Yes, every year I discuss the Oscars nominations and eventual winners, and every year I bitch about anything and everything surrounding the self-congratulatory circus. This year shall be no different.
Since the Academy likes to change the rules for the Best Picture category as often as Zsa Zsa Gabor changed husbands, this year they again altered the rules so that there could be anywhere from 5-10 total films to receive the top nomination. You'd think after a year this pathetic, there would barely be 5 qualifying films. But lo and behold, despite the unprecedented levels of mediocrity, the Academy still believed at least 9 films were deserving of a Best Picture nomination!
In my opinion, you can immediately cut from the Best Picture category the utterly dull Midnight In Paris, the completely forgettable War Horse, the nonsensical and pretentious Tree of Life, and the critcally panned (47% rating on Rotten Tomatoes) emotional guilt trip that is Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close.
So, cut those 4 films and that leaves only 5 true nominations, The Artist, The Descendants, The Help, Hugo, and Moneyball. The Artist will easily win Best Picture and Director, not only because it actually is a fantastic film in all the right ways and truly deserves the top honors, but also because it's the type of nostalgic love letter to Hollywood's golden days that would make any Academy voter immediately cream their pants.
Best Actor will most likely go to Frenchman Jean Dujardin for The Artist; his only real competition is George Clooney in The Descendants. Supporting Actor will go to Christopher Plummer in Beginners, although it should really go to Albert Brooks in Drive, who was completely snubbed of a nomination. His well deserving slot instead went to the foul-mouthed (former) fatty best known from Superbad, Jonah Hill.
Speaking of Drive, I felt that that was more than worthy of a Best Picture nomination as well; it was a fantastic sleeper film that got shafted big time. Not just Albert Brooks but also Ryan Gosling...he gave two fantastic performances this year (the other being The Ides of March) and wasn't nominated for either.
Best Actress is a toss up for me; I'm not quite sure yet. It'll either be Meryl Steep (who gets nominated every damn year) for The Iron Lady or Viola Davis for The Help. Supporting actress will definitely go to one of two women from The Help, either Jessica Chastain or Octavia Spencer.
Adapted Sceenplay will go to The Descendats, although it's a shame The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo wasn't nominated at all. Original Screenplay either be The Artist or the whiney Woody Allen's Midnight In Paris.
I honesly have no clue on the Best Animated picture category because this is the first time since that category was created that a Pixar film hasn't been nominated. Makes sense though, because Cars 2 (as well as the first one) was a piece of garbage. Pixar's only missteps in an otherwise superb filmography.
Original Music Score will go to The Artist, because that whole film was all about the musical score; it's a virtually silent movie and the music accompanyment is everything.
The Original Song category is just a worthless piece of shit; only 2 films nominated!? How pathetic is that? That tells you two things; one, the Academy's rules for original songs is too strict and two, there weren't any good original songs from a movie last year. Honestly, what was the last original song from a motion picture anyone remembers? Sadly, it's "My Heart Will Go On" from Titanic, and that migraine-inducing tune was over 10 years ago.
Other things to note: it's nice that Bridesmaids was nominated twice, but we all know that the Academy never favors comedies, especially one that was rated R, and the film will go away empty handed. No love for 50/50? I guess not, because the slot of dramatic/light-hearted comedy film went to The Help instead, and the Academy only has the stomach for one of those types of films each year.
And what about Tower Heist? I can't believe that didn't net a single nomination (/sarcasm).
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