94th Academy Awards Nominees are out. Let's discuss

Cafe Society
1

The Oscar nominations were announced last week (full list is here). I don’t see a thread on these yet, so I figured I’d start one.

Below are the most popular categories. How many have you seen? Which nominees do you think will win? Which ones should win? What nominees are missing? Which nominees simply don’t belong?

BEST PICTURE
Belfast
CODA
Don’t Look Up
Drive My Car
Dune
King Richard
Licorice Pizza
Nightmare Alley
The Power of the Dog
West Side Story

BEST DIRECTOR
Paul Thomas Anderson (Licorice Pizza)
Kenneth Branagh (Belfast)
Jane Campion (The Power of the Dog)
Ryûsuke Hamaguchi (Drive My Car)
Steven Spielberg (West Side Story)

BEST INTERNATIONAL FEATURE
Drive My Car (Japan)
Flee (Denmark)
The Hand of God (Italy)
Lunana: A Yak in the Classroom (Bhutan)
The Worst Person in the World (Norway)

BEST ANIMATED FEATURE
Encanto
Flee
Luca
The Mitchells vs. the Machines
Raya and the Last Dragon

BEST ACTRESS
Jessica Chastain (The Eyes of Tammy Faye)
Olivia Colman (The Lost Daughter)
Penélope Cruz (Parallel Mothers)
Nicole Kidman (Being the Ricardos)
Kristen Stewart (Spencer)

BEST ACTOR
Javier Bardem (Being the Ricardos)
Benedict Cumberbatch (The Power of the Dog)
Andrew Garfield (Tick, Tick … Boom!)
Will Smith (King Richard)
Denzel Washington (The Tragedy of Macbeth)

BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS
Jessie Buckley (The Lost Daughter)
Ariana DeBose (West Side Story)
Judi Dench (Belfast)
Kirsten Dunst (The Power of the Dog)
Aunjanue Ellis (King Richard)

BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR
Ciarán Hinds (Belfast)
Troy Kotsur (CODA)
Jesse Plemons (The Power of the Dog)
J.K. Simmons (Being the Ricardos)
Kodi Smit-McPhee (The Power of the Dog)

For once, I’ve seen all the Best Picture nominees before they were announced. I don’t see any real clunkers on the list, though I would probably replace King Richard with C’mon, C’mon if I could. Will win: The Power of the Dog. Should win: Licorice Pizza.

I’ve also seen all but one (The Hand of God) of the International Feature nominees. My favorite is Lunana, but Drive My Car is a mortal lock in this category. It’s a crime that both A Hero and Parallel Mothers were left out. (Parallel Mothers was not even nominated by Spain). Will Win: Drive My Car. Should Win: I’d Love to see the little film that could from Bhutan, Lunana: A Yak in the Classroom, win

I’ve only seen three of the five Animated Feature nominees, so I don’t have a strong opinion. I figure Encanto will probably win. Should Win: Flee is a real grown-up (and powerful) use of animation. It almost doesn’t belong with the others.

I need to ponder more on the Acting categories and come back with another post. Besides, I haven’t seen Andrew Garfield in Tick, Tick…Boom! yet, so maybe I’ll remedy that before weighing in. (I’ve sen all the other performances).

2

For several years I’ve made it my mission to see all best picture nominees before the Oscars. This ended with COVID, and I’ll certainly not see them all this year. I have seen the five that are available at this time for home viewing: CODA, Don’t Look Up, King Richard, Nightmare Alley, and The Power of the Dog.

Of these, CODA is my favorite, closely followed by “Dog”. My prediction is that The Power of the Dog will win.

I need to mention that I watched Don’t Look Up last night, and found it to be extremely unpleasant. A piece of crap, in fact. It is a disjointed, cringe-fest in need of severe re-editing and re-writing. The all star cast strains to be funny, and the strain shows. The worst movie I’ve seen in a long time, I only finished it out of a sense of obligation.

mmm

3

Power of the Dog is a good movie, but not great. I actually think this is a fairly common opinion that isn’t being voiced too loudly. I mean…is Benedict even the best actor in it?

4

I’m trying to place it in that category, but so far it hasn’t made the grade. Tried twice, but it just looks like a low budget oater.

5

I don’t know my rating, but probably 6 out of 10 or possibly 6.5.

The “kid” in the movie was better and more interesting than Benedict Cumberbatch’s character.

6

My view too. It wasn’t a “bad” movie, but nothing to write home about. I liked, but didn’t love, Don’t Look Up as well. Those are the only two on the list I’ve seen, so I hope there are better ones to win some awards.

7

I’ve seen all except CODA and Drive My Car. I’ll see CODA probably this weekend and Drive My Car will be on HBOMax on March 2. I thought the two best films of the year were West Side Story and Licorice Pizza so I’d love if one of those won! Power of the Dog was… eh. Fine, but nothing special.

8

I’ve seen Belfast, Don’t Look Up and Licorice Pizza this season DLU is by far the worst of the three. I’m sort of baffled that it got a nomination.

9

Just watched Power of the Dog yesterday. My wife walked out <halfway thru, as she was falling asleep. Pretty scenery, but good lord, was it slow! The boy - Peter - was the most interesting character. And I found the tinkly music repetitive and irritating.

Just about the only thing I found at all interesting was the glimpse into Montana (NZ?) life in the 1920s - a time/location I’ve never thought of before.

Only other nom I’ve seen is Don’t Look Up. Not sure how much effort we’ll make to try to watch how many of the others - something we used to enjoy.

10

“Dos Orguitas” is a wonderful song that comes at a particularly emotional point in Encanto, and would be a worthy Oscar winner, but Disney really screwed the pooch in not putting “We Don’t Talk About Bruno” up for consideration. For the live concert, if for no other reason!

11

I’d like to see The Power of the Dog, Drive My Car, and West Side Story. I haven’t seen any of the best picture nominees yet.

12

I’ve seen Belfast, Dune, and Don’t Look Up, I’d consider Belfast head and shoulders above the other two. I am also somewhat baffed that DLU was nominated.

13

Just remembered I promised to come back and weigh in on the acting categories. What with the SAG Awards results (a complete shut out of Power of the Dog, which surprised me), my takes are:

Despite the ongoing myth that Kristen Stewart can’t act, there are
no clunkers in the Best Actress category. I would have probably substituted Alana Haim for Nicole Kidman, but that’s because I consider the degree of difficulty for an accomplished actor imitating a well known figure to be lower than other roles. Will Win: Jessica Chastain, Should Win: Olivia Colman, who gives another deeply lived performance (is she the new Meryl Streep?).

In the Best Actor category, it looks like all the momentum is with Will Smith. Denzel proved up to the task of Macbeth and I thought Javier Bardem is being underrated for his embodiment of Desi Arnaz, the canny producer. Will Win: Will Smith, Should Win: Denzel Washington.

I think they got the nominations right in the Best Supporting Actress category. All of the performances were worthy, though Judi Dench could give her performance in her sleep. Will Win: Ariana DeBose, Should Win: Kirsten Dunst.

Best Supporting Actor is the usual collection of, “It wasn’t that big a part, but hey, I really like that actor” performances mixed with performances that could almost be called co-lead performances. Will Win: Kodi Smit-McPhee, Should Win: Jesse Plemons

Next post: The Oscar Shorts were released a couple of weeks ago, so are up for discussion.

14

I want so much to believe an SDMB post back when says, Kristen Stewart ever being up for an Oscar is like Robert Pattinson being #1 at the box office as Bruce Wayne…

15

From my POV, the problem was that he doesn’t look anything like Desi Arnaz, and I find it hard to get past that. Whereas Nicole Kidman, who I personally dislike because she’s an airhead, is a pretty good actress who managed to get the look, voice, and personality of Lucille Ball down pat. She deserves credit for that.

I was disappointed that Macbeth wasn’t nominated for Best Picture. IMO it was a creative masterpiece. And again I side with the female lead: although Denzel Washington was great, so was Frances McDormand (who I didn’t realize was Joel Coen’s wife). McDormand was one of the favourites for at least a nomination, but didn’t make the list.

In other news, I just watched Licorice Pizza. I now understand the diversity of opinion on it. Rotten Tomatoes gives it a super-high critics’ rating, and a relatively mediocre audience rating. Comments from the general audience tend to be either extremely negative or extremely positive.

Me? I’m still processing it, and think I’ll have to see it again. The plot really is somewhat incoherent, more like a bunch of different stories strung together. And yet there’s something underlying it all that is very skillfully done, not the least of which is the terrific performances of the two young and inexperienced leads. Alana Haim is a musician and this was her first feature film; Cooper Hoffman is Philip Seymour Hoffman’s son and this is his first film. It’s sometimes been billed as a “coming of age romantic comedy”, but anyone expecting anything even remotely resembling a conventional rom-com is going to be very surprised and either disappointed or delighted.

16

The core story is a love story (of sorts, I think the film is realistic as to the long term prospects for the couple) told through a series of stories specific to the Valley in the 70’s.

I really liked the way the usual tropes of teenage coming of age movies were subverted. From the very first scene you are constantly anticipating a familiar plot to emerge:

It’s going to be about a shy, overweight loser who manages to overcome his own feelings of inferiority and win his love…But no! It’s about a teenage loser who is trying to bat way out of his class…But no! It’s about a child actor aging out and how he copes with aging out of cuteness, trying to cling to his career and running afoul of the law over drugs…But no! It’s about a child actor who is a survivor and a hustler, who overreaches in his hustling and then at his lowest point, finds love…But no! It’s about the two of them, with complementary personalities and definite attraction, but they don’t recognize how good they are together, and the various twists and turns they go through to find one another (but does anyone believe they are still together 10 years later?)

17

I’m not trying to thread-crap. Out of all of these, I’ve seen Encanto.

To me, every year, the difference between what gets nominated and what actually people watch and spend money on gets larger and larger. My friends and I used to love watching the Oscars to see what was going on, or the Tonys, or other shows like that. But when you haven’t seen any of the movies because they just look so dreadful, it makes you not want to watch the awards shows.

I loathe being told I need to see a movie For The ART Of It or For Its Social Message.

… I guess I’m threadcrapping if I go further. I’ll stop now.

18

You probably have Disney+, then. The new West Side Story just came out on it. A worthy selection for a Best Picture nomination. Actually, I liked it even better than the original, and I love the original.

19

I think you have something of a point, but the Oscars are specifically an award “to honor outstanding artistic and scientific achievements in theatrically released feature-length motion pictures”, not a popularity contest. That’s more the domain of the People’s Choice Awards.

So I don’t think anyone is “telling you” to see a movie for the art of it, but an Oscar or nomination does indicate it is artistically interesting regardless of its relevance to any particular audience.

20

So far I’ve seen all but two of the Best Picture nominees (Belfast, CODA, Don’t Look Up, Drive My Car, Dune, King Richard, Licorice Pizza, Nightmare Alley, The Power of the Dog and West Side Story). I still have yet to see Drive My Car or King Richard. My vote might go for The Power of the Dog or West Side Story or Belfast.