This year's Oscar nominees were announced this morning, and it was for the most part the films and people that the critics were telling us to expect.
There were a few surprises, though. Christopher Nolan was snubbed for Best Director on Inception. While I characterized the film as "good, not great," and would place it in the lower echelons of Nolan's work, I still can't understand the rationale here. If you're going to nominate the film for Best Picture, don't you have to acknowledge that it could only be as good as it was because of the director?
Of the 10 films up for Best Picture, I've seen six already. The other four fall into, maybe-maybe-not territory, though that's better than past years, where there have been films in the running I absolutely have not wanted to see. Not sure if I'll get past my general disinterest in boxing movies to take in the said-to-be-fantastic acting in The Fighter. Not sure if my dislike of Darren Aronofsky films will give way to the same praise of Black Swan. Not sure if, having just seen Buried and being unimpressed, if I want to see 127 Hours, which sounds like "Buried Under a Rock." And just plain not sure if Winter's Bone will ever pass out of "Very Long Wait" in my Netflix queue now that it's a nominated film.
Of those six Best Picture contenders I have seen, four made my personal top 10 list as well (with another just edged out). I believe this might be the greatest overlap there has ever been between my personal film tastes and those of the Academy voters. Still, I don't expect my personal favorite, Toy Story 3, to win anything but Best Animated Feature. Pixar is stuck at the kids' table again.
We'll see how it all turns out soon enough.
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