Oscar Nominations: The Good, The Bad, and The Snubbed

I hesitate to write about the nominations this year, because I'm still missing quite a bit of movies. But the only movie that is among the nominees that I really want to see is Anora (hopefully this week). I'm sure The Brutalist is fine. I've heard good things about Nickel Boys. The rest? UGH. I still haven't seen Dune Part 2. Or Wicked. But I'll watch them eventually. But movies like A Complete Unknown and The Apprentice?? I dislike Timothee Chalamet, Bob Dylan, Donald Trump, and Sebastian Stan!!! I dread watching both of these films. But I still have some stuff to say based on what I have seen so here goes: 

The Good 

- The Substance is my favorite movie of the year, so I'm thrilled that it's been included for many reasons. First, Demi Moore deserves the world for her incredible acting career, but this performance is stunning - she runs the gamut of emotions. It's dark. It's funny. It's relatable. I'm also thrilled that the director, Coralie Fargeat, is nominated as well because I always get really grumpy when people point out the "all male" directors in the category and then list all the female directors who could have been nominated that year and NONE of them are among my favorites. But this year is different! Finally! 

- I loved The Wild Robot - way more than I was expecting. It's so beautiful. I know Flow is getting a lot of steam, but I really hope with all the nominations that The Wild Robot is still the frontrunner. 

- While I'm a bit surprised that Angelina Jolie was snubbed, I think her performance is...fine. I'm sort of happy that the steam behind her has died because when I watched Maria she was considered a frontrunner. She's given better performances in far better films. 

- I haven't seen Anora, but I adore Mikey Madison. Also, I'm thrilled for Sean Baker - both The Florida Project and Red Rocket are fantastic films (sorry, I didn't like Tangerine). 

The Bad 

- I was really hoping that the Academy would announce that some of those "supporting" performances would have to compete in the lead category. In particular, Kieran Culkin and Zoe Saldana - both of whom are favored to win. Culkin is in A Real Pain for 4 minutes less than Eisenburg (and in the 2 small scenes he is not in - the other characters are either talking to him (via phone) or talking about him). That's a co-lead performance and he should have campaigned as such. Saldana is in Emilia Perez MORE than Karla Sofia Gascon (who is nominated for the lead), and I would argue that even though Gascon is the title character, the story is about Saldana's. I like both Culkin and Saldana - and would probably root for them in a lead category, but this is infuriating. 

- The fact that a majority of critics and film fans have such visceral hate for Emilia Perez and yet the Academy still nominated it for 13 awards is proof that Hollywood is not listening. I still see "Hollywood" people praising it for representation, even though it's been eviscerated by both transgender people and Mexicans as being offensive. I didn't hate the film. I like a lot about it, actually. It feels bold, confident, and fresh. The scene with Saldana singing "El Mal" is incredible. But, overall, it's a 3 star film. I thought Gomez was bad (and she wasn't nominated, so that's a plus), I saw nothing special about Gascon's performance. Some of the musical numbers are very boring. It definitely should not be a frontrunner for Best Picture. 

- As expected, I hate a majority of the Best Actor category - and, NO, I haven't even seen the films. But I don't want to see the films because I hate the actors! Rooting for Fiennes or Domingo, but I think it will go to Brody even with the AI controversy. 

The Snubbed 

 - I think it's WILD that His Three Daughters has been completely ignored this awards season. You could pick any of the three actresses as nominees (I would have gone with Natasha Lyonne, but would have been happy for the other two as well). But, also, the screenplay should be the frontrunner of the year! 

- Margaret Qualley is SO GOOD in The Substance. It's hard to be so happy for the nominations when someone is left out like this (and I would argue this is another co-lead performance). 

- I'm also surprised that Kinds of Kindness has been ignored - but I think that has A LOT to do with release date. If it were released in Nov/Dec, it would be dominating this awards season. Although maybe they are getting bored of nominated Emma Stone for everything (but she deserves it!!). 

- I'm not the biggest fan of Conclave - but it's absolutely one of the best directed films of the year. Nominated in 8 categories, but not nominating Edward Berger is CRAZY! 

- What happened to the push for Danielle Deadwyler for The Piano Lesson? I feel like she had that nomination in the bag a few months ago and then...nothing. Is it because we nominated lead performances in the category instead of actual supporting performances??? YES. Same for Joan Chen!

- And speaking of Joan Chen, Didi is such a good little coming of age movie. I'm sad that it was ignored. Chen is great. Izaac Wang is incredible. And the screenplay is SO STRONG. 

- I just watched Gladiator II the other night, and I'm sort of shocked it's been snubbed in the technical and director categories. It's really good!