LET THE SPECULATION BEGIN: Nominees for the 75th Academy Awards were announced this morning.
All in all, not too many surprises on the list, and only one thing that really upset me. Remembering that you can't suggest an addition without performing the appropriate subtraction, let's review:
1. What upsets me? Adaptation wasn't nominated for Best Picture. No, I didn't give it an unqualified rave, but its inventiveness and wit merited the nomination. It should have replaced Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers, which, okay, I'm glad to see fantasy or sci-fi nominated for Best Picture (next year: the Matrix films?), but a film getting no nominations for acting, screenplay or direction shouldn't get one for best picture.
2. Okay, I shouldn't be too surprised that John C. Reilly was nominated for Chicago, but I'm happy enough. Not that he was that good, or that I even liked the movie, but it was time for Reilly to be elevated in the public's eye, and if it wasn't going to be for the Reed Rothchild/Chest Rockwell dual role in Boogie Nights, I'm glad it's at least something.
3. That said, Chicago will win for Best Picture. No question. There's just not a strong competitor in the field -- Gangs was not universally loved; Polanski can't win for The Pianist because he's still Roman Polanski; the constituency isn't there for Lord of the Rings to actually win and The Hours, well, in a choice between depressing tales of suicide across generations of lesbians versus a Renée Zellweger-Catherine Zeta Jones prison movie, well, I'm guessing the Academy prefers the latter.
4. The potential My Big Fat Greek Wedding disaster has been averted -- only a screenplay nomination, no acting or best picture noms Phew.
5. Poor Dennis Quaid: dumped by Meg, then after a virtual ten-year acting hiatus comes back with a series of great performances, capped off by his lead role in The Rookie and much-heralded supporting work as a closeted gay husband in Far From Heaven. But still, no nomination. I just don't know who to eliminate here -- it's a strong category.
6. Antwone Fisher: zero nominations. Ouch. Oh, that's right -- they recognized African-American achievement in film last year, so I guess they don't have to again for a while.
7. Michael Moore's Bowling for Columbine was nominated for best documentary feature. Cool. Just because it'll piss off 80% of the political blogosphere.
8. I'm just going to use this opportunity to renew my call for a Best First Film award to be handed out to the best feature film by a first-time director. It's about time Hollywood started recognizing new talent. This year, such people as Charles Stone III (Drumline) and Burr Steers (Igby Goes Down) could have been recognized, but weren't.
9. Minority Report only gets a Sound Editing nomination? Not even for Art Direction or Visual Effects, let along Best Director? C'mon, dog, that's harsh.
10. And finally, kudos to Donald Kaufman for his Best Adapted Screenplay nomination for Adaptation. This marks the first nomination for a non-existent being since 2000's nomination of "Richard Farnsworth" for best actor in David Lynch's The Straight Story. As we all know now, "Farnsworth" does not exist, and was merely Lynch's fiendishly inventive CGI creation. Have you ever seen another film -- either before or after The Straight Story, with such an actor? Me neither.
More comments as the day progresses.
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