By mid afternoon on the day of Oscar nomination announcements last week, my Facebook wall was already being covered with bitter and exasperated commentary on the Academy's nominee choices for the 2012 Academy Awards. One commenter summed up his displeasure with the concise statement, "This was a terrible year in film."
I wouldn't go quite that far in declaring my disappointment with 2011's cinematic output. But I certainly see how a glance at the roster of ‘best' nominations compiled by The American Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences this year could leave you with a dour taste. Though unfortunate, thankfully the 2012 Oscar nominations do not tell the entire story of film in 2012. There were quite a few worthy cinematic endeavors and performance gems overlooked by the Academy this year that can console themselves with the love of film critics and movie lovers alike.
"Young Adult"
While some critics applauded Charlize Theron's lead performance and others Diablo Cody's snarky script, the real treasure buried in Jason Reitman's "Young Adult" is comedian Patton Oswalt's turn as a crippled alcoholic trapped in a state of arrested development as the bitter nerd he was in high school. He perpetually steals the show, even in the face of a terrific performance by Theron. A Best Supporting Actor nomination for Oswalt would have been much deserved, certainly over Jonah Hill for "Moneyball". And it would have nicely complemented the Academy's Best Supporting Actress nomination of Melissa McCarthy for her similar scene-stealing comedic role in "Bridesmaids."
"50/50"
Admittedly "50/50" was a bit of a dark horse for a Best Picture nomination. Even though I would have handed one to Rogen and company without hesitation, I can understand their exclusion. But the lack of a Best Original Screenplay nomination was a much larger injustice. The delightful autobiographical script from cancer survivor and comedy writer Will Reiser ("Da Ali G Show") set the foundation for a legitimately funny movie about cancer that managed to avoid irreverence and blend in just enough drama without crossing over into melodrama like Best Picture nominee "The Descendants" is so prone to. When looking for a movie about living in the loom of death, I'd take "50/50" over the dwelling and dull "The Descendants" any day.
"Take Shelter"
Michael Shannon's performance in "Take Shelter" as a family man construction worker in rural Ohio plagued by nightmares of an impending apocalyptic storm was nothing short of awe-inspiring. I'd qualify it as the best lead performance, regardless of gender, in any film in 2011. Yet Shannon and "Take Shelter" itself wound up with a big fat goose egg in nominations from the Academy this year. Perhaps in his snubbing Shannon was simply a victim of his circumstances. After all, "Take Shelter" premiered over a year ago in January 2011 at the Sundance Film Festival, giving it almost an entire year to slip from voters' minds. The film was also made for a measly Hollywood budget of $5 million leaving little hope for expensive ad campaigns. And unfortunately perhaps the final nail in the flick's coffin was that it never quite got the opportunity to win over the public at large, as it received a very limited theatrical release.
"Drive"
No other film was so utterly snubbed by the Academy this year than Nicolas Winding Refn's "Drive." While Danish Director Refn can celebrate his "Best Film" nomination from the British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA, the British equivalent to the Oscars that still only nominates the 5 Best Films), the lack of nominations for both Best Picture and Best Director stings nonetheless.
By far the most-publicized snub of the Oscar season was Albert Brooks as Best Supporting Actor for his role as an eyebrowless mobster in "Drive." Brooks was nominated previously for Best Supporting Actor in 1987 for "Broadcast News" and, not wanting to miss his second chance at the statue, the actor rallied a popular Twitter campaign for his nomination. In fact, leading up to the nominations, most critics presumed the Supporting Actor race was between Brooks and Christopher Plummer, only to see Brooks fail to land even a nomination. Brooks tweeted his feelings about the loss, tweeting at the Academy: "You don't like me, you really don't like me," an ironic play on Sally Field's iconic Oscar acceptance speech.
But perhaps the most egregious snub for the team behind "Drive" was the lack of a Best Cinematography nomination for Newton Thomas Sigel. The cinematography Sigel crafted for "Drive" was hauntingly beautiful in a way that immortalizes itself in your head, as if each shot was a self-contained work of art.
In an instance of either ultimate irony or fitting happenstance, "Drive" was nominated for only a single Oscar: Sound Editing. David Fincher's "Fight Club," a film which was similarly overlooked by the Oscars in 2000 only to become one of the defining cult films of the decade, also received a sole nomination in its year-Sound Editing. Perhaps the universe will balance things out in 10 years from now for the exceedingly deserving Nicolas Winding Refn and his beautiful, haunting vision embodied in "Drive."
