95th Academy Award Nominations & Thoughts
Well, the Oscar nominations for the 95th Academy Awards have arrived. All of the battles on Hollywood's western front between critics lists, guilds, filmmakers, actors, and studio campaigns have led to a...fairly reasonable but undoubtedly safe set of potential winners. As far as the major categories are concerned, there's (once again) not a ton of surprise for those who have been paying attention. Elsewhere, I can't offhand see any picks that came out of nowhere, and only one that upsets the general standard for things. The recent overhaul in the Academy membership has led to diverse choices in many categories, though it doesn't feel as positively overwhelming as it could have been. I have further thoughts on all these, which I will go through, category by category. The Oscar results will be revealed on March 27, 2022.
Here is a quick breakdown
of the films with the most nominations:
Everything Everywhere All At
Once – 11, All Quiet on the Western Front – 9, The Banshees of Inisherin – 9,
Elvis – 8, The Fabelmans – 7, Top Gun: Maverick – 6, Tár
– 5, Black Panther: Wakanda Forever – 5, Avatar: The Way of Water – 4, Babylon
– 3, The Batman - 3, Triangle of Sadness – 3, The Whale - 3
Inevitable or not, films left out of the conversation
entirely:
Athena, After Yang, Ambulance, Bones and All, Broker, Crimes of the Future, Decision to Leave, Descendant, Devotion, Emancipation, Good Luck to You, Leo Grande, The Good Nurse, Hustle, Moonage Daydream, No Bears, Nope, The Northman, Return to Seoul, Saint Omer, She Said, Thirteen Lives, Till, White Noise, The Women King
And the nominees are:
With the full
ten Best Picture Nominee lineup back as a requirement, here's the list, and it's…not
bad at all. Even if I'm not as over the moon for Elvis or Women
Talking as some others may be, there's nothing here to make me raise an
eyebrow, nor anything that wasn't at least seen as a possibility. Of course,
talking "Best Picture" means knowing some of my faves weren't going
to get in, and now I know the possible surprise inclusion of RRR just
wasn't meant to be. Instead, it looks like the international portion of the
academy pushed hard for All Quiet on the Western Front (expected) and,
even though it's not technically an international film, Triangle of Sadness,
making for another of a few comedies (rare) to find its way in the lineup. Not
hurting is how things don't necessarily feel locked up as of yet, even if Everything
Everywhere All at Once feels like a favorite.
With 9 nominations
celebrating its technical qualities, here's a category that's basically letting
us know All Quiet on the Western Front directed itself. Good for Ruben
Ostulund though, who seemingly pushed his way through a crowded door that must
have included James Cameron, Baz Luhrmann, maybe Joseph Kosinski, and any of
the women directors potentially on the docket. With all of that in mind, we're
probably gearing up for a showdown between the two-time winner for directing Schindler's
List and Saving Private Ryan and the two guys who made the farting
corpse movie and the "Turn Down For What" music video. What a time to
be alive.
Strangely,
it is the most exciting of the major categories because of how strange it is.
This is still a race boiling down to Blanchett and Yeoh, but the last-minute
groundswell of support from various actors that came in for Andrea Riseborough
is a fairly new metric to consider. Never mind how seeing a consistently working
white actress getting a bunch of people she's acquainted with to throw their
support behind her for playing a beaten down, recovering drug addict (it's a
good movie and performance, for the record) seems to have been enough to push
aside Danielle Deadwyler's performance in Till (which was a presumed lock
for a nom) and Viola Davis in The Woman King. It's enough of a wild occurrence
to have people overlook de Armas sneaking in for the divisive Blonde.
And then there's Williams, who opted for Lead instead of Supporting and will
once again go home empty-handed.
By contrast,
the Best Actor lineup is solid without any one thing standing out about it.
Nice to see Paul Mescal make it to the final lineup, given how much more of a softer
performance it is, although if "depressed mid-to-old white men" was
the theme to go for, well, he was due to be involved. Nighy coming in for
playing not an eccentric, fun character, but a stodgy older man taking a chance
to do some good is…fine, but pretty typical when it comes to finally giving
some due to an actor that's taken plenty of chances beforehand. With all that
in mind, Farrell has plenty of fans, but Elvis and The Whale look
like the new Blue Hawaii to watch.
There were
plenty of Women Talking, but perhaps they were everywhere all at once
and canceled each other out. Instead, Bassett takes her second-ever nomination
with plenty of newcomers around her. It would appear Hsu joined Curtis near the
last moment, rounding out the goodwill coming from EEAAO. Similarly,
Chau joined Fraser as the main representation for The Whale, which missed
out on all other major categories.
Is this the
most fun of the acting categories? It helps that these are all very likable
performances handled by very likable actors. The mix of veterans and
first-timers is welcome. The Banshees crew now has their full cast up for an
award, and it would be wild to see one of them win (unlikely as that may be).
Judd Hirsch came out ahead of Paul Dano for the same film (though I thought Hirsch
was a lock since the film's premiere at TIFF). Brian Tyree Henry is now an
Oscar nominee, which is excellent news for Paper Boi fans. Still, Ke Huy Quan
has been on a wild run, and it's likely not going to stop.
Remember how
everyone was saying, "Sure, Top Gun: Maverick looked great, but
have you seen the script!" Kidding aside, that's a fun nomination, much
like Logan popping in a few years back. Since it's a Best Picture
nominee, I guess we now know Women Talking made it that far for its
script and nothing else, apparently. Meanwhile, Rian Johnson now has
back-to-back nominations for Benoit Blanc mysteries.
Generally,
there's space here for that quirky indie outside, but since that film is Everything
Everywhere All At Once, the most nominated film of the year, that was already
taken care of. The rest are all Best Picture nominees too, so there go hopes
for a neat outlier to break up the pack. However, it's not as though any of
these are undeserving.
Given the
subject matter of each of these films, it's not too surprising to see any of
them here. I'm not the biggest fan of what Close has to offer, but I get
it. Still, Decision to Leave being left out hurts a bit, especially
since it wound up with nothing at all. Even then, Holy Spider, Return to
Seoul, and Saint Omer were also worthy options (the less said about
India not submitting RRR in the first place, the better). And yet, it's
all somewhat moot when you remember all the noms All Quiet on the Western
Front already has.
Even with
Pixar on the list, this was not the strongest year for Disney, and with Guillermo
del Toro already being an Academy favorite, Pinocchio is likely the film
to beat. That said, this is a really solid lineup. Happy to see The Sea
Beast here, as that's a pretty wonderful film. Marcel the Shell will
almost certainly appear at the Oscars with tuxedo shoes on. And it looks like
Puss in Boots got another wish after all. Would I have loved to have seen Mad
God get a quip at the Oscars ceremony? Yes. Yes, I would've.
One of the
more unpredictable branches managed to pull through and nominate the
frontrunners. With that said, A House
Made of Splinters seemed to sneak in, while pushing my personal favorite
doc of 2022, Descendant, out. Not some great offense, but okay. Curious to
see what resonates most with voters, but I do really like Fire of Love.
I guess the
groovy "new body rhumba" from White Noise needed to sit this
one out in favor of Diane Warren's 14th loss for Best Original Song.
Anyway, Ryan Coogler has managed his second Oscar nomination, this time for
helping with the Rihanna song (neither nomination he has is for
writing/directing). David Byrne gets back in the Oscar race for the first time
since the 80s. All of that in mind, RRR triumphs with its one expected
nomination for "Naatu Naatu," a song that totally rocks and hopefully
shows the first step in more representation of killer Indian flicks.
It seems
like the consensus has generally been, "At least the score for Babylon
was good," so nice to see it finds its way here. Not sure what Alexandre
Desplat did to miss out for his moving Pinocchio score. That said, all
these other Best Picture nominees were certainly worth listening to. Still, The
Batman had some really memorable themes and ways to play with its score
that were worth noting, among other films with great scores to go with them.
Oh, and John Williams is now the oldest Oscar nominee.
Nominating Tár
here is pretty inspired, given how the film unfolds. Otherwise, this is a
standard mix of Best Picture noms, a music-based film, and a couple of action
films that all generally end up in this category. All Quiet missing out
is a bit of a surprise. With that in mind, Decision to Leave had the
best editing of the year and is nowhere to be found.
Shockingly,
this is my favorite category and has perhaps the most boring lineup I've seen
in some time. Make no mistake, these are movies that largely look pretty good
(even if Empire of Light is the worst movie on this list…and maybe the
worst movie to be nominated for anything altogether). However, there were some
terrific-looking films from all over this year, including many of the Best Picture
nominees not listed here, The Batman, Decision to Leave, Athena, Nope, The
Northman, and the list goes on. For a chance to do something interesting,
this feels like a big missed opportunity.
This is
another pretty standard list with nothing to really praise or gripe over. It
would be neat to see the reels presented for Avatar just to get a sense
of how the physical and digital work combined to make this nomination possible.
Elvis and Babylon are easy givens. Given the stop-motion, use of
a multiverse, and a memorable grocery store, perhaps there could have been some
more fun by including Pinocchio, Everything Everywhere, or White
Noise, but it is what it is. Also curious if the use of the Volume helps or
hurts films like The Batman (which also built sets and filmed all over
England).
Mrs. Harris
Goes to Paris
landing a nomination here is maybe my favorite one to see, given how the
costumes actually apply to the narrative. It's also a pleasant film worthy of
the nom for the work involved as well. Cool to see some contemporary films in
here to break away from the period work, even if I'm not quite sure if Ruth
Carter will pull off another win for a sequel to Black Panther. That
said, the posters alone would sell anyone on Elvis landing here, as the
King always had style.
Mud, blood,
and everything else made All Quiet a surefire nominee. Batman got
pretty muddy too, plus he had that whole Penguin to deal with. Speaking of
oversized prosthetics, The Whale, of course, makes sense to be here. There's
no real Suicide Squad wild card entry to look for (sorry Crimes of
the Future), so I guess we'll all just have to enjoy a standard 5-entry
list of potentials.
Can't deny
any of these entries in the (still saddening) blended together Best Sound
category. I could certainly see arguments for Nope, Black Panther, and Babylon
being in here. Moonage Daydream's unique approach to sound would have also
made for a cool nom. Tár would have been a very cool nomination, given
how key the way sound is applied matters to that film. Still, swooping jets,
explosions, Elvis songs, and more properly found their way to the list.
I mean, this
is Avatar's to lose, and it would be hard to think the other films don't
already know it. Can't deny how strong the other entries are (even if they don't
really come close). Top Gun: Maverick pulls off some of the best "invisible
effects" work as far as the efforts done to keep the physical stunts
locked in step with the CG at play. Nope felt like an even better play
at this, given how wild it is to think about all the day-for-night photography
being done, the digital work to make it all work so convincingly. Or perhaps
the universe being torn apart in multiple movies, or the efforts to re-create a
cave in Thailand could have made their way in. Still, solid set of movies to
see get this far.
As of now, aside from a couple of the animated and
live-action shorts, I have not had a chance to view this set of nominees, but I
look forward to doing so, as always.
***
That will do it for the nominations and my commentary for now. The Academy Awards will be held on Sunday, March 12, with *sigh* Jimmy Kimmel returning as host. There will be podcasts and possibly more to come on my end.
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