The 8 Ball 01.31.12: The Top 8 2012 Oscar Snubs
Posted by Jeremy Thomas on 01.31.2012
From Alan Rickman for Best Supporting Actor in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows - Part 2 and David Fincher for Best Director on The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo to Tinker Tailor Solider Spy as Best Picture and more, 411's Jeremy Thomas breaks down the top 8 Oscar Nomination snubs of 2012!
Welcome, one and all, to the 8 Ball in the Movie Zone! I'm your host Jeremy Thomas and as always, we will be tackling a topic and providing you the top eight selections of that particular category. Keep in mind that this list is meant to be my personal opinion and not a definitive list. You're free to disagree; you can even say my list is wrong, but stating that an opinion is "wrong" is just silly. With that in mind, let's get right in to it!
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Right on the heels of my top films of 2011 list, the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts & Sciences announced their nominations for the top films of the year. It's almost as if I planned that timing! Anyway, this year was a typical year with choices that many agreed with and ones that people didn't; ones that were expected and others that were big surprises. I am mostly happy with the nominations but there are a few that missed out who I just can't get on board with. That being said, I thought this would be a good week to look at my top 8 nominations that should have happened but didn't.
Caveat: I did try to keep my Top 8 to one snub per film. The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo had a few I could have considered (as did Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy and 50/50) but I decided to spread the outrage a little.
Just Missing The Cut
We Were Here - Best Documentary
Jessica Chastain for The Tree of Life - Best Supporting Actress The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo - Best Picture
#8: Joseph Gordon-Levitt for 50/50 - Best Actor
When it comes to Best Actor, the actual winner is pretty much established as being a two-person race between Jean Dujardin for The Artist and George Clooney for The Descendants, and I'm okay with that. Both actors did an exceptional job and deserve their just dues. But I'm definitely disappointed with the Academy's failure to nominate Joseph Gordon-Levitt for a performance that is just as emotional Clooney's work and just as honest as Dujardin's. 50/50 was one of my favorite films of the year and an enormous amount of that credit goes to Gordon-Levitt, who showed once again why he's the king of the independent film. As his Adam travels through this journey of cancer, both the good times and the bad, he takes us along with him and we find ourselves believing it. Cancer-themed films can often be overly schmaltzy and sentimental and that has to do as much with the performances as the writing. In this case, both aspects nicely avoided that and Gordon-Levitt's passing-by for at least a nomination is the latest in a line of snubs he's had.
#7: Kirsten Dunst for Melancholia - Best Actress
All in all the Best Actress category left me happy. I was both pleased and surprised to see Rooney Mara get a well-deserved nomination for The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo. But how was Kirsten Dunst not rewarded for her fantastic work--easily the best of her career--in Melancholia? No disrespect to Glenn Close and Meryl Streep, but they pretty much get nominated every time they act and while I enjoyed both performances neither were close to being as honest and real as Dunst's. My assumption is that the Academy was a bit gun-shy of touching anything associated with Lars Von Trier after his controversial remarks at the Cannes Film Festival promoting the film and while that's not entirely unexpected, it is highly unfortunate. I've always been a proponent of an actor or director's body of work standing on its own separate of the creator's personal life, and to me this one just reinforces that the Academy doesn't feel the same way. You can dislike Von Trier or think the movie is too slow or boring, but I find it difficult to accept the argument that Dunst's performance wasn't one of the five best of the year.
#6: Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy - Best Picture
Best Picture had the biggest and glaring "what the hell" moment when Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close managed to fool the Academy into biting for the "Oscar bait"...and believe me, while I hate that term if there was ever a film that deserved it, this looks to have been the one. No one liked it, audiences have largely ignored it and yet because it was a Tom Hanks/Sandra Bullock film about 9/11, it got a nomination. Another one that I don't feel deserves the Best Picture nomination was The Help, a very well-acted film that I enjoyed well enough but that plays thematically like a somewhat less effective The Blind Side. And yet, with these two nominated, the fantastic Tinker Tailor Solider Spy couldn't score a Best Picture nomination? This is especially egregious when you consider that the Academy had the ability to nominate another film, as Oscar rules now allow the field to be anywhere from five to ten depending on certain voting trends, and didn't. So this isn't merely a matter of the Academy having too many choice and not enough slots; they just left this one out, and that's actually kind of infuriating.
#5: Alan Rickman for Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2 - Best Supporting Actor
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Call this the "McKellan nomination," but I honestly thought he'd get it. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2 was tipped by some to get a Best Picture nomination, which I didn't see. But I certainly thought that someone in the cast would get at least nominated for all their work, as the Academy loves to reword for bodies of work and Rickman was the obvious choice. He carried the franchise through its murkier waters and when the film shined, he had the opportunity to be amazing. And never was he better as Snape than in his swan song backstory and the sacrifice that preceded it in Deathly Hallows: Part 2. There was actually a pretty strong field of nominees but I could have easily seen Jonah Hill and Max Von Sydow being left off in favor of Rickman and another actor (still coming), who both turned in better performances and frankly deserve the nod more.
#4: Shailene Woodley for The Descendants - Best Supporting Actress
Shailene Woodley wasn't on my radar at all before this film. Sorry, I don't watch The Secret Life of the American Teenager. Thus, it was a huge surprise to see how fantastic of an actress she is, at least in the work she did alongside the Best Actor-nominated Clooney. Woodley had everything going for her here; she was in a category where youth is often rewarded, she's in a film that has a huge amount of momentum going for it and she just flat-out knocked it out of the park. Instead though, the Academy chose to honor Janet McTeer for Albert Nobbs who was undoubtedly good but nowhere in Woodley's league. Even Jessica Chastain in The Help and Melissa McCarthy in Bridesmaids should have been pushed lightly aside to give her the nomination. On the plus side, she'll have plenty more chances and if this performance was any indicator, we'll see her here soon enough.
#3: Albert Brooks for Drive - Best Supporting Actor
A lot of people reacted strongly to my choice of Drive as #2 on my Top 8 Films of 2011, saying that they weren't big fans of it. Fair enough, but you have to give Albert Brooks his due. Brooks was the perfect villain in this film and he carried his end of it very well opposite Ryan Gosling. Brooks has long been turning in great performances but for some reason he's never been given his due credit by the Academy; this really seemed to be his year with every critic circle giving him the award or a nomination, as well as the Golden Globes and Independent Spirit Awards. He was actually tipped to be Christopher Plummer's only competition to win and I imagine Plummer is sitting pretty as he now has a free path to the statuette. Brooks' lack of a nomination is truly head-scratching.
#2: The Adventures of Tintin - Best Animated Film
I have a feeling someone at DreamWorks pulled a Joe Kennedy here and stuffed the ballot boxes. I'm kidding, but you can't deny that this is the best chance that DreamWorks has had in years. With Pixar's Cars 2 being the first film from the studio to not get a nomination, all eyes turned to Tintin which rolled through the Golden Globes, the Satellite Awards and the rest of the way. The Academy stopped Tintin dead in its tracks and gave it a Best Original Score nomination as a consolation prize. Did the Academy fall along anti-motion capture lines? That's certainly my best guess. There's no other explanation I can find for this film losing out on the nomination over the decent but inferior Puss in Boots and the good but lucky to be nominated Kung Fu Panda 2. Rango is the only one I've seen that I can put in honest competition with Tintin and I'm guessing Johnny Depp's rolling on to a big win.
#1: David Fincher for The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo - Best Director
This is the most mind-boggling to me. Don't get me wrong; I have all the respect in the world for Michel Hazanavicius, Martin Scorsese, Alexander Payne, Woody Allen and Terrence Malick. All five directors did great work and I would have a hard time cutting any of them out. But I would do it in order to reward Fincher, who took yet another film that most people didn't think needed to be done and showed us why it was worthwhile to do a big Hollywood version of it. No one was clamoring for an English-language Dragon Tattoo remake; the Swedish one was only a couple years old. What could anyone, even Fincher, possibly add to it? The answer was a more confident hand and a more polished but bleak approach that offered the same story through a new and (in my opinion) even better lens. If I had been voting, I would have probably cut Allen in favor of Fincher, as Midnight in Paris was one of my favorites but was a pretty typical and safe Woody Allen-style film. This is just another year to add ammo to conspiracy theorists (of whom I'm not one, for the record) who believe the Academy has a serious grudge against Fincher for some reason.
Current Doctor
Current Series/Season:Series 2 (2006) Episodes Watched: 421 Last Serial Completed:The Age of Steel - The Cybermen of a parallel world take control of London and start converting the population, leaving the Doctor, Rose and Mickey as fugitives left to save everyone, including themselves. Surviving Episodes Remaining: 143
We'll bring these back next week when I have the time to respond. Apologies!
And that will do it for us this week! Join me next week when we'll start our look at the Top 8 Action Thrillers. Until then, have a good week and don't forget to read the many other great columns, news articles and more here at 411mania.com! JT out.
Posted By: Schnuedo (Guest) on January 31, 2012 at 01:05 AM
No John Cena for best actor?
Posted By: Guest#1686 (Guest) on January 31, 2012 at 01:09 AM
1 - Warrior not being nominated for Best Picture.
Posted By: Schnuedo (Guest) on January 31, 2012 at 01:05 AM
^This. While it followed the tried and true formula of sports movies, it did it and told such a great story that you could forgive the predictable winner in the final match. Such a powerful drama that really made this much more than just another sports movies and worthy of a reccomendation.
Posted By: Guest#3580 (Guest) on January 31, 2012 at 01:22 AM
I am actually pissed that Alan Rickman didnt at least get a nom. Im sure there are plenty of other good supporting roles that were nominated, but come on, what the fuck?
Posted By: Svenki (Guest) on January 31, 2012 at 01:54 AM
Senna and Project Nim for best doc
Posted By: mcb84 (Guest) on January 31, 2012 at 03:09 AM
You're up to 2006 and have 143 episodes to watch? Either your sums are wrong or you skipped a bunch early on.
Posted By: Guest#8468 (Guest) on January 31, 2012 at 06:13 AM
I swear Holywood has a hard on for Terrance Malik. No wonder only pretentious asshole movie buffs watch the oscars these days.
Posted By: Butcher Shitter (Guest) on January 31, 2012 at 06:27 AM
The Academy is just a bunch of senile old fools that take payments of cash and/or blowjobs so some ego maniac can have a golden statue of a man with a bigger d### than his.
No need to care or be upset.
Posted By: Guest#6238 (Guest) on January 31, 2012 at 07:09 AM
Worst snubs
1. Project Nim best documentary
2. Kirsten Dunst best lead actress
3. John Hawkes best supporting actor
4, Charlize Theron best lead actress
5. 50/50 best original screenplay
6. Drive best picture
7. Elisabeth Olson best lead actress
8. Melancholia best Cinematography
9. Albert Brooks best supporting Actor
10. Paton Oswald best supporting actor
Posted By: John (Guest) on January 31, 2012 at 07:15 AM
Where's Andy Serkis for "Rise of the Planet of the Apes" ? Fuck You!
Posted By: Rise (Guest) on January 31, 2012 at 07:28 AM
This was a good read. Thanks for writing it.
Posted By: big guy (Guest) on January 31, 2012 at 08:10 AM
Warrior not getting a nod and Deathly Hallows pt2 let alone Rickman not getting the nomination he deserves more or less put me off the oscars this year.
Posted By: Ojj (Guest) on January 31, 2012 at 08:59 AM
How was Kirsten Dunst not rewarded for her fantastic work--easily the best of her career--in Melancholia? Easy. Shes boring and plays the same boring character the same boring way every time. Shes boring. And so is Melancholia.
Posted By: Mark of Excellence (Guest) on January 31, 2012 at 09:04 AM
Good article. 50 50 for best original screenplay is a major snub too. And how does Moneyball have so many nominations? A decent enough film for certain, but nothing about it was Oscar worthy, aside from maybe the screenplay.
Posted By: Zeus (Guest) on January 31, 2012 at 09:11 AM
Kirstin Dunst is to acting as paint drying is to excitement
Posted By: Guest#4527 (Guest) on January 31, 2012 at 10:04 AM
Ironically, you left off the biggest snub: Tilda Swinton, who turned in her finest performance ever, and one of the best of the year, in "We Need To Talk About Kevin," which pretty much every award BUT the Oscars recognized.
Posted By: M A Weyer (Registered) on January 31, 2012 at 10:41 AM
I read that TinTin wasn't eligible for Best Animated because it mixes performance capture and digital animation
Posted By: Guest#0295 (Guest) on January 31, 2012 at 10:45 AM
I have only seen one of those movies.... I need to start slacking again and get my ass back in the theater.
Posted By: APrince66 (Guest) on January 31, 2012 at 11:08 AM
I wonder if there will be some type of "Occupy The Oscars" protests with signs that read "Justice for Rickman!". Wow! I just wrote an SNL scene.
Posted By: The Great Capt. Smooth (Guest) on January 31, 2012 at 04:43 PM
I find it Mind Boggling that Rickman has never even been nominated for an Oscar. He is so good in everything he is in. He is always the best part of all the movies he makes an appearance in. Same can be said of Gary Oldman, but the Academy finally recognized him with a nomination this year. I would love it if he surprised everyone and won. Rickman better get his due one day, and Depp along with DiCaprio better win soon too. I'm tired of Daniel Day, Sean Penn, etc. taking turns every year winning the award.
Posted By: Guest#1348 (Guest) on February 02, 2012 at 03:37 PM
JGL? Snubbed? Come on, man. This year was VERY strong for the Best Actor category, and I haven't really seen JGL's name thrown around anywhere. You still have Michael Shannon (Take Shelter), Michael Fassbender (Shame), Leonardo DiCaprio (J. Edgar) and Ryan Gosling (Drive/Ides of March) on the outside looking in as well. It's not like JGL put in an all-time great performance or anything like that. Be real here.
Posted By: Guest017 (Guest) on February 02, 2012 at 10:57 PM
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