Around the virtual Hollywood water cooler (no doubt supplied by Fiji), talk will focus on the auterish square-off between the venerable Coen brothers and the legend-in-waiting Anderson. But their films are so male-centric and violent that they're liable to split the vote -- possibly creating an opening for "Juno."
The film's nomination alone represented a generational torch being passed -- from Ivan Reitman, director of "Ghostbusters," to his 30-year-old son, Jason, the now-Oscar-nominated director of "Juno." "Juno's" whole team is young: The film's stripper turned screenwriter, Diablo Cody, is 29, and its star, Ellen Page, is 20.
Contemplating his film's out-of-left field success, Reitman Jr. said, "Right now, there is a lot of really rough dramatic films that deal with things we don't know much about. Most of us haven't gone to war in Iraq, but most of us are in a family. Most of us understand about growing up. We live in a time where 16-year-old girls grow up too fast and 35-year-old guys don't grow up at all. Diablo [Cody] portrayed three generations perfectly, and there is something to relate to no matter who you are."
For the record, "No Country for Old Men" and "There Will Be Blood" both landed the most nominations, with eight each.
Producer Scott Rudin hit the same resonance theme talking about his "No Country" that Reitman did talking about "Juno." To Rudin, the film works as a metaphor for people who feel unsafe in an unsafe world.
"It deals with what people are feeling right now," he said.
"Michael Clayton's" Tom Wilkinson, nominated in the supporting actor category for his role as a high-profile litigator whose meltdown begins to reveal a complex conspiracy, added, "Things are rather kind of bleak at the moment, aren't they, with that wretched war and downturn in the economy. I think people aren't feeling as upbeat as they might want to. Perhaps they feel their movies should reflect a sobriety of the times."
In the lead actor category, Daniel Day-Lewis ("There Will Be Blood") will vie against Clooney ("Michael Clayton"), a singing Johnny Depp ("Sweeney Todd"), a mournful Tommy Lee Jones ("In the Valley of Elah") and a famously naked Viggo Mortensen, who plays a Russian gangster in "Eastern Promises."
In the lead actress category, Page was nominated alongside Julie Christie, who played an Alzheimer's patient in "Away From Her"; Marion Cotillard, who inhabited Edith Piaf in "La Vie en Rose"; as well as Oscar darlings Cate Blanchett ("Elizabeth: The Golden Age") and Laura Linney ("The Savages").
