Oscar Nominations – The Mistakes

January 22, 2009

The 2008 Oscar nominations are out, and everyone has been wailing and screaming like a Gitmo prisoner over the choices of the Academy. Much like they do every year.

Overall, the choices aren’t too bad in my opinion, except for a few horrendous blunders.

BEST PICTURE

Someone please tell me how The Wrestler managed to avoid placing in this category. In my mind, the best film of the year is conspicuously missing from this group. It didn’t need to win, mind you … just be nominated. I’m betting the low-tech, low-gloss facets of the film caused many in the Academy to skip it, which is a crime.

Meanwhile, The vastly overrated The Curious Case of Benjamin Button slipped into this category, definitively showing that the Academy will always fall for a film with whiz-bang special effects in the service of an overly-sentimental story (see: Forrest Gump and Titanic).

And to those out there who believe that The Dark Knight should have been nominated here, get over it. The film was very enjoyable and even very good … but it has far too many structural flaws to earn a spot here. This is supposed to be for the top five films of the year, and TDK isn’t one of them.

BEST ACTOR

Brad Pitt??? Seriously? Sure, he was whimsical and occasionally amusing as Benjamin Button, but the special effects and makeup did most of the heavy lifting in this role. I must admit, though, that this nomination is a landmark for CGI: it’s the first time that a largely computer generated character has been nominated for a Best Actor Oscar. Remember when Andy Serkiswas being trumpeted for an Oscar for his performance as Gollum in The Lord Of The Rings several years ago? Like Rosa Parks, his time had not yet come … but apparently now it has.

As for the rest of the field, Mickey Rourke wins this thing hands down.

BEST ACTRESS

Does Angelina Jolie really deserve this for what is basically a one-note performance? She’s very convincing in it, but does she really bring that much depth to this role? I’m not really complaining about her nomination that much, because there have definitely been worse nominees … but I wonder how much her star power helped her here.

CINEMATOGRAPHY

I’m really shocked that Deakins wasn’t nominated for the beautifully-lit Revolutionary Road, particularly given the fact that the film is up for Best Art Direction.

DIRECTION

Fincher does not deserve this nomination. I’m sorry, but this is his most blatantly false and “showy” direction since Alien 3. Meanwhile, Darren Aronofsky is shut out of the competition simply because he chose to abandon Hollywood gloss and make a real and gritty masterpiece. His failure to gain acceptance here reminds me of the Scorceseinsults from the seventies and early eighties … just atrocious. I mean, Aronofsky’s denied a chance to compete so that Ron Howard’sname can fit on the ballot … for a film that is static, pedestrian, and stagey. Just awful, seriously.

BEST FOREIGN LANGUAGE FILM

Admittedly, I didn’t see every single one of these films this year. However, one of the very best films I saw at all in 2008 was Let The Right One In. This beautiful film should have been nominated, yet was completely overlooked. Tragic.

ORIGINAL SONG

Where on Earth is “The Wrestler” by Bruce Springsteen on this ballot? It’s one of the most haunting songs of Springsteen’s career, and definitely one of the best songs in any film this year. A complete joke.

Like I said at the top, I can live with most of these selections. But the ones they missed are truly punches to the collective gut of movie lovers everywhere.

Damn.

Tags: 2008, 2009, nominations, Oscar, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, The Wrestler

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A TOWN CALLED PANIC

Bring aspirin. This stop motion film about a toy Cowboy, Indian and Horse is ugly-looking and deeply annoying. Cheap looking animation combines with a hyperactive, nonsensical plot to seriously challenge the patience of the average moviegoer.

ALICE IN WONDERLAND

Even Tim Burton’s typical visual flair feels lifeless and mechanical in this misbegotten sequel/remake of the Lewis Carroll story. The epic battle nonsense feels awkwardly grafted onto the original tale. Depp overacts horribly as the Mad Hatter, matched only by another hammy Helena Bonham Carter performance. A terrible mistake.

CAPITALISM: A LOVE STORY

A terrific idea for an important message, but Moore’s politics and antics miss the mark. There are some truly disgusting things revealed in this film, but Moore lets the bad guys get away with some bewilderingly useless nonsense. A missed opportunity to really stick it to the criminals in America’s government.

THE CRAZIES

This remake not only feels like a retread of the original, but also of recent horror films. A thousand cheap jump scares dilute any horror in the proceedings, and some silly story machinations drag it down further. Tim Olyphant is fine as the hero, and he looks the part, but the rest of the cast is pointless. Nothing to get crazy about.

COP OUT

Another Kevin Smith failure. Willis and Morgan have good chemistry, but all in service to a ridiculously limp story. The jokes are flat and stale, the direction lifeless, and the script meanders aimlessly. I applaud Smith for trying something different; now he needs to try working at a Citgo and staying away from film.

CRAZY HEART

It plays like a country-western version of The Wrestler, which isn’t a bad thing. Jeff Bridges plays an alcoholic western-singing version of The Dude, but adds quite a bit of darkness to his usually laid-back persona. Maggie Gyllenhaal is near-perfect as his writer girlfriend. A simple and familiar tale well told.

THE WOLFMAN

A missed opportunity. The 19th century setting was promising, but the script problems are very pronounced. Benicio Del Toro is blank as Larry Talbot, while Anthony Hopkins chews the scenery to distracting effect. The CGI is all over the quality map. Very gory and dramatically inert.

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1-31-10

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With the DGA and the Producer’s Guild lining up behind Kathryn Bigelow’s The Hurt Locker, it’s pretty much guaranteed to take the Oscars for Best Picture and Best Director. And that’s a good thing; it was the best film of 2009 in a weak year. Just as long as Avatar doesn’t win, I’m fine.

1-29-10

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It’s hard to believe that Miramax will now be absorbed into Disney and will disappear forever. This is the studio that produced gems like Pulp Fiction, Sex, Lies, and Videotape, and Clerks. Of course, it also produced over-hyped crap like The English Patient and The Aviator.

Hmm … perhaps it was for the best after all.

1-22-10

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My first thought when I saw these promotional stills for the upcoming Oscar show was: “Geez, Steve Martin looks like he’s lost or in the beginning stages of Alzheimer’s.” My second thought was: “Man, this show is going to feel like it’s Oscars 1978.”

1-21-10

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This is a surprisingly in-depth look behind the scenes at the making of Avatar. Like the movie itself, there is very little attention paid to the story, while the effects take center stage.

1-20-10

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This news segment is interesting in that it shows how defensive and weird Mel Gibson has become in recent years. That 2006 anti-Semitic remark still haunts him. I say it’s time to move on.

Oscar Nominations – The Mistakes

Speak Your Mind

Bring aspirin. This stop motion film about a toy Cowboy, Indian and Horse is ugly-looking and deeply annoying. Cheap looking animation combines with a hyperactive, nonsensical plot to seriously challenge the patience of the average moviegoer.

A missed opportunity. The 19th century setting was promising, but the script problems are very pronounced. Benicio Del Toro is blank as Larry Talbot, while Anthony Hopkins chews the scenery to distracting effect. The CGI is all over the quality map. Very gory and dramatically inert.

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