At 8:38am PST, nominations were announced for this year’s Academy Awards. And, for those of you who routinely enter Oscar pools, this year might be more difficult to handicap than previous ones. There are surprises and snubs, misguided appreciation and forgotten films. Below is a list of nominees and some brief commentary when needed, with my favorite performances* (not surefire winners):
Best Supporting Actor
Christoph Waltz* – Django Unchained
Phillip Seymour Hoffman – The Master
Robert De Niro – Silver Linings Playbook
Alan Arkin – Argo
It’s nice to see Arkin get a nod here. A previous winner for Little Miss Sunshine, his pithy, darkly sardonic lines – and exchanges with John Goodman — offered solid breaks in an otherwise tense film.
Tommy Lee Jones – Lincoln
Unfortunate Omission: Matthew McConaughey – Magic Mike (or Killer Joe for that matter)
Best Supporting Actress
Sally Field — Lincoln
Jacki Weaver – Silver Linings Playbook
Helen Hunt – The Sessions
Not sure how this happened. Hunt was good, but not that good. I would have taken Ann Dowd from Compliance. Plus, how does Hawkes not score a nod for playing the role that shined most throughout The Sessions?
Anne Hathaway – Les Miserables
Amy Adams* – The Master
It’s time that Adams is honored for her previously nominated roles, not to take anything away from this one. Her characters adds depth to Lancaster Dodd and makes his dynamic with Quell more compelling. Hathaway was amazing for her ten minutes in Les Miserables and gave a heart-rending performance of “I Dreamed a Dream,” but Adams get my vote for her consistency throughout.
Notable, but not surprising omission: Ann Dowd – Compliance; Gina Gershon – Killer Joe
Best Animated Feature
Frankenweenie
The Pirates
Wreck-It Ralph
Paranorman*
Some critics might be right in that the last ten minute aren’t super appropriate for children because of its violence, but how appropriate are foul-mouthed smurfs or rodents that plead for their buddies to defecate?
Brave
Notable Omission: Rise of the Guardians – I found it much better than Brave, but it’s hard to battle the Pixar juggernaut.
Best Foreign Language Film
Amour *
–It’s Michael Haneke, and he should have won a few by now. He deserves this one too.
No
War Witch
A Royal Affair
Kontiki
Unfortunate Omission: After Lucia – But I guess it’s hard to have a Michael Haneke film and one that closely resembles one in the same year.
Best Adapted Screenplay
Beasts of the Southern Wild
Argo
Lincoln*
Silver Linings Playbook
Life of Pi
Best Original Screenplay
Flight
Zero Dark Thirty
Django Unchained*
It’s not as tight as Inglourious Basterds, but save one scene centered on the disorganization of the Klan, the dialog and narrative are slick, clever, and contemporarily relevant.
Amour
Moornnrise Kingdom**
This is my close second choice to Django. Moonrise Kingdom was my favorite film this year, equally clever and relevant, just a bit too capricious at times for this award.
Best Directing
David O. Russell
Ang Lee
Steven Speilberg
Michael Haneke*
I’m going with Haneke for two reasons. One, he’s one of my favorite directors and deserves an Oscar. Two, the four other people I think are more deserving than those on this list – save Russell – are not here.
Ben Zeitlin
Notable Omissions: Ben Affleck — Argo; Kathryn Bigelow — Zero Dark Thirty
Best Actor
Joaquin Phoenix*
Will it happen? Probably not, so I’ll gladly watch Lewis accept his third Best Actor Oscar for his incomparable transformation as Lincoln. But, if Phoenix does win, he will have deserved it for adding some semblance of cohesion to, and creating compassion for, an ultimately convoluted, dangerous, and, at times, unhinged character.
Daniel Day Lewis
Denzel Washington
Hugh Jackman
Bradley Cooper
Best Actress
Naomi Watts
Jessica Chastain
Jennifer Lawrence*
Chastain was solid, but the movie relies on, ironically given its snub, Bigelow’s style and the script’s tightness. Lawrence has already been nominated once and will be easy to push as the next big thing. On the other hand, if Chastain wins, I won’t complain.
Emmanuelle Riva
Quvenzhane Wallis**
Easily the best thing about Beasts of the Southern Wild, Wallis could score the award and etch her name in to the history book as the youngest winner ever. But best actress usually comes with being able to promote the winner for years to come. Not that it isn’t deserved, but this feels more like a courtesy nod.
Best Picture
Silver Linings Playbook
Les Miserables
Life of Pi
Amour*
I’m rooting for chaos – and Michael Haneke, two things that are often synonymous.
Django Unchained**
Close second, but it’s hard to see a picture winning without the director even being nominated.
Argo***
See above.
Zero Dark Thirty****
Lincoln*****
I tackled this yesterday, but the least impressive part of this film was the directing. That is not to say that Spielberg has become a slouch; rather, the script and its star outshine anything the camera does.
Beasts of the Southern Wild******
I’m still not sold on this film. It’s cute, beautifully shot, and Wallis’ performance is phenomenally natural, but the film itself reminds me of Crash – which might make it the front runner. It’s far better in quality than Crash, but it seems to play on race-guilt – and in an obvious, improbable way. If the movie was edited sans the inexplicable, pseudo-mother character, the overly symbolic evacuation from the bathtub, and the convoluted emergence of the mythical beasts, the film would have been much more powerful and less dragged down by its ambitions.
Notable Omissions: Moonrise Kingdom – by far my favorite film of the year and one that is better all-around than Lincoln, Life of Pi, and Les Miserables.
