Today at the Samuel
Goldwyn Theater in Beverly Hills, Academy President Cheryl Boone Isaacs,
filmmakers Guillermo del Toro, Ang Lee, and actor John Krasinski announced the
nominations the 88th Academy Awards, and as usual in these sort of
things some things stand out, both in a good and bad way.
Let's
start with the writing department. Aaron Sorkin and Quentin Tarantino were not
nominated for best adapted an original screenplay, respectively, and frankly, I'm
only half upset. Sorkin flipped the biopic genre on its head with Steve Jobs, and
its omission from the Best Adapted Screenplay category is one of the Oscar's biggest
surprises. As for Tarantino's The Hateful Eight, the script just wasn't up there
with some of his other nominated work. Some of the plot points didn't seem all that thought
out, and some moments looked like they were straight out of a bad Poirot
episode.
In
the Best Song department, Sam Smith's 5-minute creative endeavor for Spectre
landed him a nomination and likely win, while Charlie Puth and Wiz Khalifa's
Furious 7 song, See You Again, which also acts as a tribute to Paul Walker was
left out.
Carol
gets six nominations and none of them is for Best Picture. The Todd Haynes'
directed drama was consider a strong contender to get a nomination, so it was
all that more surprising that it didn't, and there may be a reason for that. It
looks like evil has raised its ugly head once again within the predominantly
male voting members of the Academy. The word is that some voters thought Carol
was too "cold" and "emotionally distant", which is strange
considering it is a love story between two women, oh wait...
Still
in the Best Picture nominations, I'm surprised that the Academy voters failed
to recognized Straight Outta Compton, Beasts of no Nation, Creed, and perhaps
even Star Wars: The Force Awakens, and stopped at just eight out of ten
possible nominations. Bridge of Spies still managed to get in though.
I
love Tom Hardy, but giving him a Best Supporting Actor nomination for The
Revenant and not give one to Idris Elba for his performance as the Commandant
in Beasts of No Nation is just crazy talk.
And
on a final note…race…yes I know every year we have the same discussion, which
why we will keep having it.
Michel B. Jordan could and should have been nominated.
Elba, again, and his Beasts of No Nation co-star and lead in the picture,
Abraham Attah should have been nominated. O'Shea Jackson and Jason Mitchell
from Straight Outta Compton could have been nominated. Kitana Kiki
Rodriguez or Mya Taylor could have been nominated for their work in
Tangerine. Creed's director Ryan Coogler could have been nominated, though
I admit that the race to get a Best Director nomination was fierce this year.
Even the Academy President, Cheryl Boone Isaacs admits that
this year (like so many others) was particularly white, but at least Chris Rock will be there.
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