My Analysis For My Best Picture Nominee Predictions For October.

Hey everyone, so as promised, here is my analysis for my Oscar nominee Best Picture predictions for the month of October. I will try to do this every month until the Oscar nominees are announced, and of course as we get closer to the day when the nominations are announced, more and more of the films will have been out in theaters and then we will all be able to get a real gist of where the contenders stand in this race! And so far this looks like one hell of an interesting race! And later on in other posts, I will break down my Acting, Writing, and Directing predictions.

So anyway, lets get to it!

For best picture, I had Revolutionary Road, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, Slumdog Millionaire, Changeling, and Rachel Getting Married as my top five nominees. It is a very surprising list as I have left off such films as Milk, Doubt, and Frost/Nixon and placed Slumdog Millionaire, Changeling, and Rachel Getting Married in their places. But I feel like Milk, Doubt, and Frost/Nixon will be more of acting showcases then of best picture nominees. But I do have a reason to my madness for my top five, and really I based most of my top five off of recent Oscar trends, as well as the recent trailers and reviews that have come out for these movies. But here is how I rank them for now.

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1. Revolutionary Road - With the new International trailer out, this movie looks phenomenal. This movie is the adaptation of Richard Yates well-known book, and I'm sure many Academy voters have read this book since it came out back in 1961, and maybe some can relate to it as well. The movie takes place in 1955 and focuses on Frank and April Wheeler (DiCaprio and Winslet), who move into suburban Connecticut and realize that they are different from their neighbors and they don't want to fall into the cliches of the typical, boring, everything the same suburban life. I will admit that I am in the middle of reading Richard Yates's book, and so far I have to say, it is a tough book to adapt to the screen, but after seeing the trailer and knowing that Sam Mendes is in charge, I think it will turn out great. I am so glad to see Leo and Kate reunite again after Titanic, which leads me to my number two selection...



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2. The Curious Case of Benjamin Button - This will be the "big-budget film" nominee, and think of this like Titanic, which is ironic because it will be going up against Revolutionary Road, which stars Kate Winslet and Leonardo DiCaprio. But anyways, first of all, the trailer is major eye candy, and Brad Pitt looks great in this film. With a budget of $150 million, TCCOBB is based off of the short story by F. Scott Fitzgerald which follows a man who was born in his 80's and ages backwards. TCCOBB is the tale of this man and the people and places he discovers along the way. This will be one movie not to forget, and I'm sure the Oscars will have open arms for this film when it is released during Christmas time.



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3. Slumdog Millionaire - It was the little film that made a big impact lately at the festivals last month, and many critics naming it one of the top five best pictures that will be shown in the year. Fox Searchlight Pictures has acquired the rights for this film, and they have tended to do quite well with the Oscars in the past year with recent Best Picture nominees such as Sideways, Little Miss Sunshine, and Juno. But not only would I compare this movie to those Fox Searchlight royality films, I would also compare Slumdog to Letters From Iwo Jima. No, Slumdog is not a war movie, but like Letters, most of the movie is not in the English language, though it's director speaks English. For Letters, Clint Eastwood was the director and it was mostly in Japanese, and for Slumdog, Danny Boyle is the director and a lot of the movie is in Hindi. So Slumdog may be the "foreign language nominee" of the year, but it also may be that film that everyone loves nominee, just like how Fox Searchlight's past best picture nominees were.



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4. Changeling - With the recent mixed reviews on this film in the past weeks, I've moved Changeling down to number 4 and have kept it in my top five mainly because it is a Clint Eastwood film and it stars Angelina Jolie. I would like to think of this film as Atonement from last year - you either loved it or you hated it, but the Academy was going to nominate it regardless. And so far with Changeling, you either love this film or you don't love this film, but simply, the Oscars love Clint and Angelina will bring in viewers (and Angelina going head to head with Brad, it's just what the Oscars need if they want to their viewership to go up, because they really need it up, and this is the year to do it!), so I think we will see this nominated "regardless."



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5. Rachel Getting Married - Call me crazy, I know, but I think this will be the "indie comedy" that gets nominated this year. Yes, unlike Slumdog Millionaire, and past "indie comedy" nominees, it is not from Fox Searchlight, it is from Sony Picture Classics though. And with the recent success of this film with both critics and box office alike, this film should really be considered much higher when it comes to predicting the nominees for Best Picture. Last week in it's opening weekend, RGM scored an outstanding $32,597 per theater, and it was only in 9 theaters last weekend. Unbelievable! Anne Hathaway has a brand new image in Hollywood from this movie and she is now being considered a "lock" for her amazing performance as Kym, the sister from hell who arrives at her sister's wedding after being released from rehab. The movie also comes from Jonathan Demme, who is very well known among voters considering he won for Best Director for The Silence of the Lambs, and maybe the Oscars will want to nominate this film because of how different this film is from all the other films that have premiered this year.



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So there you have it, my reasoning to my madness. Soon, I will have my analysis for my Acting nominee predictions, as well as Writing and Directing.

The Oscarologist's OSCAR® Nominee Predictions For October!

Here are my nominee predictions for October:

Best Picture

Changeling
Rachel Getting Married
Revolutionary Road
Slumdog Millionaire
The Curious Case Of Benjamin Button

Next In Line: Doubt, Frost/Nixon

Best Actor In A Leading Role

Leonardo DiCaprio, Revolutionary Road
Richard Jenkins, The Visitor
Frank Langella, Frost/Nixon
Sean Penn, Milk
Brad Pitt, The Curious Case Of Benjamin Button

Next In Line: Josh Brolin, W., Benicio Del Toro, Che, Michael Fassbender, Hunger

Best Actress In A Leading Role

Anne Hathaway, Rachel Getting Married
Sally Hawkins, Happy Go Lucky
Angelina Jolie, Changeling
Meryl Streep, Doubt
Kate Winslet, Revolutionary Road

Next In Line: Kristin Scott Thomas, I’ve Loved You So Long, Shohreh Aghdashloo, The Stoning of Soraya M.

Best Actor In A Supporting Role

Josh Brolin, Milk
Robert Downey Jr., The Soloist
James Franco, Milk
Heath Ledger, The Dark Knight
Kodi-Smit McPhee, The Road

Next In Line: Peter O’Toole, Dean Spanley

Best Actress In A Supporting Role

Amy Adams, Doubt
Elizabeth Banks, W.
Penelope Cruz, Vicky Cristina Barcelona
Rosemarie DeWitt, Rachel Getting Married
Kate Winslet, The Reader

Next In Line: Viola Davis, Doubt, Hiam Abbass, The Visitor, Frances McDormand, Burn After Reading

Best Director

Danny Boyle, Slumdog Millionaire
Clint Eastwood, Changeling
David Fincher, The Curious Case Of Benjamin Button
Baz Luhrmann, Australia
Sam Mendes, Revolutionary Road

Next In Line: Jonathan Demme, Rachel Getting Married, Ron Howard, Frost/Nixon

Best Original Screenplay

Charlie Kaufman, Synecdoche, New York
Mike Leigh, Happy Go Lucky
Jenny Lumet, Rachel Getting Married
Thomas McCarthy, The Visitor
J. Michael Straczynski, Changeling

Best Adapted Screenplay

Simon Beaufoy, Slumdog Millionaire
David Hare, The Reader
Justin Haythe, Revolutionary Road
Joe Penhall, The Road
Eric Roth, The Curious Case Of Benjamin Button

Best Animated Feature

Kung Fu Panda
Wall-E
Waltz With Bashir

Best Foreign-Language Film (top 9 short-list)

The Baader Meinhof Complex, Germany
The Class (Entre Les Murs), France
Dream Weaver: Beijing 2008, China
Everlasting Moments, Sweden
Gomorra, Italy
Revanche, Austria
Stars On Earth, India
Three Monkeys, Turkey
Waltz With Bashir, Israel

Best Documentary Film

I.O.U.S.A.
Man On Wire
Religulous
Roman Polanski: Wanted & Desired
Stealing America: Vote By Vote

Best Original Song

“All Dressed In Love,” Sex And The City: The Movie
“Down To Earth,” Wall-E
“Rock Me Sexy Jesus,” Hamlet 2
“The Story,” My Blueberry Nights
“The Wrestler,” The Wrestler

Best Art Direction

Catherine Martin, Australia
Gary Fettis & James J. Murakami, Changeling
Donald Graham Burt & Victor J. Zolfo, The Curious Case Of Benjamin Button
Debra Schutt & Kristi Zea, Revolutionary Road
Mark Friedberg & Adam Stockhausen, Synecdoche, New York

Best Cinematography

Javier Aguirresarobe, The Road
Roger Deakins, Revolutionary Road
Claudio Miranda, The Curious Case Of Benjamin Button
Declan Quinn, Rachel Getting Married
Mandy Walker, Australia

Best Costume Design

Patricia Field, Sex And The City: The Movie
Eiko Ishioka, The Fall
Michael O’Conner, The Duchess
Jacqueline West, The Curious Case Of Benjamin Button
Albert Wolsky, Revolutionary Road

Best Film Editing

Tariq Anwar, Revolutionary Road
Kirk Baxter & Angus Wall, The Curious Case Of Benjamin Button
Chris Dickens, Slumdog Millionaire
Pietro Scalia, Body Of Lies
Lee Smith, The Dark Knight

Best Makeup

Kate Biscoe, Iraina Crenshaw, Heather Plott, Mitchell Stone, & Jay Wejebe, Tropic Thunder
Carla Brenholtz, Stacey Herbert, Elaine L. Offers, & Ghislaine Sani, The Curious Case Of Benjamin Button
John Caglione Jr., Linda Rizzuto, Sue Robb-King, & Vicki Vacca, The Dark Knight

Best Original Score

Donald Harrison Jr. & Zafer Tawil, Rachel Getting Married
David Hirschfelder, Australia
Thomas Newman, Revolutionary Road
A.R. Rahman, Slumdog Millionaire
John Williams, Indiana Jones And The Crystal Skull

Best Sound Editing

Australia
The Dark Knight
Indiana Jones And The Crystal Skull
Iron Man
Quantum Of Solace

Best Sound Mixing

Australia
The Dark Knight
Indiana Jones And The Crystal Skull
Iron Man
Wall-E

Best Visual Effects

Hanc*ck
Iron Man
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button

TALLY OF THE NOMINATIONS:

Revolutionary Road – 10 nominations
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button – 10 nominations
Australia – 6 nominations
Rachel Getting Married – 6 nominations
Changeling – 5 nominations
Slumdog Millionaire – 5 nominations
The Dark Knight – 5 nominations
Indiana Jones And The Crystal Skull – 3 nominations
Iron Man – 3 nominations
Milk – 3 nominations
The Road – 3 nominations
Doubt – 2 nominations
The Visitor – 2 nominations
Happy Go Lucky – 2 nominations
Sex And The City: The Movie – 2 nominations
Synecdoche, New York – 2 nominations
The Reader – 2 nominations
Wall-E – 2 nominations
Body of Lies – 1 nomination
Frost/Nixon – 1 nomination
Hamlet 2 – 1 nomination
Hanc*ck – 1 nomination
Kung Fu Panda – 1 nomination
My Blueberry Nights – 1 nomination
Quantum of Solace – 1 nomination
The Duchess – 1 nomination
The Fall – 1 nomination
The Soloist – 1 nomination
The Wrestler – 1 nomination
Tropic Thunder – 1 nomination
Vicky Cristina Barcelona – 1 nomination
W. – 1 nomination
Waltz With Bashir – 1 nomination (2 nominations including Foreign Film)

*My explanations for my predictions will come later, so stay tuned!*

The Contenders!

After a few months, I have finally revised the list of the contenders:

BEST PICTURE

Frontrunners

(“The Curious Case Of Benjamin Button”)
(“Revolutionary Road”)

Lead Ponies

(“Australia”)
(“Changeling”)
(“Doubt”)
(“Frost/Nixon”)
("Milk")
(“Slumdog Millionaire”)

In the Running

(“Blindness”)
("The Dark Knight")
(“Happy Go Lucky”)
(“Hunger”)
(“Rachel Getting Married”)
(“The Reader”)
("The Road")
(“Synecdoche, New York”)
("The Visitor")
("W.")
(“Wall-E”)

Dark Horses

(“Body Of Lies”)
(“Burn After Reading”)
(“Che”)
(“Gran Torino”)
(“Miracle At St. Anna”)
(“Seven Pounds”)
(“Skin”)
(“The Soloist”)

BEST DIRECTOR

Frontrunners

Clint Eastwood for (“Changeling”)
David Fincher for (“The Curious Case Of Benjamin Button”)
Sam Mendes for (“Revolutionary Road”)

Lead Ponies

Danny Boyle for (“Slumdog Millionaire”)
Ron Howard for (“Frost/Nixon”)
Charlie Kaufman for (“Synecdoche, New York”)
Baz Luhrmann for (“Australia”)
Christopher Nolan for ("The Dark Knight")
John Patrick Shanley for (“Doubt”)
Oliver Stone for ("W.")
Gus Van Sant for (“Milk”)

In the Running

Darren Aronofsky for (“The Wrestler”)
Stephen Daldry for (“The Reader”)
Clint Eastwood for (“Gran Torino”)
Mike Leigh for ("Happy Go Lucky")
Steve McQueen for (“Hunger”)
Ridley Scott for (“Body Of Lies”)
Steven Soderbergh for (“Che”)
Andrew Stanton for ("Wall-E")

Dark Horses

Spike Lee for (“Miracle At St. Anna”)
Fernando Meirelles for (“Blindness”)
Tarsem Singh for (“The Fall”)
Joe Wright for (“The Soloist”)
Edward Zwick for (“Defiance”)

BEST ACTOR

Frontrunners

Leonardo DiCaprio in (“Revolutionary Road”)
Frank Langella in (“Frost/Nixon”)

Lead Ponies

Josh Brolin in ("W.")
Benicio Del Toro in ("Che")
Michael Fassbender in (“Hunger”)
Philip Seymour Hoffman in (“Synecdoche, New York”)
Richard Jenkins in ("The Visitor")
Sean Penn in (“Milk”)
Brad Pitt in (“The Curious Case Of Benjamin Button”)
Mickey Rourke in (“The Wrestler”)

In the Running

Daniel Craig in ("Defiance")
Robert De Niro in (“What Just Happened?”)
Leonardo DiCaprio in (“Body of Lies”)
Clint Eastwood in (“Gran Torino”)
Ralph Fiennes in ("The Reader")
Jamie Foxx in (“The Soloist”)
Dustin Hoffman in (“Last Chance Harvey”)
Philip Seymour Hoffman in ("Doubt")
Hugh Jackman in ("Australia")
Martin Landau in (“Lovely, Still”)
Viggo Mortensen in ("The Road")
Dev Patel in (“Slumdog Millionaire”)
Sam Rockwell in ("Choke")
Will Smith in ("Seven Pounds")

Dark Horses

Robert Downey Jr. in (“Iron Man”)
Harrison Ford in (“Indiana Jones And The Crystal Skull”)
Jake Gyllenhaal in (“Brothers”)
Ed Harris in ("Appaloosa")
Josh Hartnett in ("August")
Ben Kingsley in (“Elegy”)
Jared Leto in (“Chapter 27”)
Viggo Mortensen in ("Good")
Lee Pace in (“The Fall”)
Alan Rickman in ("Bottle Shock")

BEST ACTRESS

Frontrunners

Anne Hathaway in ("Rachel Getting Married")
Angelina Jolie in (“Changeling”)
Kate Winslet in (“Revolutionary Road”)

Lead Ponies

Shohreh Aghdashloo in (“The Stoning of Soraya M.”)
Sally Hawkins in (“Happy Go Lucky”)
Kristin Scott Thomas in (“I’ve Loved You So Long”)
Meryl Streep in (“Doubt”)

In the Running

Kate Beckinsale in ("Nothing But The Truth")
Cate Blanchett in (“The Curious Case Of Benjamin Button”)
Emily Blunt in (“The Young Victoria”)
Ellen Burstyn in (“Lovely, Still”)
Penelope Cruz in (“Elegy”)
Nicole Kidman in (“Australia”)
Keira Knightley in (“The Duchess”)
Melissa Leo in (“Frozen River”)
Julianne Moore in (“Blindness”)
Sophie Okonedo in ("Skin")
Sarah Jessica Parker in (“Sex And The City: The Movie”)
Amanda Seyfried in ("Mamma Mia")
Meryl Streep in (“Mamma Mia”)
Emma Thompson in (“Last Chance Harvey”)

Dark Horses

Summer Bishil in ("Towelhead")
Dakota Fanning in ("The Secret Life Of Bees")
Helen Hunt in (“Then She Found Me”)
Norah Jones in (“My Blueberry Nights”)
Keira Knightley in (“The Edge Of Love”)
Diane Lane in (“Nights In Rodanthe”)
Frances McDormand in (“Miss Pettigrew Lives For A Day”)
Julianne Moore in (“Savage Grace”)
Samantha Morton in ("Expired")
Ellen Page in (“The Tracey Fragments”)
Natalie Portman in ("Brothers")

BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR

Frontrunners

Robert Downey, Jr. in (“The Soloist”)
Heath Ledger in (“The Dark Knight”)

Lead Ponies

Josh Brolin in (“Milk”)
Jason Butler Harner in ("Changeling")
James Cromwell in (“W.”)
Robert Downey Jr. in (“Tropic Thunder”)
James Franco in (“Milk”)
John Malkovich in (“Changeling”)
Peter O’Toole in (“Dean Spanley”)
Liev Schreiber in (“Defiance”)
Michael Shannon in (“Revolutionary Road”)
Michael Sheen in ("Frost/Nixon")
Kodi Smit-McPhee in ("The Road")

In the Running

Jerry Adler in (“The Memory Thief”)
Alan Alda in ("Nothing But The Truth")
Jamie Bell in (“Defiance”)
Demián Bichir in ("Che")
Russell Crowe in ("Body Of Lies")
Tom Cruise in (“Tropic Thunder”)
Aaron Eckhart in ("The Dark Knight")
Dennis Hopper in (“Elegy”)
Ben Kingsley in (“Transsiberian”)
Sam Neill in ("Skin")
Brad Pitt in ("Burn After Reading")
Haaz Sleiman in (“The Visitor”)
Tom Wilkinson in ("RocknRolla")

Dark Horses

Kevin Bacon in (“Frost/Nixon”)
George Clooney in ("Burn After Reading")
James Franco in (“Pineapple Express”)
Bruno Ganz in (“The Reader”)
Brendan Gleeson in ("In Bruges")
Danny Glover in (“Blindness”)
Emile Hirsch in (“Milk”)
Richard Jenkins in ("Burn After Reading")
John Leguizamo in (“Paraiso Travel”)
John Malkovich in ("Burn After Reading")
Josh Peck in (“The Wackness”)
Oliver Platt in (“Frost/Nixon”)
Maximilian Schell in (“The Brothers Bloom”)
J.K. Simmons in ("Burn After Reading")
David Strathairn in (“My Blueberry Nights”)

BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS

Frontrunners

Amy Adams in (“Doubt”)
Kate Winslet in (“The Reader”)

Lead Ponies

Hiam Abbass in ("The Visitor")
Elizabeth Banks in ("W.")
Kathy Bates in (“Revolutionary Road”)
Penelope Cruz in (“Vicky Cristina Barcelona”)
Viola Davis in (“Doubt”)
Rosemarie DeWitt in ("Rachel Getting Married")
Taraji P. Henson in (“The Curious Case Of Benjamin Button”)
Felicity Huffman in ("Phoebe In Wonderland")
Frances McDormand in (“Burn After Reading”)
Marisa Tomei in (“The Wrestler”)
Debra Winger in ("Rachel Getting Married")
Elsa Zylberstein in (“I’ve Loved You So Long”)

In the Running

Ellen Burstyn in (“W.”)
Vera Farmiga in (“Nothing But The Truth”)
Jennifer Hudson in ("The Secret Life Of Bees")
Queen Latifah in ("The Secret Life Of Bees")
Kelly MacDonald in ("Choke")
Rachel McAdams in (“Married Life”)
Bette Midler in (“Then She Found Me”)
Thandie Newton in ("W.")
Amy Ryan in (“Changeling”)
Meryl Streep in (“Dark Matter”)
Charlize Theron in ("The Road")
Emma Thompson in (“Brideshead Revisited”)
Dianne Wiest in (“Synecdoche, New York”)

Dark Horses

Amy Adams in (“Miss Pettigrew Lives For A Day”)
Christine Baranski in (“Mamma Mia”)
Cate Blanchett in (“Indiana Jones And The Crystal Skull”)
Mariah Carey in (“Tennessee”)
Kim Catrall in (“Sex And The City: The Movie”)
Hope Davis in (“Synecdoche, New York”)
Anjelica Huston in ("Choke")
Jennifer Jason Leigh in (“Synecdoche, New York”)
Catherine Keener in (“Synecdoche, New York”)
Alicia Keys in ("The Secret Life Of Bees")
Sienna Miller in (“The Edge Of Love”)
Samantha Morton in (“Mister Lonely”)
Samantha Morton in (“Synecdoche, New York”)
Cynthia Nixon in (“Sex And The City: The Movie”)
Sandra Oh in (“Blindness”)
Sophie Okonedo in ("The Secret Life Of Bees")
Elisabeth Shue in ("Hamlet 2")
Tilda Swinton in (“Burn After Reading”)
Tilda Swinton in (“The Curious Case Of Benjamin Button”)
Carice van Houten in (“Body Of Lies”)
Julie Walters in (“Mamma Mia”)
Emily Watson in (“Synecdoche, New York””)
Michelle Williams in (“Synecdoche, New York”)

BEST ADAPTED SCREENPLAY

Frontrunners

(“The Curious Case Of Benjamin Button”)
(“Revolutionary Road”)

Lead Ponies

(“Doubt”)
(“Frost/Nixon”)
(“The Reader”)
(“The Road”)
(“Slumdog Millionaire”)

In the Running

(“Body Of Lies”)
("The Dark Knight")
(“The Soloist”)

Dark Horses

(“Blindness”)
(“Che”)
(“Defiance”)
(“The Fall”)
(“Miracle At St. Anna”)
(“Then She Found Me”)
(“Towelhead”)

BEST ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY

Frontrunners

(“Changeling”)
(“Happy Go Lucky”)
(“Synecdoche, New York”)
("The Visitor")

Lead Ponies

("Burn After Reading")
(“Milk”)
(“Nothing But The Truth”)
(“Rachel Getting Married”)
(“Vicky Cristina Barcelona”)
("Wall-E")

In the Running

(“Australia”)
("Che")
(“Hunger”)
(“I’ve Loved You So Long”)
(“Lovely, Still”)
(“The Wackness”)

Dark Horses

(“The Brothers Bloom”)
(“Gran Torino”)
(“Seven Pounds”)

Should we take "Hunger" into major consideration?

After being well recieved at Cannes and Toronto, can this controversial film from artist-turned-first-time-filmmaker, Steve McQueen, come in as a surprise contender in this year's Oscar race? Hunger is about Bobby Sands, the IRA member who led the 1981 Irish hunger strike and participated in the no wash protest in which Republican prisoners tried to win political status. Hunger dramatises the events in the notorious Northern Ireland's Maze prison six weeks prior to Sands's death.



Steve McQueen won the Camera d'Or at Cannes for Best First Feature Film as well as the DIESEL Discovery Award at the Toronto Film Festival.



Michael Fassbender (300) stars as Bobby Sands, and he is one sure to look out for as a dark horse contender. Fassbender can soon be seen alongside Brad Pitt and Diane Kruger in Quentin Tarantino's Inglorious Bastards.

Just by looking at the trailer, it looks very compelling, and Fassbender looks unbelievable.

Check out the trailer for Hunger:

Oscar Buzz for Martin Landau and Ellen Burstyn?

Their new film Lovely, Still just premiered at the Toronto Film Festival and has been recieving some great reviews, even hinting at Oscar buzz for past winners Landau and Burstyn.

From the TIFF website, Lovely, Still's synopsis is:

Robert Malone (Martin Landau) is an elderly perennial bachelor who leads a tidy, uneventful and some might even say empty life. This Christmas, for whatever reason, Robert is feeling the lack of family more keenly than usual. Then one day, like a single man's dream, Robert comes home from his job at a grocery store to find a beautiful woman in his house.

Her name is Mary (Ellen Burstyn), and while Robert is initially shocked and angry, she quickly explains that she has just moved in across the street, saw his door open, and was concerned for the welfare of the homeowner. Their flap settled, Mary is on her way out when she turns to Robert and pertly asks him out to dinner. A little nonplussed, Robert agrees, and thus begins a late-life courtship that leaves the bachelor in a constant state of wonderment and surprise. He eventually must admit that he is falling in love.

But there's something about Mary that seems not right. She's overeager, almost pushy, in the way she engages Robert almost every hour; within days, they are like teenagers, conjoined in first love. Robert is besotted, but soon becomes unnerved by the intensity of his love. He grows paranoid, jealous and erratic, all from fear of losing her. At this point, the narrative takes an extraordinary turn, with a development in the spirit of Alfred Hitchcock or the novelist Daphne du Maurier. This tectonic shift in perspective leads to a powerful, tremendously moving conclusion, made all the richer by a heightened understanding of what has come before.

Lovely, Still is a remarkable achievement for so young a first-time director as Nik Fackler, who understands that bringing together two Academy Award®-winning actors of extraordinary ability can only elicit great expectations from the audience. Lovely, Still meets its full potential and provides a challenging and fulfilling experience that will linger in the viewer's memory for some time to come.

Here is the first clip released for Lovely, Still, which stars Landau and Adam Scott where Robert (Landau) asks his boss, Mike (Scott) about tips for a date with Mary (Burstyn).


Can Martin Landau and possibly Ellen Burstyn get back into the Oscar race with this feel-good, tearjerker (holiday) film? And also what's interesting is that the writer/director, Nik Facker, who is 23 years old, wrote this film about a love story between two older people, and he had this idea when he was a teenager... Amazing!

Oh my god, I am so excited!

I can't believe it! My most anticipated movie of the year, Revolutionary Road, trailer will be premiering on Entertainment Tonight tomorrow night on the show. Finally! I am so excited. I was just watching ET and I was extremely surprised when they showed a little like 15 second preview of RR to advertise that they will be premiering the trailer tomorrow night, and I have to say, in just those 15 seconds, the movie looks amazing! I am actually currently reading the book right now, and Richard Yates is just a brilliant author, and it's a very tricky book to adapt for the screen, I will admit, but I have such high hopes for this movie! I think Kate Winslet and Leonardo DiCaprio will be amazing in their roles and Sam Mendes will once again make a masterpiece that we will always remember! Well anyways, I bet all that I will be thinking about tomorrow is "I can't wait to see the RR trailer!" Ah, I am so excited!

And also if you are interested, here is the official logo for RR:

Tom O'Neil and Jeffrey Wells claim they just saw one of the five Best Picture nominees for this year!

SLUMDOG MILLIONAIRE. There it is, the indie darling of the year. Make note of it!

What A Week It Has Been So Far For "Rachel Getting Married"...

First, let's start off with the terrible poster that was just released today that looks like a poster that was meant for a made for tv movie from 1998. Lets hope that this poster is meant just for the festivals and they come up with a much better poster soon!

But now that I got that off my chest, Rachel Getting Married just premiered at the Venice Film Festival, and boy what a reaction it got! It is being called a "breath of fresh air" after all the lacklusters that have been premiering there so far in the main competition. Review after review, Anne Hathaway is getting MAJOR Oscar buzz for her role as Kym, the sister from hell who has been in and out of rehab and shows up for her sister's wedding.

Rosemarie DeWitt, who plays Rachel, the sister, has also earned major Oscar buzz as well for Best Supporting Actress, with Kris Tapley at In Contention saying:

"Top honors go to Ms. Dewitt, who harnesses her character’s hypocrisies while maintaining an even keel within Lumet’s most complex creation. She approaches the warmth of sisterly familiarity and the sizzle of bridezilla conceit with equal aplomb, making for the film’s most fully realized performance."

The Times Online also had this to add (http://entertainment.timesonline.co.uk/tol/arts_and_entertainment/film/article4668737.ece):

"Hathaway was matched in the film by Rosemarie DeWitt (best known for her role in the television series Mad Men) as Rachel, the sister who resents the fact that Kym’s demons look set to upstage her wedding. Witty, insightful and poignant..."

And The Star adding this (http://www.thestar.com/entertainment/FilmFest/article/488130):

"Jonathan Demme smartly directs Hathaway and DeWitt in a championship tussle of raging talents, the prize being likely nominations for both women when award season rolls around."

Debra Winger has also been recieving some buzz, but even though her role is "small," it is being called "memorable," as she plays the matriarch of this dysfunctional family.

And with critics going ga-ga over RGM, let's see what some have to say:

Over at Screen Daily (http://www.screendaily.com/ScreenDailyArticle.aspx?intStoryID=40522):

Hand-held, free-wheeling and at times joyously spontaneous, the dogme-like Rachel Getting Married sees Jonathan Demme paying tribute to Robert Altman (in particular A Wedding) but there's such a large dose of music in here it almost forms a genre of its own... Packed with superb performances, in particular from Anne Hathaway in the lead role and Debra Winger in a small supporting turn she makes memorable, Rachel Getting Married will undoubtedly be up for awards consideration in the major categories.

And at The Times Online (http://entertainment.timesonline.co.uk/tol/arts_and_entertainment/film/film_reviews/article4670206.ece):

A mercurial handheld camera flits through the family home, picking up on the subtle ebb and flow of tensions and recriminations, the anxieties that weigh on the family thanks to the presence of the chaotic, damaged, self-described “Shiva the destroyer”. The screenplay, by Jenny Lumet, is smart, spiky and observant. She has a knack of dropping unexpected revelations into scenes that send the film off into new directions.

It’s remarkable that, given how deeply unsympathetic and self-obsessed her character is for much of the film, Hathaway manages to make her so likeable.