'07 Academy Awards
 

Nominees List

Anyone who uses the oscars as a barometer for quality is a fool, but just because we don't like it doesn't mean we can't be obsessed (see Iraq War).

So after last year's Crash, probably one of the most indefensible Best Picture wins ever (not a hyperbole), I'm reasonably excited they have two good films up for their top award. My reactions:

Pros:
- Dreamgirls/Bill Condon off the Best Pic/Nomination shortlist. Sends a big "fuck you" to hype-charlatans such as Dave Poland, who probably gets a check from Paramount every time they write about it
- Letters of Iwo Jima considered a Best Pic nominee as opposed to foreign
- Penelope Cruz's career-best caught the eyes of voters
- The Black Dahlia up for cinetog. In fact, the noms here (with exception of Children of Men) surprised me. I'm most pleased with this category
- and Ennio fucking Morricone getting the honorary statuette

Cons:
- Inland Empire absent
- Babel/Little Miss Sunshine up for anything (besides Kinkuchi's performance)
- DiCaprio nominated for the wrong picture
- Three Times not up for foreign picture
- Where is Jack Nicholson?

as an aside can anyone imagine that Click (yea, the Sandler flick) is an Oscar nominee?!

I fear Scorsese will get busted again

Are you weeaboo, or just averse to films only one fifth English-language?

The main thing that surprised me was Alan Arkin's nomination for Little Miss Sunshine. Don't get me wrong, he was good, but he was only in half the movie... Steve Carell or even Toni Collette would've been better choices. Steve winning an Oscar would blow my mind. LOL.

Same here. This time he'd actually even deserve it.

Well, Anthony Hopkins and his 20 minutes on screen in Silence of the Lambs got him an academy award. Everything is relative. Arkin wasn't especially good, though. And not even the movie (Little Miss Sunshine) deserves a nomination for best picture. It was just a "viewer-friendly" audience-toe-kissing version of any Wes Anderson flick. I'm not saying it's bad at all, just not good enough.

They tried to go with the theme "diversity" this year, it seems. If I had to pick a comedy up for nomination it would have been Hard Candy. Don't know if the movie was even eligible (since it was marked down as being 2005), but that stuff was some hilarious shit.

I'm kind of saddened by Children of Men's lack of nominations so I'll be rooting for The Departed, El Laberinto del Fauno (and possibly even Babel), and Penelope Cruz's performance, which saved an otherwise mediocre movie.

And Abigail Breslin's nomination is just too cute.

Babel
 

How can Babel be up for anything.....I mean it was alright........Just a bit flat....Certainly not Oscar Worthy.........

There are no movies on the list as bad as Crash.

I see that at least as being a marked improvement.

Being that I have no more interest in Japanese culture than any other country's and that I'd rank the likes of L'Enfant, 4, Volver, Three Times, and The Death of Mr. Lazarescu in last year's 10 best, I'd have to go with neither.

Regarding Amores Perros III, how many times can a director direct the same film? Babel showed little to no character insight at all, and aesthetically makes a fool of new Iranian/Japanese cinema (let's not forget the last shot and the words "For my children").

As for Little Miss Sunshine - strictly mediocre, are we really supposed to believe the academy respects the work of Dayton and Faris more than the latest from say Cuaron, Lynch, Almodovar, Altman, etc? Abigail Breslin is cute, but there was a far deeper performance seen in Shareeka Epps whose debut in Half Nelson was nothing short of spectacular. Good movie, but Best Picture nominee is a joke. Its self-conscious, self-proclaimed "this-is-an-indie" film is mildly condescending.

I echo Mikey sentiment, and if there is a so-called threat to Marty this year, I'd say it's more Inarritu than Eastwood, if only because of the similarity of "storytelling" between Babel and last year's favorite.

I don't want to give the impression that I've seen many of these, but it's a little disappointing that they give Letters a spot in the main category away from the foreign selections and not Pan's Labyrinth. I mean, Labyrinth has six total nominations in comparison to Letter's four. They could of gave it Sunshine's spot.

Oh well, at least it did get a decent amount of noms and might actually win for picture in foreign!

No Borat... :(

i thought Sasha Cohen would get a nod after the globes...

Unfortunately for me, I haven't seen the movie, but it looked like a marked improvement on Crash, and I rather liked the political angle. But as for your comment, well, there's always auteur theory to back him up.

I honestly believe "Little Miss Sunshine" will win Best Picture.

I just have this feeling. Anyone call me on it?

I too am not an expert, drawing from only the ~4 Irani new wave films I've seen. New Irani cinema particularly is interested in nuance, philosophy, and above all, politics, but I believe Inarritu's Babel is a large cartoon (instead of an homage) of what Iran has to offer.

Oh but I more than agree on the Japan segment. I believe it's the strongest and richest of the three, showing how a girl becomes ridiculed and leads to thoughts of suicide due to her disconnection. Kikuchi (and I failed to mention before, but Barazza - the nanny) give very nuanced performances. However, the connect-the-dot-isms and other segments are superfluous. In fact, the fragmented storyline is not what harms the film, but I think its the storylines themselves, with their self-consciously manipulating setups, sometimes riding on ridiculous. When Gael Garcia fires that pullet in the air during the party, everyone was wondering whether or not it'd ricochet the stringed up tin cans, and enter through someone's skull. Same for the scene when he rips the head off the chicken and frightens the children. Like United 93, life is portrayed as a grim roller coaster ride, but after it's over, what did it have to say beyond the 'thrill' experience while riding it?

It's not entirely unmeriting but as with Little Miss Sunshine, I'm merely annoyed that they're getting so much undeserved recognition, when at least a dozen more American films this year - Inland Empire, Miami Vice, A Prairie Home Companion, even Perfume and Apocalypto I think are far more daring.

Though I too am dismayed, it's not at all a surprise to see Sacha Boren Cohen's omittance. I find it a slap in the face that Borat is up for "best adapted screenplay" as if to suggest the majority of the film is fiction.

I think you mean to say, "as if there was a screenplay."

The only slap in the face you should concern yourself with is that DiCaprio is up for Blood Diamond and NOT for The Departed.

I'm sure he did a nice job in Blood Diamond, but could it really have been any better than he did in The Departed? Even if they were virtually even performances, you've got to give the nod to the better movie, which is, without a doubt, The Departed. =/

I never really thought about it that way, but it makes a bunch of sense. Huh. :)

Why give the prize for the better movie when the prize is for an acting performance. He did a great job on both movies, learning a new accent for both roles, etc. But the main character of Blood Diamond was such a complex role to execute, that I'm still amazed how he managed to do it well WITH the weird mid/south-African accent.

I personally think he should be up in the nominees for both of the roles. What I DON'T know is that should he win the award or not, since I haven't seen the other four nominees in their respective films.

That's another way to put it. While there were scripted elements, practically the whole film was improvised in character (I'm arguing it should be placed under Best Original Screenplay). I think Jim Emerson puts it best when he states "what was the movie supposed to be "adapted" from? Life?"

[quote=The only slap in the face you should concern yourself with is that DiCaprio is up for Blood Diamond and NOT for The Departed.[/quote]
Definitely (I lamented this in post 1). We're getting slapped all over the place. The Departed had a handful of this year's best male performances, yet only one's up for Academy recognition. Their over-sight must have something to do with the cranberry juice they all seem to be imbibing in large doses.

Omg I really hope Best Cinematography goes to Children of Men. Beautiful beautiful film. It's like they made something ugly and scary into a beautiful work of art. I'm definitely excited about that! I haven't seen Pan's Labyrinth yet but from the trailer and the still shots, I wouldn't mind them winning either.

I'm happy to see Kate Winslet nominated for Best Actress, but I'm pretty sure it will go to either Judi Dench or Mirren. I would actually like to see Dench win it.