Thursday 14 February 2013

The "SONSOFBITCHES!" Snubathon


        Mette, aka teen Yoda, of Lime Reviews and Strawberry Confessions has come up with an excellent new blogathon, in which she asks us to go to the dark corners of our brains when we think of that all-important word, "Oscars" and write about the snub that angers us the most.

         The weird thing about this year's Oscar is that it isn't a snub, but rather a certain nomination that irritates me the most, that of Alan Arkin's. Now I did enjoy Arkin's performance in Argo and I think he is a very nice person, but I feel that there were much more deserving performances that were overlooked in favour of his. 

Five performances that should have been chosen instead of Alan Arkin's sonofabitch Argo producer dude's-

Leonardo DiCaprio in Django Unchained

People had been talking about his nomination ever since it was announced that he will play the villain in a Tarantino film. Yes, the expectations were very high, but Leo delivered far and beyond what I had thought. For the longest time, I have wanted him to play a fun role, since he always plays conflicted, mopey characters with dead wives and/or mental illness. Here is a man who is despicable, absolute scum of the earth, but look at him embrace it with so much "panache". He is hilarious and terrifying as Calvin J. Candie, a character for the ages. He even bled for it! What more does the Academy need?


Matthew McConaughey in Magic Mike

That opening scene. I mean, come on! I had never really considered McConaughey's acting chops before this year, thought of him as "that hot guy in those terrible romcoms" but my goodness, what a turnaround!  As Dallas he gives the ballsiest, pun not intended (well... maybe just a little bit), performance of the year, a title probably only contended by his own work in Killer Joe. There are not many actors who can dance in a thong and truly revel in it, like how McConaughey does. He's larger-than-life, super-duper sexy in this film and I love it and I bet everyone in the Academy also did, but you know how these things go...


Ezra Miller in The Perks of Being a Wallflower

I already wrote about Miller's performance in my Making a Case... post. The fact that Perks got no nominations this year was already sad, but I had been wishing that memories of his chilling portrayal of Kevin in last year's We Need to Talk About Kevin will give an impetus to his lovable, brilliant Patrick. Perks was a sort of dream movie for young actors to showcase their talents and a role like Patrick encapsulates both the highest highs and the lowest lows of a teenager's life, something that Miller more than captures in his beautiful performance. While I liked Logan Lerman's work a tad more (who had no chance whatsoever so let's not go there), I really thought that the Academy might embrace Patrick like the rest of us did.


Michael Fassbender in Prometheus

Prometheus, for all its grandeur, is a film that has unfortunately almost completely gone from my mind save for that terrifying birth scene and Michael Fassbender's David. Fassy, already largely considered as one of the best actors of his generation, here transforms himself into this weird machine-man with all kinds of mischief up his sleeve, revealing nothing yet making our hair stand on end. It is very nuanced, kind of freaky and totally cool and no one could have done it better than Fassy. However, sci-fi movies get as much "important" awards attention as films about teenagers and male strippers.


Dwight Henry in Beasts of the Southern Wild

While mini-supernova Quvenzhané Wallis blew me away the most in this film, her role would have been nothing without her chemistry with Henry. Henry who is a baker by profession, something that was just unbelievable to me, plays this loud, alcoholic, broken down, beast of a man like a veteran actor. Then again, perhaps a performance this raw couldn't have been done by people who have learned how to act and modulate and so on. One half of one of the most heartbreaking relationships of the year, I thought he did a tremendous job and with all the love showered towards Beasts, it was a little disappointing to see him not being a direct part of it.



      There you have it. Please join the blogathon and spread the hate around :)

20 comments:

  1. All of these performances deserved a nom. I was really rooting for Dwight Henry, who I knew would be a huge underdog in the race if he made it. =(

    The Leo snub is unforgivable. I just can't.

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    1. Me too. I thought he was really excellent.
      Ugh, me neither :(

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  2. Love these picks. Every one of them is better than Arkin's performance. All together: "Poor Leo."

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  3. Excellent post! I would've loved to see a nomination for Dwight Henry as he is *truly* a Hollywood outsider. :-)

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    1. Thank you! He truly is. It's unbelievable.

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  4. Jesus this category has annoyed me more than anything else this year. As long as Christoph Waltz wins, I'll be happy. But all of these men totally deserved it! Ez, Leo D and Matty M are probably my top three male performers of the year (though Matty M's placement is for Magic Mike, Killer Joe and Bernie). Ugggggggggggggh.

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    1. Ugh me too. And this is probably my favourite category in general.
      I'm rooting for De Niro the most but loved Waltz too. Matty M was insanely good this year.

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  5. Yeah they really missed a lot of greatness in this category. I think we had the most amazing performances this year in best supporting actor, my own line up has 9 actors in it.

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    1. Agree completely. Such a good year for supporting performances.

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  6. Thanks for joining - and can I say that love the post?!
    DiCaprio was an obvious choice and a very discussed snub, but I'm super happy you mentioned Dwight Henry and Ezra Miller who both really, really deserved a nomination. Haven't seen Prometheus, but I guess Fassbender is always great (anyway, he was snubbed for Shame last year too, wasn't he?). As for Magic Mike, wow, that's just another reason to watch this movie!

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    1. You are welcome and yes you can :P
      Nominating anyone among Miller, Henry, Fassy and McConaughey would have been such a brilliant step for the AMPAS to think out of their little box.
      You HAVE to watch Magic Mike!

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  7. Completely agree with all your picks (except I still haven't seen Beasts quite yet so I'll take your word for it). Arkin delivered nothing spectacular. He was just as good as John Goodman in that so picking one over the other seems trivial. The Academy really got that one wrong.

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    1. Thank you! Beasts is really good and Henry in it.
      Cranston was the best actor in that film, if they *had* to pick someone, it should have been him. Arkin was just baffling.

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  8. Dwight Henry is my supporting actor win - so I'm pretty gutted he got snubbed.

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    1. He was really great. I was disappointed too.

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  9. Agree, all of those performances deserved a spot over Arkin, but 'sway it goes. And damn, how cool of you to include McConaughey. "All right, all right, all right."

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    1. I know, but it's so unfair!
      I thought McConaughey was awesome.

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  10. Even though I didn't like Magic Mike, I'd sub Killer Joe for McConaughey. Either way, they were indeed all better than Arkin's. He was basically just playing himself.

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    1. I loved Magic Mike, but he was great in both.
      EXACTLY!

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