Top Albums of 2007

Better late than never, right?

I've been so busy of late that I accumulated a stack of albums I hadn't listened to, but I still wanted to give them all a fair shake. Hence the ridiculous delay.

Then there was the dilemma of ranking them. I just don't have the energy or motivation to do that at this time. And, in all honestly, I hold these albums in such similar esteem that I'd rather not put them in any kind of order. Yeah, I'm wimping out.

Thus, to compensate for my emasculating refusal to rank them, you're going to get 15 albums instead of the normal 10. Actually, I'm doing that because I simply couldn't get the list down to just 10. Again, wimping out. I'm so pathetic.

So, in alphabetical order...

Akron-Family - Love is Simple

Animal Collective - Strawberry Jam

Arcade Fire - Neon Bible

Band of Horses - Cease to Begin

Gogol Bordello - Super Taranta!

Junior Senior - Hey Hey My My Yo Yo

Lily Allen - Alright, Still

Loney, Dear - Loney, Noir

Okkervil River - The Stage Names

Panda Bear - Person Pitch

Radiohead - In Rainbows

The Shins - Wincing the Night Away

Spoon - Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga

Tunng - Good Arrows

White Rabbits - Fort Nightly

Google Earth

This is the best short film I've seen on the internet in awhile...

Dramatic Lemur

Who Should Win

It's far too early for me to start predicting who will win at the Oscars, so for now, here are my picks for who DESERVES to win:

Best Picture: "There Will Be Blood"
Best Director: Paul Thomas Anderson, "There Will Be Blood"
Best Actor: Daniel Day-Lewis, "There Will Be Blood"
Best Actress: Julie Christie, "Away from Her"
Best Supporting Actor: Javier Bardem, "No Country for Old Men"
Best Supporting Actress: Tilda Swinton, "Michael Clayton"
Best Adapted Screenplay: "Away from Her"
Best Original Screenplay: "Michael Clayton"
Best Art Direction: "Sweeney Todd"
Best Cinematography: "The Assassination of Jesse James"
Best Costume Design: "Sweeney Todd"
Best Film Editing: "There Will Be Blood"
Best Makeup: "La Vie en Rose"
Best Music - Original Score: "Ratatouille"
Best Music - Original Song: "Once"
Best Sound Mixing: "The Bourne Ultimatum"
Best Sound Editing: "No Country for Old Men"
Best Visual Effects: "Transformers"
Best Documentary Feature: "No End in Sight"
Best Animated Feature: "Ratatouille"

Tally
"There Will Be Blood" - 4
"Away from Her" - 2
"Michael Clayton" - 2
"No Country for Old Men" - 2
"Ratatouille" - 2
"Sweeney Todd" - 2
"The Assassination of Jesse James" - 1
"The Bourne Ultimatum" - 1
"La Vie en Rose" - 1
"No End in Sight" - 1
"Once" - 1
"Transformers" - 1

Overview of the Universe

Heath Ledger is dead

This is horrible, horrible news.

A Truly Incredible Best Picture Lineup

The Best Oscar Noms Ever!

Just watched the announcement and...

- No Into the Wild! YES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
- There Will Be Blood for Picture & Director! YES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
- Sarah Polley for Adapted Screenplay! OMG!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
- No Emile Hirsch! YES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
- No Catherine Keener! YES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
- No Sean Penn for director or screenplay! He's going to kill someone!
- Atonement for Best Pic!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

And, my goodness, look at that Best Pic lineup:

Atonement, Juno, Michael Clayton, No Country for Old Men, There Will Be Blood

Isn't that the best Best Picture lineup you ever did see? Four of the films are in my top 10 list (and before my recent dropping of Juno, all five were on my list).

The full list of nominees hasn't been posted yet... let's hope there are even more pleasant surprises.

My Personal Oscar Ballot

This is what I would have voted for in the main categories:

Best Picture
Away from Her
In the Shadow of the Moon
The Namesake
No Country for Old Men
There Will Be Blood

Best Director
Paul Thomas Anderson, "There Will Be Blood"
Ethan & Joel Coen, "No Country for Old Men"
Mira Nair, "The Namesake"
Sarah Polley, "Away from Her"
David Sington, "In the Shadow of the Moon"

Best Actor
George Clooney, "Michael Clayton"
Daniel Day-Lewis, "There Will Be Blood"
Frank Langella, "Starting Out in the Evening"
Ulrich Muhe, "The Lives of Others"
Gordon Pinsent, "Away from Her"

Best Actress
Amy Adams, "Enchanted"
Helena Bonham Carter, "Sweeney Todd"
Julie Christie, "Away from Her"
Ellen Page, "Juno"
Tang Wei, "Lust, Caution"

Best Supporting Actor
Casey Affleck, "The Assassination of Jesse James"
Javier Bardem, "No Country for Old Men"
Paul Dano, "There Will Be Blood"
Stephen Graham, "This is England"
Irfan Khan, "The Namesake"

Best Supporting Actress
Samantha Morton, "Control"
Imelda Staunton, "Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix"
Tilda Swinton, "Michael Clayton"
Tabu, "The Namesake"
Kristen Thomson, "Away from Her"

Best Original Screenplay
Hot Fuzz
Juno
Michael Clayton
Ratatouille
This is England

Best Adapted Screenplay
Atonement
Away from Her
The Namesake
No Country for Old Men
There Will Be Blood

Best Foreign-Language Film
Days of Glory
The Diving Bell and the Butterfly
The Lives of Others
Lust, Caution
Syndromes and a Century

Best Animated Feature
Persepolis
Ratatouille
The Simpsons Movie

"Party Boy"

This kid is a complete ass, yet sort of brilliant too.

Bloody Omaha

How three graphic designers created D-Day on a shoe-string budget:

The Best Picture Race by Guilds

There are five major guilds that are useful for predicting the Best Picture race. Those guilds are:

SAG = Screen Actors Guild
PGA = Producers Guild of America
DGA = Directors Guild of America
WGA = Writers Guild of America
ACE = American Cinema Editors

Here is a rundown of what film received a nomination from what guild:

No Country for Old Men - SAG, PGA, DGA, WGA, ACE
Into the Wild - SAG, DGA, WGA, ACE
Michael Clayton - PGA, DGA, WGA, ACE
There Will Be Blood - PGA, DGA, WGA, ACE
The Diving Bell and the Butterfly - PGA, DGA, WGA
Juno - PGA, WGA, ACE

So, "No Country" easily has the most support. After it, "Into the Wild," "Michael Clayton" and "There Will Be Blood" all scored four guilds, with "Into the Wild" perhaps having the advantage in that it landed the SAG (because actors make up the largest portion of the Academy).

Thus, those four pictures look safe for nominations.

The big battle is between "Diving Bell" and "Juno" for the fifth spot. They both share WGA and PGA nominations. Where they differ is that "Diving Bell" has the Directors, whereas "Juno" has the Editors. I have to say that having the Directors is more advantageous here for a few reasons. First, their membership is larger in the Academy than the Editors. Second, they have more clout and a better track record at predicting the Best Picture five. And third, they only nominated five nominees, whereas the Editors nominated 10, which allowed "Juno" to be nominated for Best Edited Comedy or Musical. If the editors guild had to only nominate five pictures, "Juno" probably wouldn't have made the cut.

This is all a lengthy way of me saying that, mathematically, "Diving Bell" has the edge. Yet, something in my heart still tells me that "Juno" will prevail. For now, though, I'm predicting the former, because if there's any lesson to learn when it's predicting the Oscars, it's follow your brain, never your heart.

Are We Giving The Robots Too Much Power?

In The Know: Are We Giving The Robots That Run Our Society Too Much Power?

I'm an uncle!

Welcome to the world, Gabriel Dempsey Young.

O Brother, Where Art Thou?

PopWatch - How Oscar nominees are selected

Click here to read my long, detailed explanation of how the Oscar nominations are tallied, for the 27 people (including me) that are actually interested in that kind of thing.

Daniel Day-Lewis' Speech

Eloquent, humble, perfect.

DGA Nominations

The Directors' Guild nominations are:

Paul Thomas Anderson, "There Will Be Blood"
Joel & Ethan Coen, "No Country for Old Men"
Tony Gilroy, "Michael Clayton"
Sean Penn, "Into the Wild"
Julian Schnabel, "The Diving Bell and the Butterfly"

I was hoping for one thing and one thing only when these nominations were announced, and that was PTA. So, I'm thrilled for him and this pretty much means "There Will Be Blood" is a serious player for Best Picture.

The DGA noms almost always match up with the Best Pic nominees. This is a weird year though, and I could see one or two of the DGA's picks missing out. I thought "Atonement" and "Juno" were locks for Best Pic nominations, but now who knows? I still feel like "Juno" has to be able to make it. "Atonement" may be this year's "Dreamgirls" or "Cold Mountain" -- the perceived frontrunner that falls from grace. Unlike those two films, though, "Atonement" is an excellent movie, so its fate is a shame.

Critics Choice Awards

With the news today that the Golden Globes are canceled, tonight's Critics' Choice Awards became the only significant award show before the Oscars. The show almost felt like it was taking the place of the Globes - circle dining tables, a looser tone, occasional awkwardness.

The host, who I honestly have never heard of before and still can't remember his name, was fairly bad -- every joke was racial in nature. And he committed one giant mistake -- when describing the film, "Into the Wild," he said that the main character went to Africa. My dear host, although they both start with the letter "A," Africa and Alaska are very different places.

But, at least the show was only two hours, and for the most part the winners were all deserving. I was a little disturbed by all the love for "Hairspray," which is a fun movie, but really, Best Ensemble?

The highlight of the show was undoubtedly Daniel Day-Lewis' speech after winning Best Actor. It ran long, but it didn't matter because Day-Lewis thanked his fellow nominees and the acting community as a whole in an eloquently endearing fashion. If there was any doubt, Day-Lewis just clinched his Oscar.

And hooray for Julie Christie! She better start showing up to these things, though. If there's anything that voters can't stand, it's winners who are no-shows.

The show doesn't really change the race much, other than cementing Day-Lewis' and Christie's front-runner status. "No Country for Old Men" winning Best Picture was no surprise. The only question now is can it ride it all the way to the Oscars. It has the best shot, but I don't know. I'm smelling upset, perhaps from "Juno" and, if it's nominated, "There Will Be Blood."

Tomorrow's DGA nominations mean quite a bit. Go PTA!

Top 10 Films of 2007

#1

There Will Be Blood#2

Away from Her#3

In the Shadow of the Moon

#4

No Country for Old Men

#5

The Namesake

#6

Atonement

#7

Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street

#8

Michael Clayton

#9

This is England#10

Ratatouille

Honorable Mentions

All the films that just missed making my Top 10 list:

(in alphabetical order)

American Gangster
The Assassination of Jesse James
Before the Devil Knows You're Dead
Days of Glory
The Diving Bell and the Butterfly
Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix
Hot Fuzz
Juno
The King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters
The Lives of Others
Lust, Caution
No End in Sight
Once
The Simpsons Movie
Starting Out in the Evening
The Wind That Shakes the Barley

David Lynch & iPhone

He's right, you know...

Top 10 almost ready

I have my Top 10 Films of 2007 list pretty much all set except for the #1 and #2 slots. I'll be seeing those two films again today and tomorrow. As much as I'd like to just have a tie for #1, I know I must make a decision, and what a tough decision it's going to be!

So, the list should be posted by Sunday, at which point all the people in the world shall rejoice.

Celine Dion is amazing