Academy Awards Week: Best Actress (and the runner-up is Meryl)

This year marks Meryl Streep's 14th nominations in the Best Actress category, and 17th overall nomination.  The woman is widely regarded as the best living actress, and by some the best actress of all time.  Throughout the years this woman has given some amazing performances.  Her career as a perennial Oscar nominee began in 1978, with her nomination for Best Supporting Actress in the film The Deer Hunter.  One year later she earned her second nomination and her first win in the Supporting Actress category for her role in the 1979 film Kramer vs. Kramer.  Two years later in 1981 she received her first nomination in the Best Actress category for The French Lieutenant's Woman.  In 1982 she was honored with her second Best Actress nomination and first win in the category for Sophie's Choice.  At this point Meryl was 2 for for 4.  Since 1982 Meryl has received 13 more nominations and won no awards at the Oscars again giving her one of the biggest losing streaks in the shows history.

Meryl is the best actress working today and she does not need more Oscars to prove that fact; she is one of the most gracious losers I have ever seen.  This woman has had more great performances than most actresses could dream of.  Here is a list of her five performances.

5-Miranda Priestley in The Devil Wears Prada (2006)

While I would like to think Adaptation changed Meryl's career (and I think it still did) this performance took her level of stardom to a different level.  This performance was a supporting performance that stole the film, and as she spews venom I get lost in her performance; she captures this character so well!

4-Joanna Kramer in Kramer vs. Kramer (1979) 

Watching Joanna walk away from her son, only to come back and fight to take him away from his father is a whole different level of evil.  Yet there is a vulnerability to her character, and you can understand why the different layers.  This performance was incredible and deserved to be Meryl's first Oscar win.  Although I liked her Manhattan as well that year.

3-Karen Silkwood in Silkwood (1983)

There is something about how ballsy she was when she played this character, and yet how she was able to show this real life woman as vulnerable in the same breath.  This performance came from one of her best films, and feels real.  There is a scene where she is on the porch with Cher, and it just is beautiful.

2-Susan Orlean in Adaptation (2002)

Another great supporting turn from Meryl that made look at her in a completely different way.  As the 80s ended and the 90s began I looked at her as a great actress, but her film choices often resembled terrible lifetime movies.  Adaptation is my second favorite performance from Meryl of all time, and I would like to see more of this performance from her, where she plays it natural.

1-Meryl Streep as Sophie Zowitophski in Sophie's Choice (1982)

There is not much to say, but that bar non this is her performance of all time.  I honestly have very few words, the film and her performance speak for themself.  Meryl's method acting of staying with the child she would have to give up and not surrounding herself with the other child was brilliant, it made her grief incredibly real.

These five performances span 27 years!  Only one other actress in Hollywood can claim having a similar career experience, and that is Katherine Hepburn.  Picking just five performances is almost an impossible  task because Streep has given so many phenomenal performances that span even longer from 1978 through the present day.  This year Streep earned her 17th nomination, and has come the closest to winning her third Academy Award.

After reading this many people may ask, why has she only won twice?  I could go year by year and explain how she lost each trophy she was nominated for, so I guess I might as well.

1981-Meryl Streep in the French Lieutenant's Wife  lost to Katherine Hepburn for her last nomination in On Golden Pond, this was Hepburn's swan song and there was no way the ingenue was going to get this over Hepburn (the only time the two were nominated in the same category).

1983-Meryl Streep in Silkwood lost to Shirley MacLaine in Terms of Endearment.  Streep lost because she had won the year before and MacClaine haad never won an Oscar.

1985 Meryl Streep in Out of Africa lost to Geraldine Page in Trip to the bountiful.  Page was a 5 time nominee prior to this nomination and had never won, so the Academy honored her career performance.

1986 Meryl Streep in Ironweed lost to Cher in Moonstruck.  Cher was an unstoppable force in a Best Picture winner, while Streep's nomination came for a lesser film.

1987 Meryl Streep in Cry in the Dark lost to Jodie Foster in The Accused.  Foster had got her second nomination with this film proved that she was a talented young actress.  At this point my guess would be many academy members thought this was too soon for a third win.

1990 Meryl Streep in Postcards from the Edge lost to Kathy Bates in Misery-  Bates was a force to reckoned with and Meryl's role had no shot of giving her, her third Oscar.

1995 Meryl Streep in The Bridges of Madison County lost to Susan Sarandon in Dead Man Walking.  Sarandon had a couple of nominations with no wins.  This film also had more nominations, and Sarandon won as a career achievement.

1998 Meryl Streep in One True Thing lost to Gwyneth Paltrow in Shakespeare in Love.  Everyone was talking about Cate Blanchett and Paltrow this year.  Streep's performance was good but was not a blip on the radar.

1999 Meryl Streep in Music of the Heart lost to Hillary Swank in Boy's Don't Cry.  This was the year of Swank vs. Bening (round one-both went to Swank).  This is one of Streep's weakest nominations.

2002 Meryl Streep in Adaptation lost to Catherine Zeta Jones in Chicago.  Meryl was back in supporting (briefly) and she should have won this year, but Jones road the Chicago train.

2006 Meryl Streep in The Devil wears Prada lost to Helen Mirren in The Queen.  Mirren was unstoppable, and there was no dethroning her. 

2008 Meryl Streep in Doubt lost to Kate Winslet in The Reader.  Meryl had some strength in the front end of awards season but Winslet was on her fifth nomination had not won; she was honored for this underwhelming performance.

2009 Meryl Streep in Julie & Julia lost to Sandra Bullock in The Blind Side.  i am still baffled at the support for The Blind Side, but people were on Bullocks side after her messy divorce, and people were getting to the point where they kept saying Meryl has an Oscar or she will get nominated again.

Now we are at the current ceremony where Meryl was honored with her 17th nomination.  Here are this year's nominees:

Glen Close-Albert Nobbs

Viola Davis:The Help

Rooney Mara-The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo 

Meryl Streep-The Iron Lady

Michelle Williams-My Week with Marilyn

Will Meryl lose once again and be named the perennial runner-up?  There is a slight chance this brilliant actress will lose her 13th straight Oscar.  Mara was not a surprising nomination, but she has no shot at winning.  Close should have more of a chance because this is her sixth nomination, but no one is talking about her performance so she will join Deborah Kerr and Thelma Ritter as the queens of losing at the Academy Awards.  Each of those three women has 6 nominations with no wins.  I thought back early on Williams was going to sneak out a win, but there was enough support to get her further.  This race is between Viola Davis and Meryl Streep.

Davis and Streep each have two major precursor awards on their side.  Streep has the Globe and BAFTA, while Davis has the Broadcast Film Critics Award and the SAG.  At the moment Davis holds the trump card which is the SAG win.  SAG is voted on by the actors, and the acting branch is the largest branch of the Academy.  Many SAG voters are also Academy voters, but not all and there are differences.  At the moment many pundits are predicting Davis, and I understand why.  Davis gives a strong performance.  The Help is also a Best Picture nominee that is well liked, while Streep's film only received one other nomination in make-up.  The Help did not perform as well as thought on nomination day and only has 4 nominations (3 acting and Best Picture).  Picking the winner here is tough, logically I want to pick Davis.  Davis' win will also make history if she and Spencer win this will be the first time two Black women will win in the same year.  Yet my gut and heart keep telling me that after 13 losses this is finally Streep's year.  I love that there is still some mystery in this category.

Gutsy Prediction: Meryl Streep-The Iron Lady (Harvey will help)

Very Very Very close second: Viola Davis-The Help

Academy Awards Week: Best Original Score-Time for a Change Again!

Picking my favorite technical category is a Sophie's Choice for me. I love the imagery captured by the cinematography, the way the editing cuts to capture things at the right moment or helps narrate the focus of the story, and then there is always the visual effects and how they can create a brand new world.  There is one more category I left out, and it may be my favorite, but it depends on the day, and that is the original score.

Throughout the years the music or score for a film tends to be the glue to that holds the film together, or launches memories of film experience.  There are many films scores that are infamous, and have not only left an indelible mark on my film experience, but even fans who are not fans of these films can recognize the scores from certain films.  Here are a few examples:

Gone with the Wind (1939)

The Godfather (1972)

Star Wars (1977)

Raiders of the Lost Ark

The Lion King-Hans Zimmer (1994)

Titanic-James Horner (1997)

These are just 6 scores that come to mind as incredibly memorable by the masses.  The music in them can illicit fan boy gasps (Star Wars) or bring tears (Titanic).  Music has a powerful hold on people, thus explaining why a film's score can be one of the most important elements of a film.

Throughout the years this category has looked incredibly different at the Academy Awards, the name of this category has changed, the people who were nominated has changed, the category was broken between musicals and other films, and at one point between dramas and comedies.

When this category began in 1934 the music director not the composer was honored with the award for best music scoring (from 1934-1937).  From 1937 through 1945 every film that submitted in this category was considered a nominee.  There were years during this period where there were anywhere from 14 to 11 nominees.  From 1946 through 1961 the category was broken down into two categories, score of a dramatic or comedy picture and scoring for a musical picture.  From 1962 through 1967 the two categories were original music score, and scoring of a music adaptation or treatment. These little changes went back and forth incorporating adapted scores, musical scores etc until 1984.  In 1985 the category took on the title Best Original Score.  There was only one more short period of delineation from 1995-1998 when the category was broken down into best dramatic score and best score for a musical or comedy.  This changed back to the category that started in 1985 Best Original Score.

This award has evolved as music has evolved throughout film history.  When musicals and adapted scores were in high use this category changed to honor scores that represented the best in music.  During the 1960s and 1970s when musical films and adapted music was prominently used the Academy started to change the category around as they saw fit.  Recently they have done this with the Best Picture category, their adjustments for this have not worked, and they need to go back to the drawing board.  I think this category needs a good reboot or update as well.

 In recent years many scores have been ruled ineligible, partly because many scores rely heavily on pre-existing material in their score.  One example from this year is Drive, which is the best score of 2011.  Last year four films did not make the cut: Black Swan, The Fighter, The Kids are Alright, and True Grit.  The Black Swan and True Grit were both scores and should have been considered for this category.  2009 saw another one of the best score black balled.  Where the Wild Things Are was one of the best most unique scores of the decade and the Oscars ruling seems to raise a series of red flags.  I noticed this pattern start two happen when two more great scores were ruled ineligible in 2007.  Johnny Greenwood did the breathtaking score for There will be Blood and Eddie Vedder did the haunting score for Into the Wild. These snubs are unacceptable, and the Academy needs to take note of the scores that are being left behind by these rulings.  A lot of the rulings for ineligibility seemed to be associated with non traditional music composers.

Film scores are evolving. One of the trends happening here is that former successful musicians are breaking out from their traditional form of music and creating music for films that is not only creating an evolution for scoring, but for the emotional context of films.  Last year Trent Reznor won for scoring The Social Network with Atticus Ross.  This year the duo did the score for The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo and were snubbed.  I feel as though this branch is feeling a bit protective and becoming a bit snobby.  

With several impressive score missing from this year, and in recent years this category has become boring.  Here are the nominees for Best Original Score this year:

The Adventures of Tinitin-John Williams

The Artist-Ludovic Bource

Hugo-Howard Shore

Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy-Alberto Iglesias

War Horse-John Williams

(The clip below is a compilation of all this years scores)

Honestly there is no much debate about this years best score winner.  This is one award in the technical categories that will easily go to The Artist, the only spoiler could be Howard Shore's Hugo.  While I do not want to take anything away from these men there were numerous scores snubbed because they do not fit within the norm.  I think it's time for the Academy to make a change and adapt this category.

Prediction: The Artist
Spoiler: Hugo

Academy Awards Week: Best Visual Effects-from Star Wars to Present

Today there is one thing that bring audiences to the movies more than famous actors, and that is the visual effects.  From the creation of new lands like in Avatar to giant robots trying to save the world in the Transformers series, movie goers are drawn into films because of amazing visual effects.

A long time ago in a galaxy far far away this category had a different name at the Academy Awards.  From 1939 to 1962 the award was called Best Special Effects and was shared with the Sound Effects nominations.  This may explain why the famous burning scene did not clinch this award for Gone with the Wind in 1939, but I still am baffled as to how this film lost this award.  I digress.  In 1963 the award was called Best Special Effects, and from 1964 through 1971 the award was called Best Special Visual Effects. Ironically in 1972 the category received the name it has today Best Visual Effects.  From 1972-1997 the visual effects award was a special achievement award, but in 1977 the award also was formed to be what it we know today

What film helped launch this category to what it is today?  In 1977 George Lucas brought to life the visual masterpiece (at the time) Star Wars.  When audiences saw what Lucas had done with these visual effects creating a whole new galaxy filled with a death star, tie fighters, wookies, light sabers and so much more the world was blown away.  Audiences lined up and made this film a phenomenon.  Star Wars changed the landscape for visual effects and made audiences, and people continue to push the boundaries further and further.  Lucas took audiences to a new galaxy in a way that was never done before, and this made film makers who had an interest in working with this technology push studios to spend more money to make films that not only explosions but made the extraordinary possible.

Star Wars was the first winner of the Best Visual Effects Academy Award (award with that title), and that is fitting.  in the following years the award went to Superman (1978), Alien (1979), Empire Strikes Back (1980), Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981), E.T. (1982), Terminator 2: Judgement Day (1991) Jurassic Park (1993), Titanic (1997), The Matrix (1999), The Lord of the Rings Trilogy (2001-2003), Avatar (2009), and Inception (2010).  

Each of these films listed above is pretty impressive.  These films are also some of the highest grossing films of all time.  Audiences love visual effects and if you look at this category today the 5 films in this category for 2012 have almost doubled the gross of the 9 Best Picture nominees.  So the big questions are, is Hollywood missing something and where is the disconnect?  Since 1977 when the category became what it is today 13 of the winners have been Best Picture nominees.  13 out of the the last 35 years.  Sure there have also been Best Picture nominees that have been in this category that did not win, but usually when a Best Picture nominee was in this category it won.

I feel as though this problem speaks to a much larger disconnect within the Academy.  Awardsdaily.com released statistics of the Academy voters and it was no surprise that most of the voters were old white men who had not been nominated or won an award themselves.  How does this effect this category?  Most of the films that fit within this category would be cited as genre films, like Rise of the Planet of the Apes or Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2.  Beyond Lord of the Rings the Academy has proven to avoid genre films like the plague.  Voters go for films centered around the Holocaust or wars rather than the earth being overrun by apes or a boy wizard because they think this means people will take them more seriously.  the problem with this logic is that people, the American public would rather see them nominate/honor films like this years Apes and Harry Potter not The Artist.  I hope the Academy takes a look at this delineation and does something about this problem.  Note: The solution is not to create genre awards like at the Broadcast Film Critics Awards, but to realize that genre films have a place in the film time capsule.

Onto this year's nominees in this category, and here they are:

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2 

Hugo

Real Steel

Rise of the Planet of the Apes

Transformer: Dark of the Moon

Logically the winner will be Hugo.  Since 1977 there has been no film that was nominated for Best Picture and did not win this award.  Hugo would be the first to lose.  Before I tackle who I think will win, I am going to rule out the obvious.  Real Steel is the first to get crossed off, this has no shot.  Transformers is out too, if neither of the first two films could win, the third film is out.  This leaves three. I would pick Potter, but bloggers and journalist seem to have a strong yearning for Apes.  Based on history I am going to go with Hugo and Apes as a very close second.

Prediction: Hugo

Very Close Second: Rise of the Planet of the Apes

Spoiler: Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2

Academy Awards Week: Best Cinematography

One of my favorite parts of a film is the cinematography.  Many people do not know what cinematography is, or how it is one of the most essential parts to a film.  Cinematography is the creation of film images.  The cinematographer will of use a movie camera with film or digital imagery to capture what they want to show the audience.

The American Society of Cinematographers (ASC) define cinematography as "a creative and interpretive process that culminates in the authorship of an original work of art rather than the simple recording of a physical event. Cinematography is not a subcategory of photography. Rather, photography is but one craft that the cinematographer uses in addition to other physical, organizational, managerial, interpretive and image-manipulating techniques to effect one coherent process."


At the advent of film history the cinematographer was the director, but as technology advanced these two roles became different.  The director was no longer the camera operator.  New technologies like color, and wide screen necessitated someone who was a specialist and their sole task was to capture the images and operate the camera.


As film has evolved from the silent era to present day the cinematographers continue to create visually beautiful images for the audiences to see.  During the silent era cinematographers had to work extra hard to make sure that without sound the visual created a cohesive element to the story.  As newer technologies present them self (or return) like 3D cinematographers have to work hard attain an image that captures the genuine emotional experience of the scene.


This year there were several films that did a fantastic job utilizing the brilliance of their cinematographer, here are my personal favorites.

1-The Tree of Life-Emmanual Lubezsi (director of photography)

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2-Drive-Newton Thomas Sigel (director of photography)

3-Hugo-Robert Richardson

4-Shame-Sean Bobbitt

5-Melancholia-Manuel Alberto Claro

6-The Artist-Guillame Schiffman

7-Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2-Eduardo Serra

8-The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo-Jeffrey Cronenwerth

9-Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy-Hoyte Van Hoytema

10-Take Shelter-Adam Stone

These are just merely the top ten on my list there are many other films like Moneyball, Rise of the Planet of the Apes, Martha Marcy May Marlene, Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol and many more that could be included amongst this wonderful work.  The cinematographer is one of the hardest working film professionals today.  They have the responsibility to make the film's visual look and feel connect to the emotional aspects of the film.  No, they do not just have to make things look pretty, but in a sense they need to make things look as though each image tells a story.

So who made the cut for the Academy Awards:

The Artist
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo
Hugo
The Tree of Life 
War Horse 

This is a tough category to predict.  The ASC Guild Award went the the best cinematography of the year, The Tree of Life, but will this line-up at the Academy Awards?  I hope so, but I am not confident.  I think any of these five films could win, but I am pretty sure with little to no passion behind it War Horse is out.  I was a little surprised it made the Best Picture category.  While Dragon Tattoo has some beautiful cinematography it does not have a Best Picture nomination, do the two go hand in hand, not always, but I think the film will go home empty handed.  This leave three films open to three different scenarios come Oscar night.

1) The Artist has a clean sweep.  I do not think it will have a clean sweep, especially since the Academy is catching some flack for rubber stamping this film.  While I do agree the cinematography is one of the best parts of this film because it captures the silence so well, I do not think this film will capture this trophy on Oscar night.

2) Hugo sweeps the technical categories.  Hugo has 11 nominations and a lot of across the board support in the technical categories.  This is a beautiful film, and I would not begrudge the win.  At the moment I am torn between this and The Tree of Life.


3) Justice-The Tree of Life wins because, well it's the best cinematography of the year.  Even those people who did not love, or did not get this film still state the cinematography was amazing.

Will and Should Win: The Tree of Life
Very Close Second: Hugo
Spoiler: The Artist

Academy Awards Week: Best Adapted Screenplay

Welcome to Academy Award week!  I will be taking an in depth look at some of the categories that make the Academy Awards tick.  The first category is Best Adapted Screenplay. The Adapted Screenplay prize is one of the most coveted awards of the night.  This award honors films who have adapted source material from books, plays, television shows, short plays, and even other films. If an original film has a sequel good enough to make it in the screenplay category (I do not think it has ever happened) they would have to be nominated in the Best Adapted Screenplay category because the film would be based on the first film.

Throughout the years this award has become incredibly competitive as more and more films seem to be based on other material.  While the quality in the Best Original Screenplay category seems to peak and valley every year, the Adapted Screenplay category has seemed to stay strong picking screenplays with strong writing, which are based on some solid material.  The interesting thing about this year has been that it feels as though Hollywood did a much better job with the original work than it did with adapting screenplays.  While the five nominees as pretty strong this year, picking five original screenplays seems to have been a tough task.

Past winners in this category have been It Happened One Night (1934), Gone With the Wind (1939), Casablanca (1942), To Kill a Mockingbird  (1962), The Godfather (1972), and The Silence of Lambs (1991).  Although 5 out of the 6 of these films are Best Picture winners only about 35 films out of the 83 years went on to win Best Picture.  The Adapted Screenplay trophy tends to go to well written films like Sideways (2004), which the Academy like but to enough to win the Best Picture category.  Many times the the screenplay awards become a consolation prize, and I think history will repeat itself again this year, ironically with another Alexander Payne film.

The nominees for this years Best Adapted Screenplay category are:

The Descendants-Alexander Payne, Nat Faxon, and Jim Rash
Hugo-John Logan
The Ides of March-George Clooney, Grant Heslov, and Beau Willimon
Moneyball-Aaron Sorkin and Steven Zaillian, Stan Chervin
Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy-Bridget O'Connor and Peter Straughan

This past weekend The Descendants gained a lot of ground in this category winning both the Scripter and the WGA for Best Adapted Screenplay.  Winning the Scripter does not always mean you will win Oscar, mainly because its decided by USC, but winning at the Writer's Guild and Scripter is a pretty good sign.  The Descendants is nominated for 5 Oscars, and while Clooney was a favorite to win Best Actor in the beginning it looks like Jean Dujardin will be swept up in The Artist sweep.  This Best Adapted Screenplay will be a consolation prize for this film.

What about the other nominees?  Moneyball would be my personal pick, it's one of the sharpest screenplays this year.  Moneyball is also written by two of the best screenwriters today, which makes sense.  If a film is going to spoil it's going to be this one.  Tinker Tailor is an impressive screenplay because it has taken an incredibly long book that was made into mini-series at one point and makes one great film.  Ides has a decent screenplay, but it has no shot.  I am not a huge fan of Hugo's screenplay, in fact I think it is one of the weaker elements of this film.  Hugo's wins will come in some of the technical categories.

Will Win: The Descendants
Should Win: Moneyball

The Writer's Guild and Scripter Awards pick The Descendants

This weekend was a big weekend for the writing contingency of both film and television.  The Scripter Awards were held this past Saturday night.  The Scripter Awards were established by USC in 1988in order  to honor the preservation of the written word on film.  The Scripter's honor screenplays that have been adapted from pre-existing works.  The nominees this year were:


A Dangerous Method
The Descendants
Jane Eyre
Moneyball
Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy


The winner of this award was Alexander Payne, Nat Faxon, and Jim Rash for writing The Descendants.


The Writer's Guild of America picked their winners in both the film and television categories.  Several films were not eligible because their authors were not a members of the union, like The Artist, which has a chance of spoiling in the Best Original Screenplay category at the Oscars.  The nominees in the films categories were as follows:


Best Adapted Screenplay

The Descendants, Screenplay by Alexander Payne andNat Faxon & Jim Rash; Based on the novel by Kaui Hart Hemmings; Fox Searchlight

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, Screenplay by Steven Zaillian; Based on the novel by Stieg Larsson, originally published by Norstedts; Columbia Pictures

The Help, Screenplay by Tate Taylor; Based on the novel by Kathryn Stockett; DreamWorks Pictures

Hugo, Screenplay by John Logan; Based on the book The Invention of Hugo Cabret by Brian Selznick; Paramount Pictures

Moneyball, Screenplay by Steven Zaillian and Aaron Sorkin; Story by Stan Chervin; Based on the book by Michael Lewis; Columbia Pictures

Best Original Screenplay

50/50, Written by Will Reiser; Summit Entertainment

Bridesmaids, Written by Annie Mumolo & Kristen Wiig; Universal Pictures

Midnight in Paris, Written by Woody Allen; Sony Pictures Classics

Win Win, Screenplay by Tom McCarthy; Story by Tom McCarthy & Joe Tiboni; Fox Searchlight

Young Adult, Written by Diablo Cody; Paramount Pictures

The winners were The Descendants in Adapted and Midnight in Paris in Original.  This will be the way the Oscar wins will look, most likely, but with different nominations, there are always variables that could change the Oscar game.

In the the television category Breaking Bad, Homeland, and Modern Family each took home two trophies.  Here were the nominees: 

DRAMA SERIES 
Boardwalk Empire, Written by Bathsheba Doran, Dave Flebotte, Gina Gionfriddo, Howard Korder, Steve Kornacki, Itamar Moses, Margaret Nagle,Terence Winter; HBO
Breaking Bad, Written by Sam Catlin, Vince Gilligan, Peter Gould, Gennifer Hutchison, George Mastras, Thomas Schnauz, Moira Walley-Beckett; AMC
Game of Thrones, Written by David Benioff, Bryan Cogman, Jane Espenson, George R.R. Martin, D.B. Weiss; HBO
The Good Wife, Written by Courtney Kemp Agboh, Meredith Averill, Corinne Brinkerhoff, Leonard Dick, Keith Eisner, Karen Hall, Ted Humphrey, Michelle King, Robert King, Steve Lichtman, Matthew Montoya, Julia Wolfe; CBS
Homeland, Written by Henry Bromell, Alexander Cary, Alex Gansa, Howard Gordon, Chip Johannessen, Gideon Raff, Meredith Stiehm; Showtime


COMEDY SERIES  
30 Rock, Written by Jack Burditt, Hannibal Buress, Kay Cannon, Robert Carlock, Tom Ceraulo, Vali Chandrasekaran, Tina Fey, Jon Haller, Matt Hubbard, Dylan Morgan, John Riggi, Josh Siegal, Ron Weiner, Tracey Wigfield; NBC
Curb Your Enthusiasm, Written by Alec Berg, Larry David, David Mandel, Jeff Schaffer; HBO
Louie, Written by Pamela Adlon, Louis C.K.; FX
Modern Family, Written by Cindy Chupack, Paul Corrigan, Abraham Higginbotham, Ben Karlin, Elaine Ko, Carol Leifer, Steven Levitan, Christopher Lloyd, Dan O’Shannon, Jeffrey Richman, Brad Walsh, Ilana Wernick, Bill Wrubel, Danny Zuker; ABC
Parks & Recreation, Written by Greg Daniels, Katie Dippold, Daniel J. Goor, Norm Hiscock, Emily Kapnek, Dave King, Greg Levine, Aisha Muharrar, Chelsea Peretti, Amy Poehler, Brian Rowe, Michael Schur, Mike Scully, Emily Spivey, Alan Yang, Harris Wittels; NBC


NEW SERIES  
Episodes, Written by David Crane, Jeffrey Klarik; Showtime
Game of Thrones, Written by David Benioff, Bryan Cogman, Jane Espenson, George R.R. Martin, D.B. Weiss; HBO
Homeland, Written by Henry Bromell, Alexander Cary, Alex Gansa, Howard Gordon, Chip Johannessen, Gideon Raff, Meredith Stiehm; Showtime
The Killing, Written by Linda Burstyn, Jeremy Doner, Soo Hugh, Dan Nowak, Nic Pizzolatto, Dawn Prestwich, Veena Sud, Nicole Yorkin, Aaron Zelman; AMC
New Girl, Written by Nick Adams, Rachel Axler, Brett Baer, Donick Cary, Dave Finkel, Berkley Johnson, Josh Malmuth, Elizabeth Meriwether, J.J. Philbin, Joe Port, Luvh Rakhe, Joe Wiseman; Fox


EPISODIC DRAMA  
“A Dangerous Maid” (Boardwalk Empire), Written byItamar Moses; HBO
“The Age of Reason” (Boardwalk Empire), Written byBathsheba Doran; HBO
“Box Cutter” (Breaking Bad), Written by Vince Gilligan; AMC
“End Times” (Breaking Bad), Written by Thomas Schnauz & Moira Walley-Beckett; AMC
“The Good Soldier” (Homeland), Written by Henry Bromell; Showtime
“Just Let Go” (Dexter), Written by Jace Richdale; Showtime


EPISODIC COMEDY  
“Caught in the Act” (Modern Family), Written by Steven Levitan & Jeffrey Richman; ABC
“Goodbye Michael, Part 2” (The Office), Written by Greg Daniels; NBC
“Mother’s Day” (Modern Family), Written by Dan O’Shannon & Ilana Wernick; ABC
“Object Impermanence” (Weeds), Written by Stephen Falk; Showtime
“PDA” (The Office), Written by Robert Padnick; NBC
“Queen of Jordan” (30 Rock), Written by Tracey Wigfield; NBC

Modern Family took home Best Comedy Series and Best Episodic Comedy for "Caught in the Act."  While Homeland took home Best New Series and tied in the episodic drama category with the episode "The Good Soldier."  Breaking Bad won Best Drama and was the other TV drama to win in the episodic drama category for "Box Cutter."

Academy Awards Best Picture Revisited: Erin Brockovich (2000)

Well just a few short days after I wrote about a Best Picture nominee 2001, it's time to write about the
year 2000 the week before the Academy Awards take place. While I did not go as far back as I wanted, it was fun to re-visit the 2000s and the films that were nominated for Best Picture, and the films that should have been nominated for the prize, or won.

There were years when I would say the Academy did pretty well like 2007, 2009, 2010.  Ironically two of those years there were more than 5 nominees so it makes sense that most of the quality films were included.  There were also years the Academy just had brain farts and left off brilliant films like in 2008 when they nominated the boring film The Reader over The Dark Knight, or 2004 when they nominated the over rated bio-pic Ray over my favorite film Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind.  There may be a few here in 2000 as well, or well three.

When I was looking at the first year of this decade i realized I only owned one of the five films nominated for Best Picture, Erin Brockovich.  This says two things to me.  The first this says is that this year was filled with weak Best Picture nominees, and the second is that I probably own the films I think should have been nominated.  The first statement in partially true, and the second statement is true.  Erin Brockovich was directed by a double nominee for Best Director that year, Steven Soderbergh.

Steven Soderbergh was a king of the indie scene in the mid 80's/early 90's.  His most acclaimed film during this time period was the film was the 1989 film sex, lies, and videotape.  Videotape was an audacious look at the world of sex, voyeurism, and fetish, and was one of the best films of that year.  Soderbergh's next big film did not come until about ten years later in 1998, and it was called Out of Sight.  Sight was the first pairing with Clooney and Soderbergh.  Soderbergh and Clooney would go on to work with each other in the Ocean's movies.  2000 has and will be known as the year of Soderbergh; he accomplished a tremendous feat, he was nominated for Best Director for two different films in one year.  The first film was Erinc Brockovich, and the second his vastly superior Traffic.  Soderbergh ended up not splitting the votes and won for Traffic.  After 2000 Soderbergh has not been nominated for the trophy again.  While Soderbergh saw financial success with the three Ocean's films his films have received poor to middling reception since.  I am most excited for the film he has coming out this summer about a bunch of male strippers called Magic Mike.

Back to 2000 though and year of some big hits and misses.  The Best Picture nominees for this year were Chocolat, Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon, Erin Brockovich, Gladiator, and Traffic.  While I enjoy and respect Erin Brockovich, the story of the women who helps a town put together a law suit against big bad corporate America, I would not have nominated it for Best Picture that year.  The film is solid, and Roberts gives one of the performances of her career.  After watching this film this morning I can say with good authority that Julia Roberts and Albert Finney have amazing chemistry and provide two of the best acting performances for the year.  Roberts is not just playing herself as she often does; she actually has some acting chops in this film.  Finney is just plain great as he usually is in everything he does.

Of the the other nominees the two that belong here without question are Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon, and Traffic.  These two films are film are some of the best work I have seen.  Chocolat had America and Hollywood with its charm, but charm fades, and this movie fades away to become one of the many forgettable Best Picture nominees.  While I respect many things about Gladiator, I must say this film (which won Best Picture) felt the same as many other prior Best Picture winners, including Ben-Hur, and Braveheart. So what was the Academy missing?

Cameron Crowe's Almost Famous is a sharp poignant, witty tale about a young boy who wants to be a writer, loves music and goes on tour with a band for Rolling Stone.  Crowe used his own life experiences to create the characters, which shows that there is so much heart.  2000 was the year of the movies about drugs.  Darren Aronofsky's film Requiem for a Dream is a dark talk about use and abuse of a variety of different drugs from diet pills to cocaine.  This film is one of the most haunting films I have ever seen.  Requiem garnered a nomination for its star Ellen Burstyn, but was snubbed across the board for its dark tone.  What gets the fifth spot?    There is Curtis Hanson's Wonderboys, about drug addict college professor.  Kenneth Lonnergan's You Can Count on Me, which is about a dysfunctional brother and sister.  Mike Leigh's Topsy-Turvy about a failed play by Gilbert and Sullivan.  Then there is always the great mockumentary Best in Show by Christopher Guest, which makes fun of the world of dog shows.  Of this list I would have to pick Wonderboys.

My 2000 Best Picture nominations would be as follows:
Almost Famous, Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon, Requiem for a Dream, Traffic, and Wonderboys

While I love Erin Brockovich and the message behind the film, it would not have made it into my top five of the year.  With one week until the Academy Awards I will be retiring this until next year when I will look at the Best Actress category.  In one week we will be adding a new winner to the Best Picture crowd, and we will see how The Artist stands the test of time.