My Reactions to the Oscar Nominations

I will say this. I do not really care all that much about the Oscars. This is because I think the academy is full of old, overpaid snobs. And I firmly believe that they are paid off sometimes. I still find myself watching them every year, and, honestly, it was so worth it for the 2010 show because I got to see Zachary Levi and Mandy Moore sign my favorite song from Tangled. So, without further ado, these are my thoughts on the 2013 Oscar Nominations.

BEST PICTURE

• "Zero Dark Thirty": Oh yay, another war movie.  And it's by that chick that won an Oscar for a different war movie, set in virtually the same time and place.  Honestly, I haven't seen this movie, and The Hurt Locker was fantastic, but mostly for the acting and cinematography.  Movies like this feel like they get nominated because of a political agenda.
• "Silver Linings Playbook":  This one I'm pretty happy to see on the list as I love movies that take a different approach to talking about mental illness.
• "Lincoln": I love history, Assassin's Creed is my favorite game franchise, but this movie felt like Oscar bait from the get go.  
• "Les Miserables": Holy crap this movie made me cry.  I loved how it merged film and theatre almost seamlessly.  I really hope this one wins.
• "Life of Pi": I didn't see this one.  I kind of want to, because of its unconventional plot, but I can't stand the director.
• "Amour":  I hadn't even heard of this movie before the Oscar nominations.  Interesting plot, with the aging couple.
• "Django Unchained": This movie was awesome!  I don't know if it's worth Best Picture though, it feels very episodic.
• "Argo": Great movie, but I didn't like how the role of the Canadians was diminished in the film.
• "Beasts of the Southern Wild":  I have no idea what this movie is, and, let's be honest, most of you don't either.

BEST ACTRESS

• Jessica Chastain for "Zero Dark Thirty":  I loved her in Lawless, so she's probably even better in this.
• Naomi Watts for "The Impossible": Haven't seen this movie, but she has some good performances.
• Jennifer Lawrence for "Silver Linings Playbook": Yes!  She needs an Oscar!  She's so awesome!
• Quvenzhane Wallis for "Beasts of the Southern Wild":  Again, drawing a blank here.
• Emmanuelle Riva for "Amour":  If she won it would be sweet, mostly because of her age and the subject matter of the movie.

BEST ACTOR

• Daniel Day-Lewis for "Lincoln": Please, no, he does not need another Oscar.  Especially not for an Oscar bait movie.
• Denzel Washington for "Flight": He's already won an Oscar, let someone else win.  
• Joaquin Phoenix for "The Master": It's nice to see him still get work after that stunt he pulled last year.
• Hugh Jackman for "Les Miserables": This is my favorite choice.  Hugh Jackman was insanely good in this movie, playing the different ages and the progression of the character.  And, of course, the whole acting while singing, my God, he was amazing.  If he doesn't win, well, I'm going to make a very unhappy post about it.  
• Bradley Cooper for "Silver Linings Playbook":  This one surprises me because I never thought of Cooper as a serious actor.  But, he was great in this, and he would more than deserve the Oscar for this role.

BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS

• Anne Hathaway for "Les Miserables":  She should win.  All the times I cried were because of her.  She was amazing.  I didn't even know she could sing!
• Sally Field for "Lincoln": I've always loved this actress, and it would be great to see her win for a role she put so much effort into.
• Jacki Weaver in "Silver Linings Playbook":  This movie is getting a lot of nominations ...
• Helen Hunt for "The Sessions":  I didn't know she was still acting.
• Amy Adams for "The Master":  I didn't see this movie, it had a really limited release.  I like Adams though.

BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR

• Tommy Lee Jones for "Lincoln":  I would love it if he won.
• Phillip Seymour Hoffman for "The Master":  I like him, but he's won an Oscar already, so meh.
• Christoph Waltz for "Django Unchained":  I love Waltz, but he shouldn't be the one nominated for this movie.  It should be DiCaprio.  Dude was freaking awesome in this movie!  Waltz was good too, but DiCaprio was better.
• Alan Arkin for "Argo": Don't really care.
• Robert De Niro for "Silver Linings Playbook":  It's good to see he got his head back on after all those terrible comedies.

BEST DIRECTOR

• Ang Lee for "Life of Pi": I can't stand this guy, please don't let him win.
• Steven Spielberg for "Lincoln": Look, we all know this dude is an amazing director.  Except Indiana Jones 4.  But he's not changing his stuff up enough, which, to be honest, you're not gonna get from a guy his age.
• David O. Russell for "Silver Linings Playbook": Again, great director, but still not sold for this movie.
• Michael Haneke for "Amour":  I see this one being a mercy nomination, but I really think it could be a contender.
• Benh Zeitlin for "Beasts of the Southern Wild":  Again, haven't heard of this movie, and I don't really care.

BEST ADAPTED SCREENPLAY

• "Lincoln": Woot another historical movie.
• "Silver Linings Playbook":  Apparently a book I should read.
• "Argo":  Another book.
• "Life of Pi":  Again, a book.
• "Beasts of the Southern Wild":  Oh, gasp, another book.

BEST ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY

• "Zero Dark Thirty":  This happened last year!  Geez Americans are obsessed with finding Osama.  This would be more appropriate for a movie in ten years.  Too soon.
• "Django Unchained":  I love this movie.  Totally throws you off, you never know what's going to happen next.  I think this is deserving of a win.
• "Moonrise Kingdom": Whimsical and weird.  And the reason Norton wasn't the Hulk.  Meh.
• "Amour": I like that this is an original screenplay.  You don't see enough of those.
• "Flight": I wasn't aware this was original, it felt like a book.

BEST ANIMATED FILM

• "Frankenweenie": No.
• "The Pirates! Band of Misfits": This movie was terrible, should not be on this list.  
• "Wreck-It Ralph": First half was good, second half annoying.
• "Paranorman": This was the only decent movie in this list, and it really should win.
• "Brave": I thought this movie was sort of boring.  I wanted it to become a fantasy epic, and it just fizzled into a family drama.

BEST FOREIGN FEATURE

• "Amour":  This really shouldn't be in this category if it's in best picture.
• "A Royal Affair": Never heard of it.
• "Kon-Tiki": Never heard of it either.
• "No": Yes?
• "War Witch": This one is apparently Canadian.  Okay.  These movies should be easier to find to watch.

BEST VISUAL EFFECTS

• "Life of Pi": Meh.
• "The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey": Again, meh, a lot of the design came from Lord of the Rings.
• "The Avengers": This is the only Oscar this movie was nominated for.  I don't really care if it wins though.  We will love it either way.
• "Prometheus": Really cool effects in this one, they really held the movie up.
• "Snow White and the Huntsman":  Again, one of the only reasons to watch this movie is for the visuals.  Story really fell apart at the end.

BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY

• "Skyfall": I agree, only part of the movie I liked really (I'm not a fan of James Bond).
• "Anna Karenina": Haven't had the chance to see this.
• "Django Unchained": I really and truly believe this movie had fantastic cinematography.
• "Life of Pi": Okay.
• "Lincoln": Historial Epic!  Yeah, we've seen this, not terribly original, but pretty.

BEST COSTUME DESIGN

• "Anna Karenina": Historical costumes always get nominated, but they're pretty easy, all you do is copy paintings.
• "Les Miserables": Again, all they had to do was copy paintings.  I hate that.
• "Lincoln":  Oh look, another historical costume nomination.  Yawn.
• "Mirror Mirror":  I loved the costumes in this.  They were so whimsical and poofy and creative.  It won't win though, the academy has a hard on for historical accuracy.
• "Snow White and the Huntsman": I loved the costumes in this.  Especially Charlize Theron.  So creative, and they really brought together the whole dark ages feel.

BEST DOCUMENTARY (FEATURE): I'm just going to say I haven't heard of any of these and can't find anywhere to see them.  I will proceed to make fun of the names.

• "Searching for Sugar Man": A film about actively looking for drugs?
• "How to Survive a Plague": Zombieland taught us you do this by hiding in your room and play WOW.
• "The Gatekeepers": ZOOL.
• "5 Broken Cameras": Then how did they film it?
• "The Invisible War": Then how do they know there was even a war at all?

BEST DOCUMENTARY (SHORT):  Again, haven't heard of them, can't find somewhere to see them.

• "Open Heart": Romance about surgeons.
• "Inocente": Can't tell if 'innocent' or 'incontinent'.
• "Redemption": Boring old name, nothing to make fun of.
• "Kings Point": AKA a sword.
• "Mondays at Racine": Are really boring.

BEST FILM EDITING:  Yeah, I never know what to say about this category.  I don't get it.

• "Lincoln": 
• "Silver Linings Playbook"
• "Life of Pi"
• "Argo"
• "Zero Dark Thirty"

BEST MAKEUP:  Why is this the only category with 3 nominations?  There should be 5 like the rest.  Not fair.

• "The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey": This one should win, hands down, but only because of the dwarves.  Everything else was copied from LOTR.
• "Les Miserables": The aging on Hugh Jackman was superb.
• "Hitchcock": Haven't seen this movie to be honest.

BEST MUSIC (ORIGINAL SCORE)

• Mychael Danna for "Life of Pi": It's alright.
• Alexandre Desplat for "Argo": Yes.
• Dario Marianelli for "Anna Karenina": Granted, boring movie, great score.
• John Williams for "Lincoln":  I love John Williams, he always brings a movie together.
• Thomas Newman for "Skyfall": I honestly don't remember the music in this movie.

BEST MUSIC (ORIGINAL SONG)

• "Before My Time" from "Chasing Ice" (Music and Lyric by J. Ralph): Never heard of it.
• "Everybody Needs A Best Friend" from "Ted" (Music by Walter Murphy; Lyric by Seth MacFarlane): Someone wrote a song for this movie?
• "Pi's Lullaby" from "Life of Pi" (Music by Mychael Danna; Lyric by Bombay Jayashri): Ya, since I haven't seen this movie I don't know this song.
• "Suddenly" from "Les Misérables" (Music by Claude-Michel Schönberg; Lyric by Herbert Kretzmer and Alain Boublil): I still can't remember which song this was.
• "Skyfall" from "Skyfall" (Music and Lyric by Adele Adkins and Paul Epworth): I actually liked this one, but I was one of the few that liked the Chris Cornell song for Casino Royale.

BEST SOUND EDITING: I don't get this award.

• "Argo"
• "Django Unchained"
• "Life of Pi"
• "Skyfall"
• "Zero Dark Thirty"

BEST SOUND MIXING: I don't get this award either.

• "Argo"
• "Les Miserables"
• "Life of Pi"
• "Skyfall"
• "Lincoln"

BEST SHORT FILM (LIVE ACTION): And another set of films I haven't seen and can't find.

• "Curfew": 9 pm.
• "Death of a Shadow": Peter Pan?
• "Henry": the 8th.
• "Buzkashi Boys": Japanese I'm assuming.
• "Asad": short, little movie.

BEST SHORT FILM (ANIMATED): Can't find these ones to watch.

• "Head Over Heels": Ow.
• "Fresh Guacamole": yummy.
• "Paperman": I'VE SEEN THIS ONE!  IT WAS SO AWESOME!  IT NEEDS TO WIN!
• "Maggie Simpson in The Longest Daycare": This one would also be a good win just because it's the Simpsons.  That would be a great Swan Song for them.
• "Adam and Dog": Weird title, not Adam and his dog, must have named his dog Dog.

And there you go.  I've never been right when it comes to predictions, but I think Lincoln and Django are going to clean up.  Also, why the hell isn't there a Best Art Direction or Best Production Design award?