Tuesday, February 2, 2010

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The Good, The Bad, The Whatever

Star Trek is nominated for VFX, Sound Editing, Sound Mixing and Makeup. And that's all. I expected more for it. Not Picture, but maybe Editing and Score. Perfectly respectable.

Sad Drag Me to Hell did not make it into either Sound category. Movie had some of the best sound work of the year.

Bright Star finally got laid. It's got one nom: Janet Patterson for Costume Design. After all the snubs it suffered throughout precursors, I'm happy for anything, and since the costumes are a vital element of the film's plot, this is apt.

Nine snubbed for Cinematography. The mind reels. Costume and Art Direction, as expected. Penelope Cruz actually got that nomination for Supporting Actress, so that was a sexy surprise. For me, anyway. Interesting that they went with "Take It All" for Original Song. I guess this means we're spared from the sight of Kate Hudson at another awards show. I hope.

Speaking of Original Song, Paris 36. So....neat.

Team of Beltrami/Sanders nominated for The Hurt Locker continues to confuse the multiple nominee rulings. I'm generally OK with this category, although....Abel Korzeniowski? Elliot Goldenthal? Hello?

Not just Goldenthal, either. Two of my favorite movies of the year, both nominated in my own Best Picture lineup, were completely shut out. Public Enemies did not even get a Costume nod; (500) Days of Summer did not even get an Original Screenplay nod. Where is the justice in that?

The Blind Side, a mediocre film anchored by a career-best performance from Sandra Bullock, made it into the Best Picture lineup. It's the worst of the lot in this ten-wide field, though. By which I mean, I like being able to call District 9 and A Serious Man Best Picture nominees. The Ten can stay.

Acting categories mainly predictable, but for Supporting Actress. When the first called was Penelope Cruz I was genuinely shocked. I thought the Globe was star-fucking, the SAG just friendship. Guess they really liked her. I did too, I just didn't see this coming. I am let down by the absence of both Julianne Moore (although that was more expected) and Samantha Morton (GREAT disappointment). Though I've yet to see Crazy Heart, I'm psyched for Maggie Gyllenhaal's firt Oscar nomination! Whoo!

Let's discuss Adapted Screenplay. Although they forgot Fantastic Mr. Fox, holy shit they included In the Loop. So happy. It just missed the cut on mine, so I'm glad they remembered it at the Oscars. What an amazingly-written film! Original Screenplay also included my Number Six choice, The Messenger. The more love for that film, the merrier.

Avatar and The Hurt Locker tie for most nominations. Because if it's going to be a race, it's going to be an interesting one.

Still need to see:
Crazy Heart
Il Divo
The Last Station
Paris 36

3 comments:

Unknown said...

I don't really mind "The Blind Side" nomination anymore because its responding to the public's vote (box office success).

Year after year the average movie goer complains that the Academy applauds films that no one sees, so I guess they decided to mix things up this year....In any case I still think Bullock excelled, so I'm not all that dissapointed.

Unknown said...

I'm super excited about "Take It All"... the more I listen to it, the more I love it, and the more I'm psyched to see it performed.

And are you really surprised at Public Enemies getting no nominations? It got enough Hollmann noms to cheer it up though :)

TomS said...

I haven't seen "Blind Side" yet but think I will have to now....

The Academy no longer even pretends that it is recognizing excellence in the art and science of motion pictures...it's about ratings for an annual TV show.....too bad.

I lament the idea that the BP category was expanded to allow Box Office draws...seems like pandering. Some really great work was ignored.

An LA Times article said that the Awards now appeal to "real people" and not just "film buffs" (who are, in some way, not human?)....
10 spots, and not one foreign language film.... or documentary....

Should be an interesting year, when the dust settles!