Mathy

This year’s Oscar nominations have been announced. A very selected list of nominations and my raving and ranting appears below.

Best Picture
# Babel
# The Departed
# Letters from Iwo Jima
# Little Miss Sunshine
# The Queen

Pretty much what’s expected. The only change has been ‘Little Miss Sunshine’ instead of ‘Little Children’.

Best Actor
# Leonardo DiCaprio, Blood Diamond
# Ryan Gosling, Half Nelson
# Peter O’Toole, Venus
# Will Smith, The Pursuit of Happyness
# Forest Whitaker, The Last King of Scotland

This category is very disappointing. First I did not expect to see Will Smith here for his movie ‘The Pursuit of Happyness’. I havent seen that sappy movie yet. Might watch it one of these days after the DVD comes out, if any friend is particularly interested. Watching that sappy movie is enough on my part. But, an Oscar nomation? PLEASEEEEEE! :gag:

Another major disappointment here is ‘Blood Diamond’. Dont mistake me. I like that movie. But, not like ‘The Departed’. I dont know what’s going on.

Half Nelson: I had been regretting the fact that I missed out this movie. But, now I can get it from the video stores, especially because of this nomination.

Eagerly waiting for ‘Forest Whitaker’s The Last King of Scotland’. Just last week caught Omar Sheriff in ‘Monsieur Ibrahim’ and thought of Peter O’Toole and ‘Lawrence of Arabia’.

Best Actress
# Penelope Cruz, Volver
# Judi Dench, Notes on a Scandal
# Helen Mirren, The Queen
# Meryl Streep, The Devil Wears Prada
# Kate Winslet, Little Children

I love all the actresses who’ve been nominated this year. Haven’t watched any movies yet, though. I dont know if I will ever watch ‘The Devil Wears Prada’. But, you never know.

Best Supporting Actor
# Alan Arkin, Little Miss Sunshine
# Jackie Earle Haley, Little Children
# Djimon Hounsou, Blood Diamond
# Eddie Murphy, Dreamgirls
# Mark Wahlberg, The Departed

No surprises here. No disappointments either.

Best Supporting Actress
# Adriana Barraza, Babel
# Cate Blanchett, Notes on a Scandal
# Abigail Breslin, Little Miss Sunshine
# Jennifer Hudson, Dreamgirls
# Rinko Kikuchi, Babel

I love love Cate Blanchett. I might write a post about her one of these days. Have been thinking about it for quite sometime now. I am quite happy to see Abigail Breslin here for ‘Little Miss Sunshine’. I loved her in Manoj Shyamalan’s ‘Signs’.

Having said all that. I am pretty sure Jennifer Hudson would win the Oscar for ‘Dreamgirls’. And I for one would be rooting for her.

Best Director
# Alejandro Gonz??lez I????rritu, Babel
# Martin Scorsese, The Departed
# Clint Eastwood, Letters from Iwo Jima
# Stephen Frears, The Queen
# Paul Greengrass, United 93

Usual Suspects. My favourite suspects at that. Only surprise here (for me) is Paul Greengrass for ‘United 93′.

Best Original Screenplay
# Babel
# Letters from Iwo Jima
# Little Miss Sunshine
# Pan’s Labyrinth
# The Queen

‘Pan Labyrinth’ was released here last Friday. Have been thinking of going for this movie. Only hurdle is that it is released in the most expensive theater in town.

Only surpise addtion here is ‘Little Miss Sunshine’. Would have expected ‘Little Children’ here. hmm..

Best Adapted Screenplay
# Borat
# Children of Men
# The Departed
# Little Children
# Notes on a Scandal

No surprises here.

Foreign Language Film
# After the Wedding
# Days of Glory
# The Lives of Others
# Pan’s Labyrinth
# Water

Havent seen any of these movies. Canadian entry ‘Water’ has been selected. CBC just broadcasted a song from Water, to celebrate the inclusion of ‘Water’ in the Oscar race.

Animated Feature
# Cars
# Happy Feet
# Monster House

Have heard a lot about ‘Happy Feet’. My young relatives still talk about the movie. In this environmentally conscious atmosphere, the odds in favourite is ‘Happy Feet’ (I think).

Music (Score)
# Babel
# The Good German
# Notes on a Scandal
# Pan’s Labyrinth
# The Queen

Quite surprised to see ‘The Good German’ here. As I havent seen any movies nominated in this category yet. I am curious if any of the musical scores would capture my attention.

Music (Song)
# “I Need to Wake Up” – An Inconvenient Truth
# “Listen” – Dreamgirls
# “Love You I Do” – Dreamgirls
# “Our Town” – Cars
# “Patience” – Dreamgirls

Dreamgirls has been nominated following the paths of ‘Moulain Rouge’ and ‘Chicago’. The songs I’ve heard so far are pretty good. Only disappointment here would be A.R.Rahman not being nominated. Especially because there’s been a pretty loud buzz about him getting nominated not for one or two but THREE movie collaborations. Well, tomorrow is another day.

Last year I was so eager to watch the Oscar telecast. Reason? Host Jon Stewart. For all my enthusiasm, all I got was this HUGE lump of disappointment and $%$*.

Art Buchwald made us fight for the Sunday edition of Hindu. His hilarious style was a bit difficult to understand in the beginning, to a girl from Sri Lanka who was able to barely read and comprehend English. But as the years went by, Art Buchwald became one of my favourite columnists. I was deeply saddened to learn that Art passed away yesterday.

His Washington Times columns could be read here: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/style/columns/buchwaldart/

Art Buchwald’s TIME magazine interview: http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1205371,00.html

To learn more about the man and his art: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Art_Buchwald

Here are a few famous quotes of his:

I worship the quicksand he walks in (of Richard Nixon)

If you attack the establishment long enough and hard enough, they will make you a member of it

Every time you think television has hit its lowest ebb, a new programme comes along to make you wonder where you thought the ebb was

Just when you think there’s nothing to write about, Nixon says, “I am not a crook.” Jimmy Carter says, “I have lusted after women in my heart.” President Reagan says, “I have just taken a urinalysis test, and I am not on dope”

People are broad-minded. They’ll accept the fact that a person can be an alcoholic, a dope fiend, a wife beater and even a newspaperman, but if a man doesn’t drive, there’s something wrong with him

You can’t make up anything anymore. The world itself is a satire. All you’re doing is recording it