2008 Oscar Nominations

The 2008 Oscar nominations were released today with, let's say, more than a few major disappointments.  First off, here is the list of nominees.  And here is the list of movies I saw this year:

• The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
• The Dark Knight
• Doubt
• Frost/Nixon
• Gran Torino
• Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull
• Kung Fu Panda
• Man on Wire
• Milk
• Revolutionary Road
• Slumdog Millionaire
• WALL-E

Now some observations and opinions about the nominations:

• Best Actor: Someone watch Revolutionary Road and honestly tell me that Leonardo DiCaprio doesn't deserve a nomination.  Definitely a much better performance than Brad Pitt's, and perhaps even rivaling Frank Langella's and Sean Penn's.  Ditto for Clint Eastwood in Gran Torino, though his omission seems a little more reasonable to me.
• Best Supporting Actor: Heath Ledger is a shoo-in for this one.  Philip Seymour Hoffman's and Michael Shannon's nominations are well-deserved.  Josh Brolin -- maybe...
• Best Actress: Again, watch Revolutionary Road and tell me that Kate Winslet doesn't deserve a nomination for that.  Though she did win Golden Globes for both movies (Best Supporting Actress for The Reader), so I am curious to see that movie.
• Best Animated Film: WALL-E is a shoo-in, and may have even been a contender for Best Picture, had it been submitted (which would have, I assume, made it ineligible for the Best Animated Film category).
• Best Directing: I'm not too big of a fan of The Dark Knight and have no problem with it not being nominated for Best Picture, but I still think it's blasphemous to not nominate it for Best Directing.
• Best Picture: Don't even get me started.  But if Slumdog Millionaire doesn't win in this (relatively) trashy quintet of nominees, something is really wrong with the Academy.
• Best Writing (Adapted Screenplay): This is a tough one to call.  I've seen 4 of the 5 nominees, but in my own opinion, I'd have to choose Frost/Nixon to win this one.
• The Curious Case of Benjamin Button: A 166 minute movie that is equivalent to a waste of about 136 minutes.  How it got nominations in anything non-technical is beyond me, and the pleasure I'd get from seeing it go 0-for-13 would be greater than the pleasure I got from watching the movie (close to none).

So here is my current top 5 of the year, keeping in mind that I do still have several movies yet to see, most notably 4 Months, 3 Weeks, and 2 Days; Frozen River; Happy-Go-Lucky; Iron Man; Let the Right One In; The Reader; Synecdoche, New York; and The Wrestler.

1. Revolutionary Road
2. Gran Torino
3. Slumdog Millionaire
4. WALL-E
5. Frost/Nixon

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Update (6/17/09): Since I first wrote this, I have seen The Wrestler, Frozen River, Iron Man, and The Reader.  All of them were great.  I'd have to say that Iron Man is now #5 on the above list, with The Wrestler squeezing in as an honorable mention, pushing Frost/Nixon down to #7.  (Note: I did, in fact, like Iron Man significantly more than The Dark Knight.)