Josh Brolin in No Country for Old Men
Alex Ben Block at Hollywood Today:
"Even if the writer's strike is over on Feb. 24 when Oscars are handed out, the appeal of this year's nominees, led by No Country For Old Men, There Will Be Blood and Michael Clayton, will be limited. The 80th Academy Award nominations are not just art house movies, but most of the leading contenders are so dark, violent, slowly paced and often purposely confusing or obscure that it will put mainstream audiences off the awards this year."
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Julie Christie, Gordon Pinsent in Away from Her
Tom O'Neil in The Envelope:
"If Julie Christie wins best actress for Away from Her, she'll set a new record for longest gap between two wins. In February, almost 42 years will have passed since she claimed that same prize on April 18, 1966 for Darling [right], released in 1965. Currently, the record is held by Helen Hayes — 38 years, four months, and 28 days separated her best actress win for The Sin of Madelon Claudet (awards year 1931; ceremony date November 18, 1932) and supporting actress for Airport (awards year 1970; ceremony date April 15, 1971)."
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Kelly Herdrich in Associated Content:
"Though Johnny Depp did earn an Oscar nomination for his work in Sweeney Todd, this Golden Globe winning film for Best Motion Picture-Musical or Comedy was sadly excluded from this year's Best Picture category. Though the exclusion of musicals and comedies from the Academy Awards isn't surprising, the film has gained critical acclaim and did earn a nomination for Depp. So, the oversight appears to be even more glaring."
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Cao Hamburger, whose The Year My Parents Went on Vacation was shortlisted in the best foreign-language film category, in Reuters:
"It is very difficult to make the final five, and being included among the nine films (on the shortlist) is already a great victory. It would be wonderful for the Brazilian cinema and for the Latin America cinema having someone in the Oscar."
The Year My Parents Went on Vacation ended up not getting a nomination. Shocking, considering that it revolves around an old Jewish man and a little boy. It opens in Los Angeles on February 15.
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Keira Knightley, James McAvoy in Atonement
Rachel Abramowitz and Paul Brownfield in the Los Angeles Times:
"For the last few years, the Oscars have reflected the globalization of the film business, with attention-grabbing nominees such as Babel and Pan's Labyrinth. This year, the only nominally global movie is Atonement, a Hollywood-funded, all-Brit production. Based on Ian McEwan's novel, the movie is this year's lush, period WWII nominee, the kind of nod that feels safer, in its way, than the others.
"Around the virtual Hollywood water cooler (no doubt supplied by Fiji), talk will focus on the auterish square-off between the venerable [Joel and Ethan Coen] and the legend-in-waiting [Paul Thomas] Anderson. But their films are so male-centric and violent that they're liable to split the vote — possibly creating an opening for Juno."
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"Legend-in-waiting"?
In any case, generally speaking, vote splitting — when it comes to film awards — is a myth. If votes are to be split between "male-centric" and "non-male-centric" films (do people actually think in those terms?), then No Country for Old Men would share the Academy's love with There Will Be Blood, while Juno would split the vote with Atonement. Following this type of illogical logic, Michael Clayton would win, for its sensibility is neither male- nor female-centric. A cinematic hermaphrodite, you might say.
It's too bad that Julie Christie didn't break that record.
She should have won even though Marian Cottillard was also wonderful.