10. The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
This epic spanning over six decades isn’t the event that it was intended to be, but there’s enough love and craftsmanship in every frame that to describe it as poetry wouldn’t be totally out of the question. Although the film starts, for the most part, unremarkably; by the final scenes director David Fincher has sewn a feel of mystery and melancholy beauty into the frames that one can’t help but be taken aback. From the hummingbird bookends to Benjamin’s final, subtle scene, it’s an enchanting film.
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Last night the KCFCC (The Kansas City Film Critics Circle) chose the winners of the 2008 Loutzenhiser Awards. Your ‘buddha, Scene-Stealers, and RazorFine pals were there making their voices heard. Big love went out to both Slumdog Millionaire and The Wrestler who split Best Picture and Best Director by only one vote each. Overall I must say I’m pretty happy with the consensus we came to (other than Best Actress) though I would still argue vehemently that The Dark Knight is a comic book/action-adventure flick and not sci-fi/fantasy. Check out the full list below.
Best Picture
Slumdog Millionaire
The Robert Altman Award for Best Director
Darren Aronofsky (The Wrestler)
Best Actor
Mickey Rourke (The Wrestler)
Best Actress
Meryl Streep (Doubt)
Best Supporting Actor
Heath Ledger (The Dark Knight)
Best Supporting Actress
Penelope Cruz (Vicky Christina Barcelona)
Best Original Screenplay
Robert Siegel (The Wrestler)
Best Adapted Screenplay
Simon Beaufoy (Slumdog Millionaire)
Best Foreign Language Film
Let the Right One In
Best Documentary
Man on Wire
Best Animated Film
Wall-E
The Vince Koehler Award for Best Science Fiction, Fantasy or Horror Film
The Dark Knight
If you’re interested in how the KC Critics compare to the rest of the nation check out Eric’s on-going Awards Tally, updated daily!
As any film nut knows, now is the time for Best Of lists and the nominees for the various film awards all reaching for that sassy Oscar. This morning the Golden Globe nominees were announced, but rather than take you through them I’m going to let our good pals at RazorFine and Scene-Stealers do it for me. (suckers)
Scene-Stealers’ Golden Globes Nominee List
RazorFine’s Golden Globes Nominee List
While we’re on the subject, Eric at Scene-Stealers is keeping a running tally of all the various Best Of and Critics Lists as part of his annual Awards frenzy. You can check out his running tally here.
Since I’m now back in the mix (and in a real market), I’ll be throwing down on the best of ’08 as well not to mention throwing a little review love your way, ‘buddha style.
Forget all those other pansy “Top Ten Lists” you’ve seen. Mine goes to 11! My list for last year included films which struggled to break even and those which were financial disasters. This year, believe it or not, there are at least two films on my list that actually made a modest profit!
This year’s list includes two directors finding their way back to greatness, three comedies including one of the best satires in many a long year, a G-Rated animated film, three documentaries, a film about 9/11, a dysfunctional family in a yellow VW bus, a man whose life may be controlled by an unseen narrator, and a rat on the Boston State Police. So who’s #1? Let’s just say the answer may surprise you (and possibly piss you off to no end), but my choice was, in the end, the only one I could make.
I’m not going to leave you hanging, so let’s get to it.
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Tagged as:
Cinema,
Media Junkie
