OSCAR NOMINATIONS OMG

[cleolinda]

@christylemire: Greetings from the Academy. It's Hollywood's biggest morning. We are all very glamorous. And jacked up on caffeine.

@ropeofsilicon: Hugo leads the pack with 11 nominations followed by The Artist with 10.

Comments

[channonyarrow]

Oh god, I hated Martha Marcy May Marlene, despite being a John Hawkes devotee. I'm glad that of this entire clusterfuck (THE HELP? THE HELP? WHAT THE HELL? And also, I cannot STAND Jonathan Safran Foer.) that movie got nothing.

Since I've seen, you know, none of the movies nominated at all, those are the only opinions I will espouse on this.

[cleolinda]

It sounds like The Help is this year's The Blind Side. Except at least the focus isn't on the white actress this time.

[rufinia]

I am thrilled to see Viola Davis and Octavia Spencer get some well-deserved recognition, but I really wish it wasn't for such stereotypical and pigeonholed roles.

[channonyarrow]

This. Exactly this.

Viola Davis was absolutely amazing in Doubt. (And dear god how was that movie out in 2008? TIME IS COMPRESSING ON ME.)

[julietvalcouer]

I would agree, except for some incomprehensible reason Jessica Chastain is also nominated for Best Supporting and may take votes from Spencer.

[cleolinda]

When she could have been nominated for Tree of Life instead. I don't even get it.

[cleolinda]

Yeah, that's pretty much exactly the problem. It's great and dismaying at the same time.

[channonyarrow]

I should clarify that on The Help I'm glad that the actresses nominated were nominated; based on what I know of their other work, they would have done fantastic jobs in the roles. But the concept behind the movie (and the book) itself is so badly handled (at very, very best) to me that I would prefer not to see it nominated for a damn thing.

Viola Davis was amazing in Doubt.

[darth_snarky]

The Help is weird--I wanted to hate it (my grandmother's book club read it, and she loathed it and said it felt completely untrue to the era) but it did a good job of making it as much the maids' story as Skeeter's--Viola Davis really is the heart of the movie. There's an interview with Viola Davis (in a recent EW, I think) where she talks about the "black actress nominated for playing a maid" criticism and how she thought that the role was more than that and went deeper--she played worked as a maid but was also a fully developed character with aspects of her life outside of that. (I'm probably remembering it wrong--her argument sounded better than what I'm typing.)

[litlover12]

^This.

[cleolinda]

Yeah, I read it too. I wish they'd singled out the actresses and not the movie as a whole.