So the nominees were announced. Which you know by now if you read this site. Caring is another thing all together. Since, you know, our specific pooled film-nerdery tends not to spill over into award nominated films. But there are always exceptions. And there are always surprise nominations. Which I shall cover for you now.
M.I.A. is now an Oscar nominee. Which is fitting, since she owes her success to movies and their trailers. This nomination is cooler to me than Three Six Mafia taking home the gold. Cause I’m a hipster. Which means I’ve been bobbing my head to M.I.A. for a quite a while. This also means that she’s probably fleeing my radar now that she has success, if hipster stereotypes prevail.
Bruce Springsteen, on the other hand, is not. Maybe he’s been nominated before, I don’t know or care to Google it. So let’s just say that this surprised me, especially since Tomei got the nod for being a perfectly nude counterbalance for having to look at Rourke’s ground-beef face for nearly two hours. The song, however, is more of a meh. And the lyrics, as are often the case with Bruce, are a bit embarrassing. Don’t give me shit for this, I love the guy and have most of his early stuff on vinyl, but he’s never been a brilliant lyricist:
“Just wrap your legs round my velvet rims and strap your your hands across my engines.” Enough said.
Richard Jenkins is a Best Actor nominee. This makes me happy.
Robert Downey Jr. was nominated for blackface.
I know, I know, it technically wasn’t, blah, blah, blah. But you know what? As a guy who writes comedy, it was.
Stiller pulled off a great feat in comedy, making an historical abomination funny. And was nominated (maybe not rightly) for it. The parentheses indicate not a disapproval of the concept, but more the deserved nature of the nomination. James Franco, if we’re talking comedic performances this year, was far superior and impressive for his turn in Pineapple Express. I love Downey, probably a lot more than the next guy, but this wasn’t his nomination to have. I already forgot Tropic Thunder exists. It doesn’t matter though, the award goes to Heath.
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button landed 13 nominations! And I’ve yet to speak with anyone that actually enjoyed the film. No joke. I haven’t seen it (Shame on me? Or you, from what I’ve heard), but was warned by upward of 20 people to avoid it. Including my mom. I made the choice to Netflix it, even though my Fincher love (The Game is one of my favorite films to show people who somehow didn’t know of its existence, I know, right!?!) knows no bounds. I’m sure someone likes the film, I just haven’t met that person yet. They are probably Oscar voters.
Martin McDonagh is an Oscar nominee again. And possible two-time winner. Which is amazing, since he went from being my favorite playwright to one of my favorite filmmakers. Yes, it’s early to declare such things but the guy is an immense talent. If you’ve read or seen any of his plays you know this already, and he’s only going to make a much larger impression in the film world over the coming years. And since the cool film always wins the Best Original Screenplay (Pulp Fiction, Eternal Sunshine, Juno, others that I don’t care to Google and you will try and shut me down over), hopefully this year will follow suit and bring with it a win for In Bruges.
And speaking of In Bruges, no nomination for Colin Farrel? Or Brendan Gleeson? But Downey pulled one down? Eh…
As you can probably guess, In Bruges was a favorite this year. Here’s my other top films, so you get an idea who this is coming from:
Son of Rambow.
Slumdog Millionaire.
Rachel Getting Married.
Burn After Reading.
The Visitor.
The Wackness. (Kingsley got a Razzie nom for this. That confounds me.)
Pineapple Express.
I haven’t seen a bunch of the others. Including Let the Right One In. And Timecrimes. And Vicky Christina Barcelona. The Reader. Revolutionary Road. Man on Wire (to be remedied tonight). The Happening. Doomsday. And The Wrestler just brought about an “eh” in my soul. First Aronofsky letdown. It happens.
That is all.