I’ve been spending the past week or so discussing my personal views on the Best Picture nominees for tonight’s Oscars, so for today, I thought I’d do a little post about the movies/actors/directors who I personally feel got snubbed for this year’s awards. LET’S GO!
1.) Hostiles / Christian Bale / Max Richter
Okay, I’m biased, and I’ll own up to it. I love Christian Bale. But man, his performance in this film was phenomenal – his transformation over the course of the film from vengeful and hate-filled to less hate-filled and somewhat softer is done with exceptional face-acting. As in, you watch his face, you get an entire story and see the full scope of his emotions without any spoken dialogue at all. I love Denzel Washington too, but I would have nominated Bale over him this year. The score by Max Richter is also great, as is the cinematography. Hostiles is an above average film with above average performances (not only from Bale, but Rosamund Pike too) and I’m stunned that this film didn’t get so much as a single nomination in any category. It’s better than a lot of other recent westerns, but maybe it just slipped through the cracks this year…
2.) Wind River / Jeremy Renner (kinda) / Ben Richardson / Taylor Sheridan
The fact that this film was not nominated for ANYTHING is probably the biggest Oscar snub since Daft Punk didn’t even get nominated for the Tron: Legacy soundtrack. It’s a CRIME, I TELL YOU. It’s easily Jeremy Renner’s best performance to date (would have given the 5th nom to Bale over him, but Renner over Washington… regardless, none would beat Oldman, DDL, Kaluuya or Chalamet) and the cinematography is stellar. The opening sequence of the girl running in the snow is hauntingly beautiful, yet also conveys the terror of her situation. Sheridan would have been a dark horse in the directorial race, but I would have liked to see him get a nod. I suppose this film being snubbed is unfortunatelyappropriate, given the source material and the stats given at the end of the film… but for real, my friends. If you haven’t seen Wind River, or it fell off your radar because it isn’t getting the same buzz as the award-nominated films, TRUST ME – give it a chance. I was unexpectedly blown away by how powerful this film and its message are.
3.) Wonder Woman / Patty Jenkins
It was a long-shot, but Patty Jenkins delivered the best DCEU movie to date (the TDK films don’t count, as they are in a different universe) and has gotten a lot of much-deserved praise for it, but I would have loved to see her get a directing nod. Wonder Woman would not have been as great a success as it was without her vision, and would have loved a Best Picture nod too, as unlikely as it was to happen.
4.) Murder on the Orient Express / Kenneth Branagh’s mustache
I mean… this film deserved at least a costuming nod, right? Or production design. Say what you want about the film itself, it was gorgeous to watch. And that mustache turned in one of the finest follicle performances of the last decade, at least!
5.) Logan / Hugh Jackman
Yeah, sure… Logan got the adapted screenplay nod. That’s all well and good, and a positive step forward for comic book films in the awards race, which have stalled considerably since the era of Nolan’s groundbreaking Dark Knight Trilogy. But damn, this movie might not only be be Jackman’s best turn as Logan/Wolverine, I’d say it’s his best performance ever. He was phenomenal. I would have given the 5th Best Actor nom to him over Bale, which means a lot coming from me…
6.) The Big Sick
I was elated to see this film garner a Best Original Screenplay nod, but surprised that it didn’t get any other nominations. I honestly think it deserved a Best Picture nomination – we could have had 10 nominees! That would have been a nice even number!
And there we have it! Any snubs you feel like I missed? Feel free to share! And stay tuned tomorrow afternoon (it might not be at 1PM due to my work schedule, but we’ll see) for my Oscar Recap / Reaction!
Frostwritten 