My Absence Explained or: How Technology Bitchslapped Me 3 Days Before the Biggest Day of the Cineyear or: The Clint Ends the 'Dream'
Saturday. January 20th. 09:29am. For over 100 hours.108, to be exact.
Of all of the four-day stints for your cable modem to die on you. Of all of the times. It had to happen to me. This week. Me.
This, of course, explains my lack of finalized predictions, and planned instantaneous nomination reaction. Hell, I had to wait until Wednesday just to find out who was nominated in the other fourteen categories.
Nevertheless. Let us not dwell in the past, but focus on the present. You will have to excuse me for my delayed reaction, as, of course, I have not had the ability to express it in the wide world of webs. So, here it goes:
DREAMGIRLSOMGWTFBBQ!?!blahblahblah.
Honestly, is Clint the Messiah of Tinseltown? Where did this come from? A month or two ago, sure, expected. But not lately. At least not over a heavy frontrunner like "Dreamgirls."
"Dreamgirls", you know, the film with the most nominations this year. The film has the distinct dishonor of becoming the first picture in the history of the Oscars to lead in nominations, but miss Picture. It also missed Director and Screenplay, to boot. The film did, however, have almost as many nominations in one category (Original Song) as "Letters from Iwo Jima" had altogether. "Letters" managed to secure only four nominations: Picture, Director, Original Screenplay, and Sound Editing. In fact, two films ("Dreamgirls, "Pan's Labyrinth") scored as many or more nominations as four Best Picture nominees. This does, indeed, looks to be a "spread the wealth" type of year.
My favorite nomination of the morning, without a doubt, was Paul Greengrass in the Directing category for "United 93." I've been predicting it nearly the entire year, and have been steadfast in my hope and belief that his amazing work would be recognized by the Academy. "United 93" also, expectedly (at least by me), showed up in the Film Editing category.
It was also wonderful to see three well-deserved nominations for "Children of Men," including one for Best Adapted Screenplay. "Apocalypto," "The Prestige," and "Pan's Labyrinth" also delightfully surprised me, each film scoring more than one nomination. The latter, in particular, is the most nominated foreign film since 2000's "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon." It is also very pleasing to see the likes of "Marie Antoinette," "Borat," "Superman Returns," and "The Good Shepherd" on the ballot.
Naturally, the morning did serve its helping of moans and groans. First and foremost, it is unforgivable that Mr. Jack Nicholson is not present in the Best Supporting Actor category. In fact, only one "Departed" performance was recognized by the Academy, that of Mark Wahlberg. DiCaprio did manage to land a Best Actor nomination, albeit for the wrong film. Speaking of, "Blood Diamond" is a five-time Oscar nominee. No, you did not read it wrong. Yes, it is mind-boggling. And I won't even touch "Babel"'s seven nominations.
Oh, and Click: Academy Award nominee. Wow.
It it impossible to read the Academy from this ballot. Honestly, I could see all five of these pictures taking home the biggest award of the night. I'll post my predicted winners this weekend, and update continuously between then and Oscar night.
It's nice to be back.
posted by Shawn Snead @ 1/26/2007 10:48:00 PM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home