And Now a Word About the Oscars

Oscar nominations were announced this morning, and it seems like a requirement that if you have a blog, you have to say something about them.

Due to a few more trips to the theater than usual this past year, as well as the quick turnaround date for DVD releases on Netflix, I have actually seen seven of the ten nominees for Best Picture. The exceptions being 127 Hours, Black Swan, and The King’s Speech. I plan to catch the latter two before the ceremony, but I have no interest in watching James Franco saw off his own arm. Of the ones that I have seen I think I liked Inception best, but The Social Network would also be a worthy winner.

If you believe in the fairly coherent logic that the five Best Director nominees are the “real five” Best Picture nominees, than things look bleak for Inception, as Christopher Nolan was passed over, seemingly in favor of the Coen Brothers. Also nominated were David Fincher, David O. Russell, Darren Arronofsky and Tom Hooper. I still can’t believe a movie about a website could be thrilling, so I think Fincher is the most deserving nominee, although again, I missed two of these movies. Hopefully Nolan will be able to console himself with the Best Original Screenplay Oscar.

As for the only other categories most people care about, the acting awards, I am at present supporting Jesse Eisenberg to win for Social Network, Jennifer Lawrence for Winter’s Bone, John Hawkes for Winter’s Bone, and Amy Adams for the Fighter. Best Supporting Actor seems like a loaded category. I liked the performances of Bale, Renner and Ruffalo very much, and I haven’t even seen Geoffrey Rush yet, but he’s always fantastic. Again, I haven’t seen favorites Colin Firth and Natalie Portman yet, either.

Also, I liked True Grit a lot, but I'm shocked it got 10 nominations, and a little worried it could go 0-10, which would leave it just short of the record 0-11, shared by 1977's The Turning Point and 1985's The Color Purple. If Jeff Bridges does win he would be the tenth man to win two Best Actor Oscars, and only the third to do it in consecutive years, joining Spencer Tracy and Tom Hanks.

I think that adequately fulfills my contractual blogger obligations.