Oscar Nominations

We're gonna get down today.  I love movies and enjoy most everything I see at some level. I've never missed an Oscar show since it was first televised in 1953 but I'll tell you... Oscar nominations, which came out today, often annoy the hell out of  me.  The same, of course, extends frequently to the selection of certain winners and losers.

Indulge me (I've said this before)... I readily admit that two things pissed me off about the Oscars and I've never been the same since.  When Brokeback Mountain (2005) failed to win best picture despite its win for best directing and best writing and the fact that it won virtually every award the world over, I felt the blood drain from my body.  Don't even get me started on the fact that Crash won instead.  

Secondly, nearly 10 years ago the Oscar brain trust expanded the number of best picture nominations to a possible 10.  They give all kinds of cockamamie reasons for doing so, the most laughable of which is that it gives blockbuster movies a chance to win an Oscar instead of all those silly well-written, well-directed and well-acted films.  I say to you blockbusters... if you ain't got the goods, just keep counting your profits and shut the hell up.  Gee, just nine films were nominated this year and I didn't see Star Wars or Wonder Woman among them.  Weren't they the top money-makers?  Wasn't there an available slot?  The whole process has been compromised by this ridiculous decision.  No wonder Oscar viewing is down.

I'll probably take a hit for this one but any bias I may have comes out of the fact that I think nominations and winners should be based on merit (subjective as it is) and nothing else.  I am all for diversity/inclusion but not at the expense of merit.  Isn't the lingo attached to nominations the best achievement in....?  I don't care if all nominees are black or brown or women... if they deserve it, they deserve it.  Come on now, I have my own minority status I could crow about but let me assure you, I don't think Brokeback Mountain should have won because it aligned with my own gay agenda.  It should have won because it was a superb motion picture, the best of that year.  If I felt otherwise, I would be throwing open the shutters  for Call Me By Your Name... its gay, I'm gay.  While I did give it four stars in my review, I think there was at least one film that was better.  My agenda is best achievement. 

Best Picture

The best 2017 picture I saw was The Shape of Water.  Oscar voters must have seen some merit in it; otherwise, it wouldn't have garnered the most nominations... 13. (Ok, so now I'm applauding the Academy.)  The other nominated films are Dunkirk, Lady Bird, Phantom Thread, Get Out, The Darkest Hour, The Post, Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri and Call Me By Your Name.

Here's a heads-up to the Academy and a suggestion.  Movies are a director's medium.  It is about the director first and foremost (writing and acting are close behind).  With more than five movies being nominated and yet only five directors, then there will always be films that are nominated for best picture and yet not the picture's director.  There's simply no sense to be made of that.  So here you go... whatever picture is nominated, its director is automatically  nominated too.  If the picture wins, so does that director.  The Academy's respect will be raised because it will appear you understand movie-making and know what you are doing. 

In keeping with that thinking, the last four movies listed above should not win best picture because their directors were not nominated.  Too bad, too, because Call Me and Three Billboards were the next best films of the year.  I thought I would never recover from the boredom of watching Dunkirk and didn't review it for the blog.  I also didn't review Get Out because I saw it on television long after it was in the theaters.  I liked it, too, found it clever, it didn't register for me as a best picture.  I am not particularly a fan of either Lady Bird or Phantom Thread although the acting is superb. If the best picture category were only five films, I would not include The Post.   I have not seen The Darkest Hour.

My pick: The Shape of Water


Best Director

Here we go again... Martin MacDonagh was not nominated for Three Billboards, although he was nominated for best writing.  Three of his actors got nominations, as did music and editing.  He was likely shut out so Greta Gerwig could win to satisfy the cry for a woman director... never mind that she doesn't deserve it.  The size and scope of Dunkirk certainly could be a reason for nominating Christopher Nolan if one excuses the monotony.  

My pick:  Guillermo del Toro for The Shape of Water


Best Actor

Daniel Day-Lewis was the best thing about Phantom Thread but not so sure Hollywood will give him a fourth Oscar.  I feel the same about Daniel Kaluuya,  I have not seen Denzel Washington in Roman J. Israel, Esq, but I have no doubt he was as superb as he always is.  Will Hollywood give him a third Oscar?  Of course, considering my attitude on best achievement, it shouldn't matter how many times one has won.  Timothée Chalamet has claimed a number of awards for his sensitive role in Call Me by Your Name but, paying attention to all that I have, it certainly looks like it's a shoo-in for...

My pick:  Gary Oldman for The Darkest Hour


Best Actress

Another shoo-in comes in this category.  Saorise Ronan and Sally Hawkins (my favorite) were so good in their films.  Meryl Streep got her annual nomination but the world's best actress should go home empty-handed this time.  I didn't see I, Tonya but I hear Margot Robbie nailed it.  My money is on The Queen of Quirky, the best actress winner of Fargo (1996).  She was sooo good in Three Billboards.

My pick: Frances McDormand


Best Supporting Actor

They were all so good.  Bravo to Christopher Plummer for copping a nomination for his late-in-the-game role in All the Money in the World.  Like McDormand, I don't think Sam Rockwell is too far away from the character he plays in Three Billboards.  Therefore...

My Pick: Sam Rockwell


Best Supporting Actress:

I had not heard anyone touting Lesley Manville but I said in my review of Phantom Thread how good she is, so I am delighted with her nomination.  I did the same for Laurie Metcalf in Lady Bird... an energetic performance.  I would give 13 wins to The Shape of Water, so Octavia Spencer getting a second Oscar would be alright with me. I don't get Mary J. Blige for Mudbound... maybe I need to watch it again.  Again, I didn't see I, Tonya, but the great Allison Janney is winning everything and I suspect Hollywood just plain wants her to have an Oscar, any Oscar.

My Pick:  Allison Janney


Best Original Screenplay:

Guillermo del Toro and Vanessa Taylor deserve it for their deliciously original screenplay for The Shape of Water but I suspect it will go to Greta Gerwig for Lady Bird (which she doesn't deserve) to make up for her loss in the directing category.

My Pick:  Greta Gerwig


Best Adapted Screenplay:

Aaron Sorkin may be the best writer in the business and I said how much I loved his words in Molly's Game.  Yet, I suspect it will go to the deserving James Ivory for his poetic offerings in Call Me by Your Name.

My Pick:  James Ivory



Snubs

Other than the outrageous snub of director Martin MacDonagh, I was surprised that Steven Spielberg was not nominated for The Post.  What happened to Tom Hanks for the same film?  James Franco was offed for his The Disaster Artist and as good as they say he was, we know why he's not among the others.  I was kind of hoping Jake Gyllenhaal would get a nomination for Stronger and  Tiffany Haddish was chatted up for Girls Trip but it didn't work out.

We'll see how it all turns out when the Oscars are televised on March 4.



Next posting:
Remakes