academy award noms came out this week . . . and i was pretty satisfied more or less. every year there seems to be at least one movie that is nominated for best picture that i really hate. last year it was george clooney's good night and good luck. (gawd that movie still pisses me off. why don't they just give out oscars to democratic party ads and teen-produced anti-smoking films? pure propaganda/treacle). anyways, there really isn't a single film getting awards buzz right now that i find totally undeserving at the moment. of course there are a lot of films and performances getting more attention than they probably deserve and a lot that aren't getting any attention at all, but all-in-all the final lineup could be a lot worse.

of course the biggest surprise of the noms is dreamgirls getting dissed for best picture. and once again the gays are out in full force accusing the academy of homophobia (and/or racism). first of all, why exactly is this a gay movie? yes it is a lavish broadway musical chronicling the rise to fame of diana ross and the supremes. but honestly, besides echoing gay stereotypes there are almost no gay themes in this movie and REALLY not even any themes of female empowerment or black pride. i honestly don't think that this qualifies as either a gay film or a black film and see no reason why it would be automatically dissed for being viewed as such. as i responded to the bareback mountain devotees i now say to those touting dreamgirls as this year's magnumn opus: maybe the film just isn't very good. don't get me wrong, i enjoyed dreamgirls and thought it was a good movie. still, i am happy that the academy rightly acknowledged that this movie simply doesn't belong in the year's top five.

in general, there were quite a few nominations (and snubs) this year that i thought were really dead on. babel's best picture nom was well deserved, and both of the two performances in the film that i found most deserving of attention (adriana barraza and rinko kikuchi) got supporting actress noms too. djimon hounsou and leo both got acting noms for their awesome performances in blood diamond as did dame judi and cate blanchett for theirs in notes on a scandal. little children's kate winslet and jackie earle haley got noms for their performances, but more importantly the film got a nomination for its terrific screenplay. and (THANK GOD) beyonce was not able to buy an actress nomination for her weak performance in a weak supporting role featuring weak songs in dreamgirls.

if there is one thing about the nominations that bothers me it is the attention being given little miss sunshine. don't get me wrong. i thought this movie was suprisingly cute, but i don't understand why anyone would deem it worthy of an academy award for best picture. i think it belongs on the dvd shelf along with romy and michele and national lampoon's vacation and other silly-funny-mindless road trip flicks. and gawd, abigail breslin has this tiny role with only a couple lines and almost no acting and even though she made me laugh in the final scene, i can't imagine giving her a nomination for that role. i think that sunshine's nominations might better have been filled by other more superior movies that came out this year like children of men, little children, notes on a scandal or the good shepherd.

anyways, i have been busy watching nominated films (etc.) over the past month or so and have lots of reviews in my noggin that i will be posting over the upcoming weeks leading up to oscars night. so look for posts coming soon on babel, blood diamond, brick, childen of men, madonna's confessions tour on dvd, the departed, dreamgirls, the good shepherd, hard candy, little children, little miss sunshine, notes on a scandal, the pursuit of happyness, the queen and saw iii on dvd  ¶ 1/27/2007 01:03:00 PM