1st Annual Lucifer Awards

The Devil’s Advocates present the first annual Lucifer Awards, celebrating what we believe to be the best of film in 2009. Here are the results:

James Cameron Thinks Win-Win

In a recent interview with Charlie Rose, James Cameron, the creator behind Titanic, and the recent juggernaut Avatar, expressed his desire to see his ex-wife Kathryn Bigelow win Best Director for her film The Hurt Locker, rather than himself.  He did add one caveat, that for the sake of “Team Avatar” it would be nice to win Best Picture. 

Awards and Award Season: Golden Globes 2009

Most people usually see the Golden Globes as the pre-cursors and foreshadowers of the Academy Awards, but there’s one big difference: Best Picture is divided into Drama and Musical/Comedy. This allows for a lot of variety, plus two winners in each of the biggest categories: Picture, Actor, and Actress. The Director, Screenplay, and Supporting Actor/Actress awards are lumped together, so it becomes a bit more prophetic of the Oscar race than the others (for example, the winners of Best Actor were Sean Penn (the eventual winner) and..ahem…Colin Farrell). This year’s three front-runners for Best Picture-Drama (and the coveted Best Picture Oscar) are Up in the Air (likely for Screenplay), The Hurt Locker (likely for Director, unless the “King of the World” has any say about it) and Precious (which is more actor-driven than production), with blockbusters Avatar and Inglourious Basterds weak competition. The Best Picture-Musical or Comedy section has the same variety: indie darling (see my piece on the Spirit Awards) vs. big-budget musical (the most viable candidate) vs. silly comedies (The Hangover? way to defy expectations, you snooty critics). Here’s the full list: http://www.goldenglobes.org/nominations/

The Hurt Locker (Lil Devil Review)

The Hurt Locker is an action-packed yet serious look at the war in Iraq as seen through the eyes of a military bomb squad. In it, we follow a U.S. Army Explosive Ordnance Disposal unit (EOD) as it gets a new leader for their last month in Iraq. That’s how we meet James (Jeremy Renner from 28 Weeks Later), the new EOD squad leader. He’s been transferred to Iraq from Afghanistan and immediately starts to do things his way. Like, stopping a speeding taxi while on his way to inspect IED’s by standing in it’s way and shooting out the windows when the driver refuses to obey orders. “If he wasn’t an insurgent he is one now.”, James says as Marines yank the driver out of the taxi.