This morning’s Screen Actors Guild nominations (click here for the full list) have already got commenters fired up and it seems the number one complaint is the absence of Inception from the list of Best Ensemble Cast nominations. The five nominees in the category were Black Swan, The Fighter, The Kids are All Right, The King’s Speech and The Social Network. Of these five there is only one surprise in my mind and that’s Black Swan, a film that also saw Mila Kunis nominated in Best Supporting Actress, but we’ll get to that in a second.
As for the Inception “snub”, I’m not in the same camp as the many commenters in thinking it was snubbed for Best Ensemble, but I will admit it is more deserving than Black Swan, a film I watched again only a couple of days ago. While Natalie Portman and Barbara Hershey are great in the film, the idea of it being one of the five Best Ensembles over the likes of Winter’s Bone, Another Year, Rabbit Hole, True Grit and, yes, even Inception is silliness. However, above those five films, I thought The Town would be the fifth one in as all signs were pointing to that being the case. However, with that film’s absence from the list the momentum it had built toward getting a Best Picture nomination have dwindled. In fact, you can check out my latest Best Picture predictions here.
This leads me to Kunis, a performance I don’t want you to think I believe to be bad in any way, but it’s not even better than Hershey’s performance in the very same film. Then you look at other performances such as Dianne Wiest (Rabbit Hole), Jacki Weaver (Animal Kingdom) and Dale Dickey (Winter’s Bone) and all you can say is Really?
I was happy to see John Hawkes getting some attention for his role in Winter’s Bone and that category looks quite good to me other than the fact I don’t believe Mark Ruffalo belongs in there for The Kids are All Right, at least not over Andrew Garfield (The Social Network), Bill Murray (Get Low), Peter Wight (Another Year) or Sam Rockwell (Conviction). And speaking of Conviction, that film offered what is surely a surprise to some.
Hilary Swank being nominated for her performance in Conviction didn’t necessarily surprise me, but it is a massive snubbing of someone far more deserving. The continually ignored Lesley Manville (Another Year) gave one of, if not the best performance of the year. However, since being named Best Actress by the National Board of Review, Manville has been continually ignored. On top of SAG overlooking her performance, she wasn’t nominated for a Golden Globe and the Broadcast Film Critics Association didn’t nominate her even though they gave six nominations in all acting categories. It’s a tragedy in the film awards world and I don’t want to hear about Supporting vs. Lead confusion, which is certain to be the reasoning everyone gives… Figure it out, and get it right. We’re all grown-ups here, capable of handling such difficulties.
Swank’s place also means names such as Michelle Williams (Blue Valentine) and Julianne Moore (The Kids Are All Right) are overlooked. And for the life of me I can’t figure out what Annette Bening brought to The Kids are All Right that Moore didn’t and I’m not sure I’ll ever understand.
On the Best Actor side, many are complaining about the absence of Javier Bardem (Biutiful) and the inclusion of Jeff Bridges (True Grit). This to me is a snub, but not a surprise. Bardem is leaps and bounds ahead of every actor on the board with his performance in Biutiful. He gave what I may end up deeming the best performance of the year and yet, for some reason, he missed the list for a performance from Bridges that, while good, doesn’t really move the dial. I’m sure supporters of Ryan Gosling (Blue Valentine) are also probably a bit miffed and I’d like to give Jim Broadbent (Another Year) a mention as well just for good measure.
I’ll leave the television discussion to you, because I really have no opinion, but other than that have at it in the comments. What nominations upset or surprised you the most? Who are you happiest about seeing nominated? And if you need to look over the nominees once more, click here.
