Wednesday, December 12, 2012

2012 Screen Actors Guild Nominations


Things just got interesting. Over the past few years (with the immergence of Twitter, specifically), everyone has become a movie awards expert. People predict, exclaim, argue – and by the end, there are so many opinions floating around, surely the collective bunch will have predicted the potential nominees. But with the announcement of the Screen Actors Guild nominations this morning, I’d be stunned if anyone accurately predicted all of these nominees. Surprise and snubs abound, but goddamn if things didn’t just get intriguing.

Few notes: I typically shy away from discussing TV, so those nominations aren’t listed below. And the entire cast of Beasts of the Southern Wild (including Oscar nominee front runner Quvenzhané Wallis and her co-star Dwight Henry) were deemed ineligible for SAG nominations.

Best Acting Ensemble
Argo
The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel
Les Misérables
Lincoln
Silver Linings Playbook
The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel
No Zero Dark Thirty is kind of surprising, but it seems The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel trumped The Master here, so I suppose it’s time for me to see that one.

Best Actor
Bradley Cooper – Silver Linings Playbook
Daniel Day-Lewis – Lincoln
John Hawkes – The Sessions
Hugh Jackman – Les Misérables
Denzel Washington – Flight
Hugh Jackman
No Joaquin Phoenix. Perhaps his telling Interview article, in which he bashed the whole idea of movie awards, is coming back to bite him. Even though he has since retracted his statements, it seems Jackman was able to sneak in due to Phoenix’s gaff.

Best Actress
Jessica Chastain – Zero Dark Thirty
Marion Cotillard – Rust And Bone
Jennifer Lawrence – Silver Linings Playbook
Helen Mirren – Hitchcock
Naomi Watts – The Impossible
Marion Cotillard
Emmanuelle Riva (Amour) and Rachel Weisz for (The Deep Blue Sea) both deserve placement over Helen Mirren, but with Marion in the mix, you aren’t going to hear any complaining from me.

Best Supporting Actor
Alan Arkin – Argo
Javier Bardem – Skyfall
Robert De Niro – Silver Linings Playbook
Philip Seymour Hoffman – The Master
Tommy Lee Jones – Lincoln
Javier Bardem
By far the most heartbreaking snub of the morning had to be Bardem’s inclusion, thereby knocking out Matthew McConaughey’s perfect work in Magic Mike. Don’t get me wrong, I LOVED Bardem in Skyfall, but this is a serious bummer. Moving on… does De Niro have a shot at the Oscar? In my opinion, hell yeah.

Best Supporting Actress
Sally Field – Lincoln
Anne Hathaway – Les Misérables
Helen Hunt – The Sessions
Nicole Kidman – The Paperboy
Maggie Smith –  The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel
Nicole Kidman
I’ve heard nothing but polarizing things about Lee Daniels’ The Paperboy, so I was stunned to see Nicole Kidman here. I haven’t seen the film, and can’t fairly comment, but wow. And with Maggie Smith surprisingly in the mix, Ann Dowd (Compliance) and Amy Adams (The Master) fell by the wayside. Shame.

What do you all think? Are the many surprises of the SAGs shameful, or reinvigorating.

Full list of nominations, including for television, can be found here.

22 comments:

  1. I don't mind getting some surprises along the awards circuit. I would have liked to see Javier Bardem and McConaughey both get in over Alan Arkin though. Arkin did a good performance, but it was more a success of the writing, rather than the difficulty of the performance.

    Don't have much to say about the other categories (haven't Riva or Kidman yet).

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    1. Yeah, surprises are definitely most welcome from me. Especially last year, by the time the Oscar winners were announced, I just felt so stale by the whole thing.

      Totally agree about McConaughey taking Arkin's place. Very fair trade there.

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    2. I love Alan Arkin as an actor (don't we all?), but agree with both of you here, that's an incredibly poor nomination. He didn't do anything he hasn't done before.

      Bardem deserves to be there, I was wondering if he'd get any nods during the awards circuit. McConaughey robbed, as we all know.

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    3. Okay, I'm glad we can all agree here. Love Arkin (no doubt), but yeah, nothing he did in Argo stood out for me. If we're talking supporting actors for that flick, I liked Cranston and Chandler's work better.

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  2. I haven't seen The Paperboy yet either, but I'd love to. I didn't hear the best things about it too, but it sounds like her performance is pretty outrageous.

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    1. And hey, I can totally dig outrageous. I just had no idea it was worthy of ANY kind of awards attention. But my curiosity has peaked.

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  3. I think it's fun to get some surprises! Every list is different and as we move closer to the Academy Awards, it's possible to see some indie movies move forward while others that are locks like Les Miserables, Lincoln, and Argo lead.
    The disappointing thing is that some of the mainstream movies that look like locks get ignored as we move closer because they're nominated on one prestigious list but not on another like Django Unchained.

    I'm happy to see Bradley Cooper get nominated. Lawrence, whose performance I'm not crazy about, seemed to get more buzz, so I'm happy to see he's still in the running.

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    1. I agree with everything you said here: indie surprises are great, but indie or not, I'd still like to see great movies get the recognition they deserve (like Django, which I'm cautiously calling great, as I haven't seen it).

      I really think Cooper and Lawrence will have a strong showing this awards season. Very cool noms all around!

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  4. I'm glad Kidman got in but these people are whack. They nominated The Office for best ensemble - these people, with the exclusion of Spader, don't deserve nomination, in fact I'm kinda surprised nobody threw tomatoes at them. I mean this got in and AHS didn't? Are they serious?

    Not to mention the lack of so many great people in Lincoln ensemble. What is this? JGL is famous now so he is in? If they nominate ensemble they should include everyone not just who is hot right now.

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    1. The continued acclaim for The Office is something I simply do not understand. To be fair, this current season is the first one I've tuned out of, but I've seen every other episode, and it was just slowly going downhill. And now, it has completely flatlined. Lifeless.

      I honestly didn't bother looking at the Lincoln ensemble. But I agree, it should be about the acting, not the celeb status.

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    2. Sorry to step in but I agree with your thoughts on The Office. I haven't honestly watched it seriously since Steve Carell left in season 7. Even then, I thought the reunion of Michael and Holly could have ended the series back in season 5.

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    3. Katy, you don't EVER have to apologize for stepping in on a comment on my blog. I am so pleased that you read and comment at all, so please feel free to comment on anything, anytime!

      Now, as for your comment, I thought Michael leaving would've made for a perfect way to end the series. But they Just. Kept. Going. Curse of the sitcom, really. I don't believe I've ever heard of a sitcom that had a great run throughout its entire series. I used to love The Office (and 30 Rock, and Modern Family...) but now...?

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  5. There's not much to complain about. Sure, I wanted Ann Dowd and Amy Adams as well. At least it's not the Golden Globes. Oy, you know they'll pull something really stupid.

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    1. (sigh) Yes, they certainly will. Those are almost more fun to just laugh at than appreciate. We'll know tomorrow!

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  6. Haven't seen many of these yet in Aus, but it feels like Naomi Watts' time is coming. Been one of the best actresses around for a decade now (Fair Game was criminally underrated, as was she in it).

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    1. Christ do I hope you are right. She's my second favorite actress; I just absolutely adore her. I've heard The Impossible is a tad sappy though, but her work is incredible. I haven't given much thought as to who will win that one. My personal vote would be Marion, but Naomi... she's got it.

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  7. I'm surprised about the amount of love for Marigold Hotel. Could we live in a world where Cloud Atlas could've gotten best ensemble?

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    1. Yeah that surprised me too. I could DEFINITELY get behind a Cloud Atlas nom for ensemble.

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  8. Whatever The Master did to you SAG ?? I can understand they want to show something to Phoenix but No Amy Adams? Really?? I haven't seen Paperboy but I doubt if Kidman will be better than her and even in that case, Maggie Smith certainly wasn't.

    Besides that, I REALLY don't understand the Ensemble cast business and again whats with Marigold Hotel? I will advice you against watching it. Well, unless you want a movie to thrash that is.

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    1. Ha shit, your final sentence was hilarious.

      It's funny, I caught the nominations on Twitter via the Screen Actors Guild timeline, and they were posting pictures of the nominees one category at a time. So for Best Actor, it was the faces Cooper, Day-Lewis, Jackman, Hawkes and Washington, without their names or the movie they are in. When Best Supporting Actress came around, I looked and Maggie Smith and was like, "What the fuck is that?"

      I have no interest in seeing that movie, but... sigh, we shall see.

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  9. I was surprised to see Bardem there- for me, the Supporting Actor category this year is by far the most exciting and interesting, and I think same goes for Supp Actress. Leads are quite boring, nothing really stood out for me, maybe Actress more than Actor.
    Also interesting to see so much love for Best Exotic Marigold Hotel and Nicole Kidman in Paperboy, where did that come from? (same goes for some nominations for Naomi Watts in Impossible- another movie I haven't heard about)

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    1. Bardem definitely surprised me too, and while I loved him in that movie, he stole McConaughey’s spot, and I'm not sure how I feel about that. (Similarly, Arkin is good in Argo, but nomination-worthy good?)

      I'm kind of digging all the acting nominations, and I think actress is pretty rockin'. Some serious talent there. Stunned by Marigold and Paperboy noms as well. Random as shit haha.

      The Impossible is said to contain two very strong lead performances (Watts and Ewan McGregor) but the film as a whole is a little sappy and sentimental. That's just what I've heard though, haven't seen it yet either. Very curious.

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