Academy Awards '08: Who I'd Vote For

Sorry to strike a sour note, folks, but this is the dullest pre-Oscar season I can remember. I'm just not passionate about many of these films, and it's hard to embrace the whole horse race aspect of it this year. Nevertheless, I've tried to do my homework, and I've seen many--though a lower percentage than in recent years--of the nominated films, and here, then, is my personal ballot. It's who I'd vote for, NOT who I think will win. Here goes:

Best Picture: I still feel ashamed for not seeing There Will Be Blood. I think that people who were disappointed by the conclusion to No Country for Old Men have a right to feel that way and not be sneered at by the sophisticates. I still think it's a fine film and easily my favorite of those nominated. Liked Juno more than I thought I would, wanted to love Michael Clayton but didn't. No Country gets the vote.

Best Director: The Coens. I loved the directorial work Tony Gilroy did on Michael Clayton, helping a movie whose biggest problems were, I felt, on the screenplay level. Only thing is, Gilroy wrote the screenplay.

Best Actress: I think Laura Linney is a tremendous actress who always gets the job done. But Julie Christie made the most lasting impression as an Alzheimer's patient. Sure, it seems like one of those traditional Oscar bait roles, but so what? Christie was fantastic in a bummer of a movie.

Best Actor: I saw 3 of the 5 performances (sorry, Tommy Lee and Daniel Day), and I loved all 3. I can't vote for something I didn't see, so I'd go with Viggo in a squeaker. I think his performance was the most complex, though that is not a knock on Depp or Clooney at all.

Best Supporting Actor: I thought Tommy Lee Jones, not Javier Bardem, was the real standout in No Country. But I'd vote for Bardem, who created a character that will linger for years.

Best Supporting Actress: Got to go with Amy Ryan for the underrated Gone Baby Gone. I knew her from HBO's The Wire but not much else, which made her turn the only one of all the nominated actors in all categories that made me go, "Wow, that was unbelievable."

Original Screenplay: Ratatouille. Accomplished so much while remaining entertaining.

Adapted Screenplay: This is a tough one both because of my own ignorance and because the Coens lifted most of the movie directly from the Cormac McCarthy novel. But you know what? That's still adaptation. Not ALL of the novel made it in, after all. I vote for the Coens.

Other awards I'm rooting for: "Falling Slowly" from Once to win Best Original Song, Ratatouille to win animated feature. And two documentaries I loved, The King of Kong and In the Shadow of the Moon, didn't make it to the big dance. So I root against all 5 that did. Pbbt!