I polled Team Experience this morning about the Oscar nominations. Here are the first two related questions on absences and curious inclusions. We expect your answers to add to the conversation in the comments.
What omission in this morning nominations most upset you?
Matthew: Like everyone else on here, I am devastated, first and foremost, for the outstanding Annette Bening, an exclusion for which I hold A24 accountable. Finally, I'd like to imagine that Pharrell and Sing Street composer Gary Clark are off together somewhere getting hammered and slinging insults at the tire-fire that is "Can't Stop This Feeling."
John: The intense excitement at Isabelle Huppert's name being read first, chased quickly by the sad reveal that Annette Bening lost a nomination is a perfect capsule for this Oscar morning...
Bening suffered from a late release and a Moonlight-preoccupied A24 (another bittersweet irony) and ultimately lost a nomination for (I'd say) a career-best performance. She now joins the ranks of Joan Allen, Nicole Kidman, Julianne Moore, Cher, Ingrid Bergman, Barbara Stanwyck, Rosalind Russell, and other Oscar darlings who weren't nominated for their best work.
Nick: Besides the obvious and possibly truest answer, which is Annette Bening, I'd say the absence of Sing Street from Best Original Song, especially for "Drive It Like You Stole It." It's the best of many great tunes in the movie, it actually sounds like something talented teenagers would write, it functions exquisitely in the film, and it would have been *such* a fun number on the telecast.
Dancin Dan: Sing Street for Best Original Song. My grief is bottomless - perfect song, used perfectly in the film.
Deborah: Upon reflection, I'm a little heartbroken that Hugh Grant's tender, comic, and complex work in Florence Foster Jenkins wasn't acknowledged.
Glenn: When I first reviewed Kirsten Johnson's Cameraperson I noted that it was "very atypical of what the Academy consider a documentary" and that I didn't think it stood much of a hope. It's success throughout awards season and a foolish belief that documentarians would see the genius in it given it is explicitly about the art of documentary filmmaking had put me into a false sense of belief that the best film of 2016 could actually get to call itself an Oscar nominee. I will continue to be baffled by the love for Life, Animated for a very long time, but its nomination over the likes of not just Cameraperson, but Tower, Zero Days, Weiner and so on is just frustrating.
Chris: Amy Adams. I was so ready to rally around the "it's Amy's turn narrative" that she should've received for Arrival. Not only is she shouldered with making the film's time leaps believable and coherent, she's also its emotional and intellectual compass. We reward male actors that turn an original film into a $100M hit but not Amy? Hmmmm.
Laurence: It really bothers me that the Cinematographers branch couldn't find room for Stéphane Fontaine's gorgeous Jackie cinematography. I know I shouldn't be surprised that it didn't make it in, but it's a bit galling when La La Land's did; if there's any more glaring example of that movie's visual adequacy it's that Jimmy Fallon and company were so easily able to fashion a pretty spot-on recreation of its entire visual repertoire to open the goddamn Golden Globes. In a category full of singular visions, Jackie's omission is all the more galling.
Murtada: None actually. Moonlight got lots of love. Ruth Negga was nominated, and so was Isabelle Huppert. I guess I could gripe about Riley Keough in American Honey but the 5 women nominated in best supporting actress are all amazing. Or Mia Hansen Love for writing and directing Things to Come, but that was never going to happen. It was a pretty good year, nominations wise.
Which nomination do you find most mystifying?
David: It wasn't mystifying coming from the Golden Globes, but the dreadful assault on the ears that is 'Can’t Stop the Feeling' stinking up an otherwise lovely Original Song category? It needs to die.
Deborah: Hollywood's collective decision to forgive Mel Gibson. Mystifying and nauseating.
Nick: I don't really see what even many Nocturnal Animals detractors do in Michael Shannon's performance. He's fine, but a nomination? Still, it's the only one for that quite bad film, so I'm cool. Gibson aside, nothing else really gets my goat.
Chris: Jeff Bridges. I am generally cold towards Hell or High Water, but I've never understood the praise for this strange, incoherent amalgam of his best performances - particularly when every performance around him (including partner Gil Birmingham) is much stronger.
Murtada: What is "The Empty Chair"? Was Jim:The James Foley Story a real movie? When did it come out? So many questions. Trust the music branch to once again make us scurry to Google on nominations day.
Glenn: Before the Golden Globes I would have said Meryl Streep, but who can really argue with that after that now globally and politically famous speech? I also completely get nominations for films like Passengers and Suicide Squad despite their overall quality. Rather, the nomination that mystifies me the most is La La Land for Best Sound Editing. I look forward to the ceremony montage when they show us just what exactly that was for. And that's from somebody who likes La La Land!
Laurence: Not to hate on La La Land too much - I'm a fan, honest! - but the Sound Mixing is the worst thing about it. I've seen that movie twice, each time in different cinemas with very different audio environments, and both times it sounded muddled and thin, except the second time more loudly so.
Matthew: I'm all for the Academy recognizing contemporary costumes and I do somewhat admire the clever blend of classical and modern sensibilities that constitute Mary Zophres' La La Land aesthetic, although it occasionally seems sponsored by Old Navy, particularly when it comes to dressing anyone other than its two leads. I sincerely doubt that Zophres, who's a genius, had to wrack her brain too much on this project and if you're going to honor a splashy love letter to Hollywood, why not recognize the outsized and endlessly creative ensembles of Hail, Caesar!, which — wouldn't you know? — were also crafted by Zophres! La La Land was obviously not going to miss out on this nod, but in a year with Caesar and equally worthy peripheral contenders like The Handmaiden, Sing Street, Kubo and the Two Strings, and Captain Fantastic, it just feels increasingly unnecessary.
How about you readers?