The Andrew Awards-Best Supporting Actress and Best Director

Two more awards to hand out, so lets get right to it:

Best Supporting Actress nominees:
Taraji P. Henson-Benjamin Button
Penelope Cruz-Vicki Christina Barcelona
Viola Davis-Doubt
Marisa Tomei-The Wrestler
Amy Adams-Doubt

The Oscar went to Penelope Cruz

OK, right off the bat, take out the Benjamin Button nominee. Not that Henson wasn't fine, but the movie was not good. Also Amy Adams in Doubt was good, but not great. Now Penelope Cruz was really good in her role in Vicki Christina Barcelona, but she just did not come close to the last two nominees, Viola Davis and Marisa Tomei. Davis was A-Mazing in Doubt. Powerful and poignant. But it was a very small role. So, the winner is Marisa Tomei. She personified an aging stripper. She walked the walk and talked the talk. She has it down pat, and I have known some of these people personally. There was a pure authenticity in her role that transcended just acting, it was living a role, being that person. Viola Davis would have been my next choice, for it was a pure and powerful role, but too short for to take this award home against Tomei's performance.

Best Director Nominees

David Fincher-Benjamin Button
Ron Howard-Frost/Nixon
Gus Van Sant-Milk
Stephen Daldry-The Reader
Danny Boyle-Slumdog Millionaire

Danny Boyle won the Oscar

How I think about the director award is what choices they made in telling the story. And this is the reason I would am not giving the award to Danny Boyle. It was too amazing that the questions that came up in the quiz show were chronologically corresponding to the life of the contestant. It would have been a much more intellectually challenging film if we had to put together his life in non-chronological order...maybe not as easy, but more real. My award goes to Stephen Daldry for The Reader. He took characters that would be easy to hate, that would be easy to pigeon-hole, and made them real, three-dimensional and sympathetic to a certain degree. Do we love them? No! But do we want to see them meet this terrible fate. certainly not. He did this so well with the choices he made in filming this movie, that he received the Andrew Award for Best Director!