The Road to Oscar 2011

It’s common to bitch about the Oscar nominations, about what movie got snubbed and what actor didn’t deserve to get nominated. But I think this year’s Oscar nods are especially irrelevant.

There are four categories that are missing brilliant films/artists and for this the Academy should be appalled.

1)    Best Picture

I suppose it wasn’t a big shock for Blue Valentine to get snubbed. A film about the birth and death of a marriage doesn’t exactly scream OSCAR. But what a forward-thinking choice this would have made, to recognize a movie that doesn’t sugar-coat love and relationships, but shows the raw truth about where a marriage can lead. I don't understand why the Academy can’t nominate more films that aren’t traditional Hollywood fare i.e. King’s Speech. Of course you’re going to throw out Inception, but a strong box-office and the backlash over Dark Knight getting snubbed two years earlier contributed to that movie’s nod (plus the Academy’s expanded list of best picture nominees).

2)    Best Director

And while his film squeaked out a best picture nomination, Christopher Nolan himself was unjustly robbed of a director nod, a category he would have to win. What other director working today can master a plot as complex and engaging as Inception’s? For the final climax, Nolan’s direction is near-flawless. As Max put it in his blog, his brain manages to work at three different levels of reality that work at three different temporalities, with one level affecting the other affecting the other… But ambition is Nolan’s greatest achievement with Inception. Can that really be said of David O. Russell’s The Fighter?

3)    Best Actor

I can’t for the life of me understand how Gosling was looked over for his painful portrait of flawed husband in Blue Valentine. While the Academy at least saw fit to give Michelle Williams her due, her performance depends on Gosling’s sweet-natured, but ultimately a failure of a husband. Watching him in the present-day scenes, out-of-shape and desperate to save his marriage, contrast really well with the flashbacks of him in his prime and on top of his game. A brilliant performance that the Academy once again didn’t have the cojones to acknowledge.

4)    Best Documentary

I haven’t seen the other nominees in this category, so I’ll reserve my judgment on the validity of their inclusion, but I wish the Academy had nominated Marwencol. The story of a man struggling to regain his past memories through recreating World War II sets with Barbie-sized dolls was one of the most moving stories of 2010. What stayed with me most was how the circumstances behind Mark Hogancamp’s assault are revealed. I suppose it could be called a twist ending, since it reverses your earlier impression of him, but more than that it gave me a greater appreciation for his story and the way the filmmakers’ constructed the narrative of his life.