'Academy Award Nominations 2010'

'Academy Award Nominations 2010'

I don't know why I have to wake up at 7:00 a.m. to listen to the Oscar nominations! How about have an hour show on television (NBC needs shows to fill that 9 p.m. slot thanks to The Chin) where the nominations are announced. You invite the actors that are pretty much shoo ins to be nominated, feed them, give them drinks. Then we can see how they react when they are nominated. If someone was a shoo in but does not get a nomination we can see them get pissed off. But I woke up so I could hear the nominations like I have since I was a teenager and I was not surprised by any of the nominations for I got 95% of them right. The difference this year is that now there are ten films nominated for Best Picture. This is called "The Dark Knight" rule for with five nominations last year Knight did not make the final five. Now there have been five nominated Best Pictures every year since this all began. This did not need to be fixed because actually Knight would have been nominated but it's slot went to the insufferable "Last Tango With a Nazi" ("The Reader"). The movies that are actually nominated are stuffy, prestige pictures and not big Blockbuster movies. I thought that expanding it to ten would not fix the problem and was ridiculous. What if something like "Star Trek" got nominated? There is a difference between the quality of Trek and The Dark Knight. I was very interested in how these nominations would unfold and actually they didn't do such a bad job. I looked at the ten Best Picture nominees and picked five I am 100% sure would have made it if there were only five slots. I looked at the other five and I actually gave the other five high ratings. Only two movies I had problems with not because they weren't good but because there are others that were better. My number one pick "Adventureland" had no chance of winning a nomination but it was ten times better than the two I had issues with on the Oscar list. So now I will break down each category. Later I will make my picks, issue a little challenge and have a contest. So without further delay...

Best Supporting Actor

1.) Matt Damon-Invictus
2.) Woody Harrelson-The Messenger
3.) Christopher Plummer-The Last Station
4.) Stanley Tucci-The Lovely Bones
5.) Christoph Waltz-Inglorious Basterds

I have not seen Plummer yet in The Last Station so I can't comment on him yet but he can't be better than Waltz? That is my pick because the Academy loves that juicy villain part and a first time screen actor who makes a Wow! impact. He is the best of that bunch though Harrelson is a close second because I love him and his performance was powerful. Tucci doesn't belong and Damon does because Damon's accent is flawless and he is damn good here. The Academy loves him and they should! Waltz is my pick.

Best Supporting Actress

1.) Penelope Cruz-Nine
2.) Vera Farmiga-Up In The Air
3.) Maggie Gyllenhaal-Crazy Heart
4.) Anna Kendrick-Up In The Air
5.) Monique-Precious

"Which of these 5 don't belong with the others?" Sorry I was flipping through channels and caught some "Sesame Street". I don't know why Penelope Cruz is on this list for the crappy "Nine" but I guess her sexy dance turned the men on. I guess when you spread your legs on screen and bump and grind you can get a nomination. So it is a four women race and it is no contest. Monique is earth shattering in her performance as the abusive Mom in "Precious" and will win and deserves it. Maggie Gyllenhaal is a close second and I am falling in love with her and I have been wanting this nomination more than anyone because she was so good here with Jeff Bridges. Also I want to see Vera Farmiga walk up on stage because she could be the sexiest woman on the planet. She was very good as was Anna Kendrick in "Up In The Air" and they were very equal to Clooney. Kendrick gives that first time Wow! impact performance but Monique shocked everyone because she was mostly known as a comedienne and people didn't know Ms. Thing could act! This is the strongest category of all the nominations. let's give it to everyone and Cruz can present it to them. Though this is Monique's race to lose!

Best Actor

1.) Jeff Bridges-Crazy Heart
2.) George Clooney-Up In The Air
3.) Colin Firth-A Single Man
4.) Morgan Freeman-Invictus
5.) Jeremy Renner-The Hurt Locker

This is another strong list but if you read my blog you know what side I am on. Jeff Bridges is I'm afraid miles and miles ahead of everyone here and most of these actors give the best performances of their careers! If Bridges wasn't here it would be Clooney a shoo in to win for this is his best performance of his career! Colin Firth shed his usual delivery mannerisms to give his best performance of his career. Morgan Freeman is amazing and he is Nelson Mandela and his performance is perfection. Jeremy Renner was an actor in mostly small roles until Locker and he is great and will get leading roles now! From "Dahmer" to "The Hurt Locker" there would be no great movie there without Renner's performance. Jeff Bridges though is flawless and amazing and this under appreciated actor will finally get his due and people in the Academy love him!

Best Actress

1.) Sandra Bullock-The Blind Side
2.) Helen Mirren-The Last Station
3.) Carey Mulligan-An Education
4.) Gabourey Sidibe-Precious
5.) Meryl Streep-Julie & Julia

I love this list of actresses for they are such wonderful ladies that deserve this recognition. Of course Meryl Streep was brilliant as Julia Child as was Freeman as Mandela. She was nominated for the right movie here instead of "It's Complicated". I love Sandra Bullock and next to Streep she would give the most kick ass acceptance speech. This wonderful human being is a sweetheart and she is so good in "The Blind Side"! I have not yet seen Mirren but she is a great actress so I am sure she deserved it. That brings me to the two newcomers who make the best debut performances I have ever seen. Carey Mulligan is the second coming of Audrey Hepburn and she is graceful and strong in "An Education". She will I think look the most beautiful in her dress at the ceremony and will look stunning! We might be seeing a major star exploding before our eyes. Gabby Sidibe is so powerful and strong in "Precious" If you see Gabby on talk shows she lights up the room and has such a upbeat and happy persona. Now you watch her performance in "Precious" which is brave and downbeat and you will see an amazing performance and actress. Bullock will win but Mulligan and Sidibe are equal to her performance!

Best Director

1.) James Cameron-Avatar
2.) Kathryn Bigelow-The Hurt Locker
3.) Quentin Tarantino-Inglorious Basterds
4.) Lee Daniels-Precious
5.) Jason Reitman-Up In The Air

With ten films being nominated for Best Picture, picking five directors would be hard but I like this list. It is going to be a battle between the ex husband and wife in Cameron and Bigelow. Bigelow won the Director's Guild award so she will win here and only Cameron has an outside chance. He has already won so Bigelow will be the first woman to win Best Director and that makes me very happy! I was worried Daniels wouldn't be nominated but he was and if he didn't get nominated it would be a crime. Basterds is my favorite movie that was nominated so I would love to see Quentin win but he should have won already for "Pulp Fiction". Jason Reitman is becoming an assured and great director and he will be nominated again and again in the future. Bigelow will win and and women will rule!

Best Picture

1.) Avatar
2.) The Blind Side
3.) District 9
4.) An Education
5.) The Hurt Locker
6.) Inglorious Basterds
7.) Precious
8.) A Serious Man
9.) Up
10.) Up In The Air

So Avatar, The Hurt Locker, Inglorious Basterds, Up In The Air and Precious would be my picks for nominations if there were only five. This is an easy list to make that guess because "District 9" is a genre film and science fiction movie and they rarely get nominated. "An Education" was more about performance, "Up" will win Best Animated film so it would not have been nominated. "The Blind Side" would be this year's "The Dark Knight" and "A Serious Man" is too small and independent of a contender. For me "The Blind Side" and "A Serious Man" don't belong but not that they weren't great, they were just not Oscar caliber. Two is not bad so actually I am glad there were extra spots. Maybe this ten films being nominated isn't bad but you can't tell until more years have passed. Next year could be a travesty though if some films are nominated in the future that don't deserve any recognition. This will definitely make the show more interesting and attention will be paid to little films that would have been shut out if there were only five Best Picture nominations. I also look forward to Alec Baldwin and Steve Martin hosting, should be very funny!

This was a pretty good list of nominations overall. The only light snubs I could see were "The Hangover" for picture but I don't think the Oscars are ready for a big vulgar comedy to be nominated. I did want a nomination for "Crazy Heart" and "Where the Wild Things Are" but that's okay, "Adventureland" is my number one movie so there you go. For acting I would have liked to see Ben Foster for "The Messenger" and Alfred Molina and Peter Sarsgaard for "An Education". The only reason I can see for them to be snubbed was only because "An Education" is a strong women's film and it's the breathtaking Mulligan's movie! So for nominations that could have been a joke this was an actually a good year with no surprises.