Academy Award Nominations

I love it when the nominations come out. First a friend of mine does an Oscar pool which is always good fun. It's not so much good fun because of the picks, it's good fun because everyone always lists why they chose the way they did. Given that a large percentage of the participants (around 50 people or so) are comedians, the responses are always a treat. The winner of the pool gets a whole bunch of homemade chocolate chip cookies. The only bummer of the whole thing is that Jon doesn't actually release the results of the pool until the day of the next year's Oscar nominees are announced.

I found out today that I came in tied for second with 16 correct answers. The winner got 18. So close! I did very well, though. Some of my incredibly witty answers were:

BEST VISUAL EFFECTS
“The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe” Because C.S. Lewis was a Christian.

BEST COSTUME DESIGN
“Memoirs of a Geisha” Because a Chinese chick playing a Japanese chick could only be the result of good costume design.

BEST DOCUMENTARY FEATURE
“March of the Penguins” Tie: Because everyone is sick of political documentaries, and because penguins wear little tuxedos.

BEST ART DIRECTION
“Memoirs of a Geisha”. Because a Chinese chick playing a Japanese chick could only be the result of good art direction.

BEST FOREIGN LANGUAGE FILM
“Tsotsi” Because it sounds the most foreign.

BEST ACTOR
Philip Seymour Hoffman in “Capote”. Because gay authors are harder to play than gay cowboys.

BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY
“Brokeback Mountain”. Because gay cowboy love is beautiful at 16:9.

BEST ACTRESS
Reese Witherspoon in “Walk the Line”. Because she didn’t shoot herself after Legally Blonde II.

BEST DIRECTOR
"Brokeback Mountain” Ang Lee. Because when I think gay Wyoming cowboy, I think Chinese.

Anyway...

Gearing up for this year's Oscar pool, may have a quick aside, my dears?

Am I the only one who thought "Little Miss Sunshine" was just pretty good? I know so many people who absolutely loved this movie, saying it's one of their all-time favorites. Then it gets nominated for best picture of the year.

And I thought it was... good. It was well acted, and had some very fun and charming moments. But -- and I credit my wife for describing the plot this way -- it was a typical indie-hit formula: dysfunctional family forced to deal with each other in close quarters. Everyone in that van was fucked up, with the mom being the only one remotely close to "normal" but still being a stereotype. It made me not care much about any of the characters. I thought the interesting story -- non-beauty queen little girl goes to beauty contest -- was completely overshadowed by drug-addict grandpa, suicidal gay uncle, angst-filled mute brother, success-driven type-A dad, and trying-to-hold-it-all-together mom.

All that said, I thought the ending was fucking beautiful and made me like the movie more than I really did.

But best picture? I don't think so.

Unfortunately, I've seen none of the other nominees, so I need to remedy that before I render an opinion.

Yours?

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