The Bocker.com

I played my game, I got my most sure answers right and missed in the categories I was uncertain. All-in-all a shameless performance in my inaugural Oscar Pool run. I was most proud of my work in the screenplay categories, where I picked Juno (FYI, stripper turned writer Diablo Cody) and No Country for Old Men with confidence. I said originally though, it would be the actress categories that would end. Missing both the 6 points for leading and the 5 for supporting put me at 44 points, 12 point off the leader. I did learn a few things that I’ve listed below when it comes to picking the Oscars.

-See the movies! Some people do well picking these movies without seeing very many and just reading a few things here and there, but in the major categories where I had seen all of the films I did much better than in the ones where I hadn’t. After reading about the 5 lead actress nominees, I think I may have picked Marion Cotillard if I had seen La Vie En Rose simply because her role seemed the hardest of the 5. She managed to play Edith Piaf from a young adulthood until her very sickly death as an older woman. In hindsight, its a more demanding role than the others.

-In the technical categories, go with your gut but only pick movies that were reviewed well. This one cost me in most of the technical areas. I lost a good 8 points here (this combined with an actress category puts me in the money). I followed James and took Transformers for everything special effects related and got burned. I still think he was right in thinking that Transformers were superior technically, but I think the Academy had trouble picking a movie that wasn’t really strong otherwise. Bourne was reviewed really well in contrast, and won two of these categories. Worse yet was the makeup category, where I even said I wanted to pick La Vie En Rose, but went with Pirates.

-Always take the big favorites from a big movie. Bardem and Day-Lewis were considered locks and they won because they were great and their movies were huge films. Same holds true for the Coens. Julie Christie was a lock, but was in a movie no one saw and lost. Gamble in categories like that.

-This is basically luck. Sure, you can see a few movies and get a better handle on it, but when I am getting Sweeney Todd right for Art Direction simply because “It seemed arty enough”, its clear that there isn’t much to this. Just pick the favorites, pick a couple of upsets where things aren’t as tidy and there you are.

Collected Notes on the 4 hour epic that is the Oscar Broadcast:
Miley Cyrus has something with her teeth that she should have fixed with her concert moneys. I can’t put a finger on it, and she is a poor adolescent I am judging, but if she wants to be big time she needs to nip things in the bud now before its the joke of all the blogs (I can see Perez Hilton drawing in fangs in a picture of Hannah Montana already)…Good job by the Coens’ but they were a little too cool for winning three major awards. A little bit of excitement would have been appreciated…Then there’s Marion Cotillard (cute French babe), who was elated with winning and gave a greatly emotional speech. She was actually shaking…I nominate Conan O’Brien as the next host of this thing. Jon Stewart is only funny when he can freely insult people and you can’t do that the Oscars. Conan is funny by being a complete wacko and doesn’t need to zing people with jokes to get laughs…What Jonah Hill meant to say was “Sorry Seth (Rogen), you are Dame Judi Dench because you are more of a fat whale than I, Halle Berry, am.” Of course, they couldn’t say that at the Oscars because its the Oscars, so instead they babbled around for way too long. Lame, Lame, Lame…Also, I’ve been reading some stories about why Brad Renfro was not included in the deceased movie people-montage, story here…Early Oscar Pick for 2009: Frost/Nixon. I screened this movie a coupled of months ago. Frank Langella best supporting actor in his portrayal of Richard Nixon, best director for Ron Howard.

We’d love to hear your thoughts on this, or any other post. Email us at editor@thebocker.com