Among the unexpected, bizarre or surprise decisions at this year’s Oscar nominations ceremony:
• Only two songs were nominated — and neither went to Elton John for Gnomeo and Juliet’s “Hello Hello” or Madonna for W.E.‘s “Masterpiece.” They may be in terrible snits about it.
• Undefeated, fortunately not the documentary about Sarah Palin, The Undefeated, was nominated for best doc feature. But I did do a double take.
• The two noms for Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close show the power of a marketing campaign. I do love me some Max von Sydow, though.
• Sydow’s supporting actor nom seemed to “steal” the one expected for Albert Brooks in Drive, who was considered a frontrunner. This may lock up the win for Christopher Plummer as the gay dad in Beginners.
• The eye-straining visual effects of Transformers 3 and Real Steel over Captain America and MI: Ghost Protocol? Puh-leez.
• Carnage, with high-caliber Oscar written all over it (Roman Polanski, Kate Winslet, Jodie Foster) was completely overlooked.
