The Academy gets one right. And one wrong.
Posted on | January 22, 2009 |
Oscar noms are out and for me, there were two surprises. Â But only one of them was good. Â Michael Shannon received a nom for supporting actor for his brilliant, movie stealing performance in Revolutionary Road, an otherwise so-so movie. Â Yes, DiCaprio, Winslet, and Bates all give excellent performances, the story is well done, the film is beautiful to look at, etc, etc, etc, but beyond that, it’s just sort of there. I haven’t read the book and knew little about the story line when I went to a screening of it a few weeks ago. Â All I knew were the basics of the story: a seemingly perfect couple struggling with their seemingly perfect lives and not understanding why they weren’t happy. Â First of all, welcome to my life people. Â But more importantly, what I got from this movie was exactly what I expected. Â It unfolded almost exactly as I would have guessed it would. Â And then along came Michael Shannon to mix it up a bit. Â He probably has less than ten minutes of screen time, but he’s pure brilliance in every moment he gets. Â
I was worried he would be overlooked in this category as he was for the Golden Globes and SAG Awards, but I was very happy to see the Academy recognize his brilliant performance. Â He won’t win of course. Â That will go to Heath Ledger, and deservedly so, for his near genius incarnation of The Joker in the otherwise lousy The Dark Knight.
And the oversight? Â No nod to Springsteen for best original song for his contribution to the film that has brought Mickey Rourke back from the dead, The Wrestler. Â It’s not like the category is full of other amazing tunes that edged him out, there’s only three nominees: two from Slumdog and of course the obligatory nod to a song from the big animated movie of the year, Wall-E. Â Not to say songs from animated flicks aren’t worthy, although if they’re not written by Randy Newman I’m a tad skeptical. Â Regardless of that nonsense, it’s a crime to not give Bruce his due. Â Yes, I know he’s won previously, more than once maybe even, but that should have no effect on the voting this year, should it? Â The song is as close to perfect as you can get when not being written by Bob Dylan. Â It fits the movie and the man perfectly. Â Another reason I’m bummed about this is that I think it is not a good omen for The Mick winning for best actor. Â He go the nom, but this to me shows a weaker than expected amount of support for the film in general. Â And as I’ve stated here previously, the movie is not perfect. Â But Rourke’s performance is. Â He is perhaps, as close as an actor can get to perfection in this role. Â So I’ll be pulling for The Mick on Oscar night. Â And hoping he reminds us all why he is who he is and tells the Academy how bad they f’ed up by dissing The Boss.