Oscar Rant 2011

Just like the rest of the cinephiles in America, I was glued to my chair at 8:30 this morning, waiting to hear the bell go off that starts the Official Oscar Campaign. Usually, I have to tell my boss that I’ll be a bit late on Nod Day, but today I had the extra blessing of working from home, so as I set my day into motion, I had it on in the background.

I’ve heard people say that the Academy is full of nothing but yuppified, elitist snobs who wouldn’t know a good film if it hit them in their firmly ensconced in their seat buttocks. I’ve defended them against people who say that nobody ever HEARD of the films that are nominated, so who really cares. But I always defend them. The Oscars is my Super Bowl when the Colts don’t make it in. It’s the day I wait all year for. Hell, when I found out I was having SURGERY, the first thing out of my mouth was “Not during Oscar week, I’m not!”

But now they’ve even pissed ME off! I simply do not understand. There are Oscar RULES and they should be followed. And they’ve made a mistake so grievous that I just don’t think I can forgive them.

Christopher Nolan, the visionary director behind this year’s BEST film “Inception”, is NOT nominated in the direction category. He’s not there. Other people are there, and perhaps deservedly so. But he NEEDED to be there. And he’s just not.

Oh sure, he’s nominated for Screenplay. Like that really matters. And “Inception” IS nominated for Best Picture. But that doesn’t really matter either. He SHOULD be nominated. He DESERVES to be nominated. When TDK got robbed of its Best Picture nomination, the Academy rectified this by expanding the field to 10 films. Do we need to do the same for directors?

I don’t want to hear that it’s a “strong year for film”. No, it wasn’t. It’s the same as it always is. There’s a handful of films that deserve Oscar recognition. Unfortunately, many more films are nominated. This brings me to the snoozefest known as “Winter’s Bone”. This film was ok at best. It was slow. It was not original. It didn’t make me think. I forgot it the next day. Sure, Jennifer Lawrence was great, but that’s about it. BEST PICTURE? ARE YOU KIDDING ME? I know there’s ten films, but you are SERIOUSLY telling me that this was better than “The Town”?

So this year, in my Oscar quest, I have seen seven out of the ten Best Picture nominees. I will be seeing two of the remaining three by the end of the month. I have a handful of other films I need to see (such as “Blue Valentine” and “Biutiful”. I may get to them.

But if not, ok. At this point, I don’t really want to watch either of the Super Bowls.