Oscar nominees, CP-style

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Oscar nominees, CP-style

POSTED: Tuesday, February 2, 2010, 5:02 PM

Filed Under: Movies

Woohoo! Oscar season comes to a head with the nominees announced earlier this morning by Anne Hathaway and Tom Sherak, the prez of the Academy. This year's a bit different, with 10 movies nominated for best picture, essentially so some piece of trash like The Blind Side can bring in more viewers (Kill. Me. Now.). Not many suprises on this front (expect for maybe District 9 in the Best Picture category ... nice!), although I'm glad to see the Coen Bros.' A Serious Man as one of the 10 Best Pics (I was worried it was too esoteric), and of course, Philly's own Lee Daniels comes away with a Best Director nod for Precious (which also picked up acting notices for Mo'Nique and Gabourey Sidibe). There's some stuff I'm excited about, not so excited about and downright pissed about (The Motherfucking Blind Side?!). I'm sure you are too. Let me know what you think in the comments and we can discuss. ...And the nominees are... Best Motion Picture of the Year

Avatar — C+ — Shaun Brady said, "So Avatar is a simple, very familiar story of Cowboys and Indians, a child's game played in the most spectacular sandbox that modern special effects can conjure."
The Blind Side — D — I said that it "comes off as a love letter to the privileged white Samaritans who deigned to take in the poor black kid."
District 9 — B —Shaun Brady said, "This is, make no mistake, an action film, in which shit blows up, truckloads of ammo get spent and bodies explode in visceral showers. But Blomkamp never loses touch with the emotional toll of the carnage, even if his characters ultimately get overwhelmed by technology in the closing minutes."
An Education — B
The Hurt Locker — A- — Sam Adams said, "Kathryn Bigelow's ride-along with a Baghdad bomb squad is thrilling, even when it shouldn't be."
Inglourious Basterds — B — Sam Adams said, "It's history as filtered through Jackrabbit Slim's."
Precious — B+ — Shaun Brady said, "Daniels' sophomore effort behind the camera is a vast improvement, even though it doesn't correct any of his worst tendencies. Instead, in "the novel Push by Sapphire," Daniels has found a piece of source material whose own penchant for extremes gives his own a purpose."
A Serious Man — A- — Sam Adams said, "Joel and Ethan Coen have an almost chronic aversion to being taken seriously, which is probably why A Serious Man, in addition to wrestling with profound issues of morality and religious faith, is also one of their most antic and even occasionally silly films."
Up — B+ — Sam Adams said, "The movie's latter section has its charms but after the depths explored in its opening reels, the rest of Up feels shallow and arbitrary by comparison."
Up in the Air— B+ — Sam Adams said, "Loosely adapted from Walter Kirn's novel, Up in the Air hits the predictable beats of a belated coming-of-age story, but it's exceedingly well accomplished, with a confident visual style light-years beyond Juno's functional setups."

Achievement in Directing

James Cameron, Avatar
Kathryn Bigelow, The Hurt Locker — Read Sam Adams' interview with Kathryn Bigelow
Quentin Tarantino, Inglourious Basterds
Lee Daniels, Precious
Jason Reitman, Up in the Air

Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role

Jeff Bridges, Crazy Heart — B
George Clooney, Up in the Air
Colin Firth, A Single Man — B-
Morgan Freeman, Invictus — B
Jeremy Renner, The Hurt Locker

Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role

Matt Damon, Invictus
Woody Harrelson, The Messenger — A-
Christopher Plummer, The Last Station — Opens in Philadelphia on Friday.
Stanley Tucci, The Lovely Bones — C+
Christoph Waltz, Inglourious Basterds

Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role

Sandra Bullock, The Blind Side — I said, "Bullock's got the sass-and-class thing down."
Helen Mirren, The Last Station
Carey Mulligan, An Education
Gabourey Sidibe, Precious
Meryl Streep, Julie & Julia — C+

Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role

PenÃ©lope Cruz, Nine — C-
Vera Farmiga, Up in the Air
Maggie Gyllenhaal, Crazy Heart
Anna Kendrick, Up in the Air
Mo'Nique, Precious

Best Animated Feature Film of the Year

Coraline — B-
Fantastic Mr. Fox — A-
The Princess and the Frog
The Secret of Kells
Up

Original Screenplay

The Hurt Locker, Mark Boal
Inglourious Basterds, Quentin Tarantino
The Messenger, Alessandro Camon and Oren Moverman
A Serious Man, Joel Coen and Ethan Coen
Up, Pete Docter, Tom McCarthy and Bob Peterson

Adapted Screenplay

District 9, Neil Blomkamp and Terri Tatchell
An Education, Nick Hornby
In the Loop, Jesse Armstrong, Simon Blackwell, Armando Iannucci and Tony Roche
Precious, Geoffrey Fletcher
Up in the Air, Jason Reitman and Sheldon Turner

Best Foreign Language Film of the Year

Ajami (Israel)
El Secreto de Sus Ojos (Argentina)
The Milk of Sorrow (Peru)
Un Prophete (France)
The White Ribbon (Germany)

Original Score

James Horner, Avatar
Alexandre Desplat, Fantastic Mr. Fox
Marco Beltrami and Buck Sanders, The Hurt Locker
Hans Zimmer, Sherlock Holmes — B
Michael Giacchino, Up

Original Song

"Almost There," Music & Lyrics by Randy Newman (The Princess and the Frog)
"Down in New Orleans," Music & Lyrics by Randy Newman (The Princess and the Frog)
"Loin de Paname," Music by Reinhardt Wagner; Lyric by Frank Thomas (Paris 36)
"Take It All," Music & Lyrics by Maury Yeston (Nine)
"The Weary Kind," Music & Lyrics by Ryan Bingham and T Bone Burnett (Crazy Heart)

Achievement in Art Direction

Achievement in Cinematography

Achievement in Costume Design

Best Documentary Feature

Burma VJ
The Cove
Food, Inc.
The Most Dangerous Man in America: Daniel Ellsberg and the Pentagon Papers
Which Way Home

Best Documentary Short Subject

China's Unnatural Disaster: The Tears of Sichuan Province
The Last Campaign of Booth Gardner
The Last Truck: Closing of a GM Plant
Music by Prudence
Rabbit a la Berlin

Achievement in Film Editing

Achievement in Makeup

Best Animated Short Film

French Roast
Granny O'Grimm's Sleeping Beauty
The Lady and the Reaper (La Dama y la Muerte)
Logorama
A Matter of Loaf and Death

Best Live Action Short Film

The Door
Instead of Abracadabra
Kavi
Miracle Fish
The New Tenants

Achievement in Sound Editing

Achievement in Sound Mixing

Avatar
The Hurt Locker
Inglourious Basterds
Star Trek
Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen

Achievement in Visual Effects

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