25 Thoughts I Had About the Oscar Nominations

Chris Hemsworth & Cheryl Boone Isaacs

So, it’s the day after Oscar nomination day, and I have gone through a few different iterations of what I want to post.  I will be covering all of these more in-depth when I have more access to the thirteen unseen films for the OVP (the vast majority of which are foreign or animated).  Instead, I’ll go with 25 random thoughts I had while perusing today’s nominees, in no particular order (except they’re kind of in order).

1. I promise that this won’t be a full American Hustle bashing session, but how did Bale get in-the other three I can see based on competition, precursors, and performance-but Bale over Tom Hanks?!?  Are you serious here?  I’m not even going to complain about how someone like Joaquin Phoenix or Oscar Isaac or Michael B. Jordan or Ethan Hawke (all significantly better than Bale) should have made it, but Hanks is Oscar-beloved.  Two-time winner.  Staging a major comeback.  In a Best Picture nominee.  Come on Academy-you can do better than this.

2. Robert Redford is probably the snubbed actor who cares the least that he was snubbed.  I have a feeling that Redford’s Oscars are in an attic somewhere.

3. I should have made the jump and predicted Emma to lose-it seemed so obvious in hindsight (the film was losing steam, she hasn’t been an awards presence in years), but I just couldn’t see beyond the Julie vs. Julia narrative.  Anyone think Adams might be able to win?

4. How much better is Michael Fassbender than all of his other nominees?  It’s not even close, and yet he’s probably in third place to Leto (who else is dreading this season’s series of random nonsense speeches) and Cooper (Hustle mania!)

5. I totally predicted all five of the Best Supporting Actors right.  I knew it would be Hill.

6. Two-time Oscar nominee Jonah Hill

7. The real sad thing about Oprah missing is that of the “six” potential nominees, I’d put her in third.  They should have cut Roberts, who is the worst case of category fraud since Casey Affleck.  And how is it that Sarah Paulson, Octavia Spencer, Melissa Leo, and Emma Watson somehow managed to miss all of the major precursor awards in this ridiculously rich year for Supporting Actresses?

8. I wish I could have seen The Wind Rises and Ernest and Celestine before this morning’s nominations.

9. Note to all striving cinematographers: shoot your film in black-and-white.  You’ll get an Oscar nomination.  Even if the film's look is hopelessly generic.

10. I cannot get a grasp over whether Patricia Norris can finally break her streak here-both Catherine Martin and Michael Wilkinson have a shot to upset her and send her into the all-time losers book.

11. It says something about how much I hate Nebraska that David O. Russell will not get last place in the OVP.

12. Stories We Tell I understand missing (it’s so unconventional), but how did the socially relevant Blackfish get trounced for Dirty Wars, possibly the least publicized Documentary on the shortlist, and one that I’ve heard is severely underwhelming (Addendum: I haven’t seen it).

13. Don’t you hate when people complain about a film getting nominated and they haven’t seen it?

14. I wouldn’t have nominated Wolf of Wall Street for Best Editing (…probably), but Thelma deserved it more than Dallas Buyers Club.

15. First Time Nominee Cambodia!!!  I love when a country gets its first nomination.

16. I am done with the Makeup branch-seriously.  Perhaps the only category I was rooting for American Hustle in outside of Lawrence, and they skip it.

17. Some may complain about how Thomas Newman, John Williams, and Alexandre Desplat got yet another Oscar nomination, but Arcade Fire beat out Hans Zimmer (who was doing a Best Picture nominee, no less)-they were thinking ever so slightly outside the box.  Also: Oscar Nominee Saving Mr. Banks (barely).

18. Alone Yet Not Alone gets the title for film I’ve never heard of that somehow got nominated for an Oscar.  And looking at the trailer, it also gets the title of "OVP movie I'm least looking forward to seeing," and that's in a year that Bad Grandpa is nominated.

19. Spike Jonze got three Oscar nominations-anyone else notice that yet?

20. Somewhere Harvey Weinstein is looking into a magic mirror, saying who is the most Oscar-nominated of them all, and seeing Megan Ellison pop up in the reflection.

21. The Hobbit had the best Art Direction of the year.  I don’t care that they’ve gone there before.  I don’t care at all-it’s still the best, and possibly the best of the series since Fellowship.

22. So The Hobbit misses in Best Art Direction and Best Makeup, but somehow lands a nomination in both Sound categories?  Huh?

23. How is it that there’s always one film that splits the Sound categories, and the other four go to the same films…and how was Rush not nominated?  For anything?

24. The Lone Ranger takes out Pacific Rim in Visual Effects, proving that no one knows anything…and attending the Visual Effects bakeoff would really help my Oscar predicting.

25. Dallas Buyers Club beating Inside Llewyn Davis for the final slot in Best Original Screenplay makes me want to cry.

And those are the first 25 thoughts I have looking at the nominees from this year’s Oscars!