Another year, another set of Academy Award nominations.
Best Picture: This year there are nine contenders, including
front-runners “Lincoln,” “Zero Dark Thirty,” “Life of Pi,” and “Silver Linings
Playbook.” Other nods went to “Django Unchained,” “Les Miserables,” and “Argo.”
A surprise in this category is the inclusion of “Amour,” which is Austria’s
entry for best foreign language film (nominated). To my recollection, the last
time a film was nominated for best picture and best foreign language film was
2001’s “Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon,” one of my favorite films, directed by
Academy Award-winner Ang Lee, who is also up for best director for “Life of Pi.”
My only complaints: The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and
Sciences can nominate up to 10 films. I don’t understand why it didn’t make
room for “Skyfall,” which received critical acclaim as well as made big box
office. Perhaps it’s because it’s a James Bond film, and the Academy isn’t
ready to embrace it as a top pick. In my most recent post, I wrote that the
director and writers took their reboot of “Bond, James Bond” seriously, giving
this franchise a much-needed shot in the arm. Sigh.
Also, I may be the only moviegoer saying this, but I didn’t
get “Beasts of the Southern Wild.” I didn’t know if it was about surviving on a
remote Louisiana island after hurricane Katrina or about a daughter learning to
survive after her father takes ill, or about a fantasy mirroring the 6-year-old
girl’s reality. I wished it had settled on one theme and went with it.
Best Actor: One might as well engrave the Oscar statuette
and give it to Daniel Day-Lewis for his much-lauded portrayal of “Lincoln.” If
he wins, he will be the only actor to win three times in the leading actor
category and join a handful of actors who have three Oscars, including Jack
Nicholson, Walter Brennan, Ingrid Bergman, and, just last year, Meryl Streep.
Only Katharine Hepburn earned four acting Oscars, all in the lead category.
As for the other nominees – Bradley Cooper, Joaquin Phoenix,
Hugh Jackman, and Denzel Washington – I would hope any of them would have a decent shot. I know Denzel already has two
Oscars, but a third wouldn’t hurt. (Just saying!) I’m glad Hugh Jackman finally got an Oscar nod. My complaint:
Why is Joaquin Phoenix even nominated when he said publicly he hates the Oscar
promotion process? The Academy should have given Phoenix’s spot to John Hawkes
for his portrayal of a polio patient in an iron lung who wants to lose his
virginity in “The Sessions.”
Best Actress: Repeat after me: kwuh-VEN-jah-nay. This is how
Quvenzhané Wallis pronounces her first name. The 9-year-old is the youngest
ever nominated for the best actress Oscar. On the other end of the age
spectrum, “Amour’s” nominee Emmanuelle Riva, the oldest nominated for best
actress, will turn 86 when the Academy Awards air on February 24 on the ABC
television network. But I think it will be a battle of the J’s – Jessica Chastain
for her role as Maya in “Zero Dark Thirty” and Jennifer Lawrence as a troubled
widow in “Silver Linings Playbook.” I believe Naomi Watts is the dark horse for
her portrayal of a mother surviving the real-life tsunami in Thailand in “The
Impossible.”
Best Supporting Actor: Emma Stone, who announced the Oscar
nominations this morning with Oscar host Seth MacFarlane, summed it up nicely:
All the nominees are previous Oscar winners. They are Tommy Lee Jones for “Lincoln,”
Christoph Waltz for “Django Unchained,” Robert De Niro for “Silver Linings
Playbook,” Alan Arkin for “Argo,” and Philip Seymour Hoffman for “The Master.”
Complaints: Hey, Academy, where’s the love for Leonardo Di
Caprio for “Django”? Or John Goodman, one of the hardest working actors in
Hollywood, for either “Flight” or “Argo”? Or even Javier Bardem for his
tortured villain in “Skyfall”? How does one root for any of the nominated
actors when each has at least one Oscar? (OK, Bardem has an Oscar for “No
Country for Old Men.”)
Best Supporting Actress: The big surprise was Jacki Weaver
for playing the mother in “Silver Linings Playbook.” I think it will be a knockdown
fight between two-time Oscar winner Sally Field for her portrayal of Mary Todd
Lincoln in “Lincoln” and Anne Hathaway for her role as Fantine in “Les Miz.” Amy
Adams (“The Master”) and Helen Hunt (“The Sessions”) may end up as also-rans.
Best Director: Note to the Academy: No Ben Affleck for “Argo”?!
No Kathryn Bigelow for “Zero Dark Thirty”?! Are you freakin’ kidding me?!
Steven Spielberg may take his third Oscar for “Lincoln,”
unless David O. Russell is swept on a wave of popularity for “Silver Linings
Playbook.” I think Michael Haneke will have to be satisfied with best foreign
language film for “Amour.” I don’t think it’s Ang Lee’s year for “Life of Pi”
because it’s a crowded directoral field. And, frankly, Benh Zeitlin, director
of “Beasts,” is too young and inexperienced to even be in this category. He
took a place that should have been for either Affleck or Bigelow.
Best Song: Just give it to Adele and Paul Epworth for the
title song from “Skyfall” and call it a night.
Best Animated Feature: Too much of a horse race between “Frankenweenie,”
“Brave,” and “ParaNorman” to call it. I think “Wreck-It Ralph” and “The
Pirates: Band of Misfits” are bringing up the rear.
OK, I’m all typed out. Thanks for reading.
Writing Diva
