Superlative Sunday :: the 2013 Oscar nominations

Or, a checklist of what I need to get done by February 24.  Strikethroughs represent what I’ve already gotten done.

Best Picture:
Amour
Argo
Beasts of the Southern Wild
Django Unchained
Les Misérables
Life of Pi
Lincoln
Silver Linings Playbook
Zero Dark Thirty

I just.  I miss when there were only five Best Picture nominees, I really really do.  I used to write an entertainment column for my high school newspaper, and I actually seeing all of the nominees was both more feasible and something I actually wanted to do.  With more options, though, it’s harder.  I can’t see every movie in the world and I know that, and you know what?  Sometimes I’m a philistine and I want to see things that aren’t Oscar movies.  When it was only five contenders, I could go “oh, it’s okay to try and see that even if I don’t care, there aren’t that many.”  I just can’t make myself watch so many movies that I otherwise don’t care about.

And it’s like… I know these are good movies.  Obviously, they’re good.  It’s just that considering the number of times lately I’ve gone “I understand that was good, but I don’t feel anything” (like I was complaining about having to do last night) I am loathe to sit down for more things that probably will make me do that.  War movies stress me out, inspirational animal stories tire me out, emotional elderly people dramas overwhelm me, and I just have to weigh my options, I suppose.

Oh, and I have no idea who’s going to win.

Actor in a Leading Role
Bradley Cooper, Silver Linings Playbook
Daniel Day-Lewis, Lincoln
Hugh Jackman, Les Misérables
Joaquin Phoenix, The Master
Denzel Washington, Flight

And sorry, Denzel Washington, but I have no intention of ever seeing Flight.  I remember watching the trailer and turning to one of my people and going “…really?” and leaving it at that.  Overall, my instinct here is to admit that it really is hard to beat Daniel Day-Lewis, but someone just might because sometimes the Academy is weird like that.

Actress in a Leading Role
Jessica Chastain, Zero Dark Thirty
Jennifer Lawrence, Silver Linings Playbook
Emmanuelle Riva, Amour
Quvenzhané Wallis, Beasts of the Southern Wild
Naomi Watts, The Impossible

Now I just feel kind of bad.  I don’t feel bad for not having seen Best Picture nominees, necessarily, but being the connoisseur of female performances I am, I wish I could see all of them.  And I don’t know, I guess I’m going to try, but I can’t give a verdict yet, nope.

Actor in a Supporting Role
Alan Arkin, Argo
Robert De Niro, Silver Linings Playbook
Philip Seymour Hoffman, The Master
Tommy Lee Jones, Lincoln
Christoph Waltz, Django Unchained

I’m torn.  Philip Seymour Hoffman and Christoph Waltz both belong in the “please, give them all the awards when they’re in movies that aren’t crummy” categories for me, I’d be happy either way.

Actress in a Supporting Role
Amy Adams, The Master
Sally Fields, Lincoln
Anne Hathaway, Les Misérables
Helen Hunt, The Sessions
Jacki Weaver, Silver Linings Playbook

Like last night, I must ask: why in the world is Silver Linings Playbook nominated for everything?  It was good, and the performances were good, but Jacki Weaver, for example, had really not that much to do overall.  She facilitated other characters, but I never got a sense of her as a character.  That’s not her fault as an actress, it just wasn’t written that way.  I guess I watch too many “popcorn” movies, because I don’t necessarily feel comfortable suggesting an alternative, but though really it is nothing against Jacki Weaver, I don’t really know why she was the nominee.  That said, I’d be comfy with Amy Adams, and I’d be comfy with Anne Hathaway which has, I’d say, about a 90% chance of being the case.

Animated Feature Film
Brave
Frankenweenie
ParaNorman
The Pirates: Band of Misfits
Wreck-It Ralph

I don’t care that I’ve only seen the nominee I’m rooting for.  As far as I’m concerned, there is no contest.  This is probably the only category that I have a true, deep emotional investment in this year, and I will go on about it vehemently.

Cinematography
Seamus McGarvey, Anna Karenina
Robert Richardson, Django Unchained
Claudio Miranda, Life of Pi
Janusz Kaminski, Lincoln
Roger Deakins, Skyfall

When it comes to technical categories, I often just root for the movie I liked the best, but here it works, because Django Unchained was shot so, so nicely.

Costume Design
Jacqueline Durran, Anna Karenina
Paco Delgado, Les Misérables
Joanna Johnston, Lincoln
Eiko Ishioka, Mirror Mirror
Colleen Atwood, Snow White and the Huntsman

I know there will be no Oscar given on the basis of properly designed female suits or armor or things that make Charlize Theron look ridiculously smoldering-good, and I am resigned to that.  I think I’m actually going to vote for Anna Karenina despite not having seen it yet, because I like elaborate, overblown period costumes of grand natures.

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

And Quentin Tarantino is where?  I’m sorry to keep picking on Silver Linings Playbook, but I am positive that the direction of Django Unchained was more powerful than at least the direction of that.  For example.

I’m not saying anything about documentaries because I know nothing about any of them.

Film Editing
William Goldenberg, Argo
Tim Squyres, Life of Pi
Michael Kahn, Lincoln
Jay Cassidy and Crispin Struthers, Silver Linings Playbook
Dylan Tichenor and William Goldenberg, Zero Dark Thirty

I… don’t know?

I’m not saying anything about foreign language films because I know nothing about any of them.

Makeup and Hairstyling
Howard Berger, Peter Montagna and Martin Samuel, Hitchcock
Peter Swords King, Rick Findlater and Tami Lane, The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey
Lisa Westcott and Julie Dartnell, Les Misérables

I… don’t know?

Original Score
Dario Marianelli, Anna Karenina
Alexandre Desplat, Argo
Mychael Danna, Life of Pi
John Williams, Lincoln
Thomas Newman, Skyfall

There are more nominations for Skyfall than I would have predicted.

Original Song
“Before My Time” from Chasing Ice, music and lyric by J. Ralph
“Everybody Needs A Best Friend” from Ted, music by Walter Murphy, lyric by Seth MacFarlane
“Pi’s Lullaby” from Life of Pi, music by Mychael Danna, lyric by Bombay Jayashri
“Skyfall” from Skyfall, music and lyric by Adele Adkins and Paul Epworth
“Suddenly” from Les Misérables, music by Claude-Michel Schönberg, lyric by Herbert Kretzmer and Alain Boublil

I don’t care, I’m voting for Adele.

Production Design
Sarah Greenwood (Production Design), Katie Spencer (Set Decoration), Anna Karenina
Dan Hennah (Production Design), Ra Vincent and Simon Bright (Set Decoration), The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey
Eve Stewart (Production Design), Anna Lynch-Robinson (Set Decoration), Les Misérables
David Gropman (Production Design), Anna Pinnock (Set Decoration), Life of Pi
Rick Carter (Production Design), Jim Erickson (Set Decoration), Lincoln

I’m good any of these ways.

Saying nothing about short films because I know nothing about them, saying nothing about sound editing because I’m still not sure how to judge that.

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

But I do not understand.  I do not.  (Imagine this said in a Tommy Wiseau voice to get the full extent of my confusion.)  I will bring up the “but where is my Perks?” thing again, like I did last night, because that was actually a perfect adaptation.  I don’t say the word perfect lightly or really ever, but I’m saying it there.  That was a perfect adaptation of material I had feared unadaptable, and did it just get blown off because it was about teenagers or something?  I don’t get it, it was a good film.

That said, I’m voting for Lincoln because the theatre person in me defaults to Tony Kushner always.

Original Screenplay
Michael Haneke, Amour
Quentin Tarantino, Django Unchained
John Gatins, Flight
Wes Anderson and Roman Coppola, Moonrise Kingdom
Mark Boal, Zero Dark Thirty

Nope, sorry.  The everything person in me defaults to Quentin Tarantino always.

Also, I feel somehow like this list might have too many dudes and not enough ladies on it.

–your fangirl heroine.