Oscar Picks for the 80th Academy Awards!

I know what you're thinking. "The nominees have been out for a while, Mr. Movie Slut. Why haven't you told us who should win?" Well, the answer is simple. I wanted to get all the Best Picture nominees under my belt before I started talking about the Oscars.

Here are my comments and picks for the upcoming Oscars, but I'll avoid rambling about award categories that I know nothing about or simply have no interest in.

Best Actor - George Clooney was only average and Tommy Lee Jones has rarely been spectacular. I love me some Johnny Depp, but I think both Viggo Mortenson and Daniel Day-Lewis showed him up this year.

Best Guess - Daniel Day-Lewis for There Will Be Blood

Best Supporting Actor - Affleck was underwhelming in an underwhelming movie, Hoffman is just creepy, Wilkinson was pretty good, but Bardem was phenominal!

Best Guess - Javier Bardem for No Country For Old Men

Best Actress - Weird. The only eligible performance I saw was Ellen Page in Juno. I don't have much to say here but I can say that Page was pretty good, though much much better in Hard Candy.

Best Guess - Julie Christie will probably get it, but I'll still root for Page

Best Supporting Actress - Blanchett would probably win for Best Actress before she won Supporting, Ronan was cute but not incredible, Ryan was nothing special and neither was Swinton. Dee is the only black acting nominee this year and was pretty damn good in a mediocre movie.

Best Guess - Ruby Dee for American Gangster

Best Art Direction - There were a lot of pretty movies this year, but only one can win. Personally, I'm incredibly upset that Across The Universe didn't make this category.

Best Guess - Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber Of Fleet Street

Best Cinematography - People are raving about Atonement's cinematography, but I wasn't too impressed. There Will Be Blood and Golden Compass were pretty and I'm surprised American Gangster got a mention here. However, No Country did things with shot and frame that I had never seen before.

Best Guess - No Country For Old Men

Best Costume Design - I can't believe this is the only award Across The Universe was nominated for! It'll never win, but I'll root for it out of protest.

Best Directing - I missed Diving Bell and the others were good, but this one's probably going to the Cohen brothers.

Best Guess - No Country For Old Men

Best Foreign Language Film - I can't remember the last time Foreign Language nominees were announced and I hadn't seen a single one. Shame on me! I should correct this.

Best Original Song - I heard good things about Once and I'm appalled that Enchanted got nominated 3 fucking times. That's stupid. How good can Disney songs really be?

Best Guess - "Falling Slowly" from Once

Best Visual Effects - They were all good, but how can you beat giant robots... in disguise?

Best Guess - Transformers

Best Adapted Screenplay - I have a feeling this one will be really close between No Country and Blood.

Best Guess - No Country For Old Men

Best Original Screenplay - Lars has an interesting premise, but Juno will probably secure this one.

Best Guess - Juno

Best Picture - Here it is, the big one. Atonement was pretty good, but we've seen the story a million times. Speaking of old stories, Clayton was every courtroom drama combined. Juno was cute, but cute just isn't enough. Blood was creepy, spooky, and awesome but probably not accessible enough for the majority audience. No Country was beyond good.

Best Guess - No Country For Old Men

Why I love the Oscars

I enjoy the Oscars, sort of a Movie Slut's Superbowl, but there are a lot of award categories I could really care less about. Best Picture on the other hand, is not only the one that matters to me, but the one that matters to the Academy too. It's not just actors, directors, editing, etc. It's all of that plus story and stories are what I'm all about.

I think movies are better viewed as whole, rather than the sum of their parts. I think that's what the Best Picture award does, or tries to do at least. Browsing DVDs, seeing that little "Academy Award for Best Picture" tag lets me know that even if the movie's not in one of my preferred genres, it'll probably still be pretty fucking good.

Every year, I make a point to see all the movies nominated for Best Picture since those are the five films of the whole year that the crotchety old Academy considers the best. Normally, I don't take a critic's opinion of a film too heavily, but the guys in the Academy have been making movies for a long fucking time.

No Country for Old Men - 2007

What It Is: An intense Coen brothers (Fargo, Miller's Crossing...) drama based on the novel by the same name.

Why I Watched It: It was enough that it was a Coen brothers film, but I was also curious about the now infamous "ending" that has audiences in a twist.

What I Thought: No Country was good, really good.

The movie follows a guy that happens upon a drug deal gone wrong and decides to run off with the cash he finds. Interested parties send a psycho after him and a haggard old cop tries to protect him. This synopsis, does no justice to the film whatsoever. Those were the images on the screen, but they were definitely not what the movie is about.

I think No Country for Old Men was really about violence, death, crime, and murder and how frequently futile it can be to understand them. The movie shows a lot of violence, but often leaves it unexplained. The movie's villain often kills for unknown reasons, or maybe no reason at all. You never see what went wrong at the drug deal, but that's not what the movie's about.

The movie opens with some voice over from Tommy Lee Jones' sheriff character talking about how criminal motive is often unknowable. No Country conveys that exact same feeling to the audience by leaving much of the "plot" unexplained. The movie ends with almost no resolution whatsoever, but real life doesn't always wrap things in a bow.

Aside from all the story stuff, the whole production was executed masterfully. Josh Brolin was very enjoyable as the "protagonist that isn't really", Tommy Lee Jones was a fantastic grizzled old sheriff. But Javier Bardem simply stole the show. He was the hired killer trying to track down the money and was one of the best, creepiest, most disturbing villains I have ever seen on film. Amazing.

Highlights: Inexplicable violence, pulse pounding gunfights, quotable dialogue, and Javier Bardem's entry into the cinema villains hall of fame!

Who Should See It: Coen brothers fans, independent movie buffs, and anybody that wants to ponder why bad guys do what they do.

How Soon: If you're looking for a meaningful film, there's not much else at the theater now. But I think the message will still be there on DVD.

Unforgiven - 1992

What It Is: The hardcore western penned by Clint Eastwood that won Best Picture.

Why I Watched It: It's one of my favorite Eastwood films.

What I Thought: A truly awesome film. Well written and even better performed. Morgan Freeman and Clint Eastwood are great! Lots of people get shot. Drew Barrymore gets slashed. What's not to love?

Seriously, if you haven't heard of Unforgiven then you need to relocate your rock to somewhere within earshot of civilization. The movie kicks ass. Eastwood plays a hard as nails retired gunfighter that's been farming pigs for the last 10 years. He was trying to leave his old life behind until he got word that some women are offering $1000 to kill the cowboy that slashed up a woman. Eastwood plays up the geaser-getting-back-into-gunfighting bit nicely, almost as if he was tapping into a little geaser-getting-back-into-acting stuff.

Highlights: Eastwood's lines, my favorite Gene Hackman performance, the final shootout scene.

Who Should See It: Western fans should watch it again and anyone else that hasn't seen it should definitely watch it once.

How Soon: Save it for the right mood. When you're in the mood for a heavy western with a lot of story, pop in Unforgiven and you won't be disappointed!

Unforgiven (Two-Disc Special Edition)