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February 18, 2005"Million Dollar Baby"...
I saw "Million Dollar Baby" this evening. It was a good enough movie, but one that was hyped into an unwinnable corner by all the gushing praise it's received. Not as good of a movie as, say, "Unforgiven" or "Mystic River," and not the best movie of the year.
Of course, my enjoyment of the film may have been diminished by the fact that I was savvy to a pretty important event in the film's plot before I watched it, thanks to the likes of Maggie Gallagher and other columnists and pundits who were in too much of a hurry to praise or condemn said event to alert their readers to the spoilers ahead.
Now that I've seen "Million Dollar Baby," I think I'm in a better place to make a some Oscar predictions regarding the Best Actor and Best Supporting Actor categories.
BEST ACTOR NOMINEES:
Don Cheadle - "Hotel Rwanda"
Johnny Depp - "Finding Neverland"
Leonardo DiCaprio - "The Aviator"
Clint Eastwood - "Million Dollar Baby"
Jamie Foxx - "Ray"
While it's certainly heartening to see two African-American men on the list of nominees, I'm going to be crass and suggest that the Academy will feel, collectively, that they just had their year for the minorities. There will be no love for either Don or Jamie with regards to the Best Actor Oscar. They'll give it to Clint Eastwood as one of those "We're honoring your whole body of work with one award 'cause you're old and could die at any moment" deals. However, Jamie Foxx will get the Supporting Actor Oscar for his work in "Collateral" (thus beating out the likes of Thomas Haden Church, Morgan Freeman, Alan Alda, and Clive Owen) as an unofficial consolation prize.
Of course, I saw fewer movies last year than any year in recent memory, so what do I know?
Posted by patrick at February 18, 2005 01:50 AM
CommentsGenerally, though, it seems like the films that get to the Best Pic nom status are... well, studio and formulaic. There are exceptions -- American Beauty comes to mind. But don't forget that Gladiator also won, and it was a piece of crap.
Still -- toss certain hot bits at Hollywood; physical handicap, main character bites the dust; and they can't help but vote for the film.
Personally, I'd vote for Sideways. It doesn't have a chance in hell of winning, but it should.
And, apropos of nothing -- the comments section on my blog is rather sparse. Please give me a plug... http://teotwawki23.blogspot.com/
Posted by: Jon Bastian at February 22, 2005 09:47 PM
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