OSCAR PICKS FOR 2009

Helen Bennett February 20, 2009 at 10:31 am

You have done a fine job in predicting the winners and telling who you think should win. I am not sure about the Best Actor category, but have not yet see The Wrestler. I liked Sean Penn of all the others.

I disagree with your choice for Best Supporting Actress. I couldn’t STAND Amy Adams in “Doubt.” Such a simpering creature would surely have been thrown out of the convent!

Frank Piloto February 20, 2009 at 12:26 pm

Marshall, I didn’t see any pictures that were nominated so, I must abstain. However, I heard the one by Mickey Rourke was outstanding. Mazel Tov to the winner!

Larry (an old vagabond) February 20, 2009 at 2:37 pm

I have no quarrel with your picks. However, we didn’t see the Robert Downey movie. If Viola Davis sneaks in, I won’t be sorry. Penelope C. does suck the air out of everybody. She just takes over like Mae West used to. When I was fifteen, I would have been terrified by Kate Winslet. I’m a little nervous right now. It’s a nice nervous, though.

Realistically, the only category that open to question, is supporting actor. Unless, there is one of those Academy surprises, the rest of the major categories are locks.

Ray February 20, 2009 at 3:23 pm

The only one we have seen is Slumdog Millionaire. Whoops, we also saw Tropic Thunder in which Robert Downey Jr did a credible job. The odds favor Nate Silver in opposition to a couple of your choices. He picked the winner in every single senate race and 49 of 50 states in the presidential race (missed on Indiana). He has Mickey Rourke as best actor and Taraji P Henson as best supporting actress.

Neal Stannard February 21, 2009 at 12:40 am

Marshall, I haven’t seen all of ’em, but I’ve seen more than usual (some years I’ve caught none)…a few thoughts:

BEST PICTURE (and ACTOR): As you noted, “The Boy in Striped Pyjamas” was unfairly excluded…as was Clint Eastwood’s “Gran Torino,” one of the most shattering films I’ve seen in years. Eastwood has won Best director twice…and Best Actor never. Yet, in Gran Torino, Clint the Sensitive Director (“The Outlaw Josey Wales,” “Million Dollar Baby,” “Letters from Iwo Jima”) and Clint the Bad-Ass Actor (Dirty Harry Callahan, Gunny Highway in “Heartbreak Ridge,” The Man With No Name) are finally, and beautifully, fused into an organic whole. And as a director, he coaxed performances out of his two Asian co-stars that are easily deserving of Best Supporting statuettes.

Among the Best Actors who were nominated, Frank Langella stands out to me. Bill O’Reilly opines that Langella would have won if he had gone for caricature, but won’t, because he played Nixon as a human being. It pains me to agree with Billl O’Reilly…on anything…but I do.

SUPPORTING ACTOR: Another injustice is that Josh Brolin was nominated in this category…instead of as Best Actor for “W”…who he caught brilliantly. Of course Ledger will take it. He might even have deserved it had he lived! (How about Stacy Keach as the spititual advisor to W?)

SUPPORTING ACTRESS: How about an almost unrecognizable Kathy Bates in “Revolutionary Road”?

BEST ACTRESS: Atttention, Hollywood: It is not necessary to nominate Meryl Streep for an award every time she breaks wind! She is a great actress, but her work in “Doubt” is not her best–it actually throws off the carefully-constructed balance between her character and the priest–nor the best on screen this year. Kate Winslet was, if anything, better in “Revolutionary Road” than in “The Reader”–but I’d be happy to see her get the award for the latter.

…Neal Stannard

Gladys February 24, 2009 at 3:39 pm

Like some other retirees, I don’t have time or the inclination to attend movies anymore. (I probably avoid a lot of germs that way too! If Netflix doesn’t offer it, I don’t see it. I like the oldies better anyhow, tho’ some of the new ones sound realy interesting — like Slumdog Millionaire.