Well, that was fun. With this post, I've now posted my awards from 1930-2013. I'll have a CinSpec wrap-up post up soon. I also have some trivia ones in mind, but more on that later.
This year was better than I realized, and I tried to avoid too many snubs. I made images for all of the categories again. If you missed it, I also added Alec Baldwin and Jennifer Jason Leigh to my 1990 ballot for their performances in Miami Blues. Note: You can click on the images to enlarge them.
I still need to see films like Together, Croupier, Nurse Betty, The Claim, What Lies Beneath, Boiler Room, Sunshine, Frequency, Proof of Life, Gangster No. 1, Chuck and Buck, Mission to Mars, Pay It Forward, Hamlet, Thirteen Days, State and Main, Dr. T and the Women, and Romeo Must Die.
Updated: 2/26/15
This was a great year! You have so many awesome picks. I love that Love and Basketball snuck in there, I really should watch that again. It's been years.
ReplyDeleteThanks! It really was a terrific year. I just watched Love & Basketball this week, and Lathan was excellent.
DeleteYAY! You're done with them. That's awesome man. What an accomplishment for the blog.
ReplyDeleteAlso...SANAA LATHAN!!! AMANDA PEET!!! GIRL ON THE BRIDGE!!!
I'm so happy to see those noms :-)
Thanks man! Now I just have to finish images for the many years in text. :)
DeleteI rewatched Peet's scenes to be sure, and she was awesome! Lathan was fantastic, and Girl on the Bridge is my #6 right now. Some of these categories were hard to narrow down.
I will say, I'm missing your comments on the blog. I have so much posted over the past two weeks...and no input from you has made me sad!!!
DeleteDone and dusted. :) Hopefully, I shouldn't be away for that long anymore.
DeleteCongrats on completing 1930-2013 !
ReplyDelete2000 is a year that includes two of my fav comedies: Meet the Parents & Songs from the Second Floor.
Glad to see mentions for Requiem for Dream, American Psycho, and Ghost Dog. I love scenes in Code Unknown, but I think overall it's uneven. My winners would be Bale for actor and Burstyn for actress. I love "I've Seen It All" by Bjork-best song in the film for me!
Thanks, Chris! Now that I don't have to post these every week, I need to catch up on blog reading. ;)
DeleteI haven't seen Songs from the Second Floor, so I'll have to give it a look. I do like Meet the Parents, though.
Yeah, Code Unknown doesn't have the best flow, but I love it all the same. Though I couldn't fit Ghost Dog anywhere else, I'm a big fan of it as well. Douglas would be my #5 in Best Actor, and I could easily give it to any of the other four performers. Bale does get two wins for Empire of the Sun and The Fighter, though. :)
Oh! No Maggie Cheung for best actress? I love her so much!
ReplyDeleteShe's great, but Best Actress was too crowded this year, unfortunately.
DeleteI love looking through your personal awards :D
ReplyDeleteI still have a lot to see (I'm working on 2000 on my blog right now, but I've been so busy it's hard to keep up), but I LOVED Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon and Billy Elliot.
Shadow of the Vampire...not so much, lol. Have you seen that film?
Thanks so much!
DeleteCrouching Tiger and Billy Elliot would get more nominations in a weaker year, but I'm a fan of both.
I liked Shadow of the Vampire overall, but I wasn't that taken with Dafoe's performance.
Great to see Bale nominated! Him and movie are very underrated when it comes to critics and awards.
ReplyDeleteBale is awesome! Though he's my #4, it's a very small margin. I could easily give him the win.
Delete2000 was an excellent year. Requiem for a Dream would be my Best Pic, with Amores Perros a close second, and Burstyn's work in it would be my far and away winner for Best Actress. Though I love that you gave Lathan a nod for Love & Basketball. Also happy with the win for Forest Whitaker, though I might have went with Bale or Hanks for Cast Away. I would have to give a nod, if not the win, in visual effects to Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon. They were just so effortless and natural looking, yet still amazing at the same time. I think that deserves credit. The others you nominated certainly are great, but more easily recognizable as being computer wizardry. All that said, I still have lots of blind spots for this year. I've never even heard of Code Unknown. Great work, and give yourself a bow for completing such a daunting task.
ReplyDeleteThanks. I still have to go back and update all of my text ballots to images, which I'll gradually work on over the next several months.
DeleteThe effects in Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon were terrific. If I nominated five films in that category, it would make the cut. Code Unknown is an interesting film. I'd call it captivating, but I could understand someone calling it boring or too slow. Haneke's films aren't for everyone.
Nice to see Bale getting recognized for his amazing work in American Psycho. He truly became a psychotic man it was really chilling to watch. Oh, interesting that you have Phoenix in Quills instead of Gladiator, I haven't seen that but it's gotta be excellent if you think it's more deserving than his performance as Commodus.
ReplyDeleteBale is amazing in that movie. Phoenix is even better in Quills than Gladiator, but I'm happy he got some Oscar attention that year. He's also great in The Yards from that year.
Delete2000 was a really solid year for film (as was 1999, now that I think about it). Traffic would win for me, but I love that Code Unknown is the big winner here. Amores Perros, In the Mood for Love, Requiem, Werckmeister – all amazing films.
ReplyDeleteOther notes: love that Bale and Bardem make a showing for actor. Bjork winning actress is amazing, but I love than Lathan comes in third. No idea how or why Connelly was overlooked by the Academy, especially given the praise for Burstyn. Great work yet again!
Thanks pal! Oh, 1999 is one of my all-time favorite years for film, but this one is pretty great as well. My top 5 this year is one of my favorite CinSpec Best Picture lineups. I'd feel terrible removing any of them.
DeleteI know Traffic is one of your favorite films, and I really wanted to include it in more categories. In a weaker year, it would've shown up in Picture, Director, Cinematography, and Supporting Actress as well. (I do nominate Soderbergh for adapting King of the Hill and shooting The Good German, though.)
Bale and Bardem are fantastic. (Douglas is a distant fifth compared to the other Best Actor nominees.) Whitaker snatched the award at the last minute, as I just watched Ghost Dog last week.
I switched from Binoche in Best Actress earlier this year, since she has 5 CinSpec's. Besides, it's great to reward Bjork and the film. Connelly's snub makes no sense in retrospect. At least she won the following year, albeit for the wrong performance.
Yikes! I've only seen one of your nominees, Requiem for a Dream, and wasn't a fan although I greatly admired Ellen Burstyn's work. Code Unknown sounds interesting.
ReplyDeletePicture:
Best in Show
Billy Elliott
Thirteen Days
Traffic
Wonder Boys-Winner
Donaldson's strong but overlong rendition of the Cuban Missile Crisis in 13 Days just misses being my choice, a bit of tightening would have turned the trick. Instead I choose Hanson observant serio-comic Wonder Boys which I know isn't for everyone. I originally saw it with my sister in the theatre, I loved it and she hated it.
Director:
Roger Donaldson-Thirteen Days
Christopher Guest-Best in Show-Winner
Curtis Hanson-Wonder Boys
Ang Lee-Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon
Steven Soderbergh-Traffic
I didn't like Crouching Tiger very much but Lee's direction of yet another genre was inventive. Donaldson and Hanson handle the more linear storylines of their films well but though the multi-faceted Traffic and Best in Show could not have been more different they each required careful balancing. Both are well done but juggling farce would seem more complex than drama so Guest is my choice.
Actor:
Javier Bardem-Before Night Falls
Russell Crowe-Gladiator
Michael Douglas-Wonder Boys-Winner
Colin Farrell-Tigerland
Ed Harris-Pollock
Some very fine work by all. I remember being blown away by the then unknown Farrell and his intense performance as the grunt in Tigerland but this was between Bardem and Douglas. While both are consistently strong actors I've never found Douglas slickster mode particularly convincing so his return to a more human, lived-in part is welcome especially where he does his strongest work in years.
Actress:
Joan Allen-The Contender
Ellen Burstyn-Requiem for a Dream-Winner
Laura Linney-You Can Count On Me
Connie Nielsen-Gladiator
Tracey Ullman-Small Time Crooks
I didn't care for the film but watching Ellen Burstyn disappear down the rabbit hole of addiction just knocked me out. Her only close competition was Laura Linney's lovely work in You Can Count On Me.
Supporting Actor:
Robert Downey, Jr.-Wonder Boys
Albert Finney-Erin Brockovich
Jason Isaacs-The Patriot-Winner
Joaquin Phoenix-Gladiator
Mark Ruffalo-You Can Count On Me
To me Finney was the only stand out element in the passable but overpraised Brockovich. Downey whose manic energy to me is best in measured doses adds a great deal of flavor to Wonder Boys while Ruffalo's rambling brother balances Laura Linney's uptight Sammy perfectly. Phoenix was having a great year with strong work in Quills, The Yards and Gladiator where he holds his own not only against the pageantry of the film but the testosterone packed performance of Crowe. I really thought The Patriot was a piece of poorly done tripe but the one excellent piece in it was Jason Isaacs performance of the utterly detestable Col. Tavington. With his ice blue eyes and equally icy demeanor he wipes everybody off the screen, the modern day Richard Widmark.
Supporting Actress:
Marcia Gay Harden-Pollack
Kate Hudson-Almost Famous
Frances McDormand-Wonder Boys
Catherine O'Hara-Best in Show-Winner
Julie Walters-Billy Elliott
This category seems rather thin with solid but no really showpiece performance save the extraordinary and unique O'Hara. She had a lot of quirky competition in the crazy quilt of Best in Show but still managed to stand out with a loopy hilarious piece of work.
Nice to see Wonder Boys, Traffic and Gladiator get several mentions. Glad Burstyn won, even though you didn't like the film, and it's awesome that you give Isaacs the win. I kinda love The Patriot, but he's certainly the best part of it.
DeleteWhat Lies Beneath, Frequency and State and Main are pretty good. Just for your information. Hope that you'll see them soon and enjoy them.
ReplyDeleteThanks. I want to see all of those. I own What Lies Beneath, so I need to check it out soon.
DeleteExcellent post dude. I have my own awards on my site but I really need to improve on the graphics, where do you make your collages?
ReplyDeleteThanks man. I use Photoshop to make the images. It's time-consuming, but I prefer them to text. I still have several years to convert to images, though.
DeleteI really like what I see. I love the Bjork win and I especially like the nod for Bring It On for Best Song. For Best Supporting Actress, I go back and forth between Connelly and Hudson. Aagghh, so torn because they were both sooo good!!!
ReplyDeleteThanks! Bjork is amazing, and I wish Bring It On got more notice for "Just What I Need". Connelly or Hudson would be a great winner. The former is my clear winner, but I LOVE my top 5.
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