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.

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.

I Love Anne Hathaway's Method To Acting!

Here is the article from Showbiz Spy:

Hathaway Hits Bottle For Old Roles
September 1, 2008

Actress ANNE HATHAWAY knows how to look old and haggard for a role - she gets drunk the night before filming.

The Devil Wears Prada star makes sure she goes into work hungover every time she needs to shoot scenes where her character looks worn out.

She says, "We were filming a take once where my character had aged. We had tried shooting a few scenes and we all still looked fairly young underneath all of our make-up.

"So we were just trying out ideas and I suggested, 'What if we got drunk the night before and came in feeling hung over the next day? I think we would come in feeling a bit rough and maybe that would make us a little tired and have a little less energy so we look older.'
"So we all did it and it worked. Now I swear by it."

Wow, that is one hell of a way to act! I can't wait to see the final result!

Can Anne Hathaway really get a nomination?

Many posters, like myself, have been including Anne Hathaway in their predictions for Rachel Getting Married, but there are many posters who have been skeptical about nomination her as well. We all remember her as Mia Thermopolis in The Princess Diaries, when she began to become famous and become a household name. Hathaway started to gain the respect of many moviegoes once she took higher-profile adult roles, especially in The Devil Wears Prada alongside Meryl Streep and Emily Blunt, Brokeback Mountain, Havoc, and Get Smart.

Now, after being a presenter at the Oscars for the past couple of years, this time, she might be in a "box" with 4 other leading women on the tv screen just seconds before the winner's name is announced! When the Rachel Getting Married trailer came out a few weeks ago, she started to gain much more buzz than before for her "devil-ish" role as the sister from hell who returns home for her sister's wedding after going in-and-out of rehab, causing tension among her family, especially with her black-comedic one liners and drama. Yeah, big difference from Princess Diaries! Hathaway stars alongside Rosemarie DeWitt, Debra Winger, and Bill Irwin, and she is sure to be a major contender among other leading ladies like: Kate Winslet (Revolutionary Road), Sally Hawkins (Happy Go Lucky), Angelina Jolie (Changeling), and her two Prada co-stars Meryl Streep (Doubt) and Emily Blunt (The Young Victoria).

Here is the trailer for Rachel Getting Married:


And also, Hathaway stars in Passengers, where she stars as a young therapist who counsels five plane crash survivors, and later sparks a romantic relationship with one of the survivors (Patrick Wilson) despite her better judgement. Here is the trailer for Passengers: