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Forget the Oscars. Try the Voggies.

1:44 PM Wed, Dec 26, 2007 | Permalink |
Chris Vognar

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Forget the Oscar. Gimme a Voggie (Miramax)

We'll soon be up to our ears in movie awards, but there's no use fighting it when you can join the fun. So check out the first annual Voggies, awarded to whomever we feel like awarding them to. Feel free to add on, and peruse our top ten lists on Friday.

Best family redemption: The Afflecks. Casey shined in The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford and Gone Baby Gone. Ben directed Baby with the savvy of a veteran. Ben’s wife, Jennifer Garner, even got in on the act with strong turns Juno and The Kingdom.

Best work ethic by a cinematographer: Roger Deakins brought his sweat and considerable lensing skill to a troika of winners: No Country for Old Men, In the Valley of Elah and The Assassination of Jesse James. He’s got another trio on the way for 2008 with Revolutionary Road, Doubt and The Reader.

Best performance by an actor wrecking his own Oscar chances: Eddie Murphy starred in the abominable Norbit just weeks before he stood a strong chance to win best supporting actor for Dreamgirls. Then he sulked when he didn’t win.

Best split personality: OK, so even when Denzel Washington plays bad (American Gangster) he’s appealing. And even when he plays good (The Great Debaters) he’s a bad dude. But you still gotta give it up for the versatility.

Comments

Posted by stephen becker @ 4:41 PM Wed, Dec 26, 2007

I'd like to add one: Best Year From a Guy Who We Didn't Even Know Could Act: Josh Brolin takes this award in a landslide. He was excellent in No Country for Old Men, American Gangster and In the Valley of Elah, and he was one of the only good things about Robert Rodriguez's half of Grindhouse. I would have also awarded him Best Performance by a Moustache for this moustache's work in No Country and Gangster, but I'm afraid that award will go to Philip Seymour Hoffman's facial hair in Charlie Wilson's War. It deserves its own billing. Daniel Day-Lewis' turn-of-the-last-century masterpiece in There Will be Blood also deserves mention in this category.

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Posted by Chris Vognar @ 1:42 PM Thu, Dec 27, 2007

Just saw Gangster again and Brolin is indeed fearsome. But if you want to see fake beardery at its finest rent the Orson Welles film Mr. Arkadin. As I wrote in my DVD review a ways back, that thing looks like it's about to leap off the screen and shake your hand.

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Posted by Kip Mooney @ 3:34 PM Thu, Dec 27, 2007

Best Car Chase: Have to go with 'The Kingdom.' 'Bourne Ultimatum' gets the Best Chase on Foot award though.

Catchiest Song: We all know Glen Hansard and Marketa Irglova deserve to fill the entire Best Original Song category for their work in 'Once,' but how many times did you catch yourself humming/singing/whistling "Spider-Pig, Spider-Pig. Does whatever a Spider-Pig does..."?

Best Wardrobe and Accessories: Robert Downey Jr. in 'Zodiac.' He rocked the ascot while in a perpetual drunken stupor, and still found time to be a smart-aleck.

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Posted by Kip Mooney @ 10:59 AM Fri, Dec 28, 2007

Some more categories:

Most Watchable Mess: 'Across the Universe'

Guiltiest Pleasure: the music of 'Music & Lyrics'

http://youtube.com/watch?v=S0A7dtdc-nU

Best Buddies: Simon Pegg & Nick Frost in 'Hot Fuzz' (Runners-up: Jonah Hill & Michael Cera in 'Superbad')

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