Thursday, January 22, 2009

Oscars on my mind

I must make a confession before I opine about the nominations that were announced earlier today—I love the Academy Awards: the red carpet, the ceremony, the speeches, the movies. I am a huge fan. It must come from my overall love of movies. I get lost in the movement, story lines and for those Oscar-nominated few—the compelling performances. So, I was incredibly excited for the nominees list. 

With that said, I must also confess that I was somewhat disappointed by the list. My points of contention are as follows:

  • The Dark Knight's non-nomination for Best Picture: Though the movie is based on a comic book, it takes movies in this genre to a new level and, in my opinion, creates an even greater expectation for comic book movies—even action movies—in the future. 
  • Kate Winslet's one nomination: I have not seen The Reader yet (though I am currently reading the book and plan to see it because of my love of Winslet's performances) but her performance in Revolutionary Road was by far one of the best I've seen all year. 
  • Leo DiCaprio's snub: Similar to Winslet, DiCaprio's performance was one of the best of his career. 
  • No love for Christopher Nolan: The Dark Knight's director should have been nominated—end of story.
  • Bruce Springsteen: I'm a fan of recognizing as many original songs as there is space alloted. There is no reason two songs from Slumdog Millionaire (though I love them) need to be nominated over Springsteen's song from The Wrestler, especially when there are only three noms in this category currently and his song won the Golden Globe. It reminds me of the year three songs from Dreamgirls (a musical) had three noms in this category and did not win any of them ...
I think that covers just about everything. Congrats to the first time noms! I'll be crossing my fingers for Kate Winslet, Heath Ledger and Slumdog Millionaire come Oscar night. 

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