Before the Devil Knows You're Dead

Date: December 13
Location: Regal Delray Beach

I'm sorry to say I was disappointed with this film, in part because I had such high expectations going in. It's beautifully acted (Philip Seymour Hoffman is Oscar-worthy once again) and spins a nice web of suspense, but ultimately is just doesn't hold together. The time-shifting, multiple-perspective narrative sets you up for a payoff that never comes — ultimately it seems the complex plotting is there to mask the fact that this is really just a film about a heist gone bad. I didn't buy into some of the family dynamics, particularly those dealing with Albert Finney's underwritten character. Big points, though, for Marisa Tomei, who keeps getting sexier as she gets older. She spends much of the film in various states of undress, and does some fine acting to boot.

The Hoax

Date: December 13
Location: Clifton Living Room

Here's a case where the real-life story is so compelling that it would have been nearly impossible to make a bad movie about it. The fact that Clifford Irving got away with such an outlandish scheme for so long and in such a public manner is extraordinary. Richard Gere is in fine form as Irving, and Alfred Molina is note-perfect (as always) in the sidekick role. This is another film, like Breach, that was lost in the early part of the year — why haven't Gere and Chris Cooper been mentioned once in any awards talk? Overall, this film doesn't reach the heights of Breach, but I'm very glad I saw it.

Golden Globe TV nominees

And I thought the movie nominees were bad...

The less said about this batch the better.

No Office. No Lost. No Battlestar Galactica. No Friday Night Lights. I don't watch The Wire, but if I did, I would surely be typing "No Wire."

Series, drama:
Big Love, HBO
Damages, FX Networks
Grey's Anatomy, ABC
House, Fox
Mad Men, AMC
The Tudors , Showtime

Actress, drama:
Patricia Arquette, Medium
Glenn Close, Damages
Minnie Driver, The Riches
Edie Falco, The Sopranos
Sally Field, Brothers & Sisters
Holly Hunter, Saving Grace
Kyra Sedgwick, The Closer

Actor, drama:
Michael C. Hall, Dexter
Jon Hamm, Mad Men
Hugh Laurie, House
Jonathan Rhys Meyers, The Tudors
Bill Paxton, Big Love

Series, musical or comedy:
30 Rock, NBC
Californication , Showtime
Entourage, HBO
Extras, HBO
Pushing Daisies , ABC

Actress, musical or comedy:
Christina Applegate, Samantha Who?
America Ferrera, Ugly Betty
Tina Fey, 30 Rock
Anna Friel, Pushing Daisies
Mary-Louise Parker, Weeds

Actor, musical or comedy:
Alec Baldwin, 30 Rock
Steve Carell, The Office
David Duchovny, Californication
Ricky Gervais, Extras
Lee Pace, Pushing Daisies

Supporting actress, series, miniseries or movie:
Rose Byrne, Damages
Rachel Griffiths, Brothers & Sisters
Katherine Heigl, Grey's Anatomy
Samantha Morton, Longford
Anna Paquin, Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee
Jaime Pressly, My Name Is Earl

Supporting actor, series, miniseries or movie:
Ted Danson, Damages
Kevin Dillon, Entourage
Jeremy Piven, Entourage
Andy Serkis, Longford
William Shatner, Boston Legal
Donald Sutherland, Dirty Sexy Money

Golden Globe film nominees

The makers of Atonement are breathing a sigh of relief this morning, as the well-received adaptation of Ian McEwan's novel, leads all films with seven Golden Globe nominations. The film, considered an Oscar front-runner, has been shut out thus far in the critics awards.

Also getting a boost is Charlie Wilson's War, which picked up nominations for Picture, Actor, Supporting Actress, Supporting Actor and Screenplay. No Country for Old Men continued its strong showing, with Picture, Screenplay, Director and Supporting Actor nods, though Tommy Lee Jones and Josh Brolin were left out.

Michael Clayton picked up acting nominations for George Clooney, Tom Wilkinson and Tilda Swinton.

The oddest move is the expansion to seven nominees in the Best Picture/Drama category (voting must have been tight). The Great Debaters and Eastern Promises appear to be the "extra" films here, as they didn't pick up many other nominations (none in the case of Debaters).

The biggest snubs (as I mentioned in my last post) were for this year's highly successful and well-reviewed comedies: Knocked Up, Superbad and Walk Hard (though John C. Reilly did pick up an acting nomination).

Full list below:

Best Picture/DRAMA
American Gangster
Atonement
Eastern Promises
The Great Debaters
Michael Clayton
No Country for Old Men
There Will Be Blood


Best Picture/COMEDY/MUSICAL
Across The Universe
Charlie Wilson's War
Hairspray
Juno
Sweeney Todd


Best Actor/DRAMA
George Clooney – Michael Clayton
Daniel Lewis – There Will Be Blood
James McAvoy – Atonement
Viggo Mortensen – Eastern Promises
Denzel Washington – American Gangster

Best Actor/COMEDY/MUSICAL
Johnny Depp - Sweeney Todd
Ryan Gosling - Lars & The Real Girl
Tom Hanks - Charlie Wilson's War
Phillips Seymour Hoffman - The Savages
John C Reilly - Walk Hard

Best Actress/DRAMA
Cate Blanchett – Elizabeth: The Golden Age
Julie Christie – Away From Her
Jodie Foster – The Brave One
Angelina Jolie – A Mighty Heart
Keira Knightley – Atonement

Best Actress/COMEDY/MUSICAL
Amy Adams – Enchanted
Nikki Blonsky – Hairspray
Helena Bonham Carter - Sweeney Todd
Marion Cotillard - La vie en rose
Ellen Page - Juno

Best Supporting Actor
Casey Affleck - The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford
Javier Bardem - No Country for Old Men
Philip Seymour Hoffman - Charlie Wilson's War
John Travolta - Hairspray
Tom Wilkinson - Michael Clayton

Best Supporting Actress
Cate Blanchett - I'm Not There
Saoirse Ronan - Atonement
Julia Roberts - Charlie Wilson’s War
Amy Ryan - Gone Baby Gone
Tilda Swinton - Michael Clayton

Best Director
TIm Burton - Sweeney Todd
Ethan & Joel Coen - No Country For Old Men
Julian Schnabel - The Diving Bell & The Butterfly
Ridley Scott - American Gangster
Joe Wright - Atonement

Best Writer
Diablo Cody - Juno
Joel Coen and Ethan Coen - No Country for Old Men
Christopher Hampton - Atonement
Ronald Harwood - The Diving Bell & The Butterfly
Aaron Sorkin - Charlie Wilson's War

Animation
Bee Movie
Ratatouille
The Simpsons Movie


Original Score
Michael Brook, Kaki King, Eddie Edder, Into the Wild
Clint Eastwood, Grace Is Gone
Alberto Iglesias, The Kite Runner
Dario Marianelli, Atonement
Howard Shore, Eastern Promises

Foreign Language Film
4 Months, 3 Weeks And 2 Days (Romania)
The Diving Bell And The Butterfly (France, United States)
The Kite Runner (United States)
Lust, Caution (Taiwan)
Persepolis (France)


Original Song
Despedida from Love in the Time of Cholera
Grace Is Gone from Grace Is Gone
Guaranteed from Into the Wild
That's How You Know from Enchanted
Walk Hard from Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story

Golden Globes piss on comedies

The Golden Globe nominations are in, and what stands out the most to me is how little respect this organization has for "real" comedies in its 'Comedy/Musical' category.

First of all, the idea of lumping comedies and musicals together is absurd — especially when films such as Walk the Line, La Vie en Rose and Ray are considered musicals. All three are pretty heavy dramas about people who sing... they are NOT musicals. What they are is an excuse for the Golden Globes to nominate even more dramas and ignore movies that actually make people laugh.

This year, the Globes went so far as to nominate SEVEN dramas, and then stocked the Comedy/Musical category with the likes of Across the Universe, Sweeney Todd and Charlie Wilson's War (maybe Charlie Wilson really is primarily a comedy, but that wasn't my impression). Yet they couldn't find room for Knocked Up or Ratatouille, two films that are among the best reviewed of the year and also genuinely funny? Or even Superbad, which has its flaws but which tapped into something very sweet and real amidst the raunch. And no Walk Hard, also well-reviewed, which is both a musical (by the Globes' standards) and a comedy? What a slap in the face for Judd in the 'Year of Apatow!'

And I'll let Amy express her outrage at the absence of Once from the Musical category, as well as all the rest.