The Oscars
The nominations are in.
Naomi Watts got robbed of a best actress nomination. Mulholland Drive got only Lynch's best director nomination. Poor Lynch. His films will probably never get their due from the Academy, but somehow I don't think he really cares. His was probably the best film of 2001.
A Beautiful Mind don't deserve a best picture nomination. It was just alright, nothing special. In a few years no one will be talking about it anymore.
Gene Hackman deserved a best actor nomination. He was the best thing in Heist, the best thing in The Royal Tenenbaums. He's an amazing actor for the way he takes a role and makes it something that is both his own and yet apart from what's on the page.
Waking Life got robbed of a best animated film nomination. It was a better film than both Shrek and Monsters Inc., and thought I haven't seen Jimmy Neutron, I highly doubt it was better than Waking Life.
Amelie got a best cinematography nomination? I didn't think the Paris in Amerlie was anywhere nearly as charming as the one in real life, and the cinematography wasn't anything special.
There You'll Be from Pearl Harbor got a best song nomination? That's one of the worst pop songs I heard all year.
In the Mood for Love didn't even get a best foreign picture nomination. It was a far better film than Amelie, which was fun but also manipulative fluff.
When's the last time that the Best Documentary category didn't include a single documentary about the Holocaust? This is the first time I can remember since tracking the Oscars closely. Just an interesting sidenote.
Well, at least we didn't see Harry Potter all over the place.
Whoopi Goldberg as host--I would have preferred Steve Martin again, or even better, Jim Carrey. The Academy would never let Jim Carrey host, and that's a damn shame, because he'd be the funniest of them all.
Griping about Oscar nominations is a pointless exercise, though. Look at the demographic profile of the average Academy member and then you'll realize that the nominations every year make perfect sense. Just tune in to see what the movie stars wear, and continue to watch the movies you love. Don't confuse the Oscars for any objective measure of a film's worth. I wish there was a movie awards show that had a younger voting demographic than the Oscars, with its old Academy members. But the MTV Movie Awards are too young, and the other awards shows out there (Golden Globes, AFI) are no better than the Oscars and are in someways worse since they don't have anywhere near the viewership and pomp and circumstance which make the Oscars the spectacular voyeuristic event it is.
Seriously, if they used to have classical music awards back in the 17th and 18th centuries, would people like Mozart and Beethoven just win every year? And if they didn't, would they really care?
Naomi Watts got robbed of a best actress nomination. Mulholland Drive got only Lynch's best director nomination. Poor Lynch. His films will probably never get their due from the Academy, but somehow I don't think he really cares. His was probably the best film of 2001.
A Beautiful Mind don't deserve a best picture nomination. It was just alright, nothing special. In a few years no one will be talking about it anymore.
Gene Hackman deserved a best actor nomination. He was the best thing in Heist, the best thing in The Royal Tenenbaums. He's an amazing actor for the way he takes a role and makes it something that is both his own and yet apart from what's on the page.
Waking Life got robbed of a best animated film nomination. It was a better film than both Shrek and Monsters Inc., and thought I haven't seen Jimmy Neutron, I highly doubt it was better than Waking Life.
Amelie got a best cinematography nomination? I didn't think the Paris in Amerlie was anywhere nearly as charming as the one in real life, and the cinematography wasn't anything special.
There You'll Be from Pearl Harbor got a best song nomination? That's one of the worst pop songs I heard all year.
In the Mood for Love didn't even get a best foreign picture nomination. It was a far better film than Amelie, which was fun but also manipulative fluff.
When's the last time that the Best Documentary category didn't include a single documentary about the Holocaust? This is the first time I can remember since tracking the Oscars closely. Just an interesting sidenote.
Well, at least we didn't see Harry Potter all over the place.
Whoopi Goldberg as host--I would have preferred Steve Martin again, or even better, Jim Carrey. The Academy would never let Jim Carrey host, and that's a damn shame, because he'd be the funniest of them all.
Griping about Oscar nominations is a pointless exercise, though. Look at the demographic profile of the average Academy member and then you'll realize that the nominations every year make perfect sense. Just tune in to see what the movie stars wear, and continue to watch the movies you love. Don't confuse the Oscars for any objective measure of a film's worth. I wish there was a movie awards show that had a younger voting demographic than the Oscars, with its old Academy members. But the MTV Movie Awards are too young, and the other awards shows out there (Golden Globes, AFI) are no better than the Oscars and are in someways worse since they don't have anywhere near the viewership and pomp and circumstance which make the Oscars the spectacular voyeuristic event it is.
Seriously, if they used to have classical music awards back in the 17th and 18th centuries, would people like Mozart and Beethoven just win every year? And if they didn't, would they really care?