Stop slobbering over the iPhone for a minute and get riled up with righteous anger. The Director’s Guild of America (DGA) has announced their five Best Director nominees, and the list is, frankly, pathetic. Here are the noms:
Bill Condon (Dreamgirls)
Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Faris (Little Miss Sunshine)
Stephen Frears (The Queen)
Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu (Babel)
Martin Scorsese (The Departed)
Frears? Dayton and Farris? Where are Guillermo del Toro, Paul Greengrass and Alfonso Cuaron? Honestly, Cuaron being out of this competition – which is decided by actual Hollywood directors! – is a travesty. To somehow claim that The Queen or Little Miss Sunshine are actually better directed than Children of Men is sheer stupidity. I am not saying that one film is better than the other (COM is better than both of them, though) just that the technical brilliance on display in Children of Men is undeniable. Unless you’re the DGA.
Did the DGA shy away from having three Mexicans nominated? Did they forget that United 93 is one of the most powerful movies of the year, all held together by Greengrass’ masterful direction? Are they high with Little Miss Sunshine, the movie that has made it so much farther than it deserves that I actually feel my blood pressure rising a little bit? At least they managed to leave Eastwood out.
I have a bad feeling that this is what the Oscars are going to look like. I am not being hyperbolic when I say that Frears and Dayton/Faris do not belong in the company they’re keeping in any way, shape or form – The Queen is very good, but it’s a TV movie writ large. Little Miss Sunshine is nice but… well, what’s even remotely interesting or distinguishing about the direction? The movie’s all about the script.
Thank God we’re moving into the final weeks of awards season, because I can’t stand to see great movies getting snubbed again and again anymore.