Matt vs. the Academy

One more sleep until the Oscars. While Kat and I get ready for our Academy Awards dinner party (featuring such items as Avatado and The Hurt Liquor), here are my 2009 Oscar predictions , including my wacky Avatar-Bigelow combination for Picture-Director. As Avatar and The Hurt Locker battle it out for the 82nd Best Picture award, yesterday I watched the winner of the 10th Best Picture award... The Life of Emile Zola Director : William Dieterle Screenplay : Norman Reilly Raine, Heinz Herald, Geza Herczeg (based on the book "Zola and His Time" by Matthew Josephson) Starring : Paul Muni, Gale Sondergaard, Joseph Schildkraut, Gloria Holden, Donald Crisp Academy Awards : 10 nominations 3 wins, including Best Picture and Best Supporting Actor (Schildkraut) Contrary to its title, The Life of Emile Zola is less a biography of the famed French writer as it is an exploration of the Dreyfus affair . While it does deal with Zola's life, especially his rise to fame, the central focus ...

Less than a week now until the 82nd Academy Awards ceremony, so allow me these musings on how things may turn out. The four acting awards, as in most previous years, are relatively easy to predict, the supporting categories especially. Christoph Waltz and Mo'Nique are all but locks for Inglourious Basterds and Precious respectively. Jeff Bridges is definitely leading the game for Best Actor. And Sandra Bullock currently holds the favourite spot for Best Actress, but don't be surprised if that goes a different way. If there's going to be an upset, this is where it will be. The screenplay awards are also fairly clear. Up In The Air seems to have Adapted Screenplay in the bag, and I suspect The Hurt Locker will edge out Inglourious Basterds for the Original Screenplay gong. Best Director and Best Picture are perhaps a little trickier. The media is certainly touting the competition between ex-spouses James Cameron and Kathryn Bigelow for the director's award, an...

New York is once again enveloped by a snowstorm, and as it stretches into its second day of near constant snowfall, what better way to pass the time indoors than watching movie outtakes. I stumbled across a fascinating collection of classic bloopers that Warner Brothers created on a yearly basis for about a decade or so. It is somehow reassuring to know that even the greats like Humphrey Bogart and Bette Davis and James Cagney screwed up now and then as well. It is also abundantly clear that "Nuts!" was the curse word of the time. P.S. Don't forget to vote for which early 1970s year we should cover next. Poll is on the right. Yesterday began the journey into the ten-deep set of nominees involved in the battle for Best Picture of 1937... The Good Earth Director : Sidney Franklin Screenplay : Talbot Jennings, Tess Slesinger & Claudine West (based on the novel by Pearl S. Buck) Starring : Paul Muni, Luise Rainer, Walter Connolly, Tilly Losch, Charley Grapewin Academy Aw...

The last few verdicts have proved to be simpler decisions than most and that pattern continues with 1981's evaluation. One clear favourite emerged in my estimation despite some commendable competition. The nominees for Best Picture of 1981 are: Atlantic City Chariots of Fire On Golden Pond Raiders of the Lost Ark Reds Right off the bat, it is easy for me to remove Atlantic City from the running. Mostly because it just wasn't my cup of tea ... or any other beverage, for that matter. I don't really know what it was. On Golden Pond is next to go. While it contains much that is praise-worthy, its melodramatic tendencies kept me at a distance. To continue the earlier analogy, it may have been my cup of tea, but someone just put too many lumps of sugar in it. Being the well-crafted film that it is, it is easy to see why the Academy selected it as their winner. And although it is difficult to find specific fault with Chariots of Fire, there was nonetheless som...

Matt vs. the Academy's next year of review seems like a foregone conclusion, but there's still time for a late rush of voting, so make your voice heard in the poll on the right. In the meantime, let me conclude my summation of the 1981 Best Picture nominees with my thoughts on... On Golden Pond Director : Mark Rydell Screenplay : Ernest Thompson (based on his play) Starring : Katharine Hepburn, Henry Fonda, Jane Fonda, Doug McKeon, Dabney Coleman Academy Awards : 10 nominations 3 wins, including Best Actor (Henry Fonda) and Best Actress (Hepburn) Elderly couple Norman (Henry Fonda) and Ethel Thayer (Hepburn) spend their summers in a lake house on Golden Pond. This year, their daughter Chelsea (Jane Fonda) visits with her new beau Bill (Coleman) and his son Billy (McKeon). When Chelsea and Bill leave to travel on their own, Billy is left in the care of the aging duo. Estranged with his own child, Norman at first has difficulty bonding with the boy, but soon learns to let loose. ...