John Hawkes not nominated for Best Actor in a Leading Role in The Sessions

I placed Hawkes’ performance, along with co-star Helen Hunt’s, as my top film work of the entire year, so this omission is a standout one. As a polio victim looking for physical with Hunt’s sex surrogate, Hawkes’ performance was demanding physically and emotionally, a triumph in each way. Making things more curious is that Joaquin Phoenix, who had not only not campaigned for his nomination but who had publicly decried the aggressive campaigning process, still got in – despite the lack of overall love for his film, The Master (co-stars Amy Adams and Philip Seymour Hoffman got supporting actor nominations, but there were no nods for Picture, Director, Screenplay, or amazing cinematography). That means Hunt really deserved her Supporting Actress nomination – apparently she was having sex with herself in the movie.

Neither Kathryn Bigelow nor Ben Affleck in the Best Director race

Did Argo peak too early? Did Zero Dark Thirty polarize too many people? Hard to say, because while the two early Best Picture favorites both made it into the category (which also includes seven other films this year), neither director did. This might be an especially hard blow to Affleck who was campaigning ultra-hard to be seen as a leading Hollywood director. The good news for them is that both still got nominated as producers. And oh yeah, they both already have statuettes on their mantles.

Ann Dowd, Compliance

Dowd was as perfect a performance as captured on celluloid this year. Alas, her film’s studio, citing budget restrictions, didn’t provide screeners to award nominators, allowing bigger stars with bigger representation to move right on in. I’m impressed by veteran Jacki Weaver – the character she played in Silver Linings was the emotional fulcrum of the novel but reduced to inexpressive wallpaper in the film. And still she got in over Dowd.

Ewan McGregor, The Impossible

Naomi Watts received a well-deserved Best Actress nom for tsunami story The Impossible, but in a more crowded Best Supporting Actor category, McGregor was dismissed. It’s a shame. Both carry equal halves of the demanding film, and McGregor had one scene, reconnecting with certain family members over the phone, that makes for a perfect “Oscar scene.” Making this category all the more yawn-worthy is that all five nominees have already won at least one Academy Award.

Leonardo DiCaprio, Django Unchained

DiCaprio’s Django co-star, Waltz, is terrific and got nominated this year. But his role is really a lead. And DiCaprio demonstrated remarkable prowess, cultivating a comically nuanced Southern villain. Maybe if his upcoming Gatsby role doesn’t do the trick for a leading actor nomination, he can play a singing alcoholic president grappling with mental illness. Just as long as the character doesn’t have polio.

Michael Haneke and Benh Zeitlin in the Best Director race

The directors of Amour and Beasts, two of my big 2012 triumphs, got in – pushing the aforementioned Affleck and Bigelow out of their presumptive slots. One’s a veteran and one’s a newcomer, and I’m happy to see both recognized. I just wish Life of Pi’s Ang Lee or Silver Linings’ David O. Russell could have lost their slots to make room for Bigelow and Master’s Paul Thomas Anderson.

The Oscars will be handed out on February 24.

I’m adding my voice to those predicting Denzel Washington will win Best Actor in this year’s Oscar competition for his role as an alcoholic pilot in the new film Flight.  I’ll even the score with my ex-husband who, after leaving Training Day, days after the terror attacks in September 2001, correctly declared that the famous black actor would get that top honor for his role as a corrupt L.A. Detective.  Coinciding with the release of Flight, if there was a greater disaster than Hurricane Sandy since 9/11 in the New York area, I can’t name it. By chance, I was taken to see both films soon after these devastating events. As a bookish, white woman in her forties, action movies are never my thing. I’m more likely to be tucked in at home, re-watching a DVD of Howard’s End with my cat, Monk. Unforeseeably, Denzel’s characters in these two films mirror the zeitgeist of America with alacrity. They also seem to offer cogent evidence of synchronicity.

In the wake of Hurricane Sandy, Denzel now appears onscreen as a would-be hero who miraculously saves a plane full of people in a daring move that no other pilot could maneuver, but which  still claims the lives of six people. He performs this feat high on cocaine and booze. Despite the terrible storm and the mechanics of the plane failing, because of litigation he is scrutinized for pilot error and his alcoholism comes to light.  We can’t help but root for Denzel, who starts out badass and sinks lower as the film progresses. I see him as a symbol of our own nation, weary from a decade of war and a failed economy. Yet we were once so drunk on international power and bravado that we still wonder; how did we get here? Our hero, Atlanta-based pilot Whip Whitaker, seems to be equally confused. He did everything right- so why is this happening? Assisted by his attorney, played by the excellent Don Cheadle, he manages to both squash the post-crash toxicology report and enter “Act of God” as a factor in the plane coming down. Whitaker’s co-pilot, whose legs are crushed, echoes this will of God argument, and the film’s story is touched throughout by a southern Christian sentiment applied in brush strokes too subtle to ever really take hold, let alone exonerate our hero. As I watched the film, the “Act of God” rationale echoed strongly for a New Yorker like me, as my home city struggles with the disaster and loss of life currently surrounding us.

But in Flight, it is Whip’s weakness, his moral failure that brings his problems to a head. In the comeuppance scene, played before the NTSB investigation panel, Whip finally comes clean and, as he bravely admits, stops lying about his drinking. “Act of God” takes a distant place behind his admission of free will and personal responsibility. This film soberly straightens out the apparent chaos of life to reveal the connection between our moral failures and hubris that begets the lot that God, or karma, sends our way.

Eleven years earlier, the ultra talented Washington boldly strutted through the film Training Day. As Detective Alonzo he embodied the paternalistic, American foreign policy that has historically been in evidence since Theodore Roosevelt’s Big Stick ideology of 1901 and carried into modern times via Kennedy’s Bay of Pigs fiasco, Ronald Reagan’s Iran/Contra venture and up through the Bush Administration’s invasion of Iraq. With that “right justifies might” mentality on his side, Alonzo treats drug dealers the way our military took out Saddam Hussein – live outside the law and you will be taken out, due process be damned.

The only problem with that “by any means necessary” policy is it eventually catches up with the perpetrators. Alonzo, having made too many enemies of the same ilk, is gunned down at the end of the film.  I find this a sad corollary to our military men and women sent to do another clean up job in Iraq and Afghanistan, only to lose their lives in a lawless land. But Alonzo is fighting on a smaller playing field than that of the leaders in the White House and Pentagon who have innocent minions to fight their battles.

Is it a coincidence that Denzel shares his surname with our nation’s capital and helm of power? I know I’ll be keeping a close eye on Washington’s next move. After seeing Flight and living through Sandy, I can’t help but hope he will stop putting in these Oscar-caliber performances.  I don’t think New York can handle another of his cinematic hits.

Cons:
1. Lack of a movie background. Sure, MacFarlane might have written, directed, produced and done vocal work in Ted, but he’s no Warren Beatty or Woody Allen. He’s not yet a vital presence when it comes to the industry being honored at the Oscars. An ongoing trend with hosts and presenters like MacFarlane and Ricky Gervais with limited film experience is to condescend to the event in which they appear. An institution like the Academy Awards deserves some reverence.

2. He won’t attract new viewers. ABC’s ever-more-craven attempts to drum up ratings for the Oscars is a lost cause. The Oscars will always be what they are: an awards show honoring talent and substance over commercialism (usually). Younger viewers, used to having the power of smartphones and DVRs, are used to being in the driver’s seat, and don’t flock to television events like this. Hiring the irreverent Family Guy creator won’t bring in new viewers—but it may alienate existing ones.

3. MacFarlane’s currency is untested. One of the reasons producers hire established emcees for award shows is because they are a known entity, and not just for the audience watching at home but for the nervous nominees in the audience. Franco/Hathaway and David Letterman both bombed because they couldn’t gauge the temperature of the audience, and put them on the defensive instead of creating a layer of comfort. And that can be felt through the TV screen.

4. Mila Kunis will likely be a presenter again. Sure, the MacFarlane cohort nearly nabbed a nod for Black Swan, but she’s yet to represent major Hollywood or critical achievement. Can’t we make room for top-shelf talent to open up some envelopes?

Pros:
1. Hollywood no longer segregates between film and television. MacFarlane may have wet his feet in movies, but his signature work remains on television. Casting him, like Ellen DeGeneres before him, is proof that there’s no longer any dividing line between the big and small screen, a stigma that started peeling away a decade and a half ago. Performers can now move laterally between the two media without fear of career comeuppance.

2. He does have presence. MacFarlane’s front-of-camera appearances on shows like Real Time with Bill Maher and last week’s Emmys (where he quickly recovered after a gaffe as presenter) prove he has poise and a sharp wit. If he can keep his air of self-importance in check, he might be just the guy to keep the show moving, especially if …
3. He might choose to abandon certain traditions. Perhaps MacFarlane will opt to forgo devices like Crystal’s opening song medley and montages in which he implanted himself in the year’s notable films and head straight into the awards themselves. And maybe the telecast will even end on time.

4. Mila Kunis will likely be a presenter again. I mean, I’m not blind.