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PREDICTING THE NIGHT OF THE OSCARS

BEST PICTURE

The Nominees:
“Babel”
“The Departed”
“Letters from Iwo Jima”
“Little Miss Sunshine”
“The Queen”

CCF: What’s your opinion on this category? Did you see any of these films? Do you want to see any of them? What will win? What should win? What should have been nominated, but isn’t? I only saw “Little Miss Sunshine” and I thought it was crap. I don’t even have a desire to see the rest. For some reason “Letters from Iwo Jima” is jumping out as the winner.

SHANE: Well, I finally saw them all, and let me say, for the most part, fuck this shit! Okay, honestly, none of these films are bad. “The Departed” was easily the best, but compared to “Casino” or “Taxi Driver”? No, sorry Marty, you didn’t dig up your roots well enough. “Babel” was another good one but has Oscar written all over it. As if it was made simply to win an Oscar. For this, it loses my vote. I really really loved the shit out of Alejandro’s “21 Grams” and I still stand by Naomi Watts as the girl who should have won Best Actress that year, but unfortunately “Babel” doesn’t even compare to the intensity I felt watching “21 Grams” or “Amores Perros.” Now let’s talk about “The Queen.” What the fuck is all the fuss about?! It was interesting, yeah. Well done. But boring as shit. It wasn’t THAT interesting or THAT well done that you could get past the boredom. It was a movie that was simply there. Nothing special though, whatsoever. An Oscar film should be THE shit, not actually close to BEING shit. Okay, it wasn’t close to shit, but compared to some other films that would never see a chance at getting an Oscar nod, yeah it was shit. As far as “Little Miss Sunshine.” Yeah, cute movie, made me laugh, made me a little sad, just a tiny little bit, okay, worth a watch. But Best Picture? Are you kidding?! This was a film that was edgy enough for the Academy and indie enough, for them to go “look, we’re cool, we like films about gay guys, shit talking families that steal corpses, and fat little girls that take their clothes off.” That’s why it was nominated, only reason.

CCF: (LOL)

SHANE: See, in reality, that award should have gone to a film like “Hard Candy” but they’re not that ballzy. Finally there’s “Letters from Iwo Jima” which is probably the best nomination though “The Departed” was the most entertaining. Thank God it wasn’t “Flags of our Fathers.” See, “Fathers” felt like it was trying to be a Clint Eastwood film, versus “Iwo Jima” felt like it just was a Clint Eastwood film. What do I mean? Hmm. Another example is Spike Lee’s “She Hate Me.” This film was so bad. It felt like a first time filmmaker, trying to be Spike Lee. But it was Spike Lee! What happened? He just fucked up, I dunno. Wanted to get his roots back I guess, or just borrowed too much from himself. This could have happened with “The Departed” but fortunately it did not. With Eastwood’s “Fathers” that’s what I felt. I felt like I was watching a movie by a guy who was trying to be like Clint Eastwood. How can I describe this? I don’t know! But I didn’t feel this at all while watching “Million Dollar Baby” and that one starred Eastwood! I loved that movie. He just tried too hard I guess, with “Fathers.” Now, how this didn’t cross over into “Iwo Jima” amazes me since it’s basically the same movie, just the other side’s point-of-view. But I found this movie to be pretty damn good. Just a little too long, that’s all. Sure, “Fathers” was more entertaining, and had more going on, but Eastwood perfected, well, close to perfected, his craft with “Iwo Jima.” I have a tie vote for “Iwo Jima” and “The Departed,” though I’m feeling that the Academy is favoring “Babel” cause they won’t shut the fuck up about it.

CCF: Good to hear I’m not the only “Hard Candy” fan here. So, it looks like we have one and a half votes “Iowa Jima” and another half vote for “The Departed.” John?

JRH: I hate all of these movie titles and the only one I actually went to see was “The Departed.” I thought it was very good, so in turn I shall name “Little Miss Sunshine” for my Oscar pick because I like that there’s lots of yellow and orange in both the trailer and in the word “sunshine.” We need more of these colors. None of these other films have good colors and I know this because I’ve seen all their posters and watched half of all their trailers.

CCF: (LOL) Add a vote for the “Little Miss Sunshine” poster… Oren?

OREN: I only watched “The Departed” and “Letters from Iwo Jima” and didn’t care much for either. This isn’t a matter of quality, it will rise and fall on PR, as the rest of the awards, so whenever I hear of the nominated films, if I hadn’t seen them before, my desire to watch them immediately goes away. I think that “Little Miss Sunshine” takes this, which is insane, but even theoretically I wouldn’t give it to any of these. My film of the year is Paul Verhoeven’s “Black Book” It was the best I’ve seen in a long while... Didn’t even get a nomination for Best Foreign Film... Either that or “The Black Dahlia.” Everyone hated it but I thought it was extraordinary.

CCF: Another vote for the “Sunshine” poster. Arrow, what do you have for us?

ARROW IN THE HEAD: I’ve only seen “The Departed” out of this list. Oscar worthy? Not sure. But I liked it. One day I’d like to tackle “Letters from Iwo Jima.” Eastwood is one of the last men’s man in Hollywood and that needs to be supported. The rest of the list doesn’t talk to me. Like…AT ALL!

CCF: I’ll mark that as a vote for “The Departed,” I guess… Lisa, what do you make of these nominees?

SOCIALITE’S LIFE: I count this year as actually a pretty good one for me, since I’ve managed to see almost all of the pictures nominated for best picture, which is a rarity because I’m extremely lazy. But, using my “spidey senses” and the knowledge of the four films I did watch, I’m going to go with “The Departed” as the winner. I also think that the Academy is finally ready to give Scorsese something. And for the record, I’d never found Leonardo DiCaprio attractive until this movie. Congrats Leo, cause that makes you the real winner here.

CCF: So despite it’s yellow poster, the Miranda July rip off “Little Miss Sunshine” has to settle for runner-up. Best Picture Pick: “THE DEPARTED”

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