Oscar Nomination Day Laughs and Tears

DUDE DID YOU HEAR THE OSCAR NOMINATIONS WERE ANNOUNCED TODAY!!! OMG

Anyway, needless to say, like everyone else this year's slate of nominees gave me some things that made me really happy and also some things that made me not so happy. Though, honestly, more of the former than the latter. So, here's what I thought of the noms.

Things That Made Me Smile

• JACKI WEAVER. Sure, it came at Mila Kunis's expense (or was that Hailee Steinfeld's fault) but since Weaver was kind of iffy it made me so happy to hear her name being called. I can't wait to see her on Oscar night.
• JOHN HAWKES. What a very pleasant surprise! Jennifer Lawrence is fantastic but it's Dale Dickey and Hawkes that really shine in "Winter's Bone" so I'm glad to see at least one of them getting recognized.
• "How to Train Your Dragon" and "The Social Network" in Best Score. In fact, that whole Best Score category is pretty good. The music branch didn't screw it up too badly, did they! But those two are particularly deserving (more thoughts on this category later).
  
  
  What would "How To Train Your Dragon" have been without it's stellar John Powell score?
  
  
• "Dogtooth" in Best Foreign Film. HELLLLL YESSSSS.
• The Christopher Nolan snub. I know I'm going to get a lot of hate for that, and honestly I do feel sorry for the guy, but he was the weakest link in that category and though Id've preferred the spoiler to be Debra Granik or Luca Gaudagnino or someone like that the Coen Bros. are totally deserving.
• "Exit Through the Gift Shop" in Best Documentary. So, the Documentary branch has proven that they don't just care about relevant subject matter, and that they just award really good documentary filmmaking! Yea!
• "I Am Love" in Best Costumes. I think it speaks for itself, but the Costume Branch always seems to throw a bone to movie bloggers (remember "Bright Star" last year? heh)
  
  
Ooooh so pretty!


• Michelle Williams bringing the otherwise sadly ignored "Blue Valentine" to at least one nod. I wish it had been Ryan Gosling but I'm super happy for her since the performance was wonderful and she totally deserves it.
• The fact that I predicted 10 out of 10 in Best Picture. I mean, not that it was that hard, but still.

Things That Made Me Frown

• The lack of "Scott Pilgrim" in the visual effects category. I don't want to call it a snub because maybe it was never that realistic to begin with but it's a real pity.
• Andrew Garfield's snub. I suppose this is John Hawkes's fault and I'm happy for him but Garfield gives a fantastic performance and it's depressingly ironic how he was shafted, just like Eduardo in the movie.
• The Best Song category. I didn't really have any favorites going in but that group is really weak. I think this category becomes increasingly irrelevant as the years go along...
• Julianne Moore's "snub". The more I think of it, the sadder it is. In my opinion, Moore's performance is superior to Annette's and she is just as overdue as Bening, if not more so. It's odd how out of the two performances, it was Bening's and not Moore's that took off. I think Bening is totally deserving but I wish they'd gone for two leading lady noms from the same movie this year.
  
  
It's okay Julianne. You'll get your Oscar soon.


• Mila Kunis won't be an Oscar nominee. I'm totally okay with her not getting nominated (duh, Jacki Weaver), but the idea of her being an Oscar nominee was so awesome to me. Plus, what clip would they have used for her? HA!

So there you have it. All in all, it's a pretty satisfying group of nominees and I can't wait for the big night. Comment below on your reactions to the big announcement! :)

I Finally Saw "The Social Network"!

I know, I know, I'm always behind everybody else. But, hey, I saw it a couple days ago, and I loved it! It lived up to the hype, and then some. It's intelligently written, witty and complex without being cold, it's thrilling and engrossing without losing the human spirit at its center. The ensemble acting is fabulous, Jesse Eisenberg gives his best performance since "The Squid and the Whale" and Andrew Garfield was just wonderful. So much heart. I also want to mention that Rashida Jones was lovely, in her teeny-tiny role. Besides that, I can't really say much more that hasn't already been said, except that I also found the score very, very notable. It was unique, interesting and modern - one of my favorites of the year so far. Anyway, if you haven't seen it yet, go now, because it lives up...and this is going to sound cliche, but seriously, you'll never look at Facebook the same way again! Muahahaha.

9/10