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Best pic nominees
The dubious honors known as Oscar nominations were announced this morning, and I’ll be blogging about the main categories to get the conversation going. As usual, the Academy tended to honor a questionable group of movies.
First up: the biggie: best picture:
The nominees: “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button,” “Frost/Nixon,” “Milk,” “The Reader,” “Slumdog Millionaire.”
I have no problem with “Milk,” “Curious Case” and “Slumdog.” All three are fine movies. Even “Frost/Nixon” is okay with me. But “The Reader”? Ugh.
Much better choices were available, including “Synecdoche, New York,” “The Dark Knight,” even “Gran Torino,” which was getting good buzz in Hollywood trade publications in advance of the nominations.
The Academy often snubs experimental movies, so the absence of “Synecdoche” shouldn’t be a big surprise. But it still irks.
Many critics also will be surprised to see the snub of “The Dark Night.” After all, it was one of the biggest moneymakers of 2008, and the Academy loves success. But it was a summer release, and the Academy tends to forget about such movies.
Then there was the Hollywood provincialism. The notion that “The Class,” which won the Palme d’Or in Cannes, isn’t one of the top movies is ridiculous. So is the oversight of the British production “Happy-Go-Lucky.” And the oversight of Sally Hawkins’ performance in that fine film is horrible. But more about that later.
On to best actor…
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By Anton Diether
January 27, 2009 11:36 AM | Link to this
Chris Garcia’s condemnation of Academy voters over “The Reader” seems a bit over the top to me. I’ve hated the Oscars since childhood, when “Sound of Music” won over “Dr. Zhivago”. But “The Reader” is more a love story than a Holocaust movie; other than a heavy-handed ending, it’s well made and emotionally involving — unlike “Synechdoche, NY”, which probably didn’t flummox voters but put them to sleep from sheer boredom, as it did to me.
Critics who consider a Charlie Kaufman movie (in my opinion, a classic case of the Emperor’s clothes) more “sacrosanct” than a so-called Holocaust movie should ask themselves a fundamental question: which is more entertaining?
And though Kate Winslet won the Golden Globe for “Revolutionary Road”, her performance in “The Reader” was subtle and astonishing. For once, Academy voters got it right.
By James
January 23, 2009 12:34 PM | Link to this
So you’re upset that “Synecdoche” was overlooked, but you say “Ugh,ugh,ugh” about Kate Winslet in “The Reader” and “Revolutionary Road”??? My brain is about to explode! You seriously need to Start Paying Attention when you’re watching films! OMG! “Synecdoche”???