Oscar Campaign Bust #6: Casino Royale & Quantum of Solace

007 has received no Oscar love since For Your Eyes Only (1981).

Skyfall is finally opening in the U.S. this week. Since it is getting some Oscar buzz, I thought it would be interesting to look back at the last two campaign efforts in the Bond franchise.

After a 4-year absence, Bond returned in 2006's Casino Royale, with Daniel Craig taking over the classic character in this reboot. In the wake of great reviews and a healthy box office take, it became the highest grossing 007 film, and awards talk began. A new, grittier Bond that was actually successful had to lead to some awards, right? And so it did. From the studio's campaign, the film received 9 BAFTA nominations, including a Best Actor nod for Daniel Craig and a win for Best Sound. The film's original song "You Know My Name" even got a Grammy nomination the following year. But Oscar never came calling.

Two years later, Bond and Craig were back in Quantum of Solace, and audiences were ready for more...until the film was released. The backlash began with mixed reviews, followed by the general disappointment of fans everywhere. (I think it's a mishandled gem, but that's neither here nor there.) Despite the negative reaction, the film became the second highest grossing Bond film ever. So, the studio went for it again, campaigning the film in technical categories. And it worked, to some extent. The film actually received 2 BAFTA nominations and 2 Critics Choice nods. While the original song "Another Way to Die" wasn't as popular, it did get some awards attention as well. Still, Oscar passed on the film.

Now, Skyfall will be trying for a third time (as a Craig-helmed 007 film), and it appears to have the best chance at nabbing some Oscar nods. It has a realistic shot at 5 nominations. Will it get them? We'll have to wait until January to see.

260. Chris & Don: A Love Story

260. (03 Nov) Chris & Don: A Love Story (2008, Tina Mascara & Guido Santi) 60



A intriguing look at the lengthy romance of Don Bachardy and Christopher Isherwood, this barely scratches the surface of the complexities of their relationship. There's certainly a creepiness when Don Bachardy discusses how Christopher Isherwood viewed him as a father in his youth while they were having a sexual relationship. But the ongoing and evolving nature of their love affair makes it clear just how deeply they felt for one another through the trials they faced over 34 years. That's powerful stuff, especially as this contextualizes Bachardy's struggle to become an artistic equal to Isherwood while living off his wealth and fame.

Oscar Campaign Bust #4: I've Loved You So Long

I haven't done one of these since April, so I thought I'd finally post a fourth entry. You can see the previous ones here, here, and here.

In 2008, this French film starring Oscar nominee Kristin Scott Thomas was released to rave reviews. As a woman returning to society from a lengthy prison stint for murder, Scott Thomas gave a devastating, heartfelt performance, backed by a strong performance from Elsa Zylberstein as her sister. Both actresses received some awards recognition, and Scott Thomas even received BAFTA, Golden Globe, and Cesar nominations. The film also had Sony Picture Classics backing it, which only improved its awards campaign. Despite these credentials, it did not receive much Oscar consideration, because The Class - by rule - was the only film that France could submit for Best Foreign Language Film. So, the film's best shot was Best Actress, and it came up just short. 

Did it deserve to be nominated? Yes, if not for Best Foreign Language Film, then at the very least for Best Actress and Best Supporting Actress.

188. The Happening

188. (04 Sep) /The Happening/ (2008, M. Night Shyamalan) 20



Four years after my initial viewing and so much of The Happening remains hilarious and clear in my mind. The film is truly an enigma; it's at times so campy it must be deliberate, but in turn is disorientingly and preposterously self-serious and wonky. Shyamalan's The Last Airbender doesn't match this in tone whatsoever, making it seem like a fluke that this is so fun and watchable. That also reassures me that The Happening, for all its silliness, is somehow not playing for laughs. Yikes. At least Betty Buckley's batshit crazy appearance is as irresistible as ever.

The Curious Case of Benjamin Button

The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, 2008
Directed by David Fincher
Nominated for 13 Oscars, Won 3
Lost BP To: Slumdog Millionaire

The Curious Case of Benjamin Button is loosely based on the short story by F. Scott Fitzgerald. It tells the story of Benjamin, who was born as old man, and who ages in reverse. That is, to say, he gets younger instead of getting older. In this film version, directed by David Fincher, Benjamin was born the day the Great War ended. His mother died in child birth, and his father was horrified by the sight of him. He was born with cataracts, wrinkled skin, and arthirits. His father contemplated throwing him in the river but leaves him on the doorstep of a home (whether random or not, we're not sure). A young black woman named Queenie, who helps run a seniors home, takes him in and cares for him. Thinking he doesn't have long left anyway, Queenie keeps him. And he begins to get younger.

This story is told by the way of a young woman, reading Benjamin's diary to her dying mother, who is in the hospital during, what we think is, the beginnings of Hurricane Katrina. The old woman's name is Daisy. The love of Benjamin's life. Benjamin meets Daisy when he's very young (or still very old), and she's around 6 or 7. Her grandmother lives in the seniors home, and they are kindred spirits and become pals- in the way little girls and old men do.

The movie is Benjamin's entire life. Him getting younger, leaving home, living on a tugboat in Russia, having an affair with a married woman, working the tugboat in WWII, being attacked by submarine there, falling in love with Daisy, being apart from Daisy, being with Daisy, and getting younger.

The idea for this film had been floating around for a long time. The rights to the story was bought back in the 70s, Jack Nicholson originally slated to star. Other buyers of the rights included Steven Spielburg (in the 90's, with a Tom Cruise slated as Benjamin) but went on to direct Jurassic Park and Schindlers List. Kathleen Kennedy and Frank Marshall were sold the rights. Several different directors and stars were slated. Ron Howard (starring John Travolta), Spike Jonze, Gary Ross, and finally David Fincher, with several, several screenplays having been written. But finally, Brad Pitt was cast as Benjamin, Cate Blanchett was Daisy, and filming began in November 2006.

The film clocks in at 2 hours, and 46 minutes. The film spans Benjamin's entire life, from birth to death. The first time I watched this movie with my family, we complained it was so long, and so boring, and who cares. But then, as I've had before, I had the urging to rewatch it. So I did, and it's become a favourite film (just missing my top 10- taking the 11th spot). Many others have shared in my initial complaints that it was long and dull, and some have even compared it to Forrest Gump, being the story of a man born with defects that he eventually overcomes. He falls in love with a young girl while their both young, are companions, and aren't together for a long time (she rejects him), and eventually come together for a short time, shorter than they would've liked, lived on a boat, went to war, and had mother's who gave them quotes about not knowing what to expect of life. Eric Roth, penned the screenplays for both films and many have compared them, though they are incredibly different, even if they sound similar.

This is one of those movies that makes me feel an enormous range of feelings. Seeing Benjamin travel the world, making the most of his life, falling in love, and then, not being able to stay with Daisy makes me feel a lot of things. Its the movie that makes me feel the most.

Brad Pitt is, in my opinion, fantastic as Benjamin. He plays the subtleties just right, and acts the old man and the young man just right, making distinctions between both, all while having this wiseness beyond his years (ironically or not). Cate Blanchett is also lovely, playing both the teenage/young adult Daisy, the ballerina, and the dying woman we see in the beginning, who is unrecognizable. Other fun apprearances include Tilda Swinton, as Benjamin's first grown up love, in Murmansk, Russia and Taraji P. Henson as Queenie.

While this movie was nominated for 13 Oscars, the leading movie of the year, it only won 3. And the ones it won were truly, truly deserved. The Visual Effects, for the things like the "old man" baby, and the old Brad Pitt. In an interview with VFX Supervisor, Eric Barbra, he explains how the first 52 minutes of the film, is a 3D head. They made 3 head casts of Brad Pitt, aged 80s, 70s and 60s, then scanned into a computer, 3D. Brad would perform the facial expressions of a scene, as it was being digitzed, filmed from 4 different angles, and were matched to a scene/moment. Body actors were used on set, and essentially, Brad every facial movement and emotion was mixed with the digitized headcast (whichever age), and then photoshopped on top of the body actor. After the first 52 minutes, Brad does a full body performance, with makeup now deaging him, until he becomes a child and then a baby, when child actors are used. In the end, this gives me so much more appreciation for Brad's work on this film. Every facial expression was thought out, recorded without doing the action, only watching the body actors performance. It's incredibly complex, and the capturing of the facial expressions was the first of it's kind. (for more info on this all, see interview and the official Benjamin Button VFX Website). And how Brad Pitt doesn't have an Oscar yet is beyond me. Especially after this and Tree of Life.

In the end, I have a lot of respect for this movie, for how well it was performed, the technical and visual aspects, as well as the directing. And while it deserved the 3 Awards it won (VFX, Makeup, Art Direction), it deserved that and more. This should've been Alexandre Desplat's year for winning Original Score, in which his themes for Benjamin and Daisy was played forward, and then backwards (a technique used frequently in the film). He was truly, truly robbed. It's one of my favourite film scores ever.

However, I love this movie, understand why not everyone does, but I love it anyway. Forgive me for this long, technical review.

8.5/10

503. Flirting with Forty

503. (31 Dec) Flirting with Forty (2008, Mikael Saloman) 51



Flirting with Forty is slightly better than most Lifetime movie romances, not that I'm any great expert on the genre, but there's something rather fiendishly delightful in the tongue-in-cheek nature of the script. For those who expect plot twists, the supporting characters serve as red herrings or mouthpieces for that audience. After Heather Locklear hooks up with Robert Buckley, 13 years her junior and lacking any motivation to find her romantically appealing, one of her friends insinuates he'll become her stalker before eventually murdering her. This suggests that the film is self-aware even if it's still like a vapid romance novel for the most part. Saloman, who did spectacular work as the cinematographer on The Abyss, continues to prove himself one of TV's most stylish directors even if he's limited in how well he works with actors.

Slumdog Millionaire

Slumdog Millionaire, 208
Directed by Danny Boyle
Nominated for 10 Oscars, Won 8

Synopsis: Jamal Malik is an eighteen year old uneducated boy from the Slums of India. And he's one question away from winning India's Who Want To Be a Millionaire. But how could a boy, who's uneducated and from the slums, know answers and get farther than doctors and lawyers have? Jamal shows us, exactly how every question is answered, showing us his life growing up.


I'm going to start this off right now and tell you that my favourite film of 2008 was David Fincher's The Curious Case of Benjamin Button. Yes, that long one, with Cate Blanchett and Brad Pitt, who aged backwards. While it was my favourite, I know and accept why it didn't win Best Picture, and why Slumdog did. Slumdog Millionaire was very deserving of the title.

The film was well-done in the way of telling Jamal's back story. The little boys who play him, and his brother Salim, were most excellent and I thought they were quite brilliant. They were hilarious, but they also dealt with the hard things in life, and saw so many things that many of us will never see in our lives.I appreciated the fact that, while this was sort of a story about Jamal's life, we saw the significance in everything. While I felt the love story line to be slightly detracting about from the film, overall it was well balanced between focusing on Jamal's life, and showing us how he knew all the answers.

The cinematography was quite excellent. Similar to The Hurt Locker, is was shaky, and "unprofessional" looking most times (especially when in the slums), and made you feel like you were there with Jamal and Salim. It creatively and beautifully portrayed the slums, the cities, the Taj Mahal, and everything in between. We see shots us children digging through trash, and being abused by cops, and just playing and having fun, not having much of a care in the world.  The colours were beautiful, and the use of Indian music in the film was great. 

Having a lot of speaking of Hindi in the film was well done, and felt more realistic, though often times it would randomly switch back into English. I'd have rather one or the other spoken, for continuities sake, but what can I do. Again, the little boys we are first introduced to were great, and were the best actors in the film. I thought they portrayed everything so well, and were great little actors.


This film gave so much interesting insight to the culture of India; the living conditions, the poverty, and exactly what people (children and adults alike) will do for money, including lie, cheat, steal and murder. It's an uncomfortable look that forces us to evaluate and certainly appreciate what we have, because there are so many others around the world who don't have what we do. It has such a strong story about real life poverty. Not the poverty we see on the TV ads, or read about in an article then don't look at again. It's a story of one boy's life, and how he deals with it, all the trouble he gets into, how awful he life really was, and how he still came out on top, knowing most of the answers on Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? This film was well done because it didn't shy away from anything. While some of the violence was unnecessary, many of it was completely necessary because that's just what goes on, and it happens. And is still happening. While the plot of the story, wasn't all that believable and was lapped in story cliches at the end, it was an interesting look into India.

This film definitely opened my eyes up to the rest of the world, and how fortunate I am to have the life I do, while I shall continue to pray and help other less fortunate than I am.

Rating: 7.25/10