Random thoughts about this morning’s announcement as well as the nominations themselves….
- Why is Seth MacFarlane hosting the Oscars? He was terrible in his few minutes this morning (A Hitler joke? Seriously?) and he doesn’t have the stature or the humor to M.C. the movie industry’s biggest night of the year. Mocking people just isn’t my idea of what a host should be doing.
- Emma Stone can do no wrong, as far as I’m concerned. Love her.
- I don’t get all the praise for “Life of Pi.” Yes, it was visually arresting in 3D, but the film itself was boring, story wise – not my idea of a Best Picture.
- John Hawkes was robbed in the Best Actor category, especially since Helen Hunt was nominated for “The Sessions” in the Supporting Actress category.
- Bradley Cooper was very good in “Silver Linings Playbook,” but was his performance career-defining in the same way as Hawkes’ was in “The Sessions?” Not for me.
- In the same category, I would like to have seen Richard Gere get a nod for “Arbitrage” – the guy has never been nominated in his career! – but so be it.
- I can understand why the Academy voters didn’t give a Best Director nod to either Kathryn Bigelow or Tom Hooper, despite the Best Picture nominations for their respective movies, “Zero Dark Thirty” and “Les Miserables.” They’d both won recently. But Ben Affleck? Why not reward his work in “Argo?”
- Marion Cotillard should have been nominated for Best Actress for “Rust and Bone,” but I have no idea which actress I’d replace to put her there. Just not enough room at the inn, I guess.
- Conversely, I was thrilled to see Naomi Watts get her Best Actress due for “The Impossible.”
- “The Intouchables” got screwed in the Best Foreign Film category. Conventional wisdom is that it was too big a commercial success – i.e. a crowd pleaser – and Academy voters found it a bit retro in a “Driving Miss Daisy”-ish sort of way.
- I continue to scratch my head over “Lincoln.” Daniel Day-Lewis will be tough to beat for Best Actor and deservedly so, but Sally Field and Tommy Lee Jones too? Yikes, I must have stumbled into a different movie.
- Very happy that “Beasts of the Southern Wild” was recognized in such a major way. After seeing all the nominated films, it’s still Michael’s favorite of the year, along with “Silver Linings Playbook.”
- Leo DiCaprio probably should have been in there for Best Supporting Actor for “Django Unchained,” because he did great work in that film, but Christoph Waltz was incredible too.
Can’t wait for the show. The Golden Globes this weekend will have to tide me over until February.
Ditto for me. I agree with you. I’m looking forward to the Golden Globes. I always get caught up with The Red Carpet.
I like the Globes, Freya, but I’m not that into the TV part of their awards so it’s not as interesting. But it’s a good warmup to the main event!
I agree with you about Bradley Cooper. I liked Silver Linings Playbook, he was good, but he didn’t knock one out of the park. I haven’t seen The Sessions, but I am surprised about John Hawkes too. Everything I read, he was a lock for a nomimation. I think maybe he isn’t so mainstream and tends to do indie movies?? But he is a phenomenal actor.
Hawkes is definitely known more for indie movies, Melissa – he was a great villain in both “Winter’s Bone” and “Martha Marcy etc” – but he was also in “Lincoln” and was so well reviewed for “The Sessions.” I guess the Academy liked Cooper (and maybe Denzel) better.
I have not seen all of the movies.
But if history is an indication I don’t normally agree with the academy a great deal of the time.
I couldn’t bring myself to see Lincoln. My friends who were all history buffs said it was worse than a text book. They were hoping for more. That made me stay away.
I agree so very much with number 1 and 2!
I adore Emma Stone!! Emma Stone is a young actress who is smart, funny, makes good career choices and has handled herself very well for a young woman of 24 which we don’t often see.
I agreed with them last year and the year before on Best Picture, Peg. But I think this year “Lincoln” will take top honors and it certainly wasn’t my Best Picture. Yes, Emma Stone is adorable. Even her raspy voice is cute.