But Jonah Hill’s nod keeps you hooked on cinema?
Not sure who this Patton Oswald character is, but if you’ve seen Patton Oswalt’s work in either “Big Fan” or “Young Adult” you’ll know that he has tremendous acting chops.
Octavia Spencer is really big news today where I live (her hometown of Montgomery- she has lots of relatives here). Her nomination was expected and she already won the Golden Globe, but still nice that it’s official, and she really is great in everything she does (especially comedy, but you’re a lot more likely to get a nomination for melodrama than light comedy).
If you could win an Oscar for a YouTube video she’d have been nominated for her pitch-perfect Jodie Foster impersonation in Black Version: Silence of the Lambs.
Some interesting trivia from last week’s Entertainment Weekly: Viola Davis actually spent her honeymoon at George Clooney’s mansion in Italy. (They’ve been friends since they were in Solaris together.)
Yup, that’s me being an idiot…sorry…nevermind that part then!
Jonah Hill has always been a comedy actor who’s never seemed to be bigger than he is…the fat kid who was kinda crazy, and then the skinny kid who was kinda crazy. Patton Oswald on the other hand has a “I’m a standup comedian therefore people listen to me therefore I am THE VOICE OF THE PEOPLE!!!” Rubs me the wrong way
I haven’t seen all of the nominees for best picture yet but I refuse to believe that they are all superior to Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy. To be honest I’d be surprised if any of them are as good as it.
Does Disney “ruin” Ghibli films? I’m under the impression that Lasseter has done a great job with the translating, dubbing, and not cutting scenes.
Except for the title of “Castle in the Sky”, which makes sense for Spanish and Tagalog-speaking audiences. 
I saw Spirited Away at Chicago’s much-missed McClurg Court theater. The English dub was playing in the big auditorium, and the Japanese language with subtitles was playing in one of the smaller two upstairs. After seeing the film, I poked my head into the Japanese one, and the lip-sync was worse in Japanese!
Sorry folks, but why can’t this supposed “animation genius” figure out how to animate to a sound-track, instead of doing it ass-backwards and post-dubbing?
By “animation genius” I am referring to Myizaki, not John Lasseter, who is a genuine animation genius with no quote marks.
Motion capture is ineligible.
Unless they change the current rules, it won’t be eligible (there’s a rolling prior year of eligibility outside the US run, so the Japan appearance will drop it off the list).
I’m an original language snob, so I prefer the original versions to the Disney ones. The Disney versions aren’t terrible (and in the case of “Ponyo”, a film aimed at young children, it’s understandable), but we’ll have to wait and see if their version of “Arrietty” respects the original or not.
Nothing for Limitless? Best Picture, or Best Actor for Bradley Cooper?
Madness. Best pic I saw all last year.
There are some on the list I would have never nominated, and some good movies/actors left out. But beauty in the eye etc…
I rarely buy DVDs but I’m getting The Good Life.
They can’t hear you through all the money.
I hear you. As a Godzilla fan, I vastly prefer subtitled over dubbed. In fact, I probably shouldn’t use the word ‘prefer’, as that implies I’ll give it a choice.
Disney has put a much higher standard in dubbing Ghibli movies than what we’ve seen with Godzilla films. Not setting a very high bar, I know. Loved Mark Hamill in Castle in the Sky, for instance.
I’m not very excited for the show. I haven’t seen most of the movies, nor do I have a strong desire to see this batch (last year I saw almost all of the nominated “big” movies).
One of the things I’ve been envisioning all day is Segel and Jim Parsons and a couple muppets doing the song that night. It’s the only thing I’m looking forward to, and normally I hate hate hate musical numbers on these kinds of awards shows.
Did anybody else see Demián Bichir’s picture and realize “Oh, that’s Esteban from WEEDS?”
Melissa McCarthy did an awesome job in Bridesmaids. I thought she stole the movie with her character. Didn’t know she had it in her.
There’s one really bad sign. The trailer for the Disney version has background music that is not from the original film. Cecile Corbel’s beautiful Celtic score is perfect for “Arrietty”, so if they’ve changed that, they’ve ruined a big part of the film’s appeal.
Have a listen:
I just got home from the movies (saw Haywire, had a good time) and I’m pretty happy overall.
Demián Bichir for A Better Life!!! I’m beyond thrilled for him. I posted this on Twitter last August:
I’ve never been so happy to be so wrong.
I’m also thrilled for Rooney Mara. It’s possible she’ll go on to be nominated for all 3 movies.
I’ve seen most of the nominated movies in the regular categories, and there are a lot of good movies and good performances and good work represented.
The ones I haven’t seen in the non-specialty categories: I missed Margin Call and Anonymous when they played. I’ll see The Iron Lady and A Separation next week. I don’t know when Albert Nobbs and W.E will open in Chicago but I’ll see them when they do.
Some of the omissions are unfortunate (no Tinker or Girl in BP, no Fincher or Alfredson for BD, no Albert Brooks or Patton Oswalt for BSA, no Reznor/Ross for Score, no Tintin for Animated, no Tinker Art Direction, no Michael Fassbender or Michael Shannon for BA, nothing for Martha Marcy May Marlene or Margaret) but that happens every year.
The category that makes me smile most is Best Supporting Actor.
Kenneth Branagh for My Week with Marilyn (2011)
Jonah Hill for Moneyball (2011)
Nick Nolte for Warrior (2011)
Christopher Plummer for Beginners (2010)
Max von Sydow for Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close (2011)
I imagine Jonah Hill looking at that list and being awestruck at the company he’s in. He’s very very humble and does not take his success and good fortune for granted.
I hate to be negative, but I was so happy when I saw it wasn’t nominated. People on Oscar blogs were saying it was a lock, which was as alien to me as if someone said that The Hangover was a lock for Best Picture.
2 comedies were nominated this year. The Artist got 10 nominations and is (yes Mahaloth) the frontrunner to win Best Picture as well as Best Actor and maybe Best Director. Plus Midnight In Paris got 4 nominations including Best Picture. Neither of those had poop jokes or humiliation humor though. Lots of other nominated films had humor in them, such as Moneyball, Beginners, My Week with Marilyn, and Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close. None of them had poop jokes or humiliation humor.
Oh come on. None of those movies would be classified as comedies. *Most *movies have some amount of humor in them. And “romantic comedy” which is what Midnight in Paris and The Artist are listed as, is a different category than just a straight comedy, a genre that is almost universally ignored by the Academy.
I’m not sure - Clooney already has an Oscar, and Oldman has never even been nominated despite being around for much longer. Also, the Academy loves it when actors are cast against type. Clooney may be good in the Descendants, but he’s played the same flawed-but-nice guy before; Oldman, OTOH, is an actor known mainly for scenery-chewing who delivered one of the most subtle, nuanced performances I’ve ever seen. That’s the kind of “narrative” voters love.