2024 Academy Awards

The nominations:

https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/movies/movie-news/2024-oscars-nominees-list-1235804181/

 

Ryan Gosling getting a nom while Margot Robbie and Greta Gerwig miss out couldn't possibly better encapsulate the larger point of Barbie.

Chef's kiss, Academy.

 

It also guarantees that the story of the night will be every single speech ripping the hell out of the Academy for its blatant sexism.

I might actually watch for this...

 

Which means that America Ferrera could win over Da’Vine Joy Randolph, which would be a joke.

 

It's the big story of the day and should be.

I have seen all but one of the movies in the Best Actress/Best Director categories. Of seven, I've seen six.

One complicating factor is Anatomy of a Fall, which takes up 2 of the 10 spots - including a female director - is one hell of a movie. I won't be surprised if it's (poorly) remade by a US studio. The noms there were very unexpected. But the movie got 6-7 overall noms. It's good, the female lead is compelling, and it's directed for suspense and tension.

I'd swap out Carey Mulligan for Margot Robbie in Actress. I don't think Maestro's that good anyway, but I think what Robbie's asked to do is harder to Mulligan's taking on of accent and doing dramatic sitting room scenes with an inferior actor. (well, Bradley Cooper is.)

The one movie I haven't yet seen - The Zone of Interest - is in direction.

It's the second time Gerwig has been "snubbed." If you don't take out the French director no one knows, you have to swap out The Zone of Interest director, since nobody would dare suggest a 12-hour Martin Scorsese picture, however powerful it is, could use better direction any more than people could suggest Stanley Kubrick lost his magic even before The Shining.

I'm sure, when they looked at the director's category, they got a sick feeling.

(And FWIW I don't think it's Nolan's best direction - or best movie. But he'll clean up on it.)

 

Actors vote on actors. Randolph is winning.

It probably hurt Gosling, if anything. He's the weakest actor of the five nominees for sure.

 

Maybe. And you’re right, he ain’t winning for sure now.

 

I don’t give a shit about Barbie.

Across The Spiderverse got hosed.

 

The Barbie fans' outrage on Twitter is deranged. Eight (8) nominations. Not enough.

 

There's typically a reaction on nominations day about some snub. Gerwig is it. (Robbie is too but that's trickier because you have to remove an actress to put her in.)

And what makes a well-directed film differs from opinion to opinion. I don't think Killers of the Flower Moon is directed very well, to be honest. It's long and rambling and confusing. And yet there he is. Cape Fear is a masterpiece of direction by comparison - the intention meeting execution, marrying up to great effect on the viewer, at a pace fitting the subject. (It's not an important movie in the way KotFM is.)

Nomadland, which won a few years ago, is terrific direction. (Good movie, too, but excellent direction.) You take into account how it's made, the difficulty of it, the subject, the novelty, meaning, all that, and you arrive at best director. And rarely is the choice of winner off. (Ron Howard won it one year over David Lynch, which was dumb, but whatever.)

 

Gerwig not getting nominated is a travesty. I almost hope it wins Best Picture, just for spite. I know Oppenheimer will win, but it was too long and falls into a bucket of other great movies — Schinder’s List, Parasite — in which seeing it once was more than enough.