And The Nominees Are...

If'n you care.

1. Best Picture: "Atonement," "Juno," "Michael Clayton," "No Country for Old Men," "There Will Be Blood."

2. Actor: George Clooney, "Michael Clayton"; Daniel Day-Lewis, "There Will Be Blood"; Johnny Depp, "Sweeney Todd the Demon Barber of Fleet Street"; Tommy Lee Jones, "In the Valley of Elah"; Viggo Mortensen, "Eastern Promises."

3. Actress: Cate Blanchett, "Elizabeth: The Golden Age"; Julie Christie, "Away From Her"; Marion Cotillard, "La Vie en Rose"; Laura Linney, "The Savages"; Ellen Page, "Juno."

4. Supporting Actor: Casey Affleck, "The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford"; Javier Bardem, "No Country for Old Men"; Hal Holbrook, "Into the Wild"; Philip Seymour Hoffman, "Charlie Wilson's War"; Tom Wilkinson, "Michael Clayton."

5. Supporting Actress: Cate Blanchett, "I'm Not There"; Ruby Dee, "American Gangster"; Saoirse Ronan, "Atonement"; Amy Ryan, "Gone Baby Gone"; Tilda Swinton, "Michael Clayton."

6. Director: Julian Schnabel, "The Diving Bell and the Butterfly"; Jason Reitman, "Juno"; Tony Gilroy, "Michael Clayton"; Joel Coen and Ethan Coen, "No Country for Old Men"; Paul Thomas Anderson, "There Will Be Blood."

I'm surprised by the lack of conservative notice for Juno. It's not really a political film, and its politics are a little muddled, I guess, but I would have thought commentators would take note of its pro-life message -- the heroine, Juno, ends her plan to abort her baby when a pro-life protester outside a clinic tells her her baby has fingernails.

I didn't write a review but it's a pretty good movie. I'm usually annoyed by the precocious wisecracking teenager cliche -- they're never funny, and usually just as sophomorically obnoxious as, well, real-life precocious wisecracking teenagers -- but the writers actually give the heroine a few funny wisecracks and the actress (Ellen Page, I think) is cute and winning enough to sell the whole thing.

The movie has the obligatory ambiguously bittersweet ending that almost all independent movies have (something that's become just as expected and contrived in independent movies as happy endings are in mainstream movies), but it's well acted and enjoyable.

posted by Ace at 01:30 PM

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