Oscar Nominations

Oscar Nominations were a day ago and writing this post I feel like I'm getting late to the party... Well, that's me! A turtle! Anyways, Oscar voters were good this year. Of course, some things were good, some were bad but I don't think any of those things was awful à la Blind Side last year...

Let's break those things down:

THE BAD

- No Andrew Garfield.

- No Mila Kunis.

- No Black Swan screenplay.

- No Black Swan in Costume Design.

It's good that all bad things are snubs and not horrific inclusions. Wait, I forgot:

- Tom Hooper: Is there anything more bland and generic than The King's Speech direction?

- Alice in Wonderland (it was butt-ugly and it was not intended as in Biutiful so... what is the achievement exactly?)

- The Best Song category. Let's hope this year they don't perform or Lauren Bacall will fall asleep...

THE HILARIOUS

- No Nolan in directing. Fanboys must be burning stuff...

THE GOOD

- A great array of ten nominees for Best Picture.

- Twenty respectable performances (of those I've seen HBC is the weakest one and she is good)

- Four auteurs in Best Director. 

- The Way Back for Make-Up.

THE GREAT

- Exit through the Gift Shop.

- Dogtooth.

- The Social Network's score (and all the other seven nominations).

- I Am Love for Best Costume Design.

THE FANTABULOUS

- Black Swan's cinematography.

- Black Swan's editing.

- Natalie Portman.

- DARREN ARONOFSKY.

- Black Swan for Best Picture.

THE MOST IMPORTANT THING

- Nicole Kidman for Rabbit Hole!!

The Noah Castle Film Awards (Wait, Hold On...)

Truth be told, I had thought to publish my awards for the best in the cinematic year towards the end of December. I already knew there would be tons of films I still would not have seen but I thought I could correct the awards somewhere in February, then again somewhere in April and most likely somewhere in September (could everyone take a moment to admire the Spanish release system? I do not understand it either.). Anyway, I have decided to skip this first December step because let's face it, I have a thousand movies left to see. And what could be more fun than anticipation?? (Maybe watching the films already but sadly that is not an option)

So here it is the list of 2010 films I haven't seen yet. It's obviously incomplete (but I'm probably never seeing The Bounty Hunter anyway) and it will most likely lack films I want to see and did not remember... Well, imperfection is so much easier to achieve than perfection. Actually, most of these films are the ones that have awards traction...

- 127 Hours: This movie opens the 25th of February, the Friday before the Oscars. It seems that now it's only about James Franco and its possibilities for picture are dying but still it looks like I will enjoy this a lot more than Slumdog Millionaire.

- Animal Kingdom: It opens the 14th of January.

- Another Year: I hope Lesley Manville doesn't get a Best Actress nomination because lately it seems that Nicole Kidman is the weakest link...

- Barney's Version: An exception to the awards traction rule but Rosamund Pike is so lovely...

- Black Swan: The film I most anticipate. Aronofsky! Portman! Ballerinas! I'm dying to see it!!! It opens in Spain the 28th of January, right in the middle of exams period, and yes, seeing it is more important than passing any stupid subject...

- Blue Valentine: This film still has not an opening date in Spain. We were very close to see it in a festival in Gijón but fate wouldn't have it.

- Conviction: This looks so terrible but Sam Rockwell is worth it (hopefully).

- The Fighter: Another important player without release date. Amy Adams playing against type!!

- Get Low: The premise in the trailer looks cool but the development not so much...

- How do you Know: Not very much relevance in awards either but... there was a time in which I loved Reese Witherspoon.

- The Killer Inside Me: It opens the 21st of January

- The King's Speech: I could have already seen this but since I live in Madrid I'm used to see basically everything in Original Version and I am spending the holidays in Zaragoza, my hometown which is considerably smaller and has about two films in Original Version at the same time. Sadly The King's Speech is not among those two, so I'm going to wait until I'm back in Madrid to see it.

- Love and Other Drugs: Anne Hathaway and a very much naked Jake Gyllenhaal? Yes, please! It opens the 14th of January.

- Made in Dagenham: Again, Rosamund Pike is lovely.

- Monsters: It looks like this year's District 9 (let's hope they don't share the disappointing second half...).

-Morning Glory: Is there anyone lovelier than Rachel McAdams? I recently rewatched Mean Girls and she was robbed a nomination...

- Rabbit Hole: The second film I most anticipate. JCM! Kidman!! Grief! Sandra Oh! When the film was announced I fantasised that Sandra Oh would play Kidman's sister and I even read the play imagining her in the role. Now I know that is not her character but wouldn't it have been great? It still has not a release date in Spain.

- Red: Three words. Mary Louise Parker. She could appear only in painting and I would still line up to see the film.

- Somewhere: It doesn't have a Spanish release date.

- Tangled: Reviews have been generally good and The Princess and the Frog was actually great. Now that Pixar smells like failure (Cars 2, seriously?) maybe Disney will take the room on the top...

- The Tourist: If it wasn't for the Globes nods I would stay away from this but I like to have a full picture in my head. It opens the day after tomorrow. Yay I guess...

- True Grit: The Coen's western looks very good. It opens the 11th of February. Plus Hailee Steinfeld looks like a lock more and more...

- The Way Back: It opens the 5th of January. I want to see Saoirse Ronan so badly! In fact the whole cast is great but the director... maybe not so much.

Anyway, I hope that towards the end of February I'll have a better picture to bestow some awards before March begins... After all March in Spain is like January in the States; if anything worthwile opens it can be considered a miracle.

Strange things will happen...

... if you let them. And certainly the HFPA does let them. Golden Globe nominations! Chaos and fun! I'm not including a complete list but rather some random thoughts on the nominations. If you want a full list The Film Experience has one and IMDB another. And maybe, I don't know, try Google! (It is a page few people know and I enjoy recommending it ;))

Random thought #1: 127 hours is not up for picture but it is for script. (Thoughts pause for a while) And here I was thinking that my random thoughts would be more elaborated.

Random thought #2: I am Love is love. I am so glad it's nominated!

Random thought #3: Three of the nominees for best actress in a comedy have names that start with the letters An. Two of them have names that start with Anne. One of them has a name that also ends with Anne. That's Anne Hathaway, in case you're wondering...

Random thought #4: YAY! EMMA STONE IS SO FUN!

Random thought #5: Johnny Depp's next award will probably be Miss Universe. That is more likely than someone enjoying his performance (or anything about the movie for that matter) in Alice in Wonderland.

Random thought #6: I'm getting tired of typing Random thought all those times. From now one RT means Random thought.

RT #7: Mila Kunis is nominated!! Bliss!

RT#8: RT reminds me too much of Rotten Tomatoes, which by the way has also a list of the nominees. I'm going back to Random thought full.

Random thought #9: Aronofsky is nominated!! Bliss the Sequel!!

Random thought #10: In case Random thoughts #7 and #9 did not make it clear enough, I love Black Swan being nominated for things. And I still haven't seen it...

Random thought #11: In case Random thought #5 did not make it clear enough, Alice in Wonderland makes unicorn puppies die of cancer.

Random thought #12: I love Nicole Kidman so much. She is without a doubt my favorite actress. From this we can conclude that I am happy she is nominated. In fact, except for the two uninvited guests (Berry and Wahlberg), I am very content with the drama acting nominations (though Kidman, Portman and Eisenberg are extra special in my heart).

Random thought #13: I really feel there is too much wrongness with the TV nominations to put my regular thoughts into Random thoughts. Maybe some other time, some other post.

Random thought #14: I did not want to end with 13 random thoughts.

Random afterthought #1: As I wrote the tags I realized that I did not mention Fincher or The Social Network once and that is very wrong because that film is exquisite and deserves all the nominations it has. This is such a good year for great films but the greatest (so far) is The Social Network.