5 Things We Learned on Oscar Nom Morning...

Some of which we already knew but that's splitting hairs.

With 24 official Academy Awards categories and somewhere over 108 nominations announced each year (a few less publicized categories vary in number of nominees from year to year), there is always a lot to parse out on Oscar nomination day. Tuesday, January 25, 2011 was no exception as Mo’Nique, last year’s supporting actress winner for Precious, read out the nominees bright and early in that inimitable voice of hers. You can see the full list of nominees here (more info to come over the next few weeks). With so much to discuss, it’s necessary to break it down into manageable talking points.

5. Genre Bias Remains

Black Swan opened to sensational reviews, huge precursor favor and robust box office in December. The film even had to ramp up its expansion plans to capitalize on demand. In the end, it was still a horror films (of sorts) in which a ballerina sprouts wings and loses her mind. On Oscar nomination morning, it missed in key categories in which most people expected it to show. Inception opened to fanatical reviews and gargantuan box office, ending the year as the only member of the year’s top ten box office hits to be aimed at adults. In the end, it was still a sci-film (of sorts)...

READ THE REST AT TRIBECA FILM
for the other 4 talking points including a peculiar Sundance Festival  trick.

...that is if you're not completely burnt out on Oscar articles.

And if yah are... uh oh Blanche!

For the Man Who Has It All...

...how about an Oscar nomination AND a baby on the same day?

Jose here, feeling complete envy of Oscar winner Javier Bardem, who had what must've been the greatest day ever yesterday.

First (although I'm not exactly sure what order it happened in...) he woke up to a Best Actor Oscar nomination for his work in Biutiful (which also got nominated for Best Foreign Language Film) and then, after making Julia Roberts' life even more perfect than it was when Denzel won in '01, Javier welcomed a baby boy with wife Penélope Cruz.

The baby was rumored to be born yesterday in Los Angeles but neither of the parents has issued any sort of statement. The one thing Javier did say to a magazine was:

 We value our privacy. For us it's difficult to appear in public, even though we're both used to being the subjects of much attention in Spain...but it's OK. We have a good life. 

I bet they do!

The Oscar winners are arguably some of the best working actors and because of that I say, give this baby an honorary Oscar now!

But while we wait for more news about Baby Bardem-Cruz, let us speculate on what will become of him.Besides being the handsomest man alive, will he enter showbiz like his proud parents? Will he be featured on the cover of every magazine like the Pitt-Jolies or will he join the rank of the private babies like the Paltrow-Martins?
For now, we can wonder who will babysit him the night of February 27th when his parents attend the Oscars.

Speaking of which, do you think his dad has any chance of winning the award?  

20:10 Trashy Trashy Trashy

Screen captures from the 20th minute and 10th second* of 2010 films as we close out the celluloid year by February's end.

"so baby if you want me | you've got to show me love. ♪ ♫"

Trashy Mom: I'm havin friends around later. I need you to stay in your rooms or get out. No kids --  the pair of ya!
Loud Preteen Daughter: What makes you think we want to hang around wi' your friend anyway? All those winos and skanks!
Sullen Teen Daughter: [silence]

I'm not sure I could pinpoint exactly why but I love Kierston Wareing as the single mom in Fish Tank (her angry daughters are going to grow up to be just like her) but maybe it's the absence of malevolence in her, just naturalistically portrayed selfish skankiness. She isn't out to hurt her children like so many terrible screen parents. She's just completely ill suited for the job.

Here's a great writeup of her performance at My New Plaid Pants. If you haven't seen Fish Tank, get right on it. It's so good. [See also: Nathaniel's 2010 Top Ten List.]

*I can't vouch for the time stamp damnit (!)  as my two DVD players don't seem to line up timing wise. Argh. I love this series but I need it to be exact for OCD's sake.

I Linked a Man With My Bare Hands

Acidemic recommends some girly gloomy Twilight ancestors. Fascinating.
The Carpetbagger the financial value of the Oscar bump. Interesting but I always find these figures suspect because so many films that get nominated are just starting their runs around Oscar time so it's tough to say WHY people are seeing them exactly and what they would have done financially had they been snubbed.
Shortlist Funny profanity-laced Paul Rudd interview. Is there any other kind?

Q: So, what’s the nastiest, baddest thing you’ve ever done?
A: I killed a man. With my bare hands. And my mind. I hurt him, I really punished him with my bare hands, but I wound up killing him with my mind.

The Beast the 50 Most Loathsome Americans
In Contention Ruffalo finally gets the Oscar nod. An appreciation
The Best Picture Project have you seen this blog? Alyson is watching every Best Picture nominee and writing about them.

One more as you pirouette outta here...

Lipstick Eater interesting piece about Black Swan's text of femininity but more specifically about Natalie Portman's feet. I love this bit.

After she retches, Nina flushes the toilet by stomping on the handle with one foot. This is one of my favorite moments in the movie. Kick-flushing the toilet is such a punk rock gesture, so there is a weird thrill in seeing the stomping foot covered in dirty pink satin rather than black Doc Martens: the pink doesn’t at all dampen the violence of the gesture.

Then there's three paragraphs on her knitted Ugg boots. I kid you not. Bless.

What If There Were Five...?

The thought occurred to me early this morning when perusing the Oscar lists that we may have perhaps been wrong about which five films were in leading position. Last year for example the top five were tremendously clear; had there been only five nominees as had been the way of it for five decades plus, you would have been left with Basterds, Locker, Precious, Avatar and Up in the Air.

which movie came in 5th? which was 6th?

But this year, do we know? It's an indulgent question but what is Oscar-fanaticism but indulgent conversations about things one can never know the final truth of. Like who came in 6th? who was snubbed on purpose? who wasn't really snubbed but justmissed?

COMMENT TOPIC: Which five do you think it was? I think we can safely assume that The Fighter, The Social Network, True Grit and The King's Speech would have been there given their big nomination tallies. But then... 

Black Swan could have held the 'lone director' spot since its nomination tally was smaller than expected. Inception could have been there without Nolan like another summer director-driven genre blockbuster Jaws without its fabled auteur. Could #5 have been Toy Story 3 or even The Kids Are All Right? Your theories please!