Okay, so Cinecultist didn't get around to blogging yesterday about the Oscar nominations because well, could they have been more predictable? Seriously, CC walked out of both The Queen and The Last King of Scotland and declared Helen Mirren and Forest Whitaker the winners right then and there. Don't believe us? Ask our grandmother and editor at Radar respectively, CC called each with the breathless news.
But Little Miss Sunshine for a Best Picture of the Year nom? Are you kidding? This movie is so beyond overrated, and CC's been saying it to anyone who will listen since we saw it at last year's Sundance series at BAM. Lame attempts at quirk, precocious little child actress, dysfunctional families are SO fascinating, blah blah blah. Even the idea of the Little Indie That Could is just so overplayed, we're bored even blogging about it.
Three movies that we would point out to the more discerning viewer who wants to pick and choose among the flicks lauded this year by the Academy (but will probably loose in their respective categories):
- Please see Iraq In Fragments, the nominee for best documentary which will loose to An Inconvenient Truth. Al Gore and his return to public life by scaring us with global warming is nice and all, but this documentary about life on the ground in Iraq will open your eyes to a whole new world. It's stunning.
- Please see Half Nelson, which contains Ryan Gosling's spectacular best actor nominated performance that will loose to Whitaker. As the drug addicted school teacher bonding with his Brooklyn student, Gosling is a revelation, and we're not just saying that because we know a few people who worked on the production two summers ago.
- Please see The Lives of Others, the nominee for best foreign language film which will loose to Pan's Labyrinth. A German movie about life in East Berlin during the reign of the secret police during the '80s, it's a quite riveting thriller about being an artist under a totalitarian regime. It doesn't hit American theaters until Feb. 9, so put it in the calendar or write yourself a post-it or something.
Posted by karen at January 24, 2007 4:39 PM