My Best of the Year “Skandies” ballot

And here is what I DID vote for, with some blathering after each category. Remember, 100 points to distribute to exactly 10 films, performances, scripts, etc.; minimum of 5, maximum of 30. (Also available here; the whole 2007 Skandies site here).

Film (and Top 10)
20 No Country for Old Men
17 Hot Fuzz
10 Atonement
10 Private Fears in Public Places
10 Into Great Silence
8 There Will Be Blood
7 Grindhouse
7 The Lives of Others
6 Gone Baby Gone
5 Joshua

The top 2 were the only films I saw all year to which eventually gave a 10 grade, and I saw all the top 8 at least twice … hence the big points gap between #2 and #3.

I’d like to think this list at least displays a very catholic taste, at the populist end of the film-snob spectrum — 7 films in English and 3 foreign (though one of the three has very little dialog, and I wouldn’t have been unhappy with none). Two of the films (#2 and #7) that have pretty much nothing “meaningful” to do with anything except having a great time, though I should add that I think all these films, with the exception of #5 and maybe #4, I’d recommend without hesitation to any intelligent adult.

More self-absorption

Since I’m holding off revealing my Skandie ballot, I’ll reveal what I almost voted for but didn’t. My method is to put go through the list of all the films I’ve seen and write down everything that strikes me as memorable or a possibility. And then shuck back to 10. These are the leaves that got shucked. These were what did NOT make my ballot. And yes … I only could think of 12 lead female and 13 supporting female performances.¹

Lead male
Song Kang-ho, The Host
Is that the funny Helper Guy from SECRET SUNSHINE?

Ryan Gosling, Lars and the Real Girl
Is that the Jewish Nazi from THE BELIEVER?

Russell Crowe, American Gangster
Went with him over Denzel cause his character had a bit more of an arc

Brad Pitt, Jesse James
He breathes his own legendness

James McAvoy, Atonement
Didn’t think he had it in him; actually least convincing when trying for Big Emotions

Phillip Seymour Hoffman, Before the Devil Knows You’re Dead
Doesn’t know how to give a bad performance as a Gen-X everyman

It’s Skandie time

Every year since 1998, I have been invited to participate in Mike D’Angelo’s Retarded Movie-Nerd Survey™ (I am the Pinochet-Admiring Lunatic, in case there was any suspense). This ballot shapes my movie-going and defines the end of the year — here is last year’s survey and my ballot; I’ll put the other years up on a page here overnight.

Mike is counting down the survey’s eight categories (Film, Director, Script, Scene, the four acting categories), starting with Number 20 earlier today (ATONEMENT should have been way higher folks). I spent last weekend putting my ballot together, and I will reveal its contents later, in deference to Mike’s standing request that voters sit on their individual ballots until after the countdown is over.