The Noms

The Oscar nominations were announced this morning and, as usual, contained surprises, both pleasant and otherwise.

It was nice to see Melissa Leo and Richard Jenkins, both longtime character actors, get nominations at all (for Best Actress and Best Actor, respectively), but most especially because the movies they were nominated for (Frozen River and the Visitor) came out months ago, indicating that maybe, just maybe, the Academy is finally developing a respectable attention span. Either that, or the studios are getting better at pushing their movies for nominations. Or, one hopes, both.

It was also nice to see the late Heath Ledger nominated for his last completed performance as the Joker in The Dark Knight; he took a character previously played for laughs by the likes of Cesar Romero and Jack Nicholson and made him a truly malevolent, dangerous creature--chaos personified. The nomination was expected, but still welcome.

What was not welcome, however, was the passing-over of The Dark Knight from all other major categories, including Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Director (Christopher Nolan) and Best Picture. Roger Ebert called the exclusion "a startling upset," but was it, really? Action films get little love from the Academy (beyond the technical categories, like Best Sound Editing), super-hero movies even less. But The Dark Knight was not only a box-office megahit (second only to Best Picture winner Titanic on the all-time list), but a major critical success as well (94% fresh on RottenTomatoes.com), so shouldn't it have gotten a little more love?

The Curious Case of Benjamin Button and Slumdog Millionaire were certainly feeling the love, with 13 and 10 nominations respectively. Some critics were surprised that Slumdog snagged noms for Best Picture and Best Director, but none for any of the actors were recognized. I wasn't, though--the actors are unknown to Americans (who make up the bulk of Academy voters), and multiple actors play the three main characters (two brothers and a girl) through different stages of their lives, making it more difficult to choose any one actor for the acting categories.

A number of critics were also disappointed that WALL-E wasn't included in the Best Picture category (though it did score a nomination for Best Original Screenplay). Not me. I liked Wall-E--like all Pixar films it looks terrific, and the decision to play the front half of the movie nearly silent pays off better than the chatty second half--but it wasn't even my favorite animated movie this year; I had a lot more fun at Kung Fu Panda, which, along with WALL-E and bolt, was nominated in the Best Animated Feature Film category. There's another reason WALL-E didn't get a Best Picture nod: The Academy created the Best Animated Feature category specifically so they wouldn't have to deal with whether or not to nominate an animated movie for the top prize. As long as that category exists, the Academy doesn't have to actually think, and they like it like that.

I won't make my predictions yet--that'll come a couple days before the awards are handed--but this far out, Slumdog Millionaire looks like the film to beat. As with WALL-E, I saw it and liked it, but my life wasn't altered by it. Still, given the Academy's penchant for nominating and subsequently rewarding dreary melodramas, it's nice to see something somewhat uplifting get some recognition--and, come next month, some hardware as well.