The yawn that I stifled shortly past 8:30am during last week’s live announcement of this year’s Oscar nominations wasn’t due to sleepiness. Instead, that involuntary emission was a result of the list of nominees being read by Mira Sorvino and Academy president Sid Ganis.
The nomination announcement can always be counted on for a few out-of-left-field surprises — Edward Norton up for American History X? Yay! Paul Giamatti snubbed for Sideways? Booo! — but this year resulted in zero surprises. None. Zip. Nada.
Well, OK, I didn’t expect Memoirs of a Geisha to earn a Best Sound Editing nod to pit it against such digitally daunting endeavors as King Kong and War of the Worlds, and the lack of a Best Visual Effects slot for Star Wars: Episode III — Revenge of the Sith is a real head-scratcher (it’s the first Star Wars movie not to be nominated in this category). But in the major races, the field is largely what people predicted, and the few deviations from the expected shakeout (e.g. most prognosticators figured Walk the Line would slip into the Best Picture lineup over Munich) can hardly be considered earth-shaking. Even the directors branch, traditionally housing the most maverick of the voters, dutifully fell in line. The directors who in the past were brave enough to award solitary nods to such challenging fare as Blue Velvet, Short Cuts and The Last Temptation of Christ weren’t edgy enough this year to honor A History of Violence’s David Cronenberg, The Constant Gardener’s Fernando Meirelles or Caché’s Michael Haneke.
Still, there is a sizable silver lining here. Unlike the Grammys, the Oscars at least attempt to honor the best achievements in motion pictures rather than the most profitable (those Best Picture Oscars for Titanic and Gladiator notwithstanding), and that’s never been more in evidence than this year. Among the five Best Picture nominees, the highest-grossing among the bunch is Brokeback Mountain with roughly $60 million at press time. That figure will probably climb to $100 million in the weeks ahead, but the other nominees, with grosses currently ranging from $16 million to $53 million, won’t make it anywhere near that mark.
What’s more, the five nominees are an educational bunch, the direct antithesis to the perpetual dumbing-down of America by shallow newscasts, reality TV shows and a goober president who couldn’t spell Constitution if you spotted him every letter except the “c.” Three of the nominees (Capote, Good Night, and Good Luck, Munich) are based on inflammatory events from the latter half of the 20th century, one (Crash) deals with race relations and the final title (Brokeback Mountain) focuses on homosexuality. History, blacks and gays — clearly, these aren’t topics that will find much traction with conservative factions constantly circling the wagons in an effort to keep the world out, but progressive film fans will appreciate the Academy’s attempts to educate as well as entertain.
Here, then, are some more observations about this year’s crop.
Highlights:
• The triumph of the independents. In the 1996 race, a lot of ink was spilled over the fact that the only Best Picture nominee from a major studio was Jerry Maguire. This year, the sole big-studio representative is the atypical Munich, which will be hard-pressed to gross even a third of what that Tom Cruise vehicle earned. In short, even with Miramax out of the picture, the independents continue to make their presence known during awards season. Focus Features, for my money the best studio currently on the scene, has been leading the charge as of late: Their titles among the past few years include Lost In Translation, The Pianist, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, Far From Heaven and, from 2005, Brokeback Mountain, The Constant Gardener and Pride & Prejudice.
• The Best Original Score nominees. For decades, the old fogies who make up the music branch have been notorious for ignoring newcomers while embracing the same small circle of men year after year. And yes, this time around, they did predictably hand two of the slots to John Williams (for Munich and Memoirs of a Geisha), bringing his career total to 45. But astonishingly, the other three nominations went to musicians who are not only Oscar first-timers but international composers fairly new to English-language cinema: Argentina’s Gustavo Santaolalla (Brokeback Mountain), Spain’s Alberto Iglesias (The Constant Gardener) and Italy’s Dario Marianellia (Pride & Prejudice).
• The Best Animated Feature nominees. Shark Tale, Brother Bear, Treasure Planet… These are just some of the acknowledged mediocrities that have managed to earn nominations in the past, placing the purpose of this fairly new category in question. But this year, all three nominees — Howl’s Moving Castle, Tim Burton’s Corpse Bride and Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit — are fully deserving of their bids. And as someone who loathes the manner in which CGI has taken over the film industry, it’s gratifying to point out that none of these films were created through computers (Howl was hand-drawn, while the other two employed stop-motion).
• The strong technical support for deserving productions. The lackluster reviews for Memoirs of a Geisha immediately squashed the prerelease buzz that this would be one of the major contenders for 2005. But there’s no denying its visual splendor, and the Academy responded by handing it six nominations in technical categories. Likewise, Peter Jackson’s King Kong wasn’t able to duplicate the overall Oscar success of his Lord of the Rings trilogy, but it nevertheless snagged four deserving nods in the technical arena. And while War of the Worlds has emerged as the 2005 blockbuster that few admit to liking, no complaints have been lodged against the awesomeness of its visual and sound effects, which combined racked up three noms. Also worthy of their nominations: Batman Begins and The New World for Best Cinematography and Charlie and the Chocolate Factory for Best Costume Design. Sadly missing out: The Constant Gardener and Pride & Prejudice for Best Cinematography, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory for Best Art Direction & Set Decoration, and Sin City for Best Makeup.
• The fact that the word “pimp” will be sung on the Oscar telecast. The best of the Original Song nominees is Hustle & Flow’s “It’s Hard Out Here for a Pimp,” and while it makes sense that the film’s star Terrence Howard would be the one singing it on the telecast, friends have been suggesting who should sing it. Among the options: Celine Dion or Mariah Carey (changing the title to “It’s Not So Hard Out Here for a Music Whore”); Snoop Dogg; and Robin Williams (who sang “Blame Canada” from the South Park movie six years ago). My pick: Jack Abramoff.
Low Points:
• No Best Picture nomination for The Constant Gardener. This wouldn’t be the first time that BAFTA (aka the British Oscars) would be smarter than our own AMPAS. The British Academy nominated this excellent picture for a field-leading 10 awards, but the US Academy could only muster four nominations. It should have earned additional nods for Best Picture, Director (Fernando Meirelles) and Actor (Ralph Fiennes).
• No Best Documentary nomination for Grizzly Man. We knew about this snub for some time, but that doesn’t make it sting any less. The Academy’s documentary board weeded down the year’s crop of contenders a few weeks ago, and Werner Herzog’s extraordinary film didn’t even make it to the final round of movies worthy of consideration. Given that this was the year’s most praised nonfiction film (it earned Best Documentary honors from nine critics’ groups, far outpacing March of the Penguins’ four), its snub stirs memories of the dark years when the Academy would routinely ignore great docs like The Thin Blue Line, Crumb and Hoop Dreams.
• The omission of the stars of The Upside of Anger. Because it was released waaaay back in the spring, Academy members forgot all about the excellent performances by Joan Allen and Kevin Costner in this low-key gem. What’s the point of studios sending members screener cassettes if they’re not going to make the time to watch them?
• Judi Dench up for Best Actress for Mrs. Henderson Presents. This is the worst nomination in the whole batch. Dench gets cited for delivering the same performance she always does, thereby pushing out more deserving turns by the aforementioned Joan Allen, Naomi Watts (King Kong) and Gwyneth Paltrow (Proof).
• Frances McDormand up for Best Supporting Actress for North Country. Don’t get me wrong: The fabulous McDormand fully deserved her Oscar win for Fargo and additional noms for Almost Famous and Mississippi Burning. But this wasn’t a particularly challenging or memorable performance, and considering the highly competitive nature of this category, her inclusion knocked out one of several marvelous turns: Maria Bello in A History of Violence, Scarlett Johansson in Match Point, Gong Li in Memoirs of a Geisha and Laura Linney in The Squid and the Whale.
Other Points Of Interest:
• This is the first time since 1981 (Atlantic City, Chariots of Fire, On Golden Pond, Raiders of the Lost Ark, Reds) that all five Best Picture and Best Director nominees matched up. At least we won’t have to endure the usual idiotic comments along the lines of, “Did this movie direct itself?”
• The Best Film Editing nod for Cinderella Man may have taken some folks by surprise, but notable boxing films almost always score a nomination in this category. And often, they go on to win the award: Body and Soul, Champion, Rocky and Raging Bull (Million Dollar Baby was nominated last year but lost to The Aviator).
• After an eight-year drought, Woody Allen returns to the Oscar sweepstakes with his script for Match Point. This marks Allen’s 14th nomination in the Best Original Screenplay category and 21st overall nomination.
• It’s amusing to note that Mrs. Henderson Presents earned a Best Costume Design nomination, when the movie’s plot is about young women getting naked by doffing those very same costumes.
• If you’re wondering why there are only three Best Original Song nominees instead of the usual five, that’s because this year the Academy adopted a system in which a film has to earn a certain amount of points to snag a nomination. Even with 42 songs in contention, the dearth of quality melodies being employed in movies today resulted in voters only finding three tunes to their liking. Immediate benefit for viewers: fewer clunky production numbers on the telecast!
This article appears in Feb 8-14, 2006.
