Everyone’s talking about the how the Oscar Best Picture race is an eight-legged one. David Carr, the New York Time’s “Carpetbagger” (a man who is the Oscar intelligence for the Gray Lady, yet has admitted that he’s barely seen any of the films this year, “I’ve seen almost nothing. It’s like showing up at school when everyone’s four chapters ahead.” lol), says the list is looking like this: “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button,” “Slumdog Millionaire,” “Frost/Nixon,” “Revolutionary Road,” “Milk,” “Doubt” and “The Reader.” He also says keep an eye out for Clint Eastwood’s “Gran Torino.”
Despite the Bagger’s ignorance, this final 7 or 8 does seem to be a general consensus, plus “The Dark Knight” of course.
Giving our thoughts before we’ve actually even written our review, one must almost immediately discount, “The Reader.” That gives away our review, but yeah, not that strong.
Our thoughts boil down to two lists: the conservative one (the ghost of Oscar past) and the contemporary one (given Oscars penchant to nominate things like “Juno,” and “Little Miss Sunshine” in recent years). They go like this:
The Conservative Best Picture Oscar Nominees of 2008
“Revolutionary Road”
“The Curious Case of Benjamin Button”
“Milk”
“Frost/Nixon”
“The Dark Knight”
What we really think is going to happen is the contemporary-minded nominations.
“Revolutionary Road”
“The Curious Case of Benjamin Button”
“Milk”
“Slumdog Millionaire”
“Frost/Nixon” (with a very possible “TDK” instead)
“The Reader,” “Australia” and “Doubt” don’t have buzz or a shot. “Gran Torino,” mmm, having read the script, we don’t think its possible, but we do think its solid (we’ll see, we see it tomorrow). We have “Frost/Nixon” in both lists, is it that strong a film? No, not really, though it is solid, but it’s there in lieu of a stronger contender.
“Defiance” has no shot and some people are hoping “The Wrestler” will have a shot when its released, but it doesn’t have the vibe or scope of a Best Picture. Mickey Rourke obviously still has a very good chance. We have still yet to see “Revolutionary Road” and ‘Benjamin Button,’ but overall this is feeling like a weak year for mainstream American movies (things were very rich for foreign films this year).
