My friends, the Academy Awards nominees have been announced. The eagle has landed. Money time is upon us.
My favorite time of year is right about now, because I can officially start obsessing.
This year there are 9 best motion picture nominees, since the current rule states that any number between 5 and 10 films will be nominated. Looking at the list, I still have 6 movies to watch before the ceremony. It’s not gonna be easy. Especially the watching “The Tree of Life” part of it (what most people told me about this is that they just didn’t get it). But of course, I will watch them all, because I can’t watch the ceremony unprepared! Plus, I love obsessing.
I’ve already watched several rumored-to-maybe-be-nominated films lately. It’s very cold in Tel-Aviv (we Tel-Avivians call 11 degrees Celsius very cold. And rain will almost always make us stay in) so the setting is perfect for movie nights indoors.
First I watched “Drive”, which in retrospect was kind of a waste of my time since it wasn’t nominated. Now, I know everyone is swooning over this movie, but I felt disconnected. I’ll admit that just staring at Ryan Gosling is entertaining enough to get your money’s worth, but I found the romance between him and Carey Mulligan unrealistic seeing as they only said about 20 words to each other the whole time. I did like the 80’s look of the movie, though. Am I the only one that was reminded of the “Alaska in Winter” aesthetics?
Then I watched “The Help”. I loved this film but it’s obviously not the best of the year – which is why I think it should be nominated, but it should also not win. The acting is very good, the topic is fascinating and the film’s 146 minutes fly by.
“Moneyball”, starring Brad Pitt, is also nominated, but I have no idea why. It’s just another happy ending, the hero prevails even though everyone was against him, American movie. It’s like this year’s “The Blind Side”.
I caught “Midnight in Paris” on a flight to NY earlier this year, and loved it. Woody Allen makes you fall in love with Paris, Owen Wilson is great as the typical neurotic insecure man we’re used to seeing in Allen’s films, and the film’s dreamy and charming feeling is lovely. These make the film nomination-worthy, but this is another one that’s sure not to win. Oh, and that Carla Bruni really does look amazing.
Last thing I’m gonna mention before moving on to the nominees is that this year an Israeli film is nominated again in the Best Foreign Film category, after not getting a nom in 2011. I’m thrilled! The film is called “Footnote”, and it revolves around a power struggle between a father and son who teach at the Talmud department (where they research a central text of mainstream Judaism) at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.
As you can see, I still need to watch “The Artist” (probably gonna win number 1), “The Descendants” (probably gonna win number 2), “Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close” (I loved this book and will probably sob like a little girl in the film), “Hugo” (I heard this is great), “The Tree of Life” (what everyone told me about this was “I don’t understand what the hell just happened”) and “War Horse” (heard this is no good, but only from like 3 people, so there’s still some hope there. Maybe I’ll find out they’re complete idiots).
And the nominees are (drumroll please!):
- The Artist
- The Descendants
- Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close
- The Help
- Hugo
- Midnight in Paris
- Moneyball
- The Tree of Life
- War Horse
