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Home Subscribe About Us Features News Album Reviews Movie Reviews Past Movies Movie Resources Concert Reviews Book Reviews Top 10 Contact Us	2010---Oscar Nominations : The Crowd Gathers By Marie Asner February 2, Groundhog Day and also Academy Award nominations for 2009 films. The actual ceremony will be Sunday, March 7, 2010. This doesn’t give Hollywood much time to view films they haven’t seen yet. Screeners to Academy members will be guarded as closely as Fort Knox. The groundhog did see his shadow today, so wouldn’t that be something if it snowed in Hollywood on March 7, directed by James Cameron, of course. This year, the Academy decided to list ten films in contention for the Best Film award. My guess is that it will include those films that don’t stand a chance of a win, but will get publicity, anyway. I’m referencing “District 9,” which was on my Worst Film List (http://www.tollbooth.org/2010/movies/asner.html ) this year, and “An Education” which had over-the-top acting by Alfred Molina as the father of the young woman (Carey Mulligan) who receives an education in life. When you think about it, just about every film has an education in life, including “District 9.” Be nice to aliens from another planet. In the Best Actor category, Jeff Bridges in “Crazy Heart” has been cleaning up on awards, along with George Clooney for “Up In The Air.” Bridges does his own singing while Clooney, well Clooney does Clooney. Colin Firth in “A Single Man” burns the screen with silent intensity, and Morgan Freeman has Nelson Mandela down pat. Jeremy Renner in “The Hurt Locker” gets my vote. He portrays a man who is in love with war and the more bombs he defuses, the better he likes it. Reminds me of Steve McQueen as the bomber pilot in “The War Lover.” Left out: Viggio Mortensen for “The Road” and Tobey Maguire for “Brothers.” Actor in a Supporting Role is sewn up by Christoph Waltz’s performance as the Nazi officer in “Inglourious Basterds.” This film is on my Worst Film list, but Waltz’s performance glows. Matt Damon (“Invictus“), Woody Harrelson (“The Messenger“), Christopher Plummer (“The Last Station“) or Stanley Tucci (“The Lovely Bones“) are great, but will probably be on the sidelines. Left out: Stanley Tucci for “Julie & Julia,” Ben Foster for “The Messenger“, Christopher Plummer for “The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus,” Rupert Friend for “The Young Victoria” and Christian McKay for “Me and Orson Welles.” Actress in a Leading Role is turning out to be a contest between Meryl Streep as Julia Child in “Julie & Julia” and Sandra Bullock in “The Blind Side.” Streep also gave a glowing performance in “It’s Complicated,” but she nails Child as a chef. Bullock gives an OK performance in an OK film that flows like a made-for-television movie. Carey Mulligan in “An Education” was given awkward dialogue and this produced an uneven performance. Gabourey Sidibe in “Precious” had so much happen to her it was like the “Perils of Pauline.” Helen Mirren in “The Last Station,” was in a film that few have seen in this country. My vote is for Meryl Streep. Left Out: Emily Blunt for “The Young Victoria.” Actress in a Supporting Role is up for grabs, but Mo’Nique plays an unwholesome character in “Precious” and is garnering notice. Penelope Cruz tossed her hair and stared at the camera in “Nine,” while Anna Kendrick was a novice executive and Vera Farmiga a mature executive in “Up in the Air.“ Kendrick seemed uneasy in her role, while Farmiga was smooth. Maggie Gyllenhaal in “Crazy Heart,” also did an OK performance in an OK film. Vera Farmiga gets my vote. Left out: Kathy Bates for “The Blind Side,” plus Melanie Laurent and Diane Kruger for “Inglourious Basterds.” What can I say about the Animated Feature category? When I saw “Up,” I said, “This is it. An animated film for children and adults and seniors. Something for everyone.” “Coraline” had a family rating but scared many adults, “Fantastic Mr. Fox’s” animation was tiring after a bit, “The Princess and the Frog” was rated G but had voodoo and “The Secret of Kells” wasn’t shown widely. “Up” gets my vote. Left out: “Cloudy With A Chance Of Meatballs.” Cinematography has “Avatar” (Mauro Fiore) written all over it. “Inglourious Basterds” (Robert Richardson) went from fighting to theater, but I would have put “Star Trek” (Daniel Mindel) in the cinematography category. “Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince” (Bruno Delbonnel) has the usual wizardry, “The White Ribbon” (Christian Berger) was not shown widely and “The Hurt Locker” (Barry Ackroyd) gave us the intricacies of a bomb. I vote for “Avatar,” but wish for “Star Trek." Best Director should have ten nominations also, if the Academy is going to do ten for Best Film. Two of the nominees have done a creative job, including (and probably the winner) James Cameron for “Avatar” and then Kathryn Bigelow for “The Hurt Locker.” Would you believe? They were once married to each other? Quentin Tarentino for “Inglourious Basterds” did better at writing the script than pulling the cast together. Lee Daniels did OK with “Precious” and Jason Reitman just let Clooney do Clooney in “Up In The Air.” My personal vote would be for Kathryn Bigelow for “The Hurt Locker,” which has no blue animation. Left Out: J. J. Abrams for “Star Trek” and Pete Doctor for the animated “Up.” Best Foreign Language Film is vacant as none of the films, “Ajami” (Israel), “El Secreto de Sus Ojos” (Argentina), “The Milk of Sorrow” (Peru), “Un Prophete” (France) and “The White Ribbon” (Germany) have played or screened near my area of the U.S. Documentaries have come to the forefront in recent years and in this group, two, “The Cove” and “Food, Inc.” are about sad things done to animals. You may never even look at lettuce the same again. The other films, “Burma VJ,” “The Most Dangerous Man in America: Daniel Ellsberg and the Pentagon Papers” and “Which Way Home” did not receive much screen time at all. I vote for “The Cove.” Left Out: “Michael Jackson: This Is It," " Earth," “Capitalism: A Love Story” (by Michael Moore), “The September Issue” and “Every Little Step." Best Adapted Screenplay is wide open. I would prefer not vote for any of the nominees, instead pulling for Roberto Orci and Alex Kurtzman for “Star Trek.” So there, you can still make something new out of something old. The nominations are for “District 9” (Neil Blomkamp and Terri Tatchell), “An Education” (Nick Hornby), “In the Loop” (Jesse Armstrong, Simon Blackwell, Armando Iannucci and Tony Rocher), “Precious” (Geoffrey Fletcher) and “Up in the Air” (Jason Reitman and Sheldon Turner). Left Out: Joe Penhall for “The Road” and Tom Ford for “A Single Man.” Best Original Screenplay has two of my personal favorites and that is “Up” (Bob Peterson, Pete Doctor and Tom McCarthy) and “The Hurt Locker” (Mark Boal). Here was an animated film (“Up“) that combined the love in growing older with the joy of youth in an unusual adventure with balloons. “The Hurt Locker” turned war into a love affair with explosives. I would declare a tie here, from both ends of the writing spectrum. “The Messenger” (Alessandro Camon and Oren Moverman) tells an effective story with sparse dialogue. Though I didn’t care for the direction of “Inglourious Basterds, ” as a whole Quentin Tarentino’s original screenplay had enough impossibilities to garner attention. Joel Coen and Ethan Coen did not have their finest moment with “A Serious Man” that left some in the audience wondering who the audience should have been, anyway. Left Out: Julian Fellowes for “The Young Victoria” and Jane Campion for “Bright Star.” Original Music Score will probably be won by James Horner for “Avatar,” but I would protest. I still have a headache from the South Pacific music that is used as background for the planet Pandora. Original music means just that, original. I prefer the ambience of Michael Giacchino for “Up.” (One of the delicious ironies here, is that Michael Giacchino also composed the compelling soundtrack for "Star Trek.") “Fantastic Mr. Fox” (Alexandre Desplat) was not memorable. “The Hurt Locker” (Marco Beltrami and Buck Sanders) was effective as was Hans Zimmer’s every-which-way music for “Sherlock Holmes.” I vote for “Up.” And now, the best is saved for last. Of the ten films nominated for Best Picture---and you wonder, will there be eleven next year and twelve the year after? Just saying… James Cameron’s “Avatar” is cleaning up at the box office so much so, that Mr. Cameron will be able to buy one or two countries soon. “The Blind Side” is an OK, feel-good sentimental film, and I still don’t see the attraction. “District 9” gives a new bent on an alien invasion, with a twist that speaks of a Saturday night television horror film. Bet there was less popcorn sold during that film. “An Education” had dialogue that seemed out-of-place for the lead actress (Carey Mulligan) and smarmy for the leading man (Peter Sarsgaard). It felt as though the cast should have had another run-through before filming. “The Hurt Locker” gave us war in a distant land where some soldiers are afraid of being afraid while others embrace it. “Inglourious Basterds” is a colorful film on the premise “what if?” What if Jewish soldiers could win over Nazi soldiers? It went on way too long. “Precious” gives the audience so much to think about, and so many things that happen to the lead actress, that you are overwhelmed and not in an interested way. “A Serious Man” is in this same vein, so much happens to the lead actor that the film loses appeal. Enough is enough. “Up,” with colorful balloons atop the house, flying animals, a boy wanting attention and an old man enclosed within himself, captured the audience and with animation, too. Who would have thought…“Up in the Air” is an average story that cuts between airline flying, checking in and out of hotels and drinking in bars, so that when an actual story comes along, you are ready to check out, also. My vote is for “The Hurt Locker,” but “Avatar” will probably win. Left Out: “Star Trek.” That’s it for this year. See you next year on Oscar nomination day. Enjoy.