Thoughts on the Oscar Nominations
-Not surprised Dreamgirls got the most nominations; hugely surprised it didn't get the Best Picture nod — and equally surprised that Little Miss Sunshine had enough support to get one. In this week's IFC News podcast, Alison Willmore and I picked our winners: I only got 3 out of 5.
-I did get all 5 Best Actress nominees right. Booyah.
-Love the Best Song nominees. Dreamgirls, Dreamgirls, Dreamgirls, Cars, and... An Inconvenient Truth! Awesome — how great would it be if Al Gore got to come up on stage and accept it and break into song.
-The sole Borat nomination: Screenplay! Screenplay? Screenplay! So how exactly do you write improv anyway? I'd love for it to win and for Cohen to give another of those vintage acceptance speeches along the line of "Thank you for nominating me for something we didn't really do."
-At least Children of Men got cinematography love; editing too, though I didn't think the editing was all that fantastic (the lack of editing was what made the film unique).
posted by Matt Singer @ 11:11 AM
5 Comments:
For what it's worth -- very little I suspect -- I am not surprised that DREAMGIRLS was passed over for 'Best Picture.' For all the hype, it really is a shoddy piece of filmmaking: Bill Condon, et al. were not able to transcend the time of its source material (and especially the impression of the time in which the play was produced, ie the early 80s). In other words, as pleasurable as some of the music and performances might be, there is nothing remotely fresh about DREAMGIRLS. On the other hand, BABEL and LETTERS FROM IWO JIMA give the impression that they are about something (current) -- our blessed Academy certainly favors this impulse -- THE DEPARTED and THE QUEEN are critically-favored entertainments, while LITTLE MISS SUNSHINE is a film that everyone loves... except people with a sense of humor, I suppose. So, actually the list doesn't surprise me at all... for what it's worth.
P.S. The universe is poorer for the picture on your previous post.
Lisa would love for you to cut a hole in a box.
I was disapointed the Academy didn't think beyond most people who were already nominated at the Golden Globes. Also, how can Pan's Labyrinth, which has a 98 rating on metacritic, be ignored for a major award? I haven't seen it but why is there more focus on momentum? If only that or Children of Men were released earlier... why should that matter?
On the Pan's Labyrinth note, A.O. Scott wrote a nice piece discussing the state of indie/arthouse/foreign film in the States, basically saying these films can't get distribution. Pan's is picking up some heat in distribution and advertising, so it may not be the best example, but the presence of Art/Foreign film is just too thin to be acknowleged by a Hollywood gala like the Oscars. Check it out, it's very interesting:
The World Is Watching. Not Americans. --A.O. Scott
great link thanks!
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