The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences announced their nominations for the 2012 Oscars a few weeks ago, and the Oscars will be handed out a little over a month from now. Here is the list of nominees in the major awards categories as well as who I want to win and who I think will win for each one. There are a lot of categories to cover, so I'm breaking this preview into two parts. The first will cover the acting categories and the second part to come later will cover the others.
Best Picture
War Horse
The Artist
Moneyball
The Descendents
The Tree of Life
Midnight in Paris
The Help
Hugo
Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close
There are nine nominees this year, and, honestly, not one of them blows me away. I keep thinking about which one of these will appear on future top-of-the-decade lists, but I don’t see any of them representing the decade of 2010’s. Films like Moneyball and The Descendents were very good films to be sure, but nothing about them screams ‘classic’. Films like War Horse and Hugo were good films from respected directors but failed to live up to their potential. The Tree of Life and Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close were bad films, and I’m actually surprised to see them on this list.
Who I want to win: The Artist
The Artist is a very good film, but even it has flaws, mostly concerning its runtime, which is about thirty minutes too long. Still, it stands as a very impressive piece of film. In an era where silent films rarely exist, The Artist shows that the genre can still be done with style and grace. Everything from the acting to the directing, costume design, script, cinematography, and music are well done. This film could have been a joke, a curiosity, but the quality of its craftsmanship elevates it to a much higher level. That’s what makes it stand out to me as the best picture of 2011.
Who I think will win: Hugo
The Academy loves rewarding old-school talent, and Scorsese is one of their favorites. Hugo is a flawed film told in two distinct halves. One half is about a boy trying to rebuild his father’s automaton, which was a project of theirs before his father’s death. The second half is a synopsis of early cinema history. The first half has a few quality moments, but the second half really shines. Taken as a whole, Hugo feels disjointed, but the craftsmanship on display and the ode to cinema in the second half could very well earn Scorsese an Oscar.
Lead Actor
Demian Bichir - A Better Life
George Clooney - The Descendents
Jean Dujardin - The Artist
Gary Oldman - Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy
Brad Pitt - Moneyball
Who I want to win: Jean Dujardin
Where is Fassbender? Michael Fassbender starred in four films this year (Jane Eyre, X-Men: First Class, A Dangerous Method, and Shame), and each one demanded a different acting style. He was fantastic in every role. If an actor could be nominated for his collective body of work in a year, then surely he would have received a nomination. As it stands, the Academy members couldn’t pick one representative role, and Fassbender goes without a nomination. Hopefully, they will let him present an award so that he can at least take the stage.
The acting in The Artist is phenomenal across the board. Dujardin channels a turn-of-the-century style to give us a mesmerizing performance in a silent film. His is acting in a very different style than any of the other actors on this list. His performance is reliant on his body and facial expression alone, and he nails it. He seems perfectly at home it that environment, which I’m guessing would be a difficult thing to accomplish for other actors. I doubt Clooney or Pitt could pull off that performance.
Oldman gives a very subdued performance that borders too close to ‘boring’ for my tastes, while Pitt and Clooney are good but not spectacular in their roles.
Who I think will win: George Clooney
He does a good job as Matt, the father dealing with multiple crises including his wife’s coma, the struggles of his daughters, and the dilemma over how to develop a large swath of land he owns in Hawaii. But, he’s not spectacular. He even gets outshined by Shailene Woodley who plays his daughter in the film. None of that will matter to the Academy though. They’ll seize the opportunity to give their buddy Clooney a best actor award.
Lead Actress
Glenn Close - Albert Nobbs
Viola Davis - The Help
Rooney Mara - The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo
Meryl Streep - The Iron Lady
Michelle Williams - My Week with Marilyn
Who I want to win: Meryl Streep
A few surprises here. Rooney Mara goes all out for her role as Lisbeth Salander in The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo and gets a surprise nomination, and Viola Davis can add Academy Award nominee to her resume. That’s nice, but a veteran actress has upstaged everyone this year.
Streep puts in a great performance as Margaret Thatcher. The movie isn’t so great, but that’s not Meryl’s fault. Watching her progress from the young, spry Thatcher to the old doddering version made the movie worth watching. You forget that the person on screen is not the real Margaret Thatcher.
Who I think will win: Viola Davis
Davis is getting a lot of accolades for her performance in The Help including picking up a Screen Actors Guild award. I haven’t seen the film so I can’t comment, but the buzz for her is deafening right now. She must be pretty incredible to outshine Streep.
Best Director
Michael Hazanavicius - The Artist
Alexander Payne - The Descendents
Martin Scorsese - Hugo
Woody Allen - Midnight in Paris
Terrence Malick - The Tree of Life
Who I want to win: Martin Scorsese
Hugo has the best direction of the nominated films. Scorsese directs his butt off on this film and turns his first foray in 3D into a beautiful history lesson on early motion pictures. I may not have liked the disjointed nature of the film, but Scorsese does a great job with flawed material.
Hazanavicius does a good job juggling some intricate scenes with The Artist and earns his nomination. The Descendents was solid, but not spectacular. As much as I wanted to like The Tree of Life it was way too overcooked to be enjoyable.
Who I think will win: Martin Scorsese
Scorsese is an old-school director trying out some new tricks while referencing motion picture history. That’s a recipe the Academy loves. They also love Woody Allen, and Midnight in Paris was one of his best films in years, so they could look his way. I’ll throw my remote control if Malick wins for The Tree of Life.
Supporting Actor
Kenneth Branagh - My Week with Marilyn
Jonah Hill - Moneyball
Nick Nolte - Warrior
Christopher Plummer - Beginners
Max von Sydow - Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close
Who I want to win: Max von Sydow
Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close was a very flawed film. The main character, the kid who may or may not have Asperger’s Syndrome and runs all over New York City by himself trying to solve a mystery, is the worst possible character. There’s way too much wrong with the kid to let him be on his own. He needed Adderall or Prozac or something. Max von Sydow, who plays the mute old man who befriends the kid, is, on the other hand, a great character wonderfully brought to life. Max von Sydow’s performance is the best thing in a crap movie. He’s so good that he elevates the whole film to a much more enjoyable place. He’s awesome.
Jonah Hill is a polite nomination by the Academy, and Nick Nolte shows that he can play a gruff old man, but neither are as good as Sydow.
Who I think will win: Kenneth Branagh
I keep hearing about his performance, and I wouldn’t be surprised if he took home the Oscar. As I said, I haven’t seen the film, but the hype machine in blaring full blast for him to take the award.
Supporting Actress
Berenice Bejo - The Artist
Jessica Chastain - The Help
Melissa McCarthy - Bridesmaids
Janet McTeer - Albert Nobbs
Octavia Spencer - The Help
Who I want to win: Berenice Bejo
She captures the look and feel of a silent film starlet perfectly. She lights up the screen with her bright smile and playful eyes and threatens to steal the show from Dujardin every time they are on screen together. She does a lot of heavy work in the film and is the picture of grace throughout. She’s magical.
Who I think will win: Berenice Bejo
She kills in this role, and I think she’ll be rewarded. Chastain, Spencer, and McCarthy feel like fluff nominations. It’s the Academy saying, “See? We nominate people from popular films too!”
Check back in a few days for part two of the preview and predictions. Let me know what you think in the comments!
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