Oscar Nod Reactions, in No Particular Order
Did you think I’d make this list?
Well, first off, looks like Kathy Bates can cross the picket lines unscathed, although I doubt that the actual announcement was protested. I mean it was 5:30 a.m., fer cryin’ out loud. Still, I was looking forward to seeing at least one of the Coreys. Ah, well. Maybe at the actual ceremony, which will go on no matter what.
As far as the actual nods go, I shot 72.5%. A little worse than last year. But there were some surprises. Mostly, I overestimated Into the Wild and underestimated Atonement…
One of the out of nowhere nods is Tommy Lee Jones for In the Vallley of Elah. I though for sure if he got a nod it would be for No Country for Old Men. I also thought nobody liked Elah.
I thought nobody liked the Elizabeth sequel, either, but Blanchett’s Globe and SAG nod lives on. Other than Al Pacino in the Godfather I and II, and Peter O’Toole in Becket and The Lion in Winter I don’t think anyone else has been nominated twice for playing the same character. O’Toole is a bit more of a parallel since his nods were both in the lead category (Pacino’s first was supporting, second lead) and he got them for playing royalty - King Henry II. No actress, to the best of my knowledge, has ever done this.
My Dano pipe dream failed to materialize in the Supporting Actor category, but I am glad to see Philip Seymour Hoffman and, by extension, Charlie Wilson’s War, get some love. He really is crucial to making that movie work.
I’m really happy for Tony Gilroy and Jason Reitman for getting to the show on their first and second films respectively, but neither of those slots could have gone to my boy Burton? Damn.
The only category I nailed was Original Screenplay which surprised me because (a) I never get that one right and (b) I made what I thought was a far out prediction with Ratatouille.
No animated nod for The Simpsons Movie? Surf’s Up gets a nod but no love for Groening? I thought they adored him out there.
After the Academy (or France) eliminated early favorites Diving Bell and the Butterfly, Persepolis and 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days before the gun even went off, we knew the foreign category would be, well, foreign to most of us. Looks like The Counterfeiters is the only one here I’ve even heard of. (I didn’t even know it was foreign.)
That’s a whole lot of Iraq in the doc category.
Let me make this clear, the FX in Golden Compass, by and large, sucked. There are about a dozen films that should have had that slot before it.
Glad to see Bourne Ultimatum get an editing nod. That kind of work is unleashing a whole new action aesthetic (which some people hate) that relies heavily on judicious cutting.
Very disappointed to see Radiohead’s Johnny Greenwood not make the cut for Best Score. For shame.
At least some love for Once, not surprisingly, in the Best Song category. Think they nominated enough songs from Enchanted?
For once the make-up category makes sense. And not for nothing, but that should go to La Vie en Rose right now…
Marion Cotillard in La Vie en Rose and in real life.
January 23rd, 2008 at 12:32 pm
Also, this is the year in which both Norbit and Zodiac were released; one of those films is now Academy Award nominated.
And Juno? Seriously? Even if you like the film - and I didn’t - how could you possibly suggest that Reitman’s direction was outstanding enough to warrant a nomination? Not to mention the fact that Diablo Cody’s screenwriting is about as subtle as her chosen pseudonym. Ack.
January 23rd, 2008 at 11:23 pm
I haven’t seen “Juno” yet, so I’ll reserve judgement (although I adore Ellen Page), but I loved “Charlie Wilson’s War” and can’t believe Aaron Sorkin didn’t draw a nod for adapted screenplay, or that Mike Nichols got snubbed for directing.
I’m with you on TLJ - I seem to remember “Elah” getting pretty roundly panned, so maybe this was the Academy’s way of throwing a bone to the anti-war crowd (especially since Morgan Spurlock’s Osama doc won’t be eligible until next year).
And then there’s the case of “The Simpsons Movie”. What. The. Hell? I know they couldn’t throw the sympathy-nom to “Spider Pig”, because it’s based on prior art (the Academy has stricter rules about prior art than the Patent Office!), but - COME ON! Sure, “Ratatouille” absolutely deserves to be there (I *heart* Pixar, and not just because I’m an Apple fanboy), and I reckon “Surf’s Up” got a nom to appease the other animation studios in town (and because “Enchanted” didn’t have ENOUGH animation to call it an ‘animated’ film, in the spirit of “Roger Rabbit”). But “Persepolis”? Was that even released in the US? What the hell was it about?
January 24th, 2008 at 12:38 am
Persepolis is a French film about a young Iranian girl’s memoirs of growing up under the Shah. It’s the “art animation” nod this year. It edged out Diving Bell and the Butterfly to become France’s submission for Best Foreign Film, actually (not that that made any difference to the Academy)
If it’s a question of appeasing another animation studio in town, dissing Simpsons disses Fox, who isn’t exactly a small player (Ice Age sequels). And the Simpsons movie was the only animated flick besides Ratatouille to make it into the top ten grossers for 07. So besides getting some good reviews (not nearly as many as Simpsons) Surf’s Up makes no sense in this category.
At least they didn’t nominate Shrek the Third. That blew chunks.