Top Box Office Movies - An Addiction for Prediction: Who Will Nab the Oscar?

An Addiction for Prediction:
Who Will Nab the Oscar?

Well, the moment is certainly here for movie critics and moviegoers alike to predict for their Academy Award prognostications. Thus, here are my predictions for the 2007 Oscar nominations that will take place at the Kodak Theatre on Sunday, February 24, 2008. Some of these selections may be obvious while others considered a shot in the dark but this is the frustrating fun behind making such cinematic guesses, right?

Let’s take a look at the main six categories in review for best picture, best director, best actor, best actress, best supporting actor, and best supporting actress. Also, let’s see what yours truly considers as his personal favorites as well. By the way, what are your predictions and personal preferences? Come and join the joyride down Oscar’s royal red carpet...

BEST PICTURE

ATONEMENT
JUNO
MICHAEL CLAYTON
NO COUNTRY FOR OLD MEN
THERE WILL BE BLOOD

The Academy’s pick: “Atonement”
Frank’s pick: “No Country for Old Men”

EXPLANATION: Basically, Atonement is the kind of desirable film that the Academy regards as prototypically “safe”. It’s a lush, sweeping epic that entails eye-popping costumes, elegant accents, sophisticated performances and has a lyrical landscape of provocative platitudes in romance and resonance. Juno is a surprise nominee and worthy of its inclusion but it’s considered too lightweight to outmuscle the remaining four heavyweight contenders. Both Country and Blood may be too extreme and edgy for the Academy’s delicate taste but they will probably score favorably in the acting categories. Personally, No Country for Old Men is mesmerizing in its impish recklessness for old time storytelling featuring quaint and scenic small town living facing cynical forces of decadence and depravity. Plus, Javier Bardem’s stone-faced executioner may be one of cinema’s richest movie menaces to come along in quite some time.

BEST DIRECTOR

Paul Thomas Anderson, THERE WILL BE BLOOD
Ethan and Joel Cohen, NO COUNTRY FOR OLD MEN
Tony Gilroy, MICHAEL CLAYTON
Jason Reitman, JUNO
Julian Schnabel, THE DIVING BELL AND THE BUTTERFLY

The Academy’s pick: Paul Thomas Anderson for “There Will Be Blood”
Frank’s pick: Jason Reitman for “Juno”

EXPLANATION: I realize that picking Reitman for the well-made teen pregnancy comedy Juno is quite peculiar seeing as though I emphatically desire the Coen Brothers’ No Country for Old Men as best picture. One would think that I would put a check mark for the Coens’ tremendous screen effort for the calculating Country. Still, I thought that Reitman’s cozy direction for Juno was refreshingly infectious and skillful because he took what could have been an ordinary light-feathered comedy and gave it some promising emotional heft and concrete spirit that was instilled in the genuine characterizations, snappy off-kilter soundtrack and the colorful, intelligent writing. Reitman uplifted this small yet engaging gem and gave it a profound psychologically entertaining purpose for contemplation. The relevance for Anderson concerning Blood will be found in the in-depth darkness and craftiness of his film’s subversive essence involving amoral interests in business and humanistic ethics. It helps that Anderson may have also steered the great Daniel Day-Lewis to a second Oscar with his penetrating, diabolical turn as an opportunistic oilman. The Coens may end up waiting to get their rightful due like so many prominent filmmakers before them (can you say Steven Spielberg or Martin Scorsese?).

BEST ACTOR

George Clooney, MICHAEL CLAYTON
Daniel Day-Lewis, THERE WILL BE BLOOD
Johnny Depp, SWEENEY TODD: THE DEMON BARBER OF FLEET STREET
Tommy Lee Jones, IN THE VALLEY OF ELAH
Viggo Mortensen, EASTERN PROMISES

The Academy’s pick: Daniel Day-Lewis for “There Will Be Blood”
Frank’s pick: Viggo Mortensen for “Eastern Promises”

EXPLANATION: Everybody and their grandmother will acknowledge the dynamic turn by Oscar-winner Daniel Day-Lewis in the stirring Blood. His electrifying turn as a heartless oilman driven by his blind ambition deserves frontrunner status and reminds moviegoers as to what an explosive actor Day-Lewis actually is within his generation. However, I was taken to a whole new level with Viggo Mortensen’s fixating turn as a foreign driver/bodyguard/informant in the underrated European thriller Eastern Promises. Mortensen is charismatic and eerily intoxicating while demonstrating an exhausting physicality that takes him to the dramatic limits (the ladies will certainly enjoy his nude rough-housing tactics as he violently disarms the bad guys in a steam bath). There’s always an unassuming calmness about Mortensen that underlies the hidden rage underneath his chiseled exterior. Clooney has won his Oscar a couple of years ago basically playing the same protagonist in Michael Clayton as he did in the intriguing Syriana. Jones (a previous Oscar winner for The Fugitive) delivers an exceptional performance in a quiet movie (Elah) that many haven’t been privy to at the movie theaters. Depp continues his familiar string of offbeat, energetic roles in Sweeney Todd that’s both resounding and redundant.

BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR

Casey Affleck, THE ASSASSINATION OF JESSE JAMES BY THE COWARD ROBERT FORD
Javier Bardem, NO COUNTRY FOR OLD MEN
Philip Seymour Hoffman, CHARLIE WILSON’S WAR
Hal Holbrook, INTO THE WIND
Tom Wilkinson, MICHAEL CLAYTON

The Academy’s pick: Javier Bardem for “No Country for Old Men”
Frank’s pick: Javier Bardem for “No Country for Old Men”

EXPLANATION: Hands down, Javier Bardem’s horrifying and hedonistic performance as a stalking executioner trying to chase down missing loot in the Coen Brothers’ marvelously haunting and meditative No Country for Old Men will garner the Spanish actor his first well-deserved golden statuette. Bardem is methodical in his madness and the nuances for this movie maniac are artistically arresting to behold. In fact, all the supporting actors are crucially effective in their participation. Hoffman sizzles as a pot-bellied government operative in Charlie Wilson’s War while Holbrook adds a poignant and touching element as a widowed senior citizen dispensing advice to his young traveling companion in the thought-provoking Into the Wind. Casey Affleck emerged from big brother Ben’s cinematic shadows with a couple of terrific performances in Assassination and the urban Boston crime caper Gone Baby Gone. The great Tom Wilkinson never disappoints in the political potboiler Michael Clayton either.

BEST ACTRESS

Cate Blanchard, ELIZABETH: THE GOLDEN AGE
Julie Christie, AWAY FROM HER
Marion Cotillard, LA VIE EN ROSE
Laura Linney, THE SAVAGES
Ellen Page, JUNO

The Academy’s pick: Julie Christie for “Away From Her”
Frank’s pick: Laura Linney for “The Savages”

EXPLANATION: It’s hard to believe that Julie Christie has won her first Oscar over forty years ago for her memorable turn in Darling. Well, Christie’s current golden statuette may gain some companionship when the academy grants her a second Oscar for her courageous performance as a sickly, despondent woman in Away From Her. This is the type of tour-de-force turn that the academy loves to see from their veteran performers. I am torn between Page’s spunky expectant teenager in Juno and Laura Linney’s neurotic sibling being forced to care for her estranged father in The Savages. As Wendy Savage, Linney is gloriously flawed and psychologically damaged as a worrywart whose incompleteness in love (she’s involved with an older married man) and lackluster career (a struggling writer who toils at a meaningless data entry temp job) is quite fascinating in sheer disillusionment. Because Linney is such a capable and accomplished actress she makes her alter ego Wendy Savage a seriocomic feminine figure rich in flavored vulnerabilities and complications. Blanchard, another previous Oscar winner for The Aviator, is radiantly regal as Queen Elizabeth but how many times can an actress portray this historical icon without audiences becoming bored or indifferent to these various yet similar interpretations?

BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS

Cate Blanchard, I’M NOT THERE
Ruby Dee, AMERICAN GANGSTER
Saoirse Ronan, ATONEMENT
Amy Ryan, GONE BABY GONE
Tilda Swinton, MICHAEL CLAYTON

The Academy’s pick: Ruby Dee for “American Gangster”
Frank’s pick: Amy Ryan for “Gone Baby Gone”

EXPLANATION: The legendary actress Rudy Dee will probably score a big prize for her magnetic part as the matriarch of a notorious drug-dealing gangster in American Gangster. As an accomplished actress of stage, screen and cinema Dee will always be connected to her late, great husband and screen partner Ozzy Davis. To say that Miss Dee got a sympathetic Oscar nod after so many decades in the business would cheapen her achievement to finally be recognized by her acting peers. She’s believable and solid as the strong-willed mother that reared a street-smart mastermind of urban debauchery. Although I appreciated Dee’s polished turn in Gangster the urgency of Amy Ryan’s harried blue-collar Bostonian mother whose kid was snatched out of the blue in Gone Baby Gone struck a tense chord. Ryan is absolutely compelling as a grieving soul that embodies the hardcore Beantown surroundings that are responsible for her little girl’s jeopardized disappearance. Blanchard’s portrayal as iconic folk singer Bob Dylan is inspired in all its artistic gimmickry but not necessarily unique (remember actress Linda Hunt playing a male that won her the Oscar for best supporting actress for The Year of Living Dangerously)? Both Ronan and former Oscar nominee Swinton are fine in their respective films but may be considered an aftermath in the wake of strong showings for top tier contenders Dee, Blanchard and Ryan.

AND NOW...HERE ARE THE REST OF FRANK OCHIENG’S OSCAR PREDICTIONS
FOR LISTING REMAINING OF FULL OSCAR NOMINATED CONTENDERS, GO TO:

http://www.infoplease.com/ipa/A0932839.html

BEST ANIMATED PICTURE: Academy’s pick: “Ratatouille”/ Frank’s pick: “Ratatouille”

BEST SCREENPLAY (WRITTEN FOR THE SCREEN): Academy’s pick: Diablo Cody for “Juno”/ Frank’s pick: Diablo Cody for “Juno”

BEST SCREENPLAY (BASED ON MATERIAL PREVIOUSLY PRODUCED OR PUBLISHED): Academy’s pick: “The Diving Bell and the Butterfly”/ Frank’s pick: “No Country for Old Men”

CINEMATOGRAPHY: Academy’s pick: Roger Deakins, “The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford”/ Frank’s pick: Roger Deakins, “No Country for Old Men”

ART DIRECTION: Academy’s pick: Sarah Greenwood and Katie Spencer, “Atonement”/ Frank’s pick: Arthur Max and Beth A. Rubino, “American Gangster”

SOUND EDITING: Academy’s pick: Alan Robert Murray, “Letters from Iwo Jima”/ Frank’s pick: Randy Thom and Michael Silvers, “Ratatouille”

SOUND MIXING: Academy’s pick: Scott Millan, David Parker and Kirk Francis, “The Bourne Ultimatum”/ Frank’s pick: Paul Massey, David Giammarco and Jim Stuebe, “3:10 to Yuma”

BEST SONG: Academy’s pick: “So Close” from “Enchanted”/ Frank’s pick: “Falling Slowly” from “Once”

BEST ORIGINAL SCORE: Academy’s pick: Dario Marienelli, “Atonement”/ Frank’s pick: Alberto Iglesias, “The Kite Runner”

BEST FILM EDITING: Academy’s pick: Dylan Tichenor, “There Will Be Blood”/ Frank’s pick: Jay Cassidy, “Into the Wind”

COSTUME DESIGN: Academy’s pick: Alexandra Byrne, “Elizabeth: The Golden Age/ Frank’s pick: Marit Allen, “La Vie en Rose”

MAKEUP: Academy’s pick: Ve Neill and Martin Samuel, “Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End”/ Frank’s pick: Didier Lavergne and Jan Archibald, “La Vie en Rose”

VISUAL EFFECTS: Academy’s pick: Michael Fink, Bill Westenhofer, Ben Morris and Trevor Wood, “The Golden Compass”/ Frank’s pick: Michael Fink, Bill Westenhofer, Ben Morris and Trevor Wood, “The Golden Compass”

SOUND EDITING: Academy’s pick: Skip Lievsay, “No Country for Old Men”/ Frank’s pick: Ethan Van der Ryn and Mike Hopkins, “Transformers”

SHORT FILMS/ANIMATION: Academy’s pick: Josh Raskin, “I Met the Walrus”/ Frank’s pick: Alexander Petrov, “My Love” (“Moya Lyubov”)

SHORT FILMS/LIVE ACTION: Academy’s pick: “The Tonto Woman”/ Frank’s pick: “At Night”

DOCUMENTARY/SHORT SUBJECT: Academy’s pick: “Freeheld”/ Frank’s pick: “Salim Baba”

DOCUMENTARY/FEATURE: Academy’s pick: “Sicko”/ Frank’s pick: “Operation Homecoming: Writing the Wartime Experience”

FOREIGN FILM LANGUAGE: Academy’s pick: “12”, Russia/ Frank’s pick: “Mongol”, Kazakhstan

Click here to comment on this article or post your own thoughts.

Frank Ochieng
© TheWorldJournal.com

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