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02 February 2010

Oscar Nominations! [More:]Who's excited? How many of the nominees have you seen? Me, erm, none, as usual.
Whoa, I've seen 5 of the best picture nominees. Most years I haven't seen any. When they went from 5 to ten picks, they must have added the five I've seen.

I would have to take back a lot of the mean things I've said about the Academy Awards if Up actually won best picture.
posted by BoringPostcards 02 February | 09:21
Despite having seen none of the movies, I still want Mo'Nique to win for Best Supporting Actress because I adore her.
posted by ThePinkSuperhero 02 February | 09:27
I've seen Inglourious Basterds and that's it for the Best Picture ones. I didn't know they had increased the number of nominations.

Of the others, I've seen Star Trek and Sherlock Holmes. Sherlock Holmes was the only one I saw in the theatre.
posted by gaspode 02 February | 09:33
I have seen 5 of them also. . .
posted by danf 02 February | 09:33
I haven't seen any of them, but that's not surprising. I never keep up with what's in theaters anymore. (Not like I was all over it to begin with.)
posted by sperose 02 February | 09:34
Oh, and all I can say is Matt Damon or Morgan Freeman better not bloody well win. Bloody South African victory grar. Bet the movie doesn't show all the All Blacks (NZ rugby team) puking their guts out on the sideline because they all had food poisoning and that's why they lost...

/stillbitterafteralltheseyears
posted by gaspode 02 February | 09:34
Christoph Waltz HAD BETTER WIN that supporting one. He was incredible in Inglourious Basterds.

I've actually seen a few this year. I'd really like to see Crazy Heart, but...it's not playing here, and I can't find it online either! BOO. I am 99% sure that Precious is one of those movies I'll just never bring myself to watch though, despite its reported greatness.
posted by richat 02 February | 10:38
If the Academy's hearts and consciences don't name "Hurt Locker" the best picture, they will at least have a chance to award Kathryn Bigelow the best director award.

But since the Oscars are just another industry award show they'll surely cream all over something fake or uplifting or otherwise not particularly useful.
posted by Hugh Janus 02 February | 10:55
Also, thank god Avatar didn't get anything for WRITING, because visually beautiful it may be, but what a crap pile of writing. I thought maybe George Lucas ghost-wrote that script.
posted by richat 02 February | 10:57
I absolutely loved "Inglourious Basterds." Not so much "Up." Need to see "The Hurt Locker." Would like to see "Up In The Air" and "Precious."

I strangely have no interest in "Avatar."

Smart money is on one of the best pictures that also has a director nomination winning - still five films. The extra press is nice for the other five movies, I guess.
posted by rainbaby 02 February | 11:09
I've seen, in order of preference: District 9, The Hurt Locker, Up, Avatar, Inglourious Basterds.

They seem to be talking up Avatar as the favourite. Hope not. It's not a dire movie, and the effects are great, but apart from that it just seems pretty thin compared to the others.
posted by TheophileEscargot 02 February | 11:27
Time to break out my Best Picture prediction method! It ranks the nominees on a scale of 1 to 10 in the three elements of Academy Award success:

Broad Appeal (Based on box office, popular relevance, and universality of premise. Think "LASERS!!!" rather than "tribulations of a Jewish academic.")
Important But Not Particularly Controversial Message
Production Values (Includes effects, design, style, general execution.)

Here's the 2010 pool in ascending order of composite score. (Please note that the scores represent only the Academy's probable opinions. Bringing your own feelings into the prediction game is a great way to lose five bucks in the office pool.)

A Serious Man: 4 (appeal) + 4 (message) + 9 (production) = 17
An Education: 5 + 5 + 8 = 18
The Blind Side: 7 + 8 + 5 = 20
Inglourious Basterds: 8 + 3 + 9 = 20
The Hurt Locker: 8 + 5 + 8 = 21
District 9: 8 + 7 + 8 = 21 (one point docked for genre, and one more for having "9" in the title)
Up In The Air: 7 + 8 + 7 = 22
Precious: 6 + 11 + 7 = 24
Up: 9 + 7 + 9 = 25
Avatar: 10 + 8 + 10 = 27 (one point docked for genre.)

Sorry, TheophileEscargot. Barring a late surge from Up , it's gonna be Avatar.
posted by Iridic 02 February | 12:43
I've seen 7 of the ten best film nominees and A Serious Man is out on dvd today . so i just have to track down The Blind Side and An Education and I'm all set
posted by rollick 02 February | 12:56
Ugh, Brad Pitt is such a stupid character in Inglouriouous Besterds. The german SS cornel (why is colonel pronounced cornel in English) Landa is very striking though.
I wish Tarantino would just stop it with all the smirking references to trashy movies.
posted by jouke 02 February | 14:21
Aargh, good analysis Iridic. But I still have hope! Most of the Academy are pretty elderly: maybe the 3D will give them headaches or they won't be able to fit the glasses over their bifocals. Or they'll watch the DVD screeners on small home 2D TVs and wonder what the fuss was about.
posted by TheophileEscargot 02 February | 14:36
Bet the movie doesn't show all the All Blacks (NZ rugby team) puking their guts out on the sideline because they all had food poisoning and that's why they lost...


And it wasn't all Buckner's fault either!
posted by danf 02 February | 15:16
I still haven't seen District 8.
posted by dhartung 02 February | 16:34
Not a big Oscar fan (I mean seriously, the film industry rewarding itself?) in fact I can't even remember the last time I watched it. But I've seen more of the films than normal so what the hey. First of all the 10 Best Picture biz? Rubbish. Clearly more self-promotion from the industry. That being said, the "extra" five (considering the typical 1-1 of the best director with best picture) contains some films that genuinely deserve some recognition. Glad to see A Serious Man make it in there, my second favorite film from the year. Good to see them put a an animated feature into the best picture, though I preferred Fantastic Mr. Fox over UP (which was still great). Of the putative best pictures that I haven't seen I feel I should see The Hurt Locker and Inglorious Basterds, though after Kill Bill I vowed that was the last "I want to make a genre film, not tell a story" film I'd see from Tarantino. I'll put them on the ol Netflix Queue.

I'm pretty uninterested in the best director noms, mainly as I haven't seen many of those films. Bigelow is the favorite and she certainly is a fine director, I still need to see Hurt Locker of course, but I'd rather she won over the others nominated just on principle. I think Jarumusch's direction for Limits of Control was my favorite of those I saw this year. I really need to see The White Ribbon though. Speaking of which, based on the trailer alone, I hope The White Ribbon wins cinematography. I tend to feel that direction and cinematography are what's key to what I like in a film and thus those are things I pay the most attention to. Pretty lackluster in these two categories this year IMO. Limits of Control and A Serious Man would lead my votes in both of those categories.

Along with direction and cinematography writing is the third piece of the puzzle that I pay a lot of attention to and good to see District 9 in adapted and A Serious Man in original screenplays. Those both had solid scripts and interesting ideas. Also good to see UP in the mix, Pixar really pays so much attention to writing, setting itself apart from the bulk of animated features, so it's good to see that recognized.

The lack of Ponyo in best animated feature is a shame, though otherwise a decent crop there. I haven't seen Book of Kells yet, but it has a nice design aesthetic. I'm sure UP has this one in the bag but I'd like to see Fantastic Mr. Fox win. Maybe after Wall-E taking it all last year they'll diversify. Then again UP almost directly targets the aged academy voter demographic, so yeah.

I don't have too much to say on the various actor noms, though I hope Bridges wins for actor. Not that I've seen Crazy Heart, but I think he's due and all reports are that his performance is brilliant there. Of the films I did see I thought Michael Stuhlbarg's lead in A Serious Man was the best.
posted by kodama 02 February | 17:51
I've only seen four of the best picture nominees. My lame thoughts:

I'll be sad if Avatar wins, because I think it was pretty dire 1. Sad, but not surprised, since it had buzz, and they can double up on best picture/director and look less fickle in their Cameron gushing.

"Up in the Air" was not something to be rewarded either, unless they could give an award directly to Auntie Gyllenhall's Vera Farmiga's eyes. But this was too much just the latest Clooney movie to win.

"Up" was a lot better than I thought it would be, and maybe my own favorite, but it showed a little too much generic Pixar formula storytelling. (Too many reversals and tenuously motivated MacGuffin chases in the second act; third act consumed by The Big Action Sequence.) Within that framework Pixar has so much brilliant little cleverness, but I think they really need to step a few feet back from the storyboard and look again. One of the best Pixar movies, but still Just the latest Pixar movie; not a winner.

Inglorious Basterds. Good whenever Col. Landa or Shosanna was on screen. The Basterds themselves were silly distractions Tarantino could invoke to fill time, because he can't really make a full movie out of one story, can he?
posted by fleacircus 02 February | 18:27
I saw (in order of preference:
District 9
UP
Inglourious Basterds
Avatar

Christoph Waltz must win supporting actor. He was stunningly good in Inglourious Basterds. And District 9 was a surprisingly good film and I'm rather disappointed that the lead actor, Sharlto Copley, didn't get nominated for best actor.
posted by deborah 03 February | 15:35
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