Oscars 2008: Overlooked Nominees

[The Original BJ]

Most of those people didn't deserve to be nominated.

[flipp525]

Oscars 2008: Overlooked Nominees

Amusing quips about some of this year's overlooked nominees over on TelevisionWithoutPity.com:

Amy Adams in Enchanted

It was probably a tougher get for Amy Adams than a lot of people thought it would be. True, Enchanted is essentially a spoof of Disney princess movies, and the Academy's fear of comedies, particularly unabashedly silly comedies like this one, is pretty well-established. And while the movie certainly made enough money to qualify as a wild success, the media didn't latch onto it the way they needed to to turn Amy Adams into this year's Julia Roberts. Or Julie Andrews. Or Julie...Walters? Someone who could get nominated for an Oscar despite being a beautiful, silly cartoon.
So...Cate Blanchett in The Golden Age, I guess.

Angelina Jolie in A Mighty Heart

Oh, sure. We suppose that if Jennifer Aniston had starred in a movie about the wife of kidnapped journalist Daniel Pearl, who stood at the center of a hurricane while the investigation and the dread swirled all around her, and gave a performance full of quiet grace that gave way to deep reserves of fragile humanity, and put on a pregnancy suit and, okay, a little bit of blackface...if Jennifer Aniston did all that and gave a performance one-third as good as Angelina Jolie's, she'd have probably been nominated. And then she'd give another tearful People interview about her dead marriage.

But it looks like the Angie backlash is still in full force, even in the Academy, and she'll have to fill the void of another Oscar nomination in her life somehow. The answer, as always: babies.

Denzel Washington in American Gangster

This one seemed like a slam-dunk, too, didn't it? Denzel playing the big anti-hero opposite Russell Crowe for Oscar-nominated director Ridley Scott, in a movie with the word "American" in the title? Come on, "They TRIED to KILL my WIFE!" sounded an awful lot like "King King ain't got SHIT on ME!" How could that lose? Who knew that this would be the year that awards-giving bodies focused their attention on Russian penis fighters and singing mass murderers? Oh, how we long for the days when A-list stars could grab nominations for delivering the same performance they give in every movie.

...Wait, no we don't! Sorry, Denzel, no complaints for this snub.

Jodie Foster in The Brave One

Hey, Academy, I thought we had a deal here! Jodie Foster would stop making stupid movies with giant plot holes like Flight Plan, find a real director like Neil Jordan, give the kind of big-star freak-out performance that only Jodie Foster can pull off, and she'd get her fifth Oscar nomination, her first in thirteen years. Apparently in this year full of men who kill without remorse, with straight razors, bolt guns, bowling pins, and their own tattooed bare hands, the leading lady as urban vigilante presented a problem.

Of course, the fact that The Brave One was such a divisive film (and truthfully more hated than loved, on balance) probably had more than a little to do with it. But in a year where Elizabeth: The Golden Age and Norbit get to call themselves "Oscar-nominated," it's tougher to accept "nobody liked the movie" as an excuse. This is what happens when you confuse "Eddie Murphy in a fat suit" with art. Anarchy, is what.

James Marsden in Hairspray (or Enchanted)

It's tempting to credit herd mentality for how crowded the James Marsden train has gotten all of a sudden. But maybe credit James Marsden himself while you're at it. He's come a long way from 7th Heaven knockoffs on ABC Family, the later, even crappier seasons of Ally McBeal, and the worst X-Men superhero ever. He started doing better, more interesting work either in movies you never saw (Heights) and roles you didn't pay attention to (the renowned Cuckold Trio of The Notebook, X-Men, and Superman Returns).

So when he finally started stealing scenes from the A-listers in his two musical offerings this year, it was like everybody realized the same thing at the same time. And that thing was this: my, how we love James Marsden. And if you think that's not award-worthy, you obviously didn't sit through Hairspray praying for another Corny Collins number to rescue you from the sea of Travolta.

John Travolta in Hairspray

Look, we're not saying he should have been nominated. He can't sing, that weird Baltimore accent he attempted made him sound like a developmentally delayed water buffalo, and if you stopped to think about how the world's second most prominent Scientologist (and, you know, totally avowed heterosexual) was stepping into Divine's high heels and croaking about "I like the way I am," it got kind of insulting.

But he did get a Golden Globe nomination, and that's usually the first step to an Oscar nomination, so imagine the collective sigh of relief when the doughy, hammy, scenery-chewing supporting actor who got his name read on nomination morning was Philip Seymour Hoffman.

Joe Wright for Atonement

If there does end up being an Oscar ceremony this year, we're all but guaranteed to get a one-liner along the lines of "Atonement, the Best Picture nominee that apparently directed itself," followed by a polite and sympathetic round of applause for poor Joe Wright, who is the near-annual unnominated director of a Best Picture nominee.

It's an easy observation to make because on the surface, of course it doesn't make sense. It's a director's medium, after all. Who else is responsible for everything you see onscreen? Particularly in the case of Atonement, which really faced a daunting narrative that was, by design, often at odds with the acting and production elements.

The reality of the snub has more to do with boring statistics about preferential ballots, but it's more fun to think that Julian Schnabel got Wright's nomination because they were hoping he'd attract more drunken Sean Young outbursts.

James McAvoy and Keira Knightley in Atonement

The snubs for the two fetching young stars of Atonement are more understandable if you've seen the film. It's not that they gave bad performances -- they're quite good, in fact, particularly McAvoy -- but rather that the film doesn't feature the acting as much as it does sharp storytelling, dazzling cinematography, and art direction and costumes that you'd like to dive into for a long, leisurely swim. All those elements got nominated, and rightly so.

Still, you have to feel for someone like McAvoy. Knightley got a nomination only two years ago, for Pride & Prejudice, so she'll be fine, but McAvoy's been steadily climbing his way to prominence in indie roles and British movies no one on this side of the Atlantic ever saw and...dear God, Children of Dune. It sure seemed like the right time to make him an Oscar nominee, the poor guy.

Of course, with his youth, talent, good looks, and charming Scottish brogue, he'll probably get by okay.

Allison Janney and JK Simmons in Juno

We could do a dozen of these photo galleries, and we'd still not run out of different members of the Juno cast to promote. Not that Janney or Simmons ever had a prayer of grabbing nominations. Their roles are too small and non-flashy, for one thing, and they're probably still pegged as TV actors rather than movie stars. Not that C.J. Cregg or Vern Schillinger are small achievements, by any means.

In Juno, Janney and Simmons do variations on the world-weary, warm, and wise parents, but with enough depth and shading to them that they come across as actual people rather than types. Janney's a particular kind of Midwestern square, with her nail salon and penchant for dogs, but she's also foul-mouthed, independent, and is the only character to really call Juno on her shit.

Simmons is a more typical "patient dad," but the way he sighs heavily after one of Juno's many word-packed sarcasm onslaughts says a lot with a little. We love that crap.

Sean Penn for Into The Wild

Where, exactly, did it all go wrong for Sean Penn? Seriously. He's been nominated for Best Actor four times, and won once. He was nominated for I Am Sam, for God's sake! The Academy, for a good eight years there, wanted to make out with him in a serious way. Not to mention how they also, historically, have wanted to make out with actors who direct big, prestigious movies. Ask a Scorsese fan which actors won Best Director before he did; they'll tell you. Robert Redford! Mel Gibson! Kevin Costner!

So now, all at the same time, the Academy decides it no longer likes Sean Penn or actor-turned-directors? Did they stop liking British monarchs, too? ...Oh, wait, guess not.

Tim Burton for Sweeney Todd

Poor Tim Burton, you guys. He directs some of the most beloved movies of a generation, in completely unnominatable genres like horror/comedy (Beetlejuice), surreal comedy (Pee Wee's Big Adventure), and dark, murky superhero event picture (Batman). The fact that Edward Scissorhands never got the awards it deserved was both predictable and outrageous.

Then, after a string of bad luck -- and by "bad luck" we mean "the near-career-killing abomination that was Planet of the Apes" -- he began putting his house back together again. He pulled a Best Animated Feature nomination for Corpse Bride, which is kind of junior varsity but a crucial step forward. Even that Charlie and the Chocolate Factory remake wasn't as terrible as it looked.

Finally, with Sweeney Todd, he delivered an almost impossibly perfect marriage of his own gothic sensibilities to Stephen Sondheim's most acclaimed musical, and...nothing. Swallowed whole by the artiest Best Director lineup in recent memory.

It's probably just as well; it might upset the delicate balance of Burton's weirdo-outsider worldview to be accepted by the in-crowd. And then who'd be around to put Johnny Depp in a fright wig every three years or so?

Vanessa Redgrave in Atonement

It's tough when you're competing with two other women from your own film who played the same role as you. But you're Vanessa effing Redgrave! Six previous nominations! An Oscar, a Tony, and two Emmys to your name! You're famous and English and old...and you let that scheming little pre-teen with the unpronounceable Irish name to snag that Atonement nomination that should've been yours? You're losing your touch, Grandma.

Best Supporting Actress has always been the Academy's "anything goes" category. Little girls (Tatum O'Neal, Abigail Breslin), old ladies (Gloria Stuart), miniscule screen time (Beatrice Straight, Judi Dench), women playing men (Linda Hunt). Odd, then, that this year's lineup found a spot for each one of those quirks -- little Saoirse Ronan, draggy Cate Blanchett, 83-year-old Ruby Dee and her five minutes of screen time -- and yet no room for dear 'Nessa. Punishment for that ridiculous haircut she sported in her scene? That's the best we can come up with.



Edited By flipp525 on 1202330690