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These are my thoughts on the directors who are nominated for an academy awards this year.

The Diving Bell and the Butterfly - Julian Schnabel

What’s the deal with French directors having girls names?  I am, of course ,referring to Michele Gondry and Julian Schnabel exclusively.  The direction Schnabel provides in The Diving Bell and the Butterfly is entirely what makes the movie work.  The script had great adaptation from the book, the actors were fantastic but without appropriate directing the movie could have very easily been terrible.  That being said I don’t think his directing and this movie is the right pick for best director.

Juno - Jason Reitman

Jason Reitman is becoming a seasoned director and Juno is his second feature film to date (the first being the 2005 film Thank You for Smoking).  I have a severe problem with this particular nomination, and that is the film Juno could have been directed by anyone and it would have been basically the same except it would have probably been better because a good director would have seen the flaws in the film and he would have fixed them.  It was a mistake for the Academy to nominate him for this film and there is something about the film that is making critics blind to it’s faults.  I think Reitman will be good enough to get an Oscar some day, but now is not his time.

Michael Clayton - Tony Gilroy

This film is interesting because if George Clooney was not in it and if Steven Soderberg didn’t producer then nobody would have seen it or liked it.  I thought the direction for this film was second rate and not conducive to the flow (or lack of flow) for the film.  Tony Gilroy is a first time director who, IMO, sucks.  In a year with so many good films I am disappointed with so many crappy nominations.

No Country for Old Men - Joel and Ethan Coen

Joel and Ethan Coen are a tour de force of writing, producing and directing and they re-proved their worth with No Country for Old Men.  Amazingly they have only been nominated for directing one other time (Fargo) and they have never won.  The directing in No Country for Old Men is top shelf and they deserve a Oscar for this category if not simply for this film but for all of their films.

There Will Be Blood - P.T. Anderson

Much like The Coen Brothers, P.T. Anderson has a library of films that are celebrated by film lovers but he has never won and Oscar for his directing (or at all, for that matter).  There Will Be Blood is a return to form for Anderson (again, much like The Coen Brothers) and he deserves this nomination (his first for directing) but I don’t think he deserves to win this year.

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In the sewer of nominations this year there are two that are clear front runners in my mind and between the front runners there is an obvious winner.  You can mark my words on this category.

-Josh

Posted on February 17th, 2008 by schalicto
Filed under: Josh Rants