My 2007 Oscar Ballot

All right, next week we will be back on the Thursday band wagon with these articles, but this week we're going to do a Tuesday article, for a variety of reasons (mostly because I have been working on two long-form political articles for weeks now & I'm hopeful at least one of them will be ready on Thursday, so I'm getting ahead of that...no promises as they require a bit of research though).  Either way, we're going to do 2007 today, arguably the best film year of the decade (just look at that Top 10-magnificent).  If you're new to these series, we've already examined all of the film's nominated for Oscars in 2007 (see links at the bottom of the page), and now we're putting what I would've picked if I had had an Oscar ballot for all of the nominees.  If you're so inclined, put your comments below!

Picture

The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford

Atonement

Away from Her

Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix

Lust, Caution

No Country for Old Men

Once

Ratatouille

There Will Be Blood

Zodiac

Gold: No Country for Old Men is the culmination of the western genre-watching as it modernizes with bad guys & good guys racing against time, not just their own eventual standoff, but also against mortality itself.  One of the greatest neo-noirs ever made.

Silver: Buoyed by a legendary performance from Daniel Day-Lewis, There Will Be Blood is Paul Thomas Anderson's greatest film, living up in every sense of the word to the hype & grandeur he's trying for (while not being distracted by too many loose ends).

Bronze: Atonement is an impossibly romantic movie, one about the love we carry with us momentarily, and how a misunderstanding & a bit of jealousy can create a situation that changes three lives forever.

Director

Paul Thomas Anderson (There Will Be Blood)

Joel & Ethan Coen (No Country for Old Men)

Andrew Dominik (The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford)

David Fincher (Zodiac)

Joe Wright (Atonement)

Gold: The Coen Brothers have built a career off of making quirky figures, ones that feel just-out-of-reach of society, human & relatable.  And yet their magnum opus remains a dark movie, brimming with colorful characters, but playing them for drama rather than laughs.

Silver: Anderson never shies away from his film's ambition.  Not just the ceaseless, endless need to dominate that inhabits his main character, but the way that he pushes him to the brink, and then over the edge, someone who will sell his soul & then just keep bartering himself further into hell.

Bronze: David Fincher's Zodiac is arguably the most underrated film in his arsenal.  A look at how the need to understand can drive men to the precipice, some of them stepping over the line while others can no longer come back.

Actor

George Clooney (Michael Clayton)

Daniel Day-Lewis (There Will Be Blood)

Ryan Gosling (Lars and the Real Girl)

James McAvoy (Atonement)

Brad Pitt (The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford)

Gold: The performance of a lifetime from one of our most gifted thespians, Day-Lewis' Daniel Plainview is the Grand Teton of acting, a mesmerizing, singular achievement that will stand apart as one of the great pieces of the 2000's.

Silver: Due to his California sun god handsomeness, Brad Pitt's thespian abilities are oftentimes underrated, but you do so at your peril here.  Jesse James gives us a look at an unknowable figure, someone that another man can be obsessed with to the point of murder...and through Pitt's determined gaze, continue to hang on him like a specter.

Bronze: James McAvoy has spent much of the past 15 years trading on some of his initial pretty boy appeal, playing monsters & mutants as he stays on the periphery of headliner & character actor.  But in Atonement, he is front-and-center, an impetuous, beautiful rake madly in love with a woman he can never have.

Actress

Amy Adams (Enchanted)

Julie Christie (Away from Her)

Keira Knightley (Atonement)

Laura Linney (The Savages)

Tang Wei (Lust, Caution)

Gold: Julie Christie has spent decades inhabiting hard-edged women.  What happens when she takes that position & let's us see it flitter away before our eyes?  As a woman struggling with an imperfect marriage & losing her memory, we understand the preciousness of time (and trust) in every glance she gives.

Silver: Keira Knightley rises above the typical "corset work" that has been so much her hallmark to give us a woman born of privilege, cheated out of having it all by a cruel twist of fate.  Look at the way she crumbles as the film goes, never quite understanding the consequences of Briony's decisions until much too late.

Bronze: Tang Wei's tale in real life is a hard one (she was banned from acting for a time after this film came out), not just because of the moral injustice, but because it kept an actress at the top of her game from giving us work as detailed & nuanced as what she does in Lust, Caution.

Supporting Actor

Javier Bardem (No Country for Old Men)

Hal Holbrook (Into the Wild)

Tommy Lee Jones (No Country for Old Men)

Mark Ruffalo (Zodiac)

Max von Sydow (The Diving Bell and the Butterfly)

Gold: The haircut would become something of a pop culture punchline, but that's oftentimes what happens when actors give performances as good as Javier Bardem's-his Anton Chigurh would become shorthand for a villain so evil, he must instantly become part of cinema's dastardly firmament.

Silver: The late Hal Holbrook gives the performance-of-a-lifetime in Into the Wild.  He not only gives us an understanding of a hard-edge loneliness that comes with age, but how the yearning for something new, some new relationship, never really disappears.

Bronze: Tommy Lee Jones has spent much of his late career playing versions of the same grizzled curmudgeon (not staying too far away from his real-life persona).  This isn't what he does in No Country, though, as a man who isn't so much ornery as weathered, certain that the best place to be is the sidelines of this tale (that he's being drawn into).

Supporting Actress

Cate Blanchett (I'm Not There)

Kelly Macdonald (No Country for Old Men)

Saoirse Ronan (Atonement)

Imelda Staunton (Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix)

Tilda Swinton (Michael Clayton)

Gold: Genre work can still be genius, people.  And if you need proof of that, look no further than Imelda Staunton's demonic Dolores Umbridge, giving us Satan in a pink pillbox.  Rowling's best villain (sorry Voldemort) comes to life through a bit of flawless casting.

Silver: Tilda Swinton's genius in Michael Clayton is in finding her character's veneer-the audience itself knows where the real Karen begins & ends, but she doesn't.  Also, this deserves a medal just for the way she says "ten million?"

Bronze: Kelly Macdonald has made a strange career of playing placid figures, ones who are strong but unable to acknowledge that strength.  Her best work comes here, as she ties together the stories of three men not by playing their games, but trying to avoid them...even if she can't stop what's coming.

Adapted Screenplay

The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford

Atonement

No Country for Old Men

There Will Be Blood

Zodiac

Gold: The Coen Brothers' script for No Country for Old Men is so tight it's almost as if they've got a bomb hidden in the fabric of this movie; the tension, the constant, unceasing crescendo all building up to who will live and who will die.

Silver: Told in three acts, Atonement is about the passage of time, the way that it marches on and how we only regret the past because we know we cannot change it.  Beautiful, romantic, & unflinching, a total investment in Ian McEwan's rich prose.

Bronze: Sure Daniel Day-Lewis made Daniel Plainview iconic, but it is the writers of There Will Be Blood who brought him the milkshake to begin with-grand soliloquies, they totally invest in his mammoth ego & the chutzpah to back it up.

Original Screenplay

4 Months, 3 Weeks, and 2 Days

Juno

Lars and the Real Girl

Michael Clayton

Ratatouille

Gold: 4 Months script is a miracle of storytelling.  It rarely indulges in expository language or random twists-and-turns, but instead gives us the story of two women, friends (or are they?) who are pulled together through loyalty, and tested by societal pressure & manipulation.

Silver: Diablo Cody's film has had multiple imitators (occasionally even Cody herself), but it's still the original & the best for a reason.  The world she unfolds of a pregnant girl giving up her child for adoption is funny, thoughtful, & spry.

Bronze: Nancy Oliver could've just milked the entire situation of Lars and the Real Girl for cheap laughs.  After all, a movie about a man in love with a sex doll seems more attuned for an Adam Sandler Netflix streamer than what she creates, which is a introspective look at how we find ways to cope with loneliness & our own missed expectations.

Animated Feature Film

Enchanted

Ratatouille

The Simpsons Movie

Gold: Ratatouille is not my favorite Pixar movie, but it is the one I watch the most because there's something there.  The singular story, a glowing Paris, the French food...it just works.  Great vocal work (especially from Peter O'Toole) & lush, dreamy animation totally sell the picture.

Silver: It takes a lot of guts to take one of the most famous animated properties in history, bring it to the big screen for the first time, and not expect groans from the audience as it doesn't live up to the best moments of the series.  But The Simpsons Movie has such a specific, excellent story (and a cast of characters we've loved for so long), it lives up to the hype...I want a sequel, damn it!

Bronze: It is cheating putting Enchanted here, and a weird decision to until you remember that I didn't care at all for Persepolis (I get why it was critically-acclaimed, but I feel like people overlooked the bad story design in favor of the cleverness with the animation) and despite watching some additional films from the year, I have found nothing else to love.  That said, Enchanted does have significant animated elements, and they cleverly spoof the motif that Disney has crafted so I'm letting it slide in a bleak year for this category.

Sound Mixing

Into the Wild

No Country for Old Men

Ratatouille

There Will Be Blood

Zodiac

Gold: It's obviously my favorite movie of the year for a reason, but come on with the mixing in No Country for Old Men.  Eschewing a traditional film score for large swaths of the film, it creates anxiety just through a coin toss & highlighting the dialogue as the movie's central tenet.

Silver: Somehow Oscar skipped There Will Be Blood here, but I shall make no such mistake.  The gigantic oil explosion (and the future ear ringing) is the film's biggest draw, but the entire movie knows that sound (and Jonny Greenwood's score) can linger if done well.

Bronze: All of David Fincher's movies sound good, so it's no surprise that Zodiac does.  The best part of Fincher's movie, though, is the sharp dialogue, and the way he highlights it; notice how the men won't shut up, won't stop analyzing, won't stop obsessing...even as their lives slip from under them.

Sound Editing

3:10 to Yuma

No Country for Old Men

Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End

There Will Be Blood

Transformers

Gold: There are definitely movies with more sound editing than No Country for Old Men, but none that can capture the way that the sound editing can count than this movie.  The gun battles are sparing, but precise-every bullet seems to matter, as if they're being numbered in the air (and that cattle gun sound effect...you can still hear it 14 years later).

Silver: Occasionally, though, more can be better.  Michael Bay is not the Coen Brothers, but I am more than willing to give credit where it's due, and the robust action sequences of Transformers (and the iconic whirling of metal) is a home run, technically speaking.

Bronze: No Country's brother-in-violence There Will Be Blood goes after its sound editing in a different way.  While the former is cool, nearly icy, Blood makes it red hot.  The steam & hiss of the oil rigs almost burn the audience, mirroring the constant fury running from Daniel Plainview.

Original Score

The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford

Atonement

Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix

Lust, Caution

There Will Be Blood

Gold: The click-clack of the typewriter is the best invention in Dario Marianelli's Atonement score, a cruel accompaniment to Briony sealing her fate.  But the whole movie is recognizable & memorable, one of those soundtracks so iconic that it matches the actual fame of its film.

Silver: There Will Be Blood announced Jonny Greenwood as Paul Thomas Anderson's newest asset, giving us a daunting, modern symphony that thunders in the background of this epic tale.

Bronze: Nick Cave & Warren Ellis are also playing with a modern flare in Assassination of Jesse James, giving this film's approach to the western (steeped in historical intensity more than nostalgia) a matching set with a questioning melody.

Original Song

"Falling Slowly," (Once)

"Le Festin," (Ratatouille)

"The Hill," (Once)

"If You Want Me," (Once)

"Society," (Into the Wild)

Gold: At the Oscars in 2007, Enchanted won the final (at least until there's another rule change) trio of nominations for this category, but history would like to note it should have been Once.  "Falling Slowly" is the highlight in the score-the kind of song you hear & remember forever.

Silver: But there's really room for multiple favorites in Once's one-of-a-kind score (there's a reason a low-key musical like this was a hit on Broadway...the music is that good), as "If You Want Me" has a darker, lusher feel to backdrop a mood change in the story.

Bronze: Eddie Vedder's music throughout Into the Wild is a reminder of the lost nature of the film, with a man on a journey to somewhere he cannot understand in his mind.  "Society" is the tune that best captures that-a song about a man who doesn't know if they'll remember him after he's gone.

Art Direction

Atonement

Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix

No Country for Old Men

There Will Be Blood

Zodiac

Gold: Sure, the giant stately mansions of Atonement are to the point of cliche when it comes to rewarding production design, but the reason I'm handing over my gold medal here is the way they infuse the tracking shot with so much rich detail (the ferris wheel, the tattered ship, the gazebo)...war bursts from every orifice.

Silver: There Will Be Blood's Jack Fisk (Mr. Sissy Spacek!) uses minimalism to underline the desolation of Daniel Plainview & the townsfolk he wants to exploit.  Think of the Arthur Miller-like church or the way that the oil rigs tower over all of civilization, informing the viewer that there is no escape.

Bronze: San Francisco in the 1960's feels come-to-life in Zodiac, a movie that gives us tobacco-stained newsrooms & busted up phone booths to show that this is a place that has moved away its Golden City routes, and is now being haunted by a madman.

Cinematography

The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford

Atonement

No Country for Old Men

There Will Be Blood

Zodiac

Gold: Roger Deakins' magnum opus is a series of moving action sequences, fantastically lit.  No Country captures the flat, desolate landscape of Texas better than any film I've ever seen, underlining that there's no place to hide.

Silver: I'm going 1-2 with Deakins here as Jesse James deserves mention.  The movie is littered with beauty, including those extended sequences at dusk.  His best trick is the way he frames Brad Pitt, almost with a carnal lust, emulating what Robert Ford feels about this man-his desire to control him, to be him, to love him.

Bronze: Obviously Atonement's best cinematography trick is that five-minute tracking shot, giving us an overview of the war from every angle of the frame, the way that it expands into every aspect of our young protagonist's lives.  The entire movie is gorgeous, and littered with these touches (the "Briony" yell being in closeup is another favorite), but the tracking shot is why it must medal.

Costume Design

The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford

Atonement

Elzabeth: The Golden Age

The Golden Compass

Lust, Caution

Gold: It's more than just the green dress.  The film has beautiful period costuming, playing off of the sexuality of its leads (James McAvoy's trousers are snug to get you as horny as Cecilia for Robbie), and it's spread across three different eras beautifully.  But...that green dress deserves its spot in the pantheon of movie costuming.

Silver: In virtually any other year, Elizabeth: The Golden Age would have earned that trophy (it might, honestly, be the silver medal for the full decade & surely would be nominated).  Gaudy, beautiful, brimming with color & indulgence, Alexandra Byrne understands the purpose of this movie better than virtually anyone else.

Bronze: Lust, Caution may have drawn most of its headlines from what the leads weren't wearing, but when they are clothed, it's in beautiful designs, well-fit for the characters (erotic & gorgeous).

Film Editing

Atonement

Away from Her

No Country for Old Men

There Will Be Blood

Zodiac

Gold: Judiciously edited, No Country for Old Men has several tricks (including the fact that the three main characters never properly share a scene), but it's in the way that it highlights the story, the use of long shots of the sprawling Texas countryside, that it gets its ambience.

Silver: It's rare that you think of a Paul Thomas Anderson film as edited at all (the man likes to ensure you get your money's worth in terms of runtime), but There Will Be Blood is an exception, giving us ambiguity in key questions (Paul/Eli, obviously, but also how we should approach Daniel's motives) amidst the ceaseless violence of this world.

Bronze: As I've mentioned already, the Atonement tracking shot is one of my favorite scenes in all of 2007-a monument not just to cinematography, but to the film's editing.  But that's true of much of the story, told in a kaleidoscope triptych, with you catching little nods to the past (perhaps even before the characters do).

Makeup & Hairstyling

Atonement

The Golden Compass

Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix

Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End

Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street

Gold: One of the weirdest snubs in recent memory, Sweeney Todd is that great mix of "too much" and "still a blast."  They play on motifs from the stage productions of the play while still drawing its own Tim Burton-esque wonder.

Silver: I know Oscar didn't add "hairstyling" to this description for a few more years, but I keep it here, so we're going to give this to Atonement, which has great period design, while adding specificity (it somehow feels totally in-character for Briony to never change her look).

Bronze: The makeup work in Harry Potter becomes super-realistic.  I loved some of the newer touches here, particularly the way that they make Dolores Umbridge's helmet hair & plastered makeup look so exact.

Visual Effects

The Golden Compass

Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix

Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End

Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street

Transformers

Gold: It may take the IQ of a thimble to actually follow the film's plot, but that doesn't really negate the total revolution that the effects department is driving in Transformers.  Optimus Prime & Bumblebee become totally transformed characters, distinct, shiny, & metal...there's a reason this film became a template for so many action films to follow.

Silver: The third Pirates movie has much of its previous iterations to rely upon (Davy Jones is impressive, but we've been there).  That said, the swirling vortex of Calypso and the sheer scale of At World's End cannot be denied, a thrilling conclusion to the series.

Bronze: Harry Potter continued to step up its effects game as the series went on (the series came of age during transformative years for VFX), and you see that in Order of the Phoenix.  The centaurs showed a marked improvement for the era, and the Voldemort/Dumbledore fire battle is gorgeous.

Also in 2007: Picture, Director, Actress, Actor, Supporting Actress, Supporting Actor, Original Screenplay, Adapted Screenplay, Foreign Language Film, Animated Feature Film, Sound Mixing, Sound Editing, Original Score, Original Song, Art Direction, Cinematography, Costume, Editing, Visual Effects, Makeup, Previously in 2007

Other My Oscar Ballots: 2005, 2008, 2009, 2011, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2019

Meet the Robinsons (2007)

Film: Meet the Robinsons (2007)
Stars: Jordan Fry, Wesley Singerman, Steve Anderson, Nicole Sullivan, Tom Selleck, Angela Bassett, Laurie Metcalf, Adam West
Director: Stephen Anderson
Oscar History: No nominations
Snap Judgment Ranking: 1/5 stars

You know what, in these coronavirus times, it's important to keep distracting ourselves, so I lied this morning-we will have a few more animated films coming down-the-pike in terms of reviews over the next few days, as one of the projects that I'm doing (I'm always doing at least a dozen film-watching projects) is trying to see all of the official Walt Disney Animated Studio films (the 58 films we most commonly associate with "Disney" rather than subsidiary like Pixar or ImageMovers) and with the coronavirus being really depressing, Disney films feel like a good anecdote.  With one exception (Winnie the Pooh), the films I'm missing fall entirely under two time periods: the post-Bambi/pre-Cinderella era where Disney was often making movies that were more a series of shorts than a long-tale narrative, and the post-Tarzan/pre-Princess and the Frog era where Disney was seeing its crown threatened by inter-company rival Pixar.  The latter group has been where I have been focusing my attention with recent viewings of Treasure Planet and Home on the Range, and it's where we're continuing today with one of the least-discussed films of that era, Meet the Robinsons.

(Spoilers Ahead) The film focuses on Lewis (Fry), a brilliant young inventor whose mother abandoned him as a boy at an orphanage.  Lewis, because he's constantly trying to impress with his inventions, never seems to make a connection with parents trying to adopt a child, and thus lives a solitary life, frequently to the chagrin of his roommate Goob.  One day, at the science fair, a different boy, apparently from the future named Wilbur (Singerman), comes and convinces Lewis to come from his time to help stop a man in a Bowler Hat (Anderson).  Along the way, Lewis suddenly befriends Wilbur's family, having them become the surrogate family he's always dreamed of, and suddenly he understands they are the family he's always dreamed of-Wilbur is actually his son, and these are the parents & spouse he's always hoped to have (the man in the Bowler Hat is a constantly jealous Goob).  The film ends with Lewis getting adopted in his own time by what he knows will be his new family, and starting the life he's always dreamed for himself as a successful inventor.

The movie is well-intentioned, but kind of a mess.  There are far, far too many characters, as the expansive family is hard to keep straight.  You have to wonder if Disney, which when it started this movie didn't own Pixar and when it was released did, was hoping this might become a television show or franchise, something where you could highlight the plethora of characters in a meaningful way rather than just introduce & dispose them.  The film is also littered with sight gags that don't really work, and music that feels atonal to the film (not many movies could put Rufus Wainwright & All-American Rejects on the same soundtrack).  It does feature the smash hit "Little Wonders" by Rob Thomas, which...did you know that was from a Disney movie?

Worst of all, though, is the animation.  Some might chalk up the gaudy, cable animated characters to simply being 2007, but that isn't really a valid excuse.  While Meet the Robinsons was coming out, movies like Cars and Ratatouille were showing that computer animation could be stylish, distinctive, and beautiful.  That's not the case here.  The characters are drawn as empty and vapid, not so much leaning into the uncanny valley as just skipping it over for a computer game version of animation.  Meet the Robinsons is perhaps one of the only Disney films I may ever say this about, but-it looks ugly.  I'm curious as I move into some of the other films of this era (I'm taking my #FlattentheCurve very seriously here so I'll be sticking to home as much as is humanly possible) if this is also the case, because even when the story is a failure, Disney almost always gets the aesthetic right.  Just not with Meet the Robinsons.

OVP: Picture (2007)

OVP: Best Picture (2007)

The Nominees Were...

Tim Bevan, Eric Fellner, and Paul Webster, Atonement
Lianne Halfon, Mason Novick, and Russell Smith, Juno
Sydney Pollack, Jennifer Fox, and Kerry Orent, Michael Clayton
Scott Rudin, Ethan Coen, and Joel Coen, No Country for Old Men
JoAnne Seller, Paul Thomas Anderson, and Daniel Lupi, There Will Be Blood

My Thoughts: Well, we officially have come to the finale of the 2007 write-ups.  I have decided to stop pretending that these series' aren't going to take forever to write (it's twenty very long articles, and I don't want the only thing on the blog to be OVP write-ups in case you come here for something not related to a golden statue), so I'm going to not attempt to finish 2015 (our next year) not in a month that becomes a year, but instead in ten weeks, two articles each week.  It's going to be a challenge, admittedly, but I'm up for it.  In the meantime, though, we still have one more race of 2007 to get through, and it's a doozy-arguably the finest Best Picture lineup ever assembled by Oscar during my lifetime.

The only film in this bunch that didn't get a corresponding Best Director nomination was Atonement, which is a pity as Joe Wright's magnum opus is surely a director's film.  Broken into three parts and based on Ian McEwan's breathtaking novel, the picture's true center is watching how one person's decision to bend and then shatter the truth can have lifelong consequences.  The way that Wright frames Atonement is so important because it'd be easy to simply cast Briony as a villain or to assume that the world will get better for Robbie and Cecilia, but things cannot be so uncomplicated, and actions have dire ripple effects.  The movie is gorgeously shot, particularly that famed tracking shot on the beach at Dunkirk and the steamy sex scene in the library, but Wright's greatest gift in the movie is the monumental way that we see how small actions can have major consequences, and finding a way to make romantic epics seem raw and urgent again.

If nothing else has been gained from me revisiting 2007's cinematic lineup, it's that I have saved Michael Clayton in my brain.  I have written about this several times before (all past 2007 races are linked at the bottom of the article, along with every other Best Picture lineup we've covered), but when I first caught it I didn't think much of Michael Clayton, dismissing it as simply another crime procedural, except now on the big screen.  I was wrong, though, as Michael Clayton rises above the procedural, smartly sniffing out the corruption that would become all-too-apparent to the American public in following years after the financial collapse of 2008, and is anchored by two astoundingly good performances from Clooney & Swinton.  Their acting duet, along with sharp music, dialogue, and showy editing makes for a classic 70's-style thriller, in the vein of The French Connection or Z.  It's proof that being a genre snob is a bad idea, as you can still make a terrific movie in any format if the writing and acting is good enough.

This is also the case with Juno, a movie that it's impossible not to love even if you can see its limitations.  There are no bad movies in this lineup, nor mediocre ones (the first time I've been able to say that in our OVP), but Juno is the only one where there are clearly mistakes.  The film doesn't quite know what to do with Jason Bateman's character (and neither does Bateman), and Michael Cera is almost a completely blank slate, as is his romance with Juno (and Rainn Wilson's role feels cloying at best).  Still, the relationship between Juno and her parents, the way that she grows so gradually but still believably, and the twist of Jennifer Garner emerging as the audience favorite (still the best thing she's done in her career by a country mile), makes for a difficult-to-root-against movie. Flawed, but highly watchable (and rewatchable).

It's easy to get lost in There Will Be Blood's towering central performance of Daniel Day-Lewis the fact that the movie itself is quite a miracle onto itself.  So often when I think of There Will Be Blood (which is often-it's a gargantuan cinematic experience for me), I think of Day-Lewis shooting for the rafters in a way that's impossible to ignore-it's one of those performances that probably could win an Oscar in most years, not just the one it was placed within.  But the film itself still unfolds like a short story, in a series of quick vignettes which is a great trick in a picture that clocks in at 160 minutes.  The movie wouldn't work if we didn't see the slow decay of Eli Sunday, or if it didn't wander aimlessly in the vast expanse of the Texas desert.  It's a major motion picture, the kind that can only work as a movie (TV would ruin this story completely by trying to "understand" Daniel rather than just leaving him a menacing nightmare), and the best thing anyone involved has made before or since.

It's still fascinating to me that two leading contenders for the Oscars could be so similar, and so wonderful (in many ways, 2007 reminds me of the twin achievements of All About Eve and Sunset Boulevard, who were battling it out for Best Picture some 57 years previous).  No Country for Old Men also requires desolation, men of questionable integrity, and the harshness of the Texas countryside to create its mood, but while There Will Be Blood is a small story told large, No Country is a movie that hinges on its script being told as a ticking clock, counting down to inevitable destruction and doom.  The movie works because the Coen Brothers know this, never wasting a second of film on anything that isn't getting us to inevitable showdowns, a dire High Noon for the modern age.  Anchored by three terrific leading men and a supporting woman that links them all, it's a still vital and austere look at shredded humanity and what a man damned to hell becomes on his descent.

Other Precursor Contenders: The Globes in 2007 got awfully greedy, though understandably considering how good the year was for films, and actually nominated twelve pictures for their top prizes, a result of a strange tie in the Best Drama category, where Atonement stood atop six rather than the usual four nominees (American Gangster, Eastern Promises, The Great Debaters (a movie I never got around to-is it any good?), Michael Clayton, No Country for Old Men, and There Will Be Blood).  The Comedy category stayed sanely at five, though again they struck their own chord with the victor as Sweeney Todd bested Across the Universe, Charlie Wilson's War, Hairspray, and Juno.  The PGA Awards were still in a five-wide field at the time, but skipped HFPA's victorious Atonement from Oscar's lineup, instead selecting The Diving Bell and the Butterfly (No Country won), while BAFTA passed on both Juno and Michael Clayton in favor of The Lives of Others and American Gangster (Atonement won here as well).  In terms of who just missed, I think you could make a sincere argument that American Gangster or The Diving Bell and the Butterfly were in sixth place, but my gut is telling me that the latter was always more of a "odd-man out in Best Director" situation, so I'd guess it was Ridley Scott's largely forgotten epic that was a just miss.

Films I Would Have Nominated: I cannot reiterate enough because I won't say this very often in this project-this is a very good Best Picture lineup.  There are no problems here.  That being said, I still think that there are better movies to choose, specifically Zodiac and The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford.  The former is a fascinating look at real men & their reaction to the figurative devil in their midst (a truly great ensemble picture), and the latter a towering acting duet that shows betrayal in its rawest forms (accompanied by splendid Roger Deakins' cinematography).  Both films feel similar in energy to No Country and There Will Be Blood, so I get why Oscar didn't go there, but they're two truly excellent movies that deserved to be called Best Picture.

Oscar’s Choice: Despite Atonement doing very well in precursors, I think it was No Country besting There Will Be Blood, and I don't think it was close.  It was one of those situations similar to the previous year's Departed where AMPAS wanted to wholly embrace one of their favorites who had never won the big prizes, so the Coen Brothers got their moment-in-the-sun.

My Choice: No Country for Old Men is one of my favorite movies, and is the winner here even though my silver (There Will Be Blood) and bronze (Atonement) would make very worthy Best Picture winners (they'd have beaten anyone in the lineup the year before or after).  Follow that with Michael Clayton and then Juno and we are closing the book on 2007!

Yes, we're done with 2007, but you can still join me for a discussion of the year in the comments-AMPAS and I matched up, but I want to hear your thoughts.  Who was the best picture of 2007?  Was it American Gangster or The Diving Bell and the Butterfly in sixth place?  What will it take to finally get Paul Thomas Anderson an Oscar?  And should I check out The Great Debaters?  Share your thoughts on anything 2007-related below!

Also in 2007: Director, Actress, Actor, Supporting Actress, Supporting Actor, Original Screenplay, Adapted Screenplay, Foreign Language Film, Animated Feature Film, Sound Mixing, Sound Editing, Original Score, Original Song, Art Direction, Cinematography, Costume, Editing, Visual Effects, Makeup, Previously in 2007

Past Best Picture Contests: 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

OVP: Director (2007)

OVP: Best Director (2007)

The Nominees Were...

Paul Thomas Anderson, There Will Be Blood
Joel and Ethan Coen, No Country for Old Men
Tony Gilroy, Michael Clayton
Jason Reitman, Juno
Julian Schnabel, The Diving Bell and the Butterfly

My Thoughts: All right, toward the end of these write-ups, I always feel like we've hit most of these movies repeatedly, to the point where I'm curious if I have anything new to say about the pictures themselves, but I can't really skip Best Picture/Director, now can I?  At some point I might want to start with Picture and work our way backward-maybe the 10th in the series I'll give that a shot (I've already by the time you're reading this started our next installment of the series, which will be 2015).  Either way, here we have five films, only one of which won't show up in next week's finale to our 2007 OVP, and so we're going to start with him.

Julian Schnabel's The Diving Bell and the Butterfly is not my favorite movie.  There are elements of the picture that I liked, but it constantly feels too gimmick-y, with a director that doesn't really understand that sympathy for a protagonist's condition doesn't always translate into likability.  The film itself surely won this nomination for the bold view it takes of the world, regularly putting us in the at times jarring viewpoint of our main character, who is confined forever in locked-in syndrome after a stroke.  It's a neat directorial choice, and works for a while, but the director uses the trick too often to underline the points of his film, and as a result sort of sells the script short.  The film is a unique experience, but that doesn't translate here to being a great one.

One could argue that Tony Gilroy's Michael Clayton doesn't have the same level of specificity that Schnabel achieves, and admittedly Michael Clayton is hardly a director's film in my opinion-it's far more in the hands of its writers and actors.  The movie itself moves quickly and assuredly to its final point, though, and that's on Gilroy.  It's a testament to his ability to bring out the best in those actors, and in particular his editors, to keep this movie from going into regular pablum that you'd expect from a generic thriller.  I liked the way he uses the camera to peer around a corner or above a lobby, as if we the audience are peaking in on these characters who are trying to avoid detection.  Gilroy's filmography is still so thin it's hard to tell if this is a directorial tick or just something he brought to Michael Clayton, but it's very effective.

The Coen Brothers are obviously directors where we do know their favorite tricks, but it's still staggering to me how well No Country for Old Men stands out as a movie that completely exists on its own, and yet it's decidedly a Coen Brothers movie.  Most directors would have gotten in the way of Cormac McCarthy's haunting story by trying to put their own flourishes on it (can you imagine, say, David Fincher or Wes Anderson doing a picture like this without making it very familiar?), but the Coens only add touches here and there (think Kathy Lamkin as the hotel manager or Beth Grant's entire role), largely sticking to the tick-tick-tick of Llewelyn Moss's fate.  The way that our characters must keep moving to stay alive is how they handle the camera-steady, constant, and assured.  It's a very tight picture, one with few frills and almost entirely centered upon three men's destinies, even when we get a scene that appears outside their purview.  Brilliant work from the brothers, arguably their best (and that's saying something).

Paul Thomas Anderson, I also feel, does his strongest work with There Will Be Blood (another high compliment), though tightest the word I'd be use for Anderson's filmography.  PTA's long, sprawling movies could hardly be called tight, though that doesn't mean that it's not fitting the picture in the case of There Will Be Blood.  To tell such a story with such a gigantic performance, you need time to percolate, and you get the sense from Anderson that he is making this "The Short Stories of Daniel Plainview's Life," eventually showing what he would lead to in chapters rather than one continuous loop.  This allows us to see Eli's descent into hell (I think it's apparent from the final scenes that Daniel has always been there, waiting for his soul), and we slowly realize that it was Eli who kept slipping from grace, not Daniel who was at the bottom already.  I love the way that PTA mirrors both men's journeys, but keeps Daniel at the center so it isn't obvious that he's brought him down to his level.  Taken with The Master, it shows his strongest capability as a director may be individual character pieces (or duets), rather than the sprawling cast stories he's so well-known for creating.

Finally there's Jason Reitman, whose work in Juno is good, if admittedly I feel like I'm more getting the vision of Diablo Cody and Ellen Page than I am the director himself.  This is a result of Juno being the product of the screenwriters, so well-known for its instantly quotable dialogue, than really for any specific directorial flourishes.  We'd learn as Reitman continued in his career that this quirky style wasn't unique to just his partnership with Cody, but I do think that while Juno is a good film (some of that credit goes to the director), this is about all that he has going for him here-there's nothing specifically compelling about the way he frames the film, and really it is more a testament to his editors that they smartly created the parent-daughter dynamic that hallmarks the film, or the way that Garner's face is lit compared to Bateman's, the shifting sympathy in that relationship.  It's a good movie, but I don't know that I would have put it in Best Director as it feels pretty meh in that department.

Other Precursor Contenders: Best Director is one of those rare fields where the Globes, Guilds, and BAFTA awards all have the same number of nominees (aside from the supporting actor races, this is the only OVP category where this is the case).  This doesn't always mean uniformity though, as we see at the DGA where Sean Penn takes out Jason Reitman for his work in Into the Wild (does anyone else find it odd that Penn isn't randomly doing some Brando-esque vanity project right now considering he's already taken the plunge into directing?), with the Coen Brothers the victors.  The Globes strangely skipped the opportunity to honor Penn (they are the awards' body that is most likely to go with an actor-turned-director), but did include Tim Burton (Sweeney Todd), Joe Wright (Atonement), and Ridley Scott (American Gangster), leaving only the Coen Brothers and the winning Julian Schnabel from AMPAS's lineup.  Finally the BAFTAs also took their own approach, keeping the Coen Brothers (their champions) and PTA, but finding room then for Wright, Paul Greengrass (The Bourne Ultimatum), and Florian Henckel von Donnersmarckk (The Lives of Others, and yes, the guy who also directed The Tourist).  The sixth place position points pretty solidly toward Wright, but am I crazy for thinking Greengrass may have been closer than expected?  He'd been odd-man-out the year before for United 93, so he was well-known to the Academy, and the film was so popular when it came to actual trophies that it feels like a shock nomination that would have made sense in hindsight.

Directors I Would Have Nominated: I would have made room for Wright, as I think that Atonement is a direct product of his assured camerawork and combination of beauty and tragedy.  I also would have made room for David Fincher.  I think it's quite funny that he ended up finally breaking through with AMPAS over a movie like The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, which throws out almost all of his trademark styles & flavors, and isn't remotely as good as a picture as Zodiac, which at once is a tale about a murderer who escaped justice, but transforms into a tale about how men will go mad trying to chase a glory that they can never attain.
Oscar's Choice: It was the Coen Brothers turn after a decade of getting close, and Oscar knew it.  In most other years something as big as There Will Be Blood probably would have been a serious contender, so I think Anderson was second place, and I do think that he will eventually get his hands on this trophy for a different picture.

My Choice: No Country for Old Men is one of my favorite movies, and it's hard to argue with consensus here.  I'd follow it relatively closely with Anderson, and then at a respectable distance Gilroy, Schnabel, and Reitman.

Those were my thoughts-how about yours?  Does anyone want to make the case for someone other than the Coen Brothers, or are we all fine with giving this to the Minnesotans?  What do you think it'll take for Paul Thomas Anderson to finally win an Oscar?  And do you think Paul Greengrass was closer than expected to a nomination here?  Share your thoughts in the comments!

Also in 2007: Actress, Actor, Supporting Actress, Supporting Actor, Original Screenplay, Adapted Screenplay, Foreign Language Film, Animated Feature Film, Sound Mixing, Sound Editing, Original Score, Original Song, Art Direction, Cinematography, Costume, Editing, Visual Effects, Makeup, Previously in 2007

Past Best Director Contests: 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

OVP: Actress (2007)

OVP: Best Actress (2007)

The Nominees Were...

Cate Blanchett, Elizabeth: The Golden Age
Julie Christie, Away from Her
Marion Cotillard, La Vie en Rose
Laura Linney, The Savages
Ellen Page, Juno

My Thoughts: It's strange to think that one of my favorite categories at the Oscars, the Best Actress field, was so atypically weak in one of Oscar's best years (by far the finest of the ones we've profiled so far), but it's hard not to look at the above photos and realize that 2007 wasn't a high water-mark for this category when remembering these performances as a collective.  Surely these are all good actresses, with all but one of them nominated for another film in addition to 2007, but it's hard to look at anyone here as doing the best work of their career save Page, who hasn't really done anything since that can compare.  Either way, I profile through the good and the bad, and there is admittedly some good to be had here, particularly when it comes to Julie Christie's brief comeback vehicle in Away from Her.

Comeback is probably the wrong term for Christie, however, as this was hardly a marked return and in a way many thought she'd simply retire from acting after this (considering the dearth of good movie roles she had in the following years, perhaps that would have been for the best).  Christie's Fiona is a thing of beauty, as is her performance.  I love the way she still uses certain attributes that are innate to her (her beauty, her charm, her confidence) far after her memories have started to fade.  The performance is at once very cerebral and physical, and she uses her movie star quality to quickly connect to the audience, Lara disappearing before our eyes.  I love the chemistry she has with Pinsent, and how she still comes of age even as her life is slipping away.  It's a breathtaking, raw performance and one of her best, a great testament to how certain actors never lose their gifts.

Her main competitor for the Oscar at the time seemed to be Marion Cotillard, who was the ingenue in the field and ended up being a major, major talent in the years that followed, taking on the baton that Juliette Binoche had left in terms of "French actress that American audiences are enamored with."  Cotillard is one of my favorite performers of the past decade, but I'll be the first person to admit that I didn't really get this, and I think it's the least of her celebrated roles.  She physically takes on Edith Piaf, but it borders into the hammy, and I don't really think I know Piaf the consummate professional, as Cotillard plays her more as a freak-of-nature style singer, someone who can belt to the rafters but is otherwise a figure of constant tragedy.  She isn't helped by the movie being standard-fare "famous musician biopic," but this is just a large performance, not a particularly good one.  Add in that the best part of her performance, the singing, is done by Piaf and not by her and I will admit this leaves me lacking.

Another world-class actress giving a performance that screams to the heavens is Cate Blanchett.  Our double nominee (she was just in our Supporting Actress lineup), this is hardly the master class of acting that I'm Not There shows itself to be, instead Blanchett becomes a massive tower of camp at her best, and hammily sunk by a self-important script at worst.  Her best actual acting is the film's light comedy bits, particularly those involving her being courted by foreign princes, and I will admit it's fun to watch her scenery-chewing when she gives speeches like "I too can command the winds sir!", but this is not great acting or a performance that should be celebrated outside of an episode of Drag Race.  Even Blanchett herself appeared somewhat embarrassed by the nomination when the clip played at the Oscars that year.  Let's chalk it up to Cate love and remember she genuinely earned most of her other nominations.

Laura Linney had previously lost to Blanchett in 2004 for Kinsey, and she went home empty-handed yet again for The Savages.  This film was just so-so but I remember being truly struck by Linney's Wendy at the time, the way that she plays her as someone who has a completely different internal vision of herself than what she projects to the world and what she actually was.  It's a difficult part to play, and she inhabits years of disappointment with her life onscreen with refreshing honesty-Wendy is a character you root for, but one that you're uncomfortable with their decisions, and Linney knows that.  Linney hasn't really done anything onscreen that remotely approaches this work (keeping her best stuff for television), but this is a reminder of what a dynamic powerhouse of an actor she can be when given the chance.

Finally we have Ellen Page, playing the iconic Juno in the self-titled film.  Page does such a sure job taking on Diablo Cody's very specific script that I worried for a while after this performance that she'd be typecast (this was not the case, in fact she's never played a part similar), as it's a very confident, extroverted performance that wears well on re-viewing.  I did feel at times that Page gets lost in the words, not entirely understanding where Juno herself is coming from in a scene or whether she's just playing off of the script, but her best scenes, particularly that great final monologue about Jennifer Garner's character and her sublime interactions with Allison Janney and JK Simmons, are what make this movie work so well and make her performance so special.  She may never do anything quite this sensational again, but it's a cool nomination.

Other Precursor Contenders: The Golden Globes of course split their nominations between Drama and Comedy/Musical, but even though that happened weirdly Laura Linney was nowhere to be seen (they clearly had caught the picture as Philip Seymour Hoffman had been cited for the film in Best Actor).  Christie emerged victorious in Drama over Blanchett, Keira Knightley (Atonement), Angelina Jolie (A Mighty Heart), and Jodie Foster (The Brave One), while Cotillard was the champion in Comedy/Musical (emphasis on the musical in her case, as La Vie en Rose struggles for even a single laugh), besting Page, Amy Adams (Enchanted), Helena Bonham Carter (Sweeny Todd), and Nikki Blonsky (Hairspray).  BAFTA also threw out Linney, keeping in Knightley (Cotillard won), while the SAG Awards favored Jolie over Linney (Christie won).  All-in-all, I remember at the time that Jolie was the shocking exclusion for A Mighty Heart, but don't forget how rare it is for women to miss for Best Picture nominees-Knightley was probably closer than we initially considered.

Actors I Would Have Nominated: I definitely would have included Knightley if I were making this list.  Her performance in Atonement is classic full-bodied, breathy Keira as we know and love her, and I'm just a huge fan in general, but I'd argue this is her best performance to date (she was the threat for my own personal win that year, coming in second).  I also think it's bizarre considering the Academy's love for Amy Adams that they skipped over one of her more iconic roles, as Princess Giselle is a delightful skewering of Disney all-the-while keeping her character likable and real in her own reality.  It's not the sort of thing that ever gets nominated, save for Mary Poppins, but it should have been.  Finally, we have Tang Wei, who gave a sultry, sexy, and marvelous performance in Lust, Caution, and then was banned from acting for a few years by the Chinese government.  The performance itself was worthy enough, that she was later banned from acting was a heinous act of censorship, and it'd have been nice if AMPAS had killed two birds with one stone by nominating her, as she was worthy AND it would have struck a blow to governments banning art.

Oscar’s Choice: 2007 was a genuinely close race.  Cotillard and Christie dominated the precursors, but I do recall Page getting a last-minute push from the press to take the trophy.  Cotillard won, in what was yet another "deglam" victory in 2007, but I think the other two were nipping at her heels.

My Choice: A pretty easy victory for Julie Christie, the only performance I truly loved of this bunch. I'll follow her up with Linney, Page, Blanchett, and Cotillard in back.

Those are my thoughts, but now I want to hear yours!  Are you with me in the Team Christie camp or are your Edith Piaf records doing a scratch right about now?  Anyone think that Ellen Page will ever get another nomination, or is she in the one-and-done club forever?  And was it Knightley or Jolie that was in sixth place?  Sound off in the comments!

Also in 2007: Actor, Supporting Actress, Supporting Actor, Original Screenplay, Adapted Screenplay, Foreign Language Film, Animated Feature Film, Sound Mixing, Sound Editing, Original Score, Original Song, Art Direction, Cinematography, Costume, Editing, Visual Effects, Makeup, Previously in 2007

Past Best Actress Contests: 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014