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Feb. 2nd, 2010 11:48 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
brokenrecordToday is Academy Awards Nominations Day! I adore the Academy Awards. I can't even explain why. A lot of the time they make stupid choices (well, in my opinion; film taste is, of course, subjective), and most of the time several of the films I consider best of the year get little or no attention. But, I don't know. It's just so much fun! I can't really describe it. I like award shows in general, but I greatly prefer movie award shows because for TV award shows, even fewer TV shows I love get any attention, and they nominate the same crap year after year and the same stuff wins and it's just horribly boring. But at least with movies, if there's something I hate, it's gone the next year. And for the past 3 years, the movie that won Best Picture at the Oscars I've really loved, even if it wasn't my favorite of the year (let's not mention 2005, which was one of the greatest movie award injustices in history, in my opinion).
Anyways, enough about that. Here are my opinions on the nominations, and what my ideal nominations would have been (for the 8 major categories: picture, director, the writing categories, and all the acting categories; despite taking a film class and looking online, I still don't know the difference between sound editing and sound mixing, I barely understand Art Direction, and I don't have much of an opinion about the other categories most of the time. Although I do enjoy score and cinematography typically. But I didn't feel like discussing them).
* = haven't seen yet
BEST ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY
The Hurt Locker
Inglourious Basterds
The Messenger*
A Serious Man
Up
l;kjasf YESSS, NO AVATAR. You have no idea how thrilled I am about this. And A Serious Man got in! That screenplay was definitely a million times better than Avatar's. Besides The Messenger, which I haven't seen, I really enjoy every film in this category! Awesome!
BEST ADAPTED SCREENPLAY
District 9
An Education
In the Loop*
Precious*
Up in the Air
I... have barely heard of In the Loop. And that's saying something, since I follow awards crap for months before the nominations are announced (InContention is one of my favorite sites). I think it got nominated for some BAFTAs? idk. I am glad An Education was nominated, and District 9 was also very good. Up in the Air was decent but not brilliant, but I'm fine with its nomination.
BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS
Penelope Cruz, Nine*
Vera Farmiga, Up in the Air
Maggie Gyllenhaal, Crazy Heart*
Anna Kendrick, Up in the Air
Mo’Nique, Precious*
Penelope Cruz for Nine? Really? I haven't seen it, but based on how it got so little box office and none of the critics liked it, I have a feeling I wouldn't like it much. I love Penelope Cruz, but I don't feel she deserves this. Also, la;kjf ugh Maggie Gyllenhaal. I'm sorry, I know so many people love her and think she's great, but I have not seen a performance from her I've liked. I actually preferred Katie Holmes in Batman Begins to Maggie Gyllenhaal in The Dark Knight. Oh well. It doesn't really matter since Mo'Nique is going to win, anyways.
BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR
Matt Damon, Invictus*
Woody Harrelon, The Messenger*
Christopher Plummer, The Last Station*
Stanley Tucci, The Lovely Bones*
Christoph Waltz, Inglourious Basterds
Since I've only seen Christoph Waltz, all I'll really say is YAY CHRISTOPH WALTZ and Matt Damon, really? Most of the time I really enjoy Matt Damon, but Invictus? ugh. I've heard not amazing things about his performance, either. Anthony Mackie or Alfred Molina so should have gotten in instead.
BEST ACTRESS
Sandra Bullock, The Blind Side*
Helen Mirren, The Last Station*
Carey Mulligan, An Education
Gabourey Sidibe, Precious*
Meryl Streep, Julie & Julia
sigh. I don't want Sandra Bullock to win (or even be nominated), but she will. I'd even be happy with Meryl Streep winning, which I wasn't before just because she's nominated every year, since at least she isn't Sandra Bullock and was actually excellent in Julie & Julia (which was a bit better movie than I expected). Carey Mulligan winning would make my life. From what I've seen of Gabourey Sidibe, she definitely deserves nomination, and I love Helen Mirren (even though I know very little about The Last Station except that it's about Tolstoy... I think), so I'm fine with those.
BEST ACTOR
Jeff Bridges, Crazy Heart*
George Clooney, Up in the Air
Colin Firth, A Single Man
Morgan Freeman, Invictus*
Jeremy Renner, The Hurt Locker
Jeff Bridges will win this, which is boring and a little disappointing (I haven't seen the film, but I feel like if he wins, it's like... making up for Mickey Rourke not getting it last year, and I don't feel Jeff Bridges is as deserving. I don't know. I should probably not judge before I've even seen the film). Morgan Freeman being nominated is also disappointing, because wow does Invictus look like such a boring and predictable film. I feel like he's nominated just because he's Morgan Freeman and he's playing Nelson Mandela, you know? I would adore if Colin Firth would win; he is so deserving. A Single Man is such a beautiful film, and I wholeheartedly recommend it. Jeremy Renner also winning would be excellent, but it won't happen. I love that he was nominated, though. George Clooney - eh. He was good, but not brilliant. Less offensive to me than Morgan Freeman being nominated.
BEST DIRECTOR
James Cameron, Avatar
Kathryn Bigelow, The Hurt Locker
Quentin Tarantino, Inglourious Basterds
Lee Daniels, Precious*
Jason Reitman, Up in the Air
These are not even remotely surprising, so I actually have little to say about it. The Hurt Locker better win, though. I think I want this more than it winning Best Picture (although obviously I want both). Jason Reitman probably doesn't deserve to be here as much as other directors, and I obviously don't think too highly of Avatar, but whatever, I don't care that much about this category (other than Kathryn Bigelow winning!).
BEST PICTURE
Avatar
The Blind Side*
District 9
An Education
The Hurt Locker
Inglourious Basterds
Precious*
A Serious Man
Up
Up in the Air
I am not surprised over any of these except The Blind Side. Ok, I haven't seen it, but WTF. I'm sorry, but it just looks so boring and predictable and cheesy and schmaltzy, and yes, I will see it before the awards, but I have a feeling, based on other people's reviews and opinions, that I will not be that fond of it. I'm not thrilled about Avatar being nominated, either (it really only deserves tech awards), but I had accepted that it would be over a month ago, so whatever. I absolutely adore that A Serious Man was nominated; I was afraid it wouldn't, but yay! It is really a brilliant film, one of my favorites of the year. I also adored The Hurt Locker (I think I love that more than A Serious Man, although it's tough to say. A Single Man is probably my absolute favorite of the year, though, which of course got very little attention), Inglourious Basterds, Up, An Education, and District 9. Up in the Air was solid and good, but not as amazing as I would have wanted. Still, I'm fine with its inclusion. Overall, I think this is actually a really great list. There are obviously films I wish had been included and those that I wish hadn't been, and I still have yet to see The Blind Side and Precious (and I have higher hopes for my opinion on Precious than for The Blind Side), but I really like or love 6 of these, so that's not too bad.
(These are in alphabetical order rather than in order of preference. My favorite in the category is marked with a *)
BEST ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY
The Hurt Locker
Inglourious Basterds
Moon (I'm 90% sure this is original, but I could totally be wrong, in which case it would go to adapted)
A Serious Man
Up
(I enjoy how this category is 4/5 of what was actually nominated. Way to go, Academy!)
BEST ADAPTED SCREENPLAY
Coraline
District 9
An Education*
A Single Man
Up in the Air
(I'm not that huge a fan of Up in the Air, but I couldn't really find any adapted screenplays I liked more. Weird. Usually there are loads of Adapted Screenplays I find really great. Oh well)
BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS
Anna Kendrick, Up in the Air
Diane Kruger, Inglourious Basterds
Sari Lennick, A Serious Man
Julianne Moore, A Single Man*
Rosamund Pike, An Education
(I'm pretty sure Sari Lennick would be out and Mo'Nique would be in if I had seen Precious, which will happen at some point. This category I'm not really that sure of; I think I need to see more films.)
BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR
Richard Kind, A Serious Man
Anthony Mackie, The Hurt Locker
Alfred Molina, An Education
Peter Sarsgaard, An Education
Christoph Walts, Inglourious Basterds*
(I haven't seen enough films for me to be 100% happy with this category, but this is close enough. I was very close to either putting Brian Geraghty (The Hurt Locker) or Fred Melamed (A Serious Man) in this category instead of Richard Kind, and I feel like if I ever saw The Messenger or The Last Station, Woody Harrelson and/or Christopher Plummer would make it into my list.)
BEST ACTRESS
Emily Blunt, The Young Victoria
Melanie Laurent, Inglourious Basterds
Carey Mulligan, An Education*
Ellen Page, Whip It
Meryl Streep, Julie & Julia
(Ok, before you're like "WTF WHIP IT?", I haven't seen nearly enough films starring awards-worthy women this year, but I will fix that. In films I haven't seen, I think the most likely to make it would be Abbie Cornish (Bright Star), Gabourey Sidibe (Precious), or Helen Mirren (The Last Station). Two of them would knock out Emily Blunt, who was good but not spectacular, and Ellen Page. And the third might knock out Meryl Streep.)
BEST ACTOR
Colin Firth, A Single Man*
Tahar Rahim, A Prophet
Jeremy Renner, The Hurt Locker
Sam Rockwell, Moon
Michael Stuhlbarg, A Serious Man
BEST DIRECTOR
Kathryn Bigeolow, The Hurt Locker*
Ethan Coen, Joel Coen, A Serious Man
Tom Ford, A Single Man
Duncan Jones, Moon
Quentin Tarantino, Inglourious Basterds
BEST PICTURE
District 9
An Education
The Hurt Locker
Inglourious Basterds
Moon
A Prophet
A Serious Man
A Single Man*
Star Trek
Up
(I know: Star Trek? It barely made it in, but whatever, I really enjoyed it. I still have some movies left to see, as I've mentioned, so it'll probably fall out once I've seen a few more. Still, I found it highly entertaining and definitely more interesting than Avatar.)
(omg I spent way too much time in Dunn Brothers putting this together. At least there are some open tables so I don't feel like too much of a douche.)
I didn't mention in my last post because I had so many things to complain about, but hey, it's February! January always goes by so quickly. Probably because most of the month I don't have school. Anyways, in January I watched 261 episodes of TV (which is crazy because that's way more than I usually watch in a month, 30 more than last January, and I'm like 1 1/2-2 weeks behind on TV due to not having internet), 11 movies (more than I expected considering I only watched 2 from 01/01-01/14), and read 2 books (! crazy! I don't know if I said this before, but my goal this year is to read at least one book a month. I hope to actually read more than 12 books in the whole year, but I tend to go in phases where I'll read like 7 books in a few weeks and then nothing the rest of the year, so reading at least one book a month should actually boost the number of books I read all year. Actually, I already finished one book in February, and I'll probably get to a few more what with the stupid internet not working for another few days, so that's good. I love reading, but it's too hard to work in while I have classes because even if I have time to read, I get too sucked in to whatever I'm reading and then neglect everything else so I can finish the book, and it's just easier not to read anything).
Not being able to watch the most recent episode of Chuck is physically hurting me. Okay, not really, but it does suck. Most stuff I can deal with having to wait 1-2 weeks to watch, but not Chuck. The same is true for Greek, actually, but it just came back so I'm more used to it not being around and so it doesn't seem as tragic that I haven't seen the last episode. Also, the fact that I'm going to miss the Lost premiere sucks. Although I suppose it's easier to delay watching that when I've already been waiting months and months than to delay watching something I'm used to seeing every week. I really hope I don't get spoiled for Lost, though. =/ I suppose the fact that I'm being more productive than normal (especially at this point in the term) doesn't suck. It is weird though. And I don't have enough work to take up my whole night, so I still end up with time left over with nothing to do.
Ok, time to go back to my apartment since I've been in here for like an hour and a half now.
Anyways, enough about that. Here are my opinions on the nominations, and what my ideal nominations would have been (for the 8 major categories: picture, director, the writing categories, and all the acting categories; despite taking a film class and looking online, I still don't know the difference between sound editing and sound mixing, I barely understand Art Direction, and I don't have much of an opinion about the other categories most of the time. Although I do enjoy score and cinematography typically. But I didn't feel like discussing them).
* = haven't seen yet
BEST ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY
The Hurt Locker
Inglourious Basterds
The Messenger*
A Serious Man
Up
l;kjasf YESSS, NO AVATAR. You have no idea how thrilled I am about this. And A Serious Man got in! That screenplay was definitely a million times better than Avatar's. Besides The Messenger, which I haven't seen, I really enjoy every film in this category! Awesome!
BEST ADAPTED SCREENPLAY
District 9
An Education
In the Loop*
Precious*
Up in the Air
I... have barely heard of In the Loop. And that's saying something, since I follow awards crap for months before the nominations are announced (InContention is one of my favorite sites). I think it got nominated for some BAFTAs? idk. I am glad An Education was nominated, and District 9 was also very good. Up in the Air was decent but not brilliant, but I'm fine with its nomination.
BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS
Penelope Cruz, Nine*
Vera Farmiga, Up in the Air
Maggie Gyllenhaal, Crazy Heart*
Anna Kendrick, Up in the Air
Mo’Nique, Precious*
Penelope Cruz for Nine? Really? I haven't seen it, but based on how it got so little box office and none of the critics liked it, I have a feeling I wouldn't like it much. I love Penelope Cruz, but I don't feel she deserves this. Also, la;kjf ugh Maggie Gyllenhaal. I'm sorry, I know so many people love her and think she's great, but I have not seen a performance from her I've liked. I actually preferred Katie Holmes in Batman Begins to Maggie Gyllenhaal in The Dark Knight. Oh well. It doesn't really matter since Mo'Nique is going to win, anyways.
BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR
Matt Damon, Invictus*
Woody Harrelon, The Messenger*
Christopher Plummer, The Last Station*
Stanley Tucci, The Lovely Bones*
Christoph Waltz, Inglourious Basterds
Since I've only seen Christoph Waltz, all I'll really say is YAY CHRISTOPH WALTZ and Matt Damon, really? Most of the time I really enjoy Matt Damon, but Invictus? ugh. I've heard not amazing things about his performance, either. Anthony Mackie or Alfred Molina so should have gotten in instead.
BEST ACTRESS
Sandra Bullock, The Blind Side*
Helen Mirren, The Last Station*
Carey Mulligan, An Education
Gabourey Sidibe, Precious*
Meryl Streep, Julie & Julia
sigh. I don't want Sandra Bullock to win (or even be nominated), but she will. I'd even be happy with Meryl Streep winning, which I wasn't before just because she's nominated every year, since at least she isn't Sandra Bullock and was actually excellent in Julie & Julia (which was a bit better movie than I expected). Carey Mulligan winning would make my life. From what I've seen of Gabourey Sidibe, she definitely deserves nomination, and I love Helen Mirren (even though I know very little about The Last Station except that it's about Tolstoy... I think), so I'm fine with those.
BEST ACTOR
Jeff Bridges, Crazy Heart*
George Clooney, Up in the Air
Colin Firth, A Single Man
Morgan Freeman, Invictus*
Jeremy Renner, The Hurt Locker
Jeff Bridges will win this, which is boring and a little disappointing (I haven't seen the film, but I feel like if he wins, it's like... making up for Mickey Rourke not getting it last year, and I don't feel Jeff Bridges is as deserving. I don't know. I should probably not judge before I've even seen the film). Morgan Freeman being nominated is also disappointing, because wow does Invictus look like such a boring and predictable film. I feel like he's nominated just because he's Morgan Freeman and he's playing Nelson Mandela, you know? I would adore if Colin Firth would win; he is so deserving. A Single Man is such a beautiful film, and I wholeheartedly recommend it. Jeremy Renner also winning would be excellent, but it won't happen. I love that he was nominated, though. George Clooney - eh. He was good, but not brilliant. Less offensive to me than Morgan Freeman being nominated.
BEST DIRECTOR
James Cameron, Avatar
Kathryn Bigelow, The Hurt Locker
Quentin Tarantino, Inglourious Basterds
Lee Daniels, Precious*
Jason Reitman, Up in the Air
These are not even remotely surprising, so I actually have little to say about it. The Hurt Locker better win, though. I think I want this more than it winning Best Picture (although obviously I want both). Jason Reitman probably doesn't deserve to be here as much as other directors, and I obviously don't think too highly of Avatar, but whatever, I don't care that much about this category (other than Kathryn Bigelow winning!).
BEST PICTURE
Avatar
The Blind Side*
District 9
An Education
The Hurt Locker
Inglourious Basterds
Precious*
A Serious Man
Up
Up in the Air
I am not surprised over any of these except The Blind Side. Ok, I haven't seen it, but WTF. I'm sorry, but it just looks so boring and predictable and cheesy and schmaltzy, and yes, I will see it before the awards, but I have a feeling, based on other people's reviews and opinions, that I will not be that fond of it. I'm not thrilled about Avatar being nominated, either (it really only deserves tech awards), but I had accepted that it would be over a month ago, so whatever. I absolutely adore that A Serious Man was nominated; I was afraid it wouldn't, but yay! It is really a brilliant film, one of my favorites of the year. I also adored The Hurt Locker (I think I love that more than A Serious Man, although it's tough to say. A Single Man is probably my absolute favorite of the year, though, which of course got very little attention), Inglourious Basterds, Up, An Education, and District 9. Up in the Air was solid and good, but not as amazing as I would have wanted. Still, I'm fine with its inclusion. Overall, I think this is actually a really great list. There are obviously films I wish had been included and those that I wish hadn't been, and I still have yet to see The Blind Side and Precious (and I have higher hopes for my opinion on Precious than for The Blind Side), but I really like or love 6 of these, so that's not too bad.
(These are in alphabetical order rather than in order of preference. My favorite in the category is marked with a *)
BEST ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY
The Hurt Locker
Inglourious Basterds
Moon (I'm 90% sure this is original, but I could totally be wrong, in which case it would go to adapted)
A Serious Man
Up
(I enjoy how this category is 4/5 of what was actually nominated. Way to go, Academy!)
BEST ADAPTED SCREENPLAY
Coraline
District 9
An Education*
A Single Man
Up in the Air
(I'm not that huge a fan of Up in the Air, but I couldn't really find any adapted screenplays I liked more. Weird. Usually there are loads of Adapted Screenplays I find really great. Oh well)
BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS
Anna Kendrick, Up in the Air
Diane Kruger, Inglourious Basterds
Sari Lennick, A Serious Man
Julianne Moore, A Single Man*
Rosamund Pike, An Education
(I'm pretty sure Sari Lennick would be out and Mo'Nique would be in if I had seen Precious, which will happen at some point. This category I'm not really that sure of; I think I need to see more films.)
BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR
Richard Kind, A Serious Man
Anthony Mackie, The Hurt Locker
Alfred Molina, An Education
Peter Sarsgaard, An Education
Christoph Walts, Inglourious Basterds*
(I haven't seen enough films for me to be 100% happy with this category, but this is close enough. I was very close to either putting Brian Geraghty (The Hurt Locker) or Fred Melamed (A Serious Man) in this category instead of Richard Kind, and I feel like if I ever saw The Messenger or The Last Station, Woody Harrelson and/or Christopher Plummer would make it into my list.)
BEST ACTRESS
Emily Blunt, The Young Victoria
Melanie Laurent, Inglourious Basterds
Carey Mulligan, An Education*
Ellen Page, Whip It
Meryl Streep, Julie & Julia
(Ok, before you're like "WTF WHIP IT?", I haven't seen nearly enough films starring awards-worthy women this year, but I will fix that. In films I haven't seen, I think the most likely to make it would be Abbie Cornish (Bright Star), Gabourey Sidibe (Precious), or Helen Mirren (The Last Station). Two of them would knock out Emily Blunt, who was good but not spectacular, and Ellen Page. And the third might knock out Meryl Streep.)
BEST ACTOR
Colin Firth, A Single Man*
Tahar Rahim, A Prophet
Jeremy Renner, The Hurt Locker
Sam Rockwell, Moon
Michael Stuhlbarg, A Serious Man
BEST DIRECTOR
Kathryn Bigeolow, The Hurt Locker*
Ethan Coen, Joel Coen, A Serious Man
Tom Ford, A Single Man
Duncan Jones, Moon
Quentin Tarantino, Inglourious Basterds
BEST PICTURE
District 9
An Education
The Hurt Locker
Inglourious Basterds
Moon
A Prophet
A Serious Man
A Single Man*
Star Trek
Up
(I know: Star Trek? It barely made it in, but whatever, I really enjoyed it. I still have some movies left to see, as I've mentioned, so it'll probably fall out once I've seen a few more. Still, I found it highly entertaining and definitely more interesting than Avatar.)
(omg I spent way too much time in Dunn Brothers putting this together. At least there are some open tables so I don't feel like too much of a douche.)
I didn't mention in my last post because I had so many things to complain about, but hey, it's February! January always goes by so quickly. Probably because most of the month I don't have school. Anyways, in January I watched 261 episodes of TV (which is crazy because that's way more than I usually watch in a month, 30 more than last January, and I'm like 1 1/2-2 weeks behind on TV due to not having internet), 11 movies (more than I expected considering I only watched 2 from 01/01-01/14), and read 2 books (! crazy! I don't know if I said this before, but my goal this year is to read at least one book a month. I hope to actually read more than 12 books in the whole year, but I tend to go in phases where I'll read like 7 books in a few weeks and then nothing the rest of the year, so reading at least one book a month should actually boost the number of books I read all year. Actually, I already finished one book in February, and I'll probably get to a few more what with the stupid internet not working for another few days, so that's good. I love reading, but it's too hard to work in while I have classes because even if I have time to read, I get too sucked in to whatever I'm reading and then neglect everything else so I can finish the book, and it's just easier not to read anything).
Not being able to watch the most recent episode of Chuck is physically hurting me. Okay, not really, but it does suck. Most stuff I can deal with having to wait 1-2 weeks to watch, but not Chuck. The same is true for Greek, actually, but it just came back so I'm more used to it not being around and so it doesn't seem as tragic that I haven't seen the last episode. Also, the fact that I'm going to miss the Lost premiere sucks. Although I suppose it's easier to delay watching that when I've already been waiting months and months than to delay watching something I'm used to seeing every week. I really hope I don't get spoiled for Lost, though. =/ I suppose the fact that I'm being more productive than normal (especially at this point in the term) doesn't suck. It is weird though. And I don't have enough work to take up my whole night, so I still end up with time left over with nothing to do.
Ok, time to go back to my apartment since I've been in here for like an hour and a half now.
