The nominations for the 84th Academy Awards were announced this morning, and you can find the full list here. As per usual, there was no shortage of surprises. Here are a few of my choice reactions to the nominees:
Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close for Best Picture. Excuse me?
The Tree of Life for Best Picture. YES.
Spielberg snub: No nomination for The Adventures of TinTin. Except for John Williams. Of course.
Has the Academy no Shame?
Just because it’s Pixar, doesn’t mean it’s Oscar-worthy (Thank you, Oscar).
¿Dónde eres tú, Almodóvar?
Both Bridesmaids and A Separation are Best Screenplay nominees… I think you know what I’m trying to say here.
Real Steel. ?
I can’t believe I have to see Anonymous.
But almost more interesting is the tally of nominations per film. Could anyone have predicted that Hugo would come out on top? And with second place going to The Artist, it seems the Academy is all about the feel-good fare this year — not that they had much of a choice, mind you. This hasn’t exactly been the most invigorating Oscar season but it’s what we have to work with, so here we go!
Hugo- 11
The Artist- 10
Moneyball- 6
War Horse- 6
The Descendants- 5
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo- 5
The Help- 4
Albert Nobbs- 3
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2- 3
Midnight in Paris- 4
Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy- 3
Transformers: Dark of the Moon- 3
The Tree of Life- 3
Bridesmaids- 2
Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close- 2
The Iron Lady- 2
My Week with Marilyn- 2
A Separation- 2
The Adventures of Tintin- 1
Anonymous- 1
The Barber of Birmingham- 1
Beginners- 1
A Better Life- 1
Bullhead- 1
A Cat in Paris- 1
Chico & Rita- 1
Dimanche/Sunday- 1
Drive- 1
The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore- 1
Awards Daily wants to know what you think will be nominated. I’ve sent in my results, but here are my predictions below (and let me tell you, I’m not exactly excited about any of them). What do you think? The actual nominations will be announced on Tuesday, January 24th.
Best Picture
The Artist
The Descendants
The Help
Midnight in Paris
Moneyball
Hugo
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo
War Horse
The Ides of March
My Week with Marilyn
Just because the Academy can nominate 10 films, doesn’t mean it will. However, the first 8 seem like shoe-ins at this point. If there’s a 9 and a 10, well, they could really go to almost anything (The Tree of Life should be up here, but the Academy won’t go for it). A lot of people are predicting Bridesmaids, but I honestly think the Academy is too old for that (My Week with Marilyn is more its style), and personally, I can’t fathom a world in which Bridesmaids is an Oscar-nominated film.
Best Director
Michel Hazanavicius, The Artist
Alexander Payne, The Descendants
Martin Scorsese, Hugo
Woody Allen, Midnight in Paris
Terrence Malick, The Tree of Life
The first four are guaranteed nominees. The fifth slot? Well, that’s up for grabs. Malick may get some love here for his epic indulgence (which I would support), but for some inexplicable reason Clooney was nominated for the Golden Globe for The Ides of March, so he could sneak in. Another possibility is Fincher for the slickly filmed The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (which I’m rooting for).
Best Actor
George Clooney, The Descendants
Jean Dujardin, The Artist
Brad Pitt, Moneyball
Michael Fassbender, Shame
Leonardo DiCaprio, J. Edgar
The first three are solid. The other two options for the fourth and fifth slots are Gary Oldman (Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy) and Demian Bichir (A Better Life).
Best Actress
Viola Davis, The Help
Michelle Williams, My Week With Marilyn
Meryl Streep, The Iron Lady
Glenn Close, Albert Nobbs
Rooney Mara, The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo
While I’m surprised to see Mara up there, the buzz is high, though she could be shut out by Tilda Swinton (We Need To Talk About Kevin) or — an even longer shot — Charlize Theron (Young Adult).
Best Supporting Actor
Christopher Plummer, Beginners
Kenneth Branagh, My Week With Marilyn
Albert Brooks, Drive
Jonah Hill, Moneyball
Viggo Mortensen, A Dangerous Method
While I can’t imagine anyone else being nominated, with such a strange year, these nominees aren’t actually solid (I think it would be quite fun if Ben Kingsley was nominated for Hugo). With one exception: Christopher Plummer will be nominated — and he will win. If the 2012 Oscars accomplish nothing else, my grandpa, as I affectionately refer to the ever-charming Plummer, will finally, at age 82, take home an Oscar.
Best Supporting Actress
Octavia Spencer, The Help
Bérénice Bejo, The Artist
Jessica Chastain, The Help
Janet McTeer, Albert Nobbs
Shailene Woodley, The Descendants
Possible Spoiler: Carey Mulligan (Shame)
Best Original Screenplay
Woody Allen, Midnight in Paris
Michel Hazanavicius, The Artist
Asghar Farhadi, A Separation
Will Reiser, 50/50
Diablo Cody, Young Adult
Bridesmaids could steal a slot here, quite easily — that’s how dismal a year it is for original screenplays. And the WGA also nominated Win Win, but…whatever.
Best Adapted Screenplay
Nat Faxon, Alexander Payne & Jim Rash, The Descendants
Aaron Sorkin & Steven Zaillian, Moneyball
George Clooney & Grant Heslov, The Ides of March
Tate Taylor, The Help
Steven Zaillian, The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo
Possible spoilers: John Logan, Hugo; Richard Curtis & Lee Hall, War Horse
Best Animated Feature
The Adventures of Tintin
Arthur Christmas
Cars 2
Puss In Boots
Rango
Best Foreign Language Film
A Separation (Iran)
The Skin I Live In (Spain)
Pina (Germany)
In Darkness (Poland)
The Flowers of War (China)
Best Documented Feature
Project Nim
Hell and Back Again
Paradise Lost 3
Pina
We Were Here
Potential spoiler: Bill Cunningham New York
Best Film Editing
The Artist
Hugo
War Horse
Moneyball
The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo
Possible spoiler: The Tree of Life
Best Cinematography
The Artist
The Tree of Life
Hugo
Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo
Possible spoiler: Jane Eyre
Best Art Direction
Hugo
The Artist
The Help
Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2
Possible spoiler: The ADG-nominated Anonymous.
Best Costume Design
The Artist
Hugo
Jane Eyre
The Help
W.E.
Because all of the above are period films, I have to believe one of them will be knocked out in favor of a more contemporary piece — or Harry Potter. But my hope for a spoiler is The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo.
Best Original Score
The Artist
War Horse
Hugo
The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo
Harry Potter
Possible spoiler: Anything else scored by Alexandre Desplat. The man is ubiquitous.
Best Original Song
“Masterpiece,” W.E.
“Lay Your Head Down,” Albert Nobbs
“The Living Proof,” The Help
“Coeur Volant,” Hugo
“Hello Hello,” Gnomeo & Juliet
Sound Mixing
War Horse
The Adventures of Tintin
Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol
Rise of the Planet of the Apes
The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo
Possible spoiler: Transformers: Dark Side of the Moon (Isn’t it always nominated?), Super 8
Best Sound Editing
War Horse
Super 8
The Adventures of Tintin
The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo
Rise of the Planet of the Apes
Possible spoiler: Transformers: Dark Side of the Moon (Isn’t it always nominated?), Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol
It’s that time of year. Everyone — Ben Brantley, Charles Isherwood, David Cote & Adam Feldman — has posted their Top Ten of 2011 lists, and so while I’m a little late in the game for this, it’s time to give my own a go, along with a few special awards to select productions…
Top Ten Best Shows of 2011
(in no particular order)
The Transport Group’s sexy revival of Michael John LaChiusa’s 1994 chamber musical inspired by Arthur Schnitzler’s 1900 play La Ronde, didn’t wink-wink, nudge-nudge its way through the carnalities of couplings. About sex at its seediest level, this was a brazen production of one of musical theatre’s most under-appreciated and complex composers.
Ever a fan of the hyper-prolific Adam Rapp, two of his many productions share a spot on my list: One a hyper-ambitious triptych spanning a century in a single decrepit hallway and the other a reboot of the meandering and magically real Animals and Plants (in a doubleheader with Derek Ahonen’s Pink Knees on Pale Skin), these two works were chockfull of signature in-your-face Rapp: daring nudity, jolting language, shocking actions and of course, difficult and damaged, strangely compelling characters.
Equal parts hostility and heart, George C. Wolfe and Joel Grey‘s searing, minimalist production did exactly right by playwright-activist Larry Kramer by focusing on content over context with a spare, direct design that drew out the most staggering ensemble work on Broadway of the season. It marked an astonishing example of how truly worthy plays — even less than perfect ones like the preachy-passionate Heart — can endure over time.
A dancer’s director, Rob Ashford slickly staged a blissfully bright Broadway musical with a full, fantastic orchestra; clever, beautifully executed choreography and a dynamic, dedicated cast. No wizardry there: just some luck, a lot of pluck and quite possibly the Happiest Boy on Broadway this year, Daniel Radcliffe (who, just this week, was replaced with — sigh — Glee star Darren Criss).
A boy and his horse and some awe-inspiring puppets combine to create the most imaginative, visionary and theatrically moving work of the season, garnering the Tony Award for Best Play. Quite naturally, it’s also become a Steven Spielberg film (and an inevitable Oscar nominee).
Even hardened anti-realism folks such as myself must acknowledge when the form is done well — and few contemporary writers do it better than David Lindsay-Abaire. The female-friendly playwright — his protagonists are almost always women — explored the hot-button American issue of class through intricate relationships and richly complex characters, without ever grasping for topicality.
Praise be for Trey Parker, Robert Lopez and Matt Stone who offered up a well-made, very funny, minimally offensive, brilliantly performed, completely original Tony Award-winning Broadway musical about a pair of mismatched, bright-eyed and bushy-tailed Mormons sent on a mission to squalid and violent Uganda. A bit of a musical miracle, indeed.
The cast of epbb's These Seven Sicknesses.
These Seven Sicknesses
Take 23 actors and a bevy of technicians and crew members; throw them in a super-secret Hell’s Kitchen loft; add a select audience, communal dinner and an endless supply of alcohol; mix in a 5-hour play cycle of Sophocles’s works and what you’d come up with is the most intimate, inclusive and enjoyablenight at the theatre this year. If you aren’t yet familiar with Ed Iskander’s “theatre collective,” Exit, Pursued by a Bear, you should be. But if you haven’t yet experienced Sean Graney’s epic, clever and affecting take on Sophocles’s work, you still have a chance: The Flea Theater’s production of These Seven Sicknesses, also helmed by Iskander, premieres later this month.
The pregnancy pact plot is a tad bit Lifetime-y, but Greenidge’s punchy drama has power, and the playwright possesses a knack for language, effortlessly and hilariously fusing urban colloquy with lyricism. With such smart, hip and ambitious work, this talented playwright won’t be “emerging” for long.
Urge for Going at The Public Theater. Photo: Carol Rosegg.
The deceptively simple play follows Jamila, a 17-year-old Palestinian girl growing up in a Lebanese refugee camp, as she desperately attempts to escape the restriction of her desolate home. Beautifully complex and rich in both character and story, this production was a surprise from start to finish, and playwright Mona Mansour’s talent was the most wonderful surprise of all.
As shallow and soulless as they come, the only person involved who emerged from this Pepto-Bismol-palletted aural attack with full dignity intact was the always stellar Norbert Leo Butz.
The success of Jez Butterworth’s hyperbolically praised “state-of-the-nation” play was, in actuality, due solely to the dazzling performance of one Mark Rylance.
Sleep No More
Wandering through the impeccably decorated five-story McKittrick Hotel with actors silently performing “scenes” from Macbeth was mildly entertaining for about an hour. As for the next three, well, I wouldn’t know: I preferred sleep, more.
Lord knows the drama onstage was dismal — except when actors were falling from the sky, of course — but who didn’t love gossiping about this train wreck? C’mon, admit it: we all kinda miss Spidey, The Hottest Mess on Broadway.
The nominations for the 84th Academy Awards were announced this morning, and you can find the full list here. As per usual, there was no shortage of surprises. Here are a few of my choice reactions to the nominees:
