GOLD DERBY EXCLUSIVE: NATIONAL SOCIETY OF FILM CRITICS -- BEHIND THE SCENES

'WALL'E,' Heath Ledger, Penelope Cruze and Danny Boyle all led on the first ballots in their categories, but got bumped off during the second round when proxies are dropped from the voting. WALL-E's robot girlfriend "Eva" got a vote for best actress! Jean-Claude van Damme got a gag vote for best actor! Read more - CLICK HERE

http://goldderby.latimes.com/awards_goldderby/2009/01/flim-critics-ne.html

This message has been edited. Last edited by: Tom O'Neil,

Why do you say the Van Damme vote was a gag? By all accounts he is a tour de force in the quasi-documentary JCVD. I would assume it was a serious vote.

David Byrne got votes (for me, totally warranted) for best actor for the great concert film Stop Making Sense from this group.

quote:

Originally posted by seanflynn:
Why do you say the Van Damme vote was a gag? By all accounts he is a tour de force in the quasi-documentary JCVD. I would assume it was a serious vote.

David Byrne got votes (for me, totally warranted) for best actor for the great concert film Stop Making Sense from this group.

Van Damme was able to place with the Toronto Critics. I wouldn't be suprised if he got some scattered votes with other critics' prizes.

Van Damme is very good in JCVD. He has an emotional monologue scene that he pulls off perfectly. It was a pleasant surprised to see a good performance.

Exactly. Van Damme and a cartoon character get votes, and somehow Van Damme is the gag vote?

quote:

Originally posted by MysteriousRent:
Exactly. Van Damme and a cartoon character get votes, and somehow Van Damme is the gag vote?

I KNOW! I don't consider Van Damm's win a "gag" vote. However Wall*E's Eva win in Best Actress is a gag vote IMO, lol.

Technically, EVE is acted by a voice actress who did a fairly good job at delivering her five-word vocubalary dialogue in a such a manner that you could tell whether her "Wall-E" was meant to be exasperated, sultry, sad or jubilant. (I could name some very well-paid actresses who couldn't pull that off.)

Still, it seems less of a joke and more of a slap in the face to the actual actresses competing this year to give EVE a vote instead of supporting a real actress' career.

I guess it's been not a great year for female performances.

Although I'm fascinated with the Best Actress race, it was definitely a weak year. I find myself liking more male performances than female this year.

I'm of the other mind, and feel the performances were better than the films; mostly. I dont really feel Best Actress is a weak field.
The Best Actor field, is unbelievably good this year, imo. Supporting is wild.
Best Supporting Actress is also 'strange', but good overall.

Streep is the leader this year because of the weak field (the strongest performances are in little scene films) and will most likely win by default.

Also, in this interesting year of possible Best Actress nominees, if Streep wins, I hope it burns a hole in some people's bullying brains. JMHO.

You really are a piece of work, Pook. And the bully who makes personal attacks on a regular basis.

You just don't like it when someone has a different opinion than yours.

You said you would ignore me. I told you that you were too obsessed and would be back at it, which you have been in three attacks in four days this year so far - just like I predicted.

I am big enough to put aside my dislike for Streep's performance to predict she could win - and you turn aside my openness to the idea by attacking me, once again.

Typical.

quote:

Originally posted by babypook:
Also, in this interesting year of possible Best Actress nominees, if Streep wins, I hope it burns a hole in some people's bullying brains. JMHO.

With all the shenanigans going on in behind the scenes, and all their convoluted, and confusing voting methods, it is really hard to take these critics circles seriously. It is clear that at times due to inside politics, comprimises, some of the winners are surely not the most deserving and or the best ones of the year..(NY critics '98 best actress anyone, Ms Diaz..!!!)

Another member of the I hate Seanflynn Jr High School Girls Clique shows up on cue...

Did I hear my name mentioned?

If La Streep wins, it won't be the end of the world..The woman has been on top of her profession for almost 30 years, taken so much for granted..; name another performer of her age with the same longevity and wise choices as well as strength..So many mediocres won over her, and as said, even her worst performance is better than most's best...It will be a well deserved win, not a default...Now if Kate Winslet wins too, then the academy will have corrected two injustices in one year..

By default I mean the following, so there is no misunderstanding - obviously it would mean that a sufficient number of Academy members thought the performance was worthy - it's that it would be unusual for a performance with so many members not impressed to win. And, yes, there is a lot of discomfort with the performance among voters - I have heard more criticism (some scathing) than I've heard of all the potentially winning performance in recent years combined. That would normally keep her from winning - but, with a divided field, and at this point no clear alternative for others to rally around, she looks well positioned.

And to repeat an earlier pont, it likely means she never wins another Oscar, even if, as is certain, she gives far better performances in the future.

quote:

Originally posted by babypook:
I'm of the other mind, and feel the performances were better than the films; mostly. I dont really feel Best Actress is a weak field.
The Best Actor field, is unbelievably good this year, imo. Supporting is wild.
Best Supporting Actress is also 'strange', but good overall.

You definitely make a good point. By comparison the female performances looks like a weak field, because it was a terrific year for male performances.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: NovicMode,

Good heavens, if you have a Best Actress lineup with Hawkins, Leo and Williams, then the trickle of folks who will want to watch anything else on Oscar night will turn into a flood. Frozen River nor Wendy and Me haven't even been released nationally yet. Happy Go Lucky hasn't even broken $3.25 million in its boxoffice run. And the Academy expects the mainstream public to accept any combination of these 3 as the best lead actress performances of the year? Dead. On. Arrival., any chance of that.

Maybe there needs to be a rule that if a film isn't released on a countrywide level in the calendar year, then it's ineliglble for Oscar consideration.