Every year at the end of January on a Tuesday, I suffer through a few minutes of Good Morning America and eagerly await the announcement of the Academy Award nominations.
Yesterday morning, that day came, and once again, I don't know why I even bother.
The nominees for the 2005 Academy Awards, the mediocre The Aviator leading with 11 nominations, sadly prove once again that bigger is better and true award-worthy work hardly makes it to the final five.
The Best Picture category is never one for surprises. The three clear frontrunners, The Aviator
Million Dollar Baby and Sideways took their predicted slots, while Finding Neverland and Ray filled in the final two.
In a year where strong, complex true stories like Kinsey and Friday Night Lights challenged moviegoers and succeeded artistically, we're stuck with three films based in fact that are maudlin (Neverland), an overblown mess (Aviator) and lacking despite a strong lead performance (Ray).
Sideways is the obligatory independent-film nomination in which the Academy tries to prove they honor small films too, but what about Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind or Before Sunset two immensely moving love stories free of Sideways' smugness?
In the Best Director race, the clear frontrunner is Martin Scorsese for The Aviator. Why? Here is the man who created Goodfellas Raging Bull and even the underrated Gangs of New York
and he may receive his first win for a movie that is hardly indicative of his talent.
Why not take a few risks in the director category? Mike Nichols deserved a nom for his brutal masterpiece, Closer
and the Academy should have had the guts to recognize Mel Gibson for The Passion of the Christ. But it is a powerful, expertly crafted film that focuses on religion... and we wouldn't want that.
The Academy knows how to get a few of them right, though, as evidenced in an expected nod for Jamie Foxx's dynamic portrayal in Ray
Kate Winslet's wacky turn in Eternal Sunshine
Annette Bening's glorious diva in Being Julia and Virginia Madsen's compassionate divorcee in Sideways.
Alan Alda's supporting nomination for The Aviator was a surprise, but he's the one man in the movie who deserved it.
Alas, too many movies and stars are left nom-less. Quentin Tarantino's great Kill Bill saga has been snubbed a second and final time, robbing Uma Thurman and David Carradine of nominations they deeply deserved. Jim Carrey sadly was passed over for his greatest performance yet in Eternal Sunshine
and up-and-coming actors like Rory Culkin (Mean Creek) and Lucas Black (Friday Night Lights) still are living in oblivion.
Of course, as much as it is enjoyable to whine about who got robbed, it is important to realize what the Academy Awards really are a big show where it's the campaign, not the performance, that matters. Oscar nominations might look like a big deal -and they are, to a film's gross -but craft and artistry aren't important enough.
Maybe a lack of a nomination for those who gave truly great performances and those truly great films isn't such a bad thing after all. As my roommate, an aspiring director, said last year, If my movie won Best Picture
I'd probably wonder how good it really was.
-Matt Burns, a sophomore journalism major, is The Post's Campus Senior Writer. Send him
an e-mail at matthew.burns@ohiou.edu.
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