Oscar Nominations Are Out!

The 2013 Oscar nominations were announced this morning by Emma Stone and Seth McFarlane, and although most of the nominations follow predictable paths, there were some surprises.  The most notable omission was Ben Affleck as Best Director for Argo.  He has been nominated in every other award so far, so his exclusion is quite a surprise. 

Lincoln leads the way with 12 nominations, followed by Life of Pi with eleven (a surprisingly strong showing) and Les Miserables and Silver Lining Playbook with eight.  Silver Linings Playbook got nominations in all four acting categories, the first movie to do so since Reds in 1982.  Argo scores seven, and Zero Dark Thirty scores five.  The Master, which some people thought may be dead in the water, got nominations in three out of the four acting categories.

I'm also excited that "Maggie Simpson in The Longest Daycare" got nominated for Best Short Film. 

A full list of nominations can be found here.  Below are the nominees for the major categories:

Best PictureAmour
Argo
Beasts of the Southern Wild
Django Unchained
Les Miserables
Life of Pi
Lincoln
Silver Linings Playbook
Zero Dark Thirty

The new rules by the Academy mean that there can be anywhere from five to ten Best Picture nominees, and this year there are nine.  There are no real surprises in this category, except perhaps the addition of Amour.  Amour is the kind of movie that Academy voters love - a quieter, foreign drama about an elderly couple struggling with the wife's illness and starring respected actors.  There were some hopes that Moonrise Kingdom, Skyfall, or The Dark Knight Rises might make it in, but they are left off the list. 

Best ActorBradley Cooper, Silver Linings Playbook
Daniel Day-Lewis, Lincoln
Hugh Jackman, Les Miserables
Joaquin Phoenix, The Master
Denzel Washington, Flight

Joaquin Phoenix's inclusion is a bit of a surprise considering that The Master has been losing momentum and he has openly mocked the award season.  The snubs here are John Hawkes for The Sessions and Richard Gere for Arbitrage.

Best ActressJessica Chastain, Zero Dark Thirty
Jennifer Lawrence, Silver Linings Playbook
Emmanuelle Riva, Amour
Quvenzhane Wallis, Beasts of the Southern Wild
Naomi Watts, The Impossible

Many thought Marion Cotillard was a shoo-in here for Rust & Bone, but the Academy voters went with Emanuelle Riva and Naomi Watts instead.  Rachel Weisz was also another possibility here for The Deep Blue Sea.  Riva is the oldest nominee in this category in Oscar history at 85 years old, and Wallis is the youngest in history at 9 years old. 

Best Supporting ActorAlan Arkin, Argo
Robert De Niro, Silver Linings Playbook
Philip Seymour Hoffman, The Master
Tommy Lee Jones, Lincoln
Christoph Waltz, Django Unchained

The surprise here is that Christoph Waltz gets the nomination here over Leonardo DiCaprio for Django Unchained.  There will be grumbles that Waltz's performance is actually a leading one, not supporting, but the campaign to place him as a supporting actor apparently works.  Poor DiCaprio - what does this guy have to do to get a nomination, let alone win?  He's going to be one of those actors like Pacino, who will get an Oscar later for a role where he doesn't deserve one, but more as a lifetime achievement award. 

Best Supporting ActressAmy Adams, The Master
Sally Field, Lincoln
Anne Hathaway, Les Miserables
Helen Hunt, The Sessions
Jacki Weaver, Silver Linings Playbook

The predictions have skewed towards Nicole Kidman getting a nomination for The Paperboy after her SAG and Golden Globe nominations, but Jacki Weaver squeaks in instead.  It doesn't matter - Anne Hathaway is walking away with this one. 

Best DirectorMichael Haneke, Amour
Ang Lee, Life of Pi
David O. Russell, Silver Linings Playbook
Steven Spielberg, Lincoln
Benh Zeitlin, Beasts of the Southern Wild

Other than Ben Affleck, the other big snubs here are Tom Hooper for Les Miserables and Kathryn Bigelow for Zero Dark Thirty, and to a lesser extent, Quentin Tarantino for Django Unchained.  The inclusions of Benh Zeitlin and Michael Haneke are definitely surprises here.

Best Original ScreenplayAmour, Michael Hanake
Django Unchained, Quentin Tarantino
Flight, John Gatins
Moonrise Kingdom, Wes Anderson and Roman Coppola
Zero Dark Thirty, Mark Boal

Best Adapted ScreenplayArgo, Chris Terrio
Beasts of the Southern Wild, Lucy Alibar and Benh Zeitlin,
Life of Pi, David Magee
Lincoln, Tony Kushner
Silver Linings Playbook, David O. Russell

The Perks of Being a Wallflower was a favorite prediction for this category, but did not score a nomination. 

Matt Bomer on the New Normal

Thank you, EW.com, for this photo.

Little House on the Prairie

I was a big fan of Little House on the Prairie series by Laura Ingalls Wilder, and Slate today published the homestead claim filed by Almanzo Wilder, Laura's husband.  A very interesting piece of history. 

Skyfall

Mr. Y and I watched Skyfall over the holidays, and definitely one of my favorite Bond movies. 

SPOILER ALERT

Skyfall was a big improvement over Quantum of Solace, and definitely deserves to be the first Bond movie to reach $1 billion.  The story was straightforward and as personal as a Bond film can get.  Javier Barden is a great villain as a former MI6 Agent who has a personal vendetta against M for abandoning him when he was an agent.  The scene when he removed his teeth and his face sank in was so creepy.  The chase and fight scenes were appropriately explosive, but I also enjoy the quieter moments, especially between M (Judi Dench) and Bond (Daniel Craig).  The ending was staged at Skyfall, the home estate of Bond's parents in Scotland, and Albert Finney showed up as the cantakerous groundskeeper for the estate. 

I do wish they gave the Bond girls more to do.  Berenice Lim Marlohe was sultry and beautiful, but I was not clear what her purpose was.  Naomi Harris turned out to be the modern Moneypenny and we'll be seeing her in future Bond movies, although I quite enjoyed her as a field agent.  I did enjoy the shout-outs to previous Bond movies, like the exploding pen and the Aston Martin.  Ben Whishaw as a young Q is also appropriate, and a nice contrast to the cranky, older Bond. 

I am sad that Judi Dench's M died at the end, but excited about Ralph Fiennes being the new M.  Every time Fiennes and Craig are in the scene together it's like the battle of the intense blue eyes. 

The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey

Sorry for the long delay in new posts!  I was away for the holidays, and did not get a chance to post.

Mr. Y and I did manage to see the Hobbit over the holidays, and we both enjoyed it.  I am actually not a big fan of the book, and I was skeptical as to how they would stretch this book into three movies, but after seeing the first one, I like how Peter Jackson, Fran Walsh, and Philippa Boyens fleshed out some of the scenes in the book and added stuff from the appendices to fill in some blanks. 

SPOILER ALERT!

The Hobbit definitely brought the fans back to Lord of the Rings land, and it was a welcome return.  The movie is set 60 years before the events in LOTR, and it is bittersweet to know what was going to happen in the future.  The movie started with Ian Holm reprising his role as old Bilbo, and writing his memoirs on the day of his 111th birthday party.  Elijah Wood also came back as Frodo and this movie talked about him surprising Gandalf on the road before the party, which was the start of the Fellowship of the Ring. 

I thought Martin Freeman did an excellent job playing a younger Bilbo.  He really got the mannerisms and hobbit-isms down.  Ian McKellen was amusing as usual as Gandalf, and glad he came back.

The dwarfs were a bit hard to keep track of, but Richard Armitage as Thorin Oakenshield definitely stood above the rest.  He is a very good looking man in real life and all the hair and drawf makeup didn't mask that.  Plus he really brings a sense of power and nobility to the character.

I enjoy the White Council scene between Gandalf, Saruman, Elrond, and Galadriel.  They were discussing the threat of the Necromancer, which will turn out to be Sauron in LOTR, and as a foreshadowing of the events in LOTR, it was clear that Saruman was dismissive of the threat while Elrond and Galadriel took it more seriously. 

The best scenes were between Gollum and Bilbo.  The technology has definitely improved since LOTR, and Gollum is so much more lifelike.  You can really see Andy Serkis's acting choices, and it's a shame people won't recognize what a great acting achievement this is.  You can't help but feel sorry for Gollum, and you understand why Bilbo didn't kill him.

I am definitely excited for the next installment, especially Benedict Cumberbatch as Smaug's voice.