So a quick visit to the Redbox took care of two more, and now I'm down to one last film that, as it turns out, is opening up at theaters in my area this weekend. So for once, I'll actually be able to fill out my hypothetical ballot and post reviews of all 10 nominated movies before the ceremony. (Last year, I was about two months behind in doing that.) At least, I should be able do all that in time this year.
Of course, there were a couple surprises in this year's nominations, but I suppose the one lesson I need to make a point of remembering is this: Mike Leigh gets nominated for his writing, not his directing or the performances he gets. I should have remembered this lesson from two years back, actually.
Anyway, other assorted totally random thoughts on the nominations:
- I suppose the biggest surprise to me would have to be Christopher Nolan once again failing to get a Best Director nod. I also never would have thought I'd ever bet against the Coens, but perhaps I'm guilty of penalizing them too heavily for doing a remake—which the Academy obviously isn't doing. Still, of any of the picks I missed, Nolan had to be the one I felt most confident about leading up to the announcement.
- The least surprising would be between two of the four acting nominations I missed on: Robert Duvall's Get Low was a bit of a gamble on my part, but I thought he'd get more sentimental votes than Javier Bardem—who just won a couple years back; Mila Kunis was a popular pick, but I had the feeling her role in Black Swan wasn't as demanding as Natalie Portman's and some voters would think she's young and would have other chances if she can prove herself a little more.
- I'd say the same logic sort of applies to my Andrew Garfield miscalculation too, but I was relatively surprised he missed out since he was one of The Social Network's (supposedly) more moral characters. And I guess I just hadn't felt any legitimate hype for John Hawkes, since Winter's Bone had been widely touted as Jennifer Lawrence's triumph.
- Lesley Manville was another admittedly risky choice, but people who loved her performance really loved her. And the "too young, needs more experience" I'm saying probably worked against Kunis and Garfield was actually what led me to believe neither of the Blue Valentine leads would get nominated—although I should've kept in mind that Michelle Williams had already been an Oscar nominee. My bad.
- Sizing up the actual race now, The Social Network no longer seems to be the shoo-in it seemed to be heading into the final leg of voting after gobbling up pretty much every conceivable honor possible. Garfield's snub could indicate a certain lack of enthusiasm from the voters. With the most nominations, The King's Speech has to have some pretty good odds and even before nominations were announced, I had felt that it was certainly a more uplifting story than Fincher's Facebook tale. Roger Ebert seems to think True Grit is showing momentum.
- I was also relieved to see Hailee Steinfeld did end up in the Supporting Actress category rather than the lead, although one could certainly argue that she does have the main role in that film.
- I'm actually surprised that I only missed one of the screenplay picks. I knew that my strategy of using all 10 of the same films I had up for Best Picture was going to involve at least one odd film out, and ultimately Black Swan did me in. Still, nine out of 10 between the Original and Adapted is pretty decent for me.
- So what's my favorite of what I've seen thus far? Conversely, what's this year's Blind Side? I'll be getting to my thoughts on all 10 of the films nominated for Best Picture in the coming weeks (still got one to see, after all, so let's not jump the gun here), and perhaps have reviews of some other films up for acting awards too if I caught/catch those as well. Football season, after all, officially ends next weekend.
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