My main picks for the Oscars all came true!  I’m a cognoscenti now.  Here are the winners that I’d previously predicted:

Best Picture: No Country For Old Men.  I had this one pegged back in early January

Best Actor: Daniel Day-Lewis.  Very hard to beat at his best, which I noted in the same article.

Best Supporting Actor: Javier Bardem.  See my review of his performance in No Country For Old Men here.

Best Supporting Actress: Tilda Swinton.  Michael Clayton really brought out her finest work in a long time.  A very well deserved award!

And, to allow you to fully probe the depths of my Oscar prognosticating goodness, I predicted after I saw it that Ratatouille would win the Best Animated Film Oscar.  You could see that one coming a mile off, it was that good.

I missed on Best Director – I thought it would probably go to Paul Thomas Anderson for There Will Be Blood, but it went to Joel & Ethan Coen.

Congratulations to all the winners!  I had a decent year in 2007 with the best pictures.

As I predicted, both No Country For Old Men and There Will Be Blood received Best Picture nominations today. See my reviews for these movies here and here.

More suprising (but welcome) was the inclusion of Michael Clayton with seven nods, including Best Picture, Best Director, and Best Actor.  Most deserved was the nomination for Tilda Swinton for Best Supporting Actress.  I really enjoyed this movie and am glad to see it got the recognition it deserved.

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Tags: Oscars, No Country For Old Men, There Will Be Blood, Michael Clayton

Talking about No Country For Old Men.

[googlevideo=http://video.google.com/googleplayer.swf?docId=946437413257281867:139000:2016000&hl=en]

(h/t Paul Kedrosky)

No Country For Old Men

“I feel like I’m getting … outmatched.” That’s what Ed Tom Bell, played by Tommy Lee Jones, says near the end of this armrest-gripping voyage of claustrophobia. Neither Cormac McCarthy, who wrote the novel on which the movie is based, nor the Coen brothers, who turned it into the must-see film of the winter, must feel that way — both are on top of their game.

Quick take: Lots of violence in this hard-to-define, hard-to-pin-down megaplex-busting reflection on personal choices. Bravura performances by Jones, Javier Bardem in the role of psychopath Anton Chigurh, and the surprisingly fantastic Josh Brolin (Josh fucking Brolin?) in the role of the underqualified schlub who gets in way over his head.

What’s amazing: The acting, as mentioned above. The story — which I’ve heard follows the story quite closely — is expertly captured by the Coen filmmaking team. I haven’t read anything by McCormack yet, finding those critical waters too turbulent for my liking. The mood, the sounds — everything works toward the intended purpose here.

What almost missed: Tommy Lee Jones almost falls into the corny overacting that we saw in The Fugitive (”every gas station, residence, warehouse, farmhouse, henhouse, outhouse and doghouse in that area”), but narrowly avoids the trap. There’s a dash too much jokey humor from the Ed Tom Bell character here, but that’s par for the course with a Coen brothers film. Who am I to argue?

Screw you, Bruckheimer: The movie ends (SPOILER ALERT) with Tommy Lee Jones musing over a dream he had the night before about his father. Then –the screen goes black. I love the Coen brothers because they aren’t afraid to turn convention around, kick it in the ass, and send it packing.

The Competition: I can’t help but compare this movie with the other critically acclaimed movie out right now, American Gangster. This is no contest. Someone dropped Denzel Washington into the square hole, and Russel Crowe into the round hole, and threw in some latina spice, and are probably laughing all the way to the bank. I read Dana Stevens from Slate describe American Gangster as a wan buddy flick, and it’s more or less true. On the other hand, she dissed this movie as well, so what does that say about her critical faculties. Sigh.

Rotten Tomatoes: As of today, it’s a clear victory for No Country for Old Men, at 96% on the tomatometer.