Ok, the grouch is me. The nominations for the Oscars were announced today, and I was a little disappointed. I enjoyed Chicago as much as the next guy (and even more than I thought I would), but I think its 13(!) nominations are way out of line. Nothing against Queen Latifah or John C. Reilly, but I really didn’t think they did all that much to deserve their nominations.
Especially galling is that Dennis Quaid’s fine fine work in Far From Heaven was overlooked, as was director Todd Haynes. I was also surprised to see both Adaptation and About Schmidt shut out of the Best Picture and Best Director nominations.
I guess that with a war looming, Americans would rather see escapist fluff like Chicago than more quirky, difficult, challenging, or yes, depressing movies. Which is why I think it will sweep most of the awards it’s nominated for. And that’s too bad, since it’s not a terrible movie. It’s just not a great movie.
Another surprise was that Talk To Her, the acclaimed film from Pedro Almodovar, was not submitted by Spain as its entrant for Best Foreign Language Film. I bet it would have wiped the floor with the other nominees, though I haven’t seen it yet. It gives me a little hope that one of my favourites, The Man Without A Past, might have a chance. I wrote a little about that film here.
As always, I covet your comments.
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