Juan’s Two Cents – The 84th Academy Award Nominees Edition

As you all know, the nominations for the 84th Annual Academy Awards were announced this morning. I, as usual, am extremely aggravated with some of the decisions that these assholes have made. What better way to explain my position on all of these categories than this beautiful list below? I don’t hold back on any of the films, so have fun reading this.

– – –

Best Picture

  • Likely Winner: The Artist
  • Most Deserving: The Tree of Life (or Hugo) [1]
  • Snubbed: Drive [1] and Shame [2]
  • Pleasant Surprise: The Tree of Life was actually nominated and that makes me a really happy person because it’s one of the best films this year
  • Biggest “Fuck You”: Extremely Dull & Incredibly Stupid reminds us that the Academy will choose a trite adaptation of a fantastic novel over a heart-wrenching original film about sex addiction any year

Best Director

  • Likely Winner: Martin Scorsese
  • Most Deserving: Terrence Malick, Martin Scorsese & Woody Allen
  • Snubbed: Steve McQueen (Shame) & Nicolas Winding Refn (Drive)
  • Biggest “Fuck You”: N/A – I’m fine with all of these, even though Payne’s movie isn’t all that great for me aside from Clooney’s performance

Best Actor

  • Likely Winner: Jean Dujardin
  • Most Deserving: Jean Dujardin
  • Snubbed: Michael Fassbender (Shame), Ryan Gosling (Drive) & Michael Shannon (Take Shelter)
  • Pleasant Surprise: Gary Oldman has finally been nominated for an Academy Award after one of the most badass and wide-spread careers you’ve ever fucking seen bitches
  • Nobody is Surprised That: Leo didn’t get a nomination and the internet is going to make so many jokes about it that we’ll all get really annoyed in less than a week guaranteed or your money back
  • Biggest “Fuck You”: Brad Pitt for SnoreBall [1] because he’s had far better roles in his past that weren’t as drowned in sentimentality as this one was. I’d also like to add in Demian Bichir in A Better Life [1] because he just further helped to enforce stereotypes on the Hispanic community with that white guilt film he starred in. All three men above were far more deserving of a nomination here and I’m so disappointed right now

Best Actress

  • Likely Winner: Meryl Streep
  • Most Deserving: Michelle Williams
  • Snubbed: Charlize Theron (Young Adult) & Tilda Swinton (We Need To Talk About Kevin)
  • Pleasant Surprise: Rooney Mara (The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo) [1] is actually included in this and it makes me really happy because I think she’s a wonderful actress with a great career ahead of her
  • Biggest “Fuck You”: Viola Davis for The Help [1]I don’t have a catchy name for it, but I want to explain why this is a “fuck you” not only to me, but to people everywhere. It’s because Viola Davis deserves so much better than this as her nomination and it’s sad to see her getting praised for a movie about racism and the struggle that African Americans had to go through in which she gets upstaged by multiple white women.

Best Supporting Actor

  • Likely Winner: Christopher Plummer
  • Most Deserving: Christopher Plummer
  • Snubbed: Patton Oswalt (YA), John Hawkes (MMMM) [1], Albert Brooks (Drive) & Ben Kingsley (Hugo)
  • Biggest “Fuck You”: Jonah Hill for Snoreball. I think this is the biggest fuck you in Academy history aside from Gwyneth Paltrow being an Oscar winner. When this asshole is getting nominated over the four people I just listed above (and a handful of other actors like Benedict Cumberbatch, Viggo Mortensen [1] and more), it is a clear signal that the world might as well fucking end this year

Best Supporting Actress

  • Likely Winner: Bérénice Bejo
  • Most Deserving: Jessica Chastain (I’m still annoyed it’s for The Help of all possible film choices this year – come on)
  • Snubbed: Carey Mulligan (Drive OR Shame – I’m convinced the Academy skipped both of these marvelous films because it’s a crime not to nominated someone as talented as Carey Mulligan this year)
  • Biggest “Fuck You”: Melissa McCarthy in Bridesmaids [1]Believe me, it’s hard saying this, but what the fuck is this performance doing in this fucking category this year? I loved Bridesmaids. It’s in my top twenty films of the year. Do I think it deserves anything other than a nomination for Original Screenplay? Fuck no (and even that’s a stretch). I’m sorry but Carey Mulligan should have definitely been nominated for her performance in either of the films I just mentioned above rather than Melissa McCarthy. Yeah, I get that the Academy is going for diversity this year apparently, but I don’t think this was the right decisions at all.

Juan Barquin

Just yer average twenty-something college student with no time on his hands who ends up watching (and writing) too many movies and shows for his own good.

6 Responses

  1. amy says:

    There are a lot of wrongs in this year’s nominations, but the animation category isn’t one of them. Certainly, it isn’t the worse. I haven’t seen Tintin yet, but in terms of animation, motioncap still looks fairly weird – compared to, let’s say Chico & Rita or A Cat in Paris.

    Then again, we have no idea how they pick their nominations for animation. Is it story quality or is it animation quality?

    In terms of Rango, I only found it okay. The texturing of characters was pretty great, but I think an animated film like Chico & Rita is doing more for the genre than Rango is.

    • Juan Barquin says:

      @amy, I’ll just have to go ahead and watch Chico & Rita, but you know I wasn’t a big fun of A Cat In Paris. I think Tintin and Rango had such beautiful animation honestly. They both appealed to me so much and I think Rango is doing plenty for the animation genre. It’s bringing it outside of the box. It’s not necessarily sticking with the norms and it’s practically any live-action western film in animated form – full of homages and references to all of these wonderful classic films.

      • amy says:

        @Juan Barquin, I’m seeing picks like A Cat in Paris in the animation category as technical picks, more than overall films, though. Kinda like The Secret of Kells which was visually stunning but the story left me a bit meh.

        You def. need to check out Chico & Rita.

  2. Eric says:

    Hi, I’m rather new to the group (haven’t been to any of your screenings though) and was just curious on your blog post.

    Couple of comments:

    I totally agree that Drive and Shame were snubbed, and that some of the inclusions are rather idiotic. Shame is among my favorite films of the year, and the lack of recognition really hurts it (then again, they failed to nominate the equally great Hunger). However, your opinion and my opinion on the films The Tree Of Life and Moneyball differ highly, (I came out of Moneyball surprised, and out of Tree of Life disappointed both as a film fan and a Terrence Malick fan).

    I completely disagree with your assertion that Transformers 3 doesn’t deserve anything for sound. I hate that film with a passion, but I cannot fault it for having an absolutely incredible and complex sound design behind it.

    Another gripe I have is your assertion that the animated category is weak. I highly disagree. Although they left out Tintin, I thought it was fantastic that they were able to include Chico and Rita along with A Cat in Paris. Both are absolutely fantastic. The only film in hat category I did not enjoy was Puss in Boots.

    But as is such with most art, it’s subjective. I have my opinions, you have yours, and the Academy has theirs. I hope you enjoy your 2012 movie season. Happy watching.

    • Juan Barquin says:

      @Eric, Glad to see someone taking an interest in things though!

      In terms of Moneyball and The Tree of Life, I can definitely see why people would and wouldn’t like them. I mean, TTOL is probably the years most divisive film due to its content and I can most definitely see why plenty of people would be disappointed (and even hate it if they felt the desire). As for Moneyball, I’m in a very unpopular position. Only about four people I know have agreed with me that it was just plain boring and sentimental, but hey that’s cinema!

      As for Transformers 3, I was mostly just joking around. I mean, I really do hate Michael Bay – because well I don’t think I need an explanation hahaha – but it really does deserve the nominations it received (although it still frustrates me that he recycled certain scenes from his own previous films into this one – laaaaaazy work).

      I stand by my animated films section though. I know a lot of people, including Amy right above, weren’t too happy with what I said either. I just didn’t think A Cat in Paris was very good and neither was Puss in Boots. As for Kung Fu Panda 2 – come on. The only one I can’t vouch for is Chico and Rita. I mean, out of all years to bump it up to 5 nominations, I think this was one of the most unnecessary. I’d much rather have seen the likes of Tintin, Winnie the Pooh, and Arthur Christmas populating the nominees than the ones that are there (with the exception of Rango which is my second favorite animated film of the year).

      Even though we disagree on certain things, thanks for the comment and bringing your opinions to the table though! It’s always exciting to actually get some discussion started. Different strokes for different folks. Hopefully you’ll enjoy your 2012 watching season as well!

  1. November 7, 2013

    […] like last year, I made an obscenely long list of all the positives and negatives that came with the Oscar […]

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