We interrupt this blog…

Obligatory Oscars post in advance of tonight. My (belated) thoughts on the nominations and which films I’d like to see take something home. Yes, this is still a blog about attempts at writerliness, I’ve just got nowhere else to post this.

Half my fun with the Oscars has to do with the show itself, the circus, not the results, but there are still a lot of people I’m rooting for and a lot of awards I’m really interested in, as well as a few people I would have liked to see get nominations. Here are a few of my thoughts.

Performance by an actor in a leading role
* Richard Jenkins in “The Visitor”
* Frank Langella in “Frost/Nixon”
* Sean Penn in “Milk”
* Brad Pitt in “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button”
* Mickey Rourke in “The Wrestler”
Langella is great in ‘Frost/Nixon’ but I wasn’t nuts about the film. Loved Sean Penn in ‘Milk’ and Mickey Rourke in ‘The Wrestler’. Will try to check ‘The Visitor’ out at some point, really like Richard Jenkins. Pitt is good in ‘Benjamin Button’ but by most accounts Michael Fassbender for ‘Hunger’ and Benicio Del Toro for ‘Che’ also deserved recognition. (Criminally I haven’t seen either of those films yet.) Though maybe Pitt’s nod makes up for the absurd general snub of ‘The Assassination of Jesse James’ last year.
I’ll be rooting for Mickey Rourke, like most of the rest of the world, because he’s pretty damn special in a great movie and I really want to see him on that stage. Penn’s been there, done that. I suppose I couldn’t begrudge Langella a win.