Nominees Are.

[rockmarooned]

Thoughts on those nominations:

First and foremost, Paul Giamatti getting left out is atrocious--and that’s coming from someone who considers Sideways overrated. But Giamatti is the best thing about the movie, and to nominate his fine but not particularly amazing costars and not him is, in industry speak, severely retarded. I love Johnny Depp,

Comments

[wmetoile]

so other worthy contenders (Eastwood, Scorsese, Green)

Green? As in David Gordon, for Undertow?

I wonder how you manage to ignore The Aviator so completely. It's not that it's a "Marty film," it's that it's a mastery of the elements of storytelling on film. And it looks, sounds, and feels so incredibly vivid. You have to just cave when he's using period-appropriate film-processing techniques for the colors through the decades.

I'm totally behind you for a Hellboy makeup nomination. Seriously, y'all. They turned Ron Perlman into a seven-foot-tall demon with a stone hand, for crying out loud. Additionally, I too am bothered for the slighting of Sky Captain, which was not just a vastly entertaining experience, but was also a huge leap forward in moviemaking technology. And Angelina had an eye patch and Gwyneth didn't annoy the crap out of me, so, really. Should've gotten at least visual effects.

[slightlyoffaxis]

Did you see Undertow? It seriously ruled.

[rockmarooned]

Yeah, Green as in David Gordon. I loved Undertow and he gets better with each movie.

I wonder how you manage to ignore The Aviator so completely.

So completely?! I give it Actor (despite the age issue), Supporting Actress, Cinematography, and Costumes (I miscounted, above-- it got 4, not 3) and admit that it was tough to leave Marty out of Director.

The other major categories where I left it out were:

Editing, where I was borderline-- the technique is often great, but I feel hesitant to nominate movies for editing when one of my only complaints about them was that they're a little too long. Aviator, Kill Bill V2, and Life Aquatic were three movies I thought were very technically accomplished but between 5 and 10 minutes too long each.

Screenplay, which I think is fair because the movie is a triumph of almost everything else *over* a decent but unspectacular script.

It just missed my top ten of the year, and I might see it again. I think latter-day Scorsese is mad underrated, between this and Gangs of New York (which I

[wmetoile]

Have not seen Undertow, although I saw the trailer about forty times when I was at the MGM Grand in October. RE: Marty, mea culpa.

[slightlyoffaxis]

I KNEW you picked Nicole Kidman just to spite me. She could've done Birth in her sleep! Good call on Bryce Dallas Howard, though.

Best song is, of course, "I'm Slack-Jawed and Lonely" from Phantom. Who could imagine the movie without that song in it? I demand that Michael Crawford sing it at the ceremonies.

I generally like Michael Moore more than anyone else, but I'm glad he shot himself in the foot. Make way for Tupac: Resurrection.

Yay for Lemony Snicket!

[wonkywheels]

No Paul Giamatti is really whack.

[the55]

I dunno, I still pulling for the Huckabees write-in camp. Anyhow. The Hours was rad. All movies are good! Harry Potter 3 should win 8 oscars for saving that whole billion dollar enterprise from shitdom. Yow! Anyway, i think we should pay a lot of attention to this list of nominations, even more than the critics awards or the golden globes, this one bears the most relevance to how the oscars will drop. In my experience.

[rockmarooned]

Actually, the nominations as predictors of who will win has long been exaggerated. Last year's best picture winner, Racing Stripes, wasn't even released in 2003, let alone nominated!