AMPAS = Original Thinkers?
Say what you want about the Academy and its choices, but one thing about their nominations this year that has made me really appreciate them is that they have a mind of their own. Try as the blogosphere might to insist that The Dark Knight is one of the five best films of the year, the Academy was having none of it. They will not be told what to think.
All the precursors included those same five films over and over, but AMPAS went its own way in nominating another worthy film, Stephen Daldry's The Reader. Some have decried it as an unoriginal choice because it is a Holocaust film, which if these people had been paying attention they would have realized that it isn't. The Holocaust is an element, but one that consistently lurks in the background rather than slaps you in the face.
In other words, this is a refreshing piece of original thinking. The Academy didn't follow the herd mentality by nominating The Dark Knight. They like what they like, not what others tell them to like.
And for that, I respect them.
All the precursors included those same five films over and over, but AMPAS went its own way in nominating another worthy film, Stephen Daldry's The Reader. Some have decried it as an unoriginal choice because it is a Holocaust film, which if these people had been paying attention they would have realized that it isn't. The Holocaust is an element, but one that consistently lurks in the background rather than slaps you in the face.
In other words, this is a refreshing piece of original thinking. The Academy didn't follow the herd mentality by nominating The Dark Knight. They like what they like, not what others tell them to like.
And for that, I respect them.
Comments
THE READER's nom comes from a very muscled Weinstein Company FYC campaign, nothin' more.
I'm disappointed to see THE DARK KNIGHT miss the cut, but all the same I would have much rather seen a film like WALL-E or THE WRESTLER land that fifth spot.
Like the one for "The Dark Knight," for example.