The 'Girl' is Basically 'Gone'
From Academy Voters' Nomination Sheets
Let's get this out of the way right from the start: the Academy messed up.
The Academy messed up big time. At least I think so.
That Gone Girl wasn't nominated for Best Picture, Best Director or Best Adapted Screenplay according to this morning's announcement of the nominations for the 87th Annual Academy Awards is a shame. It's a travesty. Even aside from the fact that Gone Girl is still the most likely film to be ranked #1 on my personal Top Ten list of 2014 movies (whenever that actually becomes a thing), Gone Girl was a very well-made, well-executed film, and it was also a box-office hit driven by obsessive word of mouth; nominating it would have been a great opportunity for the Academy to take advantage of a well-made, popular movie and not seem so out of touch.
Even just one of the mentioned nominations would have made me feel a lot better. Gone Girl was so effective largely because of its mesmerizing, twisting, unpredictable plot, credit for which goes to the author of the book (who also wrote the screenplay), Gillian Flynn. Not just anyone could have made such a glossy, suspenseful, electrifying movie out of it--mad props to Director David Fincher. And, overall, it was a jaw-dropping, mind-boggling, edge-of-your-seat entertainment that had everyone talking, and blew Yours Truly's mind. So Best Picture would have been nice. To be passed over for all three--I can't remember a prominent movie getting more snubs in major categories since Cold Mountain in 2003 (it was expected to get, and surprisingly didn't get, nominations for Best Picture, Best Director, and Best Actress), and that movie didn't nearly have the box-office clout, word-of-mouth, or must-see quality of Gone Girl.
I'm sure Academy members--if they could hear my ravings--would point to the fact that the movie's titular 'Girl', actress Rosamund Pike, did get nominated for Best Actress. Yeah, she did. I'd have nominated her, too. Funny thing is, I personally think the movie was more deserving of any of the three nominations it did not get than that one, even though I think Pike's inclusion is justified (a friend of mine suggested that Academy members were so convinced (and terrified) by the actress's portrayal of a psychotic housewife that they nominated her in order to avoid getting their throats slit in revenge). So yeah. Good job, Academy, you're 1-for-4.
It should be noted that I'm not the only upset about this. My Facebook has been blowing up. Gone Girl didn't make $167 million domestically off me, alone, buying a ticket. So that was a misstep.
But, anyway...
Well, no, not anyway--the Academy also let slip Jake Gyllenhaal's brilliant performance in Nightcrawler, leaving him out of the final five for Best Actor. Gyllenhaal, a previous Oscar nominee for 2005's Brokeback Mountain, has been a fairly recognizable actor since 1999's October Sky--certainly since 2001's Donnie Darko--and yet his chameleonic work in Nightcrawler was, in my opinion, his career best. It was a fabulous, engaging, creepy performance--one which I would have outright awarded this trophy, even considering the competition. I'm slightly pacified because the thrilling Nightcrawler did get a Best Original Screenplay nomination (I never had high hopes for its chances in the Best Picture category), but Gyllenhaal's great, memorable work being snubbed is not something I'm happy about.
All right, so, other than these snubs (and I can't remember taking any snubs in the last couple years this personally--this was BAD), I thought the Academy did all right. I'm a little bummed out that, out of the eight Best Picture nominees, I've only seen 3 of them (because the likes of Foxcatcher, Into The Woods, Unbroken, and, oh yeah, Gone Girl, were omitted). But, on the bright side, of the major categories, Best Supporting Actor is the only one that is identical to those which were represented at Sunday night's Golden Globes. There was a one-person-switcheroo done in the Supporting Actress and Lead Actress categories (of which I approve), and I already talked about how they messed up Best Actor and Best Director, buuut...at least they're different.
Oh, and did I mention the Academy didn't nominate The Lego Movie for Best Animated Feature Film? Yeeeaah, that was the first thing that got me wailing and gnashing my teeth.
But, anyway...
Yeah, so, I'm pleased by some 'different' thinking--we've actually got some incredibly-competitive Screenplay categories, and the chance to hear The Lego Movie's uppity theme song 'Everything is Awesome' at the Oscars--but this doesn't figure to be a very competitive year. Most of the top prizes (as always) are gimmies, barring huge upsets that probably won't happen.
Oh, by the way, a couple housekeeping notes about these nominations:
- Birdman and The Grand Budapest Hotel tied for the most nominations, with 9 apiece; The Imitation Game had 8, and Boyhood and American Sniper tied for third with 6 each
- Robert Duvall (nominated for Best Supporting Actor for The Judge), at 84, is now the oldest male acting nominee in Academy history. Yet he is still younger than the oldest-ever female acting nominee--Emmanuelle Riva, 85 (in 2012). This is the Godfather star's 7th career nomination, and his first in 16 years (1999's A Civil Action)
-Meryl Streep's nomination for Best Supporting Actress (for Into The Woods) means her record number of nominations is now 19. And somehow I doubt she's done.
So, anyway, without further ado, I'm going to take a quick look at the major categories (as they are; not as I wish they were) and examine how I think it looks and is going to play out. I haven't seen every movie or performance at this time, but I've read and heard enough that I can make some educated guesses, but, for honesty's sake, I'll put asterisks by the ones I haven't seen.
But since this has been long, that will be in my next post. Feel free to check it out (and thank you, as always) for reading.
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