Oh, Oscar

Oh, my, something to distract me from the strike! And what a something!

Loving that the Oscar nominations fell head over feet for the deserving Michael Clayton, which managed to be completely ignored by the Golden Globes (blech, anyway) and by the American public, thanks to an odd release date and possibly the least engaging title ever for what turns out to be an incredibly engaging movie.

Also, take a look at this:

Sound Mixing: The Bourne Ultimatum, No Country for Old Men, Ratatouille, 3:10 to Yuma, Transformers.
Sound Editing: The Bourne Ultimatum, No Country for Old Men, Ratatouille, There Will Be Blood, Transformers.
And you wonder why people get the categories confused (let alone know what either job is)!?

Cheers:
- Juno goes into the Oscars as the biggest box office draw of the Best Picture nominees. Gotta love the division of/schism between art and commerce.
- Despite being ignored elsewhere, Once is nominated in the original song category for "Falling Slowly" (swoon).
- Hopefully Amy Adams will perform some of the three nominated songs from Enchanted. Would love to see the special, Oscar-telecast staged version of "That's How You Know".
- Lots of love for Rataloutille all over the place (except it's relegated to Best Animated Feature, and can't crack into the Best Picture race).

Jeers:
- Double nominee Cate Blanchette gets Best Lead Actress love for Elizabeth II, a role she won the Oscar with years ago, but for a far worse film (and it wasn't really adding that much to the previous performance). I'm fine with her nomination for Best Supporting Actress in I'm Not There... but spread the love! The only nominations E2 should've gotten where in the artsy technical categories (which it would deserve, completely, since it was a beautiful-to-behold film). Despite my issues with the second half of Atonement, I'm surprised to see its two leads (James McEvoy and, especially, Keira Knightley) shut out. Or, even better, how about a nomination for the, er, enchanting Amy Adams?
- Surf's Up in the animated feature category... what of The Simpsons Movie? At least it makes it easier to only have to try and decide between two films: Ratatouille and Persepolis.
- A nomination for Norbit!? NORBIT is an Oscar-nominated film (for Make-up)!?!?!?
- Only one nomination for Charlie Wilson's War? This was a fantastic film. Sorkin doing what Sorkin does best. At least they got the nomination right... Phillip Seymour Hoffman stole every scene he was in.