‘The Wrestler’ Is The Big Winner Of The 2008 Independent Spirit Awards

The Independent Spirit Awards are live on IFC. We decided to sora “live-blog” at the last minute:

– “Milk” screenwriter Dustin Lance Black has taken the award for Best Original Screenplay as expected.
– The winner for Best First Feature went to Charlie Kaufman for “Synecdoche, New York,” again as expected.
– Best supporting actress goes to Penelope Cruz for “Vicky Cristina Barcelona.”
– Wow, Aretha Franlin’s “Respect” transposed for the film “Ballast” with new lyrics and sung by Taraj P.Henson. Ouch…
– The John Cassavetes award, given out for a film made for less than $500,000 dollars, went to “In Search Of A Midnight Kiss.” This was pre-ordained. You knew that film was going to take it. We thought that film was rather obnoxious. The director is swearing a lot during his speech. Ooh. I’ve counted about 5 7 f-bombs.
– Hey, our buddy Sean Nelson of Harvey Danger singing with Robyn Hitchcock for the “Rachel Getting Married” song, “Up To Our Nex.” I could always get behind the music in the film; the movie not so much. The performance was a bit shaky near the end though.
– Best Documentary went to James Marsh’s “Man On Wire,” gee, you woulda never guessed that. Very deserving though, one of the year’s best, without question. Most of the music was pre-existing music by Michael Nyman, but he also thanked J. Ralph who wrote some key music for the doc, which was great.
– The Best Actress award went to Melissa Leo, for “Frozen River,” and this was a crowded field. She beat out Anne Hathaway, for “Rachel Getting Married,” and Michelle Williams for “Wendy & Lucy.” Man, that one woulda been hard to call. I wouldn’t have put money on her, but she’s very, very deserving. We didn’t totally love it, but her performance was heartbreaking. At least Michelle Williams got some nomination love. Man, Leo’s speech was a little bit much (read: annoying). Thank god, she’s not winning an Oscar.
– My god. Wow, Terri Hatcher just raped “Wendy & Lucy” in a super tacky song called, “The Bitch Is Gone.” Painful.
The Acura Someone to Watch award went to Lynne Shelton for “My Effortless Brilliance.” Does she get an Acura for this? Shit, Sean Nelson, wrote this film. Man, we knew this and totally forgot! Congrats, Sean. Don’t want to be a total hater, but glad “Medicine For Melancholy” and its director didn’t win. Nothing against it personally, but thought it was grossly overrated.
– The Producer award went to Heather Rae for “Frozen River.”
– The Truer Than Fiction award goes to Margaret Brown, for the “The Order of Myths.”
– Best Screenplay is taken by Woody Allen for “Vicky Cristina Barcelona.” Woody was not present to accept award, business as usual for him. Wow, woulda though Charlie Kaufman woulda won. Not a huge fan of the movie, but the screenplay was fantastic; far funnier.
– A “Frozen River” song done by Christina Applegate. No comment.
– Best Foreign Film goes to “The Class” Yes, finally love some. We just wrote a piece about how it was being sadly overlooked, so this is great. We honestly would have probably chosen, “Silent Light” ourselves if we were going to choose our favorite film, but all the nominees here, “Hunger,” “Secret of the Grain,” and “Gommorah” are all fantastic films and deserving.
– Best Cinematography has gone to Maryse Alberti for “The Wrestler.” We can definitely get behind that, her work is some of the best stuff in the film. It’s nice to see a female DP get love too, there’s not a ton of them out there. Darren Aronofsky accepted for her, she sounds kinda incredible in all the documentaries she working on.
– The Robert Altman award honors the ensemble cast of “Synechdoche, New York.” This award was announced when the nominations were first given out, so it’s no surprise.
– Oh dear god, Rainn Wilson. No, please stop. He did the story of “The Wrestler,” to James Brown’s “I Feel Good,” it was even more cringe-worthy than Terri Hatcher.
– Best Actor goes to Mickey Rourke for “The Wrestler,” you basically figured that too, but the competition was fierce. So much great talent, Sean Penn, Javier Bardem. Mickey Rourke, instead of accepting his award, gave major props and love to his “Pope Of Greenwich Village” co-star Eric Roberts. “He’s the fuckin man.” Man, what a great, great, rambling speech. He sort of just forgot Marissa Tomei’s name. Man, he’s an amazing trainwreck!
– Best Director goes to Tom McCarthy for “The Visitor,” wow! He bests Jonathan Demme, Courtney Hunt and Lance Hammer. Wow, unexpected, but so great for him.
– Best Film goes to The Wrestler.” Awesome. No arguments there. The other nominees were “Ballast,” “Wendy & Lucy,” “Rachel Getting Married,” and “Frozen River.” “Each film here is a passion piece, we all bled to get here,” Aronofsky said in his acceptance speech.

And that’s a wrap. We didn’t expect to “live blog” this thing, but it just kinda happened. If you were playing along — and by the empty sounds of our message board you weren’t, heh – we hope you had fun.