Tonight I watched the last two movies on my Oscar list. If I had a ballot in front of me right now here is the order I would rank the following nominees in the following categories. This is not a prediction of the winner, just my picks…
Best Picture: Out of all of these movies I only wanted to see one, Slumdog Millionaire, and yet I was pleasantly surprised with each film. This was a hard category to rank because they were all really good.
1. Slumdog Millionaire
2. The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
3. Milk
4. The Reader
5. Frost / Nixon
Best Actor: My strongest and most confident Oscar pick by far is Sean Penn. If he does not win best actor for his portrayal of Harvey Milk in Milk I will be sad and disappointed. And it’s not just because he used to be married to Madonna.
1. Sean Penn – Milk
2. Frank Langella – Frost / Nixon
3. Brad Pitt – The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
4. Richard Jenkins – The Visitor
5. Mickey Rourke – The Wrestler
Best Actress: The Reader was the first movie I saw in this category and after watching it I put Kate Winslet at the top of my list and kept her there as I watched the rest of the movies. But I can’t help to think that Revolutionary Road, which is in the best supporting actor category, was sneaked in purely for the voters to see Kate in two vastly different rolls.
1. Kate Winslet – The Reader
2. Meryl Streep – Doubt
3. Melissa Leo – Frozen River
4. Angelina Jolie – Changeling
5. Anne Hathaway – Rachel Getting Married
Best Supporting Actor: I went back and forth with my top pick here as I was impressed with my top two choices. I guess it came down to the fact that Philip Seymour Hoffman really made me feel, well, doubt.
1. Philip Seymour Hoffman – Doubt
2. Michael Shannon – Revolutionary Road
3. Josh Brolin – Milk
4. Heath Ledger – The Dark Night
5. Robert Downey Jr. – Tropic Thunder (Seriously? No, really, seriously?)
Best Supporting Actress: The category in which I struggled the most. No clear winner here for me.
1. Penelope Cruz – Vicky Cristina Barcelona
2. Viola Davis – Doubt
3. Taraji P. Williams – The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
4. Amy Adams – Doubt
5. Marisa Tomei – The Wrestler
Due to movie overlap there are other categories in which I have seen all of the movies. But am not ranking them due to what I feel is a lack of expertise, especially Best Adapted Screenplay, seeing how I never read the books or plays they were adapted from.
Having watched all of these movies Oscar night will certainly have more meaning for me this year than just best and worst dressed – though I will be paying attention to that as well. And I think this is something I will do again next year. Even though it was pricey and time consuming I did walk away seeing some really great films I otherwise wouldn’t have. And some films I didn’t really care for. In the end it may be watching the Oscars that will help me decide if it was worth it.