Saturday, February 04, 2006

Oscar Fever

The announcement of this year's Oscar nominees only underscores the fact that I haven't seen very many movies lately. Of the five films nominated for Best Picture, the only one I've seen is Crash. I had a little time on my hands yesterday and almost went to see Munich, but decided I'd better get home and walk the hound around the block a few times. (Bullet prefers the home theatre experience anyway.)

I'm just delighted to see that Memoirs of a Geisha isn't anywhere close to the Best Picture category.

I'll make an early (and reasonably safe) guess that Brokeback Mountain will win Best Picture, Philip Seymour Hoffman will take home the Best Actor trophy, and Ang Lee will be named Best Director. I really know very little about the Best Actress category, but I'd bet a nickel that neither Judi Dench nor Charlize Theron will get within a sniff of a golden statue. It'll probably go to Reese Witherspoon in recognition of Walk the Line, especially since it didn't get a nomination for Best Picture. And, fair or not, regardless of Joaquin Phoenix's performance, this is obviously Hoffman's year. (Or is it?)

You can see the list of nominations here.

I get way too caught up in this stuff.

Now Playing = Brain Salad Surgery – Emerson, Lake & Palmer
Listening to = Orchard – Larry Watson

4 comments:

Dr. Phil (Physics) said...

Ooh-rah! Emerson, Lake and Palmer! Though for my money Works Volume I is nearly a perfect album. Pirates was practically an anthemn during a 4500-mile in 17 days road trip in New England and Canada I did with a friend in college days.

Get too involved in the Oscar race? Unless you're lining up at 6am to get a good standing spot for the Red Carpet or you're stalking Academy voters to steal their ballots, you're not "too involved."

Besides, there'll be a Wallace & Grommit appearance at the Oscars -- what's not to love?

Dr. Phil

Anonymous said...

I hope that Felicity Huffman wins the Best Actress award. What did you think of Crash?

Andy Wolverton said...

Dr. Phil, I think "Pirates" was easily the best thing on Works I. If the whole album (or at least half of it) had been that good, I'd still own it. Works II was a mess.

Misha, thanks for your comment (and the ones on Lynch too). I think it's going to be between Huffman and Witherspoon. I don't watch much TV, so I haven't seen Huffman on the small screen. I'm eager to see her performance in Transamerica.

As far as Crash, I admired its boldness in taking some gutsy chances. Parts of the film were just too over-the-top for me, but overall I enjoyed it.

John said...

Every year, some of this makes me blink hard and mouth "what?" at the newspaper. Matt Dillon? Keira Knightley? And how does Episode III get a Best Makeup nomination for piling latex on Ian McDiarmid's face and trimming Ewan McGregor's beard?