Saturday, January 18, 2014

Oscar Nominations: The Good, The Bad and The Snubbed

The Good - 

-Matthew McConaughey for Dallas Buyers Club is my favorite male performance of last year; Chiwetel Ejiofor in 12 Years a Slave is my second. I am happy that Leo is there, as well.  However, I have a STRONG feeling this will be the surprise win category that the Academy likes to throw in and Bruce Dern is going to walk away with the Oscar.

-I've seen 4 of the nominated Best Picture films and 3 of them are on my Top 10 list (The Wolf of Wall Street, 12 Years a Slave and Gravity. Dallas Buyers Club is a good film with outstanding performances).

-Cate Blanchett deserves every award there is for Blue Jasmine. The best performance of the year, male or female (and don't even get me started on how incredibly sexist it is that these award shows still separate genders. Imagine if your place of work divided people by their sex? It's sad that the entertainment industry believes that women can't compete in the same category as men).

-Two time Oscar nominee Jonah Hill? Yeah...I like the sound of that. He's incredible in The Wolf of Wall Street. Yes, Jared Leto deserves the win.

-Catherine Martin in the Costume Design category for The Great Gatsby.  I don't think any other film has had such a strong effect on fashion this year. Working in a women's accessory store, the most popular request I've had this year is "I want the Gatsby look".

-The entire Directing category is fantastic. The incredible thing is that all 5 directors are so different in aesthetic. For me, it's the toughest category but I would say McQueen has the strongest film, but then again....Scorcese! Plus, David O' Russell is one of my favorite directors. And Gravity is an absolute masterpiece thanks to Cuaron. Hmmmmm...

-The Hunt for Foreign Language film.  It's in my top 10 of the year.

The Bad - 

-Honestly, I'm not too upset by any of the nominations.  Only a few irk me, starting with Michael Fassbender.  If there is a weak link in 12 Years a Slave, it's him.  Sure he was great at portraying true evil, but it was a bit one-note and he struggled with the accent (sorry, I know how much everyone just loves him, but his accent completely distracted me).

-I don't really get Sally Hawkins.  She was annoying in Happy-Go-Lucky and she is annoying in Blue Jasmine.  Is that Oscar-worthy? Or does she just have an annoying personality?  I don't know yet.


The Snubbed - 

-As much as I don't have too many issues with those nominated - there are A TON of snubs.  That's never a bad thing, though - it just means there were too many good movies this year!  I think the biggest snub is for Stoker, which is my favorite movie of 2013.  I didn't expect it to get any recognition, considering it has been shut out of every major awards show, but still.  In my world, Mia Wasikowska would have a Best Actress nomination, Chan-Wook Park would have a Directing nomination, Wentworth Miller would have a Screenplay nomination and Chun-hoon Chung would have a Cinematography nomination.

-My second favorite film is Mud.  McConaughey deserves a Supporting Actor nod and what about Tye Sheridan? He might actually be my favorite male performance of the year, now that I think about it.

-Only God Forgives is a beautiful movie. Even its harshest critics won't deny that.

-12 Years a Slave received nominations in practically every category except Cinematography? That doesn't even make sense.

-I would have loved a surprise nomination for Sam Rockwell for his performance in The Way, Way Back - oh and even Allison Janney was incredible and the Screenplay too.  I just love that movie.

-Julianne Moore gave amazing supporting performances for both What Maisie Knew and Don Jon.  

-I could go on forever...but I'll just do one more: Pacific Rim for Visual Effects and funnest movie of the year (oh is that not a category? Well, it damn well should be).

No comments:

Post a Comment