In my opinion, this is one of the weakest years I’ve seen in film and probably the worst since 2005 (when Crash won Best Picture). No film really moved the needle for me save for one or two. There were a lot of very good films this year but nothing that blew me away. So I’m going to look at the Oscar nominations with less joy than other years.
Also, as I stated last year (and will continue to state), the awards don’t mean anything. No one cares anymore. If the general public has seen 2 of the nominated films for Best Picture, that would be a lot. I’m only interested in seeing it align with my tastes. I like to see it get it “right”. Each and every year, the Oscars are becoming more and more removed from normal society. I just want to see them get it right or at least close to my opinions which will probably be an impossible task.
These are the films nominated for Best Picture:
The Artist
The Descendants
Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close
The Help
Hugo
Midnight in Paris
Moneyball
The Tree of Life
War Horse
I’ve seen 5 of the 9 nominated films and I consider myself a frequent movie theater attendee. I am really glad to see The Tree of Life get nominated. I was definitely surprised by that choice. I’m also surprised that Terrence Malick was nominated in one of the five slots for Best Director. A great choice by the Academy.
What surprised me most was seeing Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close nominated for Best Picture. It had pretty bad word of mouth and I’m just surprised it garnished enough votes to become nominated. I haven’t seen it yet, so I’m not going to say it doesn’t deserve the slot, but it looks like typical Oscar fodder.
There were no real glaring omissions from the list except for The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo which I don’t really think deserved the nomination anyway. People will say Tinker Taylor Soldier Spy and Bridesmaids but I don’t think they got snubbed.
Like I said in the beginning, its a boring crop of Best Picture nominees that reflect the output that is coming out of Hollywood nowadays. The Oscars are trying to make the audience care about their awards again. Do we really care when we get nominees like these? But in the end, did they have a good crop to pick from?
