Oscar nominations

"Blood" has a monumental performance from Day-Lewis and it looks epic. But the screenplay is full of holes. The relationship with the son isn't remotely developed and Paul Dano just disappears for a while.
I thought Sarah Polley got robbed way back in "The Sweet Hereafter." (So did the movie, BTW). This one, though, is a little too close to the bone for me to see.
As for Pinsent, well, he was in the middle of a little enterprise called The Lord Of The Rings -- "For wrath, ruin, and a RED DAWN!" -- so I think he's better known that you'd think.

 

Would be remiss if the best documentary nominees aren't recognized.

Some great work here:

“No End in Sight” (Magnolia Pictures) A Representational Pictures Production: Charles Ferguson and Audrey Marrs

“Operation Homecoming: Writing the Wartime Experience” (The Documentary Group) A Documentary Group Production: Richard E. Robbins

“Sicko” (Lionsgate and The Weinstein Company) A Dog Eat Dog Films Production: Michael Moore and Meghan O’Hara

“Taxi to the Dark Side” (THINKFilm) An X-Ray Production: Alex Gibney and Eva Orner

“War/Dance” (THINKFilm) A Shine Global and Fine Films Production: Andrea Nix Fine and Sean Fine

 

You can debate every category but two.
Daniel Day Lewis, best actor.
Javier Bardem, best supporting actor.

I saw four the five up. I can't see how "No Country" doesn't win. It's the best flick I've seen in years.

 

I've heard great things about "Taxi to the Dark Side." I don't watch a ton of documentaries unless they're on TV, but this is one I'm going to make an effort to see.

 

It is very good... And troubling.

 

What's the story?

 

Gordon Pinsent was in the Lord of the Rings?

I didn't know they cast a drunken Newfie in the flick.

Seriously, he was?

 

"No Country" winning for best flick...are you kidding me?

Was he Gandalf ;D?

 

It's about a taxi driver in Afghanistan who is captured by Americans and interrogated and tortured to death. Apparently, his legs were pretty much pulp by the time he was pronounced dead and it was ruled a homicide.

It basically connects that incident with other forms of torture that violate the Geneva Conventions used by the U.S. in the "War on Terror" (including Abu Ghraib) and shows it to be more of a pattern instead of the "few bad apples" the government talked about when the Abu Ghraib scandal broke. I believe it infers that it's an institutional thing, rather than rogue GIs.

It's supposed to be really powerful.

 

We don't torture.
The president told me that.
Movie must be Canadian bullshit.
Anyway, I'm an idiot who confused Pinsent with Bernard Hill, who played Theoden of Rohan.
My bad.

 

Fenian, great to see that you think movies that are not known equate to Canadian bullshit....

 

Good heavens, where did I leave that blue font?
I was joking, csc. Honest.