2008 Awards/Critical Lists Discussion Thread

**Raiders** · 01-22-2009, 01:18 PM

The Academy's flagellation of The Reader just ensures that we'll have more and more of these dull "prestige" films, as if the saturation wasn't already ridiculous. Maybe the Academy likes dictating so much of the output come the fall and winter months.

**Mysterious Dude** · 01-22-2009, 01:21 PM

I'm a little surprised Revolutionary Road didn't get nominated for best picture. Seems like that's the only reason that movie was made.

**Ezee E** · 01-22-2009, 01:28 PM

Bruce Springsteen's song is on a CD, probably made it ineligible somehow.

**DavidSeven** · 01-22-2009, 01:30 PM

Ahem. December:

Quoting DavidSeven

Safe to assume that The Dark Knight is no longer a front runner and will be lucky to get a BP nomination at this point?

So, am I allowed to say there are a lot of Jewish people in Hollywood/The Academy and that they'll jump all over any remotely decent Holocaust picture? Is there anything... politically incorrect with that statement? It's what everyone is thinking, right? No offense intended -- just seems like a logical conclusion.

(has not seen The Reader)

**dreamdead** · 01-22-2009, 01:33 PM

And there goes any chance that Happy-Go-Lucky comes out around here. DVD time, it is.

I agree with Raiders. These noms just ensure that the prestige films, even those that are fully middlebrow, just keep being manufactured. No surprises here. I'm happy for Jenkins' nomination, but that's countered by the utter lack of attention given to Slumdog's cast, since it's clearly the frontrunner here (still haven't seen it, though...).

**DavidSeven** · 01-22-2009, 01:36 PM

This was one year the Academy could have actually gained some legitimacy by nominating mainstream hits (Dark Knight and Wall-E -- relative to the batch they gave us), but they failed. Failed Hard.

**megladon8** · 01-22-2009, 01:38 PM

I love that there was all that hoop-la about TDK's score not being elligible, and then the academy changing their mind and saying it is, and it doesn't get nominated :lol:

**Boner M** · 01-22-2009, 01:53 PM

Terrible.

**Kurosawa Fan** · 01-22-2009, 01:55 PM

It's hard for me to say it's terrible when Richard Jenkins nabbed a nomination. That put a huge smile on my face this morning.

**Boner M** · 01-22-2009, 01:57 PM

At least none of the Dumbslog actors made the cut. That would've be frightening.

**Spinal** · 01-22-2009, 02:43 PM

No Dark Knight Best Picture nomination?

I am here to say I told you so.

**Spinal** · 01-22-2009, 02:46 PM

Quoting DavidSeven (view post)

Ahem. December:

I got you beat by two months.

**Raiders** · 01-22-2009, 02:49 PM

Quoting Spinal (view post)

I got you beat by two months.

Please. I've got you by 10 months.

Rookie.

**Spinal** · 01-22-2009, 02:50 PM

Quoting Raiders (view post)

Please. I've got you by 10 months.

Rookie.

Well done. :lol:

**lovejuice** · 01-22-2009, 03:04 PM

Quoting megladon8 (view post)

Can't say I'm surprised that The Dark Knight didn't get a Best Picture nod. The Academy would give Paris Hilton an Oscar before they'd give a Best Picture Oscar to a superhero movie.

as much as i dislike TDK, i feel for you here. it seems like such a snub when they prefer a merely fresh movie like the Reader to the 90-%-up TDK.

Quoting DavidSeven (view post)

So, am I allowed to say there are a lot of Jewish people in Hollywood/The Academy and that they'll jump all over any remotely decent Holocaust picture? Is there anything... politically incorrect with that statement? It's what everyone is thinking, right? No offense intended -- just seems like a logical conclusion.

haven't watched the movie, but reading the book, i will say the Reader is not that much of a jewish-symphathetic film. if anything, it tells the story from the perspective of germans, even a nazi at that.

i'm among a few who doesn't like the book. i might at some point give the movie a chance.

**DavidSeven** · 01-22-2009, 03:48 PM

Props for the Michael Shannon nod though. Surprising, but deserved.

**Wryan** · 01-22-2009, 03:59 PM

The office pool this year will be pointless. These all seem really easy to choose.

Nominations are about the same level of ehh-ness the Academy has produced in the last decade or so.

EDIT: There were Visual Effects in TDK?

**Amnesiac** · 01-22-2009, 04:01 PM

Quoting megladon8 (view post)

I love that there was all that hoop-la about TDK's score not being elligible, and then the academy changing their mind and saying it is, and it doesn't get nominated :lol:

Yeah, I guess that was a lot of fuss put to no good end.

Anyways, it sucks that Sally Hawkins isn't nominated. I'm not terribly upset about The Dark Knight losing out on a BP nomination, though. I'm glad Ledger got the nomination because, at the end of the day, his performance always seemed to be the film's most salient offering.

Also, it's too bad Canada missed out on getting a nomination.

Also, hopefully some of those foreign language nominees will start trickling into theaters as I haven't heard of many of them.

**Morris Schæffer** · 01-22-2009, 04:04 PM

Quoting megladon8 (view post)

I love that there was all that hoop-la about TDK's score not being elligible, and then the academy changing their mind and saying it is, and it doesn't get nominated :lol:

And then James Newton Howard is nominated for Defiance though I've yet to hear that score or see the movie.

Fuck, I really wanted TDK to get that nomination.

**jesse** · 01-22-2009, 04:39 PM

Quoting DavidSeven (view post)

This was one year the Academy could have actually gained some legitimacy by nominating mainstream hits (Dark Knight and Wall-E -- relative to the batch they gave us), but they failed. Failed Hard.

I was reading an article along these lines yesterday, and I didn't get it then, and I don't get it now. How does popularity = legitimacy?

**Hugh_Grant** · 01-22-2009, 04:42 PM

Quoting Kurosawa Fan (view post)

It's hard for me to say it's terrible when Richard Jenkins nabbed a nomination. That put a huge smile on my face this morning.

Me too!

ritch:

**Ivan Drago** · 01-22-2009, 04:51 PM

Quoting Watashi (view post)

The Dark Knight was nominated for a PGA, DGA, and WGA and didn't get nominated for either respective category. That's not a surprise. That's a downright shocker.

It is a shocker. I'm also pissed it wasn't nominated for Score.

Where did The Reader come from all of a sudden? Is it that good? Because I haven't heard a lot of good things about it.

**Morris Schæffer** · 01-22-2009, 04:58 PM

Quoting jesse (view post)

I was reading an article along these lines yesterday, and I didn't get it then, and I don't get it now. How does popularity = legitimacy?

I guess that it isn't just popularity, but it is also considerably difficult to ignore the showers of praise heaped upon both movies. Indeed, it is perhaps telling that TDK was called by many critics a "crime drama" indicating that this one really transcended the usually pulpy comic book origins. For numerous individuals (and seemingly every single critic out there), these really are among the best movies of the year and one cannot help but feel that The Academy ignored them both because they're just not sufficiently important. It's a gray area however - i have zero proof of this - so I'm gonna end that here.

**Barty** · 01-22-2009, 06:13 PM

Quoting Spinal (view post)

No Dark Knight Best Picture nomination?

I am here to say I told you so.

Today Mr. Spinal, I don't want you too.

**transmogrifier** · 01-22-2009, 06:19 PM

No The Dark Knight is the most pleasing thing about this complete and utter bore of a nomination slate.

Thread: 2008 Awards/Critical Lists Discussion Thread

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