The Academy Award nominations were announced this week, and I know that you are all dying to hear my thoughts on them.
Oh, you're not.
Well, here they are anyway.
Of the nine Best Picture nominees, I have seen "The Descendants", "Moneyball", "Hugo", and "Midnight in Paris." Marilyn has seen "Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close." I plan on seeing "The Artist", "The Help", and "War Horse." Have absolutely no interest in seeing "Tree of Life." Of the four that I have seen, regular readers will know that I favor "The Descendants" to win the big one. I also am hoping that George Clooney will win for Best Actor in this movie. If I had to choose a runner up, it would probably be "Midnight in Paris" just edging out "Moneyball."
I am anxious to see "The Artist", and while I reserve judgement, this seems like the kind of movie that the Academy loves to reward: it's different (black & white and silent), it is made by non-Americans, and it is about movies, so rewarding it would be somewhat self-indulgent for the Hollywood crowd. Despite that, I am prepared to like this movie when I do see it, which I hope will be early next week. Likewise, "Hugo", which is in large part about the early days of movies, received much love from the Academy with 11 nominations, and I am guessing that Martin Scorsese is probably in the lead for Best Director for this one.
Earlier this week, I did re-watch "Midnight in Paris" and enjoyed it every bit as much, if not more so, that when I saw it earlier in the year. I do not expect it to win for Best Picture, nor do I expect Woody Allen to win for Best Director, but I am hoping that Allen will get the nod for Best Original Screenplay. It has now been 35 years since "Annie Hall", and I think it is time that Woody gets another Oscar.
From what you read, the Best Actress award seems to be a two horse race between Viola Davis and Meryl Streep. I haven't seen either performance so I can't offer an opinion, but I am kind of pulling for Meryl Streep who has now been nominated for either Best Actress or best Supporting Actress and amazing 18 times. She never wins because, I think people seem to think that "she always wins, so let's give it someone else." Fact is, she has won twice, but her last win was in 1982 - thirty years ago. I love Streep, so I hope she snags this one this year.
One Best Actress performance that I did see just this week was Rooney Mara in "The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo." Great performance, but she's not going to win an Oscar for it. I will also say that this was a very good movie. Even if you've seen the original Swedish language movie version of this book, it is worth seeing this one as well. Very well done. A few scenes that are hard to watch, but still a very good movie. On the same track, I also finally got around the seeing the Swedish "The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest" this week, so I have now closed out that particular trilogy. All of those movies were quite good, even with sub-titles.
Finally, I can say, with tongue in cheek, of course, that I am amazed that the Academy did not see fit to give a single nomination to "Hall Pass." If nothing else, there should be some kind of special effects award for that scene with the chick sitting on the edge of the bathtub. If you've seen the movie, you know the one I mean.
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