Farewell Oscar Hopeful! (Snubs That Hurt Us)
Wednesday, January 25, 2012 at 8:38PM Last night at 4 AM this was the only image my brain would settle on...
I don't normally spend time in the middle of the night thinking of Fassbender lying naked in bed (Shush!). It's just that I had the worst insomnia I'd had in months. As I stared down at this still image in my state of delirious sleep deprivation I'm reasonably certain that he stared back, his eyes shifting just a little. He must have seen a mirror image of his vacant orbs and haunted zombie expressionless. Only with less handsomeness.
Brandon's addiction was sex and mine is the Oscars but either way we are powerless against our disease. Perhaps it was all the Oscar Morn Excitement catching up to me? Fassy's frozen image reminded me that I forgot to offer my condolescences to the Oscar Forgotten yesterday. Some people and cinematic contributions you'd be really happy to spend another 32 days celebrating but the time has come to say goodbye. [sniffle]
Farewell Oscar Hopeful. Better Luck Next Time
8 Snubs/Omissions That Hurt The Most
08 Melancholia Best Anything
Given that mad Dane Lars von Trier's sole nomination is in songwriting (find a more hilarious Oscar statistic, I dare you!) we never suspected that this would be an Oscar film. But the tiny scattered awards crumbs for his dreamy apocalyptic depression metaphor, arguably his best film in a decade, allowed us to pretend in a feverish bipolar sort of way that miracles would occur and it would wake up as the nomination leader. No, not really. But it's a shame that that masterful Cinematography and Kirsten Dunst's spooky narcoleptic bride won so little traction.
07 Viggo Mortensen Best Supporting Actor A Dangerous Method.
We love saying "Viggo". And he loved puffing expressively on the cigar in David Cronenberg's latest. He was the movie's MVP, perfectly serving the movie with his egoistic shifts in temperament. Plus h
06 Captain America: The First Avenger Best Visual Effects
Now we won't be able to watch Chris Evans emerge all muscle bound from his futuristic metal cocoon in all the montages of Oscar nominees.
year after year the Academy rejects the few movie songs people seem to like
05 Best Original Song.
The Music Branch is just fucking with us now. Year after year they absolutely refuse to entertain us, as if they're art film purists who scoff at the idea of "songs" altogether. In the past decade they've denied us big show moments with Cher, Bruce Springsteen, Madonna, and Moulin Rouge! on technicalities or impossibly complicated voting systems or maybe just the world's worst taste. When they do accidentally trip and land on a pretty song sung by a nobody they give it to a bigger star to mangle. This year they denied us Oscar night magic with Madonna and Mary J. Blige taking themselves super seriously, The Muppets doing a frolicsome happy number, and a 40s pastiche kick line with Captain America. The music branch of the Academy is filled with sadists. That's the only explanation. They hate the very idea of entertaining us on Oscar night. And if they don't believe in this always gratuitous category, why should we?
Memo to Academy: Fix your rules or cancel this category altogether. You can't please everyone but this is literally the only category that manages the bizarre feat of pleasing no one year after year.
04 Charlize Theron and/or Tilda Swinton Best Actress
Because they are irreplaceable on the red carpet both in terms of actual personality (they are only themselves) and style-style-style. Because they are great interview subjects. Because a lot of people really valued their work this year.
03 Maria Djurkovic Art Direction Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy.
I didn't understand half of this movie but my god was the production design and set decoration rich, evocative, engaging, creepy, fascinating, and tension-filled. It was just gorgeously conceived and executed, the very definition of awards worthy. If you ask me Maria Djurkovic is "Best in Show". Sorry actors!
02 Nicolas Winding Refn Best Director Drive.
Because he says crazy immensely quotable things and imagine how much more of a platform an Oscar nomination would be. Because he often brings best man Ryan Gosling around with him. But mostly because he totally deserved it.
01 Michael Fassbender Best Actor Shame.
A condolence: he'll be in another hundred movies over the next ten years.
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Reader Comments (74)
From the past couple of years, I now firmly believe that the Music branch is jealous of famous songwriters and that is why they refuse to nominate them. It started with Springsteen's snub for The Wrestler and it continued this year with the snub of Elton John and Mary J. Blige. It could be argued that no one cared very much for a movie with garden gnomes, but the Academy as a whole did appreciate The Wrestler and The Help.
I'll be one of the few (two?) people here who thinks Glenn actually deserved her nomination. She played a scared woman who didn't want to do anything to draw attention to herself. If that's "comatose," then she nailed it. McTeer was fine but it's a showy, campy role that didn't really move me.
Tilda's had better parts to play with, she should've been nominated for "Julia."
Haven't seen Fassy yet but I KNOW I'm going to be pissed he got snubbed.
Fassy was great, but at least thankfully he got bumped from the supposed 5th slot by two strong performances in Bichir (who I haven't seen but it sure seems that way) and Oldman (who absolutely deserves his nod) and not by DiCaprio. So I am not feeling SO mad about this. We all know Clooney, Pitt and DuJardin were locks here and Fassbender will get nominated soon enough.
I concur about Vanessa Redgrave, a disgrace but she's still working and she's always brilliant so hopefully she'll have another opportunity.
Someone who wasn't in the conversation but just saw her performance the other day is Angelica Huston in 50/50. The movie wasn't bad but she was absolutely astonishing in it, in three small scenes she created a full realized person that was wholly recognizable and tore at your heart. Brilliant work, the very definition of a supporting player.
I love the actor lineup honestly. The only thing that would make it better would be Fassy in place of George. But we knew that wasn't possible.
As for supporting actor, I would've preferred Brad Pitt over Jonah Hill.
Just saw Shame ... I can see why it was snubbed at the Oscar noms... I liked it a lot.
but I would put Fassbender instead of Clooney and Mulligan instead of McCarthy.
I get that Original Song is sort of a dumb category, but the craziest thing about it for the past few years, to me, has been the fact that there are actually fairly decent options each year, and still the category is a mess. I mean, this is my list:
- "Life's a Happy Song"
- "Man or Muppet"
- "Pictures in My Head"
- "So Long"
- "Star-Spangled Man"
Now, I know that's not going to be everyone's lineup (and I know you can't have three songs from the same movie anymore), but at least it shows you can fill up the category without embarrassing yourself, and wouldn't that be better than whatever's been going on recently?
Studios have to put an end to one-week qualifiers and release the "smaller" movies earlier to start the ball rolling.
Christopher Plummer, who is a member of the Academy, aknowledged yesterday that he still hadn't seen the immensely popular Moneyball (which opened in September!!!) and the much hyped Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close:
http://news.moviefone.com/2012/01/25/plummer_n_1231413.html
What are the odds then that Plummer and many many other members actually saw Coriolanus, Shame, Tyrannosaur and Melancholia????
The race could have been VERY different. : (
I was really hoping for a Mary J appearance at the Oscars!!
Oscar nominations be damned, if Brooks, Dunst, Fassbender, Gosling, Knightley, Mortenson, Mulligan, Oswalt, Shannon, Swinton and/or Theron don't grace pages of Vanity Fair's Hollywood issue this month, then there'll be serious outrage. Bitch, I'm just saying!
(Still fondly recall Elisabeth Shue's "The Breakthrough" spread as RESPECT done right.)
If the Academy continues to insist on having songs for entertainment value during the telecast, then let the production team for the show pick five or so and run with them. This is not the Grammys...these awards are for achievement in film. But, if you must have the category, then get some people with creative vision and taste to make the selections. A field with two nominees in a five-wide eligible category is an open scandal.
It was a longshot, but I really wanted The National to score a nod for their song from Win Win, "Think You Can Wait." They're probably my favorite band, and it would've been nice to see Win Win garner some more attention as well.
And I'll second the mentions of the Shallene Woodley snub (though I know the film is unpopular here) and the Bridesmaids BP snub (though again, it probably was a longshot). People will still be watching Bridesmaids decades from now, not only because it is funny, but because it has honest emotional resonance and, for all its over-the-top jokes, it's a real portrait of American life in 2011.
Bruno, I agree totally. Donning a man's identity set McTeer's character free; for Close's character it was a prison. The two performances reflect this dichotomy.
The tragedy of the film is that Albert thought Hubert's way of life presented a realistic model for her to follow - she abandoned her idea of working in her tobacco shop as a woman and decided she could take a wife. Close conveys it all beautifully, in a complex nuanced but very quiet performance. The beach scene alone is Oscar worthy, as is the scene where she reveals her back story.
Good on the academy for seeing it.
Von Trier, Refn and Mortensen...having a crush on Denmark?;)
Bruno & Matt -- I also think Glenn Close totally deserves the nomination. Hey, there's three of us!!!
Here are some more:
Brad Pitt, Best Supporting Actor - The Tree of Life
In 10-20 years, we will look back at this performance and deem it his career best. And yet he gets nominated for the boring and lame Moneyball performance. Yeah, ok.
Carey Mulligan, Best Supporting Actress - Shame
Right when she was becoming a parody of herself (the doe eyed innocent pretty girl parts), she comes in in Shame and rips through the screen, leaves a powerful impact and matches her co-star Fassbender at every turn.
Newton Thomas Siegel, Best Cinematography - Drive
The absolute strongest undeniable quality of Drive is its cinematography. Even when the style, acting, and plot suffered, the way the camera moved through its environment reminded one of Douglas Milsome.
The Chemical Brothers, Best Original Score, Hanna
Right off the heels of Trent Reznor's electronic score for The Social Network, The Chemical Brothers comes around the corner and one-ups the Reznor/Ross duo with one of the most memorable scores in years. If you can find a better track than "Escape 700" released this year on any of the scores nominated, then I guess I will stand corrected. But I doubt you can!
Best Animated Feature, Winnie the Pooh
It's a pretty standard story, but the animation is rich and beautiful. The reflexive breaking of the fourth wall techniques provide for some truly unique funny moments and the songs provided by Zooey Deschanel are sweet and catchy.
Jeff Nichols, Best Original Screenplay, Take Shelter
Margin Call might take on the financial crisis head on, but Nichols' take is indirect, yet subtle which adds a whole new layer of complexity to the financial crisis today. It also captures modern day post-9/11 paranoia in a fresh way not seen in cinema today.
Vanessa Redgrave
Vanessa Redgrave
Vanessa Redgrave
How to not get an Oscar nomination in 6 easy steps:
1. Appear in the best movie of the year.
2. Give the best performance of your career.
4. Win the Cannes Film Festival award for best actress.
5 The director makes tasteless joke at interview.
6. Forgetting who the academy is made up of.
Kirsten Dunst should show up wearing sometime outrageous as a big F. U. to the Academy
The song category did get it right with the song from "Once". That was a recognition the movie deserved and a great Oscar moment. The only time the category has been relevant in the last years.
Mara don't deserved nomination! Fassbender was incredible, Dunst, Swinton, Brooks, Redgrave... VERY BAD NOMINATIONS THIS YEAR
I'm still very sad.
Game over...
Poor Tilda Swinton. Poor Charlize theron. Poor KiKi...
"The earth is evil".
@matt: Thank you, I was beginning to think I was going crazy. I might not choose Glenn as my Oscar winner (though I wouldn't be upset if that incredible longshot occurred), but the nomination should be a no-brainer. I'd like to think that actors (SAG & now Oscar) understand her work here better than critics and the general public. But mostly I think she's been penalized since the project is her baby and her screenplay is flawed. Personally I think her biggest mistake was having Garcia direct though.
Here's what hurt me the most:
MELANCHOLIA
Best picture
best director - Lars Von trier
Best actress - Kirsten Dunst (painful)
Supporting Actress - Charlotte Gainsbourg
ALBERT NOBBS
Original song - Glenn Close's lovely "lay your head down" sung by Sinnead O'conner
THE MUPPETS
all of the other gorgeous songs especially "Life is a happy song"
YOUNG ADULT
best actress - Charlize Theron (noooo!!)
Best supporting actor - Patton
Best original screenplay - Diablo Cody
DRIVE
Best picture
best actor - Ryan gosling
WE NEED TO TALK ABOUT KEVIN
best actress - Tilda Swinton :(
ANOTHER HAPPY DAY
Best actress - Ellen Barkin
best s. actress - Ellen burstyn
TYRANNOSAUR
best picture
Best actor - Peter Mullan
Best actress - Olivia Colman (this hurts the most)
Just saw Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy. Thanks Christ that Oldman got nominated. Why it didn't,t get nods for Best Film, Best Director, multiple supporting actor nominations, and set design I will never understand. Bloody brilliant cinema.