Podcast Nom Reactions Pt 1: Snubs, Squeals, Questions
Sunday, January 20, 2013 at 8:00PM 
A couple of days after the Oscar Nominations, I rang up Joe Reid, Katey Rich and Nick Davis to discuss the Academy's big reveal. In pt 1 of this hour long conversation we discuss:
1) The snubs that hurt us most.
2) The moments that made us squeal with delight.
3) Reader Questions. Thank you to the handful of people who were brave enough to ask them.
Pt 1 is mostly focused on the "big eight": Picture (Amour & Beasts of the Southern Wild !), Director (Benh Zeitlin - yes!, Ben Affleck -???), Actress, Actor, Supporting Actress (Amy Adams & Jacki Weaver mostly), Supporting Actor, and the Screenplays.
But high profile categories aside the masterful but snubbed Animated Short The Eagleman Stag gets a shout-out. And I promised I'd link up to it in this post, so here ya go. Watch it!
The Eagleman Stag. Absolutely brilliant. Unfortunately snubbed.
You can download the podcast on iTunes or listen right here at the bottom of the post.
Reader Comments (33)
JOE: Thank you for the Naomi Watts mention, who I thought was really great in her movie. And I'm also debating with myself about how much Zeitlin gets credit for Wallis' performance.
NICK: your comment on Wallis ALMOST convinced me about giving her more due than I've given her but I'm still skeptical about putting in her in my personal ballot.
BOTH: LOVED your conversation about The Hours. Thank you for it.
Nick - thanks for the eloquent defence of Wallis. With many nayasers on her nomination it's nice to see somebody defend her worthy acting.
The car is definitely Jackie Weaver's Oscar scene and the reason she was nominated. It's that and the hit scene.
While watching Silver Linings Playbook and I was so excited that she had that great big scene at the start of the film. Then she had nothing besides standing in the kitchen and fighting against family fighting. She would easily make my own line-up if she had more to do. That car scene is spectacular. It's enough to make me hope that the Stoker trailer is really misleading and Weaver is the actual lead in the film.
Regarding Quvenzhane Wallis, I loved her when she actually had things to do onscreen. Not so much when it was voice over. The "beast it" scene, in particular, is one of my favorite film moments of the year. She commands it. I also really like the cooking scene and the running to get the teacher scene. I feel like she was really engaged in what she was doing, but the voice over added on a whole lot of intention that she didn't show on set.
In regards to the Amy Adams thing, she has a potentially great narrative for next year. Big blockbuster (Superman), big art house pic (Her), probable best picture player (Untitled O. Russell film w/ a bunch of other nominated actors). I wouldn't have a problem now predicting a nomination for the O. Russell pic, and if she gets the nomination, a win for her 5th wouldn't be a long shot.
Clearly, this is a bunch of speculation, but right now it looks like her drying up on the Oscar front after The Master is hopeful thinking for some.
YOU GUUUYS! I love you too! And the synchronization was perfect!
So great when I wake up and a new podcast is up. Or when a new podcast is up in general!
Poor Marion Cotillard, no mention about her snub aha. I kept waiting for her name to come up and it didn't.
Whether one thinks she deserved to be nominated or left out, I can't help but always feel bad for the ones that got literally every precursor nomination and then miss out on Oscar. It just must stink. I'd rather miss a few here and there, have a good chance, but miss out, than getting nominated for everything and missing out on Oscar. I especially feel bad because Marion is such a talented actress and deserved to be nominated a few times in the past years after her win, which is really saying something since she randomly won the Oscar for a french language film and no one knew her, and she became a big Hollywood name. Not only that, but she really committed to great roles and projects. I mean, I never saw Midnight and Paris and I fell asleep during Inception and never actually watched it, but I thought she definitely deserved a nomination for Nine. Hands down the best performance in that film. So even though I haven't seen Rust and Bone, I was happy for her.
Sorry for the unexpectedly long rant, haha. She's just really gorgeous and sweet and talented. And even though we have the age thing going with Emanuelle and Quevanhane, the two foreign language performances would've be nearly as interesting.
I'm so grateful for having these podcasts throughout the season. It's such a treat for Oscar geeks like me.
Nick, I'm with @murtada. Of the five performances that are nominated, I think Wallis's Hushpuppy is the one that will be talked about in 30 years time, and isn't that the kind of thing that should be awarded? I'm glad to see other people speak up for her.
And oh man. I just saw Flight yesterday, and my god. Who voted for that script???
He means "Omissions That Hurt Us Most," and also "Non-Nominees, Squeals, Questions." He wouldn't lure me into a podcast and then just fling the S-word around willy-nilly. HE WOULDN'T.
Team Qu'venzhané is meeting in my house this week to organize. See y'all there!
@Philip: I was pretty disappointed about Marion too. I screamed at Riva and Wallis, but I reallllllly wanted Marion to sneak in there too. I can't think of a single actor who would read that character the way that she did. It could have been such a disaster at every turn, and she just totally avoided the actorly potholes that were all over that script and gave a really interesting performance. Seemingly against all odds lol.
Oh and I've said it before, but I'll say it again: after Junebug I'd forgive Amy Adams anything. She could make a million Leap Years for the rest of her career and I'd still love her. And The Master ain't no Leap Year. On The Road on the other hand...
He means "Omissions That Hurt Us Most," and also "Non-Nominees, Squeals, Questions." He wouldn't lure me into a podcast and then just fling the S-word around willy-nilly. HE WOULDN'T.
Team Qu'venzhané is meeting in my house this week to organize. See y'all there!
Jean-Louis Trintignant was a huge Oscar snub. As great as Riva was in Amour, I felt it was Trintignant who really carried the movie. He looked absolutely shell-shocked by the end of the film.
I am not as impressed with Wallis's performance as everyone else is. But then I'm not as crazy about Beasts as everyone else is.
I agree about Trintignant. His performance was even better than Riva's in Amour.
I really don't think Arkin, Weaver, or DeNiro should have been nominated. Or Phoenix but then I hated most of The Master.
***Total sense of humour failure alert***
The Sophie Okonedo joke is actually kind of bugging me - it seems weirdly myopic and U.S.-centric. Okonedo has worked plenty since Hotel Rwanda, and in stuff that has garnered a fair amount of attention in the UK and elsewhere. Why is getting cast as second lead of a U.S. TV show necessarily any better than appearing in a prestige Australian miniseries or playing Winnie Mandela? Why is that the measure of acceptable success?
Insert boilerplate rant about the problems black actresses face in the film industry, the sad fate of Kerry Washington (Scandal is the worst...), American cultural hegemony, and the 'talent drain' to Hollywood here.
I mean, christ, why don't we all make fun of Shoreh Aghdashloo too?
***Sense of humour failure contained***
I totally agree with Nick about Wallis - the problem with talking about how much of that performance is the director's is that it neglects how much a director's input and technique can inform an adult performance too. Trying to apportion out agency seems basically impossible, without being privy to the actual process, which none of us were. Ultimately, you can only judge what ends up on screen.
Amy Adams is actually my favourite out of what seems to me like a bizarrely weak field of nominees, although I haven't seen 'The Sessions' yet. Appropriately runic and severe, serving the tone of the film, and intriguing-ish. Field is fine and sporadically fun, Weaver is gently functional but given nothing to do, and Hathaway... well, this is Nathaniel's site, so I'm just going to leave it there.
I wanted to give some props to Joe for remembering how awful the nominations announcement was! Really unfunny, and made me hate Emma Stone for the 20 minutes it took, maybe longer.
-Omissions that hurt the most: Trintignant, Weisz, Hawkes and Cotillard. So quite a few again.
-Delighted with Riva and Haneke.
I believe Amy Adams deserves her four Oscar nominations way more than Marsha Mason ever did. "Chapter Two" and "Only when I Laugh" were fillers. Are we really going to blame Amy for choosing good material?
Do not dump on Marsha she was deserving in 79 for Promises in the Dark instead but i would say she is the best of 81's bunch,the film that surrounds is no classic but her and her supporting players are.
I really think she underplayed a great female character back in 81.
I also let out a big YES (plus fistpump) when they said Riva. Now if everyone watches it she could win.
I'm confused. If you're acknowledging at the start that you are willfully not having a sense of humor about an exchange that was meant in fun, then why even continue?
Hi Mark, thank you so much for reaffirming Marsha's great talent. She IS one of the most misunderstood actresses ever, and criminally underappreciated. Her performance in Promises In the Dark is a beautifully delicate reverie. In Only When I Laugh, she dazzles as a woman tap- dancing on the brink, and this raw tour-de-force should have won the Oscar. She deserved a much greater career but sadly never got the right opportunities.
I think Mason's really good in Only When I Laugh, too.
@Laika: Point totally taken, and if that's what you've been hearing, thanks for speaking up. Okonedo lingers for me as an almost pure form of the nominated-for-playing-a-supportive-wife trope, with almost no precursor support and no real click with mainstream audiences; her post-Oscar career has been, for better and worse, almost exactly the same as her pre-Oscar career in many respects. For all those reasons, the joke is really meang to be more about AMPAS peccadilloes and Hollywood fickleness than about Okonedo herself. I think she's a good actress, but these are the reasons she stands out to me as a kind of paradigmatic Oscar anomaly. I'd happily make Penelope Milford jokes, etc., if I thought people knew who I was talking about. But if the running allusions carry meaner or more arrogant undertones for some listeners than I've intended, I'll totally bear that in mind. Thanks!
@All the Trintignant supporters: at least as I recall (??), your concerns will be shared in Part 2 of this convo...
P.S. @Laika: Just to be clear, pursuant to your point about Hollywood-centrism: even before her Oscar nod, Okonedo was pulling down interesting work abroad and not-so-hot parts from U.S. studios, and both trends have continued from my POV. I don't want to sound as though I'm ignoring or contesting your observation that she has indeed been impressive and semi-stably employed since '04, as Dirty Pretty Things and other early successes would have augured.
@Nick -
Thanks for such a considered response to such a crotchety post, particularly re: missing the point. My response was probably fuelled as much by a more general sense of the way some creative folk are basically considered dead once they drop off certain critical radar or switch media when it ain't necessarily so. As to how people are hearing it, I'm sure I'm in a minority of one!
@Joe Reid -
So people can skip it if they're not in the mood, y'know? Good manners.
LEAVE AMY ADAMS ALONE!
Kidding, sort of. I wish that we could post images here. We need that crazy Britney guy as a gif. right about now.
I think Amy Adams earned all four of her Oscar nominations (even the big, bad "Doubt" one), so I'm perfectly fine with her entering the upper echelon of Oscar-nominated actors. "The Master" is also my favorite film of 2012, so I was over the moon for its three acting nods and dismayed over its double snub for Paul Thomas Anderson (I knew BP was out of reach). It's not her fault that she keeps getting nominated, outside of her general awesomeness. And if I had my way, she'd already be at five nods (she was robbed for "Enchanted"). I guess I'm entering fanboy territory here, but whatever. She doesn't deserve to be labeled as "the next Marsha Mason." As for wins, I could see it happening one of these days. Wasn't she getting one of those Janis Joplin biopics or something? In that case, those supporting nods could propel her to that baity, deglammed lead actress win. I don't think she's entered also-ran territory yet. Her window is narrowing, but as long as she doesn't take an extended break and continues to be nominated, she should be okay. I'd agree that a better gauge of Academy respect is through the nominations, not wins (at least single wins; if you win two or more Oscars, I think it's safe to say that voters really like you).
Team Quvenzhane!
Thank you @ Nick Davis! At least someone can rightfully articulate how brilliant Wallis's performance was in "Beasts of the Southern Wild" as a naturalistic force and not simply reduce it to the director's puppet strings. She's my personal pick to win the Oscar out of the five nominees. I know that I'd swap Naomi Watts for Marion Cotillard though. It's sad that I don't know someone like you in my "real life."
Though she put on a brave face and gave it an amazing try, Adams finally and simply could not overcome her egregious miscasting in The Master. But in her defense, I don't know if any actress, no matter how talented, could have pulled off that part as it was written. Problematic doesn't begin to describe that character.
Leave me alone! My striptease scene was brilliant.
Thanks for using my question, Nathaniel. I am that Evan indeed. Proud TFE follower.
Also, I've now watched The Eagleman Stag and am trying to access "Professor Davis"'s blog (which seems to be down at the moment) to figure out what the hell happened in the ending. But I'm intrigued and excited to "let it settle." Thanks for the recommendation.
Nick, bring on the Penelope Milford jokes. Please. I still make Kathleen Quinlan jokes. It's all in good fun. These ladies will all be fine.
Having finally watched Zero Dark Thirty I really wish I could get behind a Jessica Chastain win for any other reason than rewarding Chastain for her body of work thus far. I'm sadly with Nick on this one where I was cooler on the movie than I ever thought I would be and much cooler on Jessica Chastain's performance. It sort of reminds me of what Nick said about Elizabeth Olsen last year (even if I disagreed in that case), where I just felt like her character was incredibly blank. Even in a movie that requires her to be somewhat blank, it's too far beyond what the movie needs. In a negative way, it reminded me of what I liked so much about Tilda Swinton's work in Michael Clayton. I think it's possible to play a character who is essentially his/her job and all about "the mission" while still telling us something about who that person is. It seems like a weird comparison, but don't really see Swinton interacting with anyone other than people in her professional life in that movie. And with even less screentime, it seems there's at least a dozen key things you learn about her that have nothing to do explicitly with her job. Conversely, Chastain's approach to underplaying Maya just felt really inconsistent to me, which drove me crazy. It feels like 1/2 of a good performance and I can't imagine voting for it, I'm sad to report.
I'm with Joe in that I'd vote for Lawrence over Chastain if choosing between the two. Riva is just a million light years ahead all of these other performances that I'd definitely mark her down on my ballot, with Quvenzhane in second place. If it is indeed a contest between Chastain and Lawrence, it kind of reminds me of the year that Paltrow won. It seems that the approved, classy opinion was that Blanchett (Chastain) was being robbed and Paltrow (Lawrence) was about to coast to an easy victory for charming, if not necessarily challenging work. I'm torn because, like in '98, I don't happen to agree that the "classier" choice is actually the better performance and yet I'm not over-the-moon about either of them. At least right now, it doesn't feel to me like anyone else, including Riva, can win.
@Pretentious: It is very affirming to have you in my camp on Chastain! And I'll return the favor by saying I absolutely agree about the Paltrow/Blanchett comparison here, both in how apt it is for Lawrence/Chastain and in my shared sense that they should not have advanced so easily to the front of the '98 pack. (And of course you had me with the Chastain/Swinton comparison. Brilliant!)
@Pretentious: It is very affirming to have you in my camp on Chastain! And I'll return the favor by saying I absolutely agree about the Paltrow/Blanchett comparison here, both in how apt it is for Lawrence/Chastain and in my shared sense that they should not have advanced so easily to the front of the '98 pack. (And of course you had me with the Chastain/Swinton comparison. Brilliant!)
@Pretentious: It is very affirming to have you in my camp on Chastain! And I'll return the favor by saying I absolutely agree about the Paltrow/Blanchett comparison here, both in how apt it is for Lawrence/Chastain and in my shared sense that they should not have advanced so easily to the front of the '98 pack. (And of course you had me with the Chastain/Swinton comparison. Brilliant!)