non-cliche title about the oscars

You just can't use "and the winner is" or some lame ass title for your Oscar post.

Mostly, I was just excited to see Ryan Gosling get a nomination for Half Nelson, which I haven't seen. I think he got totally screwed 3 years ago when he wasn't nominated for The Believer, so I am willing to bet that his work as a teacher/crack addict is probably pretty good. Little Miss Sunshine got many nominations (as I am too lazy to count), including Best Picture, but I am really excited that Alan Arkin got nominated. I just watched Little Miss Sunshine for the first time last night and I loved Alan Arkin. I always love him, especially as Martin's shrink in Grosse Pointe Blank. Go Alan!

Other than Little Miss Sunshine, I have little else to contribute about the nominations, since the only other movie I have seen in the theater in the last 12 months was Pirates of the Caribbean which was such a tremendous disappointment that I could hardly stand to watch any new movies. All I could do was recycle a set of 5 movies I know that I love: Drop Dead Gorgeous, Ghostbusters 2, Point Break, Night of the Comet (which has only been on once), and Trading Places. And speaking of Billy Ray Valentine, congratulations to Eddie Murphy for his nomination. I haven't seen Dreamgirls, and I probably won't, but I am ecstatic to see everyone of Beyonce's co-stars getting accolades for their performances while her performance continues to be described with words like wooden and stilted. This is doubly sweet, since I read, when the movie came out, that they had tried to minimize Jennifer Hudson's role to pump Beyonce for the best Actress category. Were they fucking high? They did know that Helen Mirren, Meryl Streep, Cate Blanchett, and Kate Winslet (four of the premier actress of this age) were making movies this year, right? Did they really think that Beyonce "to the left" Knowles would deserve consideration? Maybe if she didn't surround herself with a bunch of butt-licking sycophants, someone could honestly tell her that acting just isn't her thing. Maybe they could throw in a hint that songwriting isn't really, either. Or dressing. Or dancing.

The only other category I am even a little interested in is the Documentary category. An Inconvenient Truth (which I have at home and need to watch) versus Jesus Camp, which is supposed to be crazy. I bet the academy, in a show of west coast liberalism, will give the award to Mr. Gore. That is quite an impressive resume - former vice-president and academy award winner, Al Gore.

That's all for now, since I am at work and have schoolwork that needs to be done.