I Am DB

Complete List of Nominees

And so the final phase of the awards season begins. As I suspected would be the case, there were so many good movies this year that any disappointment is more about what had to be left out than being upset about anything that was included. There were some surprises, though.

BEST PICTURE
This one went pretty much how I thought it would, allowing for the possibility that Into the Wild or Diving Bell and the Butterfly might have edged in there. But I had pegged those as more likely to be nominated for directing while overlooked in the big race. No Country, Blood and Juno were safe bets. Michael Clayton could have gone either way, and Atonement was a question mark only because of omissions from some other key groups. All in all, a strong category.

BEST DIRECTOR
I was pretty shocked that Sean Penn was left off for Into the Wild. I hadn’t expected that. And I didn’t think that Tony Gilroy would make the cut for Michael Clayton. Of all the DGA nominees, he seemed the most likely to be overlooked by the Academy. And Jason Reitman for Juno? Wow, that sure was a longshot. Picture and Screenplay seemed like givens, but I didn’t think Reitman had a prayer at making the cut. Too bad that Joe Wright wasn’t nominated for Atonement. I look at Juno and Michael Clayton as excellent movies that were certainly well directed, but owed their biggest off-camera debt to particularly strong scripts. Atonement, however, felt like much more a marriage between the two: a terrific script realized by a director who brought a lot of his own vision to it.

On a side note, remember when Ivan Reitman – while never exactly making Oscar-caliber movies – was one of the biggest directors in comedy? Ghostbusters, Stripes, Meatballs, Twins, Dave…and now he’s making crap like My Super Ex-Girlfriend while his 30 year old son has knocked his first two movies out of the park and been showered with rave reviews and awards.

BEST ACTOR
So Tommy Lee Jones made it after all! Well played, Academy. A much deserved nomination for an overlooked movie. And with expected nominations for Clooney and Day-Lewis, that left Depp and Mortensen as the two who looked good, but weren’t sure things. It’s nice to see Mortensen finally get some due. As for Depp, I love the guy and I’ll always be happy to see him nominated, and I eagerly await the day when he finally wins. But good as he was in Sweeney Todd, I’d rather have seen Emile Hirsch take that spot. Into the Wild got the shaft in a big way today, and whatever people think of Hirsch’s character, you’ve gotta give him credit for how he threw himself into that role, body and soul. He put himself through intense physical rigors, but gave just as much to role emotionally; he appears in almost every scene; and he succeeds in creating a character that I believed would be so attractive to all the people he encountered in his travels. His was definitely one of the most impressive performances of the year, and it became one of the Academy’s biggest oversights.

(By the way, check out this reaction quote from Viggo: the guy’s smart, classy, and has good taste: “There were a lot of candidates and a lot of the awards shows or organizations this year have had different mixes of people. It was nice to see Tommy Lee Jones in there. He hadn’t been in so much of the mix and when I saw his name come up and there was only one name left to go, I thought, ‘Naah, well, there’s no way (I’ll be nominated).’ So to be honest, I was quite surprised.”

BEST ACTRESS
Julie Christie and Marion Cotillard  were the locks, with Ellen Page (very cool) right behind them. I wasn’t sure Blanchett would get in there, especially since her Supporting nomination was a foregone conclusion. It just goes to show how much the Academy loves her. And she deserves the love; she’s friggin’ awesome. Sorry, Meryl Streep: there’s a new Meryl Streep and her name is Cate Blanchett. I’ve got no objection to Laura Linney’s inclusion, although as one friend of mine pointed out, the role seemed like a diluted version of her character from You Can Count On Me. Still, she’s always good.

I guess the biggest surprise here was Angelina Jolie in A Mighty Heart being left off. I’m on the fence about it. On one hand, she really disappeared into the role, and while part of that can be chalked up to a physical transformation, it takes more than that to make you forget you’re watching a star who’s constantly in the celebrity spotlight. On the other hand, the movie is less of a character driven piece and more of a docudrama – almost a Law & Order-style procedural about the search for Daniel Pearl. As a result, she doesn’t drive the story as much as you’d think she would from the way the movie was marketed. She’s really good, but maybe in the end it wasn’t seen as enough of a star turn.

BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR
Probably the most perfect category of the year. Sure, there are some other people I’d have been happy to see sneak in, but you can’t argue with any one of these five guys. Great choices all around.

BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS
Blanchett, Ryan and Swinton all came through, deservedly and as expected. I was glad to see Saoirse Ronan get in, carrying the torch for the Atonement cast. In a different year, Knightley and McAvoy probably would have made the cut, but Ronan’s performance is particularly tricky and effective, especially considering how young she is. Suck it, Dakota Fanning!

I still don’t think Ruby Dee deserved a nomination, but as I had no particularly strong feelings about anyone who was omitted, and as Ruby Dee is a legend and totally cool, I’ll let it slide.

BEST ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY
No surprises here, and all good scripts (well, I haven’t seen Lars and the Real Girl yet. This weekend.)

BEST ADAPTED SCREENPLAY
Once again, Into the Wild is glaringly left off. I guess Away From Her took it’s spot, seeing as Diving Bell, No Country, Blood and Atonement were all favorites (the latter despite lack of a WGA nomination). Away From Her was an impressive script, especially considering it was written by a 28 year-old and dealt with an older couple dealing with Alzheimer’s. And Sarah Polley is awesome; I’ll call this amends for not giving her a Best Supporting Actress nomination 10 years ago for The Sweet Hereafter. Still, the absence of Sean Penn here (and in the Director race) stings.

BEST ANIMATED FEATURE
Didn’t see Surf’s Up, and actually heard it was pretty good, but how do you deny The Simpsons Movie? Unforgivable.

BEST ORIGINAL SONG
I don’t know what happened in the Best Song category. I know that Into The Wild was deemed ineligible for Best Score, but did that somehow extend to the song category? I don’t see how it could have, and yet I can’t accept that any other reason could have led to not a single nomination for Eddie Vedder. Three songs from Enchanted, and not one from Into the Wild? I’m not gonna dump on Enchanted, cause I haven’t seen it and it actually looks like a pretty clever parody of the whole Disney princess genre, so I’m sure the songs follow suit. But c’mon! No Eddie Vedder here is like two spoonfuls of salt on the already gaping Into the Wild wound. The only upside? Hopefully this clears the path for “Falling Slowly” to win. If some of Vedder’s songs had made the cut, I’d have had a hard time choosing between his stuff and this great song from Once, which was used in the movie twice – both times to excellent effect.

BEST VISUAL EFFECTS
To my friends at ILM, congrats on Pirates and Transformers. Disappointing movies, but great effects.

Until we reconvene around February 23 for predictions and final commentary, I close with an expression of shock and sadness over the other big news in moviedom today: the death of Heath Ledger.

RIP, Heath. Your star had barely begun to burn.

As is my usual custom on Oscar nomination morning, I set the alarm for 5:00 a.m. and turned it up to 11 to make sure I wouldn’t sleep through the big event.  At 5:30 I got up. At 5:38 the nominees were announced. At 5:43 I went back to bed. Now that the workin’ day is done and I’ve had some time to reflect, here are a few thoughts…

PICTURE
Definitely a surprise that Dreamgirls was left out, given the expectations. Still, the five films that did make it were all pretty much expected too, so I guess something had to be left off. I liked Dreamgirls, but do think it was somewhat overrated. I feel like much of its buzz was centered around the knockdown performances by Jennifer Hudson and Eddie Murphy, and since they both got recognized, did it truly deserve Best Picture as well? I haven’t read anything about this yet, but I’m thinking it’s probably been years since the movie that got the most nominations – in this case, Dreamgirls – is not up for Best Picture. I’ll be curious to find out when that last happened.

The Departed is still my favorite, but I’m not convinced it will win. Babel, The Queen and Letters From Iwo Jima may all be more the Academy’s taste.

ACTOR
Very disappointed that Leo’s nomination is for Blood Diamond rather than The Departed, which obviously had broader support. I liked Blood Diamond and he was very good in it. But his work in The Departed is so full of depth and honest intensity…I’m still amazed when I think about it. He breathed rich life into a complex character and knocked it skyhigh out of the park. So how is he nominated for the lesser performance? With Blood Diamond, he’s just along for the ride. With The Departed, he coulda been a contender.

Very happy to see Ryan Gosling made it, and while Forest Whitaker has become the clear favorite, I still want to say how happy I am to see this great, underrated character actor getting this level of attention after all these years in the business. Mr. Hand would be proud.

ACTRESS/SUPPORTING ACTRESS
Both categories went right down the line as expected, but a few words nonetheless. Helen Mirren would have to assassinate Steven Spielberg on Hollywood Blvd. in broad daylight (prior to the end of the voting period) in order to lose Best Actress.

I often think Judi Dench gets nominated just for sneezing, but her turn in Notes On A Scandal was 100% worthy, as is Blanchett’s. Them’s were some damn fine performances. And I still think Meryl Streep should be in the Supporting Actress race for The Devil Wears Prada. I don’t understand why she’s been pushed all along as a lead. She doesn’t have that much screen time, and her character functions as a foil/catalyst for Anne Hathaway’s. And while we’re talking Devils and Pradas, I would have liked to see some love for the glorious scene stealing of Emily Blunt. Other unfortunate Supporting omissions, based on the movies I’ve seen, are Shareeka Epps in Half Nelson and Jodie Foster in Inside Man.

SUPPORTING ACTOR
Another big surprise: no Nicholson. I’d expected, and hoped, that both he and Wahlberg would get nominated. Very pleased to see Dirk Diggler in the race, but I’ll miss Nicholson. Still, this was the toughest field of all, with lots of other worthy performances shut out – Adam Beach from Flags of Our Fathers and Michael Sheen from The Queen among them. Also, I’m so happy that Jackie Earle Haley made it. I could have seen it going either way since this race was so competitive, but man – not only is he great in Little Children, but talk about an incredible comeback tale. Do you know his deal? When the movie came out last fall, Entertainment Weekly did a story about him. If you don’t know his history, you should read it. Knowing how he got here makes his nomination that much sweeter.

ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY
I didn’t expect them to make the cut – they had both been entirely absent from all the year-end awards – but please join me in a moment of silence for two excellent and truly original scripts from 2006: Brick, written by Rian Johnson; and Inside Man, written by Russell Gewirtz. Gentlemen, I salute you.

Very happy that Pan’s Labyrinth made the cut. Talk about Original Screenplay…it doesn’t get much more original this side of Charlie Kaufman. Great, in fact, to see Pan’s Labyrinth get so much attention – six nominations! Also happy to see Letters From Iwo Jima in there. And Guillermo Arriaga finally gets a nod after being overlooked for 21 Grams. Still, the race will probably come down to The Queen and Little Miss Sunshine, which have split the bulk of screenplay honors up to this point. Then again, momentum for Pan’s keeps growing…

ADAPTED SCREENPLAY
I loved Borat, but I always get a little annoyed when movies that are largely improvised get nominated for screenplay awards. (I’m talkin’ to you, Mike Leigh…) It’s good to see Children of Men here, though I would have liked to see more recognition for it. This is the first year I can recall off the top of my head where most of the leading Best Picture contenders are from original screenplays, rather than adapted. Looking at this race, it’s hard to see The Departed losing. But then again, who saw Gods and Monsters coming in ’98? I read an interesting statistic today that Departed is the first movie in something like 18 years to be a remake and get a screenplay nomination. Pretty cool. I’m generally against remakes, but I’m more open to them when they’re based on foreign films, since most stupid Americans will never see foreign films. And if they all come out as good as The Departed, I can’t complain.

FOREIGN LANGUAGE FILM
Another of the biggest surprises was in this race: where’s Volver? The Academy is usually puddy in Almodovar’s hand, and this was another great one from the Spaniard. I guess the good news about its absence is that it makes for less high-profile competition for Pan’s Labyrinth, which has to be the frontrunner given it’s great buzz, crossover appeal and support across other Academy branches. Then again, the same was all true of Amelie, and that lost to No Man’s Land. So watch out for The Lives of Others.

Two other notes: I’m really glad Thomas Newman was nominated for his excellent score to The Good German. This guy should have an armful of Oscars by now but has yet to win one. I don’t know if this is his year, but it’s definitely another deserved nomination. And lastly, dare I dream and speak aloud that which must not be spoke? Will ILM finally win it’s first Oscar since Forrest Gump? Even the idiots of the Academy who lack any understanding of visual effects can’t possibly go for Superman over the amazing work in Pirates of the Caribbean.

That’s about all I have on the nominations. Nice to see such a racially diverse year. Big showing for the Mexican film community, four African-American acting nominees, one all-out African acting nominee, a Japanese nominee…how often does all that happen?

I’ll save my predictions until the date is closer. A lot can change in a month. In the meantime, let’s all send our positive thoughts for Martin Scorsese out into the ether. It’s your year, brother.