Other Crap

The List of Oscar nominations

The big surprise to most people: no Best Picture nomination for Dreamgirls. I'm relieved to see that, since that movie didn't blow me away at all.

The second-biggest surprise: no nomination for Jack Nicholson. That one also made sense. His nomination went to Wahlberg, who did a great job as the film's most interesting minor character.

The biggest surprise to me: Wordplay, with 95% positive reviews, was not nominated for best documentary. I guess it doesn't matter. Al Gore is going to win that category. (And if he doesn't, you KNOW he'll ask for a recount.

The cinematography nominations are interesting: two films by great Mexican directors (Children of Men and Pan's Labyrinth), both of the magician movies (The Prestige and The Illusionist), and a DePalma movie (The Black Dahlia). Amazingly enough, that's pretty close to the right list, although The Painted Veil could have been in there just as easily!

As usual, one director snuck in without his picture. The four which lined up were Scorsese, Eastwood, Inarritu, and Frears. The oddball: Little Miss Sunshine was nominated for Best Picture, but the fifth director nomination went to Greengrass (United 93) rather than the dual directors of Little Miss Sunshine

Borat was nominated for best screenplay - in fact, for best ADAPTED screenplay. I suppose that's because the character originated on TV.