I’m pretty pleased with this year’s Oscar nominees. The Academy did better than usual and avoided its frequent horribly undeserving nominations and inexplicably unjust missed nominations.
I’m downright giddy that my pick for the year’s best movie, the underdog indie Winter’s Bone, earned four Oscar nominations: Best Picture, Best Actress (Jennifer Lawrence), Best Supporting Actor (John Hawkes) and Best Adapted Screenplay (Director Debra Granik and Anne Rosellini).
Of the ten nominees for Best Picture, eight are on my list of Best Movies of 2010 – all except 127 Hours (which I have not seen) and The Kids Are Alright (which was OK but not great in my book). The one-year old format of ten Best Picture nominees made it pretty obvious that True Grit, The Social Network, Black Swan, The King’s Speech and Inception would make the list along with the deserving Pixar entry Toy Story 3. The question was about the other four, and, fortunately, Winter’s Bone and The Fighter slipped in.
I’m also delighted that Australian veteran actress Jacki Weaver was nominated for her role in Animal Kingdom as an impossibly upbeat gal who can effortlessly put out a contract on her own grandson.
Christopher Nolan should have gotten a Best Director nod for his Best Picture nominee Inception. I wish that Winter’s Bone‘s Debra Granik had been nominated for Best Director. And I did find it odd that GasLand rated an Oscar nod for Best Documentary, but not The Tillman Story or Joan Rivers: A Piece of Work. But those are just quibbles relative to my complaints in other years. Here’s to the Oscars!
