Excuse Me, Mr. Oscar, You Forgot Something

Brittany Harvey is graduate student at Austin Theological Seminary. You may recognize some of her previous work here at LCB--she once wrote this on R.E.M. The work below is a yearly passion of hers:

After seeing this performance, the Academy should have nominated Gossling out of fear.

There are many critics out there making many predictions about who will be going home with
an eight pound, gold, naked man February 26. I am neither a critic nor a predictor of the future,
but I was a film studies minor and here are my thoughts on who got left out of the running this
year. In saying who got left out, I make no claims about any nominations that should have been
left out.

Best Picture

Win Win
Several years ago the white middle class American public peed its pants in excitement over a
movie about a quirky pregnant teenager. I am not really sure why the same thing did not happen
with a film about a quirky wrestling prodigy teenager with a crackhead mother, and subsequently
I am not sure why the Academy did not fall all over itself over it. The acting was great. The story
was original. Paul Giamatti is in it. Perhaps it can be left up to the unfortunate spring time release
or perhaps the soundtrack is not indie rock enough.

50/50
This is the most delightful movie about cancer I have ever seen. It is funny, sweet, and
heartbreaking. It pulls off all three the entire time. It transcends genre, which has been a big
Oscar trend in recent years (Sideways, Little Miss Sunshine, Juno, and Up in the Air). But the
great thing is that the movie is not about cancer. It is about friendship and family, and figuring
out how to love all those people and let them love you back.

Drive
This one is a little violent for Oscar. With the exception of Pulp Fiction, Oscar usually only likes
violence with meaning or redemption. A driver with no name impaling a guy with a shower rod
seems to lack a move towards the greater good. But, Oscar does like when a movie makes you
root for the antihero. And the driver in this film is the perfect antihero.

Ides of March
This film screams Oscar, and yet it only got a nomination for Best Adapted Screenplay. Perhaps
the cast of Ryan Gosling, George Clooney, Paul Giamatti, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Marisa
Tomei, and Rachel Evan Wood is just too much for Oscar to handle. That aside, the film is
completely surprising, the acting is amazing, and its Shakespearian tragic ending does what
Shakespeare did best--hold up a mirror and make us evaluate ourselves. It makes us ask what it is
we value in our nation’s leaders, as well as who gets to make mistakes and what those mistakes
get to be. Plus, it has the greatest lesson in politics a movie has ever had. “You can lie, you can
cheat, you can start a war, you can bankrupt the country, but you can’t f*@! the interns. They get
you for that.”

Joseph Gordon-Levitt wasn't even really lying down here, that's acting.

Best Actor

Joseph Gordon-Levitt in 50/50
He played that role perfectly.

Ryan Gosling in Ides of March
Ryan Gosling in Drive
Ryan Gosling in Crazy Stupid Love


So yes, I do love Ryan Gosling. But come on, he had three movies come out in about two months
in which he was completely different in all of them. Ladies’ man turned monogamous, quiet
recluse attempting to rescue the pretty mom next door, and idealistic politician who compromises
his principals to save himself.

Best Actress

Kirsten Dunst in Melancholia
This movie was crazy. I am still not entirely sure what it was all about, but she was incredible,
dynamic, and really fun to watch.

Uggie will have to start doing World War films to earn an Oscar nod.

Best Supporting Actor

Uggie, the dog in The Artist


Now this movie did not get ignored by Oscar at all, but it should make Oscar reconsider the
whole only humans can win awards rule, but Uggie was outstanding.

Best Supporting Actress

Anna Kendrick in 50/50


Her character is awkward. She is endearing. She is the only woman in Adam’s (Joseph Gordon-
Levitt) life who is not crazy. And Kendrick pulls it all off perfectly.

Best Animated Film

Winnie the Pooh
This movie was fantastic, and since the apparent trend of this year’s nominees is films of the
past, this one should have been included. It was a brand new take on the classic Pooh cartoons.

Best Animated Short

The Ballad of Nessie
This made me cry. And it is about the Lock Ness Monster, so that is awesome.

Best Original Screenplay

The Muppets
This movie got a nomination for best original song. But the same great writing that made that
nomination worthy, gave life to the whole film. It was hilarious, sweet, refreshing, and held true
to the classic Muppets films. It should at least get an honorary Oscar for Best Use of Cameos.

Melancholia
This story is too crazy to not have gotten a nomination.

Crazy Stupid Love
Maybe it is just a romantic comedy. But I think this movie is incredibly honest, and
Shakespearian in its hilarity.


Best Original Song

"So Long" in Winnie the Pooh
 It's Zooey Deschanel and M. Ward performing a song about friendship inspired by a boy and a group of stuffed animals. It would at least proved the most adorable performance at the awards ceremony ever.

  

So there you have it, my favorite not nominated films of 2011 that should have gotten
nominated. But what do I know?