Sunday, August 24, 2008

Bainer's Best performance's of 2008 as of August 24th

I will not lie, and admit that I feel that this year, the first 8 months of the movie going year has been the weakest for a long time. It usually isn't hard to find good film's to choose from or performance's that really stick out, and I would have a hard time picking and choosing. This time it was like pulling teeth to fill the bracket's, but I got lucky and found some that I feel are the best performance's in their respective categories so far this year. Obviously, once October rolls around many of these names will be replaced. Hey, it's August, what do you expect ?

Picture:
Elegy
In Bruges
The Dark Knight
The Visitor
Vicky Cristina Barcelona
( Interesting to see if the Dark Knight will be Oscar nominated for Best Picture )

Male Lead Performance:
Javiar Bardem- Vicky Cristina Barcelona
Robert Downey Jr.- Iron Man
Colin Farrell- In Bruges
Richard Jenkins- The Visitor
Ben Kingsley- Elegy
( Instead of scenery chewing, Kingsley's restrained performace is one of the best in his career )

Female Lead Performance:
Kathy Bates- Bonneville
Kate Beckinsale- Snow Angels
Tina Fey- Baby Mama
Melissa Leo- Frozen River
Julianne Moore- Savage Grace
( Bates is wonderful, also one of her best role's and Leo is amazing )

Male Supporting Performance:
Robert Downey Jr.- Tropic Thunder
Brendan Gleeson- In Bruges
Heath Ledger- The Dark Knight
Joseph Gordon-Levitt- Stop-Loss
Dennis Quaid- Vantage Point
( At this point I'd be very surprised if Ledger doesn't sweep the category and run the table )

Female Supporting Performance:
Joan Allen- Bonneville
Penelope Cruz- Vicky Cristina Barcelona
Hope Davis- Charlie Bartlett
Rebecca Hall- Vicky Cristina Barcelona
Amy Poehler- Baby Mama
( Cruz the best thing about VCB ? )

Direction:
Woody Allen- Vicky Cristina Barcelona
Tom McCarthy- The Visitor
Martin McDonough- In Bruges
Chris Nolan- The Dark Knight
Ben Stiller- Tropic Thunder
( Yes, you read it correctly, I think it's by far Stiller's best effort, a career best )

As I have said, this list will have drastic changes as we conclude the year. From here on out, I will come back each week till the first of the year, to take off and add any other performance I feel warrant's it.

3 comments:

atgtacoma said...

Interesting to see Stiller as a director nominee. I have been following him since his short-lived tv series. I've always enjoyed his direction more than his acting. It's glad to see after the last few years of derailed, horribly bland comedies, he's back to directing unique comedies. I've always thought he could be the answer to Mel Brooks of the 70's, since he has a great eye to pointed parody.

No Bad Movies said...

Tnak atg, but this list is only as of this week. Change is inedivable.

No Bad Movies said...

Too tired to even type correctlly.
Thanks- Inevidable.

About Me

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Started to really pay attention to film ( movies ) what was going on in front of the camera, but more interestingly, behind it as well at about as far back as age 10. Motion pictures ( when good ) are a fascinating medium. All the work and prep that goes into filmmaking. It's an amazing process !