http://www.indy.com/posts/5169 en-us Christopher Lloyd I guess I didn't see it as unoriginal. There have been a few lawyers-expose-corporate-corruption flicks like "Rainmaker," but not enough to constitute an overload. It's a fairly conventional movie, narratively speaking, but executed just about flawlessly, imho. Clooney was great as the soulless, faceless drone who's gotten really good at doing something he doesn't want to do. He wants to do the right thing, but he's hamstrung by his position. That's a predicament a lot of people can identify with nowadays. And Tilda Swinton and Tom Wilkinson were the two knock-out supporting performances of the year. Surprised, but very glad, that Swinton won the statue. Harrowing theme, great acting, subtle yet masterful direction -- what more can you ask for? Does anybody else out there have an Oscar winner that they just hate, hate, hated (to paraphrase Roger Ebert)? Mon, 25 Feb 2008 16:58:05 -0500 http://www.indy.com/posts/5169#comment_15274 http://www.indy.com/posts/5169#comment_15274 obeythedoberman Christopher, so as not to search through the site can you tell me what you liked so much about Michael Clayton? i cannot tell you how much i disliked it and felt it was just a combination of so many past films. just felt so unoriginal to me. that said, i'm clearly in the minority. Mon, 25 Feb 2008 12:52:47 -0500 http://www.indy.com/posts/5169#comment_15242 http://www.indy.com/posts/5169#comment_15242 joe.shearer 8 of 20 for me (I abstained from categories like documentary short, foreign language film, and others that I had no knowledge about). I too got leading and supporting actress wrong, and while Bardem was the favorite for supporting actor, I sat there before they read his name and thought any one of them would be wholly deserving of the award. Mon, 25 Feb 2008 11:52:51 -0500 http://www.indy.com/posts/5169#comment_15221 http://www.indy.com/posts/5169#comment_15221 Christopher Lloyd Postmortem: I got 10 out of 24 right. Not exactly my best showing. I usually get in the mid- to high teens. But who knew "Bourne Ultimatum" would win three Oscars, more than "There Will Be Blood"? I did get all but two of the major categories, whiffing on both leading and supporting actress. In my defense, those were both wide-open this year. And I'm happy to say in each case my preferred pick won out over my predicted pick -- a nice way to lose. How did you do? Mon, 25 Feb 2008 10:55:07 -0500 http://www.indy.com/posts/5169#comment_15212 http://www.indy.com/posts/5169#comment_15212 Christopher Lloyd The breakdown between what constitutes a leading vs. supporting performance is an old one. Anthony Hopkins won Best Actor for "Silence of the Lambs" with about 12-15 minutes of screen time. For "Pulp Fiction," John Travolta got a Best Actor nod while Sam Jackson got Supporting Actor despite roughly similar screen time and lines. The craziest one I recall is Jake Gyllenhaal getting nominated in the supporting category for "Brokeback Mountain" while Heath Ledger was in the lead category. Ledger's performance resonated more, but there's no way you could claim those were anything less than co-equal parts. In this year's contest, Casey Affleck had the lead role in "Assassination of Jesse James" while Brad Pitt was the supporting. But Pitt's a huge star while Casey was that guy in the background of the "Ocean's" movies. Everyone talks about Julie Christie's performance in "Away from Her" -- and she is great in it, no question -- but if you pay attention to the narrative, it's a story about a man watching his relationship with his wife drift due to dementia. In grammatical terms, he's the subject and she's the object. If it was a movie about a woman watching her husband drift away, it would've been called "Away from Him." Thu, 21 Feb 2008 09:52:18 -0500 http://www.indy.com/posts/5169#comment_14990 http://www.indy.com/posts/5169#comment_14990 joe.shearer Amen to the Gordon Pinset and Ruby Dee comments, brother. Dee is a blatantly sentimental choice. She was in the film for 5 minutes and really I thought she mailed it in other than that one speech she had. I thought the moment when Denzel gave her the house was less than great acting on her part. We'll have to compare picks when I make mine today or tomorrow. :) Thu, 21 Feb 2008 09:01:52 -0500 http://www.indy.com/posts/5169#comment_14982 http://www.indy.com/posts/5169#comment_14982