Little Golden Guy...

Have you ever heard of Little Golden Guy, the website that allows you to vote for the Oscars and see how others voted? It was down for awhile, but it's back now! But the votes are really odd... I'll break it down by category, and into the "what the hell?" and "the right on the money" categories.

But before we go onto "what the hell?" let's talk a little about the site. The main purpose of it is to say "okay, here's who won, but this should have happened according to most." And a lot of the time they are right on the money.

Examples...

Cate Blanchett winning Best Actress for Elizabeth
Montgomery Clift winning Best Actor for From Here to Eternity
Billy Wilder winning Best Director for Double Indemnity

It does have a good track record, but...

What the hell?


Best Picture Avatar received the most votes, and that certainly makes sense. In second place with only six fewer votes? District 9. But this is ordinary people's favorites, so that might explain why The Blind Side is in sixth place. Yes, you heard me, sixth place. According to this website's voters, The Blind Side is more worthy of being named Best Picture than Up in the Air, Precious, A Serious Man, and An Education. Let's pray that The Blind Side is actually the tenth worthiest of the nominees when the members of the Academy get to their ballots.




Best Supporting Actress Surprise, surprise, Mo'Nique is in first here. But second place goes to...



Penelope Cruz, in Nine! Wow. I knew there was some love for Penelope (if not for the picture alone), but second place? Are these voters going by "most-deserving" or, like the Academy, what's hot right now. Hell, on the Youtube video of A Call from the Vatican, one of the comments says "I love her, another Oscar!!!"

Side-note: In this case, what's hot to the Academy actually is hot. Mmmmmmmmm.. Penelope.

Best Adapted Screenplay Maybe it's my hate of District 9 that makes this so shocking, but it got 79.8% of the vote for Best Adapated Screenplay on Little Golden Guy. This site seems to be more of the People's Choice Awards than I remember.

Right on the Money

Best Director Kathryn Bigelow inches out James Cameron by less than twenty votes, but she still does it.

Best Supporting Actor Christoph Waltz waltzes (so clever) away with more than 84% of the vote. Christopher Plummer is a sentimental favorite and comes in second with 7.7% of the vote. That's a bingo!

Best Actor Jeff Bridges and Colin Firth lead the pack, and boy are they close. Jeff has just two more votes than Colin, but in the race for the actual Oscar Jeff Bridges seems unstoppable. I haven't seen Crazy Heart yet, is it good?

Best Actress Unfortunately Sandra Bullock is in the lead here, but there's no used crying over spilled, rotten, unfortunate milk, is there?

And now for your viewing pleasure...

Pinch your cheeks til you say "ow!"



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Best Actress Winner

Time for the winners of this year's Katharine Hepburn Leading Actress Award!


5th place goes to...
Renee Zellweger in My One and Only













4th places goes to...
Gabourey Sidibe in Precious













3rd place goes to...
Meryl Streep in Julie & Julia

2nd place goes to...

Zooey Deschanel in (500) Days of Summer

And the winner is...

Carey Mulligan in An Education

Who are your favorite leading ladies of '09?

Best Actress - All That Film Style

Best of 2009, and this time we're talking leading ladies. Like the last award, this one will be named after a great thespian, too.





And this will be called the Katharine Hepburn Leading Actress Award! For those lovable leads. (Naturally "Katharine Hepburn" is standing in for the regular "Best.")










The nominees are...

Zooey Deschanel, (500) Days of Summer
For simultaneously being the girl we loved, and wanted to kill ourselves over.


Carey Mulligan, An Education
For irritating and charming us as a woman of the world and a confused school girl.


Gabourey Sidibe, Precious
For giving a voice to someone so often forgotten.


Meryl Streep, Julie & Julia
For being a delight on the big screen in a big way.


Renee Zellweger, My One and Only
For flirting not just with tons of men, but the audience.



The winners will be in a separate post later on! Comments? Please, do share!



(And there aren't any pics. this time guys, sorry! It's kind of complicated to get them in the post, does nobody else have this problem? Hm...)

The Delights of Un-Camp

It's amazing how something so susceptible to camp doesn't quite go there. Moulin Rouge! really is in a league of its own.


It's easy to go into camp territory:

1) get some far-fetched story (the life of a dying courtesan in 1800s France who is dying falls in love with a penniless Bohemian writer, and it takes place in the Moulin Rouge, perhaps?)
2) mix in crazy songs (combining Diamonds Are A Girl's Best Friend with Material Girl anyone?)
3) have actors slavishly devote themselves to their roles
4) insane colors and sets galore (an elephant that doubles as a love nest, maybe?)


But through all of this, Baz never goes there. There is hard to describe, but it's the point of no-return. Silliness over quality, absurdity over poignancy.


What this is all leading up to is... How the hell was Baz not nominated for an Oscar for directing this film?

Best Supporting Actress Winner

So, you've all (all 2 of you?) read my nominees for the Rita Moreno Supporting Actress Award!

Time for the winners!

5th place goes to...

Melanie Laurent in Inglourious Basterds

4th place goes to...

Rosamund Pike in An Education

3rd place goes to...

Marion Cotillard in Nine

2nd place goes to...

Mo'Nique in Precious

And the winner is...

Anna Kendrick in Up in the Air

Best Supporting Actress - All That Film Style

Best of 2009 time! One by one, I'll be posting the nominees, followed by the winners. First up we have BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS.

But what good is a category if it doesn't have a name? In honor of one of the best supporting actress performances of all time, I will dub this category the...

Rita Moreno Supporting Actress Award! What a mouthful, eh?

And the nominees are...

Marion Cotillard, Nine

For showing Luisa's heartache with voice, expression, and dance.

Rosamund Pike, An Education

For every little micro-touch and nuance she gives Helen.

Anna Kendrick, Up in the Air

For humanizing Natalie to unimaginable extents.

Melanie Laurent, Inglourious Basterds

For creating a heroine who could not be more vulnerable.

Mo'Nique, Precious

For creating a monster all too real.

Oscar Nomintations!

Of course, you aren't reading the news on this blog first, but who said being late was a bad thing? I'm still trying to get my best of 2009 ready! So many afterthought, so little time...

Barreling through the nominations I have these conclusions:

Ten Best Picture nominees was a positively horrid and awful awful awful idea. The Blind Side...?

Sandra Bullock...? No thanks. Carey Mulligan? Thank you very much!

Best Actor/Supporting Actor had zero surprises. Boring. Good job Christopher Plummer!

Penelope Cruz over Marion Cotillard? Damn Weinsteins and their stupid campaigning process that tried to get Marion for lead.

Maggie Gyllenhaal, thanks for being a surprise. Anna Kendrick, please try and win this category! It seems rather impossible to beat Mo'Nique though, but we can pray.

No (500) Days of Summer? This sucks.