Oscar nominations were announced bright and early this morning, with several surprises in what is widely considered to be one of the tightest fields in years. Gravity and American Hustle led the nominations with 10 nods each, followed by 12 Years a Slave with nine. Here’s my reaction:
- I thought Gravity was a brilliant movie that showed how to tell a riveting story with non-gimicky 3-D cinematography. Gravity was to me the strongest argument this year to go see a movie in a good theater. We need more exciting, original movies that take new twists on telling stories.
- Lots of people seem surprised and upset that Tom Hanks didn’t get a nomination for Captain Phillips. Not me. I may be one of the few moviegoers in American who really didn’t much like Captain Phillips, even though I’m generally a fan of director Paul Greengrass and of Hanks. There just didn’t seem to be a lot of nuance to Hanks’ performance. The nomination of Barkhad Abdi for the role of the head Somali pirate, on the other hand, was richly deserved. I thought he was by far the most interesting character in the movie.
- I was disappointed to see that Daniel Brühl was snubbed as best supporting actor for his role as Formula One driver Niki Lauda in Ron Howard’s racing movie Rush. Brühl’s take on Lauda was fascinating to me, making a prickly and unpleasant character sympathetic and interesting. I must confess that as a racing fan Rush was probably my favorite movie the year. And while I’m not terribly surprised Hollywood didn’t show it a lot of love this morning, I think that Brühl richly deserved a nomination. (He did, however, get a Golden Globe nomination and a Screen Actors Guild nomination.
- I loved American Hustle, and I think that if the Oscars had a category for best ensemble cast, David O. Russell’s retelling of Abscam would be a shoe-in winner. Needless to say, I fully approve of the Amy Adams, Christian Bale, Bradley Cooper and Jennifer Lawrence all getting acting nominations. Though I would say Adams’ was the weakest performance and Lawrence’s was the best.