Thursday, January 22, 2009

Behold, Your New King

Alright, so not really. And although I may have predicted The Reader in both Picture and Director, where it scored (not so) surprise nods, I'm certainly not happy about it. The Dark Knight may have been ridiculously overhyped and it's not as good as a lot of people would have you believe, but it's still far superior to 'that Holocaust movie' (you know that's how it's going to be described). I would pass judgment on the other nominees there- I get the impression it's hardly a stellar line-up- but in fact The Reader is the only one of the Best Pictures nominees I have so far seen. (Slumdog is tomorrow.)

I am obviously also extremely irritated by the Sally Hawkins snub. It's not as though they didn't respond to the film- Mike Leigh got a nod in Original Screenplay. Which, when you think about Mike Leigh films, is a bit silly, because they're largely improvised and surely more down to his direction and the acting. But oh well. It's just one thing we'll have to live with. Again, my viewing in this category is limited- only Jolie, who shouldn't be there, and Winslet, who I'd swap for Sally in a heartbeat. Sorry, Kate, but you've done so much better. (At least they put her in the right category, though. Fight the category fraud, AMPAS!)

In other news, pleased Dev Patel was passed over (he was always my least favourite on Skins); I totally ballsed up the Original Screenplay category but the results are certainly interesting; pleased for Melissa Leo (I'm taking in Frozen River tonight), if just because it's nice that an early-release and non-famous actress got in; taken off-guard by the double-appearance of Wanted, but not in a bad way; and totally befuddled by Original Song, both because there were only three and because the Boss was conspicuously absent.

Oh, and my percentage was 68% (69 out of 99). That's up from last year but still worse than the year before.

2 comments:

Calum Reed said...

Congrats on the Reader pick. When it's tight they just revert back to type, don't they?

I'm actually not pleased about Winslet's lead nom. It's the right category but it makes things much more predictable at the Oscars :-(

Oh and I feel your pain about Sally. *Hugs*. My hope is that people may actually remember or see her in years to come because the nominated five are all drama. Kinda like a "Who won the comedy globe that year, then?" or a "Who's that girl that won the NYFCC and LAFCA? I don't see her in the Oscar lineup". Whatever, she's etched in our minds forever.

:-)

J.D. said...

The only thing better is if you actually LIKED IT. :P

I'm pissed people are proud of AMPAS for "fighting category fraud". Am I the only person who still remembers Casey LAST YEAR? There's enough animosity within me from that to last me forever.

Dev Patel would've been category fraud too, had he made it in (thank god he didn't). Sure he fucking shares the character with two other actors, but he's in from beginning to end and has the vastly largest chunk of Jamal.

Oh, and I got 74/99. I'm bitchy tonight.