peter martin

A few post-Academy Awards thoughts. Disclaimer: I watched very little of the ceremony live; it just seemed to drag even more than usual this year. I’m willing to give them the benefit of the doubt with the strike having just ended, but they really need to firm this ceremony up. 

• No Country for Old Men deserved to win Best Picture, as it was a nearly flawless film that drew equally from the acting performaces, direction, and screenplay.
• There Will be Blood got robbed on a couple of awards. Paul Thomas Anderson took an enormous leap forward with this masterpiece and deserved Best Director for his vision - the long tracking shots of the empty landscapes and the first twenty minutes (a dialogue-free nod to Kubrick) in particular. It also should have won Best Adapted Screenplay, as TWBB’s script was only loosely based on Sinclair’s Oil!, while No Country’s material was lifted almost verbatim from Cormac McCarthy’s novel. Maybe I’d feel better about this if McCarthy had been there to accept the award instead.
• La Vie en Rose’s Marion Cotillard was a surprise for Best Actress; I thought the Ellen Page hype would win out. I’ve started La Vie en Rose twice and had trouble focusing on it, though her performance so far is impressive.
• Daniel Day Lewis and Javier Bardem were virtual locks for Best Actor and Best Supporting Actor, and the voters got these right.
• Tilda Swinton was excellent in the underrated Michael Clayton, but I  thought Amy Ryan should have won Best Supporting Actress for Gone Baby Gone. She really nailed the Dorchester accent and attitude for that part and dominated the scenes she was in. I’m probably biased here as Lowell and Dorchester share many similarities, but I couldn’t help but be mesmerized. I would have sworn I’ve saw her character out in a bar before…maybe I should keep better company?