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Please, Oscar, remember these!

Please, Oscar, remember these!
by Lorelei Quenzer - SGN A&E Writer The polls closed last Saturday at 5:00 pm, and the Oscar nominations will be announced early Tuesday, January 23rd. There's no one left to listen who can do anything about it, but here are ten individuals (well, eleven, really) who, I submit, deserve more kudos. Robert Altman, director, A Prairie Home Companion. He never won the director's award in life, so I suppose it's fitting, in a way, that he won't be recognized for his work after his passing. PHC wasn't his best work, but even Altman's worst was better than the dreck of some others. Altman's directorial style perfectly meshed with the radio show's rambling storytelling, and he pulled a better performance out of Meryl Streep than she ever gave in The Devil Wears Prada. Steve Carell, supporting actor, Little Miss Sunshine. As Frank, the Gay suicidal Proust scholar, Carell toned down the 40-year-old virgin. Instead, he was the most normal member of the dysfunctional Sunshine family. Sacha Baron Cohen, supporting actor, Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby. Cohen's is deservedly getting raves for that other comedy he made this year, but he managed to steal the show - and a kiss or two - from Will Ferrell as Gay race car driver Jean Girard. Richard Glatzer and Wash Westmoreland, original screenplay, Quinceañera. Despite her protestations that she's a virgin, Magdalena's parents throw her out when she turns up pregnant just before her fifteenth birthday quinceañera celebration. She moves in with her octogenarian uncle and her Gay cousin, and the three make do as a family. This thoroughly original screenplay is both personal and universal. Jackie Earle Haley, supporting actor, Little Children. Haley - the most likely person on this list to actually receive a nomination - made pedophile Ronnie McGorvey a human being, sympathetic and disturbing at the same time. His character is at the center of the film, and his final moments on screen will break your heart. Toby Jones, actor, Infamous. It's sheer bad luck that Philip Seymour Hoffman and Capote are so fresh in the Academy's memory, because Toby Jones was equally remarkable as the squeaky-voiced writer. In fact, he may have been a bit more Tru than Hoffman, and had Infamous come out first, he might have received all of the accolades instead. Richard Linklater, feature-length animated film, A Scanner Darkly. As with his other animated film, Waking Life, Linklater's technique of animating live action is groundbreaking. But trust the Academy to shun its adult content and opt for family-friendly CGI instead. Derek Luke, actor, Catch a Fire. As a refinery foreman turned ANC activist, Derek Luke (Antwone Fisher, Friday Night Lights) grows up in front of our eyes. This movie was in theaters for about five minutes last fall; for some reason it couldn't hang on to box office, despite its apartheid-era South African subject matter and brilliant direction by Phillip Noyce (Rabbit-Proof Fence, Dead Calm). Ellen Page, actress, Hard Candy. Talk about difficult subject matter! It's hard to say who the predator in this film is, and it's even harder to watch Page - as the innocent Hayley - skillfully circle Patrick Wilson. She's just as subtle as Helen Mirren's Elizabeth II, and just as dangerous. Steven Soderbergh, cinematography, The Good German. Maybe it's just because he works so well with George Clooney, or maybe it's because Clooney looks so good in black and white, but The Good German is striking and unique. Soderbergh made Cate Blanchett even more luminous (if that's even possible) and the cinematography was essential in creating a new noir classic. Oh, and here's a bit of trivia: Soderbergh uses a nom de plume, Peter Andrews, for his cinematography work.


Toby Jones


Catch A Fire