Oscar Talk

The Academy Award nominations came out yesterday, and I of course must chime in on them. As many who read this may know, I watch way too many movies. I go and see pretty much everything in theaters. Additionally, as some may point out (*ahem* KIM!) I tend to favor dramas and quirky movies. Strangely enough, that is what the good ol' Academy favors! So when I'm talking about Oscars, I'm not being some elitist, I'm actually just talking about things I like! I feel as if this is a win win situation for me, so I may carry on from here.

Quick tangent (because what is a post from me without a tangent?), I still love other movies. I can get behind great comedies and action movies and god only knows I'm a Sci-Fi freak most of the time. I just happen to prefer a well delivered and written conversation over a particularly large explosion or most jinks of hi-ness (that's hijinks for the uninitiated).

Back to the point, Paul Thomas Anderson's return film There Will Be Blood and the omni-present Coen Brothers No Country for Old Men tied for the most nominations with 8, both scoring Best Picture and Directors nods in the process. Joining them for the big category are Michael Clayton (7 nominations), Juno (Little Miss Sunshine v 2.0), and Atonement. I still have not seen Blood (this Friday! Finally!), Clayton (whenever my screener gets here...from the Internet...come on), or Atonement, but the general consensus seems to be that they got it right for once.

My prediction? Blood and Old Men cancel each other out with the edgy, auteur vote, opening it up for Atonement to steal it, as god only knows the Oscar folks love sweeping, epic romances. That's just my two cents right off the bat, but of course it remains to be seen.

However, I really just wanted to write this because I really liked some of the nominations. They really knocked it out of the park in a number of the other categories. I was particularly fond of them nominating Viggo Mortensen for his role in Eastern Promises, Michael Giacchino's brilliant score for Ratatouille, Tommy Lee Jones for In the Valley of Elah, Ellen Page for Juno, Philip Seymour Hoffman in Charlie Wilson's War, and the Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford getting a nomination for Cinematography (and Casey Affleck getting a nomination for it as well).

The best category though? Best song. The Academy killed on this one, not only nominating the absolutely incredible Glen Hansard and Marketa Irglova for their song Falling Slowly from Once, but they also nominated not one, not two, but three songs from Enchanted. Nothing like send ups of Disney animated songs to get the Academy to stand up and cheer.

But yeah, they did a good job this year. To be honest, no movie bowled me over enough this year to make me that animated about any snubs really. They did a fine job this year. Of course, ironically enough the actual presentation of the Oscars may not even go down because of the writers strike. The one year they get it right and could get some positive PR...and its likely that no one will watch it.

There's the rub right there.