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BY DANIEL BAIG AND LARRY
CARROLL | Well, the Oscars are finally upon us,
after what seems like, no, surely, must be the longest, most discussed,
and most ridiculous "campaign season" ever. Come next Monday, though,
it will all be over.
Ha ha ha! As if!
Monday morning will of course actually see:
- money changing hands as office pools are won and lost,
- endless "in hindsight, fill in studio here should probably have
pushed insert losing nominee here to insert voting base here i.e. older
Academy members and cut their losses with another loser" conversations
and articles,
- and, to the delight of the Hollywood Reporter and Variety,
still more full-page trade ads, no longer emblazoned with "FOR YOUR
CONSIDERATION," but instead "WE CONGRATULATE OUR WINNER(S)."
And me (Daniel Baig) and many, many others muttering to ourselves how
once again the Academy managed to reward the wrong people (or the right
people, but for the wrong things), while ignoring the truly worthy.
However, at least critics get a public platform from which to point out
who really should have won. So here are my choices, and predictions,
for the Oscars, and what I and my colleague Larry Carroll think really
were the year's best (and worst):
Best Picture
Nominees: A Beautiful Mind, Gosford Park, In The Bedroom, Moulin Rouge,
The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring
Well, I've already
expounded at length on this site on why I think Moulin Rouge
should win. I actually would be just as thrilled if Gosford
Park
took home the Oscar. If I were an Academy voter, it would be an excruciating
choice for me to choose between the two.
I also think Fellowship would be a worthy choice, though not as
worthy as Gosford or Moulin. And it may just stand a chance
of winning. Moulin Rouge probably doesn't; though many (like me)
loved it, many also like my fellow CountingDown critic Larry
hated it.
The likely winner is A Beautiful Mind.
My and Larry's choices for what WE think really were the year's best
(and worst!) movies will appear at the end of this piece. Preview: only
two of the Academy's choices are on my list, ditto for Larry though
his two aren't my two!
Best Actress
Nominees: Halle Berry, Judi Dench, Nicole Kidman, Sissy Spacek, Renee
Zellweger
First, let me offer the caveat that I didn't see Bridget Jone's Diary,
which means my opinion is not a completely informed one. Even with Renee
aside (and believe me, as far as the voting goes, Renee is aside), this
is one of the toughest categories to both predict and to pick one's own
choice from.
I would choose Kidman but for The Others, NOT Moulin
Rouge. Oh, no question she's good in the latter she sings!
she dances! she coughs up blood! (the combination of which obviously proved
irresistible to a lot of Academy voters) but she owned The
Others; it's a powerhouse performance, and she's in most of the scenes.
By contrast, Moulin Rouge is much more Ewan McGregor's film, and
his not being nominated (especially when Nicole was for her role opposite
him) is, in Oscarland-speak, "criminal."
Similarly, there's no question that Spacek is extraordinarily good in
In The Bedroom she's perfect, actually but it's actually
not all that big a part. This movie is really Tom Wilkinson's
more than it is Sissy's.
Berry is a bigger part of Monster's Ball, and is very good. She's
quite young, though, and considering Oscars are also often de facto career
achievement awards . . .
Dench is also pretty perfect in Iris, but it's actually more a
technical performance than anything else for most of the movie
she plays someone in the advanced stages of Alzheimers and actors
know that this is not the hardest kind of acting. Yes, it's decidedly
unglamorous she wanders around unkempt and lost, and goes to the
bathroom on the living room rug , but then, she already has won
an Oscar, one she got for doing basically nothing, in Shakespeare In
Love, an award Academy voters may now be coming to their senses about.
I think it will be either Berry or Spacek, and again, if I were an Academy
voter, it would be a very hard choice for me to choose between them.
My Best Actress list would be pretty different looking. In addition to
Kidman for her other movie, mine would include Stockard Channing for The
Business of Strangers, Naomi Watts for Mulholland Drive
(for which she actually won Best Actress from a number of other award-giving
bodies, and if you saw the movie, you'll know why), Thora Birch for Ghost
World, and Tilda Swinton for The Deep End. Channing's omission
from the real list is one of the biggest shames of this year's Oscars,
I think. (Watts, too, really.)
Best Actor
Nominees: Russell Crowe, Sean Penn, Will Smith, Denzel Washington,
Tom Wilkinson
In this category, I don't even have to give a second thought: Tom Wilkinson
is who should win, hands down. It is the most fully inhabited performance
of the year, by man or woman. If the Oscars were just . . .
But of course they're not. If they were, one of the most jaw-droppingly
extraordinary performances EVER would also be in this list Haley
Joel Osmont's for A.I. Forget about qualifiers like 'child actor.'
Osmont was more impressive here than anyone else this year other than
Wilkinson, and I don't think I could choose between the two. I don't think
he deserved his nomination for The Sixth Sense, but he deserved
to win for this one. It's the kind of performance students of acting
will be studying in decades to come.
And if the Oscars were just and we were living in a parallel,
more enlightened universe, John Cameron Mitchell for his title role in
Hedwig and the Angry Inch would have taken his rightful place among
the nominees, along with Ewan McGregor.
Russell Crowe is certainly more deserving of an Oscar this year than
last year when he took one home for the one-note performance (scowl, really)
he gave in Gladiator.
Washington is good, in a very showboating performance, but it's a part
any decent actor could have been good in. He's to be commended for finally
playing against type, though.
Smith does an extraordinary technical job believably impersonating one
of the most famous men who's ever lived. It's not his fault, but the script's,
that he didn't get to show off enough of what was going on inside
the mind of the man.
Very briefly adopting the policy of, "If you can't say anything nice,
don't say anything at all," I'm not going to discuss Penn and I Am
Sam.
Who'll actually win? I have no idea. Probably Crowe. Or Washington. Or
(yes, really) Penn. One of those three, though, for sure.
Best Supporting Actress
Nominees: Jennifer Connelly, Helen Mirren, Maggie Smith, Marisa Tomei,
Kate Winslet
This year this category should have been allowed ten nominations, and
three winners. There were simply too many excellent qualifying performances
to narrow down to one.
The one in this list who really doesn't belong here is Connelly, not
because she's not good, but because she should be in the Best Actress
category. Her part is about as supporting as Marcia Gay Harden's last
year in Pollack of course, Marcia won the Best Supporting Actress
Oscar for that, perhaps setting a new trend of lesser-known/relative newcomer
leading actresses being placed in this category. (Not totally new, though;
Geena Davis similarly won for her not-so-supporting role in The Accidental
Tourist back in 1988.)
If I had to pick from these five, once again, I could only narrow it
down to two: Tomei and Smith. Tomei is fully the equal of Wilkinson and
Spacek opposite her in In The Bedroom; she, too, inhabits her role.
Smith's delivery of lines and her sublimely perfect facial expressions
and mannerisms dazzle in Gosford Park. Without her, it would still
be a quite good movie, but not fully the great one it is.
Helen Mirren's top-notch in Gosford, too, but her truly outstanding
performance in a film qualifying for this year's Oscars was in a film
hardly seen, which actually wasnt commercially released until just
recently, Last Orders. (Watch for my review soon.) Her scenes near
the end reduced to me to a blubbering idiot. (Don't worry; she doesnt
die or anything like that.)
Other women deserving recognition include Anjelica Huston, just wonderful
in The Royal Tenenbaums, Laura Harring in Mulholland Drive,
Scarlett Johansson opposite Thora Birch in Ghost World, Jada Pinkett
Smith and Nona Gaye as Wives Number One and Two, respectively, in Ali
(Gaye especially), and Barbara Hershey in Lantana, a film I otherwise
didn't like. You see why I said this catgory should have had double the
slots for nominees.
Who will win? Connelly, probably.
Best Supporting Actor
Nominees: Jim Broadbent, Ethan Hawke, Ben Kingsley, Ian McKellen,
Jon Voight
I think McKellen will win. The Academy I think will probably want to
recognize somebody who's given so many good performances in the past decade
or so (Richard III, James Whale in Gods and Monsters, the aged
Nazi in Apt Pupil, etc.) and who is also is as courageous as he
is in being so publicly, politically out. But personally I don't
think Gandalf was one of the more challenging roles of his career. It's
like Judi Dench winning for Queen Elizabeth. Incredible actor. Too bad
this is what they won for.
Still, I could be wrong. Kingsley in Sexy Beast gave what is almost
an unbelievable performance, it's so different from what we've seen
him do (so well) before, and the Academy might recognize that.
I thought Ethan Hawke's nomination was a joke when I heard it, until
I went and saw Training Day, and ate my (in my head only) words.
He's excellent, but he's up against veterans.
Voight was fine, but if he wins he'll have to cut the Oscar in two and
give half of it to his makeup team. A more deserving nomination from Ali
would have been Mario Van Peebles as Malcolm X. (Yes, you read that right,
and no, I'm not being sarcastic. Mario seems to have found a new profession
for himself: actor.)
Just like with the Best Actress category, though, of my favorites, one
was nominated, but for the wrong movie, and four others, "criminally,"
weren't nominated at all. Jude Law did brilliant work in A.I.,
and should have been recognized for it. Steve Buscemi, like Watts and
Birch, was recognized by numerous critics associations for his
pathetic yet funny and somehow noble Seymour in Ghost World. And
for once he wasn't playing a psycho, but rather a believably real man
somewhat lost in his times. William Mapother deserved kudos for his scarily
believable and believably scary bad news dude in In The
Bedroom. And, like Maggie Smith in Gosford Park, it was a "senior
citizen," Carl Reiner, who gave the most delightful performance in an
all-star ensemble cast, in Ocean's Eleven. I was truly saddened
(though not, I guess, surprised) not to see his name on this list.
And then there's Jim Broadbent. Sure, he's perfect in Iris. But
he's more than perfect in Moulin Rouge How anyone could
have seen his "Like A Virgin" number, and not just want to hand
over the Best Supporting Actor prize right then and there, I cannot comprehend.
Best Director
Nominees: Robert Altman, Ron Howard, David Lynch, Peter Jackson, Ridley
Scott
Who will win? Come on. Of course Ron Howard. (I think the only other
guy with a ghost of a chance would be Jackson.)
Who would be my pick? Altman.
If I were able to control the nominations, whose name would have been
in this list? Marzieh Meshkini for her stunning The Day I Became A
Woman, Lukas
Moodysson for Together , Baz Luhrmann for Moulin Rouge ,
Fred Schepisi for Last Orders, Raoul Peck for Lumumba, Jean-Pierre
Jeunet for Amilie, and Peter Docter, David Silverman, and
Lee Unkrich for Monsters, Inc. Yeah, I guess it'd be a slightly
longer list.
Best Original Screenplay
Nominees: Guillaume Laurant and Jean-Pierre Jeunet, Julian Fellowes,
Christopher Nolan and Jonathan Nolan, Milo Addica and Will Rokos, Wes
Anderson and Owen Wilson
For once, I think this category's nominations are almost all very deserving.
Laurant and Jeunet's Amilie was delightful, Fellowes' Gosford
Park both funny and sad, trenchant and poignant, the Nolans' Memento
a brilliant twisting of the form, and Anderson and Wilson's Tenenbaums
a sweet take on the world of J.D. Salinger.
If I had to pick from this bunch, it'd be real tough, but in the end
I'd probably go with the Nolan brothers for Memento.
Who's going to win? Fellowes.
Who would I really have liked to have seen on this list
and to have won? The
writers of Monsters, Inc. (It's a very long list of names).
I'd also want as nominees Mohsen Makhmalbaf and Meshkini for The Day
I Became A Woman, and Moodysson for Together. Best Adapted Screenplay
Nominees: Akiva Goldsman, Daniel Clowes and Terry Zwigoff, Rob Festinger
and Todd Field, Fran Walsh, Philippa Boyens, Peter Jackson, Ted Elliott
& Terry Rossio and Joe Stillman and Roger S.H. Schulman
Who'll win? The surest bet of the evening, Goldsman for A Beautiful
Mind.
My choice from this list of nominees would have been Clowes and Zwigoff
for Ghost World, from Clowes' "graphic novel."
My real choice? Schepisi for Last Orders, from Graham Swift's
novel.
Best Score
Nominees: John Williams (A.I. Artificial Intelligence), James Horner
(A Beautiful Mind), John Williams [again!] (Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's
Stone), Howard Shore (The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring),
Randy Newman (Monsters, Inc.)
Worthy nominees all. I'm glad I don't have to choose. I'd give it to
them all to share, with one more addition: Yann Tiersen, for Amilie.
Best Cinematography
Nominees: Slavomir Idziak (Black Hawk Down), Bruno Delbonnel (Amilie),
Andrew Lesnie (The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring), Roger
Deakins (The Man Who Wasn't There), Donald McAlpine (Moulin Rouge)
I think these are pretty much all more than worthy nominees, though I
think Deakins' work in The Man Who Wasn't There has been overrated;
not that it's not good, because it is, but people have been talking like
it's the second coming of black-and-white, which it's not. He has a chance
at winning, though, especially because he also shot what is definitely
an Oscar favorite, A Beautiful Mind, a double achievement which
voters will be well aware of. And he was also nominated last year
for his beautiful work on O Brother, Where Art Thou?
Idziak certainly stands a chance, since Black Hawk Down clearly
must have been an extraordinarily difficult shoot, and it was very proficiently
done.
But I think it will probably be Lesnie's night, since the Academy tends
to reward big, epic films with this category.
However, as far as I'm concerned, these nominations are all barking up
the wrong tree. The best cinematography I saw all year was in three
movies not nominated.
It is hard to overstate the shockingly difficult task Javier Aguirresarobe
(why do so many cinematographers have names like Aguirresarobe and
Slavomir Idziak?) had in lighting and shooting The Others.
The seamless movement of the camera and the action from extremely dark
spaces into extremely bright spaces, at times at a running pace with no
pause, with no diminution of image quality, is an extraordinary, extraordinary
achievement, and it's a crime it wasn't recognized.
The most beautiful cinematography of the year, hands down, was
in a film Miramax opened only in L.A. for Oscar qualifying in December,
but which has yet to have a real commercial release: a Brazilian import,
Behind The Sun. Its director of photography Walter Carvalho dazzled
both with movement and color. Visually, this movie is the equal of the
type of art that hangs on the walls of the Louvre.
And finally, just as impressive as Black Hawk Down was the sadly
overlooked Enemy At the Gates. Cinematographer Robert Fraisse's
work just in the beginning sequence alone, when the new soldiers cross
the river into Stalingrad, should have merited him a nomination.
Best Editing
Nominees: Mike Hill (I); Daniel P. Hanley (A Beautiful Mind), Pietro
Scalia (Black Hawk Down), John Gilbert (The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship
of the Ring), Dody Dorn (Memento), Jill Bilcock (Moulin Rouge )
Who will win? My guess is Gilbert, or possibly the Beautiful Mind
team.
Who's my choice? No question, Bilcock. Part of the reason Moulin Rouge
works is due to her seamless work. By contrast, sometimes in Black
Hawk Down it's not possible to tell what's going on, who's where,
etc.
The glaring omission? Hervi Schneid, for Amilie.
Though I'd still give the gold guy to Bilcock.
Best Art Direction/Set Direction
Nominees: Aline Bonetto (art director); Marie-Laure Valla (set decorator)
Amilie, Stephen Altman (art director); Anna Pinnock (set
decorator) Gosford Park, Stuart Craig (art director); Stephanie
McMillan (set decorator) Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone,
Grant Major (art director); Dan Hennah (set decorator) The Lord
of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring, Catherine Martin (I) (art director);
Brigitte Broch (set decorator) Moulin Rouge
Who will win? Probably the Rings team. They did a colossal amount
of very impressive sets, all clearly built from scratch.
Best Costume Design
Nominees: Milena Canonero (The Affair of the Necklace), Jenny Beaven
(Gosford Park), Judianna Makovsky (Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone),
Ngila Dickson and Richard Taylor (III) (The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship
of the Ring), Catherine Martin and Angus Strathie (Moulin Rouge )
And the winner is? Either the Rings folks, or the Moulin
folks. Gosford Park being a distant possible.
Who would my choice be? Canonero, for her terrific work in Necklace.
Chance she has of winning? Zero. When it comes to movies practically nobody
saw, being nominated is the award.
Best Animated Feature
Nominees: Jimmy Neutron: Boy Genius; Monsters, Inc.; Shrek
Who's gonna win? It's a tough call, between the Dreamworks entry and
the Pixar/Mouse House one, but I think the big green guy will probably
be the one walking home with a smile.
Who would I choose? If you read my review, you know already: hands down,
Monsters, which I thought was one of the best films of the year,
and the best Pixar film ever, even better than Toy Story. My second
choice from this list would actually be the juvenile genius. I didn't
really fall in love with Shrek, except for that beautiful climactic
(non)-transformation sequence.
The glaring oversight here? Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within.
Yeah, it wasn't the smartest of screenplays, but animation-wise, it raised
the bar higher than anyone thought the bar could go at this point in time.
This lack of a nomination for it just shows that restricting the number
of nominations to three was arbitrary and unfair.
And now, your CountingDown critics tell you, in their not so humble opinions,
what they think were the best films of 2001:
Me (Daniel Baig)
I'm afraid I was unable to confine my list to ten. This was my best
compromise:
1. The Day I Became A Woman
2. The Taste Of Others
3. Monsters, Inc.
4. Gosford Park
Keep The River On Your Right (tie)
5. Moulin Rouge
Amilie (tie)
6. Together
A.I.
Memento
Enemy At The Gates (tie)
7. The Others
Lumumba
Ghost World (tie)
Runners Up: Hedwig And The Angry Inch, Our Lady Of The Assassins, The
Widow of St. Pierre, Ocean's Eleven, Divided We Fall, Heartbreakers
Note: Though the Oscars counts Last Orders and Behind The Sun
as releases from last year, since most audiences in the U.S. have not
yet had the chance to see them, for me they count as 2002 releases, which
is why they are not on my list.
Larry Carroll
Larry even tells you why! (For mine, you'll just have to go back and
read my reviews.)
1. "Memento" - Christopher Nolan's mind-numbing tale of an amnesiac chasing
after his wife's killer is the type of film that you can't stop thinking
about after you leave the theater. It's the type of movie that makes you
want to go running through the streets, screaming at strangers, "Drop
everything you're doing and see this movie, now!" The script, the direction
and the acting are all top-notch, and when it's all over, you want to
get back on the ride again right away.
2. "Mulholland Drive" - I equate this movie to a great album, something
that you can just put on and be taken away by it to another place. Any
David Lynch film is worthwhile, but what makes this one so special is
that Lynch displays himself as an artist first, and a director second.
If Naomi Watts doesn't win an Oscar, then something's just not right with
the world.
3. "Donnie Darko" - The most underrated film of 2001, "Donnie Darko"
came and left your local theater so quick you'd think that Sylvester Stallone
had starred in it. Richard Kelly's bizarre tale of a boy and his rabbit
is loaded with unforgettable scenes, confident direction, and terrific
performances by Jake Gyllenhaal, Jena Malone, Katharine Ross and even
Patrick Swayze. Don't rent, buy this DVD the day it comes out!
4. "A Beautiful Mind" - The best studio film of 2001, it's a miracle
that this movie ever got made, since it tells the story of a schizophrenic
mathematician. I've always thought that Ron Howard was too pedestrian
a director to ever deserve any great acclaim, but he and Russell Crowe
really did a tremendous job here. With the exception of Jennifer Connelly's
"old lady" makeup at the end, I would not hesitate to call this a beautiful
movie.
5. "In The Bedroom" - A movie that lives up to the hype. If you can,
try to go into this movie knowing as little about it as possible, and
you will be rewarded. If I tried to explain the plot to you, you'd think
it sounded like the most boring film ever made, but you have to go and
immerse yourself in the experience that this film creates. The mood that
surrounds the film is terrific and everything is memorable, from the opening
sequence to the last line of the film. A great, great movie.
6. "Amelie" - After the debacle that was "Alien: Resurrection", Jean-Pierre
Jeunet came back in a major way with this film. Dropping his long-time
partner Marc Caro, Jeunet showed that the same visual flair they perfected
on "Delicatessen" and "City of Lost Children" could be applied to a light-hearted
story. Jeunet created a wonderful, quirky tale of a girl who simply sets
out to make other lives better. Larry dislikes: people cracking their
knuckles, people who wears socks with sandals. Larry likes: this movie.
7. "The Man Who Wasn't There" - Another year, another great movie by
the brothers Coen. The black and white cinematography in this film is
gorgeous. Tony Shalhoub gives the best performance of his career, deserving
an Oscar nomination as does Billy Bob Thornton, who's work here is much
better than the overrated "Monster's Ball". On the grand scale of Coen
Brothers movies, I think this would rate in the lower third - but that
still makes it better than just about any other movie Hollywood makes
in a given year.
8. "Harry Potter & The Sorcerer's Stone" - I haven't read the "Harry
Potter" or "Lord of the Rings" books, so I saw both films with the eyes
of a newborn. And, quite frankly, Harry Potter was far more entertaining
and imaginative. "Lord of the Rings" has some great action scenes, and
maybe it will be better in the context of the other two films, but alone
the film has some real boring stretches and an unfulfilling conclusion.
"Potter" on the other hand, was just as good to newbies like myself as
it was to the book's army of fans. The ridiculously fast-paced Quidditch
scene reminded me of what George Lucas' Pod Race should have been, and
except for the overly facile ending, the rest of the film was pitch-perfect.
9. "Session 9" - This movie scared the living hell out of me. It reminded
me of what I thought "The Blair Witch Project" would be - cheap, gritty,
and horrifying. The real stars here are David Caruso (yes, that David
Caruso) and Sony's revolutionary High Definition 24p Cinealta camera.
Director Brad Anderson crafted the creepiest movie of the year out of
a real-life abandoned mental institution and a handful of actors that
were willing to work cheap. This is the film that "The Others" should
have been.
10. "Josie & the Pussycats" - Okay, so maybe this movie isn't really
one of the Top 10, but I've gotta go out on a limb here. I will go to
my grave insisting that this movie was way better than it had any right
to be. It had an unexpected anti-consumerism slant, some great music,
and the best Eugene Levy cameo of the year. In retrospect, it may very
well have been the funniest film of the year.
Honorable Mention:
"Ocean's Eleven", "Waking Life", "The Pledge", "The Princess and the
Warrior", "The Deep End", "Sexy Beast", "Apocalypse Now Redux", "Jay &
Silent Bob Strike Back", "Enemy At The Gates".
And, finally, our worsts:
Me (Daniel Baig)
Please note: Thankfully, I did not see a lot of the movies which were
much mentioned as being the worst of the year, like Freddy Got Fingered
or Joe Dirt. My worst are only of the movies I saw. They are in
descending order:
1. Swordfish
2. Someone Like You
3. The Fast and the Furious
4. Novocaine
5. Kiss Of The Dragon
6. The Shipping News
7. Driven
Larry Carroll
1. Moulin Rouge
2. Hardball
3. Double Take
4. Freddy Got Fingered
5.Antitrust
6. Planet of the Apes
7. The Fast & The Furious
8. The Majestic
9. Down To Earth
10. 15 Minutes
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