From Canada’s wonder twins Tegan and Sara, the title track from their excellent 2007 album ‘The Con’. Love the vocal harmonies and the keyboard riff. Almost every song on this album is a first-listen winner.
And Tegan is sporting the best mullet I’ve seen since Survivor’s Denise The Lunch Lady. Business in the front, party in the back. Yee-hah!
‘Field Manual’ is indie-rock uber-producer and Death Cab For Cutie member Chris Walla’s second solo album (according to Wikipedia the first is a bootleg that is near impossible to find). As a major fan of DCFC, I was looking forward to hearing how near or far his solo work is to the Death Cab sound. The answer: a very close next door neighbour.
The album opens with ‘Two-Fifty’, where mechanical syncopation echoes the lyrical theme of industrial decay. It’s immediately apparent that Walla’s voice is similar to DCFC vocalist Ben Gibbard, but without Gibbard’s range. They are both gentle and and at times delicate.
Whilst there doesn’t appear to be any fractures within the band (Walla confirms this in the interviews mentioned below), the album feels oddly like a band break-up album, though perhaps I am reading the metaphors of the lyrics too specifically. For instance, when he sings “I tried to give you everything, you need to know I live to hold on” in ‘Our Plans, Collapsing’ (another nod to disintegration), it could just as easily be to a loved one. But the repetition of these direct references to fracture and fumbles feels a little too impersonal at times to have sprung from a romantic relationship. Even ‘Sing Again’, his poppy Jon Brion-esque singalong feels at times like a farewell letter to his bandmates, lamenting an ennui that remains despite their combined success.
The album is full of beautiful production quirks, the kind of mastery of the studio that comes easily for a longtime producer like Walla (who produced The Decemberists ‘The Crane Wife’ and Tegan and Sara’s ‘The Con’). His instrumentation is deft (Walla plays all instruments but drums on the album), and his use of harmony and double tracked vocals is very reminiscent of the DCFC albums.
Second track ‘The Score’ is the most fun of the album, with a catchy pop hook that you can’t help but bob your head to. But Walla has always been one to wear his political heart on his sleeve, and throughout the album it is this philisophical bent that tends to overpower the simplicity of heartfelt expression. His idealism pops up on the ephemeral ‘A Bird Is A Song’, where he confesses ‘I do not need to see, but I need a vision’, but it is on the too-clever by half ‘Archer v Light’ where the over-literate lyricism really loses its effect as it delves into material that not even The Decemberists could bring to life.
Perhaps worse is the attempted irony of ‘It’s Unsustainable’, which swells to what should be a moving climax but is undercut by the repeated double-negative line, “it’s not unsustainable.” It’s all a bit too clunky for the desired effect.
The best song on the album is ‘Geometry &C’, a riffy, relentlessly upbeat song that reminded me of the energetic yet emotive pop-punk of Jimmy Eat World.
Walla’s solo material is not as dynamic as DCFC, but it has it’s own charm; the appeal of Walla’s tender voice grows on repeated listens, and his musical bent is heavy on melody, though a little repetitive in style. It’s an admirable though not entirely successful attempt at combining Walla’s personal politics with his pop-rock influences.
For Death Cab fans, it will be enough to hold us over until the release of ‘Narrow Stairs’ later this year.
My Rating: 6.5/10
You can listen to a couple of cool MP3 interviews with Chris Walla here.
If I had predicted five years ago that in 2008 Eminem would be a Elvis-style overweight semi-recluse, most people would have thought I was crazy. The guy sold 70 million albums in 6 years, making him one of the most successful artists of the 2000s. And then, after the critical and commercial success of ‘The Eminem Show’ and ‘Encore’, he decided to take some time off, even mentioning retirement.
At the end of last year, TMZ reported him as being admitted to hospital with a heart condition and severe pneumonia, though this report has been discounted by friends of the rapper. He is apparently still struggling with his weight, with reports that he is over 100 kgs. But fans of his music will be keen to hear he is writing again and collaborating with Dr. Dre on a new album.
This 2006 clip from the Jimmy Kimmel Show is from the early period of his hiatus. It starts a bit slowly, but by the time he and Kimmel are sucking oxygen it becomes bizarrely funny.
Cloud Control are a band originally from the Blue Mountains whose song ‘Vintage Books’ has received quite a lot of airplay recently on Triple J. They have a real sixties sound, with great folky harmonies and a pop lyrical sensibility. I love this clip and the inspired use of stock footage, not to mention the black and white concert footage.
According to their Myspace, they are taking some time off gigging to write new material, but they do have two upcoming sets, at the Playground Weekender on the 7th of March, and the Blue Mountains Music Festival on the 15th March. Can’t wait to catch them at the BMMF (and the lovely Sarah Blasko too).
It’s that time of year again! The annual Oscars diary, coming to you live from the Real Topeka Mansion (well, actually we’re on fourteen hour delay - I decided against blogging it live mainly because I feared it might get a bit sloppy as the wine kept flowing). Anyway, let’s get into the hoopla…
8:31 p.m. Oh great. Richard Wilkins is being inflicted on us yet again for a tacky pre-show red carpet interview montage. Why can’t we just take the delayed feed from the US? At least we wouldn’t miss out on this…
Yikes. That was uncomfortable. I don’t know who was more scared, Garner or Seacrest. Busey needs to go back on his meds. Or off them.
(Wouldn’t it have been great though if he’d just thrown Seacrest to the ground and started pummelling him, just for the sheer spectacle of it? And I love how Seacrest said to Garner “Where’s Ben?”… We all know what Ben was up to).
8:32 p.m. Instead we get The Big Dick spraying his trademark hyperbole all over Harrison Ford, who looks either very dismissively unineterested or stoned. Maybe he should of hooked Busey up with some of his gear?
8:34 p.m. Our first visual trainwreck of the evening, and it wasn’t anyone’s dress - ladies and gentlemen, the comedic gift that keeps on giving, John Travolta’s hair!
The photo doesn’t really do it justice… let’s just say HDTV was not kind to Mr. Travolta. I know he was in ‘Hairspray’ and everything… But this looks like it was painted on. Miss RTP asks if he’s possibly playing Astroboy in a movie soon.
8:36 p.m. Jessica Alba does the “Aussie Aussie Aussie” thing with Dick and moves my opinion of her from ‘hot, yet shallow as a puddle’ to ‘oddly endearing, hot, yet shallow as a puddle’.
8:37 p.m. The first appearance of Cate. She is glowing and beautiful. I wish she would win for one of her noms tonight (even though I highly doubt it), simply so she can have more Oscars than the tremendously overrated Nicole.
8:38 p.m. Cheers to the cameraman for not choosing to frame out the overflowing back fat of the female entertainment journo behind the Big Dick. Nothing ruins an Alba buzz like back fat.
8:45 p.m. The only Richard on channel 9 worse than Wilkins: Celebrity stalker / annoying wankstain Richard Reid. His laugh makes me want to peel off my skin and jump into a bucket of acid.
8:47 p.m. Retard Reid takes us into the fascinating world of eyebrow shaping. Some poor girl getting her eyebrows done has a GIGANTIC volcanic pimple on her cheek. Methinks the eyebrows aren’t going to be drawing attention away from that thing.
8:50 p.m. Back on the red carpet, P. Diddy estimates he owns fifty tuxedos. That can be his next name. Ladies and Gentleman, 50 Tuxedos!
8:54 p.m. The sarcastic disdain that Clooney has for these award shows always makes his appearance special. Tongue wedged so firmly in cheek we may need the jaws of life to remove it, he calls Day-Lewis a ‘hack’ and talks about how much money he has paid in bribes to lock up a Best Actor for ‘Michael Clayton’. I hope he kept his receipts.
9:00 p.m. Finally, the real meat and potatoes. Jon Stewart takes the stage. He opens with a nod to the recently ended strike. “Tonight we look beyond the dark days to focus on happier fare — this year’s slate of Oscar-nominated, psychopathic-killer movies.” Classic. He ends that riff with “Thank God for teenage pregnancies.”
9:06 p.m. Stewart’s opening monologue is typically political. Not exactly killer, but very solid.
9:07 p.m. Another great line, re: the financial failure of the glut of Iraq movies: “If we keep these movies in the theaters, we can turn this around. I don’t care if it takes 100 years. Withdrawing the Iraq movies would only embolden the audience.” Nice.
9:08 p.m. The first award - Best Costume. Delivered by Jen Garner, who looks amazing and appears to have recovered from her run in with Busey. And the winner is…. Elizabeth: The Golden Age. Excellent. 1/1 in my Oscars pool. Alexandra Byrne gives a lovely succinct speech.
9:14 p.m. Every Oscars needs a montage… or twenty. We kick off the first of the night with eighty years of Academy Awards. Some good bits, but nothing mindblowing.
9:16 p.m. Steve Carrell and Anne Hathaway do an amusing bit on Best Animated Pic. And the winner is… Brad Bird for Ratatouille. Cool. Still haven’t seen it, but I’ve heard nothing but good stuff. 2/2.
9:23 p.m. Katherine Heigl…yecch, cannot stand her…presents the award for Best Makeup. Wow, didn’t realise how much went into La Vie En Rose…. and yep, it wins. My first miss of the night.
9:25 p.m. Jon Stewart’s introduction of the composers of ‘Happy Working Song’ (from Enchanted) receives a “Woooh!” from the crowd. Ha! “That guy’s a fan,” says Stewart.
9:26 p.m. Thirty seconds in to the aforementioned ‘Happy Working Song’ and I have already thrown up in my mouth. Amy Adams is ballsy though. What a crap song. Maybe it works in the context of the movie, but seriously, that’s a possible Best Song?
9:28 p.m. ACA are drumming up a new Heath Ledger video - “Does This Change Everything??” dramatic voice over guy asks. No. The guy is dead, yet the vultures still can’t help picking at him.
9:30 p.m. Time for the Best Visual Effects award…. I’ve gone ‘The Golden Compass’ over ‘Transformers’ and ‘Pirates 3′ (no way am I writing the full title). Wow, my animated polar bear doesn’t look so good compared to the visual bang of the other two… But ‘The Golden Compass’ takes it anyway! Woo-hoo. 3/4 now, but Miss RTP is batting 1.000. Good on her.
9:39 p.m. ‘Sweeney Todd’ takes the award for Best Art Direction. I was thinking ‘There Will Be Blood’ might steal a few technical awards, but this doesn’t bode well. Congrats to Dante Ferretti. He’s always in the running. Miss RTP ends her streak.
9:40 p.m. A montage of Best Supporting Actors ends with the famous Cuba Gooding Jnr speech. Why is it I can also hear the sound of a toilet being flushed?
9:41 p.m. Best Supporting Actor: Bardem, Holbrook, Affleck, Hoffman, Wilkinson. I know its a wussy thing to admit, but the Holbrook clip made me cry (again). The winner is…. Bardem. Second easiest pick of the night (behind Day-Lewis for Best Actor). Bardem is very humble and genuine on stage. Nice win. Would have loved Holbrook, but Bardem’s work as Chigurh was amazing.
9:49 p.m. Stewart pokes fun at the montage love with “Oscars salute to binoculars and periscopes”, followed by the even better “salute to bad dreams.”
9:50 p.m. Keri Russel introducing the song from ‘August Rush’. Oooh la la. Still have a thing for Felicity.
9:51 p.m. This ‘Raise It Up’ song doesn’t do much for me. They could have at least asked Tay Zonday to do a verse. It’s okay, just no ‘Falling Slowly’.
9:54 p.m. ‘The Mozart of Pickpockets’ wins Best Live Action Short. Another correct pick for me. I’ve gotta be out in front, right? Nope, getting my butt kicked by my girl, who’s 6/7.
9:57 p.m. Barry the Bee presents the award for Best Animated Short (is Seinfeld really that desperate for money?)… and the winner is ‘Peter and The Wolf’ (which looks awesome). Miss RTP now 7/8. I’m stunned. She’s like the Rainman of Oscar predictions.
10:02 p.m. As they read out the nominations for Best Supporting Actress, ‘American Gangster’s Ruby Dee has a look on her face like she only just remembered where she was. I picked Amy Ryan here, because of the buzz over her performance, but everyone else seemed to be hoping for our Cate. The winner is…. Tilda Swinton. Wow. That came out of left field. Still haven’t seen ‘Michael Clayton’, glad that Tilda got recognised though, even if I can’t look at her now without thinking of Julia Gillard.
10:06 p.m. Sidney Poitier’s in the House! “There is no honour in the motion picture business.” What the? “…that exemplifies all the things that one could possibly reach for.” Huh? In English please?
10:07 p.m. A ‘Cashmere Mafia’ promo prompts Miss RTP to state she’s not old enough to enjoy a show like it. Thank God for that.
10:10 p.m. Still wide open for Best Picture, but I am still thinking the wind is blowing ‘No Country’ way. Brolin and McAvoy come on stage to present Best Adapted Screenplay. I picked PTA for ‘There Will Be Blood’, because anyone who has read the McCarthy novel for ‘No Country’ knows that the Coen’s didn’t need to work too hard on that adaptation. ‘TWBB’ however, goes off on a radical tangent to the original novel ‘Oil’.
The winner is… The Coens, for ‘No Country For Old Men’. Here we go. They make a nice speech, and it’s a well deserved recognition of their great screenwriting.
10:17 p.m. Miley Cyrus introducing another ‘Enchanted’ song. I didn’t even know who she was two weeks ago. Let me say, I am happy to be living in a world where I don’t see her very often, that’s for sure. She drops ‘pretty darn hopeful’ into her intro. Shouldn’t she be getting back to her whittlin’?
10:18 p.m. You’d think maybe one of three songs nominated from ‘Enchanted’ would be okay? You’d think that, but you’d be wrong.
10:19 p.m. SMS message from our friend Dove: Kill me. Yep, that pretty much sums it up.
10:22 p.m. Seth Rogen and Jonah Hill present the Sound Editing / Mixing awards. Also known as the ‘Oscar Pool Killer’ awards, in that they are so hard to pick. Rogen and Hill do a chuckle funny bit where they fight over who is Halle Berry and who is Judi Dench. The winner for Best Sound Editing… The Bourne Ultimatum. Awesome. Transformers is 0/2. The winners are definitely not the most eloquent of speakers. “We planned this and we blew it.” Yeah, you pretty much did.
10:23 p.m. Best Sound Mixing goes to…. The Bourne Ultimatum. Zero Oscars for Transformers. Thank you dudes who did sound on The Bourne Ultimatum!
10:35 p.m. Forrest Whitaker to present Best Actress… Blanchett, Christie, Cotillard, Linney, Page. The only one I actually saw was Ellen Page’s Juno, so I picked Christie based on her receiving a sentimentality vote. Should have gone with the hotness vote, because the winner is …. Marion Cotillard. Wow. A real dark horse. Again, I’ve heard nothing but great things about the movie, just not sure if I can handle the Piaf songs.
10:41 p.m. Colin Farrell introduces Glen Hansard and Marketa Irglova to play ‘Falling Slowly’. I get goosebumps. Glen’s playing the same guitar from the movie, love that. Very nice moment for them, well deserved. Keeping my fingers crossed for them.
10:50 p.m. Jack Nicholson makes his obligatory on stage appearance to introduce a montage of 80 years of Best Picture winners. Now that’s a great montage. Awesome choice of clips.
10:52 p.m. Renee Zellweger looks like she walked through a fart cloud that Jack left on stage. The Oscar for Best Editing goes to …. The Bourne Ultimatum. Holy moly. Bourne aces it’s 3 nominations. “Someone just took a lead in their Oscar pool based on a guess,” says Jon Stewart. Ha! That’s Miss RTP, who also picked Bourne. Bourne now leads the pack for number of Oscars this evening. Who would have picked that?
10:58 p.m. Art Director Robert Boyle receives the Honorary Lifetime Achievement Award. He’s very articulate and erudite, but he does waffle a little bit. What a body of work though. Nice award.
11:01 p.m. I missed it because I was writing in my notebook, but Miss RTP is aghast at Channel 9 showing the face of the Best Actor winner in their news promo during the show. God, I hate those morons. Every year they do something stupid like that.
11:02 p.m. And not only did those complete @$#%ing idiots blow the Best Actor for heaps of people who spent all day avoiding the news, I found later that this is where the Best Foreign Language Award was given out, something that they chose to simply CUT OUT of the show (as they would the award for Best Documentary Short). Is it too much to ask to simply show us the entire awards? If they want to save time, maybe they could cut out 1 of the 11 eleven commercials every frikkin’ ad break.
11:05 p.m. Quick score check and Miss RTP is 3 correct picks ahead of me on 10. I hope she realises my entire self esteem is riding on winning this.
11:10 p.m. The winner for Best Original Song, presented by Helmet Head Travolta… ‘Falling Slowly’! Yes! Glen opens with his endearing Irish “T’anks.” So stoked for them. Unfortunately the orchestra musically pushes Mar off stage before she gets to speak.
11:12 p.m. Jon Stewart brings Marketa back out so she can speak. Wow, that’s awesome. She’s typically sweet and appealing.
11:15 p.m. A hot but slightly weary looking Cameron Diaz presents the award for “Cinemamanatography”. Interesting. The award goes to…. There Will Be Blood’s Robert Elswit! Fantastic. But I don’t think this award is slowing the ‘No Country’ train. He’s very humble and pays tribute to his director Paul Thomas Anderson. I think Roger Deakins got caught out by the split vote on his two nominations there (’The Assassination of Jesse James By The Coward Robert Ford’ and ‘No Country For Old Men’).
11:18 p.m. The In Memoriam clips. Heath is at the end, very brief yet still moving. (I only realised reading about the clips today that they excluded Brad Renfro, which was a bit unfair).
11:22 p.m. Uh-oh. I’m off the whites and onto the reds. Lock the doors.
11:24 p.m. The winner for Best Original Score is…. Dario Marinelli for ‘Atonement’. Well deserved.
11:31 p.m. (Here’s where they skipped Best Short Documentary, which went to ‘Freeheld’…. bastards). The Academy opts against letting Michael Moore anywhere near a microphone again and gives the Best Documentary Feature to …. ‘Taxi To The Darkside’. I really thought ‘No End In Sight’ would steal this one. No-one in our pool picked ‘Taxi’.
11:39 p.m. Harrison Ford presents the award for Best Original Screenplay. And the winner is… The saucily dressed Diablo Cody for ‘Juno’. Did you know she was once a stripper? No seriously, I read it somewhere. I’m happy with that one, I think she’s got a great unique voice as a writer.
11:48 p.m. It’s time for the Best Actor Award. The clips are all fantastic, but the best one of all is Johnny Depp, who sings “I will have vengeance” with such dramatic sincerity. There is something hilarious about the way they juxtaposed him with the other performances that cracked us up.
And the winner is…. safest bet of the night…. Daniel Day-Lewis for ‘There Will Be Blood’. Totally deserved it, and is perfectly gracious and ecstatic. PTA looks delighted.
11:54 p.m. Just actually noticed the time of this entry. Wow time flies when you are sinking wine and revelling in over-the-top self-congratulatory awards.
11:58 p.m. Best Director time. Presented by the living legend, Martin Scorsese…. man, I would love to see PTA steal this one but I don’t see it happening… and I am right. The Coen Brothers win for ‘No Country For Old Men’. Not disappointed with that choice, just unhappy for PTA. Still, he’s got plenty of time and I want him to still have ‘a competition’ in him.
12:00 a.m. Best picture time. Denzel Washington is presenting. No prizes for guessing now. The 80th Best Picture Oscar goes to…. ‘No Country For Old Men’. The Coens generously pay tribute to Cormac McCarthy. Scott Rudin has a nice acceptance speech. I think both ‘No Country’ and ‘Blood’ will hold up over time - I’m just really happy to have a great movie win Best Picture.
Final recap of our Oscar Pool: La 14, Ad 12, Nuf and TD 10, Andy 9, and Mel 8. Congratulations to Miss RTP on her historic victory. From wooden spoon to champion in just one year.
Here’s a great recap of the night in 60 seconds (surely much more enjoyable than reading my ramblings!)
Check out what Jimmy Kimmel had in mind for his revenge on girlfriend Sarah Silverman for her torrid affair with Matt Damon….
The bit where they go all ‘We Are The World’ is priceless. Even Harrison Ford chipped in!
Gotta love Affleck’s dedication though. I hope he didn’t go all method for this video.
Now, where does Sarah go from here? Jennifer Garner?
Warning: Catchy chorus alert!
Melbourne boys British India exploded onto the national music scene last year with their ‘Guillotine’ album. This is the probably the poppiest song off an album that is probably more appropriately labelled rock with a dash of punk. Lead singer Declan Melia’s voice has a howl to his voice that is reminiscent the The Hives lead Pelle Almqvist. Can’t wait to see the raw energy of their music at a live gig.
Here’s a relic of the late 70s that I’m sure George Lucas has tried to destroy but couldn’t, thanks to the wonders of bootlegging and Youtube! It’s a cut down version of the 2 hour Star Wars Christmas Special that went to air in November 1978 and has never been seen on television again. It’s so surreal and weird and horribly cheesy - I’m sure Harrison Ford ranks it very highly on his career achievements (his ‘moving’ scene with Chewbacca’s family is a solid 9.6 on the Unintentional Comedy Scale).
Whilst I’m sure it might be a struggle to sit through the whole thing, this boiled down version gave me quite a few laugh-out-loud moments - particularly Bea Arthur’s cameo, any appearance by the Orange Mark Hamill, and the Wookiee virtual reality porno.
And the Wookiees are still better actors than Hayden Christensen.
Red Riders were back in blistering form on Saturday night, firing up a pretty stoked crowd at the Annandale Hotel. My memories of the gig are a little bit hazier than normal, given that I drank myself silly in honour of my just passed birthday. But despite my ‘Mel Gibson-esque’ boozing, I was in no doubt after the gig that the new material they showcased was just as strong as their brilliant ‘Replica Replica’ album.
The night started for us with Young Lovers, a Melbourne four piece with a slightly gloomy, dance rock vibe. Their live show was much more chaotic than their recorded material, but they definitely showed potential and received a warm response from the crowd. Leadman Luke Carlson has charisma and a strong voice. Their drummer Scotty Chalmers was sporting the coolest Derek Smalls handlebar mo, and pounded the skins with focused exuberance. Reminiscent of an adolescent The Music with a dash of Expatriate, they are as young as their moniker, but they are a band to watch out for.
Then it was Red Riders turn to grace the stage. As the subject of a bunch of recent break-up rumours, I’m sad to say that whilst they weren’t 100% true, the band does appear to have lost the services of guitarist and vocalist Adrien Deutsch. He was replaced on stage by a new guitarist and singer whose name I didn’t catch. If it is true and he has left the band, it’s a real shame; I always felt he and lead Alex Griggs had a bit of a Lennon-McCartney vibe, from their songwriting to their on stage personas (mind you, there has been no confirmation of a split by the band or Ivy League, so take this info with a grain of salt).
What Adrian’s exit really means to their performances is that Alex is now freed up to be the magnetic, energetic frontman he was born to be. The guy has a real stage presence, great voice and solid guitar chops. He ripped through the set with trademark enthusiasm, really losing himself in the lyrics, especially the newer tracks.
Whilst not a huge departure from their sound on ‘Replica Replica’, the new tracks had a darker vibe and seemed to allow bassist Matt Chapman to put more of his mark on the music. Set opener ‘Tomorrow Today’ was very catchy - I would love to be able to describe a few more of the later tracks in more detail but by that stage the Heinekens had started to really kick in.
Needless to say, I had a great night and really enjoyed hearing the fruits of their recent writing - can’t wait until Red Riders hit the studio to get them down for our regular listening pleasure.
SET LIST:
Tomorrow Today
Scream
A.S.P.I.R.I.N.
Over And Over
I Think You’re Blind
Ordinary
C’mon
Shadows
My Love Is Stronger Than Your Love
Big Riff Song
Grace
Slide
Just in the nick of time, my predictions for today’s 2008 Academy Awards - I’m thinking about doing another running diary on it tonight - let’s just see how much wine I consume whilst watching it…
BEST FILM
Should win:
There Will Be Blood
Will win:
No Country For Old Men
BEST DIRECTOR
Should win:
Paul Thomas Anderson - There Will Be Blood
Will win:
Joel Coen and Ethan Coen - No Country for Old Men
BEST ACTOR
Should win:
Daniel Day-Lewis - There Will Be Blood
Will win:
Daniel Day-Lewis - There Will Be Blood
BEST ACTRESS
Should win:
Not educated enough to call
Will win:
Julie Christie - Away From Her
BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR
Should win:
Hal Holbrook - Into the Wild
Will win:
Javier Bardem - No Country for Old Men
BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS
Should win:
Cate Blanchett - I’m Not There
Will win:
Amy Ryan - Gone Baby Gone
BEST ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY
Should win:
Juno - Diablo Cody
Will win:
Juno - Diablo Cody
BEST ADAPTED SCREENPLAY
Should win:
There Will Be Blood - Paul Thomas Anderson Oil!, novel by Upton Sinclair
Will win:
There Will Be Blood - Paul Thomas Anderson Oil!, novel by Upton Sinclair
BEST ANIMATED FEATURE
Should win:
Ratatouille
Will win:
Ratatouille
BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY
*Hardest category to pick this year - all are Oscar worthy*
Should win:
Roger Deakins - No Country for Old Men
Will win:
Roger Deakins - No Country for Old Men
BEST ART DIRECTION
Should win:
Dante Ferretti and Francesca Lo Schiavo - Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street
Will win:
Jack Fisk and Jim Erickson - There Will Be Blood
BEST COSTUME DESIGN
Should win:
Alexandra Byrne - Elizabeth: The Golden Age
Will win:
Alexandra Byrne - Elizabeth: The Golden Age
BEST DOCUMENTARY FEATURE
Should win:
Not educated enough to call
Will win:
No End in Sight (from what I’ve heard it’s amazing and very topical)
BEST FILM EDITING
Should win:
Christopher Rouse - The Bourne Ultimatum
Will win:
Juliette Welfling - The Diving Bell and the Butterfly
BEST MAKEUP
Should win:
Ve Neill and Martin Samuel - Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End
Will win:
Ve Neill and Martin Samuel - Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End (I don’t think I’m quite ready to live in a world where Norbit has more Oscars than Zodiac or Into The Wild)
BEST ORIGINAL SCORE
Should win:
Not educated enough to call
Will win:
Dario Marianelli - Atonement
BEST ORIGINAL SONG
Should win:
Glen Hansard and Marketa Irglova - “Falling Slowly” from Once
Will win:
Glen Hansard and Marketa Irglova - “Falling Slowly” from Once (please, please, please!)
MY GUESSES FOR THE REMAINING AWARDS:
BEST DOCUMENTARY SHORT
La Corona
BEST ANIMATED SHORT
I Met the Walrus (was it Paul?)
BEST LIVE ACTION SHORT
The Mozart of Pickpockets (just a cool title)
BEST SOUND MIXING
Scott Millan, David Parker, and Kirk Francis - The Bourne Ultimatum
BEST SOUND EDITING
Skip Lievsay - No Country for Old Men
BEST VISUAL EFFECTS
The Golden Compass (because the effects weren’t just a giant swarm of pixels unlike some movies featuring giant robots)
BEST FOREIGN LANGUAGE FILM:
Katyń (Poland), Polish
Enjoy the Oscars!