Oscar 2008 Recap

Boo-yah! I'm all finished with my Oscar movies. Here's my recap of them all. Winners are in bold.

Performance by an actor in a leading role
Nominees: George Clooney in Michael Clayton, Daniel Day-Lewis in There Will Be Blood, Johnny Depp in Sweeney Todd The Demon Barber of Fleet Street, Tommy Lee Jones in In the Valley of Elah, Viggo Mortensen in Eastern Promises

Comments: I guess since I didn’t really like any of these movies I wouldn’t really have had a vested interest in this category. They all had their moments, although perhaps Viggo’s accent would have won me over.

Performance by an actor in a supporting role
Nominees: Casey Affleck in The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford, Javier Bardem in No Country for Old Men, Philip Seymour Hoffman in Charlie Wilson's War, Hal Holbrook in Into the Wild, Tom Wilkinson in Michael Clayton

Comments: I’m surprised Javier Bardem is considered a supporting actor in No Country for Old Men. Isn’t he the main character? No complaints about this winner.

Performance by an actress in a leading role
Nominees: Cate Blanchett in Elizabeth: The Golden Age, Julie Christie in Away from Her, Marion Cotillard in La Vie en Rose, Laura Linney in The Savages, Ellen Page in Juno

Comments: This is a tough one. Marion Cotillard did a wonderful job, but so did the other ladies. I honestly liked all of them. I’m glad I’m not a voting member.

Performance by an actress in a supporting role
Nominees: Cate Blanchett in I'm Not There, Ruby Dee in American Gangster, Saoirse Ronan in Atonement, Amy Ryan in Gone Baby Gone, Tilda Swinton in Michael Clayton

Comments: I don’t even remember who Ruby Dee was and the others were all pretty much equal to me. Perhaps Cate Blanchett would have edged out the others because she played a guy. Dunno. Tilda Swinton does always freak me out though. There’s just something about her look…

Best animated feature film of the year
Nominees: Persepolis, Ratatouille, Surf's Up

Comments: Persepolis, while definitely animated, is really not in the same league as the other two. It’s about the struggles of an Iranian woman while the others are about talking animals. I don’t know that it was fair to judge them all on the same plane.

Achievement in art direction
Nominees: American Gangster, Atonement, The Golden Compass, Sweeney Todd The Demon Barber of Fleet Street, There Will Be Blood

Comments: I'm not entirely sure what this category entails. Is art direction the same as set decoration and props and stuff? In that case, sure, Sweeney Todd had some cool sets. If not, I have no idea what to judge...

Achievement in cinematography
Nominees: The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford, Atonement, The Diving Bell and the Butterfly. No Country for Old Men, There Will Be Blood

Comments: Once again, I have no idea what this category is based on. For such a boring movie, There Will Be Blood won an awful lot of awards...

Achievement in costume design
Nominees: Across the Universe, Atonement, Elizabeth: The Golden Age, La Vie en Rose, Sweeney Todd The Demon Barber of Fleet Street

Comments: No question to me that Elizabeth had the most complicated and involved costume work. Across the Universe and La Vie en Rose were pretty much modern day settings, Atonement was still in the last century, and Sweeney Todd was your usual theatrical garb. Elizabeth had period dresses and all kinds of other details to worry about.

Achievement in directing
Nominees: The Diving Bell and the Butterfly, Juno, Michael Clayton, No Country for Old Men, There Will Be Blood

Comments: Nothing much to say here. Not a film-maker, have no idea what it takes to direct or how to choose one over another.

Achievement in film editing
Nominees: The Bourne Ultimatum, The Diving Bell and the Butterfly, Into the Wild, No Country for Old Men, There Will Be Blood

Comments: Don't really know what to say about this category either. I didn't notice anything particularly grating about any of these movies related to cuts and scene changes...

Achievement in makeup
Nominees: La Vie en Rose, Norbit, Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End

Comments: I suppose Norbit could win for making Eddie Murphy a fat woman. And an Asian guy. But we’ve all seen that before. Even the Pirates movie had a lot of the same characters as the first two. Still impressive though. I don’t know that Edith Piaf’s transformation from a young street singer to an old arthritic was the best of these three, but that’s what won. There you go.

Achievement in music written for motion pictures (Original score)
Nominees: Atonement, The Kite Runner, Michael Clayton, Ratatouille, 3:10 to Yuma

Comments: I don't really remember any of these movies having particularly great soundtracks. But at least There Will Be Blood wasn't nominated. Horrible, horrible music in that one...

Achievement in music written for motion pictures (Original song)
Nominees: Falling Slowly from Once, Happy Working Song from Enchanted, Raise It Up from August Rush, So Close from Enchanted, That's How You Know from Enchanted

Comments: Funny how the rules changed after Alan Menken was nominated for three songs from one movie. Heh. The songs from Enchanted were your usual Disney movie fluff. I don’t even remember the song from August Rush. The right one won this category.

Best motion picture of the year
Nominees: Atonement, Juno, Michael Clayton, No Country for Old Men, There Will Be Blood

Comments: Ugh. Considering the only one of the nominees I actually liked was Juno I think my vote would be swayed. Not sure what made No Country for Old Men better than the others. The haircut?

Achievement in sound editing
Nominees: The Bourne Ultimatum, No Country for Old Men, Ratatouille, There Will Be Blood, Transformers

Comments: Er, don't have any opinion on this one either. I totally suck at this.

Achievement in sound mixing
Nominees: The Bourne Ultimatum, No Country for Old Men, Ratatouille, 3:10 to Yuma, Transformers

Comments: What is the difference between "sound editing" and "sound mixing?" Seriously.

Achievement in visual effects
Nominees: The Golden Compass, Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End, Transformers

Comments: I thought Transformers should have won something. It was a surprisingly good movie. I suppose The Golden Compass had some trippy CGI stuff, but it was still more boring than Transformers.

Adapted screenplay
Nominees: Atonement, Away from Her, The Diving Bell and the Butterfly, No Country for Old Men, There Will Be Blood

Comments: Screenwriting awards are very subjective I think. If you didn’t care for the plot lines or subject matter, you might have a hard time differentiating those points from the overall script construction. I don’t really have an opinion on most of these. The time travel bugged me in Atonement, but the others all really were ok.

Original screenplay
Nominees: Juno, Lars and the Real Girl, Michael Clayton, Ratatouille, The Savages

Comments: Also very subjective. I think Lars and the Real Girl was an adorable movie but I don’t know if it’s just because the screenplay was good. Same with Juno and The Savages. I don’t know how the voters determine which is the best in some of these categories. Surely there must be some guidelines to prevent people from just voting for their friends?

Only five more months until the 2009 nominations are announced! :)