The Slightly Belated Oscar Nominations Post

I would have liked to have posted this hours ago. However, as this is a side gig, and things such as sleep*, work, and catching up on movies that I had yet to see thanks to my bout with pneumonia. As such, eleven at night is the earliest this could get written. Now that that defensiveness is out of the way, on to the perpetual whining.

2013 was an amazing year for movies. I've seen eight of the nine Best Picture nominees**, and all of them range from good to excellent. However, one of the big favorites (American Hustle) is unfortunately one of the merely "good" films. Granted, I saw it as I was heading into my lost month of sickness, so perhaps I just wasn't on its wavelength. Sure, it was fun, but it was like eating cotton candy. There just wasn't much there. And that's great, sometimes it is fun to just watch a movie that is entertaining and well acted. It just isn't something that should be up for consideration as the best film of the year.

There is no reason that American Hustle should be on that list, and Inside Llewyn Davis isn't. The latter is quite possibly the best movie I've seen all year, and deserves a lot more notice than what it has gotten. It certainly is not the most uplifting story, and I'll give you that the protagonist is often an unlikable ass. But damn is it beautiful. It's sad at times, but it is also quite funny. The fact that 5% of the academy couldn't rally behind this picture is disheartening, or at least would if the Oscars really mattered a lot more than what they do.

There certainly were snubs when it came to Best Actor, but to be fair that category is stacked this year. For example, were you to make a list of the four most obvious snubs, and one that I think should have been noticed, but never in a million years would be, it would look like this:

Robert Redford, All is Lost

Tom Hanks, Captain Phillips

Joaquin Phoenix, Her

Oscar Isaac, Inside Llewyn Davis

Simon Pegg, The World's End

OK, OK, I snuck that last one in. Although it was, in my opinion, one of the best performances of the year, Pegg has generated little notice on the awards circuit. However, the other four certainly have garnered some notice. The list of actors that were nominated pretty much deserved to be there, save for perhaps Bale.***

The other actor categories seem about what was expected, although two time Oscar nominee Jonah Hill is still a bit of a thing to get your head around. Gravity deserves to win many of the technical awards, and will probably also beat out poor Roger Deakins for Cinematography. It would be cruel irony if Inside Llewyn Davis won that award, considering all the movies he has worked for the Coen Brothers.

In other areas, Pixar got shut out in both the short and feature animation categories. Frozen got two nominations, and it appears only an upset by The Wind Rises stands in the way of Walt Disney Animation finally winning a feature animation Oscar. Also, Jackass Presents Bad Grandpa is now Academy Award nominee Jackass Presents Bad Grandpa. Despite all the jokes, it deserves the nomination.

Finally, I figured I shared the information about two "snubs" that really weren't. Blue is the Warmest Color was not eligible for nomination for the French representative for the Foreign Film category, due to it opening in October. "Please Mr. Kennedy", a hilarious song from Inside Llewyn Davis, was not eligible because it was too similar to an existing song from the sixties. Not a version of that song, but still considered too close by the Academy. 

In the end, it's questionable how much all this matters. Still, it's fun to argue and make your case for your favorites, and it will be fun griping and complaining about it in a little more than a month when the winners are announced.  Sometimes its fun because they get it right, even if sometimes it is by accident. Anything is possible at this point, even though many things aren't really that possible. But still, Amy Poehler finally won an award for playing one of the best damn sitcom characters ever, so things may be looking up.

*Seriously, do the nominations announcements have to be so damn early? I know its to get the news cycle on the morning shows, but still, that is early.

**Wolf of Wall Street is the lone holdout, and it should fall this weekend.

***Again, I can't speak to DiCaprio's performance as of yet.

Oscar Nominations 2013

It's Oscar time, everybody! Normally, I don't really follow the Oscars - this has been due to a mixture of being busy (college, internships, etc) and thus not making it to the movies a lot and the fact that I rarely care for awards shows in general.

However, looking upon the list of nominees this year, I thought I'd give my two cents since I've broken some sort of personal record and seen like 8 movies in theaters this year. (And yes, spare me the glaring looks...I'm well aware that for someone so in to pop culture I don't seem to get out much.)

The Best Picture category is not a surprise in the least to me, despite the fact I've never heard of Amour. Beasts of the Southern Wild, Les Miserables, Life of Pi, and Silver Linings Playbook are all films I've been wanting to see but, other than knowing they've been getting rave reviews, I don't have a whole lot to say about.

Lincoln has swept the categories this year and I feel no other film is deserving of as many nominations as this picture, which details the struggle of passing the 13th Amendment during the beginning (and, spoilers, end) of President Lincoln's second term in the White House.  The film, I think, accomplished the rare blend of being in-depth, poignant, and significantly aware and delicate with the historical events while at the same time making it possible for a viewer unfamiliar with said events to follow along with ease. The film therefore was a historical biopic that was also immensely entertaining (unless, of course, you are the 900 year old woman in the row behind us who fell asleep and was snoring in the middle of the movie).

My major disappointment was that Moonrise Kingdom was only nominated in one category, albeit a major category (in my humble opinion); best original screenplay. I think it has a lot of contention this year but I feel like its major threat is Zero Dark Thirty. The film detailing the events behind Osama bin Laden's compound raid is another one I'd like to see at my earliest convenience, but truth be told as a Parks and Recreation fan I have a hard time with Chris Pratt being anyone other than Andy Dwyer, or, perhaps only slightly more appropriately, Bert Macklin.

I feel as though Brave will probably win Best Animated Feature but, not having seen ParaNorman, I think Wreck-It Ralph is much more deserving of the award. Brave was beautifully done and very entertaining to watch, but oddly enough for a category where Pixar usually sweeps Ralph felt like the more Pixar-ish film of the nominees. And yes, I say that knowing that at this point its basically semantics seeing as Disney-Pixar is practically one in the same now...which isn't a bad thing. What it comes down to is individual teams working on pictures - the writers and directors are really bringing the film to life and everything else is level playing field. By those merits, Ralph came out stronger and felt like a return to form on the whole innovative-but-still-emotionally-touching front. So that's what I mean when I say the non-Pixar Disney film felt more like Pixar than the Pixar film, I guess. And if Paperman doesn't take Best Animated Short I will flip tables. No lie.

Am I a bit disappointed that the Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey didn't get more nominations, especially with Howard Shore's beautiful soundtrack? Yes. Am I surprised? Not really. A lot of people couldn't get past the different tone of the film and found fault with the pacing. I understand those complaints, but the film was beautiful and faithful enough to have deserved at least Best Adapted Screenplay. It did take a nomination in Best Visual Effects, so I can be happy with that...albeit Snow White and the Huntsman also took a nomination there, so...

On the other hand, it shares a category with its only true contender, Marvel's the Avengers. I know, I know, Summer Blockbusters have no place on Oscar lists, but I cannot express how much I love this movie. I'm a complete Marvel fangirl to begin with, but Joss Whedon (my geeky overlord) deserved a spot for Best Adapted Screenplay or Best Direction. Because he's Joss-Friggin-Whedon and he deserves ALL the awards, and the Avengers was definitely a labor of love for him. If loving your work was criteria for awards, though, I'm sure the ceremony would run several hours longer.

I'm not sure how I feel about Adele's song from Skyfall being nominated for Best Original Song. I mean, I understand the politics behind it - she's Adele and the music industry it-girl, and it's a James Bond movie so duh, but the song wasn't good enough to win this category...so, for the sake of bluntness, I hope it doesn't. Then again, I'm just not a big James Bond song person. They all sound so cheesy and horrible to me. Except the Wings' "Live and Let Die". I love that song...and that probably says a lot about me.

Other than that, I do believe Skyfall earned the rest of its nominations. This was definitely the most engaging of the James Bond films of my lifetime and the cinematography played a large role in it. The film was brilliantly shot, and I guess the sound editing and mixing were good, too...I can't really say I pay attention to a film and say "wow! that sound editing is GENIUS!" but I wouldn't be too surprised if it was. I'm sure there's some politics involved where the sound categories can be seen as ones that have to be recognized (or the sound engineers union would pitch a fit), but hey, a nomination is a nomination.

So, as always, I may add to this list of observations at a later time, but right now Return of the King is on tv and, you know, priorities. What were your favorite movies of the year? What are your thoughts about the nominations? Let us know in the comments, on twitter, or on facebook!