Black comedy âThe Favouriteâ and Netflix drama âRomaâ have topped the list for the most nominations at this yearâs Academy Awards, but some great movies from the past year have been overlooked according to CTVâs film critic.
As preparations build for the biggest night in show business, CTVâs film contributor and Pop Life host Richard Crouse gives his pick of the talent and movies snubbed by the academy.
DIRECTORS
âA Star Is Bornâ was a huge hit with fans and critics alike, but its director Bradley Cooper is conspicuously absent in the best director category, according to Crouse.
âFrom the very second people started seeing this at film festivals they were talking about Bradley Cooper making one of the great changeovers from actor to director,â he said. âSo that he wasnât nominated feels like a big misstep for me.â
Ryan Coogler, the director of Marvel Studiosâ smash hit âBlack Panther,â was also snubbed by the academy, according to Crouse.
âItâs been winning awards all over the place and whenever this kind of thing happens thereâs an old joke that everybody makes, âI guess the movie directed itself,ââ he said.
âRyan Coogler is a big misstep I think.â
Nominees in the best director category are Spike Lee for âBlacKkKlansman,â Pawel Pawlikowski for âCold War,â Yorgos Lanthimos for âThe Favourite,â Alfonso Cuaron for âRomaâ and Adam McKay for âVice.â
DOCUMENTARIES
The best documentary category has a wide range of subjects, including U.S. Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, contemporary black life in Alabama, terrorism, rock climbing in âFree Soloâ and a love of skateboarding in âMinding The Gap.â
But a documentary about the life of childrenâs TV host Fred Rogers, âWonât You Be My Neighbour?â has been unfairly overlooked, according to Crouse.
âThatâs a movie that got people interested in going to see documentaries in the theatre again,â he said. âEveryone, before the nominations came out, just assumed that it was going to win. To see it not on the list is kind of shocking.â
OTHER SNUBS
Crouse also lamented the lack of a nomination for smaller independent movie âEighth Gradeâ in the best original screenplay category.
The film, which depicts the challenges of growing up in the age of constant phone use, won the outstanding original screenplay prize at the Writers Guild Of America Awards last week.
âItâs not even nominated in any category, let alone best original screenplay, so that was a surprise,â he said.
Romantic comedy âCrazy Rich Asians,â the first big Hollywood film in a quarter century to feature an all-Asian cast, is also nowhere to be seen in the prestige award categories.
âIt was a very popular movie the world over and it didnât get a single nomination,â Crouse said.
âIt probably was never going to get nominated for best picture, but there had to be some of what they call the craft categories, make-up, hair, something like that, that it could have been slotted into, but nothing.â
Probably the most ironic non-nomination was for a movie called âThe Quiet Place,â Crouse said.
The sci-fi thriller, which has minimal dialogue, features a family of four navigating their lives in silence to avoid mysterious creatures that hunt by sound.
âThat it wasnât nominated for sound design is kind of shocking as well,â he said.
BOHEMIAN RHAPSODY
Meanwhile, Twitter users have slammed âBohemian Rhapsodyâ nomination for best editing, spawning a number of memes online.
Critics have been mixed in their reviews of the wildly popular biopic about rock band Queen and its lead singer Freddie Mercury.
One scene in the movie, which sees the band seated with their manager in a pub beer garden, has gone viral for its rapid fire editing, with one viewer on Twitter counting 52 cuts in the 82 second clip.
âTo see it nominated as heavily as it is, in a time when there are really good films that arenât getting the same kind of attention, I think thatâs what people are surprised about,â Crouse said.
âIt is essentially a concert for the last 20 minutes of the running time, you walk out of the theatre pumping your fist in the air, youâre excited, youâve just seen a rock and roll show. And you forget that the movie that came before it, leading up to the Live Aid recreation at the end, isnât particularly well made, itâs not particularly well written, but people have a fondness for the music and for Freddie Mercury and are willing to forgive a lot and thatâs OK.â
PAST QUESTIONABLE AWARDS
The academy has also made some questionable awards decisions over the years.
The 2006 Oscar for best picture went to âCrash,â a drama about race relations in Los Angeles, upsetting heavy favourite âBrokeback Mountain,â a romance about two men set over 20 years.
âCrash was a movie that people were talking about and I think that momentum swept forward into the Academy Awards that year,â Crouse said.
âI would also think that there was probably no small amount of homophobia involved in Brokeback Mountain not getting an award. If you look at the two movies now back-to-back youâll see that âBrokeback Mountainâ is a movie that really stands the test of time, where âCrashâ feels a little of its moment.â
The victory of âShakespeare in Loveâ over Steven Spielbergâs âSaving Private Ryanâ for the best picture award in 1999 is also seen as a shocking misjudgment.
âSaving Private Ryan has one of the single greatest war scenes ever committed to film,â Grouse said.
âFor some reason the academy doesnât really like to honour Steven Spielberg. If you watch that film today itâs a film that stands up, itâs an achievement.â
âShakepeare in Loveâ is a really âniceâ movie, Crouse said.
âPeople like it, but is it part of the big conversation on film? I donât think so,â he said.