For an organization known for its predictability, the nominations for the 85th Academy Awards provided a few surprises today.
Surprise #1:
The biggest surprise is cause for the biggest righteous outrage: BEST DIRECTOR. The directors of two of the most-heralded movies of the year -- Ben Affleck ("Argo") and Kathryn Bigelow ("Zero Dark Thirty") -- were snubbed! No one saw that coming. This sets up the real possibility that the winner of the Director's Guild Award will NOT also win the Oscar (that rarely happens). Rather than blame the two surprise nominees in this category (Michael Haneke, "Amour" and Behn Zeitlin, "Beasts of the Southern Wild") I choose to single out the director who has gotten a free ride this award season: Ang Lee ("Life of Pi"). Only nominated for 'technical' awards, "Pi" has no chance in the Best Picture race. I think the Academy is trying to make amends for snubbing him for his last great film, "Brokeback Mountain," rather than for his work this year.
Surprise #2:
"Beasts of the Southern Wild." This indie hit was so under-the-radar it got shut-out of BOTH the Golden Globes and the SAGs. But Oscar showed its love with 4 nominations! As much as I enjoyed the film and the lead performance by pint-sized newcomer Quvenzhane Wallis, I can't help but think somewhere Marion Cotillard ("Rust & Bone") and Rachel Weisz ("The Deep Blue Sea") are thinking "What's a girl gotta do to get a nomination?!?" At least Rachel has hubby Daniel Craig to console her.
Surprise #3:
You can always count of the committee for Best Feature Documentary to overlook a worthy nominee in favor of 'making a statement.' But this year all the nominees appear worthy: the snubs came to the year's over-hyped and undeserving ("Bully"; Detropia"; "Ethel"; and "The Imposter.")
Surprise #4:
A BEST MAKE-UP nomination for "Les Miserables"? Are they kidding? The make-up in that movie looked like it was applied with a trowel!
NO SURPRISE:
Once again, this honor falls to John Williams, who received his 48th Oscar nomination -- an obscene amount for any one person -- this time for his ORIGINAL (I use that term loosely) SCORE for "Lincoln." Halfway through that movie I entertained the idea of giving the old man a pass this time. Then the trademark Williams bombast kicked-in, drowning the later scenes with a manipulative crescendo of self-important, "monumental-sounding" music (when none was needed). Did you notice that Daniel Day-Lewis's most effective scenes as Lincoln had no musical accompaniment? His words alone provided the music and the weight.
I would have given his slot to either Alexander Desplat's work in "Moonrise Kingdom" or to Danny Elfman's playful, spot-on score for "Hitchcock."
And don't even get me started on the snubs in the BEST FOREIGN FILM category!!
