And The Oscar Goes To......

[happypenguin]

Jan 22, 2009 22:40:27 GMT -4 aibohphobia said:

Jan 22, 2009 16:21:40 GMT -4 Wol said:

The love for The Reader is purely thematic - the Academy traditionally creams itself for Holocaust movies.

Yes, hopefully I don't come across as a TDK fangirl because I do think it had it's problems. I'm just surprised although I know I shouldn't be that The Reader got nominated for Best Picture. It wasn't as well received by critics or at the box office even though there were other films that were. TDK is one of those films, but there were others that wouldn't seem as baffling like WALL-E, The Wrestler, Gran Torino, or even Doubt which I wouldn't have been surprised with because of all four primary actors being nominated which meant it had support from the largest voting branch of the Academy.

I know that nominating The Reader is a way of honoring Sydney Pollack and Anthony Minghella one last time, but it just seems so safe and boring to nominate that kind of film when there were better choices out there. It feels like when movies like Chocolat, The Cider House Rules, or Finding Neverland among other safe choices are nominated for Best Picture. They're not the worst films ever, but it's very easy to find better choices than the safe choice. Of course, I'm probably expecting too much from this group, but I do think that they at least tend to be better than the other two big award shows the Emmies and the Grammies.

I have no problem with The Reader nomination, its a difficult film to like. given what it covers, but it is a good film. My objection is that Frost/Nixon was nominated instead of Wall.E and that Ron Howard was nominated over Chris Nolan.

I can't see why everywhere the focus is on The Reader when Frost/Nixon is so much less deserving of a nomination.

In addition I'm glad Kate Winslet was nominated for the Reader and not RR. If she had been nominated for RR it would simply have been because she was Kate Winslet and it would have split her votes with no chance of winning or allowed her to win for a performance no where near her best. I think she was much better in the Reader and completely derserved that nomination. Plus with the absence of Kate the supporting actress nominations are spot on.

[Deleted]

I usually know when the nominations are being announced but this year I have no interest in the Oscars.

[aibohphobia]

Jan 23, 2009 5:14:53 GMT -4 @happypenguin said:

Jan 22, 2009 22:40:27 GMT -4 aibohphobia said:

I have no problem with The Reader nomination, its a difficult film to like. given what it covers, but it is a good film. My objection is that Frost/Nixon was nominated instead of Wall.E and that Ron Howard was nominated over Chris Nolan.

I can't see why everywhere the focus is on The Reader when Frost/Nixon is so much less deserving of a nomination.

I guess it's because most people that follow the Oscars way too much like I do already knew that Frost/Nixon was going to be nominated for Best Picture whether it deserved to or not, and had made accepted it long ago. It felt like that the line-up of The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, The Dark Knight, Frost/Nixon, Milk, and Slumdog Millionaire was going to happen because of the PGA, WGA, and DGA all predicting those same five films as well as other smaller guilds all nominating those same films albit sometimes not in the same category like in Costume Design or in Art Direction. Sure everything except Slumdog Millionaire was still not a 100% lock especially TDK, but even if one of those films faltered, it didn't seem like The Reader had much of a chance to get in since very few critics loved it that much. In fact at Metacritic it's score is only 58, the lowest score of any Best Picture nominee since they started keeping records, and it's barely above 60% at Rotten Tomatoes. Also, I was looking through various Top 10 lists over at Metacritic, and it only made two lists. Usually if a film that is nominated for Best Picture doesn't get critical support, it at least is a hit, but The Reader did not do that well at the the theaters either. It may now, but with the difficult subject matter and with The Weinstein Company having to spend even more money to promote the film because it was nominated for Best Picture instead of only Best Actress and perhaps Best Adapted Screenplay, I still don't think it will be a hit.

Of course, I don't agree with critics all the time because there's certainly many films that they've championed that I've scratched my head about, and films that they hated that I liked, but at least with the other four films nominated, at least from a critical and box office standpoint, I can see why they made it in. I might not agree with all of them, but for me they make more sense than The Reader does, and certainly more directors that make more sense than Stephen Daldry going 3 for 3 now. The latter fact right now seems even stranger than The Reader being nominated because the Brits are a formidable voting block now with The Reader this year and Atonement last year, and I could see them wanting to honor Sydney Pollack and Anthony Minghella in some way. But Daldry being nominated for every movie he's directed thus far (Billy Elliot, The Hours, and The Reader, when I was underwhelmed by them, is just weird. They weren't bad films necessarily, but I wouldn't credit him with making them better either.

In addition I'm glad Kate Winslet was nominated for the Reader and not RR. If she had been nominated for RR it would simply have been because she was Kate Winslet and it would have split her votes with no chance of winning or allowed her to win for a performance no where near her best. I think she was much better in the Reader and completely derserved that nomination. Plus with the absence of Kate the supporting actress nominations are spot on.

I'm actually very happy that Kate only got one nomination, and it was for The Reader. For me her role in Revolutionary Road was too much like her role in Little Children, which I don't think she deserved a nomination for anyway, so I'm glad that she was recognized for what I felt was the better work too. Also, I do think that it helps her win more because now she has two roles combined into one nomination instead of the vote splitting I think would have happened if she had been double nominated since there was a chance she could have won in either category, and there's no way that they would actually award someone on the same night in both categories which would mean that voters probably would have solidified around Winslet's closest competitor in each category which would probably be Penelope Cruz and Meryl Streep.

[jynni]

No Bruce Springsteen nomination.

I read somewhere else that they changed the rules for the Original Song category this year. Songs can't be nominated if they are just tacked on over the end credits. The song from Wall*E gets in since there was story telling animation over the end credits where it was played.

I'm also really surprised that so many (mostly on other boards) seem to shocked that Wall*E wasn't nominated for Best Picture. There is no way in hell an animated film is getting a BP nod now that there is an Animated Feature category.

[happypenguin]

Jan 23, 2009 9:14:05 GMT -4 aibohphobia said:

Jan 23, 2009 5:14:53 GMT -4 @happypenguin said:

I guess it's because most people that follow the Oscars way too much like I do already knew that Frost/Nixon was going to be nominated for Best Picture whether it deserved to or not, and had made accepted it long ago. It felt like that the line-up of The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, The Dark Knight, Frost/Nixon, Milk, and Slumdog Millionaire was going to happen because of the PGA, WGA, and DGA all predicting those same five films as well as other smaller guilds all nominating those same films albit sometimes not in the same category like in Costume Design or in Art Direction. Sure everything except Slumdog Millionaire was still not a 100% lock especially TDK, but even if one of those films faltered, it didn't seem like The Reader had much of a chance to get in since very few critics loved it that much. In fact at Metacritic it's score is only 58, the lowest score of any Best Picture nominee since they started keeping records, and it's barely above 60% at Rotten Tomatoes. Also, I was looking through various Top 10 lists over at Metacritic, and it only made two lists. Usually if a film that is nominated for Best Picture doesn't get critical support, it at least is a hit, but The Reader did not do that well at the the theaters either. It may now, but with the difficult subject matter and with The Weinstein Company having to spend even more money to promote the film because it was nominated for Best Picture instead of only Best Actress and perhaps Best Adapted Screenplay, I still don't think it will be a hit.

The problem is as much as you were expecting Frost/Nixon to be nominated, none of us should have imagined that the Academy would have nominated Wall-E or The Dark Knight, because just as much as Frost/Nixon is Oscar fare, Wall-E and TDK are so very not.

The Academy really does like Daldry. I'd say that nomination is much more surprising than the Best Pic nom. I'd say there's a real chance he may actually win. Especially if there's a backlash against Slumdog Millionaire.

I was hoping really hard they would see past Frost/Nixon to Wall-E but it was never going to be.

Interestingly despite appearing much more mainstream, according to this Frost/Nixon and The Reader have the same Box Office numbers.

[Deleted]

Jan 22, 2009 17:51:25 GMT -4 bklynred said:

I like Angelina but the Changeling was not her best work. A lot of hysteria, but not a ton of substance in her role. Not sure what happened there.

Make-up nomination for what many considered a snub last year? I don't know. I just know that I already hate that Oscar night is going to be all about the Brangelina. They may not be doing the classic talk show tour to campaign but they know that every pic of them gives them more publicity than any other contender in their category could ever get. Their current matching-outifts-tour of the various Ben-Button-premieres proves that. Could help Brad a lot. I don't see Angelina winning, if the upset happens, then it's either Anne or Meryl who win over Kate.

[Binky]

I don't see Pitt winning unless Penn, Langella, and Roark split the vote something crazy. I think Benjamin Button will win some of the technical awards, but I seriously doubt it will win the major categories. I'm still rooting for Taraji P. Henson, though.

[happypenguin]

I can't see Brad winning until he hits his 50s/60s and even then I wonder if he'll maybe win as a director before he wins as an Actor. But its no surprise he's been nominated, he's been in all the precursors and the film was a lock for a best pic nomination

[Deleted]

At this point I could see Taraji winning as the token big win for Benjamin Button, and then getting largely shut out. Momentum has swung to Slumdog Millionaire's favor and if it continues to clean up in the minor awards I can see it making a killing on Oscar night over Button. If Taraji wins at the SAG Awards on Sunday that scenario becomes more likely. Personally I don't care who wins Supporting Actress as long as it's not Penelope Cruz.

[lpatrice]

Penelope Cruz was great in VCB. I thought that she was the second best thing in the movie. But I have a feeling that Supporting actress will go to either Henson or Davis - I am rooting for Davis myself.

ETA: I am kind of frustrated that Slumdog Millionaire seems to be on an unstoppable path to glory, I saw it and I liked enough but I don't think it was all that. In fact it was like this years Juno for me.

And as someone who can't stand Clint Eastwood, I do think that Gran Torino was robbed of a Best Pic nod, as was TDK in my humble opinion.

It will be interesting to see what happens at the SAG awards - as far as the Oscars go, I think the only sure thing at this point is Heath Ledger winning for TDK.