A Quick Note on the Oscars (ugh)

The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly.

One overall thing about the year is that there was a large number of high quality movies. Many oh which came out in the end of the year rush. That's a good thing, however, the Oscars seemed to not "spread around the wealth" enough as Benjemam Button got 13 (?!) nominations and Slumdog Millionaire 10. The Golden Globes did a seemingly better job of getting it right. Anyways, on to some specific comments.

The Good (as in underdogs that were less obvious choices)

1. Richard Jenkins, The Visitor. (Best Actor)
2. Michael Shannon, Revolutionary Road (Best Supporting Actor)
3.Anne Hathaway, Rachel Getting Married (Best Actress)
4. Melissa Leo, Frozen River (Best Actress)
5. Viola Davis, Doubt. (Best Supporting Actress)

The Bad
1. No Wall-E for best picture
2. Not as many nominations for the Wrestler (including Bruce Springsteeen, best song)
3. No Kate Winslet or Leonardo DiCaprio for acting in Revoluionary Road
4. Slumdog Millionaire for 10. Now, I loved this movie and I think it deserves the best picture/best director, but some of those other nominations are a little bogus.

The Ugly
1. No Best Picture/ Best director for the Dark Knight. Come on! Easily the largest movie of the year, but also a deep and nuanced film that brought the art into large scale blockbusters. Christopher Nolan is still the man in my book.
2. The Reader for best picture/best director over Dark Knight and Wall-E? Where the hell did that come from. Now I have not seen it yet, but 60% of RT is rather condradictory.
3. 13 for TCCOBB. Please.
4. Poor Clint Eastwood. Couldn't sneak in this year with bad-ass old man Gran Torino.

Brief Thoughts on Best Picture:

1. TCCOBB- maybe deserved, but there is a few others I would put before it (4)
2. Frost/Nixon- deserved I would say from what've I heard/read about it. (3)
3. Milk- Sadly everyone in my family has seen this but me. I'm very glad this is here though, I've only heard rave reviews and it would be great to see this win. (1)
4. The Reader- ? (5)
5. Slumdog Millionaire- Has gotten a lot more love that I would've expected, seems to be "that" indie movie of the year. I think its well deserved, but has it been over-hyped? (2)