The Muriels: Best Direction
By Craig Kennedy - February 19th, 2009; 6:45 pm
From the 2007 Muriels
Tonight’s Muriel also includes the first look at this year’s Also-Rans where enthusiastic supporters of certain nominees sound off on their personal favorites that didn’t quite make the Muriel cut.
And now for the Muriel award for Best Direction of 2008.
My votes:
- Jonathan Demme – Rachel Getting Married
- Andrew Stanton – WALL-E
- Arnaud Desplechin – A Christmas Tale
- Charlie Kaufman – Synecdoche, New York
- David Fincher – The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
And the winner complete with blurbage by yours truly…
I really love how Muriel continues to recognize the movies and filmmakers that have been overlooked by that other awards body. Including Wall-E. There’s no animation ghetto at the Muriels.
That poster from last year totally rocks.
Muriel seems to be in a good groove…not completely mainstream, but not to far out in the weeds either.
Wonderful write-up, Craig.
Thanks. You’d think after writing in public for nearly 2 years I’d be a lot more comfortable writing on other blogs.
Craig, I still haven’t seen the movie, which is why I didn’t read the write-up or comment on it. :(
Nicely done, Craig.
My votes were:
1. Cristian Mungiu
2. James Marsh
3. Charlie Kaufman
4. Mike Leigh
5. Darren Aronofsky
Although If I had seen The Class by voting time, I would have put Laurent Cantet in there.
Wonderful choices Craig; excellent report.
My own five would have been:
1 Andrew Stanton (WALL-E)
2 Catherine Breillat (The Last Mistress)
3 Chris Smith (The Pool)
4 Stephen Daldry (The Reader)
5 Charlie Kaufman (Synchedoche, New York)
Cristian Mungiu would have placed near the top, had I not counted and considered this film as a 2007 release. But i know many understandably count it as 2008.
This is actually a difficult category to pick from this year, but I like all the choices shown here.
Damnit Samuel, I’m going to have to watch The Last Mistress again, aren’t I?