"Perhaps Margot Robbie in a Bubble Bath Could Explain This One To Me"
Friday, January 15, 2016 at 12:17PM 
Now that we've had 24 hours to process the Oscar nominations I polled Team Experience for one last Oscar Nomination reaction roundup. Which nomination did each of our contributors find most mystifying? Here are their answers which amused me so I hope you feel the same.
Please bear in mind that these items do not necessarily reflect the opinions of the management. We each have our pet peeves and our "achievements" we just can't with. Share your headscratchers with us in the comments. What's still antagonizing you this morning a full 24 hours after getting used to it as an "Academy Award Nominee"
Individual targets after the jump...
"Writing's on the Wall" - Original Song
Some notes on the James Bond theme songs:
-"Goldfinger": Shirley Bassey purrs her way through a sexually charged tribute to a dangerous man, ending one one of the all-time great sustained belted notes. Result: no Oscar nomination.
- "Thunderball": Tom Jones uses raw dramatic passion to blast through goofy lyrics, and ends on a sustained note so great that he fainted at the end of it. Result: no Oscar nomination.
-"You Only Live Twice": Nancy Sinatra beatifically croons against the subtly melancholic backdrop of a tentative, sweet romantic melody. Result: no Oscar nomination.
-"GoldenEye": Tina Turner oozes sensuality and predatory menace in a hard-edged, smoky R&B number. Result: no Oscar nomination.
-"Writing's on the Wall": Sam Smith bleakly sings like frozen corpse in a sexless retread of "Skyfall" that attempts to rhyme "blood" with "up". Result: Oscar nomination. - Tim Brayton
The Revenant Nomination Tally
The most for any film? I found it to be excruciatingly unbearable, a slog to get through. Nothing was gonna stop the "overdue" train for Leo's journey to his inevitable Best Actor win (can't we wait for a performance that's actually worthy?), but I didn't expect all the craft categories to join him as well. Particularly in Production Design (so...trees? Waterfalls? Are you nominating nature?) and Costume Design which was just mangy furs, the dead animals themselves did all the work already! (Oh, and have you heard that Leo almost died while filming this?! RAW BISON LIVER!) - Abstew
Robert Richardson, The Hateful Eight - Cinematography
I had really planned to stop talking about The Hateful Eight but this nomination in particular is too perplexing to ignore. Well, no. Perplexing isn't the right word. I know why he was nominated... but it doesn't mean I think it's okay. Oscar's cinematographer's branch has had a boner for Robert Richardson for ages and ages. But this, his 9th nomination, is galling both because he's been so excessively rewarded already (3 wins) and because this is hardly among his strongest films. I understand having perennial favorites but how could they look at the physical grotty energy of Maryse Alberti's work on Creed, or the iPhone ingenuity of Sean Baker and Radium Cheng on Tangerine, or the theatrical precision of Alwin Kulcher's Steve Jobs work or Rob Hardy's moody reflective gorgeous eye for Ex Machina, or [insert several other options] and think... "Nahhhh, let's go with Richardson for a ninth time!" Their field this year is composed of legends who have an average of 7 nominations each but given the creative wonders bursting from this artform in the past few years, and the blazingly new talents popping up all over the place hey really need to start looking towards the next generation and stop patting each other on the back. -Nathaniel R
Bryan Cranston, Trumbo - Best Actor
I’ve yet to hear one salient explanation for why Bryan Cranston’s chewable performance in Trumbo is winning any attention, let alone that of AMPAS. Can anyone help me out? At least Helen Mirren was left out in the cold. Cranston’s late career ascendence to an industry giant was heartening to see, but it’s been soured with his first film awards notices coming down the pipe for the ripe mess of Trumbo. Cranston’s lips are perpetually, excessively out of alignment as he drawls every gruesome line, his facial muscles pulling double time. It’s a grotesquely mannered performance that I feel bad for anyone suffering through as a result of this bewildering nomination. - David Upton
Adam McKay & Lenny Abrahamson - Best Director
Remember 2012 when the Directors Branch brushed off Ben Affleck, Tom Hooper, and Quentin Tarantino for Michael Haneke and — even more unexpectedly — Benh Zeitlin? What the fuck happened? Clearly, this adventurous spirit was a fluke because between Morten “Beelzebub” Tyldum last year and Abrahamson and McKay now, this branch is looking increasingly like the stick-in-the-mud old geezers’ club that everyone suggests they are. What’s weird is that I don’t actually think The Big Short or Room are remotely bad movies, but this is in large part due to the efforts of key, hardworking actors like Christian Bale, Steve Carell, and Brie Larson, who would’ve impressed in these movies regardless of the director. The Big Short is the world’s most enjoyable live-action BuzzFeed listicle, not so much directed as set up for eventual editing and its tricky blend of alpha male slyness and late-act sobriety only registers because its well-cast ensemble is so generally comfortable with improvisation. Similarly, it’s because of Larson and only Larson that the emotional wallops of Room’s best passages manage to even somewhat land. She rescues the film from some dubiously glassy filmmaking through the inherent warmth of her playing and effectively directs young, green Jacob Tremblay more than Abrahamson ever bothers to.
Alejandro González Iñárritu could very well be included amongst these gripes and The Revenant is certainly an unduly arrogant mess. But at least Iñárritu is attempting something on a grand-scale level, however woefully misbegotten. His ambition may bespeak uneven, even unsavory ideas about the future of cinema, but at least he’s got the future on the brain. He clearly wants to push cinema forward and I can admire that way more than McKay’s patchwork PowerPoint and Abrahamson’s unexceptional safe-playing. - Matthew Eng
Best Picture - The Big Short
I understand that the passion for this film is in part driven by the anger it incites. However, I don't get how so many adore a film that so actively condescends to the audience - even outside of the witless bubble bath, gambling asides. With shoddy construction and a bland cacophony of an ensemble, it's an eye and ear sore that never aligns with its admirable intentions. Yikes. - Chris Feil
Reader Comments (60)
I don't mind the Rachel McAdams nod. As people have stated before, she is playing an investigator, which means that for most of the movie she is actively listening. She scene with the victim after the investigation stalls is her best scene. She comes off as very empathetic. After the movie, I watched some clips of the actual Sasha and she seems like a professional low key woman. Not a lot of bombast or pageantry. However, her scene with Ruffalo confessing that she can't go to church anymore was a weak part. But that might be due to Ruffalo overacting that scene.
Best Pic - All are expected, wat I cant fathom since they can nom up to 10, why not incl Carol??
Best Dir - I'm ok w Abrahamson (a nice surprise!) but McKay??!! He took the Haynes spot!!
Best Actor - sooooooo boring, I hope Fassbender will & upset every pundits!! Lol
Best Actress - JLaw, the most powerful young actress in Hollywood now scored a nom despite being in a blah movie (I tink the voters really really LUV her!!)
Best Supp Actor - Hardy (why this movie, when he's betta in so many others this yr?? is this a conso prize for sorry to miss u out at best actor, but hey here's a conso???) tink Elba is the one who got nom in the big three but missed out at Oscar, they shld go w Elba or Dano for this spot
Best Supp Actress - Winslet will win this if NOT for cat fraud....I wonder how Mara or Vikander will feel IF they win in this cat?? lol
Best adapted screenplay - Gr8 to see Carol, Room & Brooklyn up thr, but why the snub o Sorkins?? Steve Jobs' razor sharp dialogues dun write itself u kno
& Crimson Peak missing Production Designs, Cinematography & Costume is juz sooooooooo ahhhhhhh (esp when u know they are replaced by pic like The Martian & The Revenant)
Watched Spotlight again today, and while I see why they were more impressed with Mark Ruffalo (it's a "bigger" performance if you will), I wish that spot had gone to Michael Keaton (or maybe he should have gone Lead and taken either Cranston or Redmayne's spots). With this and Birdman last year, I'm really loving this late-career surge by this terrific actor (who never really left, but wasn't really much in the spotlight until now, no pun intended) and his Robby feels like the clearest emotional anchor for McCarthy's humanistic touch.
Now, the nomination I can't understand is Eddie Redmayne. On paper, yes, but how can anyone see that film and feel that Redmayne is doing anything award-worthy? He plays one or two notes the entire movie and neither of those notes is "I feel good as a woman". That film only works when Alicia Vikander is on screen (though I think she was miles better in Ex Machina).
I'm also not too happy with the Straight Outta Compton Original Screenplay nomination, since a lot of my problems with the movie stem from a structure tries to blend what's unique about it with a formula where it simply doesn't fit (imagine how much more interesting that film could have been if it hadn't eventually gotten caught in the "musical biopic that puts its subject on a pedestal" formula). Also, with The Revenant and Mad Max hogging two spots in every non-musical below-the-line category, not a lot of films got nominations, which is a shame...
Still happy about a lot of things, though...
I must admit that I find the Abrahamson debate interesting to read, since I'm surprisingly indifferent to his nomination. But that's because I believe that Room was doomed from the get-go, beginning with source material that centered around the most laughable escape ever presented in any media. And that was only the beginning.
Along came an author/screenwriter who couldn't make up her mind if she should discard or retain her female protagonist's more questionable side. Next in line was an ensemble consisting of an okay but nothing more child actor, wasted stars and, worst of all, a lead actress who couldn't find anything in her character outside of the trauma. And how much of this is really Abrahamson's fault?
Hm, I do think the director is fully to blame for the film's inability to convey Jack's point of view. But unlike Larson, Abrahamson at least won't win the award he's nominated for.
As for the mystifying, my jaw still drops when I take a look at the crack in Best Actress: three performances THAT great - and the two Joys. What on...?
I think Bryan Cranston is an okay nomination.
Trumbo is an entertaining film, about an important Hollywood subject, and Cranston brings a good actor's skills to it.
1) He creates a believable character, with understandable motivations and contradictions.
2) He has a good rapport with his fellow actors, different with each person he acts with. Serious with Louis CK, keeping pace with John Goodman's roistering comedy, looking like a normal person with Diane Lane. Listening to others.
3) He has excellent timing and pacing. One thing that makes the film entertaining is its brisk pace. Cranston keeps up the energy and pace, he is not indulgent.
Compare that with some other star turns this year, where you don't quite believe the characters, the film drags, long portentous pauses and indulgent improvisation, grandstanding rather than acting with others, and only acting with other men, not women and certainly not girls.
I am very unhappy over the Carol and Todd Haynes snub , plus the category frauds. But Rachel Mcadams' nominations piques my already burgeoning interest in Spotlight l. I am curious about her performance regardless of what people say. The movie is opening next week in my country so quite psyched to watch it!
Abit sad that Star Wars didn get in for best pic.
God, The Revenant for best production design is the worst. Also, costume design. Star Wars could have gotten that, or Room for production design. So bizarre.
Just getting around to reading this post and comments. I'm so perplexed at all the hand-wringing over ROOM and Lenny Abrahamson's nom in particular. To me that was one of the most pleasant surprises on Oscar nom morning, but it's interesting to hear other's thoughts.
But yes, glad we can all agree on Sam Smith's ridiculous nomination for that godawful song. Somehow I blame Adele for this. Not really, but maybe a little.
Never blame Adele!
LOL PAUL. unfortunately i think we must here. There's no other reason since historical Oscar voters don't like James Bond songs. They must still be humming "Skyfall" to get Sam Smith nominated.