The 10 Biggest Oscar Snubs of 2009

I hear Let the Right One In was released to late to be considered best foreign film but that shouldnt matter since it was the best film 2008.

this was the worst oscar nominations ever. i will not be watching. first, how could clint eastwood not get a nod for acting or directing, why did brad pitt and jolie get nominated they were horrible. bruce springsteen not getting nominated was a joke. the wrestler was 1 of the best songs of the past couple of years, even though he wins the golden globe. christopher nolan not gettin ghte director nod was outrageous. so was robert downey jr. he only was nominated cuz he pretened to be black. the academy only likes films about gays, people overacting, immigrants, and people trying to be black or women trying to be men vice versa. this is horrible. o ya they also loves movies about the holocaust. there wer 500 movies about the holocaust.

I was underwhelmed by everything but Ledger’s brilliant performance in TDK. The performance, coupled with tragedy, made TDK feel explosive to most people. To me, it fizzled when HL was off-screen. I still can’t tell you what happens in the film’s final third, and I’ve seen it 3 times. It just doesn’t stick.

BTW, long ago, one way I learned about which movies were the great one was via the Oscars. But what I did was, I went thru each year’s nominations and listed each film that got even one nod. If you were to do this, you would end up with 80 year-centric lists of movies to see.

2008’s list reads as such: The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, Slumdog Millionaire, The Dark Knight, Milk, Wall-E, Frost/Nixon, The Reader, Doubt, Revolutionary Road, The Wrestler, Frozen River, Changeling, Wanted, The Duchess, Man on Wire, The Class, In Bruges, Encounters at the End of the World, Kung Fu Panda, The Garden, Trouble the Water, Tropic Thunder, The Visitor, Vicki Christina Barcelona, Rachel Getting Married, Revanche, Departures, Australia, The Baader Meinhof Complex, The Betrayal, and Waltz With Bashir.

Nothing to hate on in that list, really. Unless you wanna get nitpicky and say that the three best movies of 2008: The Fall, Synecdoche NY and Wendy and Lucy—are nowhere to be seen on it. But I expected that to happen a LOOONG time ago.

Also, as far as respecting the audience and the box office. I say huzzah to the guy who previously wrote: “They do that already. It’s called The People’s Choice Awards. Watch that and get your fill.” Perfectly said.

Listen, the Academy routinely gives awards to huge blockbusters. Lord of the Rings, Chicago, Gladiator, Dances With Wolves, Braveheart, Crash, Titanic, Forrest Gump, American Beauty, The Silence of the Lambs, Driving Miss Daisy, The English Patient, and on and on we go. Like these movie or not, one thing CANNOT be denied: They each made serious bank at the B.O. BEFORE they were even nominated for their Oscars. So don’t gimme this cryin’ bullcrap about “the academy don’t like us awdience members—wahhh!!!” If you want my opinion, they need to start nominating some movies that made less than a MILLION at the boxoffice—oh, say, movies LIKE The Fall, Synecdoche NY, Wendy and Lucy and, yes, Happy-Go-Lucky and Let The Right One In. But hey, I know that ain’t (always) gonna happen (though it does happen to a few films each year). Yet you don’t see me stompin’ around all mad about it. I grew up a long time ago, and have learned to take joy in the simple existence of these movies. And, maybe, just maybe, I should be thankful they don’t win big awards: this way, they somehow seem like my very own finds. They’re more special that way.

Finally, I would submit that the way to salve any wounds you might have over TDK not being nominated for more than 8 awards, and Wall-E not being nominated for more than 5…is to stop paying attention to the Oscars alltogether. Believe me, they will not miss you, and will keep going on.

The main problem is there are no great movies this year. We could talk all night long (and more) about the dubious merits of The Reader or Benjamin Button, but in the end, the Oscars aren’t really there to please moviegoers. There’s obviously a lot of negativty surrounding TDK, because it’s the kind of film that draws crowds who end up putting it in the top ten of all time on IMDB and so forth, and that’s a thing you have to dislike if you feel that movies are about more than what TDK offers. However, this does not mean that in comparison to other films this year, TDK does not stand out.

I guess it would have been suited to give Nolan a best director nod, given that putting TDK on the “Best Picture” list seems unsuited. But then again, seeing a pile of utter mediocrity in the two films I just mentioned above (especially The Reader), I can only feel that TDK would’ve raised both profile and quality of that category. If anything, The Reader and Benjaming Button are the ones which should’ve only raked in “technical” and acting nominations.

I debated whether to rise to the bait of such a stupid comment as “Oh, certainly seems yer stompin’ mad about somethin’” That’s the level of response I would expect from people who might have a problem with what I am mad about: the mass love for a mediocre superhero movie that, save for one performance, is no better than the vast majority of other film denizens of that dull and bankrupt genre.