'Wall-E' Crowned Best Picture By LA Critics

LOS ANGELES — The Los Angeles Film Critics Association has gone populist on its picks for best movies of 2008, choosing the animated smash "WALL-E" as No. 1 and the Batman blockbuster "The Dark Knight" as runner-up on Tuesday.

Sean Penn was named best actor for the film biography "Milk," while Sally Hawkins received the best-actress prize for the British comic drama "Happy-Go-Lucky."

The late Heath Ledger won the critics group's supporting-actor honor for his turn as the Joker in "The Dark Knight," while Penelope Cruz was chosen for supporting actress in the Woody Allen romance "Vicky Cristina Barcelona," as well as her role in the drama "Elegy."

Danny Boyle took directing honors for "Slumdog Millionaire," with Christopher Nolan the runner-up for "The Dark Knight." "Happy-Go-Lucky" director Mike Leigh won for best screenplay.

The critics' picks are one of the early film honors in Hollywood's long awards season, which continues Thursday with nominations for the Golden Globes, the second-biggest ceremony after the Academy Awards.

Globe nominations and critics prizes can boost Oscar prospects, particularly for lesser-known films such as "Happy-Go-Lucky" and "Slumdog Millionaire." Oscar nominations come out Jan. 22, with the awards ceremony scheduled for Feb. 22.

"WALL-E" and "The Dark Knight" were unusually commercial choices for the critics, whose past best-picture winners have tended toward smaller films such as 2007's "There Will Be Blood" and other recipients that include "Letters From Iwo Jima," "Brokeback Mountain" and "Sideways."

Among runners-up for the critics awards were Mickey Rourke, best actor for "The Wrestler"; Melissa Leo, best actress for "Frozen River"; Eddie Marsan, supporting actor for "Happy-Go-Lucky"; Viola Davis, supporting actress for "Doubt"; and Charlie Kaufman, screenplay for "Synecdoche, New York."

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With "WALL-E" as their best-picture winner, the critics chose the war documentary "Waltz With Bashir" as their top animated film.

Other winners include:

_ Foreign-language film: "Still Life."

_ Documentary: "Man on Wire."

_ Production design: "Synecdoche, New York."

_ Music-score: "Slumdog Millionaire."

_ Cinematography: "Still Life."

The Los Angeles critics will present their awards at a ceremony on Jan. 12.

Comments

[Eric8869]

Wall-E was a great movie but over something groundbreaking like MILK????? give me a break

[sfsilver]

I so glad to see Pixar's efforts to go well past the normal expectations of animated fare and deliver a sophisticated and ambitious film like "WALL-E" rewarded. I encourage commentors who were left cold by the second half of the film to see it again. That was my initial take as well, I loved the first half and thought the second half was fairly ordinary, but on second veining the film came together for me as a more cohesive whole and does sit at the top of my year to date list as well. I would also say that this film wasn't necessarily for kids, telling me that your 5 year old was bored by it does not tell me the film is bad, simply that a 5 year old is bored by it. I don't think that would really be a criteria for evaluation of the film's standing as Best Picture material.

It was an unusual year in that two of the years greatest achievements in film came from genres we expect so little from; animation and comic book super hero films. It will be interesting to see if "WALL-E" and "The Dark Knight" make the final cut come Oscar nomination time.

[milo h minderbinder]

Funny, my complaint is that WALLE wasn't sophisticated and ambitious ENOUGH. Sure, the start definitely is. But the second half was surprisingly mundane and predictable for me, most of it is a not particularly exciting chase trying to grab what is essentially a McGuffin.

[OSA23]

critics are too removed from the gist of art - the year overall has been a very good year for movies and for films, and while i was not moved to see wall-e, i would imagine that wall-e attempted to rise above the narrow box such movies like wall-e are placed within by the marketing forces of hollywood and disney/pixar......

however - i found christopher nolan's 'the dark knight' to resonate on many levels that multiple viewings will reveal still further levels to explore. and while those 'critics' who seem to know sooo much about 'the industry' have thrown their loaded eggs at 'the dark knight' - i would like to say that i found 'quantum of solace' equal to the task of touching upon the knowledge of being able to go beyond the means given to secure the means sought for. that the dark knight and daniel craig's wonderous james bond are both characters driven by a supra-calling to go beyond the means given to secure the means sought for in their respective quests again thick and dense odds.

at the end of their respective films - the dark knight and daniel craig's james bond are the individuals not wanted but needed by the city of gotham and the m-6 respectively.....

[milo h minderbinder]

I'm one of the biggest Pixar fans out there, but Wall*E left me cold. Great start to the film, but once they got on the spaceship it got really conventional and kind of dull.

Really seemed like a fantastic idea that ended up a missed opportunity.

And I hate to say it but while I liked Dark Knight, it was inconsistent, badly in need of a rewrite.

[Jezdukowski]

Have to agree - still think "The Incredibles" was their shining moment (Brad Bird). I actually liked the short "Presto" (shown before Wall-E in most theaters) better than the feature.

[milo h minderbinder]

Nice short although I'm partial to Lifted.

[thefooligan5]

agreed on the Dark knight. I think the trailer and ad campaign was better than the feature film. Shame too.

[namewithheld]

Hmmm...sure, Wall-E had a nice message (of course you don't get to see the fat humans starve to death and get cancer after they return to Earth) and the art/animation may have been the best yet, but even my five-year-old was bored through most of it.

[walk0nwalls]

Yay!

[susou]

Yeah... Wall-E IS NOT PLURAL!

Lol... But agreed, it was an amazing film... didn't think it would be #1... I thought The Dark Knight would have been...

Either way, I enjoyed both!

[Cogitoe]

Let's see....an anti-corporate, environmentalist message that makes fun of unsophisticated, over weight Americans. How could it lose. I'm just shocked Wall-E and Eva didn't get best actor and actress nods.

[AndyDandy]

Yeah because caring about the enviroment is such a bad thing to do....

[PaxMundis]

Good. It was a great movie.

[mediamarv]

"Crowned best pictures..."

Sloppy writing again by headline manufacturers... WALL-E is a single picture folks, but it was among a list of best pictures... see how easy that was.