In Contention

Tag: Vicky Cristina Barcelona

  • THE LISTS: Top 10 actors under 30

    Abbie Cornish in CandyI wrote recently about how this year’s Best Actress race seems to ushering in a striking new wave of young talent, from the elfin throwback charm of Carey Mulligan to the rawer screen presence of Gabourey Sidibe, while a range of youthful names, from the long-hyped Abbie Cornish to the out-of-nowhere Katie Jarvis, have been racking up critical plaudits all year.

    Whether Academy voters comply or not, it’s hard to disagree that it’s a good year to be a fresh face.

    Meanwhile, the industry’s male twentysomethings may have enjoyed less frenzied acclaim than their fairer counterparts, but the likes of Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Ben Whishaw and – yes – Shia LaBeouf have kept things ticking over for the generation quite respectably.

    So, with the teen-driven narratives of “An Education” and “Precious” heading for theaters soon, and with the youth romance of “Bright Star” currently pleasing older arthouse audiences, it seemed an apt moment to celebrate the new guard by ranking the finest talent that the born-after-1980 generation has to offer.

    And believe me when I tell you it was one of the trickiest lists I’ve ever compiled on this site. The more I contemplated recent successes and breakthroughs, the longer the shortlist of candidates grew, spanning Academy-endorsed names already on the A-list (Natalie Portman, Jake Gyllenhaal) to quirkier talents from the indie and foreign sectors (Sam Riley, Emilie Dequenne). I like to think that the fact that I struggled as much as I did to narrow the list down to 10 names bodes very well for the future.

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  • Woody does Paris

    Goldie Hawn and Woody Allen in Everyone Says I Love YouAmong the many things I love about Woody Allen — his staying power, his eye for talent, more masterpieces than I can count on two hands — is the fact that whenever anyone refers to “the untitled Woody Allen project,” one usually has to ask which one they mean. His unfailing film-a-year work ethic means there are generally at least two upcoming Allen films floating in the general conversation.

    So, while we’re all aware that his next film after the Big Apple homecoming of “Whatever Works” will be a return to his recently beloved gray skies of London, with Naomi Watts, Josh Brolin, Anthony Hopkins and Freida Pinto in the mix, some details have already emerged of his next project after that one.

    Screen International reports that Woody’s 2011 project will see him continuing his European sojourn, this time with a romantic drama set in Paris. Spanish production outfit Mediapro revealed the information, though a script has yet to be completed.

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  • Mixed-to-positive notices for ‘Whatever Works’

    Evan Rachel Wood in Whatever WorksEven with the success of “Vicky Cristina Barcelona” having partially righted the course of Woody Allen’s career, I can’t help holding my breath when the reviews roll in for his latest effort. Few auteurs inspire more haphazard uses of the term “return to form” (roughly applied to anything that doesn’t go completely off the rails from the word go), with so many critics seeming to forget that Allen’s best form is, well, anyone’s best form. (“Vicky” was a delight, to be sure, but Barcelona is a long way away from “Manhattan,” if you will.)

    In the case of “Whatever Works,” which just opened the Tribeca fest, the trade reviews — while uniformly encouraging — vary between gently disciplining expectations and wildly inflating them. Performing the latter task is David D’Arcy’s all-out rave in Screen International,which declares the film Allen’s best in over a decade:

    Writing a New York story and shooting at home has given Allen a sureness to his voice. The dialogue here has a familiar ring yet a crackling freshness … Whatever Works transcends Allen formulas thanks to David, who is taller, balder and more foul-mouthed than the usual types Allen himself has played. Spitting out his lines, David finds a deeper nastiness here than the everyday bile of his character on the autobiographical Curb Your Enthusiasm. Allen does wonders with a character who isn’t seeking to be loved.

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  • Is Clarkson one to watch for ‘Whatever Works?’

    Evan Rachel Wood and Patricia Clarkson in Whatever WorksAs Penélope Cruz, Dianne Wiest, Mira Sorvino and assorted nominees over the years can attest, if you’re an actress hungry for some awards attention, you can do a lot worse than take a supporting role in an (at least) halfway decent Woody Allen film. (Unless, of course, you’re Scarlett Johansson, who’s still holding an IOU for her startling work in “Match Point.”)

    Allen’s latest, “Whatever Works,” has just been unveiled at ShoWest, and while much of the advance speculation has been centred on leading lady Evan Rachel Wood, I’ve heard a couple of informal reports that, in accordance with the aforementioned trend, Patricia Clarkson could be the story here. Which wouldn’t be a surprise, of course; she’s a great actress, and the film apparently gives her a chance to play entertainingly against type.

    Judging from this faintly spoiler-ish description from a contributor at Nat Rogers’ Film Experience site, it sounds like a pretty showy role:

    Patricia Clarkson storms into the movie after approximately 40 minutes, and plays a role in many ways comparable to Penélope Cruz’s tempestuous Oscar-winning Maria Elena. While I was initially skeptical of Allen’s treatment of Wood as a young Lolita, Clarkson actually plays the much more sexualized character. After showing up on Boris’s doorstep in a hot pink ensemble (scrunchy included!) fit for the Southern pageant circuit, she is quickly awakened to the culture of New York … Her character transitions from praising Jesus to opening an exhibit of nude collages. Clarkson is dynamic and sexy and once again demonstrates her unbeatable range. I don’t think it is any stretch to consider her worthy of this year’s Oscar race.

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  • ‘The Wrestler’ wins big at the Indie Spirits

    Mickey RourkeDarren Aronofsky’s “The Wrestler” walked away three trophies at today’s Independent Spirit Awards, including top honors for Best Actor (Mickey Rourke) and Best Feature.

    In his greatest acceptance speech of the season, Rourke seemed fully uninhibited, almost as if he said, “Screw it, ballots are in,” and he cut loose.  The tough guy thing poked through here and there as well as a lot of humorous forgetfulness. (He thanked Searchlight honcho Peter Rice and Rice’s “boss, Jim Jimanopoulos, or something like that.”  Of course he meant Fox studio chief Jim Gianopoulos).  But mostly, it was expletive-laden (like the Spirits like), raunchy and overall, still strangely endearing.

    Rourke briefly dedicated the award to recently deceased pet chihuahua Loki, of course, in a choked-up moment that seemed to beautifully contrast with the rest of the rant.  He held the mic like a rock star might, pushing it away during the applause moments and bringing it back to his lips to finish his thoughts.  He also dedicated a solid 60 seconds to his friend Eric Roberts.  “Whatever he did 15, 20 years ago should be forgiven,” Rourke said.  “Eric Roberts is the fucking man and he deserves a second chance.  I wish there’d be one God damned filmmaker in this room that’d let him fly because the man is something else.”

    Melissa Leo’s speech in acceptance of the lead actress award — not so much.  She rambled, she seemed self-involved, overly dramatic, pompous…let’s just say it’s probably a good thing she hasn’t accepted too many awards publicly this year because I think it would have damaged her Oscar chances.  That’s just me, but it’s a hell of a performance and justly rewarded tonight.

    “Milk” won two trophies early on, James Franco taking down a win in the Best Supporting Actor category and Dustin Lance Black’s first screenplay award.  “Vicky Cristina Barcelona” also secured a pair: Best Screenplay for Woody Allen and Best Supporting Actress for Penelope Cruz.

    Tom McCarthy won the Best Director prize despite his film “The Visitor” not showing up in the Best Feature category, while Charlie Kaufman took home the Best First Feature prize for the exceptional “Synecdoche, New York,” which also won the pre-announced Robert Altman Award.

    (More, plus the full list of winners after the jump.)

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  • Who deserves it? Poll results!

    The readership of In Contention has spoken.  Here’s who you all think deserves to win across the 24 Oscar categories we polled you on.  A couple of these races were very close but we didn’t have time to revisit the couple of categories that were decided by less than 10 votes.  Anyway, it’ll be interesting to see if there are any parallels Sunday night, but here’s what you had to say:

    Best Picture: “Slumdog Millionaire”
    Best Director: Danny Boyle, “Slumdog Millionaire”
    Best Actor: Mickey Rourke, “The Wrestler”
    Best Actress: Kate Winslet, “The Reader”
    Best Supporting Actor: Heath Ledger, “The Dark Knight”
    Best Supporting Actress: Penelope Cruz, “Vicky Cristina Barcelona”
    Best Adapted Screenplay: “Slumdog Millionaire”
    Best Original Screenplay: “WALL-E”
    Best Animated Feature Film: “WALL-E”
    Best Art Direction: “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button”
    Best Cinematography: “The Dark Knight”
    Best Costume Design: “The Duchess”
    Best Film Editing: “Slumdog Millionaire”
    Best Makeup: “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button”
    Best Music (Original Score): “WALL-E”
    Best Music (Original Song): “Down to Earth” from “WALL-E”
    Best Sound Editing: “WALL-E”
    Best Sound Mixing: “WALL-E”
    Best Visual Effects: “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button”

    Thanks to everyone for voting.  Enjoy the show!

  • ‘Slumdog’ tonight, too?

    In addition to the ADG award “Slumdog Millionaire” took yesterday, the Cinema Audio Society also bestowed it with their award in something of a surprise (I’d say).  I usually go to that ceremony, but with it being Valentine’s Day, other duties beckoned.

    I will, however, be at tonight’s ACE Eddies ceremony, so look for a from-the-floor posting when the winner is announced.  Are we expecting anything other than “Slumdog” here?  And for comedy, I don’t know.  “Tropic Thunder” maybe?  Personally, I’d give it to “Vicky Cristina Barcelona.”

    Pretty quiet for the most part otherwise, but let us all wish Guy a happy birthday.  I expect he’s face deep in his 10th pint across the pond by now.  Better be, anyway.

  • Is Amy Adams a threat after all?

    Tariq Khan thinks so. Tom O’Neil reports that the Fox News pundit is predicting a major upset by the “Doubt” star, largely on the basis of what he perceives as “soft support” for frontrunner Penelope Cruz.

    Before you dismiss his ideas completely, it’s worth pointing out that his track record is pretty strong — he foresaw Kate Winslet’s category switch for “The Reader,” and apparently predicted all of last year’s winners correctly. Here, Khan constructs detailed arguments both against Cruz and for Adams, including this fairly astute point:

    (Adams) has the largest role in this category. As I explained above, size does matter. Adams is the only one in this category with a semi-leading role. She has plenty of dialogue and good dramatic scene work, managing to more than hold her own while acting opposite Meryl Streep for much of the film. Don’t think that voters won’t take that into account. And while the much talked about brief performance by Viola Davis might have a greater impact, many will feel that it’s just too brief to deserve an Oscar. Even veteran Ruby Dee lost for her small role in “American Gangster” last year, despite winning the SAG award just a few weeks earlier. If Dee couldn’t win, there’s probably no way that Davis can.

    Other factors listed in Adams’ favour include the possibility that voters may wish to convert one of “Doubt”‘s four acting nods into a win, Adams’ exceptional personal likeability and her significant box-office clout. Against Cruz, he cites her Globe and SAG losses (though I’m not sure I’d count those, given this year’s odd Winslet scenario), her limited screentime (not to mention her delayed appearance) and the Academy’s apparent indifference to “Vicky Cristina Barcelona” itself. (Not on his list, but a factor in my mind, is that Cruz looks set to have a big 2009, and may well be an even stronger contender for next year’s honours.)

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  • Pedro Almodovar starts the buzz on Penelope Cruz in 2009

    Pedro Almodovar at the 75th Annual Academy AwardsWriting in the weekend’s New York Times Magazine, filmmaker Pedro Almodóvar becomes one of the first to begin spitballing the efforts of an actress we’re likely to be talking about this time next year:

    Last year she finally came into her own in America, as she had already done in the rest of the world. Penélope is one of the most versatile actresses with whom I’ve worked. And this season she has proved it, with two performances in very different keys: the hysterical, very funny painter in “Vicky Cristina Barcelona” and the young, neatly coiffed student in “Elegy.”

    What will 2009 bring? For starters, “Broken Embraces,” a hard-nosed drama with the feel of a thriller, and Rob Marshall’s “Nine,” a remake of Fellini’s “8½.” My film is finished, and I’ve seen images from “Nine,” and I can tell you that this year Penélope Cruz will continue to plumb depths we haven’t seen before.

    Check out the rest here.

  • Predicting BAFTA, part two — main categories

    Continuing yesterday’s not-so-educated guesses at tomorrow’s BAFTA Awards, we move on the main categories. In many ways, they’re easier to predict than the frequently confounding technical categories, but that’s no reason to get complacent – as we saw last year with then-unexpected wins for Tilda Swinton and Marion Cotillard, BAFTA is more than capable of throwing a significant spanner in the works in the top races.

    By the way, be sure to tune in tomorrow, when I’ll be liveblogging the ceremony, beginning with the red carpet coverage at 11 a.m. PST (that’s 7 p.m. London time).

    BAFTA bizarrely issues a press release revealing the winners before the ceremony begins. (I told you they haven’t a clue how to organise the event.) I’ll be ignoring that, for my part – the ceremony can be dull enough without having every last drop of suspense extricated from the proceedings. But the info will be available. I leave the choice up to you.

    Moving on to the predictions…

    Best Film
    “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button”
    “Frost/Nixon”
    “Milk”
    “The Reader”
    “Slumdog Millionaire”

    There really is terribly little to discuss here. The truth is that “Slumdog” would likely be a BAFTA favourite even if it weren’t primed for Oscar glory – a true British success story, from a popular but largely unsung hometown filmmaker, featuring a British lead actor from a high-profile Channel 4 TV drama, it’s been a massive local box-office success, and has enjoyed nearly the same level of critical adulation here as in the States. BAFTA has celebrated homegrown product in this category for the last two years, and will do so for a third time running. If anything were to derail the Mumbai express, it would be the very British-flavoured “The Reader” … but it won’t.

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  • Jenkins, Cruz make the talk show rounds

    I can’t find a clip of “The Visitor” star Richard Jenkins on Letterman last night, but here’s a look at the actor’s visit to the couch of “The View”:

    And Penelope Cruz doing her duty on Leno:

  • SANTA BARBARA: Writers talk writing, Cruz walks the red carpet

    Penelope Cruz talks to festival director Roger Durling at the Santa Barbara International Film FestivalYesterday was another busy event day for the Santa Barbara fest.  It was a shame the Director’s Panel was canceled, but participant Andrew Stanton switched gears to join Robert Knott (“Appaloosa”), Tom McCarthy (“The Visitor”) and Dustin Lance Black (“Milk”) for an Anne Thompson-moderated discussion on their work at the keyboard this year.

    It was a good discussion, though I couldn’t help a double take at Black’s prepubescent appearance as he waltzed casually on stage.  I mean it as a compliment.  I was also intrigued by his noting one of the things that really interested him when working on the spec “Milk” script was the famed politician’s not-so-heroic side.  “Sometimes he’d be in the bath house when he should have been home with his boyfriend,” Black said.  I say intrigued because one of the key criticisms of the film has been its overly haloed depiction of the man, a criticism that, frankly, hasn’t been properly defended by even the film’s legion of supporters (and I count myself in their ranks).

    Stanton, meanwhile, was perhaps the most thought-provoking member of the panel, finding a nice place amid Black’s low-key veneer, McCarthy’s wit and Knoll’s hilarious interjections.  And thankfully, Jeffrey Wells martyred himself by asking why Stanton continued to be “oblique” when addressing the overweight “teletubbies” of “WALL-E.”  This has been a bone of contention for me on the film for some time, not so much because I feel it undermines the film, but because I believed it to be an easy opportunity for mean-spirited “fat” jokes, so to speak.

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  • January winner predictions

    WALL-EOnward. I bet Fox Searchlight wants this phase two to go by as fast as possible.

    Best Picture: “Slumdog Millionaire”
    Best Director: Danny Boyle, “Slumdog Millionaire”
    Best Actor: Sean Penn, “Milk”
    Best Actress: Kate Winslet, “The Reader”
    Best Supporting Actor: Heath Ledger, “The Dark Knight”
    Best Supporting Actress: Penelope Cruz, “Vicky Cristina Barcelona”
    Best Adapted Screenplay: “Slumdog Millionaire”
    Best Original Screenplay: “WALL-E”
    Best Art Direction: “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button”
    Best Cinematography: “The Dark Knight”
    Best Costume Design: “The Duchess”
    Best Film Editing: “Slumdog Millionaire”
    Best Makeup: “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button”
    Best Music (Original Score): “Slumdog Millionaire”
    Best Music (Original Song): “WALL-E”
    Best Sound Editing: “WALL-E”
    Best Sound Mixing: “WALL-E”
    Best Visual Effects: “The Cuious Case of Benjamin Button”
    Best Animated Feature Film: “WALL-E”
    Best Foreign Language Film: “Waltz with Bashir”
    Best Documentary (Feature): “Man on Wire”
    Best Documentary (Short Subject): “The Witness — From the Balcony of Room 306”
    Best Short FIlm (Animated): “Presto”
    Best Short Film (Live Action): “New Boy”

    Tally:
    “Slumdog Millionaire” — 5
    “WALL-E” — 5
    “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button” — 3
    “The Dark Knight” — 2
    “Defiance” — 1
    “The Duchess” — 1
    “The Reader” — 1
    “Vicky Cristina Barcelona” — 1

    (Those are all probably dead wrong, but eh, we’ll see how the season develops from here.)

  • Golden Globes: Feeling the love

    Sally Hawkins at the 66th Annual Golden Globe AwardsAs I curled on the couch in the wee small hours of the morning, watching last night’s Golden Globes telecast with only a hot toddy and a handful of chatty IC commenters for company, it occurred to me that I was hearing an awful lot of one word as the evening unfolded. And that word was ‘love.’

    Of course, it’s a ubiquitous word in any awards show, weepily applied as it is to innumerable family members, lovers and colleagues as winners rattle names off thank-you lists longer than most films’ scripts. But this struck me as slightly different: the love here was being directed towards film and art itself.

    Sally Hawkins, the night’s most endearing (and overwhelmed) winner, set the tone, describing her film, “Happy-Go-Lucky,” as being about love both on and off the screen. Surprise (to some) winner Colin Farrell followed her lead, celebrating cinematic adventurousness with the elegant soundbite: “Curiosity is love.”

    Meanwhile, Danny Boyle picked up above all on the affection his awards-sweeping film has garnered within the industry, while Kate Winslet paid tribute to a long-standing love cultivated with her co-star, refracted very differently in two films, eleven years apart.

    It struck me as an appropriate motif for an awards ceremony that seemed less calculated and more sincere than usual. Perhaps a year away the Globes has made me –- or them –- soft, but for an institution that takes sustained criticism for being overly susceptible to campaigning muscle and star power, it seemed to me that, in almost every category, the HFPA members had voted with their collective hearts, singling out the performers and films that they themselves loved.

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  • ACE nominees

    They sure cranked these out early this morning.  Thanks to N8 for posting in the comments section.  This year’s American Cinema Editors (ACE) nominees are:

    Best Edited Feature Film (Dramatic)
    “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button” (Angus Wall & Kirk Baxter)
    “The Dark Knight” (Lee Smith, A.C.E.)
    “Frost/Nixon” (Mike Hill, A.C.E. & Dan Hanley, A.C.E.)
    “Milk” (Elliot Graham)
    “Slumdog Millionaire” (Chris Dickens)

    Best Edited Feature Film (Comedy or Musical)
    “In Bruges” (Jon Gregory, A.C.E.)
    “Mamma Mia!” (Leslie Walker)
    “Tropic Thunder” (Greg Hayden)
    “Vicky Cristina Barcelona” (Alisa Lepselter)
    “WALL-E” (Stephen Schaffer)

    Best Edited Documentary
    “Bush’s War” (Steve Audette)
    “Chicago 10” (Stuart Levy, A.C.E.)
    “Man on Wire” (Jinx Godfrey)

    No surprises whatsoever, really.  Except maybe some love for “In Bruges” and “Tropic Thunder” in the comedy category.  After a discussion earlier this morning about “the five” dominating the guild circuit so far, the dramatic nominees prove to solidify the mixture even more.  I don’t think we’ve ever seen a consensus like this develop, with five clear-cut industry favorites popping up everywhere like clockwork.

  • Guessing the Globes

    UPDATE: That pesky Best Actor (Comedy/Musical) category has been running through my head all day, and I’m still not happy with my conclusion. So I’m making a last minute switch to Colin Farrell. I’ll probably be proved wrong in a few hours, but hey — there’s gotta be a surprise somewhere. Right?

    EARLIER: Well, hello there. After laptop theft has left me in the offline wilderness this past week, I’m back, albeit on borrowed facilities. (Thanks Alec, if you’re reading!) And not a moment too soon – any longer, and you’d have been deprived of my uninformed, inconsequential and in some cases wildly guessed Golden Globe predictions. Whew.

    The Globes come at a delicate point in awards season, just as consensus, or even a sense of inevitability, is building around certain prospective Oscar victors – but their timing, especially in the condensed awards season of recent years, means they don’t always catch the wave. So, while they frequently hop on an Oscar-bound bandwagon, as bellwethers, they can also be left behind – as in 2005, when they missed the momentum shift from “The Aviator” to “Million Dollar Baby.”

    Of course, their distinctive taste can also be a complicating factor, as we saw last year, when they bypassed long-established favourite “No Country for Old Men” for the rapidly cooling “Atonement.” And who can account for what happened in 1993, when they bizarrely crowned “Scent of a Woman” ahead of “Unforgiven,” “Howards End” and “The Crying Game?”

    What I’m saying, in a long-winded fashion, is that I’m finding this year’s Globes harder to call than they may appear. “Slumdog Millionaire” may be the obvious frontrunner, but I can’t shake a nagging suspicion that it’s not really an HFPA sort of film, that as with “Atonement” last year, the more stately, romantic “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button” may be more to their taste. It’s a toss-up to me, but I’m ultimately playing it safe, and guessing that Danny Boyle’s Mumbai fable has too much momentum to overcome.

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  • BAFTA Orange Rising Star nominees

    Michael Fassbender in HungerGuy has already touched upon some BAFTA coverage today.  The Brits like to draw out their nominations process as long is possible, and good on ’em for it.  You gotta compete in this flurry of awards season announcements.

    Anyway, the nominees for the Orange Rising Star award were announced earlier today, and they are:

    Michael Cera
    Noel Clarke
    Michael Fassbender
    Rebecca Hall
    Toby Kebbell

    This is a tough call for me, the toss-up being Michael Fassbender and Rebecca Hall.  The former was an absolute sensation in “Hunger,” while the latter is probably the best part of Woody Allen’s “Vicky Cristina Barcelona,” despite Penélope Cruz nabbing the raves.  My guess is Hall takes it.

    Here’s a bit from the press release:

    The Orange Rising Star Award is unique as it is the only Award presented at The Orange British Academy Film Awards to be voted for by the British public.  Film fans can have their say by voting via the Orange website HYPERLINK “http://www.orange.co.uk/bafta” orange.co.uk/bafta; or via text. The winner will be announced at The Orange British Academy Film Awards on Sunday 8 February 2009…

    Nominees must have featured in a film that has been entered for this year’s Orange British Academy Film Awards. Nominees will have usually already appeared in several feature films in their career so far.

    Last year’s winner was Shia LaBeouf, who announced this morning’s nominees.

  • WGA nominees

    WGAOriginal Screenplay
    “Burn After Reading” (Ethan Coen, Joel Coen)
    “Milk” (Dustin Lance Black)
    “Vicky Cristina Barcelona” (Woody Allen)
    “The Visitor” (Thomas McCarthy)
    “The Wrestler” (Robert Siegel)

    Adapted Screenplay
    “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button” (Eric Roth; screen story by Eric Roth and Robin Swicord; based on the short story by F. Scott Fitzgerald)
    “The Dark Knight” (Christopher Nolan, Jonathan Nolan; screen story by Christopher Nolan, David S. Goyer; based on characters appearing in comic books published by DC Comics; Batman created by Bob Kane)
    “Doubt” (John Patrick Shanley; based on his stage play)
    “Frost/Nixon” (Peter Morgan; based on his stage play)
    “Slumdog Millionaire” (Simon Beaufoy; based on the novel “Q and A” by Vikas Swarup)

    Documentary
    “Boogie Man: The Lee Atwater Story” (Stefan Forbes, Noland Walker)
    “Chicago 10” (Brett Morgan)
    “Fuel” (Johnny O’Hara)
    “Gonzo: The Life and Work of Hunter S. Thompson” (Alex Gibney; from the words of Hunter S. Thompson)
    “Waltz With Bashir” (Ari Folman)

    So, the lesson?  “The Dark Knight” is in this thing for real now.  As I said last night, this was going to be the real test.  “I wanted to see what you’d do.  And you didn’t disappoint.”  The rest of the adapted screenplay nominees will likely translate to Oscar 5/5, but I somehow doubt the Coen brothers will turn their guild mention into an Oscar berth.  Remember, the WGA likes comedies, so “Burn After Reading” was always going to have a leg up here.

    More love for “The Wrestler,” and though it’s not entirely unexpected, I must say it was a pleasant surprise.  And we all figured Thomas McCarthy would find love with the same group that nomianted him for 2003’s “The Station Agent.”  He may or may not translate that into an Oscar nomination, but it’s certainly a good possibility.

    And remember, animated films are not eligible, so “WALL-E” still has a shot at sliding in.  Maybe.  It is, indeed, the most critically acclaimed film of the year, but it’s a slightly different case than “Toy Story,” “Finding Nemo” and “Ratatouille,” I think.

    Biggest snub: “Rachel Getting Married” (very odd, but frankly, a welcome exclusion)
    Needed this one bad: “In Bruges” (the studio is trying hard); “The Reader” (that Scripter nod might have provided elevated hopes)

    Anyway, I think Christopher Nolan’s DGA nomination is pretty much in the bag tomorrow.  I’d be tempted to call the Best Picture five a done deal after that, but we must always remember “Almost Famous and “Being John Malkovich,” two films that landed nominations from the PGA, DGA, WGA and a grabbed a SAG ensemble mention, yet failed to make into Oscar’s Best Picture five.  And “The Dark Knight” didn’t even get the SAG Ensemble nod, so “Doubt” is still lurking.  It ain’t over yet.