The Asshole & The Ecstasy: 2012 ACADEMY AWARDS

 

 

Dude! Paradise Lost 3 is pretty huge in terms of docs on the public's radar (and I'm dying to hear what their take is on Peter Jackson making his own doc after these guys have delivered six hours of content on the case). And I would have thought Pina was your jam (that's the 3D one, isn't it?)

Man, the Oscars are just a shitpile of very little this year. But then, this is a year I found it hard to get too excited about movies. Of course, there's a big pile of supposedly great ones I haven't seen (Tinker Tailor, The Descendants, A Separation, Young Adult) but still. Interesting that the big movie that's a crowd pleaser/hit and in contention at the Oscars is a silent movie, and there's another one that's all about silent movies.

It seems to me this year has been a year of lots of great little victories, tons of really solid stuff, but that solid stuff is too indie, too small, too not Oscary to be traditionally recognized, so when it comes time for Oscar noms most of them are handed to films that are merely good, and who were just placed to get nominated, and so they were nominated.

War Horse is great and all, but it's got some big flaws.  Being a Spielberg movie about a horse and being set in World War 1 is what got it nominated over Drive.  Not that it's the superior flick.  I guess my frustrations aren't anything new, but it's pretty discouraging that the divide seems so much sharper this year than ever.

Way to be edgy and relevant with all those DRIVE nominations, Oscars. Oh wait.

Unfortunately all I've got is a hand-over-the-head motion for you here. Pina is news to me, and I've hear way more about Pete's doc than I ever did about Paradise Lost 3. I'll be catching up with the lot of them, but still surprised the Academy didn't at least throw Herzog's Caves on there, with it being the highest-grossing indie doc this year and all (and fascinating to boot).

 

Upon receiving his first nomination after 30 years of being incredible...

 

Class.

Act.

Real Steel is definitely a piece of dumb.  But it's well-made, entertaining piece of dumb, and I'm delighted to see it pick up a nomination for its effects.

 

And I think War Horse is going to be a grower.  Removed from the rush at the end of last year and given the chance to be embraced on disc, I think it'll end up being one Spielberg's most regarded films.

Wasn't SENNA eligible?

The lack of effort on the original song category is amazing; the musical skit from "Captain America" should had been included.

Also, no "Drive", "Dangerous method", "Tintin" and so on in categories that they deserved? bullshit allround.

There were A LOT of eligible docs that are far better than most of the ones that ended up on the shortlist this year. The Academy is consistently even more wrong about documentaries than it is about everything else.

I really want to know what's up with that (culturally, not demanding an answer from you). These docs were huge factors in getting the West Memphis Three released; Jackson initially became aware of the docs, and got involved personally, after seeing them.

 

Early in the year, I expected The Help to be the front-runner, but your supposed rule of thumb for Best Pic is editing: to win, you at least need a nomination in that category (though I'll admit I haven't researched that).

 

Alfredson was the long-shot that I was pulling for (well, and Serkis, if we're talking insanely long-shot), but I'm glad Oldman was nominated. I was surprised about Tintin, too-- did it make the prelim list, or was it somehow not considered "animation"? I didn't find it particularly compelling, but it was technically amazing.

 

And it's weird to be at a point where The Artist feels like a done-deal ho-hum Best Pic winner. I remember last year first reading about it and wondering if it would even get general release over here.

 

EDIT: And while there's still a shedload of evidently worthwhile stuff I haven't seen yet, it's also odd to have the two big nominees both be pics that, at this point, are easily in my top 5 for the year.

 

 

There were changes to the voting process this year, but that doesn't do anything to improve someone's crappy taste.

No Tintin? No Fassbender?? That's just fucking stupid. And no Elizabeth Olsen, either -- although I like that Rooney Mara snuck in. The fact that Brad Pitt's stunningly mediocre performance in Moneyball is keeping company with guys like Clooney, Oldman, and Dujardin boggles my mind.

 

I won't say anything about Extremely Loud or The Help since I haven't seen them. But suffice to say, I'm having Blind Side flashbacks with those nominations.

The culture is probably fine, I think this is a me problem. Somehow I managed a blind spot on the whole WM3 situation. I'm also just frequently dumb with a shitty memory and spotty cognitive association, which is kind of not good for this whole thing I'm supposed to be doing, admittedly.

 

I'm also just now starting to outlive the cats I had as a child, so that may be a thing as well.

I've sent you down a spiral of self-loathing! It's not just you; I keep waiting for someone, anyone, to finish a sentence about Peter Jackson's wm3 doc with "...even though there are already three docs covering the case since 1996." But nothing! Baffled.

No Serkis again is pure stinking dick.

 

And no offense, but calling Midnight In Paris trifle while praising Moneyball seems really off to me.

Yes.  Midnight in Paris is light, but hardly a trifle.  A film doesn't have to be heavy with import to be worthwhile.

I'd argue that The Artist is much more of a trifle than Moneyball. I think that neatly sums up the Best Pic nominees: We're debating which one is the most forgettable.

The Main Page article seems really down on Hugo's chances. While I agree it's far from the best film of the year, I think the Academy is just waiting to try to bring some legitimacy to 3D. Even though tickest are down, the studios do not want to see this gimmick go away because of the capitol they invested in all the equipment and the extra money it brings in with higher priced tickets.

No director nod for Steve McQueen, no best actor for Fassbender, no Dragon Tattoo best picture nod, no Trent Reznor score nom.   It's a clusterf*ck as usual, but just a little bit worse this year.  Also, no documentary nom for Project Nim.  Appalling.

Moneyball is not a trifle at all.  I think the ambitions are there, but as a finished product it seems kind of confused.

 

Midnight in Paris, it would seem to me, is the very definition of a trifle.  Yes, it addresses some interesting themes, but almost by design in a very throwaway, shallow sort of a way.  I would be really disappointed if that was Woody reaching for profundity.  So, a trifle in the best sense, we'll say.

 

 

No Deathly Hallows Part 2 for Best Picture makes me sad, but Hugo getting in was nice.  Other than that, I got nothing to root for here.  This is going to be a very shitty show.

 

 

 

That was about as close to a sure thing as I'd have imagined, even given the legendary cement-headedness of this category. I wonder if the Academy voters thought it was all mo-cap?

Jonah Hill? Really? Was Money Ball that good?

OSCAR NOMINEE JONAH HILL.

 

@MoonBaseNick

 

It wasn't. Just a solid sports movie, not engaging, not moving, not fascinating. It's not the The Social Network of sports movies people make it to be.

Potter was never going to get a Best Picture nod.  They're not going to put the eighth installment of a franchise up there with the big boys.  And honestly, it didn't deserve to be nominated anyway.

Even if I thought Moneyball was better than I thought it was (huh???), the nomination of Jonah Hill would perplex me.  He was barely a character.  Hill did perfectly fine with what he was given, but c'mon...

 

I didn't think Brad Pitt's performance was anything of note either.  And it's not about MOST ACTING being GREAT ACTING.  I just didn't get much out of his performance.  I didn't think there was much on the page either.

I thought Hill and Pitt were fine, and Pitt did well with what he was working with, but I found the tone of the film so subdued as to be nearly inert.

I'm not surprised that "Winnie the Pooh" wasn't nominated for best animated feature, but I am shocked that it was shut out by obscure foreign movies no one's heard of instead of more obvious choices like "Tintin", "Cars 2", or "Happy Feet 2".

 

I know it was too slight and old-fashioned to ever be considered (being a box office flop didn't help either), but "Winnie the Pooh" is still one of my favourite new movies I saw last year, and I wanted it to win, dammit.

 

"Man or Muppet" is a stupid song. "Life's a Happy Song" is awesome and should have won. I don't understand both why it wasn't nominated and why there are only two nominees in that category.

 

The only cool surprise is the guy who played the second husband/drug kingpin/mayor on "Weeds" getting an Oscar nomination. I guess most people don't know him from that because nobody watches "Weeds" anymore and even those who used to probably gave up on it long before he became a major character.

 

As someone who loved the show from the start until the last (awful) season ruined it, however, I'm pretty excited to see him break out like this. He was great on the show and it's cool to see him have some success as a movie actor. I know he has no chance in hell of winning, but it's nice to see him get the recognition anyway.

I get Pitt.  His performance is Tree is probably the best of his (quality) career to date, but I thought he was quite good in Moneyball.  It is very subdued, but in between the lines is where Beane was written, and Pitt certainly played it that way.

 

The noms are basically a bag of dicks, but if Oldman can win Best Actor, then I won't care.

Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close? ARE YOU FUCKING KIDDING ME 

Your batting average on being wrong about things is getting pretty impressive.

 

Or was everything else that BAD?

This article has some pretty neat ideas for simultaneously obliterating the Oscars' credibility and making them a lot more fun.

Lisbeth Salander, in all her goth Mary Sue glory, was like Scarlett O'Hara or Effie in Dreamgirls. Whoever got that part, if they didn't suck, was guaranteed that nomination. Very happy that and the tech noms are all Dragon Tattoo got. 

Quote:

Now I remember why I didn't give my opinion of that movie here. A lot of you seem to be ridiculously biased about it. I guess that's nostalgia for you, but I don't think a lot of its elements (including that song) can hold up to objective scrutiny. I hate to get into an argument about this because I love The Muppets too, but I have to respond to this pettiness.

 

I thought that song was one of many things about the movie that was misguided, and proved (like much of the movie) that their time has passed. "Life's a Happy Song" captured some of that old Muppet magic, though, and as (in my opinion) one of the movie's few truly triumphant moments, I thought it was far more deserving of the nomination.

 

Edited by Naisu Baddi - 1/24/12 at 12:06pm

Seriously, Close over Theron, Olsen, and Swinton? Way to seem vital and fresh, Academy. Albert Brooks not getting nominated is fucking insane, for God's sake. And who is this Demián Bichir asshole? You're seriously going to tell me that he put in a better performance than Fassbender and The Shannon? Mara really needs to bring that metal dildo of hers and kick it up the Academy's ass. I will say that I love the Tree of Life and Hugo Best Picture noms, but Christ, what a fiasco.

Seriously, Bechir was the bomb on "Weeds". But yes, I agree that Brooks deserved better and though I haven't seen "Shame'" yet, I'm sure everyone saying Fassbender was overlooked is right. He always delivers.

 

Quote:

You know, you're probably right, but the likelihood of me, or any other CHUD poster not paid to watch movies for a living, actually being able to compare the four seems unlikely, at best.

 

I have not seen Albert Nobbs, I'll admit, but I was speaking more of giving a nomination to a member of the old guard, so to speak, over some really exciting and worthy young actresses. That is what is the most disappointing aspect for me personally.

I'm very glad to see Oldman get nominated after all of the good work he's put in over the years, Nolte was fantastic in Warrior and deserved his nomination, and I wouldn't mind seeing the ROTPOTA guys and gals getting an award for their work either (and it would be cool if they brought Serkis up on stage with them).

 

Everything else makes me shrug my shoulders a little bit.

 

 

I won't disagree, but I would point out that two of the three already have Oscars, so it's not a lack of awareness of them as actresses-- it's more that Albert Nobbs was one of those projects (beloved actress who's never won an Oscar plays a man? And it's not a comedy but a tear-jerker?) that pretty much had Oscar nom all over it from the get-go.

I had a blast with Hugo so I hope it does well.

 

"Man or Muppet", while I agree not being the best song in the movie, was the most Conchords song in my mind (the "if I'm a muppet, then I'm a very manly muppet" line screamed Conchords at me when I heard it).  I wonder if that had any bearing on it being chosen rather than some of the others.

 

Whatever, the (adopted) jingoism makes me hope that McKenzie wins.

Sure as hell deserved it more than Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close.

 

There are plenty of films that deserved it more than either of them.  Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, for example.  Or Young Adult.  Or even The Ides of March.

If they were still under the 10 movie practice, Potter would have gotten in just for something to represent the big commercial movie for the masses to give a shit about. There was no way it stood a chance with this chicken-shit top 1% of voting crap though.

Unreal how totally craptastical these nominations are this year. I agree w/FilmNerdJamie about giving Potter the 10th Best Picture nomination. A LOT of huge Oscar snubs this year, IMO. Fassbender, Tilda Swinton, Michael Shannon, ALL of Drive?! Seriously I haven't been this irritated w/the Academy in several years.

Never know for sure, but I'd bet money that the theoretical tenth spot would have gone to Bridesmaids.