It is the Oscars! It’s is more a fashion show than it is an awards program, but I was happy to see Tree of Life make the list, and not just Jean Dujardin, but Demian Bichir get best actor noms. Why they bother with Brad Pitt, I have no idea. Daniel Craig would have been a better choice, but c’est la vie ; )
If anyone should have been nominated from Tree of Life it should have been Jessica Chastain or Hunter McCracken. They both outshined Pitt in that movie.
Chastain should have been nominated for Take Shelter too
Some of those Best Picture nominees are really embarrassing.
Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close. This didn’t even get good reviews. WTF?
War Horse. Spielberg crap.
The Help. Middlebrow white-guilt feelgood crap
The Artist. Gimmicky crap
Midnight in Paris. Most overrated Woody Allen movie ever.
Moneyball. Good, but not Best Picture material.
And David Fincher gets totally snubbed for Director and Best Picture.
Whoever these Academy voters are must be really boring, or stupid, or both.
the worst nomination may be Demián Bichir Better Life was mediocre.
well and Melissa McCarthy in a gross role.
nice to see Nick Nolte for Warrior
Winnie the Pooh was a far better film then Rango, guess that was a big snub
Why should Fincher go through another Benny Button moment. If any movie didn’t need to be made it was Dragon Tattoo. It had already been done and done well too. This is a Swedish movie, not a Hollywood movie. Fincher should try some new material.
think a lot of these films are gonna cancel each other out.
Having the chance to see much more world cinema now, I kind of understand the frustration of devoted cinephiles. Every year is it the samething with the Oscars: so much mediocrity with so much publicity. Having just seen Once upon a time in Anatolia on the weekend, been in awe with such powerful filmmaking and craftmanship of the highest caliber and now stumble on this list, I’m literally angry.
“It’s the Oscars! Why bother?” is of course the sensible reaction and the most I can do is not watching but I can’t help being irritated hearing the names of the lot especially Clooney springing up continuously.
Your opinion is certainly as valid as mine, Dzimas, but I thought Fincher’s version of Dragon Tattoo was way better than the Swedish film, (I haven’t read the book, so that’s not a factor for me).
This is a distinctly Swedish story and while I appreciate Fincher’s attention to detail, there is a lot he misses in the narrative. Plus, it is hard to imagine anyone other than Noomi Rapace in the lead role. Not that it was a bad movie, it just didn’t need to be made.
I think it’s rather evident that in Hollyoowd artistic expression takes a second tier to technical achievement, and it makes sense if you think about how many technicians the town employs. It’s kind of a “Blue Collar Art” ceremony. America leads the way in such frontiers.
Nothing too far from expectation this year, but a couple of things did catch my eye:
The good:
The Tree of Life gets Best Picture and Director nominations
The bad:
No nomination for Viggo Mortensen
The ugly:
Winnie the Pooh snubbed in the animation category for the Kung Fu Panda sequel and the Shrek spin-off, despite being one of the best films of the year (of both animation and live action)
Owen Wilson was a big part of Midnight in Paris’ appeal, so since it got all those other noms, his being overlooked is a big snub.
Ides of March getting no love = Booooooooooooo!!!!!!!!
Drive and Melancholia were definitely snubbed because I really came away with a special feeling from those films. Tree of Life was also amazing, but I don’t see it winning because the Academy didn’t give Thin Red Line or Days of Heaven any Oscars, except Cinematography for Days of Heaven. That’s they’re way of saying, “It has a nice effect there, but we don’t generally care for a slow, poetic film.” The only film out of the nominees I would cheer for if it won because of the huge reception it’s had would be The Artist because that came close to being radical and unique, although it’s another conventional film that follows a standard plot and character types, but done in silence.
Yes, Brooks, Swinton, Fassbender, and Shannon not even getting nods is a bit ridiculous – even for the Oscars.
Instead we get Rooney Mara, Kenneth Branaugh, Nick Nolte (who?), and Demien Bichir.
This might be worst than 2009, when The Blind Side was nominated (and Bullock won!).
@ Brad – You should be happy The Ides of March got a writing nod. I wasn’t even expecting that.
Where’s Peter Mullan (“Tyrannosaur”)? Shouldn’t “Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy” be nominated in other categories (director, film, etc)?
I’m beyond thrilled that Tree of Life got Best Pic and Director noms. And I’m mostly happy with the list as a whole. Most of the snubs already noted I would agree with, except Dragon Tattoo, which was fine but nothing special.
Re: Extremely Loud that movie was a very love-it-or-hate-it thing (as was the book), even in the reviews. At nomination time, I guess the “love-its” had it, which personally makes me glad. Most of the negative reviews seemed to me to be mad that a film was being made about 9-11 at all and not paying much attention to the fact that the story isn’t really about that event. It’s the inciting incident, but it’s mostly about a boy dealing with the loss of his father. Not sure I thought it was one of the best films of the year, but I do think it got a bit of a raw deal.
Yeah, even though I liked Extremely Loud…, I am shocked that there was approx 250 people in the Academy that thought it was the best film of the year. That is surprising, even amongst a group of approx 4,000 members.
Drive should have been nominated in many categories. I think it is one of those movies that should be there on the nomination list even though pretty much everyone knows it won’t win any of its categories.
The Oscars are always kind of dumb, though. Cannes awards are a generally much better snapshot of high quality filmmaking in a given year.
The Mill and The Cross not receiving a Cinematography mom is a giant oversight
How about no Herzog in the doc category? Or Project Nim?
^^is that Herzog doco really good then?
Aren’t they all? And didn’t he have two—Into the Abyss and Cave of Forgotten Dreams ?
^^nah, they can be hit and miss for me personally.
I was referring to Into The Abyss btw.
Ryan Gosling for any of the three films he was in this past year……the Academy does not like that guy….
..and Joseph Gordon Levitt for 50/50……
RE: well and Melissa McCarthy in a gross role.
That’s gobblygook…she did exactly what a good supporting actor/actress does…helped to make the film better!
not nominating M. Fassbender, Ryan Gosling (or most of IDES OF MARCH), Albert Brooks and Tilda Swinton is just plain insane. And where is Kirstin Dunst? Her work in MELANCHOLIA (NOT a film I like) was astounding.
I’m pleasantly surprised that Hugo will at least get more attention. with lots of nominations. Winners are usually pretty mediocre, i wonder if just for once they will make an exception..
Really – Melancholia should be somewhere on the list… although I didn’t much care for it either.
muleyhaven
Albert Brooks-Drive
Tilda Swinton-Kevin
Fassbender-Shame
Brad Pitt-Tree of Life
Michael Shannon-Take Shelter
Carrie Mulligan-Shame
Shailene Woodley-The Descendants
The Interrupters (which wasn’t even on the short list???)
what a joke, I could go on and on…..
Extremely loud and Incredibly Close?? Really??