Who would be on your Oscar dream team?

I know most people don't check blogs over the weekend but today is Oscar Sunday and I just spent the morning watching The Best Years of our Lives,the seven time Academy Award winner from 1946,for a couple of reasons-to put myself in the right
frame of mind for tonight's show and also to reward myself after watching Crash and being able not to gag on the sicking scent of sanctimous speechifying that wafted off every scene.

I'm sure everyone involved had good intentions while making and promoting this film but Crash just comes across as an overdone morality play that has all the subtlety of a Very Special Episode of____(insert the TV show of your choice). It wouldn't hurt some of the creative folk out there to catch up on a few classics and take a hint about how to get a message out thru art without sacrificing plot credibility and character development.

Enough ranting and raving-I've also noticed that many people are not as enthused about the Oscars as they used to be. There's always been some cynicism but the latest discontentment seems to be from the selection of nominees. That got me to think about having some fantasy Oscar nominees-why should picking your favorites to compete against each other be only an option for sports fans? Movie Lovers are just as devoted as they are(only without body painting and big foam fingers to wave around).

It's too late to set up anything this year but I thought I'll share with you my dream team for 2006(to keep things simple,this will only be five catagories). Ok,here we go with:

BEST ACTOR:...and the nominees are,

Christian Bale/Batman Begins

Viggo Mortenson/A History of Violence

Steve Carrell/The 40 Year Old Virgin

Nathan Fillon/Serenity

Mickey Rourke/Sin City

As much as I love Brokeback Mountain and Heath Ledger's performance(he's gotta win,screw Capote!),Viggo in History of Violence gave one of most memorable performances I've ever seen on film. Comedies get overlooked alot and I think that Carrell's work in FYOV raised that movie over the low bar usually set for sex comedies. The guy that would win,however,would be Mickey Rourke. His Marv in Sin City is just as much of a comeback role as Travolta's Vincent Vega,plus none of that L. Ron Hubbard vibe to deal with.

BEST ACTRESS:
and the nominees are.....

Maria Bello/History of Violence

Toni Collette/In Her Shoes

Cecile de France/High Tension

Summer Glau/Serenity

Rosario Dawson/Sin City

Most of the ladies here were in rather action packed roles but to pull off a good,memorable character amongst fight scenes and special effects is no lightweight challenge. Toni Collette is a particular favorite of mine and while Cameron Diaz seemed to get more of the media's attention,Toni's the one who held the heart and soul of the story together. The award would go to Maria Bello who along with Viggo gave one hell of a nonverbal end scene in HOV.

BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR:

Paul Rudd/The 40 Year Old Virgin

Ed Harris/History of Violence

Cillian Murphy/Batman Begins

Jamie Foxx/Jarhead

Alan Tudyk/Serenity

Many of the best scenes in FYOV feature Rudd(one of my favs is his complaint to the supervisor about her choice of Michael McDonald as the video Musak of the store)and he nearly steals the show at times. It was to select one actor from Batman Begins but Cillian's performance was a stand-out(also loved the way he said"The Bat-man!"). The winner here would be Alan Tudyk,mainly for his"I am a leaf on the wind" mantra.

BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS:

Brenda Blethyn/Pride and Prejudice

Francine Beers/In Her Shoes

Jaime King/Sin City

Elizabeth Banks/The Baxter

Yuen Qiu/Kung Fu Hustle

I did get to finally see the new version of Pride & Prejudice this week and while I enjoyed Keira's Elizabeth Bennet,Blethyn's Mrs Bennet was very well done indeed. Beer's Mrs. Lefkowitz in In Her Shoes has Sophia Petrillo beat for giving old school sass and advice. My ultimate winner would be Yuen Qiu as one of the toughest landladies aroung in Kung Fu Hustle-her acceptance speech alone would be worth it!

BEST PICTURE:

and the nominees are....

BATMAN BEGINS

SIN CITY

SERENITY

A HISTORY OF VIOLENCE

THE 40 YEAR OLD VIRGIN

Atleast with these picks,most folk have heard,if not seen most of them. Not that being popular or having a high box office gross means quality but with these films,most critics gave them just as much praise as films like Brokeback or Capote. Hard to chose from amongst them but the award would go to Sin City-it was a groundbreaking film on many levels and Robert Rodriguez may be scorned for his insistence on sharing credit with Frank Miller by the Director's Guild but many others will see him as the generous artist that he is.

Well,that's my take on it-I'll be watching the real deal later on,with a bowl of popcorn and my ballot on hand to capture all of the hijinks. Hopefully,that one moment of unexpectedness that longtime Oscar watchers wait for will occur,be it a truly horridable choice of dress or a dark horse candidate being called forward to accept a golden guy,because that makes all the hoopla worth it,atleast for me.