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.
