Slumdog Millionaire is the film to beat this year. It doesn’t matter that The Curious Case of Benjamin Button received the most nominations (thirteen), because the whole media frenzy surrounding Slumdog has only one outcome: the Best Picture statuette will go to Christian Colson for producing a game-show coming-of-age love story.

Did you taste my cynicism in that last sentence? Good, because I am cynical, and a tad disappointed, that Slumdog Millionaire will sweep the top-dog Academy Award. But more about that later. There are of course four other nominees and each of them could still turn out to be a Best Picture winner. Besides Benjamin Button, we also have Frost/Nixon, Milk and The Reader.

Let me start by stating my best films of the year. Neither is nominated for Best Picture (unfortunate for two of them), but they weren’t completely ignored by the Academy. Doubt‘s entire main cast has been nominated for acting awards, The Dark Knight picked up eight nominations (most of them technical) and WALL-E became the most-nominated animated film in history (tied with Beauty and the Beast, which of course was nominated for Best Picture) with six nominations. These three films are the only ones that got a five star rating from me this year.

The Best of 2008

Film	Ov.	Scr.	Dir.	Act.	Sco.	Art	Grd.
WALL-E	9.5	10	9.5	10	10	10	9.8
Doubt	9.5	9.5	9.5	10	9.0	9.5	9.5
The Dark Knight	9.5	9.5	9.5	9.5	9.0	10	9.5

Now, does that mean that 2008 was a bad year in my opinion? Well, 2007 only snatched two fivers from my cold hands, There Will Be Blood (9.7) and No Country for Old Men (9.6), so I guess not. But it is a bad year when it comes to Best Picture nominees. Only one of them really knew how to grab me and that was The Reader. Taking into account the fact that I thought it was slightly flawed, the rest of the nominees did a terrible job to mesmerise me.

81st Academy Award for Best Picture nominees

Film	Ov.	Scr.	Dir.	Act.	Sco.	Art	Grd.
Benjamin Button	9.5	9.0	9.5	9.5	9.5	10	9.4
The Reader	9.5	9.0	10	9.5	9.0	9.5	9.4
Milk	9.5	9.5	9.0	9.0	9.0	9.5	9.3
Frost/Nixon	9.0	9.0	9.0	10	9.0	9.5	9.2
Slumdog Millionaire	9.0	9.0	8.5	9.5	9.0	9.5	9.0

The Curious Case of Benjamin Button is my personal Best Picture winner, because overall it is a stellar motion picture that oozes of greatness. The visual effects are enchanting, the story, though a bit flawed in its original premise, is beautifully told and filmed, the direction/cinematography is picture perfect (every shot can be displayed in the Louvre), and the acting is tailor-made.

I understand why Cate Blanchett wasn’t nominated for Best Supporting Actress (the actresses who were nominated were slightly better or extraordinary in their performances), but she once again showed the world what a jewel she is to the acting community.

Like I said before, The Reader is a terrific, but also obviously flawed film. If Kate Winslet hadn’t stared in it, a lot of its greatness would have been lost, and any film that relies that much on its lead actress is flawed by default. Its biggest blemish is the screenplay supporting everything. While beautiful at times, the screenplay has a few little gaps that hold the film back from standing out completely.

Michael Berg’s story is what provides most of the gaps in the film. I haven’t pinpointed the exact source of my frustration with his story, but I don’t feel it was the acting (David Kross’s acting, I mean; Ralph Fiennes was totally replaceable in it) or the direction (which was perfect), so I blame the screenplay for not providing more of his story, of his feelings, of his later life. Only in the last ten minutes or so, when he goes to visit Ilana Mather in New York does his story get interesting and intriguing, but by then Fiennes has stepped into the picture (again) and immediately the focus of the film disappears. I think Fiennes is a distinguished actor, but in The Reader he doesn’t do much for me. Lena Olin (as the older Ilana) totally steals all his moments.

You might be surprised to find that Frost/Nixon only excels (meaning, scored a 9.5 or 10) in the acting category. I thought the screenplay wasn’t all that special, though still solid, and have nothing congratulatory to say about its direction, score or visual effect, though each one can be considered great. Where Frost/Nixon really got me was the acting of Frank Langella and of his supporting cast. Yes, I think everyone was secondary to Langella in this little film. I have to admit that I believe Hopkins will for always be the best Nixon, but Langella makes a pretty damn good second. Just watch him during the interviews. Those facial expressions, that look; superb!

People automatically asume that because I’m gay, I deem Milk to be the best film of the year. It’s Brokeback Mountain all over again. I didn’t think Brokeback was the best film back then, and I don’t think Milk is this year — and it has nothing to do with the fact that our sexual preferences match perfectly. Gus Van Sant directed a great film and I have nothing bad to say about it, but it’s on the same level as Frost/Nixon. It doesn’t excel in anything. Sean Penn is stellar in Milk and if it were up to me, he would get the Academy Award for Best Actor, but one superb acting performance does not make a Best Picture winner. Where in Frost/Nixon every performance is something to cheer for, in Milk only Sean Penn is a crowd pleaser. The rest of the cast is “above average” to “great,” but never “excellent.”

And with only one nominee left, we have arrived at my biggest frustration of the year: Slumdog Millionaire!

Danny, Danny, Danny Boyle

There might be some slight spoilers ahead.

Let me begin by stating that I have nothing against Boyle personally.¹ How can I — it’s not like we’re the best of frenemies. It’s not like we go on dates together (I think). What I have against his direction in Slumdog Millionaire is based simply upon my utter dislike for the way he did it. Normally I would say that “utter dislike” is a bit of an overstatement, and to be honest, it is, but I think it’s the only way of describing my feelings.

The direction is not bad per se. Some might even call it unique, slightly experimental, or, if they’re real kooks, Academy Award-worthy. I will tell you something: the direction in Slumdog Millionaire, accompanied by the hysterical cinematography, is in no way worthy of an Academy Award for Best Directing statuette. A nomination, why not, but an actual award? No wait, strike that. John Patrick Shanley should have been nominated for directing Doubt instead of Boyle.

There is such a thing as overkill, Boyle. Slanting the camera a bit may create some crazy shots, I agree with you on so much. Nevertheless, after a while it gets not only annoying, but also somewhat as-if trying too much to be cool and artistic. In the beginning, when we see little rascals running around the slums and the speed dial of the story is set to “Whowza!”, the slanting is justified. This and the light equipment with which the crew runs around makes a great few opening scenes — like a little tour through the slumps. But after a while, the story asks for a more sophisticated approach, as the story itself gets more sophisticated. I felt that the cinematography and direction were stuck in rascal mode throughout the whole film, even though the acting cast did progress in age, wisdom and knowledge.

The screenplay also works against Slumdog Millionaire. People have lauded the film as original and unique just because it combines a coming-of-age love story with “Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?” Yes, the game show aspect of it all is interesting, I agree. But from beginning to end there is nothing surprising or extraordinary about the story.

The boy breaks free. The boy gets the girl. The boy wins the game show. The boy did so because he — surprise, surprise — learned all the correct answers through experience. The boy was never told a single wrong historical fact throughout his whole life, so of course that didn’t work against him during the game show. The boy, when confronted with a bastardly easy final question (that question would never be the final question outside the film reality) to which he doesn’t know the answer, still gets it right because he’s just plain ol’ lucky. The film ends with, “It is written.” Yeah, it is written as one big cliché in the screenplay!

Just a question. When we first meet Jamal Malik we see him being “interrogated” by the police, right? So we already know that he has survived his childhood. Now, let me ask my question: how in hell am I supposed to muster up adrenaline for everything that happens in his childhood when I already know the outcome? It’s like watching The Passion of the Christ. You already know beforehand everything that is going to happen. When you tell us that Jamal will survive the eye-scorching incident by showing us a perfectly eyed future-him, there is no way we’ll be sitting at the tip of our chairs when that particular scene fills the screen.

Nevertheless, all this critique doesn’t mean that I thought it was a waste of film stock. The film is a great ride and — even though it’s a big cliché — the double-happy ending is pretty sweet. I’m just trying to say with all these negative things that it’s by no means the best film of 2008, and that it isn’t as unique and inspiring as some people might believe it is.

Other nominations

All right, time to move on. I’m starting to sound like an ancient grandpa who is suffering from a serious bout of angry dementia.

I think most of my picks speak for themselves, though you might wonder why I picked Amy Adams over Viola Davis as my Best Supporting Actress winner. (You’re not? … Just shut up, okay? You’re killing my buzz.) There is a very simple explanation: though Davis had the brilliance to grab everyone’s attention in just ten minutes of screen time, Amy Adams’s performance took it a step further. Her face showed awkwardness, doubt, certainty and giddy optimism in just one expression, all the while remaining pure and dedicated to her own cause. There was no “acting” to be found within her character; it was all Sister James.

Not that Davis was only “acting” or Penélope Cruz for that matter. No, I’m definitely not saying that. All fine and great actresses, at the top of the acting game, but I had to make a choice and I picked Adams as this year’s best supporting actress.

WALL-E as Best Animated Feature Film (apparently an animated film is not a motion picture) seems self-explanatory, so I won’t waste any space on that, but the Pixar masterpiece as Best Original Screenplay? I knew by heart that WALL-E was the best of the five, but there was one other film that might have turned out as my pick: Happy-Go-Lucky. Its original and humourous twist on optimism was a fresh approach, but WALL-E still trumped it.

My bickering about Slumdog Millionaire‘s screenplay being too cliché could have also been about WALL-E‘s, but you know what differs in Pixar’s case? Naïve love is a lot more interesting to watch than predictable love. WALL-E has a glow of childish passion over him, while some of the characters in Slumdog just have been too well written. In addition to that, the obstacle in WALL-E and EVE’s love affair is unpredictable, while the slumdog affair is well-known and tried.

The obsession that is my love for WALL-E continues in the sound categories. Do I even have to say why? Sure, the sound editing and mixing in The Dark Knight was pretty sweet, but come on! Without the perfect (I sense that I have said that word way too much) sound manipulation in WALL-E the robots would not have been able to express themselves in the perfect way with which they did. The way WALL-E says “EVE” … fan-tas-tic!

Sunday

Enough with all this geeking, for now. The Academy Awards are almost about to start! Well, sure, it’s still a whole day ahead of us, but after 364 days of waiting, I dare to call that almost.

Just like last year, I’ll be live tweeting, though I won’t be as active as last year. I pushed Enter every ten seconds during 2008′s show, which resulted in, well, a flood storm of tweets Noah would be jealous of.

“See” you at the Kodak Theatre!