The Academy Award nominations are starting to happen to us. As they do, refresh this page as I add each and every nominee and plenty of opinion on the choices as I do.
Enjoy, and be ready for our podcast on the 7th of March, for it shall be glorious.
Best Picture
Avatar
The Blind Side
District 9
An Education
The Hurt Locker
Inglourious Basterds
Precious
A Serious Man
Up
Up in the Air
Will Win: Very tough to call. I think it’s either going to Precious or The Hurt Locker.
Should Win: Inglourious Basterds, though I would love to live in a world where District 9 wins.
Better Not Win: The Blind Side.
Serious Question: Couldn’t they have given In the Loop a little love? I mean, both films with ‘Up’ in the title could have been jettisoned for Moon and In the Loop.
Comments: I have to admit that I like the ten choice format. It allows a little more leeway for those cocksuckers of a film to get the attention of an Oscar nomination but not the damn award to ruin our lives. Under this format maybe they could have given dogshit like Crash a nomination and been done with it.
Best Actor
Jeff Bridges, Crazy Heart
George Clooney, Up in the Air
Colin Firth, A Single Man
Morgan Freeman, Invictus
Jeremy Renner, The Hurt Locker
Will Win: Bridges.
Should Win: Bridges.
Better Not Win: Freeman. Not only because he was rude to me on the set of Dreamcatcher.
Serious Question: Sam Rockwell did a better job than at least three of these folks for Moon. Where’s the love?
Comments: These guys are lucky Marc Blucas didn’t do anything this year. Or did he?
Best Actress
Sandra Bullock, The Blind Side
Helen Mirren, The Last Station
Carey Mulligan, An Education
Gabourey Sidibe, Precious
Meryl Streep, Julia and Julia
Will Win: Bullock. This is her Julia Roberts/Sharon Stone/Halle Berry moment.
Should Win: Mirren, just for being Mirren. I have no horse in this race.
Better Not Win: Meryl Streep.
Serious Question: Does Carey Mulligan get a do-over?
Comments: I want to hate Precious because of the Oprah connection but everything I’ve seen from Sidibe has showcased a fun and vibrant young lady. DAMN IT.
Best Director
James Cameron, Avatar
Kathryn Bigelow, The Hurt Locker
Quentin Tarantino, Inglourious Basterds
Lee Daniels, Precious
Jason Reitman, Up in the Air
Will Win: Bigelow.
Should Win: Tarantino or Cameron. Both for very different kinds of virtuosity.
Better Not Win: Lee Daniels.
Serious Question: Will Jason Reitman’s ego destroy the West Coast?
Comments: If they had a ‘Best Directing Via Email’ category you know who‘d have sewn this bitch up.
Best Supporting Actor
Matt Damon, Invictus
Woody Harrelson, The Messenger
Christopher Plummer, The Last Station
Stanley Tucci, The Lovely Bones
Christolph Waltz, Inglourious Basterds
Will Win: Waltz.
Should Win: Waltz.
Better Not Win: The Electric Slide.
Serious Question: Did they watch The Lovely Bones? Tucci, though I love him, wasn’t all that great.
Comments: Jackie Earle Haley for Watchmen? James Gandolfini for In the Loop? Does this mean I should actually watch Invictus, because I really don’t want to.
Best Supporting Actress
Penelope Cruz, Nine
Vera Farmiga, Up in the Air
Maggie Gyllenhaal, Crazy Heart
Anna Kendrick, Up in the Air
Mo’Nique, Precious
Will Win: Mo’Nique.
Should Win: Mélanie Laurent, by far the best supporting female performance of the year. Oh wait, she wasn’t nominated. Then Vera Farmiga I suppose but fuck this category. Mélanie Laurent getting snubbed is so retarded that I think the Farrelly Brothers are filming it.
Better Not Win: Maggie. Because she’s decent at best in the film.
Serious Question: Should I change my name to Mo’Nick?
Comments: Mélanie Laurent. Snubbing. Retarded.
Best Animated Feature
Coraline
Fantastic Mr. Fox
The Princess and the Frog
The Secret of the Kells
Up
Will Win: Up.
Should Win: Fantastic Mr. Fox.
Better Not Win: The Princess and the Frog.
Serious Question: Is the secret of the Kells that seven people in America saw it?
Comments: Up is deeply moving and a beautiful movie, but Fantastic Mr. Fox is a celebration of creativity and a very unique animal in 2009’s film culture. More people need to see it and fall into its sway as I did.
Best Screenplay
Mark Boal, The Hurt Locker
Quentin Tarantino, Inglourious Basterds
Allessandro Camon & Oren Moverman, The Messenger
Joel Coen & Ethan Coen – A Serious Man
Pete Docter & Bob Peterson – Up
Will Win: Quentin.
Should Win: Quentin.
Better Not Win: Any of the other four.
Serious Question: Is it unfair to punch everyone in Hollywood if Quentin doesn’t win?
Comments: Too bad Eli Roth got to be in Quentin’s movie.
Best Screenplay (Adapted)
District 9
An Education
In the Loop
Precious
Up in the Air
Will Win: Up in the Air.
Should Win: In the Loop.
Better Not Win: Up in the Air. It ain’t the writing that makes the movie worthywhile.
Serious Question: District Nein would have been a good alternate title for Inglourious Basterds.
Comments: “I find something. I fix it.” – my most quoted dialogue from a 2009 film. Thanks cutest baby alien from District 9!
Avatar
The Imaginarium of Dr. Parnassus
Nine
Sherlock Holmes
The Young Victoria
Will Win: Avatar.
Should Win: Avatar.
Better Not Win: Sherlock Holmes.
Serious Question: Do people realize that ALL art directors use reference and inspirations and examples from existing artists and whatnot? People have railed on Avatar for bearing similarities to the work of fantasy artists and whatnot. As if it’s the first time. EVERY SINGLE FILM EVER DOES THAT KIND OF SHIT.
Comments: The Young Victoria made me yawn just from typing it.
Best Cinematography
Bruno Delbonnel, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince
Barry Ackroyd, The Hurt Locker
Robert Richardson, Inglourious Basterds
Christian Berger, The White Ribbon
Will Win: The magical Robert Richardson.
Should Win: The delightful Robert Richardson, though JFK is still my favorite of his.
Better Not Win: A Harry Potter movie, though this one was beautiful.
Serious Question: The dude who did Avatar did Driven and is therefore disqualified. No, this is not a question.
Comments: This award is so great because it’s one of the very few that can be appreciated even if you hate the film the nomination’s for.
Best Costume Design
Coco Before Chanel
The Imaginarium of Dr. Parnassus
Nine
The Young Victoria
Best Documentary
The Cove
Food Inc.
The Most Dangerous Man in America: Daniel Ellsberg and the Pentagon Papers
Which Way Home
Best Documentary – Short Feature
The Lost Campaign of Governor Booth Gardner
The Last Truck: Closing of a GM Plant
Music by Prudence
Rabbit a la Berlin
Best Editing
Avatar
District 9
The Hurt Locker
Inglourious Basters
Precious
Will Win: The Hurt Locker.
Should Win: District 9.
Better Not Win: Precious. Go fuck yourself for nominating Precious, Mr. Oscar.
Serious Question: You know what movie had some of the best editing of year? Duplicity?
Comments: I actually really like the editing in Avatar. Some folks have complained it’s too slow to start but that’s not a disservice of editing but rather the storyteller’s pacing. The film is VERY well edited and I think leeway should be granted when you’re trying to set up a new world like Cameron was. That said, it shouldn’t win.
Best Foreign Film
El Secreto de rus Ojos
The Milk of Sorrow
Un Prophet
The White Ribbon
Star Trek
The Young Victoria
Will Win: Star Trek.
Should Win: Il Divo, which I thought I saw in 2008.
Better Not Win: The Young Victorizzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz.
Serious Question: Remember when this award was for brilliant makeup?
Comments: Huh? Sorry, I thought someone was talking about The Young Vzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz.
Best Original Score
The Hurt Locker
Fantastic Mr. Fox
Sherlock Holmes
Up
Should Win: Fantastic Mr. Fox.
Better Not Win: Avatar. Because James Horner’s score is fuck.
Serious Question: Sherlock Holmes wasn’t good, huh.
Comments: The best score of the year BY FAR was for The Brothers Bloom. Don’t see it ehre though. Because people are dumb.
Best Original Song
“Down in New Orleans”, The Princess and the Frog, Randy Newman
“Loin de Paname”, Paris 36, Reinhardt Wagner & Frank Thomas
“Take it All”, Nine, Maury Weston
“The Weary Kind”, Crazy Heart, Ryan Bingham & T-Bone Burnett Will Win: The Weary Kind.
Should Win: The Weary Kind.
Better Not Win: The other stuff.
Serious Question: Why couldn’t there be a version of The Weary Kind with Bridges on vocals?
Comments: If they’d had included that nightmare song from Avatar I’d have gotten on the Avatar hate bandwagon for about six minutes myself.
French Roast
Granny O’Grimm’s Sleeping Beauty
The Lady and the Reaper
Logorama
A Matter of Loaf and Death
Instead of Abracadabra
Kavi
Miracle Fish
The New Tenants
Inglourious Basterds
The Hurt Locker
Star Trek
Up
Will Win: Avatar.
Should Win: Actually, I kind of love Star Trek here but I think it’ll go to The Hurt Locker. This is a no-lose situation though. All the choices are stupendous.
Better Not Win: Some silent film from the 20’s.
Serious Question: I wonder how many Karl Urban farts they masked with score in Star Trek?
Comments: Mélanie Laurent is down here still reeling from being snubbed for Best Supporting Actress.
Avatar
The Hurt Locker
Inglourious Basterds
Star Trek
Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen
Serious Question: Did Michael Bay slap his dick out of the whore’s mouth to watch the announcement coverage?
Best Visual Effects
Avatar
District 9
Star Trek
Will Win: Avatar.
Should Win: Avatar.
Better Not Win: Star Trek.