This year is so hard to narrow down. I snub a lot of films and performances, but this year is too good. It's one of my favorite years for film. I made images for all the categories, and I also got ten categories done on my 2007 ballot, which boasts another one of my favorite years in cinema. Note: You can click on the images to enlarge them.
I still need to see films like Love Liza, Frailty, Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance, Hero, Lilya 4-Ever, Antwone Fisher, The Man Without a Past, The Rules of Attraction, Read My Lips, S1m0ne, 8 Women, Open Hearts, The Salton Sea, Mondays in the Sun, Ten, 24 Hour Party People, Bowling for Columbine, Full Frontal, Ripley's Game, The Good Thief, Max, Femme Fatale, K-19: The Widowmaker, Reign of Fire, Blue Crush, Lucky Break, and Star Trek: Nemesis.
By the way, I'm doing a 2014 Halfway CinSpec Awards post next week, and I'll do 1931 the following week. I'm not sure if I'll do images for them, but I probably will, especially for next week's post.
Updated: 2/26/15
I'd vote Road to Perdition Best Pic, but still glad to see all the love for Spirited Away.
ReplyDeleteGlad to see more love for Road to Perdition. It's a masterful film, but I couldn't snub Spirited Away.
DeleteWhere's Secretary? Morvern Callar? Those were the best films that year with 2 great performances from Maggie Gyllenhaal and Samantha Morton, respectively.
ReplyDeleteI LOVE those performances, but I didn't have enough room for them. I also snubbed Cate Blanchett's performance in Heaven, which stung. Fortunately, I was at least able to nominate Samantha Morton for Minority Report.
DeleteI love seeing The 25th Hour in so many places!
ReplyDeleteYay! Glad to hear you're a fan as well.
Delete25th Hour is among my favorite Spike Lee films, good to see that here! I love Roger Dodger, more people should seek that out. I would probably add Pacino for Insomnia.
ReplyDeleteLook forward to 2014 Halfway CinSpec Awards
Thrilled to know you're a fan of 25th Hour and Roger Dodger, which could've gotten more noms in a weaker year. Pacino is one of those performances that was circling just outside of my Best Actor lineup. He was very close.
DeleteThe only problem with my 2014 Halfway CinSpecs is I won't get to see Under the Skin and The Rover, among others, beforehand. :(
Awesome to see Hupper and Pfeiffer here, such memorable performances
ReplyDeleteHuppert didn't have a chance at the Oscars, but I still can't believe Pfeiffer wasn't nominated. She's SO good.
DeleteI love the new look for your awards posts! There are so many terrific movies here. My daughter and I have seen Spirited Away many times; it's one of our favorites by a magnificent director.
ReplyDeleteThanks! Glad to hear you're a fan of Spirited Away as well. It's such a beautiful film!
DeleteWOW, lots of great films came out in 2002. I LOVE Minority Report and Rpad tp Perdition. Ahah, I have seen Reign of Fire, I doubt it'd merit any of your awards here, Josh. It's fun to see the career trajectory of the cast though.
ReplyDeleteI know, right? I forgot how many films I love or really like from 2002. It's awesome that you love Minority Report and Road to Perdition too! Haha, I know Reign of Fire probably isn't an awards movie, but I do want to see it. :)
DeleteThis year is so rich!
ReplyDeleteOne of the biggest snubs in Fisti history is no Gangs of New York in Art Direction...I don't know what the hell I was thinking!!! It would be an easy winner for me too...but for some reason I didn't even nominate it.
Yeah, the snubs pain me!
DeleteHa, that's awesome that GONY would be your AD winner now! Incidentally, I've decided that I'll only edit a category in the future if I see a NEW film and want to add it somewhere. The CinSpecs are pretty much permanent, but I'm being lenient since I don't take the time to see every big film before I post. At least I've ruled out rewatches. :)
Oh, SO glad I decided to watch Igby Goes Down by the way. It (along with Late Marriage) just missed in Best Original Screenplay, but I couldn't deny Danes' brilliant performance.
Now that I'm reposting my awards, this gives me a chance to see The Son and All or Nothing before I do...in case I need to edit.
DeleteYES!!! See them! Fun fact: James Corden is in All or Nothing.
Delete2002 really was a great year. I was so bummed that 25th Hour didn't get nominated for anything, so it's great to see it have such a strong showing here. Pepper is such a force in that film. And props for the "Lose Yourself" win!
ReplyDeleteYeah, 2002 would likely make my "top 10 years for film" list. 25th Hour is such a powerful film. In a weaker year, it easily would've received 10 noms or more. "Lose Yourself" is an amazing contribution by Eminem, but I've been listening to "8 Mile" a lot recently. It's a VERY close runner-up.
DeletePicture:
ReplyDeleteThe Count of Monte Cristo
Catch Me If You Can
Far from Heaven-Winner
Minority Report
Road to Perdition
Count, Catch Me and Minority Report were each in their way exciting adventure films and Perdition an excellent mood piece but while paying homage to Douglas Sirk's saturated color and film style Heaven takes advantage of the more relaxed conventions to examine the mores of another time and is highly entertaining while do so.
Director:
Todd Haynes-Far from Heaven-Winner
Doug Liman-The Bourne Identity
Sam Mendes-Road to Perdition
Philip Noyce-The Quiet American
Steven Spielberg-Catch Me If You Can
Again while observing and acknowledging Sirk's mastery of the form Haynes still manages to impart his own viewpoint on Heaven pacing the film well and drawing great performances from his cast.
Actor:
Adrien Brody-The Pianist-Winner
Kieran Culkin-Igby Goes Down
Daniel Day-Lewis-Gangs of New York
Hugh Grant-About a Boy
Tom Hanks-Road to Perdition
This was the toughest category to narrow down since there were so many excellent performances this year. I had to exclude Campbell Scott in Roger Dodger, Dennis Haysbert in Far from Heaven and Di Caprio in Catch Me If You Can and probably a few others that I missed.
DDL is deeply unsettling as the soulless Bill the Butcher, Culkin anchors the quirky Igby with a performance that showed great promise so far unrealized, Hanks thoughtful work is impressive and I think his work in About a Boy is among Hugh Grant's best but no one gave a stronger performance than Adrien Brody.
Actress:
Diane Lane-Unfaithful-Winner
Frances McDormand-Laurel Canyon
Julianne Moore-Far from Heaven
Samantha Morton-In America
Emily Watson-Punch Drunk Love
McDormand, Morton and Watson all add great performances to their films but this was between Moore and Lane. I love both performances, Julianne adapts her style to the more studied fashion of the fifties while still showing the truth of her character but Diane is so raw and real, the train ride home is beautifully done, and so rarely get roles equal to her talent that I had to go with her.
I haven't seen Laurel Canyon, but these lineups are awesome! This year has so many films/performances I love, so it's nice to see some of the things I left out get recognized. I really wanted to nominate Catch Me If You Can, as well as Grant and Hanks, for instance.
DeleteSupporting Actor:
ReplyDeleteJeff Goldblum-Igby Goes Down
Djimon Hounsou-In America
Christopher Plummer-Nicholas Nickleby
Dennis Quaid-Far from Heaven-Winner
Christopher Walken-Catch Me If You Can
Quaid, a decent enough but hardly extraordinary actor, takes advantage of getting a role that requires him to stretch outside his comfort zone with a layered performance full of pain and frustration. His character is a selfish bastard but he still makes the audience feel for him.
Supporting Actress:
Patricia Clarkson-Far from Heaven
Jennifer Ehle-Possession
Susan Sarandon-Igby Goes Down
Jill St. John-The Trip
Catherine Zeta-Jones-Chicago-Winner
Like Julianne Moore Clarkson subsumes her natural style and warmth into the fashion of 50's making her brittle, rather detestable phony a fascinating creation. In the split personality Possession, so dreadful in its modern scenes and so entertaining in its flashbacks, Ehle, and Jeremy Northam, are wonderful-if only the whole movie had been about them! Sarandon as possibly one of the worst mothers in the world is memorable as the unthinkingly cruel Mimi. The seldom seen Jill St. John is a hoot as the understanding, randy and wise mother who also happens to be a dipsomanic former showgirl in The Trip. While I thought the overpraised Chicago was okay the only real standout performance it contained was Zeta-Jones go for broke Velma Kelly. She won the award and on that I agree with the academy.
Igby Goes Down is a great little movie. Love the performances and the screenplay, which I'd probably nominate if I did these again. It looks like I need to see Possession and The Trip.
DeleteI love The Trip, it's a big personal favorite. It a small little indie that may not be perfect but is very likable. You can tell it's low budget from the wigs which are horrendous! Beside Jill St. John's fun performance there is also a wonderfully entertaining one by Sirena Irwin as a fad hopping Greek chorus of sorts. Also there's a terrific cast of well known character actors, Ray Baker, Alexis Arquette, Julie Brown, in supporting roles and the the two leads have a great chemistry. I thought the two main actors would of had a bigger careers by now. One, Steve Braun, had a very Brad Pitt vibe but I've seen him rarely since. The other lead, Larry Sullivan, pops up all over the place in small roles.
ReplyDeleteOne of the settings of the film was Falcon's Lair, the mansion Rudolph Valentino had built and was eventually owned by Doris Duke, just before it was demolished so there's some Hollywood history attached to it.
One other little side note. The woman who plays Ray Baker's mother in a brief scene is Connie Sawyer known as the world's oldest working actress. She just turned 102 and is still working, she has four credits on IMDB last year! She has a fascinating history with a career that started in 1930 and she seems to have done everything there is to do in the business including stand-up.
I'd never even heard of The Trip before you mentioned it. I might have to check it out.
Delete