Feb 21, 2008 11:09 pm US/Central
Alternate Oscar Picks
4 Other WCCO Movie Buffs Make Their Picks
(WCCO)
WILL WIN
Mark Rosen, Sports Director
Picture: "No Country for Old Men"
Director: Ethan & Joel Coen, "No Country for Old Men"
Actor: Daniel Day-Lewis, "There Will Be Blood"
Actress: Ellen Page, "Juno"
Supporting Actor: Javier Bardem, "No Country for Old Men"
Supporting Actress: Tilda Swinton, "Michael Clayton"
Original Screenplay: "Juno"
Adapted Screenplay: "No Country for Old Men"
Animated Feature: "Ratatouille"
Cinematography: "There Will Be Blood"
Film Editing: "No Country for Old Men"
Art Direction: "Atonement"
Costume Design: "Sweeney Todd"
Original Music Score: "Atonement"
Original Music Song: "Falling Slowly" from "Once"
Makeup: "La Vie en Rose"
Sound: "Transformers"
Visual Effects: "Transformers"
Peter Nelson, Assignment Editor
Adapted Screenplay: This one's going to be like the rest of the big awards: a battle between "No Country" and "Blood." I'd give the edge to the Coen brothers on this one. "No Country'"s intertwined stories are too much for "Blood" to handle.
Original Screenplay: "Juno" was clever and fun. I haven't seen any of the others nominated but if "Juno" wins any of the bigger prizes, this will be the one.
Supporting Actor: Javier Bardem deserves this one. He brought one of the most chilling and legitimately scary villains to the screen last year. I will now be afraid of compressed air for many years to come.
Actress: I have a crush on Ellen Page.
Actor: The world has a crush on Daniel Day-Lewis. He'll win this hands down. If he doesn't, the Oscars will lose their legitimacy and Daniel will drink their MILKSHAKE!
Director: This one's really hard, but I have to go with Paul Thomas Anderson to pick up Best Director.
Picture: "No Country for Old Men." If "There Will Be Blood" wins, then the Coen brothers will win best director(s).
DESERVES TO WIN
Erin Anzalone, Morning Executive Producer
Picture: "No Country for Old Men." I'm in the camp that loves and admires this movie. It has everything -- great acting, great directing, great script, suspense. It's bold, it's profound, it has everything.
Actor: I'm giving this category a tie. Daniel Day-Lewis, "There Will Be Blood." He makes you care about an entirely unlikable man who is a portrait of constrained lunacy. Bowling, milkshakes and oil take on entirely new meanings. Daniel Day-Lewis the man disappears into an incredible character study that will hold up to the test of time. But my sentimental favorite, Viggo Mortensen, was actually on my "wish he was nominated" list until it actually happened! He is transformed in "Eastern Promises" thanks to his incredible attention to detail and authenticity. And, I'm sorry, but the fight scene in the bathhouse should be reason alone to make Helen Mirren read his name when she presents the Best Actor award.
Actress: Julie Christie, "Away from Her." Full Disclosure: this is my least-viewed movie category. But I want Julie Christie to win. I love her as an actress and I want to see her in more! If Ellen Page wins I may boycott. OK, not really, but her Juno is not in the same league as the rest of these nominees (again from my limited viewing of scenes and clips for a few of the nominees) and I don't think the nomination will stand up down the road. ("Little Miss Sunshine" as Best Picture, anyone? I like that movie too, but no way is it one of the five best of 2006.)
Supporting Actor: This is my three-way tie race, and really that's the way the statues should be handed out for these guys this year. First: Javier Bardem, incredible in "No Country for Old Men," despite the hair. Next, Philip Seymour Hoffman completely elevates "Charlie Wilson's War" and steals what would have been a mediocre movie without him. He should win simply for the "bottle scene." And last but not least, Hal Holbrook absolutely breaks my heart in "Into the Wild." I only wish I didn't have to wait so long into the movie for him to appear.
Supporting Actress: Amy Ryan, "Gone Baby Gone." She's never going to win "mother of the year" for her unbelievably unlikable character, but she should win the Oscar. Some of the film's scenes would not sucker-punch you as much as they do without her performance.
Director: Ethan & Joel Coen, "No Country for Old Men." For crafting what I think is the best movie of the year. I love their movies and, simply, they should win. Any other opinions are wrong.
Original Screenplay: Again, I'm giving out a tie. "Michael Clayton" is a script where even the most jaded moviegoer may not figure out each twist and turn. This movie will be a classic in years to come. Also "Juno." I'm picking this in spite of Diablo Cody's back story, not because of it. The screenplay is smart (although who really talks that way?), funny and touching. It knows what it is and where the characters should go, unlike "Little Miss Sunshine" (which won this award last year).
Adapted Screenplay: "No Country for Old Men." Even with the ending that so many people hated. I like that not everything is wrapped up in a nice, neat little bow, that leave you with some thinking to do. That's rare these days.
DESERVED A NOMINATION
Eric Henderson, Web Producer
Picture: This year, the Academy fortuitously nominated the two best-reviewed films of the year -- "There Will Be Blood" and "No Country for Old Men." Not only that, the Academy also gave those two films the highest number of nominations, making them Best Picture frontrunners. This is not your typical, humdrum year at the Oscars, and in that vein, I wish they could've found room for "Showgirls" director Paul Verhoeven's unorthodox WWII drama "Black Book," which has both historical sweep and jaw-dropping moments of questionable taste.
Actor: I realize I was one of the roughly 17 people that saw it when it played at the Parkway on Chicago Avenue, and I also realize that it's not exactly playing by the rules to give an acting award to someone in a documentary, but Charles Nelson Reilly's dramatic 90-minute monologue recounting his entire life story in "The Life of Reilly" is the definition of a tour de force performance. And he didn't even once mention Brett Somers.
Actress: From one rule-breaking suggestion to the next, no human leading actress moved me quite as much as Julie Kavner did in "The Simpsons Movie." Marge's heartrending videotaped ultimatum to Homer at the film's climax would've made the perfect Oscar clip.
Supporting Actor: First off, Hal Holbrook ("Into the Wild") gave my favorite performance of the year in any category. On the opposite end of the age scale were two brave performances in neo-westerns: Ben Foster's sassy, diabolical villain almost redeems "3:10 To Yuma," and Paul Dano's gawky corruption matches Daniel Day-Lewis's fury in "There Will Be Blood." No small feat.
Supporting Actress: Blink and you'll miss her, but Kristin Wiig ("Knocked Up") absolutely nails corporate passive-aggressiveness as a middle-manager who smiles sourly as she reluctantly promotes younger, prettier Katherine Heigl into a position she clearly wishes she could fill. Also great: Margo Martindale's fractured French as a lonely American tourist in "Paris je t'aime."
Director: If Paul Thomas Anderson and the Coen brothers demonstrated the virtue of absolute control, the quintet of genre directors behind "Grindhouse" (spearheaded by Robert Rodriguez and Quentin Tarantino) make a great case for simply tearing loose.
Original Screenplay: "Grindhouse" throws everything and the kitchen sink at the screen, but the Cuisinart of action cliches that make up "Hot Fuzz" represent a more careful genre mash-up.
Adapted Screenplay: This is probably the one category among the majors that came closest to hitting the mark. I can only submit for consideration James Vanderbilt's fastidious, detailed "Zodiac" and the foul lines of dialogue Ben Affleck and Aaron Stockard gave Amy Ryan to spew throughout "Gone Baby Gone."
(© MMIX, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)
Slideshow: Bill Carlson's Oscar Picks
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