Usually the night before the Oscars and Emmys, I list 3 things I hope come to fruition the following day. I tried to do the same for this year's Oscar nominations, but all the things I wanted came back to the same film. There was only 1 film I gave a 10/10 to this year. That film was The Tree of Life. The film has done poorly with the Guilds and didn't dominate the Critics' Awards like some predicted it would.
Nevertheless, I hope the film can get more than a lone technical nomination. The film is one of the most beautiful to ever be put on screen, and yet it is only a guarantee for a Cinematography nomination. It would be great if it could pull off nominations for Costume Design and Visual Effects too.
I hope the film can get at least one acting nomination. This film contains Brad Pitt at the top of his game. Yet all of the Oscar buzz surrounds his lesser (but still good) performance in Moneyball. To say that performance in The Tree of Life is a lesser one than the one his Moneyball co-star Jonah Hill gave is preposterous. Jessica Chastain also gave one of the best performances of the year in this film. While her performance in The Help is (in my opinion) better than her performance in this film, it would no doubt be easier for her to win the Oscar if nominated for The Tree of Life.
I hope Terrence Malick, who showed directorial vision far greater than any other director this year, can get a Best Director nomination for this film. In many ways, The Tree of Life is the antithesis to 2001: A Space Odyssey. It's a film that is deserving of being mentioned in the same discussion as that masterpiece. Kubrick was able to get a Best Director nomination for that film and so too should Malick.
Finally, I hope the film can get a nomination in the big one, Best Picture. 2001: A Space Odyssey was ultimately unable to get a Best Picture nomination. That is now seen as one of the gravest sins the Academy has ever committed. It would be unwise for the Academy to make the same sin twice. So a good day for The Tree of Life tomorrow would, in my opinion, right many of Oscar's past wrongs.
I love the Demand idea! And I agree with you completely about Tree of Life for picture, director and especially Pitt.
ReplyDeleteI will be watching very closely to see whether Tree Of Life gets into Best Picture, as I think it may tell us a bit about the Academy and how the 5% rule is impacting things. When it was just 5 nominees, I was always able to say that something "just missed the cut" and got 14% instead of 15% that it might need to break into the top 5. But with the 5% rule, we'll really see whether a significant portion of the Academy had taste but just got outvoted, or if they have always just been middle of the road.
Looks like we got our wish.. At least in the main categories of Picture, Director and Cinematography!
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