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Oscar noms reward spectacle, snub subtlety
But the usual suspects share the day with some welcome new
faces
By Sean Axmaker Special to MSN Movies
There is always such a feeling of inevitability by the time the Oscar
nominations roll around. Even moved back to early January, it arrives after
weeks of Top Ten lists, an unending array of critics awards, and predictions
from every pundit with a blog. At least they beat the Golden Globe Awards this
year, but the final tally is still measured against the consensus. This year, no
surprise, belongs to "Lincoln," which entered the nominations as the
film to beat and emerged with 12 nominations and an almost sure lock on Best
Actor. The Best Picture category swelled to nine nominees, spreading the
recognition around muscular studio pictures, big Hollywood Entertainments, and
demanding independents. "Amour" emerged as the foreign upstart and "Beasts of the Southern Wild" the American indie
that could. The front-runners and underdogs stake their positions and the
critical kibitzing begins.
That's not to say there were no surprises. Who foresaw five nominations for
Michael Hanake's harrowing "Amour," or eleven for the survival drama by way of a
storybook tale "Life of Pi" (albeit mostly for technical
categories)? "Les Misérables" took eight nominations yet was
ignored in directing and writing categories, which doesn't bode well for Oscar
night. "Silver Linings Playbook" scored better than
expected and "Zero Dark Thirty" underperformed. Don't get me
wrong: it's not a game of numbers, it's about the movies and performers and
artists. The numbers just help take the temperature of the race.
Why do we care? Because politics and oddsmaking aside, the Oscars still
matter to us, both as a star-studded spectacle and a sign of industry
appreciation. A nomination is indeed an honor (certainly more of an honor than
the Golden Globes) and a snub is still something to get worked up over. So here
is our annual scorecard on Oscar's slights and oversights: they shoulda been a
contender.
Picture
The new shapeshifting incarnation of this category can shrink to five
nominees or sprawl to ten films, depending on the Academy's complicated formula.
This year it's a substantial nine nominees, including the inevitable but
undeserving "Les Misérables," and yet it left out Wes Anderson's "Moonrise Kingdom," a film celebrated on best lists
across the country (it was the fourth-ranked film on the MSN poll). The story of
puppy love and adolescent runaways in a summer wonderland is Anderson's most
mature film to date and the most authentically benevolent and affectionate piece
of filmmaking to come out of the American cinema in ages. I guess that kind of
mix of storybook playfulness and unabashed sincerity isn't considered serious
enough, but I'll take it over the often condescending clichés of "Beasts of the
Southern Wild."
The raw dysfunction of "The Master" may have been too uncomfortable for
Academy voters but I appreciate its uncompromising intensity. There were
cheerleaders rooting for "The Dark Knight Rises" to legitimize the comic
book movie and "Skyfall" to honor Bond, but they'll have to settle
for their blockbuster box office.
Actress
Naomi Watts was almost guaranteed a spot for her
saintly suffering in "The Impossible," but it comes at the expense of
the more anxious, heartbroken, achingly naked performance by Rachel Weisz in "The Deep Blue Sea," playing an educated but
penniless young beauty in post-war London who gives up security for passion and
loses both. The only thing more devastating than her leap into a world she can't
relate to is the resilience under her fragility. Her delicate, resonant
performance from early in the year has been all but forgotten in the end-of-year
crush.
Marion Cotillard picked nominations from both the
Screen Actor's Guild and BAFTA for "Rust & Bone" but was surprisingly left out
here (did Emmanuelle Riva use up the foreign film quota?).
But my pick for the most criminally overlooked performance of the year goes to
Nina Hoss in "Barbara" from Germany. A longshot for Oscar, I
admit, but she deserves the recognition.
Actor
I guess Hugh Jackman's big, big, big performance in "Les
Misérables" was inevitable, but for all his show tune chops, it's all muscle and
no nuance. In his place, I nominate Jack Black's sweet, compulsive "Bernie." Too often cast as the manic madman, Black
creates a fully-realized character in Richard Linklater's based-on-a-true-story
small town satire. He's as enigmatic as he is outgoing and accepting, merely
hinting at the mysteries behind his contradictions. It only makes him more
compelling.
John Hawkes was considered a frontrunner for his
self-effacing incarnation of a quadriplegic poet determined to live a full life
in "The Sessions," and given the strong showing of
"Amour" it seems unfair to leave Jean-Louis Trintignant's work out. Completely
overlooked is Richard Gere's portrait of corrupted authority in
"Arbitrage," and Michael Fassbender was a longshot for his
intelligent work in the often exasperatingly dumb "Prometheus," but his performance is impressive by
any measure.
Supporting Actress
The unexpectedly strong tide of "Silver Linings Playbook" carried Jacki Weaver into the this category for work far
less vivid than her ferocious mother in "Animal Kingdom" a couple of years back. Much more
committed is Nicole Kidman in the aggressively overheated and
gleefully disreputable "The Paperboy." Kidman gives herself over
completely and enthusiastically to the role of an uncommonly self-aware (and yet
still delusional) oversexed southern Barbie doll. There's nary a trace of
restraint or camp in this emotionally bruised romantic idealist who throws
herself blindly into one bad decision after another.
Ann Dowd, who financed her own Oscar campaign (a
la Melissa Leo and "The Fighter" a couple of years ago), is more
rightly the lead in "Compliance" but was considered an underdog
favorite for her discomforting performance of blind obedience in the face of
anonymous authority. And neither of the great Dames of British cinema -- Judi Dench in "Skyfall" or Maggie Smith of "The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel" (who got a nod
from the Screen Actors Guild) -- managed a nomination.
Supporting Actor
Yes, we all love Robert De Niro and it's been twenty years since
his last nomination, but his turn in "Silver Linings Playbook" isn't as
interesting as a half dozen performances from the last decade. Far more
compelling is Matthew McConaughey, who uses his scruffy charm to
grease the wheels of mercenary ambition in "Magic Mike," Steven Soderbergh's oily male stripper twist on
the American dream. And that was just one of three fine turns that announced the
return of McConaughey from his detour into featherweight romantic comedy. Come
on, Oscar, that kind of work deserves your encouragement, if not your
recognition.
Javier Bardem was always a longshot for "Skyfall"
(come one, when does a Bond film get taken seriously by the Academy?) but the
again, he won for a strikingly similar creation in "No Country for Old Men." And while I salute Christoph Waltz in "Django Unchained," it's a shame the Academy
couldn't wrap it up with his fellow co-stars Leonardo DiCaprio and Samuel L.
Jackson for a triple play.
Director
Probably the biggest surprises of any category came here, given its break
with the Director's Guild of America and most pundit predictions. Benh Zeitlin's indie creativity and imaginative
imagery in "Beasts of the Southern Wild" is admirable, but nowhere near as
disciplined, let alone intelligent, as Kathryn Bigelow's ferocious focus on "Zero Dark
Thirty." She received a well-deserved nomination from the Director's Guild of
America but was overlooked by the Academy, which awarded her the "Best Director"
Oscar just three years ago. Did the misguided controversy over accusations of
"pro-torture" scenes scare off voters?
Ben Affleck (also a DGA nominee), considered a
shoo-in for his audience-pleasing mix of cultural history and action-movie
tropes in "Argo," was also a surprise snub, but I favor the daring of Paul Thomas Anderson's "The Master" or the unabashed benevolence and
adolescent impulses of Wes Anderson's "Moonrise Kingdom." I'm not too surprised
that Quentin Tarantino's audacious "Django Unchained"
was skipped over, and I take some comfort that Tom Hooper (a previous Oscar
winner for "The King's Speech") was rightly snubbed for his egregious
mishandling of "Les Misérables." Even the film's fans admit how he bumbled the
storytelling of what should have been a grand production.
More snubs:
Original Screenplay
Michael Haneke is such a sharp writer that it's not always so apparent how
sanctimonious and manipulative he can be. In place of "Amour," I'd have
preferred the far more nuanced and troubled exploration of lost souls and
magnetic (if tyrannical) mentors in Paul Thomas Anderson's "The Master." The
unlikely, inexplicable friendship between the two central characters is a
mystery that fills the film with uncomfortable honesty and insight, and the
portrait of a lost soul in post World War II American is as tender as it is
revealing.
Adapted Screenplay
While it's heartening to see the love that Oscar has bestowed on the
imaginative Sundance darling "Beasts of the Southern Wild," the portrait of the
resilient, independent poor of the New Orleans islands leans on too many
stereotypes and leaves the contradictions unacknowledged, let alone confronted.
I'd have preferred the Academy to recognize the sharp, insidious satire of David Cronenberg's take on "Cosmopolis" or the ravishing and devastating
emotional journey of Terence Davies' adaptation of Terence Rattigan's
"The Deep Blue Sea."
Cinematography
In terms of sheer beauty, you can't top "Samsara," the docu-essay from Ron Fricke. But
cinematography is more than simply pretty pictures on the screen. It's about
creating worlds with the camera and telling stories with images, which is
exactly what Peter Suschitzky accomplishes in David Cronenberg's "Cosmopolis:" a
surreal vision of a world unraveling before out eyes in precise, ultra-sharp
images.
Foreign Language
Always an unexpected category, with its unusual process (countries submit one
film each for consideration) and line-up of nominees unseen by the vast majority
of stateside viewers. Given that I haven't seen "Kon-Tiki" or "War Witch," let me vent my
frustration that neither "Holy Motors" nor "Rust and Bone" were even
submitted (bumped by the French hit "The Intouchables," which failed to make the final
cut) and sniff grumpily at the Danish costume drama "A Royal Affair," which bumped the more interesting
and nuanced "Beyond the Hills" (Romania) and "Sister" (Switzerland).
Animated Feature
I can't fault the five nominees this year. I suppose you could swap the wild
color, raucous energy, and Looney Tunes invention of "Madagascar 3: Europe's Most Wanted" for the mix of
offbeat wit and slapstick visual gags of "The Pirates! Band of Misfits," but I can't help
but favor the handmade personality of the clay characters of "The Pirates!" In
fact, this year there are three stop-motion features in contention, the best
showing for this old school style since the category was inaugurated in
2001.
Documentary
We are in the midst of a golden age of non-fiction filmmaking and the five
slots of this category can't possibly encompass all the deserving films of the
year. Given that, the Academy failed to honor the most daring work of
non-fiction this year: Jafar Panahi's "This Is Not a Film," produced clandestinely while
he was under house arrest in Iran. Panahi's engagement with the act of creation
and the drive to confront political oppression and social censorship with art is
a provocative and resonant piece of filmmaking and a defiant political act. He's
currently in prison for his cinematic acts of civil
disobedience.
This critic is what a critic is. Worthless gasps of hot air that unfortunately fall on eyes and ears of too many. I wish people would take the time to find out what movies actually interest them instead of turn to the "professional critic" advice. If that happened, we wouldn't have space in the paper or online to give their rambling a forum.
i also agree. all the major players in Django should have been nominated. the movie in my book was the best of the year. !! totally entertaining! very tongue in cheek!.
cronenburg should have gotten a nod also. excellent film! that he was passed over is sad.
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