Tuesday, January 31, 2006

Oscars: Who Didn't Deserve A Nod

Everyone talks about the people who were snubbed, but they rarely follow that up by detailing which nominations should be removed to make room for their choice. So here's a rundown of which nominations were lazy, misguided or just plain wrong. Mind you, many of these actors and other talent are terrific and have done great work. This just shouldn't have been their year. (And this isn't just my personal taste -- I didn't like "Crash" but I'm not quibbling with that; ditto Keira Knightley in "Pride & Prejudice, which I didn't like but was a commercial and critical success. I'm quibbling with nominations even Academy voters probably don't feel strongly about. These are the ones they can't justify.)

BEST PICTURE: Take back "Munich."
BEST DIRECTOR: Take back "Steven Spielberg"
BEST ACTRESS: Take back Judi Dench in "Mrs. Henderson Presents and Charlize Theron in "North Country"
ART DIRECTION: Take back "Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire"
COSTUME DESIGN: Take back "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory" and "Mrs. Henderson Presents"
DOCUMENTARY: Take back "March of the Penguins" (It's NOT a documentary!)
SCORE: Take back "Munich" (I love John Williams but it's a weak, cliched score)

5 comments:

Michael in New York said...

Poorly reviewed and poorly received commercially, I think it was just a lazy, rote nomination -- not a comment on the film (which I didn't like) but again, just taking them to task for auto pilot.

Anonymous said...

Michael: Do you expect a Brokeback backlash in the next four weeks and Crash to come in as the longshot winner?

Michael in New York said...

No, as I said in my original post down below, I think people can talk up Crash and Good Night as spoilers but come Oscar night it'll be Brokeback. The only thing Oscar likes more than frustrating viewers is making the most obvious choice and that would be Brokeback. Besides, the single biggest voting group is the acting guild and they gave Brokeback three big nods while Crash and GNAGL just got one each. Brokeback is the favorite. But if there is a spoiler, I think it'll be GNAGL -- and the fact that we can argue which movie will be the spoiler means those two will cancel each other out most likely. There's no consensus second pick.

Anonymous said...

Sort of felt that Walk the Line was going to be the only feelgood movie that could play spoiler. Cinderella Man wasn't successful enough and nobody really thinks Pride and Prejudice is that good and those are the two kinds of movies that seem like they would have won in recent years. Is this the weakest bunch of Best Actress nominations, not only the performances but the movies that feature them as well?

Michael in New York said...

I agree about the best Actress category -- though I understood her inclusion, I think Keira Knightley belongs with Judi Dench and Charlize Theron off the list. And while I think Huffman is good, her movie was very soap-ish I thought. Isn't it enough to show a man making the transition to a woman? Did they really need an incredibly hot strett hustling son she never knew she had to pop up, among other twists? They could have nominated the girl from The New World, Laura Linney from Squid, the young woman from the French comedy Look at Me (which would never have happened) Zhang Ziyi for 2046 -- not Geisha. Heck I think the only reason Kong wasn't a complete disaster (I was really disappointed by it) was Naomi Watts, so even that would have been a nice nod. It's not like they had zero to choose from.