The Oscar Race

Today we will handle best Pic Nominations;

The underdog: Juno

A clever and hilarious look at one of the most popular after-school-special plots of all time... teenage pregnancy. Ellen Page delivers a solid performance in the title role. The writing is so witty and fun that it overshadows Page's strong performance. Not a likely Best Picture winner but with its 100+ Million box office take, its by far the most popular of the 5 nominees.

Jennifer Garner, Michael Cera, and JK Simmons are among a few of the stand out supporting roles in what has been tagged as this years Little Miss Sunshine. But like Sunshine a year ago, Juno will have to settle for the joy of the nomination.

Over-rated: Michael Clayton

Over-rated is a tough way to start this synopsis but Clayton honestly does not deserve to be in the group with these other fine movies (not that I've seen Atonement... yet). Clooney plays Clooney as a lawyer and he does it well. Tom Wilkinson gives his best performance since the terribly underrated In the Bedroom. Tilda Swinton... well, I just dont like her in anything. The plot twists are fun and they do catch you off guard but for a Best Picture to rely on an unforseeable twist is not a good thing. If a twist was all you needed to win a nomination, we'd see Fight Club and Wild Things holding statues as well.

A Close Second: There Will Be Blood

Thank god for Daniel Day-Lewis! Being a very unreligious man myself, I still feel like I must praise the holly lord for this fine actor. Lewis' performance is the best of the year, one of the top 5 or so I have ever seen (his performance in Gang's of New York is also on that list). Lewis takes his character, Daniel Plainview, a gritty oil driller, and pours every bit of energy he has into the role. The acting is so amazing that I found myself thinking this must be what Lewis is like in real life. Though a 3 1/2 star movie itself, the 2 1/2 hours have no steam when Plainview is off the screen. There is great cinematography but the overall amazement is kept solidly on the lead and the subtracts at the end from the final film just enough that its is this years runner up.

BEST PICTURE WINNER: No Country for Old Men

The Coen Brothers are genius. The film is genius. The acting is perfect from Josh Brolin to Tommy Lee Jones to Javier Bardem to Woody Harrelson. There is not a moment in the film that is not exciting. The editing, the sound, the landscapes, set designs, character development, gun battles, the horror, and the characters' chemistry are all perfect. The open ending is the one thing that stops the movie from being a full 4 star epic. But in a season where it has dominated the Best Picture Awards, it will continue to roll right to the Oscar podium. By the way, Javier Bardem gives the second best performance of the year here. Fortunatley for both Lewis and Bardem, they are in two seperate categories, lead and supporting respectively.