The Oscar nominations are always full of disappointments as well as reasons to celebrate. Spike Lee finally getting a Best Director nomination is one of the latter. As I pointed out in my review of BLACKKKLANSMAN Lee made some choices on this film that made it his most commercially viable movie so far, and it worked with the Academy.
BLACK PANTHER getting a well deserved Best Picture nomination is another reason to celebrate, but the lack of a Best Director or any acting nominations for it is a disappointment. Another disappointment, from my perspective, is Lady Gaga getting a Best Actress nom. Were some of her scenes in A STAR IS BORN Oscar worthy in terms of her acting? Yes. Were some other scenes of hers cringe worthy and nowhere near Oscar quality? Also yes.
And the whole point of the Academy raising the number of Best Picture nominations to a possible ten from the traditional five was to allow for widely popular movies to be added to the usual more arty (whether faux or real) contenders. The film that fits that slot most obviously in 2018 is CRAZY RICH ASIANS which should have been nominated not only for Best Picture but for all the acting categories and definitely for Director. And the Academy had two more slots open before they even got to ten so that one makes no sense.
I could go on, but it's all pretty incidental in light of what's going on in our country and the world right now. I just wanted to add my two cents to the reactions to the nominations, and omissions, for what is the major event in the industry I spent so much time in.
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