Let's Talk About the Oscar Nominations

Here we are again.

At the corner of Outraged and Befuddled, otherwise known as--

Oscar Nominations Day

Let's just dive right in with the categories, and you know my rule--No saying somebody should have been nominated without saying who I would swap out in their place.

I'm not going to focus too much on the Best Documentary category except to say that with Won't You Be My Neighbor? and Three Identical Strangers being left off, it's officially a joke this year.  RBG was fantastic, but it wasn't as strong as the other two.

Okay, now onto the big ones.

Starting with--

Actor in a Supporting Role

I like Mahershala Ali.

I like him a lot.

But the fact that he's the front-runner for the abomination that is Green Book is astounding to me.

I'm glad Sam Elliott made it in over Timothee Chalamet, as he wasn't very believable in Beautiful Boy, and the movie overall was kind of a let-down.

Michael B. Jordan could have replaced any of these guys for his performance in Black Panther, and I would have even swapped out Sam Rockwell for Sylvester Stallone in Creed 2.

This category this year is so weak, I feel like whoever wins should have an asterisk placed next to their name with a footnote that says "Wouldn't Even Have Been Nominated in a Stronger Year."

Actress in a Supporting Role

I'm pretty happy with this category.

Honestly, as much as I love Regina King, I think Rachel Weisz deserves to win, but she's won before, so I'm happy to see it go to somebody new.

No clue how Marina de Tavira snuck in other than that people just couldn't bear giving any accolades to First Man (I don't blame them), but she's nowhere near as deserving as Michelle Yeoh would have been.

Actor in a Lead Role

First off, nobody has seen At Eternity's Gate, but I won't say Dafoe doesn't deserve the nomination until I've seen it, but I am surprised that they went with him over Ethan Hawke for First Reformed, and they easily could have had both by leaving Viggo Mortensen off the list for the cinematic garbage fire that is Green Book.

Actress in a Leading Role

Good for Yalitza Aparicio for getting in, but it's too bad it bumped off Emily Blunt and Elsie Fisher.

I won't be devastated if Glenn Close wins, because it's a long time coming, but she'll then have to join the list of people who won Oscars for work that wasn't their strongest--not that anyone should care, because an Oscar is still an Oscar.

If I had my pick, I would vote for Olivia Colman, because she gave, without question, the best performance of the year.

Best Director

Can you believe this is Spike Lee's first nomination?  That's insane.

What's even more insane is that they didn't stretch out the Best Director category to reflect how many nominees there are in Best Picture.

It's huge that Black Panther was nominated, but the majority of that credit goes to Ryan Coogler.

Vice was actually very poorly directed, and I would happily swap in Marielle Heller or Barry Jenkins for Adam McKay.

I also think Bradley Cooper should have been nominated, but not over some of the other people in the category, so the expansion is my only solution.

Rooting for Yorgos Lanthimos here, but I'd love to see a Spike Lee upset.

Best Picture

Just to reiterate--

Green Book is trash that was written by an Islamophobic nutjob.

Bohemian Rhapsody was a straight-washed matinee pic directed by a rapist.

Now that we got that out of the way, let's just agree that If Beale Street Could Talk, Can You Ever Forgive Me? and Mary Poppins Returns should have taken both those slots and the slot given to Vice, which was sloppy and produced for echo-chamber liberals.

My pick is The Favourite.

See you at the Oscars!