically worth the award right there for loading
that much significance into one cut.
BEST DOCUMENTARY SHORT
Artists and Orphans: A True Drama
Sing!
Thoth
Will Win: Artists and Orphans: A True Drama
Should Win: Thoth
Artists and Orphans just sounds important. Oscar
loves that in its documentaries. I’m giving Thoth the
should based on that cool-sounding name thing again.
BEST DOCUMENTARY FEATURE
Children Underground
LaLees Kin: The Legacy of Cotton
Murder on a Sunday Morning
Promises
War Photographer
Will Win: Promises
Should Win: Promises
I’m gonna defer to Walt on this one. He’s uncanny
when it comes to predicting doc winners. (Amber’s
even creepier. She’s pretty on target about the
murderer’s row {best short animated and live action,
and best doc short and feature} without ever seeing
the movies and usually knowing nothing about them).
And he saw Promises and said it was good so I’ll trust
him there, too, for the should.
BEST COSTUME DESIGN
The Affair of the Necklace
Gosford Park
Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone
The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring
Moulin Rouge
Will Win: LOTR
Should Win: Moulin Rouge
This one’s tough. It would be easy except for one
thing. Moulin Rouge. Normally a movie nominated for
13 awards is gonna win all of the minors it can. But
Moulin’s got a hefty chunk, too. AND this nom makes
perfect sense. However, my gut tells me that LOTR is
going to monolithically trample the competition in all
even remotely technical awards, even when Moulin has
the more elaborate costumes. (I mean, come on!
They’re robes! How hard is that!?)
BEST ORIGINAL SONG
“If I Didn’t Have You” – Randy Newman from Monsters,
Inc.
“May It Be” – Enya, Nicky Ryan & Roma Ryan, from LOTR
“There You’ll Be” – Diane Warren, from Pearl Harbor
“Until” – Sting, from Kate & Leopold
“Vanilla Sky” – Paul McCartney, from Vanilla Sky
Will Win: “Until” – Sting
Should Win: “Come What May” – from Moulin Rouge
Oh, good. Randy Newman’s here. The battle of the
brits. This award has come to signify some sort of
tribute to rock icons in preceding years. Remember
Spingsteen’s win for “Philadelphia” and Dylan’s
I-can’t-believe-it’s-not-Vincent-Price win for “Wonder
Boys”? So here we have two British icons of rock who
have aged gracefully into writing cheesy love ballads
for underperforming American films. McCartney’s been
around longer but Vanilla Sky sucked at the box office
whereas Kate & Leopold did surprisingly well.
Advantage: Sting.
Oh, so remember that musical that came out this year
that got all those nominations for everything EXCEPT
best song? I quote Walt: “It’s a fucking MUSICAL for
Christ’s sake!”
AND WHERE THE HELL IS “JOSIE AND THE PUSSYCATS”? THAT
“THREE SMALL WORDS” SONG FUCKING ROCKS!!!
At least we can be thankful that nothing from Glitter
got nominated.
(Incidentally: there’s a theory that there’s some
technical crap that prevented “Come What May” from
getting nominated. Apparently it was written for
Romeo & Juliet but never used. As a result, it
couldn’t be nominated for Moulin Rouge because it
wasn’t expressly written for Moulin Rouge. The same
thing kept “As Time Goes By” from being nominated for
Casablanca.)
BEST ORIGINAL SCORE
A.I.: Artificial Intelligence – John Williams
A Beautiful Mind – James Horner
Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone – John Williams
The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring –
Howard Shore
Monsters, Inc. – Randy Newman
Will Win: LOTR
Should Win: A Beautiful Mind
Oh, good. Randy Newman’s here.
It’s not a technical award, technically, but I think
LOTR will take as much as it can (although there is a
limit that we’ll hit pretty soon). On top of all
that, Howard’s due. Most of these other guys have
been nominated a gazillion times in the past ten or
even twenty years (watch John Williams split his own
vote here). Shore’s won a shitload of ASCAP awards in
that same time period and hasn’t been nominated until
now. He also won AFI’s Composer of the Year, but I
won’t hold that against him.
Of all these films, ABM is the only one where I
actually commented on the score after seeing it.
Actually, I think Walt brought it up first. We both
liked it and considered (for about 10 seconds)
actually getting the soundtrack.
Oh, and thank God no musicals were nominated in this
category. Jeez!
BEST SOUND EDITING
Monsters Inc.
Pearl Harbor
Will Win: Monsters Inc.
Should Win: Anything but Pearl Harbor, soŠ
No, really. I think that’s what it’s gonna come down
to. No one in their right mind, (or even in the
Academy) wants to give props of any kind to Pearl
Harbor (and by Pearl Harbor, I mean Jerry Bruckheimer)
so Monsters Inc wins by the two sweetest words in the
English language: Dee Fault.
BEST SOUND
Amelie
Black Hawk Down
The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring
Moulin Rouge
Pearl Harbor
Will Win: LOTR
Should Win: Moulin Rouge
It’s funny, y’know, I remember walking out of Amelie
thinking, “Damn that movie had some good sound!
Sheeeiiiit!” LOTR. Technical award. You do the
math.
If only for the fact that I could hear all the
dialogue clearly underneath all the music I give
Moulin Rouge the award. (Technically that may be a
sound editing award, but they didn’t get nominated for
that.)
BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY
Amelie
Black Hawk Down
The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring
The Man Who Wasn’t There
Moulin Rouge
Will Win: The Man Who Wasn’t There
Should Win: The Man Who Wasn’t There
Actually, I did walk out of Amelie saying “Sheeeiiiit
that’s good cinematography.” But it’s not gonna win.
This is a TOUGH one. The trend for the past five
years (at least; I didn’t have time to check back
further) has been that the best cinematography award
has ONLY gone to films that were also nominated for
best picture. This eliminates all but Moulin Rouge
and LOTR. And between the two of them it’s already a
tough call (though they can also split the vote). But
here’s the thing. The Man Who Wasn’t There has won
virtually every cinematography award handed out this
year. Including the ASC award. This is as close as
you get to a guild award in this field. And if
cinematographers are voting for cinematographersŠ
And it’s nice that it deserves to win, too.
BEST ART DIRECTION
Amelie
Gosford Park
Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone
The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring
Moulin Rouge
Will Win: LOTR
Should Win: LOTR
I have to admit this is one of the most beautiful
films I’ve seen all year. It’s literally like one of
those fantasy paintings come to life. A lot of that
is the art direction. Again, I’m thinking this is
part of that unstoppable LOTR technical train we’ll
witness Sunday night. (“LOTR technical train” was
actually the working title for “Soul Train”. True
story.)
TOMORROW (or later today depending on when you get
this) THE BIG 10!!!
-Dave