Oscar nominations came out this morning, and while I have many to see before I can really judge (including 6 of the best picture nominees), here are my first reactions:
- Muppets!! Seriously, that was what I was most excited about. This is probably my favorite film of the year, or at least a close second to the Harry Potter finale. I am elated to see one of its songs making the cut, although what is up with only two songs being nominated in this category? Is that not incredibly bizarre? Hopefully this means we’ll get to see them performed, although I didn’t see Rio and have no idea what that song is all about, I’d love to see Jason Segel (and perhaps the songwriter, Flight of the Conchords' Bret McKenzie) perform at the Oscars. And a cameo from Jim Parsons perhaps? We can all dream.
- And since I mentioned Harry Potter – I didn’t really think that Alan Rickman would get the nomination, but in my heart, he is the true winner of the Supporting Actor category. What a brilliant, heart-breaking performance. Now I feel compelled to see all the other nominees to feel truly justified in claiming that he was better than them all. Stay tuned.
- Nine nominees for best picture! I was sure that with the new limitations (films must get at least 5% of the first place votes) we would see less nominations, but apparently the academy loved all kinds of different movies this year, almost hitting the 10 film cap.
- Of those nine, I have only seen Hugo, Moneyball, & The Help to date, and from those I would give the award to Hugo, hands down. While I love Moneyball (even if it wasn’t awesome, and it was, it’s about baseball so of course I love it), and enjoyed the Help (and the acting was fantastic), I was a little surprised to see them so dominate this awards season. It was interesting to see the biopics (or biopic like films) shut out of the main category (J Edgar, My Week With Marilyn, The Iron Lady), however it wasn’t that surprising after the terrible reviews of J Edgar and The Iron Lady. Had any of those films been better received, I think they could have pushed a few of the other nominees out. Hugo, however, is a brilliant film, it looks beautiful, the storyline is rich, the casting perfect, and who doesn’t love a movie that highlights loving and preserving movies, we know the academy voters do. My only thought when leaving (as I was wiping away the tears) was that for a children’s movie it was a little slow and I would caution parents against taking very young children or any who cannot sit through something that isn’t as high paced as a typical kid’s movie. And then I would tell adults to go sans kids, because it’s certainly a film for all.
- Supporting actress - I think I am on my own here but I was disappointed with the role of Celia in the film. I don’t think it was Jessica Chastain’s fault, whose performance was certainly good, but I was disappointed by the film’s portrayal of Minnie & Celia’s storyline. Not Minnie's as a whole so much, but their joint story that was quite separate from the rest of the action and drama in the book, and which I thought was so fascinating. Overall, I thought this film adaptation was incredibly well done, the cuts and tweaks made sense and the story came together nicely, but I found that particular storyline lacking and while I understood why they would have cut it for the film, I am then confused as to why that actress is getting so much buzz for a role that I thought was lacking. But perhaps not as many voters read the book and my perception is just skewed by that. I do think the Octavia Spencer’s Minnie is so perfect that I will be disappointed if she doesn’t walk away with the award.
Now, off to see The Artist, The Descendants, Midnight in Paris - very excited to see those three, as well as The Tree of Life, War Horse, & Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close - a little less excited to see those, but they can’t be as painful as Young Adult (both Patton Oswalt & Charlize Theron gave Oscar worthy performances, but I suspect the voters were too uncomfortable to finish the film and/or think about it after having finished it). I’ll also try to fit in a few of the films nominated for acting and writing awards, but not best picture, such as My Week with Marilyn, The Iron Lady, A Better Life, Albert Nobbs, A Seperation, Bridesmaids, The Ides of March, Beginners, and perhaps even more. More on this before February 26th!
Books read: 4 (I know, that's the same as last week, but Eragon wasn't as engaging as I had hoped and I put it down, half way through White Cat though!)
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