Even more shocking to me is that this pattern continues to Best Director category, and onwards to the Best Actor (and Supporting) and even Best Actress nominations for the Oscars this year. In fact, of the “Major” categories, I’ve seen one single nominee – for Best Supporting actress and Original Screenplay – Bridesmaids. Does that seem right?

Either I am losing touch with my Cinephile heart, or this year’s nominations are idiotic. I submit the following as proof of the latter: King Fu Panda 2 is nominated in the Best Animated Feature category – Tin Tin is nowhere to be found.

Has the entire Academy taken Crazy Pills?

As an annual attendee of what is considered one of the most important pre-Oscar Film events each year, the Toronto International Film Festival, I honestly thought that I’d be on the cutting-edge of good cinema each year. At the 2011 Oscars I fared very well – having seen plenty of Academy-nom’d movies, and even more excitingly, several winning ones (including Best Foreign Film – which is basically the Holy Grail of Festival-goers ambitions). I saw several really fine films at TIFF in 2011, and while yes, many of the attendees are reflected in the nominations as they stand, I am generally baffled by the exclusion of others in favour of the ones listed.

Where’s Shame? Michael Fassbender and Carey Mulligan’s performances were heartbreakingly profound – and they should have been recognized for them. I’m not even going to mention the brilliant Directorial choices of Steven McQueen. What an awful oversight.

I hate Kirsten Dunst, have ever since Interview with the Vampire, but Hollywood loves her, and I’m honestly surprised she didn’t get mention with her genuinely decent role in Melancholia. Lars von Treir deserves some recognition for his work too, saying nothing of the absolutely wonderful Art Direction and Cinematography on the film.

Poor, unfortunate, Elizabeth Olsen, she really should have gotten a mention for Martha Marcy May Marlene. Similarly to Dunst she obviously put her heart and soul into the role this movie would not be nearly as poetic and haunting as it was with her pitch-perfect acting. This is one of those breakout roles that usually the Academy eats up – but instead this year they have decided to ignore it.

Finally, I offer Tilda Swinton in We Need to Talk About Kevin. Her performance was so raw and real, certainly it deserves a mention among her peers? Did nobody see this film besides myself, Angelina and Allison? As compared to The Iron Lady, does Meryl Streep *really* need another nomination for a role that was not nearly as emotionally deep as Tilda’s in Kevin? I don’t hate Maryl Streep – but stop it – STOP IT! STOP NOMINATING HER FOR EVERY SINGLE THING!

How about the male performances of the season? Ryan Gosling blew up at TIFF in Ides of March & Drive and yet the only noms those films get are for Adapted Screenplay and Sound Editing, respectively. What the What? I’ve already mentioned Fassbender, but seriously it’s worth mentioning again. Fassbender was robbed.

This brings me to the largest gripe I have about this year’s nominations. There have been numerous articles recently (such as this well-written on in the Toronto Star from last week) regarding the option to include Mo-Cap performances into the Acting categories. Although I haven’t seen, nor am I convinced that Andy Serkis deserves a nom for his particular performance in, Rise of the Planet of the Apes – the fact is that these actors are working just as hard, are just as talented and bring just as much to each role they take on as traditional roles. I suppose I was hoping that they’d give him a trophy in honour of his innovation in the field, and a decade-late nod for Gollum in the LOTR Trilogy (as the Academy does have a tradition of pulling moves like this). But there you have it, the CGI crew gets a nom and Serkis is ignored. My only resolution on this topic is that they have two years to change their mind and give him a nom (and ideally a win) for Gollum in the upcoming Hobbit films. We will have to wait and see.

I suppose I’m pleased with the attention given to The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo and how Harry Potter 7 (pt 2) has been given a few nods as the last hurrah for the franchise. I didn’t dislike Bridesmaids at all – and consider it one of the funniest films of 2011 – but it’s more suited for an MTV Movie Award than an Oscar. Maybe that makes me elitist – but I rather think the point of this entire rant is to proove that I’m not. The ‘Blockbusters’ are great, and some are definitely award-worthy, but never at the expensive of so many talented performers and filmmakers that are in the indepentan

I’m seriously considering not even watching the ceremonies this year – and hoping for a better in 2012. How disappointing.

Since I now actually enjoy visiting my own site, hopefully others will feel the same and I’ll start blogging on random topics more often. I’d really like to start actually writing about movies during the whole year, or about the tasty-tasty meals that Eddie takes me out on. I’ll be going to Vegas, and Edmonton later in the year, and would love to talk about that too here. We’ll see. I usually say I’ll get back into blogging and then fail immediately.

Since there’s nothing else much currently happening, I’ll simply leave you with a suggestion for your TV viewing pleasure; two of my new most favorite obsessions, Sherlock & Downton Abbey.

They’re both brilliant series and excellent examples of how British TV can be so much better than US TV.

The sense of community and acceptance, fun, excitement and overall revelry that an event like Comic-Con brings is something I’m delighted that Morgan Spurlock and the countless other nerd celebrities (Kevin Smith, Matt Groaning, Joss Wheaton, Stan Lee, Guillermo del Toro, Seth Rogan, Seth Green, Eli Roth… I could go on, literally for about an hour – there’s a tonne of celebrity interviews) brought to the big screen. If nothing else, as an excuse for people who enjoy Comic-Con, Comic Books, Genre Films, Sci-Fi, Superheros and Video Games to celebrate their love, and their annual celebration of their fandom.

The film follows a few different regular, every day attendees, as they visit The Con for different reasons. Artists, Dealers, Cosplayers and Collectors. Intermingled with their story is an overall arc of describing the event to the outsider, and simply offering an explanation on why this event is so huge. A few people mention, quite a bit, that Comic-Con is very simply now a Pop Culture Fest – a Studio-branded advertisement for anything and everything that may have an intense fan following. It’s really not about Comics anymore. I think they’re absolutly correct, but I think they’re missing a larger point.

I’m going to take my personal experience here for a moment to describe exactly what’s happening. In 1997, in high school, the lovley Angelina introduced me to a very small, gathering called Anime North. I didn’t really like Anime that much, but I knew about Sailor Moon, and I really liked dressing up. I borrowed a Sailor Mercury costume and went. It was fun. I kept going, and it kept getting bigger, a few years later I made my own costume, the main character from obscure Anime, Mah? Tsukai Tai!. It was great. I won an award! My tastes changed, and I lost what little interest I already had in Anime. Over the years my tastes grew, I started liking Star Trek, and Zombie Movies, retro Video Games and Lord of the Rings. While seemingly different, these interests instinctively go together. And I found FanExpo (and if I were American, I would have found Comic-Con).

Like FanExpo Canada, San Diego Comic-Con is an amalgamation of what used to be separate cons, Anime, Sci-Fi, Comic and Gaming. A celebration of all things geek. While the die-hard Comic Fans may lament, this is a glorious and fun event celebrated by geeks of all sort. It offers something for everyone, and it’s a party. Steampunk, Zombie, Furry, Goth – whatever your identity, you’ll be included.

My review of We Need to Talk About Kevin is up on CBC.ca, if you want to read it over there.

Yesterday I saw two very different sort of films, first up was Death of a Superhero, by Ian Fitzgibbon, and starring Andy Serkis and Thomas Brodie-Sangster aka, the Adorable little kid from Nanny McFee & Love, Actually. He’s really now 21, and an absolute rising star. I’d put him easily on par with Kodi Smit-McPhee as my ‘Eventual Oscar Winners’ category.

Death of a Superhero tells the story of a teenage boy, Rob, fighting cancer. Perhaps fighting is not the exact phrase, so much as rebelling against it. The first half of the film centers on his relationship with his new Therapist (Serkis), loosely encouraging him to continue his passion of drawing. Some of the film’s story, Rob’s emotions and fears, are told through animated scenes – a fantasy world that he has created wherein he’s a Superhero being chased by, essentially, Death. As his prognoses goes from better to worse, the story switches gears, and we turn to Rob’s close friends who are determined to not let him die a virgin. This second half may seem out of place, but it successfully portrays the sort of desperate hope and loneliness that the character must be feeling at the time.

[Ian FitzGibbon (Director), Thomas Brodie-Sangster, Aisling Loftus]

While still being emotional and serious, the film offers a lot of light comedy overtones. There are glimpses into the real dread and horror of the situation, sometimes via the animated sequences, and with flashes between the main character’s parents. Unfortunately, or fortunately depending on how you look at it, I don’t think it quite crosses over to the heart-wrenching or heart-warming film it wants to be. I would be very interested to read the book on which it was based, to see if there’s more to it. Even still, it’s a decent little film, that I think is easily accessible to a wide audience, and reminds me in some ways to last year’s Griff the Invisible. Touching, but doesn’t quite take flight. Afterward, I stayed for one the rare Q&As that I actually feel helped me understand the film better. In particular, when the question was asked of Thomas, how he prepared for the role of a teenage terminal cancer patient. He was honest and replied that he didn’t visit cancer wards, or do much research on the disease itself.

The makeup, costume and props that were a part of his daily acting experience offers as much inspiration as he required in relation to the illness. He played the role how the character would have wanted to live, as a regular teen, who happened to be sick.

Photos from this Q&A and my Midnight Madness flick, Livid, can be found on my TIFF DAY 4 Flickr Set.