Golden Globe Predictions

There is about an hour left until the Golden Globe presentation begins. So, I might as well do my predictions right now just to see how everything plays out.

So....here we go...my 1st choice will be in red with the runner up being just in bold.

Best Motion Picture (Drama):
American Gangster
Atonement
Eastern Promises
The Great Debaters
Michael Clayton
No Country for Old Men
There Will be Blood

Why?: No Country has won almost every single award so far and I think that its a lock to win both the globe and the Oscar. As much as I want to pick There Will be Blood as the runner up I think the votes will split between No Country and Blood. So, except Atonement to maybe be the shocker for tonight given it's multiple nominations.

Best performance by an Actress (Drama)

Cate Blanchett – Elizabeth: The Golden Age
Julie Christie – Away From Her
Jodie Foster – The Brave One
Angelina Jolie – A Mighty Heart
Keira Knightley – Atonement

Why?: Julie Christie is a lock to win. I am 100 percent sure of this. As for Jolie...why not? Its between her and Knightley but I think Jolie is the 2nd favorite in this category just because A Mighty Heart seems to be a showcase just for her.

Best performance by an Actor (Drama)

George Clooney – Michael Clayton
Daniel Day-Lewis – There Will Be Blood
James McAvoy – Atonement
Viggo Mortensen – Eastern Promises
Denzel Washington – American Gangster

Why?: DDL is another 100 percent lock. Clooney is a safe bet for an Oscar nom and the couple of awards he has won for far from different groups and awards shows makes him a runner up.

Best Motion Picture (Comedy)

Across The Universe
Charlie Wilson's War
Hairspray
Juno
Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street

Why?: I really,really,really,really want to see Sweeney take this one but my gut is telling me that it won't. I think its a close race between these two but the surprise box office numbers for Juno plus it's sweet nature is sure to get to the heart of the voters over the dark,violent, and odd film and musical that is Sweeney Todd. It could go either way, though.

Best Performance by an Actress (Comedy/Musical)

Amy Adams – Enchanted
Nikki Blonsky – Hairspray
Helena Bonham Carter – Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street
Marion Cotillard – La Vie En Rose
Ellen Page – Juno

Why?: Ellen Page's performance is the heart and anchor of Juno. Everyone seems to be loving her performance and I expect it to be a lock for a win. However, Cotillard and Page have been fighting it out for awards the past weeks. It could go either way and they both will get an Oscar nom but for now I expect Page to take it.

Best Performance by an Actor (Comedy/Musical)

Johnny Depp – Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street
Ryan Gosling – Lars and the Real Girl
Tom Hanks – Charlie Wilson's War
Philip Seymour Hoffman – The Savages
John C. Reilly – Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story

Why?: Depp will win this one. The SAG nominations for Gosling makes him my pick for the runner up.

Best Supporting Actress

Cate Blanchett – I'm Not There
Julia Roberts – Charlie Wilson's War
Saoirse Ronan – Atonement
Amy Ryan – Gone Baby Gone
Tilda Swinton – Michael Clayton

Why?: Ryan is a 100 percent lock for this one. As for Ronan...why not? Her young age and her scene stealing performance in Atonement is sure to get some votes.

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
John Travolta – Hairspray
Tom Wilkinson – Michael Clayton

Why?: Despite most people calling Bardem a lock, I still think that its a close race between him and Affleck. I do, however, predict Bardem to take it.

Best Animated Film

Bee Movie
Ratatouille
The Simpsons Movie

Why?: Ratatouille is a lock. Simpsons...why not?

Best Foreign Language Film

4 Months, 3 Weeks And 2 Days (Romania)
The Diving Bell And The Butterfly (France, United States)
The Kite Runner (United States)
Lust, Caution (Taiwan)
Persepolis (France)

Why?: This could go either way between 4 Months, Diving Bell, and Persepolis. I am predicting Diving Bell to take it because of the best director nom that comes along with it.

Best Director

Tim Burton – Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street
Ethan Coen, Joel Coen – No Country For Old Men
Julian Schnabel – The Diving Bell And The Butterfly
Ridley Scott – American Gangster
Joe Wright – Atonement

Why?: The Coens are a lock. I'm jsutp icking Schnabel as a runner up just because every article I read seems to be praising his directing a lot.

Best Screenplay

Atonement
Written by Christopher Hampton
Charlie Wilson's War
Written by Aaron Sorkin
The Diving Bell And The Butterfly
Written by Ronald Harwood
Juno
Written by Diablo Cody
No Country For Old Men
Written by Ethan Coen, Joel Coen

Best Score

Grace Is Gone
Composed by Clint Eastwood
The Kite Runner
Composed by Alberto Iglesias
Atonement
Composed by Dario Marianelli
Eastern Promises
Composed by Howard Shore
Into The Wild
Composed by Michael Brook, Kaki King and Eddie Vedder

Best Song

"Despedida" – Love In The Time Of Cholera
Music By: Shakira and Antonio Pinto
Lyrics By: Shakira
"Grace Is Gone" – Grace Is Gone
Music By: Clint Eastwood
Lyrics By: Carole Bayer Sager
"Guaranteed" – Into The Wild
Music & Lyrics By: Eddie Vedder
"That's How You Know" – Enchanted
Music By: Alan Menken
Lyrics By: Stephen Schwartz
"Walk Hard" – Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story
Music & Lyrics By: Marshall Crenshaw, John C. Reilly, Judd Apatow and Jake Kasdan



And thats that.

Demons (1985, Lamberto Bava)

This one just has to be seen to be believed.

The premise of the film is simple: a mysterious figure gives out tickets to a screening of a horror film to a small group of people. Once there, there is a weird mask in the lobby that scratches one person and it doesn't take too long before she transforms into a zombie/demon and begins to infect everyone that she scratches. Of course, the theater is all of a sudden sealed shut with no escape to be found. How will they ever survive...or will the even survive?

That is the plot to Demons in a nutshell. The logic behind almost everything gets thrown out of the window, nothing is explained at all, and it just becomes a showcase for style, action scenes, and gore. It's great

I really have nothing else to write about it. It really is just a showcase kind of film. Given that Lamberto Bava (Mario's son) and Argento were involved with the project, the film has a certain charm to it and becomes more that just a nomral splatter film. I even think that the film set out to be the ultimate splatter film at the time with it's over the top style.

Speaking about style, the influence that this film had over Peter Jackon's Dead Alive is very notable. When one character jumps on top of a motorcycle and starts killing the demons with a swords you cant help but think of Dead Alive's final minutes.

That's really all I have to say about this one. It's far from a great film and has a bunch of flaws but it's still a lot of fun. Its the kind of film that doesn't take itself too seriously and if you are able to do just tha towards the filmt, then you will enjoy it.

Oh...and the ending is pure gold.

- ***

Sunshine (2007, Danny Boyle)

This whole film brings out a big sad sigh from me.

While watching the first hour and 20 minutes it felt like I was watching flawed perfection. By this I mean that some small factors were getting in the way for for the most part the film was just beyond great. I felt like I was watching one of the best films from last year. It felt like I had discovered THE overlooked/underrated/underappreciated film from 2007. I was enjoying myself and just kept on asking myself "Why was this film not a huge hit" and then the final 20 minutes kicked in and it made me forget about everything the film showed for all those minutes leading up to it.

I cant think of another film taking such a nose dive to blandness like this one. The sudden tone shift from an intelligent sci fi film that stood over its genre to a horror/slasher film was just too much. it feels out of place and even the overall style of the film completely changes. I will say that this whole sequence is nicely shot and is intense but it just feels so extremely out of the place that it just makes you confused. It literally just ruins the film.

That's really all I have to say about Sunshine. I wish that I could be praising it more but I cant. The last part of the film just makes me wonder about what kind of film it actually could have turn out to be without it. I imagine that it might have turned out to be one of the best films in recent memory instead of the odd and for the most part disappointing film that it is.

I still don't know what exactly to think of the film as a whole just because I just cant get past my hatred towards the last 20 minutes. I will say that its worth a watch just to see the greatness that comes before it. I jsut wish that I could forget about the rest.

- ***

Before the Devil Knows Your Dead (2007, Sidney Lumet)

This film seems to split everyone's opinion. There is a group who hate it, a pretty big group who think that it's "good", and a very small group who consider it to be one of the best films from last year. I now belong to the small group who praises the film.

I can see why people are so mixed towards the film. Lumet seems to have crafted a film which sets out to challenge its audience with its characters, editing, and story. Even looking back on the film I don't think there is one thing in the film that people are supposed to "like" and "cheer for". If anything, Before the Devil Knows Your Dead is one of the darkest films that I have seen in recent memory. It's because of this reason that I loved the film.

I loved the aspect of creating characters which you just loathe but at the same time can feel sympathy for and then just seeing them self destruct for the next 2 hours. While watching the film I was reminded of Mike Nichol's Closer and how he, at least to me to me, tried to go for the same thing but I was instead left with characters which I just loathed. That's not the case here. Maybe its because of the whole heist angle or maybe its because these characters actually feeling fleshed out but I absolutely loved how at times I didn't know if I wanted these characters to succeed in their heist plan or see them get screwed over. I loved having mixed feeling like these during some scenes.

I also feel that Lumet has crafted one of the most intense films in awhile. the intensity that this film reaches at times was a bit too much for me, but I figure that that's a good sign that the film is doing what it set out to do. Few films have had that power over me and this is one of them.

I will say that the film wasn't perfect to me based on my first viewing. Even though I am going to give it 4 stars, I still had some small problems with the film. I would write out what those two problems are but they would spoil the film. I will say that I wasnt a fan of a certain scene dealing with Albert Finney and that I also wasn't a big fan of the way that the final shot was handled. It felt a little bit too easy and amateurish from such a veteran director. Apart from these flaws, I absolutely loved the film and consider it one of the best from last year.

I also might as well add that I think that Ethan Hawke and Phillip Seymour Hoffman are being overlooked for awards. In my opinion, they both give some of the best and most underrated performances from last year,

- ****

So...I haven't written anything in awhile

I haven't written anything about anything for awhile now just because I haven't been "feeling it" but I'm gonna write a little bit right now since I am trying to write something about every single movie that I watch this year.

I am not going to write anything too big right now, though. This is just because I have a lot of posts to do.

And thats that.

Charlie Wilson's War (2007. Mike Nichols)

My friend Dan over at The Public Enemy hit this one right on the head with his brief but perfect write up for this film, which can be found here.

Charlie Wilson's War is a film that is good, becomes great at times, and almost becomes excellent but never really achieves it. I don't know what is off about it but my guess is that the shifts in tone through out the film from comedy to drama are at times executed perfectly (when Hanks first meets Phillip Seymour Hoffman in the middle of him handling a scandal on his hands) while other times it just feels forced and not funny at all (the pilots having a conversation about girl problems before getting shot down....HILARIOUS!).

The other thing which really hurt the overall quality of the film, at least to me, was what I felt was a rushed and sudden conclusion which makes the final scene feel extremely unsatisfying on every kind of level. I seriously had zero emotions during the final scene and I wonder if Nichols really thought he could achieve just that with an audience. It just feels like the exact kind of Hollywood ending that you would expect from such a film. Sure, it might have happened like that in real life but it just feels like a bad cliche.

Apart from it's flaws, Charlie Wilson's War does contain one of the best performances from 2007. Phillip Seymour Hoffman completely steals the show from everyone and every single scene involving him turn out to be the highlights of the film. The man is one of the best actors out there right now and this is only further proof of this. I would be pretty disappointed to see this film become an Oscar favorite and get a couple of nominations. However, the man deserves all the praise he is getting for this performance and he deserves a nomination for this performance. He really does make the film as solid and enjoyable as it is.

- ***

Night on Earth (1991, Jim Jarmusch)

I feel like I should just copy and paste what I wrote for Paris, Je'Taime because both of these write ups are going to come out almost the same.

Jarmusch's Night on Earth is made up of 5 short stories/short films each filmed in a major city from all around the world which all deal with a cab driver and his or her experience with their customer through out a night. We see Winona Ryder drive a casting agent through L.A, a cab driver who doesn't know how to drive in New York, a man and a blind woman having a conversation in France, Roberto Benifni picking up a priest and confessing his sins to him in Rome, and a cab driver picking up a couple of drunk workers in Finland and then telling them the saddest story they will ever hear.

I have a couple of films left to watch from Jarmuch but for the most part I really like the guy, despite me having a huge hatred towards Stranger Than Paradise. I really like his minimalistic style and I like his dry sense of humor a lot. He is definitely one of the many directors out there whose full work I am trying to watch.

Now, I don't know what it is with me and anthology films. I love the idea of them and I always expect for me to enjoy them but I always find myself saying the exact same thing after each one of these kinds of films: they are always a mixed bag. Some turn out excellent, some turn out good, and one or two of them always turn out bad. Night on Earth suffers from this exact thing.

The film contains one excellent story where Benigni steals the show as the wild cab driver who begins to confess his sins to a priest while driving him. Apart from that, the film never really reaches such an excellent point as this one. The remaining 4 stories have their highs and lows and for the most part are enjoyable but there is never anything too amazing about them, sadly. However, there are no real bad apples in the bunch, which is a good thing.

The one thing that is amazing, though, is Tom Waits score and soundtrack to the film which is just as cool as you would expect. His musical style is a perfect fit to the mood that Jarmuch evokes through out the film. The film just wouldn't be the same without it.

I really have nothing else to write about. It's far from a great film but it's enjoyable enough. It's worth watching just to see the Rome segment with Begnini.

- ***