The Critics Choice Awards are lame, right? We mean it airs on VH1 on January 8, 2009 for Christsake.
Well, “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button” and “Milk” lead the pack with eight nominations each and “Slumdog Millionaire,” “Doubt” and “The Dark Knight” aren’t far behind with six nods a piece.
It’s hosted by the new “At the Movies” duo Ben Lyons and Ben Mankiewicz co-hosted the announcement of the noms in Times Square. More proof that they’re lame, yeah? Well, not exactly, the Broadcast Film Critics Association’s Critics Choice Awards have successfully predicted Oscar nominees and winners fairly well in the last two years. Sure, they nominate like ten films for Best Picture, but in 2007 and 2006 their winners went on to grab the Best Picture, and Best Actor awards, not to mention many other duplicate award winners. They’re a very decent bellwether of things to come and shouldn’t be dismissed outright. However, we’re sad if this is more indication that Benicio del Toro is going to be snubber for Best Actor come Oscar noms. Clint Eastwood grabbed two “Gran Torino” nominations including Best Actor and Best Score.
Best Picture looks like this:
Changeling
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
The Dark Knight
Doubt
Frost/Nixon
Milk
The Reader
Slumdog Millionaire
Wall-E
The Wrestler
Best Actor
Clint Eastwood – Gran Torino
Richard Jenkins – The Visitor
Frank Langella – Frost/Nixon
Sean Penn – Milk
Brad Pitt – The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
Mickey Rourke – The Wrestler
Best Actress
Kate Beckinsale – Nothing But the Truth
Cate Blanchett – The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
Anne Hathaway – Rachel Getting Married
Angelina Jolie – Changeling
Melissa Leo – Frozen River
Meryl Streep – Doubt
Best Director
Danny Boyle – Slumdog Millionaire
David Fincher – The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
Ron Howard – Frost/Nixon
Christopher Nolan – The Dark Knight
Gus Van Sant – Milk
The rest of the list is here.
Again, no Revolutionary Road?! No Leo, or Kate or Michael Shannon? Of course, Into the Wild racked up these noms last year and was pretty much shut out of the Oscars, so maybe one film will give and it’ll replace it….or not.
But what a great year when Fincher, Boyle and Nolan are all up for Best Director. I hope that stays the same for the Oscars.
You know I was just thinking, one would assume Ben Button is a slam-dunk for a makeup nom and more than likely a win, but then I remembered how The Hours was disqualified from the makeup category due to digital touchups being done to Nicole Kidman’s nose (really the only makeup there was). Now I know with Ben Button (and Fincher in general), that CGI is heavily used for the aging effects, so one must wonder if there is even one shot that is entirely without computer assistance? You would think even the best makeup in the world would be benefited from a little CGI to gloss things over and cover up the seems, so why wouldn’t they do it?
Now, I question this but then realize that Pirates of the Caribbean 3 was nominated for makeup when it too used a blend of prostectics and digital effects, so what this really leaves me to believe is that the Academy just makes this shit up. They really do! They disqualify Jonny Greenwood but allow the song from Once (which was written and used, multiple times i might add, years before the movie), they disqualify The Dark Knight’s score and then say, “No, it’s ok.” WTF…I’ll never understand.