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January 23, 2007
Oscar Noms Announced
Note: I have not heard/read any commentary on the actual nominees yet. I started writing this as soon as I woke up this morning. And I don't pretend to have actually seen all the movies nominated.
1. Why is Kate Winslet nominated every frickin year? Isn't there another younger actress who can get a damn nomination? The only other actress under fifty nominated in the Best Actress category is Penelope Cruz. Judi Dench is another perennial nominee - I know y'all love the Dame, but for goodness sake, she is not a god. Why not stretch your mind and find another woman to nominate?!?! We all know that the Oscar is probably going to Helen Mirren - unless for some strange reason she loses to Meryl Streep, but I highly doubt it.
2. Cate Blanchett is the other young, female Brit who apparently Must Get Nominated Every Year. It's as if the Academy is saying - we know we rarely write real female characters, so we'll just keep nominating the real British actors (see Mirren, Dench, Winslet, and Blanchett). THIS IS RIDICULOUS!!!
3. How likely is it that a foreign actress acting in another language is going to win an Academy Award? I agree, not that damn likely. So we can scratch the two women from Babel out of the Supporting Actress running. And while Abigail Breslin is the heart and soul of Little Miss Sunshine, it aint likely they're going to give their award to a 7 year old. So clearly, Jennifer Hudson's going to win for Dreamgirls. It's a good performance, I just wish (a)there were a wider range of noms in these two categories and (b)the Academy would stop nominating the Brits just to fill in the category and (c)for once in my life, these two categories were listed above their male counterparts.
4. Will Smith actually got nominated. It's hard for me to say whether or not he deserved it, since the MARKETING MACHINE RUINED THE FUCKING MOVIE. If you've seen the previews for the movie, you've seen EVERY SINGLE EMOTIONAL POINT OF THE DAMN FILM. Actually, I think his son should've been nominated.
5. Like they're gonna give the award to a guy playin a coke head teacher in a movie no one saw. I haven't seen Half Nelson yet, but I loved Ryan Gosling in one of his earliest films - The Slaughter Rule. It's one of those films that leaves you feeling its after effects several years after you watched it. (I'm not sayin it's the best movie ever, just that it has an impact on you.)
6. Are they gonna give Peter O'Toole a swan song Oscar or will they give it to Forrest Whitaker? I sorta doubt it'll go to Leo - no one thinks Blood Diamond was that good of a film, including the audience. I'd say it's a tough call between the guy with a foot in the grave and the man who actually acted well. Oscar tends to award old age, so the advantage is with O'Toole. (Of course, I haven't seen the films I'm talkin about in this point, just riffing on everything I've read about this award season.)
7. Actor in A Supporting Role - it's a fight between Eddie Murphy and Alan Arkin. Again a fight between young and old. Harder to determine, because I know they both did a good job. But Alan's not exactly an Academy-type of guy and Eddie's got the momentum from the Globes, so I'd say Eddie. Why the hell did another actor from Blood Diamond get nominated?
8. (running low on time) Borat was nominated once in the majors - for adapted screenplay. How fabulous would it be to hear another Sasha Cohen speech? He's one yummy Jew boy outta costume. Sadly, it's also the only film in the category I've seen.
9. Whose gonna win original screenplay? I've seen only one of these films - Little Miss Sunshine. It's a tough call; maybe Babel, probably The Queen. Though I really love the story behind the writing of Letters from Iwo Jima - it's the first film written by Iris Yamashita, a Japanese American woman (in English, then translated into Japanese).
10. Director - think Scorcese will actually win? Dunno, people really like The Departed. He's up against Clint and Gonzalez Inarritu and the anonymous guys behind The Queen and United 93. It might just be Scorcese's year.
11. Best Film - Babel, The Departed, The Queen, Letters From Iwo Jima, and Little Miss Sunshine. Again, a race btwn Scorcese and Clint. Since The Departed stars American actors (who have more votes in this thing than anyone else), I'd say The Departed is prolly gonna win.
now to make time to see these movies....
Posted by cj at January 23, 2007 06:10 AM