First Annual Gone Mild Oscar Picks Contest Winner Announced - SEAN R.

It took me an extra day to calculate the winner of the First Annual Gone Mild Oscar Picks Contest because I had a surprisingly large number of submissions, and my technology let me down, so I had to score them all by hand. It was kind of interesting to see where the common mistakes were, though - Transformers and Cate Blanchett are a lot more popular in this corner of the blogosphere than they were at the Academy.

Regardless of all that, the winner, with 17 correct answers, was Sean R., whose last name I will happily publish if he emails me and lets me know whether he wants the full measure of internet adulation. Sean, I also need your Swiss bank account number so I can start sending you 50% of this site's profits for the coming year.

In what I think was an amusing sidenote, my quip about the supposed post-credit scene in No Country for Old Men took on a bit of a life of its own. I received more calls and emails wanting to know about that "scene" than I have ever received on any topic I've written about. While I flirted with either completing the joke by encouraging people to go see the movie again, or by writing my own version of the showdown between Ed Tom Bell and Anton Chigurh, instead I just felt guilty about the stress I caused my favorite librarian. Now, I'll never get any slack on my late fees.

No Country For Old Men

Just saw No Country for Old Men at Screenland. Watching a great movie in a recliner on a huge screen - what could be finer?

My only criticism of the movie is that it was odd how they didn't show the final showdown between the sheriff and the bad guy until after all the credits had run. That was bizarre - most of the audience had left, and missed the most shocking scene I have ever seen on film.

(UPDATE: The final showdown after the credits was my bad idea of a joke! No such scene - just kidding! Apparently, I caused some stress to a few movie-viewers - I'm sorry!)

The Definitive Oscar Picks & Contest

Quick, before you read the following picks, go here and enter the First Annual Gone Mild Oscar Picks Contest. It costs nothing to enter, and the winner will get a 50/50 split of my profits on this website for the coming year. The entry is a simple click-box format, and you can get a copy of your picks emailed to you, so it's a pretty simple way to make and memorialize your 2008 Oscar picks. I'll keep your selections confidential, if you prefer.

Now, these are the ones that will actually win:

Best Picture: Michael Clayton
Best Director: Joel Coen and Ethan Coen
Best Actor: Daniel Day-Lewis in There Will Be Blood
Best Actress: Ellen Page in Juno
Best Supporting Actor: Philip Seymour Hoffman in Charlie Wilson's War
Best Supporting Actress: Ruby Dee in American Gangster
Best Original Screenplay: Juno
Best Adapted Screenplay: No Country for Old Men
Cinematography: There Will Be Blood
Film Editing: There Will Be Blood
Art Direction: Sweeney Todd The Demon Barber of Fleet Street
Costume Design: Across the Universe
Original Score: The Kite Runner
Original Song: "Falling Slowly" -- Once
Best Makeup: Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End
Sound Editing: Ratatouille
Sound Mixing: No Country for Old Men
Best Visual Effects: The Golden Compass
Best Animated Feature Film: Ratatouille
Best Foreign Language Film: The Counterfeiters -- Austria
Best Documentary Feature: Sicko
Best Documentary Short: Sari's Mother
Best Live Action Short: Tanghi Argentini
Best Animated Short: Peter & the Wolf

They are also going to have a special award for "Most Hilariously Awful Stereotypical French Movie Scene and Best Reason to Hate Foreign Films", which will be given to "La Vie En Rose" for the scene in which the little girl and the prostitute lock themselves in a room and cry while they have lipstick smiles painted on their faces.

"Once"

Capsule review here, because what I'd really like to talk about would be a spoiler. So, go to the Tivoli, watch Once, and come back here to talk about it. It's an Irish film about a Dublin busker who winds up in a musical relationship with a Czech immigrant. If, like me, you would have been a world-changingly brilliant singer songwriter if you had only learned to play guitar, you'll enjoy seeing the male lead put together an album with people he meets on the street, while the relationship simmers.

Oddly enough, the male lead (neither of the leads is ever named in the movie) is Glen Hansard, whose only other film is The Commitments, which is one of the best films about music ever made. The guy has found his genre - Irish films about contemporary musicians. It's a small niche, but he totally dominates it.

Worst Movie Title Ever?

I understand the impulse toward pretension and self-importance (not that I ever suffer from either), but I got the giggles in the theater yesterday when the great-looking movie about Ireland's title came on at the end of the trailer - "The Wind that Shakes the Barley".

Perhaps the giggles were brought on by the unintended cinematic references to Christopher Guest's "A Mighty Wind" and Spinal Tap's immortal "Break Like the Wind".

Either way, it looks like a movie I'll enjoy, even if I must stifle giggles over its awful title.

Cinematic Super-Size!

This is pretty cool. Local company AMC is showing all 5 of the Academy Award Best Picture nominees for only $30, and they're throwing in a free large popcorn, a free large drink, and unlimited refills all day.

Fortunately, the only one I've seen is being shown last, so I'll be able to leave a little early.