In Contention

Author: Guy Lodge

  • An unfortunate precedent

    With Sally Hawkins and Sean Penn each picking up a gong from the National Society of Film Critics yesterday, the two actors thus complete the trifecta of major critics’ awards, having already taken the New York and Los Angeles critics’ respective honors. (I know some refer to the ‘big four,’ but we all know the National Board of Review isn’t really a critics’ group.)

    Ordinarily, such a sweep would make both shoo-ins for an Oscar nomination, which is certainly true in Penn’s case. Hawkins, however, continues an unusual awards trajectory — the unequivocal critical favorite who has been unaccountably overlooked by SAG and the Broadcast Film Critics. I remain confident Hawkins will find her way into the Oscar circle, but those peculiar snubs prevent her from being the slam-dunk she should be.

    With that in mind, I did some historical digging to find out if there’s a precedent for an actor taking the ‘big three’ critics’ prizes, and yet missing out on an Oscar nomination. As it turns out, there is one, and his name is Bill Murray.

    His hilarious supporting turn in 1998’s “Rushmore” (which remains, for me, the only element of a Wes Anderson film I’ve ever wholly liked) essentially instigated the revival of Murray’s cool, and was duly rewarded by the NYFCC, LAFCA and NSFC, but neither SAG, nor the Academy, were amused. Chances are the film was too eccentric for their tastes, or Murray was still too prickly a figure for them to embrace as they did (sort of, at least) five years later.

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  • Small pleasures: Guy’s best (and worst) of 2008

    It’s a lovely thing when you realize, at least part of the way through adulthood, that we still possess the ability to surprise ourselves. When left to graze at leisure, the mind can stumble upon some unexpected notions, frequently overriding the conclusions we thought we had reached after twelve months of watching, writing and (occasionally over-) thinking. And more often than not, it knows best.

    This is what I discovered when I sat myself down on a poolside lounger in the remote hills of Portugal’s Algarve region and set about finalizing this list, which had been eating away at me for the better part of the last six weeks. After various tortured drafts drawn from my scrappy 2008 diaries, notebooks and In Contention entries — none of which looked sufficiently reflective or, frankly, right to me — I decided to dispense with notes entirely and start from scratch, using my memory as my sole resource.

    And so it was that when I asked myself, “What’s the best film you saw in 2008,” the answer that came was not only amazingly swift, immediately satisfying and ultimately inarguable, but it was not the answer I expected to receive. Of course, I knew the film would crop up somewhere prominent in the list — the mind is a filter, after all, not a magician’s hat — but it was one of several films this year (and indeed, on this list) that I would call “growers.”  You see them, you like them, but it takes a few weeks, months even, of rumination and interpretation before you realize just how much you love them.

    It’s something that should be borne in mind when it comes to awards voting, which work on a “survival of the fittest” basis: some films simply take longer than others to make a collective (or selective) impact. This may rule them out of competition time frames, but it doesn’t make them lesser achievements. Similarly, certain films that seem like huge, important deals at the time can leave us scratching our heads when removed from the flurry of the season. In a perfect world, Oscar voting would take place a year or two (or 10) after the release of the year-end glut — but it was ever thus.

    One perception of mine that hasn’t changed through the compilation of this list, however, is that it’s been a year of bijou pleasures. As one talked-up Hollywood title after the other disappointed, dissipated or dared to be merely “good,” the films left standing for me were mostly on the intimate side: small but beautifully formed works bound by character rather than concept, often asking penetrating questions about society, family and the nature of the individual. As the Americans, by and large, treaded water, European cinema soared, with France enjoying a particularly golden streak — the likes of which we haven’t seen in well over a decade.

    I may have complained often in these pages that it’s been a “bad year” for film, but as I look down the list of 20 titles that I finally arrived at, covering as it does a pretty rich variety of moods and forms, it now seems graceless to say so. When Hollywood flickers, different voices emerge, and for that we should be grateful. Perhaps it hasn’t been a bad year…just a smaller one.

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  • Happy New…

    … Year, I suppose. But it’s more than that. Kris will weigh in with his own New Year hopes later, but on behalf of all of us, let me raise a glass to a 2009 that is happier, healthier and, well, just better than its predecessor. In Obama’s America, at least, it’s the start of something new — let’s hope that extends to a richer, deeper, more fully realized slate of American films than the less-than-vintage crop with which we were presented over the past twelve months.

    Unbelievably, it’s just over a mere seven weeks until we can officially put 2008 to bed, when the Academy will decide for itself which were the fattest of the year’s slim pickings. Until then (and beyond, of course), we’ll keep writing, ruminating and generally kvetching round these parts — hope you continue to enjoy our company as much as we do yours.

     

     

  • INTERVIEW: Michelle Williams

    Fate can have a bittersweet sense of timing, and Michelle Williams understands this better than most. A 2008 that started bleakly with the passing of Heath Ledger, her former partner and the father of her daughter, has ended as a professional banner year for the 28 year-old actress.

    A triptych of startling performances in a disparate array of projects — Sharon Maguire’s “Incendiary,” Charlie Kaufman’s “Synecdoche, New York,” and, most prominently, Kelly Reichardt’s “Wendy and Lucy” — have made this the year Williams consolidated the Oscar-nominated promise she demonstrated as a member of strong indie ensembles in the likes of “Brokeback Mountain” and “The Station Agent,” and emerged as a great, free-standing actor in her own right.

    Further accolades have rolled in, with her tricky, film-carrying performance in “Wendy and Lucy” earning her an Independent Spirit nod and a Best Actress award from the Toronto critics, while in the background, her late ex remains the year’s most talked-about thespian. When she sighs wistfully over the phone from New York and says that it’s been “a weird year,” that barely seems to cover it.

    It’s another curious reversal that the film largely responsible for making this such a big year for Williams truthfully couldn’t be any smaller. “Wendy and Lucy” is a brilliant, elegiac piece of Americana that easily ranks among the year’s finest films. The story of a young, broke drifter, Wendy, whose already fragile existence collapses when she is separated from her best friend Lucy, a yellow-gold mongrel, it inauspiciously came her way as a short story (“Train Choir,” by co-scripter Jon Raymond) with a brief note attached — the lean script still uncompleted.

    “Todd Haynes recommended it to me,” she says, referring to the iconoclastic auteur who directed her in last year’s “I’m Not There.” “He’s a mutual friend of mine and Kelly’s, and he thought we’d be a good fit. So I read it — I mean, I’d be stupid not to trust the judgment of someone like Todd.”

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  • I’m not dead

    Greetings from the Netherlands! Just a quick note to let you know that I haven’t vanished off the face of the earth — a combination of illness, Christmas and some very complicated travel arrangements have kept me out of action for the best part of the past two weeks.

    I am now, however, back on the radar, so stay tuned for an interview later today with the wonderful Michelle Williams, while my own Best (and Worst) of 2008 honours should arrive any day now. Hope you all had a terrific festive season and are looking forward to one hell of a party tonight. I know I am.

  • Two years on

    Considering it’s written by the editor-in-chief of the foremost entertainment news publication in Hollywood, Peter Bart’s Variety blog continues (for this reader, at least) to be a disconcertingly slipshod affair. That his pieces frequently appear so rushed and second-hand is enough cause for concern without throwing elementary factual errors into the mix.

    But his most recent post, on the difficult certain directors experience in following up breakout successes, contained this groaner:

    What ever happened to that loveable husband-and-wife team of Valerie Faris and Jonathan Dayton who gave us “Little Miss Sunshine” four years ago?

    Uh, two years ago, Mr Bart. Hardly the longest hiatus in filmmaking history — least of all for indie-oriented filmmakers who have a prolific commercials career, and may need time to gather up funding for a project. It’s pretty well-known that Faris and Dayton have been planning an adaptation of Tom Perrotta’s brilliant novel “The Abstinence Teacher” (not the easiest sell in the world) since 2006, and have been working extensively with Perrotta on the script.

    These things don’t happen overnight — why the impatience? (Bart also manages a sideswipe at “The Lives of Others” director Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck, saying he’s “stalled” since his film came out two years ago, apparently an eternity in Bart’s mind.)

    Anyway, the main point of Bart’s post is to say that “The Abstinence Teacher” is set to start rolling for Warner Brothers in early 2009, which is obviously good news. While I found “Little Miss Sunshine” a little too pat for my liking, Dayton and Faris’ jagged visual sensibility and droll line in humour should be a perfect match for Perrotta’s incisive, wickedly funny study of a high school sex-ed teacher at war with a rigidly conservative suburban community. In tone and texture, it sits roughly halfway between Perrotta’s other two novels-turned-films, “Election” and “Little Children,” which bodes well for the new project.

    Something to look forward to. If you don’t mind a little wait, that is.

  • Best Foreign Language Film: an alternative ballot

    Last month, I played devil’s advocate a little with the Best Documentary Feature category, suggesting five less-discussed titles from the shortlist of contenders as a potential counter to the dizzying advance of the clear frontrunner, “Man on Wire” — not as a slight on the film, which is terrific, but in the interests of diversity.

    Now, as we near the end of a busy first phase of precursors, I feel the need to make a similar effort in the Best Foreign Language Film category. It’s not that the names being mentioned as frontrunners for the Oscar aren’t worthy — oft-mentioned titles like “Gomorrah,” “The Class” and “Waltz With Bashir” are more than credible contenders, with the former two among my favourite films of the year. (More on that in a couple of days.) But we all know the Academy can frequently choose to ignore the obvious in this category — and with that in mind, I’d like to point out a few interesting directions in which they can go.

    The critics certainly aren’t helping them out, after all. Excellent film that it is, “Let the Right One In” has stomped all over the precursors almost as comprehensively as “Man on Wire” has: a consensus that strikes me as both surprising and a little disappointing, given what a rich and varied year it’s been for non-American cinema. Share the wealth a little, guys. However, the fact that the Swedish vampire film is ineligible for the Oscar means the Academy’s foreign-language committee is being given very few pointers at this stage.

    So, in the interests of rectifying that, I offer an alternative ballot: four under-the-radar titles from the 67-strong shortlist of foreign-language contenders that the voters would do well to consider. There are no doubt more — I’m drawing from the pool of contenders that I’ve actually seen — but any one of these would be a most worthy, and welcome, surprise:

    “TONY MANERO” (Chile): Pablo Larrain’s wicked little festival favourite first caught my eye at the London fest in October, and has crawled progressively deeper under my skin ever since. A tightly conceived and wholly unique hybrid of black comedy, serial-killer thriller and socio-political study, it takes its title from the character played by John Travolta in “Saturday Night Fever,” a figure worshipped to a disturbing degree by the film’s own protagonist, Raul, a socially inept lowlife eking out a bleak existence in 1978 Santiago, Chile.

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  • Oh dear

    The annihilation of “Seven Pounds” continues apace, with a crucifying NYT review from A.O. Scott:

    Frankly, though, I don’t see how any review could really spoil what may be among the most transcendently, eye-poppingly, call-your-friend-ranting-in-the-middle-of-the-night-just-to-go-over-it-one-more-time crazily awful motion pictures ever made. I would tell you to go out and see it for yourself, but you might take that as a recommendation rather than a plea for corroboration. Did I really see what I thought I saw?

    Ouch. With a Metacritic score hovering at 35, do we have our annual fallen-prestige-film Razzie contender right here? Memo to Gabriele Muccino: return to Italy, strip things back and make another “The Last Kiss” to remind people why Hollywood was excited to have you in the first place.

  • All in the family: a note on the SAG nods

    I know I shouldn’t get upset. As Sasha Stone over at Awards Daily repeatedly intones, when it comes to awards analysis, “the trick is not minding.” You should coolly observe the trends, learn from them and be guided always by your head rather than your heart.

    But damn it, I’m only human. I can’t help getting invested in certain contenders. And I don’t mind admitting that I was utterly dismayed by this morning’s thoroughly unadventurous and, worse yet, insular set of SAG nominations. Did the voters really carefully consider all the possible options before putting pen to ballot paper? Did they really take time to decide which of the year’s performances and ensembles most moved and challenged them? Or did they simply reel off the five names in each category that they’ve heard the most about, and think are most likely to feature in the Oscar race?

    Maybe the answer to the first two questions is “yes.” But I doubt it. I find it hard to imagine that any actor adequately attuned to their own craft could consider all the female supporting performances of the year and somehow decide that Amy Adams’ performance in “Doubt” was more rich and complex than what Rosemarie DeWItt achieved in “Rachel Getting Married,” or Marisa Tomei in “The Wrestler.”

    I don’t believe (or at least I don’t want to believe) that actors who supposedly have some experience of ensemble work can fail to notice that the ensembles of “Synecdoche, New York,” “The Dark Knight,” “Happy-Go-Lucky,” “Vicky Cristina Barcelona” or even “Rachel Getting Married” are denser, more intricate and infinitely more integrated than those of “Frost/Nixon” or “Doubt.”

    A great ensemble is about more than the prestige of the names within it. You’d expect actors to understand that, and last year’s off-the-wall nominations for “Hairspray” and “3:10 to Yuma” suggested that maybe, just maybe, they did. This year, however, was back to business as usual, as they turn their highest and most unique award into yet another Best Picture-emulating copycat list.

    (More thoughts, and predictions, after the cut.)

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  • ‘Slumdog,’ ‘Hunger,’ ‘Happy’ rule London crix nods

    Sorry for following up on this so long after Kris’ teaser… what can I say? It’s Christmas party central round these parts.

    Anyway, the London Film Critics’ Circle Awards are a bit of an odd duck in the kudos calendar, but not an uninteresting one. They tend to try to have their cake and eat it — honouring both British and international achievements in categories that seem segregated at first glance, but actually aren’t. So this year, you’ll see Danny Boyle crop up in both the Director of the Year and British Director of the Year fields. The same goes for Kate Winslet in the actress races. (They also hedge their bets there, nominating her jointly for “Revolutionary Road” and “The Reader.”)

    Meanwhile, only one screenwriting category exists, while only British actors are singled out for supporting honours. Which is why non-British supporting players like Heath Ledger and Penelope Cruz are competing in the Actor and Actress of the Year categories, respectively — so don’t get too excited about that. (Meanwhile, the Brit supporting categories are a real stretch… I mean, Toby Jones?)

    If you’re confused, I don’t blame you. It’s a haphazard system, but nonetheless, when you dig through the nominations there’s some real gold to be found. The nod for Tilda Swinton’s extraordinary work in Eric Zoncka’s “Julia” is truly inspired, while one has to applaud the anti-herd mentality that leads to such inclusions as Josh Brolin for “W.” or Terence Davies in the British Director category. Compared to the dull-as-dishwater SAG nominees foisted upon us this morning, at least there’s a little initiative at play here.

    More commentary, and a full list of nominees, after the cut.

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  • Chicago crix join the ‘WALL-E’ wagon

    I know we issued a moratorium on regional critics’ awards the other day, but the Chicago Film Critics Association is semi-significant, and we did report on their nominations, so in the interests of closure, here are the winners.

    I must say, I’m starting to feel the heat for a “WALL-E” Best Picture nomination — could it displace “The Dark Knight” for the populist vote? I think so. Meanwhile, I’m really getting the feeling that Anne Hathaway could emerge as the Best Actress winner at the end of the day. I have no idea what would justify such an outcome, but that’s my hunch.

    Of course, I had these inklings before I saw these winners — which aren”t that relevant anyway — but it chimes in neatly enough, so I thought I’d throw ’em out there.

    Best Picture: “WALL-E”
    Best Director: Danny Boyle, “Slumdog Millionaire”
    Best Actor: Mickey Rourke, “The Wrestler”
    Best Actress: Anne Hathaway, “Rachel Getting Married”
    Best Supporting Actor: Heath Ledger, “The Dark Knight”
    Best Supporting Actress: Kate Winslet, “The Reader”
    Best Original Screenplay: Andrew Stanton and Jim Reardon, “WALL-E”
    Best Adapted Screenplay: Simon Beaufoy, “Slumdog Millionaire”
    Best Foreign Language Film: “Let the Right One In”
    Best Documentary: “Man On Wire”
    Best Animated Feature: “WALL-E”
    Best Cinematography: Wally Pfister, “The Dark Knight”
    Best Original Score: Thomas Newman, “WALL-E”
    Most Promising Performer: Dev Patel, “Slumdog Millionaire”
    Most Promising Director: Tomas Alfredson, “Let the Right One In”

  • INTERVIEW: Matteo Garrone

    Matteo GarroneIn a year that hasn’t exactly wanted for strong European cinema, Matteo Garrone’s “Gomorrah” ranks as one of its most staggering offerings — as reflected by its well-deserved placing on Kris’s top 10 list yesterday.

    A brutal, multi-stranded portrait of daily life within Naples’s notorious Camorra crime syndicate, it brings a keen sociologist’s eye to the terrain of mafia cinema — thanks largely to the minutely detailed research of Roberto Saviano (whom Kris interviewed here), upon whose bestselling exposé the film is based, but also to the humanism and objectivity of Garrone himself.

    The affable Italian, who recently turned 40, is still getting his head around his film’s success.  When we speak, he has just arrived in New York after collecting a bushel of prizes in Copenhagen at the European Film Awards. Although he made his feature debut a decade ago, until now he hasn’t been the best-known name on the Italian cinema scene, and he admits to feeling considerable pressure in taking on the project.

    “Domenico [Procacci, the film’s producer] got the rights to Roberto’s book before it was published and sent it to me,” he explains. “I was shocked, but found it very powerful, very unusual in the characterization. I saw an opportunity to make a very different kind of Mafia movie.”

    However, once the book was actually published, the game changed for Garrone. “I didn’t know it was going to be such a huge bestseller,” he laughs. “Suddenly this movie became a much bigger deal, and there was much more box office pressure. I had made a couple of other movies that had done well with critics, but were disasters at the box office. I was worried that I was now the wrong person to make ‘Gomorrah,’ but it was too late!”

    He needn’t have worried: in addition to the stream of awards talk the film has gathered since taking the Grand Prix at Cannes, “Gomorrah” has stormed the Italian box office and done healthy art house business elsewhere, while expectations are high for its limited U.S. release this Friday. Garrone describes the film’s commercial performance as “a miracle.  It’s such a rigorous film, I was worried audiences might find it too harsh. But I think some people have gone in to see a gangster movie and come out surprised by what an emotional experience it is.”

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  • Academy shortlists 49 original songs

    High School Musical 3… and 11 of them (count ’em) are from “High School Musical 3: Senior Year.” That’s over a fifth of the contenders, so I’m guessing the folks at Disney will be pretty mortified if at least one of them doesn’t make the final five.

    And hell, one of them should. I’m not too snobbish to admit that “HSM3” is an immaculately produced entertainment that succeeds squarely on its own terms, and the same goes for its song score. Those songs are certainly a lot more integral to the film than, say, Peter Gabriel’s track for “WALL-E.” Credit where it’s due.

    Otherwise everything that you’d expect to be on the list is there — including the tracks from “The Wrestler,” “Slumdog Millionaire” (nice to see “O Saya” listed as well as “Jai Ho”) and “Synecdoche, New York,” which I know has a lot of fans (myself included) on this site. Elsewhere, I’m happy to see Jenny Lewis’ cute ditty for “Bolt” contending alongside Miley Cyrus’s composition — though to be honest, I’m just happy to see Jenny Lewis in any context.

    Some will be surprised by the exclusion of Jennifer Hudson’s “Sex and the City” ballad “All Dressed in Love,” but it was closing credits filler, and godawful at that.

    As for predictions, one must bear in mind that the Academy has frequently gone its own way in this category over the last few years, nominating songs that weren’t on anyone’s radar, much less any precursor lists. (Think “Raise It Up” last year, or the French-language “Look to Your Path” in 2005.)

    I’m thinking Norah Jones’ pretty, easygoing “The Story” from the otherwise ill-fated “My Blueberry Nights” will be right up their alley: throwback sound, credible middle-of-the-road artist, story-serving song from a film with a strong musical theme. Bullseye.

    I’ve also been predicting for months that the rousing title song from “Trouble the Water” will surprise in this category, so I’m chuffed to see it crop up here. It’s a terrific hip-hop track with a great story behind it — it’s by Kimberly Rivers Roberts, the struggling rap artist whose remarkable personal narrative, overcoming the horrors of Hurricane Katrina, forms the heart of the film. It’d be pretty damn inspiring to see her perform on the Oscar stage come February, and I have a hunch the Academy’s music branch (who have become more receptive to hip-hop in recent years) will feel the same way.

    Full list after the cut.

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  • Toronto loves ‘Wendy and Lucy’

    I’m not trying to keep up with the plethora of obscure critics’ awards anymore — with all due respect to the good people of Dallas or Tulsa or Albequerque or wherever, I don’t particularly care what their critics have to say. Harsh, but true.

    So from here on out, the only critics’ picks worth mentioning are the either the ones from a credible institution with at least some history, or the ones that highlight something interesting or under-appreciated. (As opposed to handing “Slumdog Millionaire” its 87th gong — great film, but seriously, to all the tiny critics’ groups out there trying to get noticed, why not veer from the herd?)

    Happily, the Toronto Film Critics Association Awards fulfil both requirements. They’ve been around for ten years, but in that time they’ve built a reputation for unusual (and pretty great) choices, honouring the likes of “Magnolia,” “Memento” and “A History of Violence.” I think any group that has singled out Miranda Richardson for “Spider” and given Best Director to the Dardenne brothers deserves my attention.

    And they’ve earned it again this year, handing Best Picture and Best Actress to the quietly stunning “Wendy and Lucy” — between this and its unexpected AFI list placing, Kelly Reichardt’s microbudget drifter tale is having a very good week indeed, while I’m glad some folks are acknowledging what a banner year Michelle Williams has had professionally.

    Their full list, with runners-up, after the cut. Pretty interesting picks all round (Van Damme — ha), even if the love for “Rachel Getting Married” continues to elude me. Also, the fact that they love her film enough to give it their top prize, but Kelly Reichardt doesn’t even appear in their runners-up for Best Director, leaves a bit of a sour taste. I’m not saying sexism is at play here, but it doesn’t make a great impression.

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  • Three cheers for Marisa Tomei

    One of the wearying things about the sheer multitude of critics’ awards (next up: the Northwestern Topeka Women Film Critics Society awards) is that there is dispiritingly little variety in their picks. I love “Man on Wire” too, but it’s hardly the only award-worthy documentary out there. Ditto “Let the Right One In” in the foreign-language field, or various other names we’ve been hearing an awful lot of this past fortnight.

    So it’s worth noting when one organisation throws up a different name to stem the unanimous tide in a certain category, and even more so when others latch onto it, forming something of a counter-wave.

    Such is the case with Marisa Tomei, whose wonderful performance in “The Wrestler” has garnered no fewer than three critics’ prizes (San Francisco, San Diego and Phoenix) in the past 24 hours — an intriguing new mini-trend in a category that has hitherto been pretty much one-way traffic for Penelope Cruz. Correct me if I’m wrong, but I think that makes Tomei and Cruz the two most lauded Supporting Actress contenders, surging ahead of Viola Davis.

    Granted, they’re not the most high-profile awards, but I’m still pleased by this turn of events — and not just because it shakes things up a little. Tomei’s performance in “The Wrestler” is a beautifully judged, lived-in portrayal, an exemplary supporting performance in that she reflects and responds to Mickey Rourke’s powerhouse lead turn without ever feeling the need to show off against him.

    Flashy scene-stealing performances, like Cruz’s admittedly dazzling turn in “Vicky Cristina Barcelona,” tend to hog the attention in the supporting races, so I’m glad to see some factions acknowledging Tomei’s humbler, more delicate work. She would get my vote.

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  • And the critics just keep on coming

    Thanks to AwardsDaily, ever on the ball, for pointing out yet another set of critics’ awards, this time the Phoenix Film Critics Society. Somebody stop the madness!

    Anyway, more gongs for “Slumdog,” “Let the Right One In,” Danny Boyle, Sean Penn, Heath Ledger zzzzzzzzz…

    Sorry, dozed off there. But hey, any “In Bruges” love is good love. The full (and very long) list after the cut, including such exciting categories as Best Live-Action Family Film. Enjoy:

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  • Don’t forget the Motor City

    Ha. Allow me to bask in the glory of that headline for a moment. No? Okay.

    Anyway, a concerned reader emailed to point out that the Detroit Film Critics Society announced their own nominees (that’s right, not just awards, but nominees) a few days ago. Even considering the bewildering array of critics’ awards that I was just talking about, I must admit I was not aware that Detroit had its own gongs. Good for them, but still — nominees? What’s the point?

    Anyway, the list is after the cut. Their best call? Eddie Marsan. Their worst? Nominating Amy Adams in place of Viola Davis. Their weirdest? The “Best Newcomer” category, which pits writer-director Martin McDonagh against five actors. Not so much a case of apples and oranges as, say, bananas and puppies. Winners to be announced Friday.

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  • The Sans weigh in

    Francisco and Diego, that is. Anyone else think there are a tad too many critics’ awards floating around out there? Seriously, what do they all mean? New York, Los Angeles, Boston and the National Society are the only ones that really register with me… maybe Chicago, if I’m feeling generous.

    The rest really kind of blur into one, particularly when they elect the same winners over and over again. Anyway, you won’t be surprised to hear that the San Franciscans went for “Milk” in a big way, while San Diego continued the lovefest for “Slumdog Millionaire.”

    The San Francisco picks:

    Best Picture: “Milk”
    Best Director: Gus Van Sant, “Milk”
    Best Actor: Sean Penn, “Milk” & Mickey Rourke, “The Wrestler”
    Best Actress: Sally Hawkins, “Happy-Go-Lucky”
    Best Supporting Actor: Heath Ledger, “The Dark Knight”
    Best Supporting Actress: Marisa Tomei, “The Wrestler”
    Best Original Screenplay: Dustin Lance Black, “Milk”
    Best Adapted Screenplay: Peter Morgan, “Frost/Nixon”
    Best Foreign Language Film: “Let the Right One In”
    Best Documentary Feature: “My Winnipeg”
    Best Cinematography: Wally Pfister, “The Dark Knight”

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