The Academy Award nominations have been announced and that means it is time for The Movie Mensch’s Oscar Watch to rear its head and chime in on the biggest snubs and surprises of Oscar 2022. Now, there weren’t too many seismic snubs this year, but certainly, there were enough to make it interesting.
The Oscars will air on March 27 on ABC. Without further ado… let’s go!
SNUBS
Leonardo DiCaprio for Don’t Look Up
What DiCaprio did for Adam McKay’s comedic end of the world farce was otherworldly. He played comedy and nailed it. The Oscar winner has a little gold man, but here is yet another performance that was better than the one he won for (The Reverent). In Don’t Look Up, he made smart and nerdiness awkwardly sexy and hilarious.
His reactions alone as the world is literally ending around him and the response from the planet seems to be shrugged shoulders is worth an Oscar nod. The insanity of the situation washes over him, he embraces it, and then comes to terms with the reality that he helped discover.
Lady Gaga for House of Gucci
Everyone and their grandmother had Lady Gaga among the five actresses who were going to score nominations for Best Actress in 2022. Only thing is, it didn’t happen for the songstress and her portrayal of the murderer of the Gucci family. It was a fierce performance, but it was in a movie that was somewhat all over the place and this year, there were just too many other performances worthy of a nod. Still… we will miss her fashion choice on the red carpet.
Denis Villeneuve for Dune
This omission is truly puzzling. Does the Academy think that Dune directed itself? The film is one of the best of the year—earning a Best Picture nod—but yet its visionary director was not worthy of a nomination. Yes, there are only five spots, but I am a Spielberg nut, but I firmly believe his spot for West Side Story should have gone to the masterpiece that Villeneuve achieved with Dune.
Ruth Negga for Passing
We thought for sure, Tessa Thompson or Ruth Negga would get nominated for the stunner that is Passing. If we were to bet, we would have put the house on Negga as her nuanced performance stole the show and went down as one of the most haunting and fully realized turns by any actor this year. This snub is more of a crime than an omission.
Tick, tick… BOOM! Missing Best Picture
Just a few weeks ago, there were some Oscar prognosticators who believed that Lin-Manuel Miranda’s Tick, tick… BOOM! might win Best Picture. Today we’re looking at the Best Picture nominee list and the film isn’t even nominated! We’re thrilled with Andrew Garfield’s nod for Best Actor, but the fact that this film is not among the ten nominated for Best Picture is wholeheartedly shocking.
One Night in Soho for Best Cinematography
I knew it was a long shot, but still, did you see Edgar Wright’s One Night in Soho?! Chung-hoon Chung achieved legendary, once-in-a-lifetime greatness with the palette that Wright provided him for the horror/thriller. Those mirror scenes, the lighting, everything shot in Thomasin McKenzie’s room… I could go on and on. There is something otherworldly about what Chung achieved with his cinematography work on One Night in Soho. That leaves me with a bigger question? When will Wright get his Oscar love his films so deserve?
No Sing 2 For Best Animated Feature
One of the absolute best-animated features of the year, Sing 2, did not hear its name called for Best Animated Feature this year and it was one of the bigger snubs. Granted, it is a crowded category this year, which is the case increasingly over time as animation houses grow and improve their work. But what Illumination did with Sing 2 was take a story we loved in Sing and ripped it out of the safe confines of its theater, had it hit the road, and launch an ambitious Las Vegas-type show with performances from every soul in the cast working overtime. Shame.
SURPRISES
Nightmare Alley Best Picture Nominee
Guillermo del Toro is beloved by the Academy (The Shape of Water much?) and proof of that arrived early this morning when a film of his was nominated for the highest honor in the business when most felt it would be lucky to score some technical award nominations solely. Nope, the Academy nominated Nightmare Alley for Best Picture. It’s a great film, don’t get me wrong. But Best Picture? That’s a surprise if there ever was one.
All the Love for Power of the Dog
TWELVE nominations! OK, let’s back up. First of all, Jane Campion—previous winner for Best Director—knows how to weave a web, let’s be real. But all this adoration for Power of the Dog The Movie Mensch just doesn’t understand. It’s a solid film, yes. It’s beautifully shot and masterfully directed… but what happens? Not much, I’ll tell you that much. It’s not worthy of twelve nominations. Oscar needs a movie to win Best Picture that they can hold up 50 years from now and be proud of, like CODA say. Like Nomadland last year, if the film with the most nominations wins, i.e., Power of the Dog, this won’t be a year that Oscar can hold up their Best Picture decades from now proudly. There were better choices. Many.
Steven Spielberg, Best Director for West Side Story
We’re the biggest Steven Spielberg fan on the planet, so it pains me to write this, but Spielberg getting a Best Director nomination for West Side Story is a shocking surprise. It’s not that he didn’t deserve it. Earning a nod is about much more than skill. Spielberg has been nominated more times than any director in history and there was a bevy of other helmers whose movies people actually saw that more deserved this fifth director’s spot.
Kristen Stewart, Best Actress for Spencer
Hear me out… after the omissions Stewart had been experiencing throughout this awards season, it was starting to look as if she would fall in the snub category. It was universally believed that she gave a nomination-worthy performance, but that she’s young and still has time to be nominated and win. When Spencer came out, the film journalist community had anointed her the winner of Best Actress, not simply a nominee. Then, the calendar passed, and she seemed increasingly likely to be ignored by Oscar. Thankfully, she wasn’t. Now, will she win? That’s for another Oscar Watch column!
J.K. Simmons, Best Supporting Actor for Being the Ricardos
He deserved it, for that there is no question. It’s just that it seemed a longshot that Simmons would score a Best Supporting Actor nod for his role in Sorkin’s Being the Ricardos. His turn as William Frawley is utterly brilliant and nuanced in such a way that oftentimes, he is the voice of reason, and given some of the scenes in Sorkin’s film, that’s a neat trick. Simmons has already won in this category for Whiplash, and it is unlikely he will win again, but it is a welcome surprise that he was nominated.
The Worst Person in the World for Best Original Screenplay
Most of us that predict these things for a living had The Worst Person in the World a solid lock for Best International Feature Film. But to see the Academy anoint the Norway submission also for its writing is a true gift.