Oscar nominations: final predictions, rants, musings — Page 4

I was so underwhelmed by Midnight In Paris. I predict it will be up for Best Screenplay, but not Director.

I can't believe it's been 17 years since Bullets Over Broadway. Wow. That's still my favorite Woody film, without Woody in it, of all-time. (Annie Hall is my fav.) Bullets is right up there for the record of most Academy noms without getting a Best Picture nod. Seven nominations: Director, Screenplay, Sup Actor (Chazz Palminteri), Sup Actress (Jennifer Tilly), Art Direction, Costumes, and the only award it won--Dianne Wiest, Supporting Actress.

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And let's not forget his one nomination for acting, mysteriousgrowl, for the sake of completeness.

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Best Picture
The Artist
The Descendants
Hugo
The Help
War Horse
Bridesmaids
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo
Moneyball

Director
Michel Hazanavicius for The Artist
Alexander Payne for The Descendants
Steven Spielberg for War Horse
David Fincher for The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo
Martin Scorsese for Hugo

My only dark horse is Malick possibly pushing out Fincher or Payne.

Actor
George Clooney for The Descendants
Brad Pitt for Moneyball
Jean Dujardin for The Artist
Michael Fassbender for Shame
Gary Oldman for Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy

Actress
Viola Davis for The Help
Meryl Streep for The Iron Lady
Michelle Williams for My Week with Marilyn
Rooney Mara for The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo
Tilda Swinton for We Need to Talk About Kevin


Supporting Actor
Christopher Plummer for Beginners
Patton Oswalt for Young Adult
Albert Brooks for Drive
Kenneth Branagh for My Week with Marilyn
Nick Nolte for Warrior

So glad AC brought up Nolte's performance in Warrior. It's a shame the film flopped (I think there was a general reticence for it being a sports film on the MMA and the fact the movie was poorly marketed). I feel like Tom Hardy could have easily gotten a nomination as a Leading Actor as well.

Supporting Actress
Octavia Spencer for The Help
Melissa McCarthy for Bridesmaids
Bernice Bejo for The Artist
Jessica Chastain for The Help
Shailene Woodley for The Descendants

Original Screenplay
Midnight in Paris
50/50
Bridesmaids
Tree of Life
The Artist
-Basically, this will be the only category where comedy is allowed. That said, it has been widely speculated that if A Separation cannot break into Best Picture category, it's screenplay could.

Adapted Screenplay
Hugo
The Descendants
Moneyball
Tinker Tailor Solider Spy
The Help

Animated Films
The Adventures of Tin Tin
Rango
Cars 2 (I really hope Winnie the Pooh knocks it out, but Lasseter has still made the Pixar brand pretty infallible despite his money-grubbing)

Documentary
Project Nim
Pina
Bill Cunningham New York
Paradise Lost 3 (I could easily see recent events pushing this over the top)
Undefeated

Updated On: 1/23/12 at 09:21 PM

I know I'm going to say this more than once, but I cannot believe that at this year's MTV Movie Awards, the Emcee will introduce "Oscar-nominated actor Jonah Hill." THAT'S F***ED UP! I don't get all the love for MONEYBALL at ALL. NO ONE is talking about this film. NO ONE. Pitt was fine. The movie was fine. But WHO CARES?! I'd rather see THE TREE OF LIFE or MIDNIGHT IN PARIS be nominated over this bowl of stale cereal. At least those films had some flavor. After giving us this unmemorable performance in MONEYBALL and that crappy cartoon series on FOX, I'm surprised Hill hasn't been kicked out of Hollywood and is now working as a Dominoes delivery guy. I picture him delivering pizza to houses and going up to customers saying "I'll quote you any line from SUPERBAD for $20."

Did I mention I hate Jonah Hill?

And if you ask me, a MUCH more worthy nomination -- one that would actually be honorable and have merit -- would be bestowed onto Eddie Redmayne for MY WEEK WITH MARILYN.

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I'm still holding out for Michael Shannon to get a much-deserved nomination for TAKE SHELTER. In a just world, he would take Clooney's spot.

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As for Hugo, I was actually embarrassed at how self-serving the film was for Scorcese. 'LOOK! FILM PRESERVATION IS IMPORTANT. I'M IMPORTANT!!! A CREEPY AUTOMATON THAT RIVALS THE POLTERGIEST CLOWN DOLL IN ITS TERRIFYING VISAGE IS IMPORTANT!!!!'

Jesus Henry Christ, Martin, did you throw your back out by patting it so hard???


Robbie, that's EXACTLY the way I felt about "Hugo."

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Strummergirl, unless I missed something, Hill's character in Moneyball is never said to have been on the Harvard baseball team, so I don't see the problem unless the objection is to the character not being the same person he was in the book. Frankly, I loved that Peter was an overweight, shy, geeky guy, an outsider baseball fan rather than a ivy league jock (we already have a guy who played the game (having turned down Standford), Brad Pitt's Billy Beane, in the protagonist duo) and thought it resonated very much with the story. It doesn't strike me at all as a gratuitous change just to give the role to Hill.

What was given up in literal truth more than makes up in artistic truth. In fact casting a studly dude in that role would have made the movie subject to the same complaint it seeks to expose, the plastic commercial valuation of people irrespective of their real talents. Now such a criticism may have been facile, especially since they would have just been comporting with the truth, but that doesn't change that Hill was a meaningful choice.

Updated On: 1/24/12 at 10:47 AM

Again, it's nothing against Hill. Sorkin decided to make a sidekick for Beane who was part of the 'new school' of sabermetrics but physically he made him the nerd stereotype. It was about as creative as when DePodesta briefly became GM of the LA Dodgers getting derided by the LA press as a 'nerd' and most creatively, 'Google boy' for his alleged over-reliance on stats. I just disagree with the choice but the name change allowed Sorkin to go that route. It went beyond say, Sorkin and Fincher interpreting Mark Zuckerberg as somebody possibly on the autistic spectrum in The Social Network. Like you said, henrik, everybody knows Beane played the game, a first round talent who was actually considered to be chosen over Darryl Strawberry by the Mets, but since DePodesta was turned into a fictional in Brand character Sorkin got to play up what a lot of people think of baseball executives, especially those in the saber community (when the book came out, baseball people into sabermetrics were considered just slightly above the people living in their parent's basement).

Martin (I honestly am not a fan to really think he would have been a better choice, even physically) was briefly attached but it was the Soderbergh version that was supposedly going to be part dramatization (script by Steve Zaillian who still has a credit) and part documentary with interviews of Billy Beane, the book's author Michael Lewis, and others. Scott Hatteberg, another interviewing subject, supposedly was just going to play himself in the dramatizations among a few other real-life baseball players. Pitt also had signed up to play Beane in the dramatizations. This movie was essentially just going to be an extension of the book.

I can understand why this version never happened. It sounds closer to a TV movie/doc that would be better off on HBO or ESPN than at your local cinema. You can understand why the studio would prefer a more cinematic treatment and when you have Brad Pitt in a movie, you market and make the movie around him. Still, I would have loved to have seen the Soderbergh version if just for the interviews. The book Moneyball was all what baseball talked about for at least a two years. It was incredibly polarizing, you had to take a side on whether or not you thought this was the future of baseball.

Today, even the most critical people of Beane and his methods would admit there is something to figuring out the most cost-effective ways to look at players. But also today Beane's methods have also become used by his competition and the lack of resources with the A's have once again made his team very vulnerable. I would have loved to have had a follow up, especially from Beane.

It should be noted that Howe HATED his portrayal in the movie and not just for the choice of Hoffman. The book's portrayal of Beane-Howe was little more detached. Howe willfully followed Beane's methods but Beane has always found managers expendable so Howe in the book does come across as a guy who is not really seen as a guy who matters, he is just along for the ride. There was never an instance of Howe clashing with Beane because Art Howe clashing with anybody would have been a first. I do wonder if he was so upset why didn't he just ask to have his name written out.