and the nominees are....

The official Oscar Nomination came out this morning and I have to say, I don't think I've ever been less surprised by the selections.  Continuing the tradition from last year, there are ten Best Picture nominees again, and I've already seen 7 of the 10, so I'm in really good shape of my usual goal of seeing them all before the big night.  Now if 127 Hours can just have a wider release, I'm good to go.  I've already done a review for two of the ten, obviously planning on doing the other eight as well, but for now I wanted to just tell you what made me happy about the nominations.  First, I am extremely happy that Jesse Eisenberg is nominated for Lead Actor for his part in "The Social Network".  Movies with young stars tend to be tossed into the run of the mill blockbuster comedys and action flicks and not seen for what they can often be, pieces of art, giving us a glimpse of a bright future for film.  Eisenberg was excellent in that movie and is very deserving.  I haven't seen 3 of the other 5 actors, so I can't say he'll deserve the win, but I'm sure he'll pull his own.  I'm also thrilled to see a nod to Jeremy Renner for "The Town", and no, not just because he's a part of my nightly fantasies. *Note to Jeremy, I'm ready and willing to attend the awards with you if your mom isn't available that night* He did a great job in that movie and shined far above his co-stars in a role, tougher than I expected.  Annette Bening was nominated for Lead Actress in "The Kids are All Right."  I haven't done a review for that movie yet, so I won't go into to much detail, but WOW, you could have sworn that was her real personality it was so believable.  And as always, I am delighted that the Fargo Raising Arizona Lebowski Coen Brothers are nominated again.  True Grit is among their best work and I'm really excited for them.  Those guys deserve awards for just awesomeness in general.  I'm also happy to see that Inception is being nominated for some of the more technical awards, ie. Sound Mixing, Visual Effects, Cinematography, but none of the acting awards.  While HIGHLY entertaining and twisting and fantastic, the acting was so-so.  I love DiCaprio, he's very talented, but I wouldn't have called this his acting masterpiece, so I'm glad the academy was realistic on this one.  My only real disappointment was not seeing "The Black Swan" in the costume category.  While it might seem ballarinas are easy to dress, I really thought the choices were so proper for the movie's dark theme.  To sum up, I can't wait to see the rest of the films nominated. To see a full list of the nominations, click here.