Of course, Twitter imploded over the fact that Blacks didn't get any nominations in the categories that matter the most at the Oscars. Ryan Coogler should have been nominated among directors for his spine-tingling boxing drama, Creed. Sylvester Stallone, a caucasian person, got nominated from the movie as supporting actor. I love Stallone but you're kidding yourselves if you do''t think Coogler, Michael B Jordan's lead role and Maryse Alberti;s camerawork were what made the movie special.
Would it have hurt the Academy to include Creed and Straight Outta Compton, a hard knuckled drama about the rise of hip hop in America, among best picture nominations considering how only eight movies (usually ten movies get the nod) made it to the final list? Someone on Twitter rightly observed, "There is a cruel irony to nominating a documentary about Nina Simone for an Oscar while still failing to recognize black performers." The #OscarsSoWhite hashtag was waiting to happen considering how the voters are 94 per cent caucasian, 76 per cent male and an average of 63 years old.
The lack of diversity is not my only qualm about the recently announced nominations. Ridley Scott deserved a shoo-in for the best director category for making Martian, which is gorgeously mounted and has to be the best ensemble movie of 2015. And so does Todd Haynes for his unanimously raved-about Carol, the lesbian drama set in 1950 backed by powerful performances from Cate Blanchett and Rooney Mara. I fail to fathom the attractiveness of the claustrophobia of Lenny Abrahamson's Room, a story of a mother and a son who are under lock and key and have no contact whatsoever with the outside world. Abrahamson couldn't bring any interesting spacial continuity to a single locked room and I felt his previous effort, Frank, was a more accomplished piece. I wish there was a costume design nomination for Spotlight, a movie about a Pulitzer-winning story of cover-up of sexual abuse within the Roman Catholic Church.
Before I'm christened as Grinch's poor cousin, I must say that there are quite a few gratifying nominations this time around. Sicario cinematographer Roger Deakins has been nominated for 11 Oscars but has never won. He deserves it this year for his roving camerawork that never passes judgement on the American shenanigans on Mexican soil while dealing with drug cartels. Sicario also got nods for original score and sound editing, a glorious testament to the movie's brooding atmospherics. Bridge of Spies got six nominations and with that the number of Oscar nominations Spielberg's movies got has swelled to 128, surpassing William Wyler's 127. This Cold War drama about a righteous lawyer (Tom Hanks) in Brooklyn defending his client (a Russian spy) is equal parts funny and poignant. The six nominations are an indication that Spielberg is growing from strength to strength, considering how brilliant Lincoln was.
Animation cinema is one of the toughest categories this year. The transporting fantasia of all five nominations shows how good a year it has been for the genre. If the recent Golden Globes are any indication on what's to come on February 29, The Revenant looks set for a killing. Leonardo DiCaprio's Oscar drought might just end this year what with his portrayal of a man in the wilderness battling every force of nature (including a marauding bear) to stay alive.
I am happy for Charlotte Rampling's nomination for the slow burning 45 Years. Among foreign language nominations, I'll be rooting for Jordanian director Naji Abu Nowar's desert coming-of-age thriller, Theeb, which at times plays like a corrective to Lawrence of Arabia. I'll end my column with a raucous shout out to George Miller for his gloriously unhinged Max Max: Fury Road. Who would have thought in 1978 that a future Mad Max installment would reap 10 Oscar nominations!
jagannath.jamma@bsmail.in
