Thoughts on 88th Academy Award Nominations

I guess it's time to express my thoughts on the biggest award show ever yet again. From the looks of it, it's not as infuriating as last year. Sure, there are some snubs and missed opportunities (which I'll discuss), but at least it's somewhat satisfactory. Anyways, I'll take a look at some of the major categories.

Best Picture
The Big Short
Bridge of Spies
Brooklyn
Mad Max: Fury Road
The Martian
The Revenant
Room
Spotlight

Are the Academy only allowed to nominate eight films from now on? Can they still do ten nominees? Seriously, they could have made room for a couple of more films, most notably Inside Out. That one was highly acclaimed and easily considered one of Pixar's best since Toy Story 3, which also got nominated for Best Picture. That one is more worthy of being viewed as Best Picture than that borefest called The Big Short.

Anyways, I've only seen half of these nominations. As I just mentioned, I've seen The Big Short, and I have no idea why people like this movie. It's nothing but two hours of:

I've seen The Revenant, which I personally thought it was okay, but I can see why people would name it as one of their favorite films from last year. I've seen Brooklyn, which I liked, but can't imagine myself re-watching it all that much. And of course, I've praised The Martian and Mad Max: Fury Road on my Top 10 Films of 2015, so I'll leave it at that.

I'm rooting for Fury Road to win Best Picture (with The Martian as back-up), but I kind of have a feeling that The Revenant will win instead. I'm only saying that because the latter won Best Picture - Drama at the Golden Globes recently, so I'm not going to get my hopes too high.

Best Director

Lenny Abrahamson - Room

Alejandro G. Iñárritu - The Revenant

Tom McCarthy - Spotlight

Adam McKay - The Big Short

George Miller - Mad Max: Fury Road

I'm glad to see George Miller being nominated for Best Director. It's a shame, however, that Ridley Scott was not nominated for his work on The Martian. I don't know what else to say about the rest of the nominees.

Best Actor

Bryan Cranston - Trumbo

Matt Damon - The Martian

Leonardo DiCaprio - The Revenant

Michael Fassbender - Steve Jobs

Eddie Redmayne - The Danish Girl

I've praised Matt Damon's performance in The Martian and I was glad that he won Best Actor in the Golden Globes. In addition, the more I think about it, the more I thought Leo did a good job in The Revenant. He doesn't speak much (it's often in a different language most of the time), but he manages to express fear and anger throughout. I haven't seen the rest, but I'm rooting for Matt Damon on this one. But, if Leo finally wins an Oscar, I would be cool with it.

Best Actress

Cate Blanchett - Carol

Brie Larson - Room

Jennifer Lawrence - Joy

Charlotte Rampling - 45 Years

Saoirse Ronan - Brooklyn

I've only seen Carol and Brooklyn. I'm gonna be honest, Cate Blanchett's performance in Carol was very underwhelming. I watched her the whole time and just kept thinking of her saying "Give me an Oscar! I'm excellent!" However, her performance just kind of dull, which is what I can say about the rest of the film.

Saoirse Ronan, on the other hand, I thought did pretty well in Brooklyn. I could really buy her homesickness that was portrayed in the film, as well as other forms of emotions related to the subject matter.

On another note, how come Charlize Theron was not nominated for her performance in Fury Road? Seriously, Furiosa is right up there with Sarah Connor from Terminator 2 and Ripley from Aliens as one of the best female action characters. She really says a lot with just her facial expressions and actions. Want an example? I'll leave this image here:

Best Supporting Actor
Christian Bale - The Big Short
Tom Hardy - The Revenant
Mark Ruffalo - Spotlight
Mark Rylance - Bridge of Spies
Sylvester Stallone - Creed

I don't have much to say about these candidates. Okay, there's one thing: please win Supporting Actor, Sly! You deserve it.

Best Supporting Actress
Jennifer Jason Leigh - The Hateful Eight
Rooney Mara - Carol
Rachel McAdams - Spotlight
Alicia Vikander - The Danish Girl
Kate Winslet - Steve Jobs

Not a lot to say here. I thought Alicia Vikander was excellent in Ex Machina, but this award is for her performance in The Danish Girl, which I haven't seen. I wasn't sure what to think about Jennifer Jason Leigh being nominated. I liked The Hateful Eight, but I couldn't see her performance as Oscar-worthy. In the end, though, I don't care who wins in this category.

Best Original Score
Bridge of Spies - Thomas Newman
Carol - Carter Burwell
The Hateful Eight - Ennio Morricone
Sicario - Jóhann Jóhannsson
Star Wars: The Force Awakens - John Williams

It's great to see Ennio Morricone score a Western after several decades and being nominated for that category, which is well-deserved. Star Wars: The Force Awakens, as I've mentioned on my review, doesn't have one of the strongest scores in the series. Sure, it had "Rey's Theme," but that's about it. I think it was selected just because John Williams composed it. The rest of the nominees I don't remember all that much.

I'm disappointed that neither Mad Max: Fury Road nor Inside Out were nominated for Best Original Score. Fury Road had an energetic and rough feel, with some emotional themes reminiscent of Bernard Herrmann's work. Plus, some of the tracks like "Blood Bag," "Brothers in Arms," and "Chapter Doof" are great to listen to while exercising. Inside Out was one of composer Michael Giacchino's greatest accomplishments alongside The Incredibles and Up. Inside Out was a film about emotions, so in a sense, the score had a lot of passion and emotion thrown into it. Instead, it gets snubbed.

Best Original Song
"Earned it" from Fifty Shades of Grey
"Manta Ray" from Racing Extinction
"Simple Song #3" from Youth
"Til It Happens To You" from The Hunting Ground
"Writing's on the Wall" from Spectre

Did they have to nominate "Fifty Shades of Garbage" for even one Oscar? Okay, "Earned It" is a decent song on its own. Here's the problem: can you say "the Academy Award-nominated Fifty Shades of Grey" without cringing? I don't think so.

I'm glad to see Spectre being nominated for Best Original Song. Seriously, "Writing's on the Wall" is awesome, and I can't see why some people hate it. Well, music is subjective, I'll give it that. However, "Feels Like Summer" from Shaun the Sheep Movie was seriously snubbed. That's a really heartwarming and catchy song that made the film great enough as it is.

Actually, just replace "Earned it" with "Feels Like Summer." That way, "Fifty Shades of Who-Gives-A-Darn" won't be acknowledged and I don't have to talk about it anymore (until the sequels come). Lastly, the rest of the songs that were nominated, I really don't care too much for. Moving on.

Best Visual Effects
Ex Machina
Mad Max: Fury Road
The Martian
The Revenant
Star Wars: The Force Awakens

I didn't talk about this category last year because I didn't have any comment on them. All of the nominees were blockbuster films, so of course a lot of effort was going to be put in the effects, a lot of them just being CGI-fests. This year is a little different. We have Ex Machina, a smaller film that features a unique design for Alicia Vikander's character among other things. There's The Revenant, an artsy epic, though I can't remember any special effects that stood out to me. I can say the same about The Martian.

I think the biggest competition in this category is between Mad Max and Star Wars. The former managed to use a lot of practical effects, while only using CGI when it's really necessary. It was actually a nice marriage between the two which I really admire the film for. The latter used a lot more practical effects, with little usage of CGI, and for the most part, it paid off really nicely. I say "for the most part" because there were two characters in the movie who were obviously created with motion capture and looked fake at times. Still, I think either those two are most likely to win.

Best Animated Feature
Anomalisa
Boy & The World
Inside Out
Shaun the Sheep Movie
When Marnie Was There

I'm glad that Inside Out, Shaun the Sheep Movie, and When Marnie Was There were included. Sure, The Peanuts Movie wasn't nominated, but this is nowhere near as rage-inducing as when The Lego Movie got snubbed last year. Look on the bright side, though: at least Minions wasn't nominated. I wish I could say something about Anomalisa and Boy & The World, but I haven't seen any of them, especially never hearing of the latter film until now. If both of them are as good as they say, then this will be a slightly competitive run this year.

However, remember that article about voters not caring much about animated films? I have a feeling that the same will happen, in which some of them will have not seen all the films this year, which is really unfair and irresponsible. In addition, it's disrespectful to animation in general. Also, if the people presenting that award call animation a "genre" again, I'm gonna be furious. Animation is a medium, not a genre; get it right!

That concludes my thoughts on this year's Academy Award nominations. I know I've expressed disappointment, probably as much as last year. Despite that, this is only a slightly satisfactory list of nominations. Besides, this is always going to be a thing. Everyone will express what should have been nominated or what shouldn't. Still, I'm interested in how things will go down in the Oscars, and I'll be live tweeting my reactions during that time..