1st in a continuing series
1. Diseases are like catnip to actors, especially if they can show the progression of the disease from health to illness. (Theory of Everything, Still Alice.)
2. Prosthetics always help an actor's chances of getting at least a nomination. We have Nicole Kidman to thank for Steve Carrell's nose. (The final scene in Birdman is actually a pretty funny comment on this.)
If Jen Aniston wore a fake nose, I bet she would have been nominated for the Oscar over Marion Cottilard.
3. This year's crop includes a slew of really creepingly disturbing movies, topped by Nightcrawler and Foxcatcher.
4. Thank goodness for St. Vincent and Boyhood, the only movies that didn't make me want to slit my wrists. Almost every other movie depressed the hell out of me.
5. Hotel Budapest put me to sleep TWICE. Wes Anderson could take lessons from St. Vincent director Ted Melfi in how to make a quirky movie while creating real people who we care about.
6. That there are no Black actors nominated in the film categories this year says less about the nominations than it does about the industry. (Selma was not released in time to make the deadline for nominations.) There is much more interesting material for talented minority actors in pay-for-view television and Internet. There are five minority actors nominated in the television categories this year.
7. Too many movies about complicated men propelled and saved by the unconditional love of a supportive woman. How about a film about a complicated woman saved by the unconditional love of man? Can you think of any?
8. The only LGBT character in all of these films is Alan Turing (Benedict Cumberbatch) in The Imitation Game. The only minority characters are a housekeeper (Cake) and a lobby boy (Budapest).
9. As the SAG Awards are about the acting and not necessarily the films, here are some other noteworthy performances that were not nominated:
Bill Murray - St. Vincents
Zack Galifianakis & Lindsay Duncan (the film critic) - Birdman
Adrianna Barazza - Cake
Miles Teller - Whiplash
Alec Baldwin - Still Alice
10. I don't want to watch another movie until March.
And one for good measure.
11. No one was "robbed". No one was "snubbed". It's just Hollywood, Jake.
