And The Nominees Are...

The Oscar nominations are in, and while I don't really care about the Oscars anymore, I was passionate about many of the movies this year and thought I would comment.

Best Actor
George Clooney - Michael Clayton
Daniel Day-Lewis - There Will Be Blood
Johnny Depp - Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street
Tommy Lee Jones - In The Valley Of Elah
Viggo Mortensen - Eastern Promises

I saw There Will Be Blood last night and was kind of overwhelmed by it. I think I need to see it again, but Daniel Day-Lewis was definitely amazing. Depp was fantastic in Sweeney Todd, and Viggo Mortensen was also excellent.
The biggest joke here is that Tommy Lee Jones was nominated for his performance in a movie no one cares about, rather than No Country For Old Men, one of the best movies of the year, not to mention one of the best performances of his career.

Best Supporting Actor
Casey Affleck - The Assassination of Jesse James By The Coward Robert Ford
Javier Bardem - No Country For Old Men
Philip Seymour Hoffman - Charlie Wilson's War
Hal Holbrook - Into The Wild
Tom Wilkinson - Michael Clayton

I don't understand why Casey Affleck has a supporting nod, rather than Best Actor. The Assassination of Jesse James is really about his character Robert Ford. His performance was excellent either way.
I also wouldn't mind seeing Javier Bardem or Philip Seymour Hoffman win. Hoffman was hilarious in Charlie Wilson's War, but I think he's kind of a long shot.

I'm skipping past the Best Actress and Supporting Actress noms, because I've only seen one of the movies represented. This didn't really feel like a good year for outstanding female performances anyway. Sorry ladies.

Best Animated Feature
Persepolis
Ratatouille
Surf's Up

Where the hell is The Simpson's Movie?
I'm going with Pixar, no surprise there. The details in Ratatouille are astounding. I should have eaten before I saw it, cause damn if that fake food doesn't make you hungry.
I haven't seen the other two. I'm really looking forward to Persepolis, though.

Best Director
Julian Schnabel - The Diving Bell And The Butterfly
Jason Reitman - Juno
Tony Gilroy - Michael Clayton
Joel & Ethan Coen - No Country For Old Men
Paul Thomas Anderson - There Will Be Blood

I'm torn between Anderson and the Coen Bros. Both represent some of my favorite directors of all time, and both turned out incredible movies this year. I'm gonna call a tie.
I haven't seen the others, but I raise my eyebrow at Reitman's nomination. Juno seems to be this year's Little Miss Sunshine (a movie I enjoyed but was over-hyped and somehow inflated to Oscar worthiness in people's minds).
I also hear Diving Bell is really good. It's playing here now, so I'll probably try to see it within the next week or so.

Sadly, I haven't seen any of the Best Foreign Language Films this year. I don't think any of them have come out here.
I should also mention that Eddie Murphy's abomination, Norbit, has fat-suited it's way into a Best Makeup nomination. Not only should that movie not be allowed to be nominated, but if anyone involved in the picture has ever one an Oscar (not likely) it should be stripped away.

Best Original Song
Once
Enchanted
August Rush
Enchanted
Enchanted

It's like the Academy wasn't even trying here. August Rush should be disqualified because of this:

And Enchanted scores three nominations? Really? Did no other movie the entire year have original music?
Once should easily win, because all the music in the movie is great.
The most exciting thing about this category is that we'll get to see Glen Hansard and Markéta Irglová perform one of their songs at the show.

Best Picture
Atonement
Juno
Michael Clayton
No Country For Old Men
There Will Be Blood

Again, I can't decide between No Country For Old Men and There Will Be Blood. Both are great book adaptations. They both have great larger-than-life characters, and jarring endings that leave the audience awash in hopelessness and despair (although Blood's ending is more darkly comic, while No Country's is played straight). I have to go with There Will Be Blood simply on a gut feeling.

I thought a lot about these movies at work today. I'm going to flip-flop and take No Country For Old Men as my pick. I think it is more consistent overall, and has at least four stellar performances, whereas There Will Be Blood relies almost exclusively on Daniel Day-Lewis. It's a great performance, but the performance is the movie. There's just not much else there.