Golden Statues

Well, the Oscar nominations are out, and like any good blogger, I’m gonna tell you what I think about them whether you like it or not. Reading through the list, I realize that I haven’t seen as many of these movies as I should have, so here’s some random thoughts :

  • I liked Ray alright, but I agree with the conventional wisdom that Jamie Foxx was brilliant in it. I think this movie is best summed up by what Slate movie critic David Edelstein wrote while defending his contention that biopics are almost always horrible :
    One trend in the e-mails was a tendency to confuse great performances with great films. No one can dispute that there are a ton of great biopic performances. But I’m sorry: Chaplin is not a good movie, however amazing the performance of Robert Downey Jr.

    The same is true with Ray. While Foxx completely immersed himself into the character (and probably deserves an Oscar for his performance), some of the scenes in the movie were hilariously awful. The one that still makes me laugh when I think about it is when Ray and his mistress/backup singer interrupt a heated argument to sing “Hit The Road Jack” at each other. It’s worth seeing for that scene alone.

  • How did Kate Winslet get a nomination for Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, but Jim Carrey wasn’t? I’m not the biggest fan of his or anything, but his performace really helped hold the movie together.
  • Goddamn, I haven’t seen the majority of the movies on this list. I really need to go to the multiplex.
  • Why didn’t A Very Long Engagement get a Best Foreign Language Film nomination?
  • If Shrek 2 beats The Incredibles for Best Animated Film, then I’m done. No more movies for me.
  • The Passion of the Bloody Jesus got an Achievement in Makeup nomination, but, to the chagrin of fundies everywhere, was denied a Best Documentary Feature nod. With the amount of gore in that movie, I halfway expect the sequel to be Wes Craven’s New Testament.

    • Okay, I really should see more of these movies before I comment any further. I still haven’t seen Sideways, The Aviator, Million Dollar Baby, or Finding Neverland. And those are just the Best Picture noms.

    Speaking of Oscar, here’s a list I saw yesterday that should help keep all this Oscar stuff in perspective :

    Alfred Hitchcock has topped a poll of directors who most deserved to win an Oscar but never did.

    Despite six nominations for films including Psycho and Rear Window, Hitchcock was denied an Academy Award.

    He was followed by Goodfellas director Martin Scorsese and A Clockwork Orange director Stanley Kubrick in a public vote for channel Turner Classic Movies.

    DIRECTORS WHO MOST DESERVE OSCARS
    1. Alfred Hitchcock
    2. Martin Scorsese
    3. Stanley Kubrick
    4. Ridley Scott
    5. Tim Burton
    6. Ingmar Bergman
    7. Spike Lee
    8. Mike Leigh
    9. Howard Hawks
    10. Roberto Rossellini

    If they weren’t smart enough to recognize Hitchcock or Kubrick while they were alive (or Scorsese in his prime), it’s a wonder that people still hold the Academy Awards in such high regard.


    posted by greg on January 25, 2005 @ 10:16 am

    7 comments

    1. A Very Long Engagement didn’t get a nomination for best foreign feature because it was nominated for categories it deserved: cinematography and art direction.

      I was sad that Friday Night Lights didn’t get at least a nomination for editing.

      Comment by E-Rock — January 25, 2005 @ 10:29 am

    2. Oi! It’s a sad sad sad sad day in the animation world when Shrek 2 and Sharktale are nominated. If either of those win, i might have to blow up Hollywood.

      I’ve seen two of the shorts from the Best Animated Short Film category, and i gotta say “Ryan” by Chris Landreth is totally deserving of an Oscar. Gurad Dog, by Bill Plympton, is really funny but not really Oscar-worthy.

      Overall, though, I can’t see why everyone pays attention to this crappy award other than tradition. It’s all bullshit and the deserving films/actors/directors/etc never win.

      Comment by tom — January 25, 2005 @ 10:39 am

    3. You know, Shrek is good for one thing - I am able, instantly, to determine whether or not to instantly disregard someone’s opinions on art ever again, just by whether or not they like that film. Extra lameness points are awarded, of course, for anyone who says any variation of “But, it’s for kids AND adults!” You know, because they have both dick AND fart jokes, or something.

      Comment by the eligible Ross Lincoln — January 25, 2005 @ 11:21 am

    4. As for the writing of Shrek 2, Katzenberg has defined the style of all of DreamWorks’ animated films in these terms: “A sophisticated film, made from an adult point of view, which is then made equally interesting and compelling to the adult in the child, as opposed to the child in the adult.”

      That’s what big-time film executives always say when they think their studio has made a breakthrough in fart gags.

      that from Animation Historian, Michael Barrier

      Comment by tom — January 25, 2005 @ 1:25 pm

    5. “It’s a wonder they still hold the Acedemy Awards” at all.

      Comment by DickandFartJoke — January 25, 2005 @ 2:44 pm

    6. Jesus-Titty-Fucking-Christ! CNN has a huge hard-on for Mel Gibson’s “Passion” movie. All fucking day long they’ve been talking about the controversey over that film not getting a nomination for Best Picture.

      For Christ’s Sake have any of these idiots seen this movie? It’s TERRIBLE! Whether i’m an atheist or chrstian or Jew or whatever has nothing to do with my ability to critique it based on it’s craft. And based on that, it gets a D-. I assume that that’s why the people who make the nominations decided to not give this crappy, self-indulgent, boring movie a nomination.

      But CNN want’s you to believe that it’s because Hollywood hates Jesus and Red State Americans.

      Comment by tom — January 25, 2005 @ 7:03 pm

    7. I still can’t believe the big fat snub for The Life Aquatic with Steve Zizzou. Bill Murray was robbed—robbed, I tells ya!—going unnominated for this role, not to mention Rushmore. Did Wes Anderson piss off the gnomes of Zurich or something?

      Comment by Don Myers — January 26, 2005 @ 7:02 am

    Copy link for RSS feed for comments on this post

    Sorry, the comment form is closed at this time.