MY PICKS

Going quickly (as if anyone cares) my picks for Oscar 2008:


Best Actor: George Clooney in “Michael Clayton”

Best Supporting Actor: Javier Bardem in “No Country for Old Men”

Best Actress: Laura Linney in “The Savages”

Best Supporting Actress: Tilda Swinton in “Michael Clayton”

Best Director: “There Will Be Blood” Paul Thomas Anderson

Best Picture: Michael Clayton

Best Adapted Screenplay: “No Country for Old Men” by Joel Coen & Ethan Coen

Best Original Screenplay: “The Savages” by Tamara Jenkins

These are picks that I want to win, not necessarily picks that I think will win.

In fairness, I haven’t seen all the movies nominated in these categories – six I’ve yet to see. They are: “The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford”; “Elizabeth: The Golden Age”; “La Vie en Rose”; “Atonement”; “The Diving Bell and the Butterfly”; and “Lars and the Real Girl”.


On one more note: “Breach” is still one of my favorite movies of 2007, if not my favorite. It’s with Chris Cooper as the real-life FBI spy, directed by Billy Ray. The movie got very good reviews when it came out but it has not been nominated for anything in this year’s Oscars. I think that’s an awful snub. Another one of my favorite films from 2007 was “Zodiac” starring Jake Gyllehaal as the real-life cartoonist/reporter who spent much of his life trying to track down the notorious Zodiac Killer in 1970s California. This also has good performances by Robert Downey Jr, Mark Ruffalo and John Carroll Lynch (as the supposed Zodiac Killer). It was directed by David Fincher of “Fight Club” (1999) fame. This received excellent reviews when it first came out as well, but sadly the Academy Awards has also decided not to include this movie among this year’s nominees.