The 2002 Oscar Contenders

The nominations are in, and thus begins the wait to see who will take home the little gold statue, as well as the prestige, bragging rights that come with it. As far as this year's Oscar nominations go, there are some good choices, and some not-so-good choices.

Lets first examine the Best Picture category, which includes, Chicago, Gangs of New York, The Hours, The Lord of the Rings: the Two Towers, and The Pianist.

I just want to note the absence of Punch Drunk Love from not only this category, but from every nomination. Paul Thomas Anderson's film is a beautifully crafted, artistic, poignant love story; possibly the most realistic, yet abstract romance movie I have ever seen. However, I understand that at least half the people who read this will be thinking, "God I hated that, it made me feel so uncomfortable," and I guess that explains its absence from the list.

Moving onto the actual nominees -- Gangs of New York should not be on this list, unless Best Picture means 'best unrealized directorial vision that got lost because said director bit off more than he could chew'. Gangs is a decent movie, but it lacks focus and overall coherence. It attempts to do too much and lacks the refined, perfectly sculpted elements of past Best Picture winners. Scorsese is past his prime.

Next to go is Chicago, which seems to be this year's Moulin Rouge. Everyone loves it, it's fun, there's music, there's, uh, Richard Gere. However, the precedent for not picking musicals was set last year by Rouge, which at least was about love. Chicago seems slightly trivial in the Best Picture category, which usually goes to movies that tackle something epic, either thematically or content-wise, or have Russell Crowe in them. Chicago is also directed by an Academy rookie, Rob Marshell, who was also nominated for best direction. Chicago's best bet is in the Best Adapted Screenplay category.

However, it will have to beat out Charlie Kaufman's Adaptation, which, as anyone who has seen the movie knows, was painstakingly adapted from The Orchid Thief. If I may digress again, this is another movie that is absent from the Best Picture list, despite large amounts of critical praise. It has the edge in the screenplay category; I mean, look at the title.

Back to best pictures: the precedent for Lord of the Rings movies not winning best picture was also set last year, and despite living up to the expectations of the extremely enjoyable first installment, there is no way Two Towers can win. Hopefully I will be wrong.

That leaves The Hours and The Pianist. Here it gets difficult. The director of The Hours, Stephen Daldry, is fairly inexperienced. He has done two other movies, and one of them was Billy Elliot, which is not too shabby.

The director of The Pianist is Roman Polanksi, who has, incidentally, been nominated four times for Oscars, but has never won. Based on those facts, I would put my money on Polanski, who is also in contention for best director.

As far as other categories go, Best Actor and Actress are difficult choices, as usual. Daniel Day-Lewis was great in Gangs, but he is up against Oscar heavyweight Jack Nicholson, who was phenomenal in About Schmidt, recent Academy favorite Michael Caine (for The Quiet American), Nicholas Cage at his best, who plays twins in Adaptation, and relatively unknown, first-time-nominee Adrienne Brody. Besides Brody, all four other actors have at least one Oscar. I would like to see Cage receive this award, as he has not had that much recognition as of late, and playing two completely different characters in one movie is very difficult.

The women are in an opposite position from the men, as none of them have won an Oscar before. Selma Hayek, nominated for her spectacular performance in Frida, could be this year's Halle Berry, but she'll have to beat out Renee Zellweger's Roxie from Chicago, which could be difficult to do, despite the fact that Zellweger has never sung. Then there is Nicole Kidman, with a follow-up nomination after her first for Rouge last year. She is certainly due, but not as much as Julianne Moore, if we go by nominations, because she has had two. Last but not least is Diane Lane for Unfaithful. Whoever wins here will be filling in shoes as a new A-list high-caliber leading woman actress. Because of the (well-deserved) hype for The Hours, I would not be surprised to see Kidman walk away with it.

Finally, Lilo and Stitch for Best Animated Picture. Hands down.