IT'S THE LITTLE THINGS: 2013 Oscar Nominations - Reaction!

Yesterday, the Academy Award Nominations for the films of 2012 were announced...and let me just say: Whoa!!!  I mean, the prognosticators were thrown for a major loop.  And so were the Oscar record books!  So now, it is time for me to run through the major categories and give you all my (somewhat!) initial reactions to the names that appeared (and didn't appear!) on yesterday's list of nominees.

• Again with the 9 nominees for Best Picture!  I was fairly sure that six of the nine were guaranteed (Lincoln, Argo, Life of Pi, Zero Dark Thirty, Les Misérables and Silver Linings Playbook) and throwing one more in the mix was not a shock (Django Unchained).  I'm not even surprised by the momentum "outsider" films gained during this awards season (Amour and Beasts of the Southern Wild).  But with this new "between 5 and 10 films nominated" rule the Academy has, if just 9 films get nominated again next year, it will truly feel forced!
• I am quite surprised that The Master's Joaquin Phoenix didn't ace himself out of a nomination with his very public and very graphic chiding of the process actors are "forced" to go through in order to obtain an Oscar nod (no matter how right he was!).  Unfortunately his inclusion means the exclusion of The Sessions' John Hawkes who, according to many critics, gave one of the best performances of the year (and he had scored both Golden Globe and Screen Actors' Guild nominations!).
• With 85 year-old Emmanuelle Riva (Amour) and 9 year-old Quvenzhané Wallis (Beasts of the Southern Wild), the average age of the Best Actress nominees falls somewhere around 40 - an age that, in Hollywood, is NOT considered "Lead Actress material!"  How Hollywood has changed!!!  Maybe not that much since either 35 year-old Jessica Chastain (Zero Dark Thirty) or 22 year-old Jennifer Lawrence (Silver Linings Playbook) will most likely be the eventual winner!
• For the first time (at least that I can currently recall!), ALL of the nominees for Best Supporting Actor are previous Oscar winners: Alan Arkin, Robert De Niro, Phillip Seymour Hoffman, Tommy Lee Jones and Christoph Waltz.  As for a front-runner, it is still a toss-up (although both Phillip Seymour Hoffman and Tommy Lee Jones are the first names mentioned among the critics!).
• With Jacki Weaver garnering her second Oscar nod for Best Supporting Actress, she helps put David O. Russell's Silver Linings Playbook into the elite club of films that had acting nominations in all four categories (this club includes films like Warren Beatty's Reds, Mike Nichols' Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? and Elia Kazan's A Streetcar Named Desire).  Despite all that, Les Misérables' Anne Hathaway is still going to win!
• Jeffrey Katzenberg must be somewhere licking his wounds.  After the poor box-office performance and mixed reviews of the holiday-themed movie Rise of the Guardians, it was pushed out of the Animated Film category by not one...not two...but THREE Disney films - Brave, Frankenweenie and Wreck-It Ralph.  Good thing Dreamworks has Lincoln carrying the studio banner at this year's ceremony!
• In the writing categories, it is small consolation that Wes Anderson's critically lauded comedy Moonrise Kingdom got some recognition.  But it's still disturbing that original and creative genre fare like Looper (science-fiction) and Brave (animated fantasy) get ignored.  Also, is there some scientology-themed conspiracy in Hollywood against Paul Thomas Anderson?  Though The Master has lost some awards momentum, many thought he would at least get his fourth writing nomination.  I would also like to point out that I was one of the few people I know that correctly predicted each of the nominees for Best Adapted Screenplay (Lincoln, Life of Pi, Silver Linings Playbook, Argo and Beasts of the Southern Wild).  Just want to get that fact in there, folks!
• And lastly, what the hell is going on in the Academy's Directors branch!?!?!  Are they afraid of ticking off the CIA so they choose NOT to nominate Ben Affleck (Argo) and Kathryn Bigelow (Zero Dark Thirty)?  Did the mixed reception that Les Misérables and Django Unchained each got from the critics dismay them from including Tom Hooper or Quentin Tarantino, respectively?  Entertainment Weekly's own Owen Gleiberman pointed out that it is odd that FOUR major Hollywood players are excluded from an albeit very crowded category.  Did the branch just clear the way for Steven Spielberg to obtain his third Best Director Oscar?  Maybe!!!

With all this and more going on in Hollywood, it will be an interesting month as the prognosticators try to figure out what the Academy is thinking and what film will be in the Winners' Circle at the end of February.  So let's relax now and listen to Adele has she sings her way to yet another award!

IT'S THE LITTLE THINGS: 2012 Oscar Nominations - First Response

This past Tuesday morning, the 2012 Oscar nominations were announced.  And I thought I would just share with you some of my initial reactions.  There were things I was proud of and things I liked, but there were also things I really didn't care for or enjoy.  Then there were the things that made my jaw hit the floor (and there were more than I thought there would be!).  So let me give you a rundown of my first thoughts when I saw this year's Oscar nominations.

THE 5 THINGS I LIKED:
After years of brilliant work (often playing villains!), Gary Oldman finally has an Oscar nomination under his belt for his critically lauded, steely performance in Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy. And with love for the film at the BAFTAs, Oldman could quite possibly be a potential spoiler for frontrunner George Clooney.

Tony-winner Viola Davis and character actress Octavia Spencer got nods for their dynamic performances in the audience favorite The Help.  They are both favorites in their respective categories, so we could possibly have two African-American women winning the Actress and Supporting Actress Oscars this year.

This year's Supporting Actor race is filled with veterans (save for Jonah Hill, see below!).  Kenneth Branagh, who has channeled Laurence Olivier several times before My Week With Marilyn, is nominated for the first time since his nod for Henry V in 1988.  Nick Nolte is enjoying his third Oscar nomination (his first in Supporting!).  Christopher Plummer, one of the film business' best character actors, is the category's clear frontrunner.  And Max Von Sydow is nominated for not even saying a word (he plays a mute in Stephen Daldry's Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close).

As much as veterans are always welcome (see Meryl Streep!), its nice to see a few newcomers in the mix, especially: Rooney Mara (for her astonishing work in David Fincher's The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo), Emmy-winner Melissa McCarthy (getting recognized for her scene-stealing performance in Bridesmaids) and The Artist co-stars Jean Dujardin and Berenice Bejo.

Moneyball was one of my favorite films of the year (not just because I'm from the Bay Area!).  I was very pleased to see it in the Best Picture category as well as nods for Brad Pitt's brilliant performance and the clever screenplay by Aaron Sorkin and Steven Zaillian (two of my favorite screenwriters these days!).

THE 3 THINGS I DISLIKED:
Two of the best films of the year got shut out of the Best Picture category: David Fincher's stylish The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo and the powerful finale to the Harry Potter film franchise (more on that below!).

Noteworthy films like The Help and War Horse did get Best Picture nods (and a few other nominations in various categories), but got ignored in ones they really deserved (i.e. Screenplay or Directing!).

When you have to cut it off at 5, several actors with worthy performances got ignored this year.  Among the names that come to mind are: Leonardo DiCaprio, Tilda Swinton, Kirsten Dunst, Michael Fassbender, Ryan Gosling, Phillip Seymour Hoffman, Joseph-Gordon Levitt, Emma Stone, Marion Cotillard and Alan Rickman. I'm sure there are more, but I don't want to be here all day!

THE 10 "WHAT-IN-THE-HELL-IS-THE-ACADEMY-THINKING?!?!" THOUGHTS:
Only 9 Best Picture nominees, really?!? They couldn't find one more film they liked well enough to make it an even 10 (especially when films like The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo, Bridesmaids, The Ides of March, Drive, Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy and Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part II got ignored!)?

Only 2 Best Song nominees?!?! The Academy's Music Department also revamped their voting system and this is their result!?! I'm definitely rooting for the Muppet song (written by Flight of the Conchords' Brett McKenzie), but come on people!!!

While I'm not disputing the five directors who made it into the Best Director category, where is David Fincher? Or Steven Spielberg? Or Bennett Miller? They expanded Best Picture, but Best Director can't get a few more names?

Steven Spielberg can't even get into the Animated category! His The Adventures of Tin-Tin, which won both the Golden Globe and the Producers' Guild Award for Best Animated Feature got shut out of the Oscar's Animated category.

Speaking of the Animated category, both Tin-Tin and Rio garnered nods from the Music Department (Tin-Tin for John Williams' score and Rio for its big musical production number) but neither could get in the Animated biggie.

The most successful movie franchise ended its run this year with a box office bang, but the Academy cannot take the time to recognize the cultural influence the Harry Potter series has had in the last decade.

With The Artist being the definite favorite in the Best Picture race, it may become the first silent Best Picture winner since Wings in 1927 (the very first Best Picture winner!).  This is just more of a surprising thought rather than a "WTF" thought.

Another surprising thought: Michelle Williams has an Oscar nomination for playing the iconic Marilyn Monroe, someone who never got an Oscar nomination herself (be it for Bus Stop or Some Like It Hot or The Seven Year Itch).

One more surprising thought: Meryl Streep has now garnered 17 nominations in 33 years. That almost works out to a nomination every 2 years!

And finally...
Jonah Hill, star of Superbad and Get Him to the Greek, is now an Academy Award Nominee. 'Nuff said.