I'm just going to leave this right here...
Yes, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has announced the Oscar nominations,
and social media and the world of entertainment are blowing up debating about who will win the trophies that night on the final Sunday of February.
Let's talk about the one that's on everyone's mind: Is this finally Leonardo DiCaprio's year?
For those who have seen the movie that DiCaprio recently starred in from "Birdman" director Alejandro G. Iñárritu, "The Revenant," you'll know that Leo is one of the most dedicated and talented actors working in Hollywood right now. Leo has been nominated by the Academy four times in the past: for Arnie Grape in "What's Eating Gilbert Grape?" (1994), Howard Hughes in "The Aviator" (2005), Danny Archer in "Blood Diamond" (2007), and Jordan Belfort in "The Wolf of Wall Street" (2013).
Many people, including myself, were sure that his energy and manipulative charm as Belfort in "The Wolf of Wall Street" would be some sort of wakeup call to the Academy showing that Leo can just about pull off any role that he's given in a film.
Unfortunately, the dude who showed up in the movie for about 10 minutes just to pound his f***ing chest stole it from him.
But that's beside the point. Since Leo doesn't say that many lines in "The Revenant," and the lines he does say are mostly spoken in a different language, I think we can safely assume that Leo truly was using his full potential in this movie. However, he's going up against some pretty stiff competition.
Matt Damon plays a funny, relatable and overall very human character, in "The Martian," Eddie Redmayne plays a man who goes through the process of becoming a woman in "The Danish Girl" (and we all know the academy LOVES to eat that sort of thing up), Michael Fassbender portrays the genius behind Apple Inc., Steve Jobs, in Danny Boyle's "Steve Jobs," and Bryan Cranston, the man who played Walter "Heisenberg" White in the greatest achievement on television, "Breaking Bad," plays 1947 blacklisted Hollywood writer Dalton Trumbo in "Trumbo."
Needless to say, Leo is going to be neck and neck with his fellow competitors.
On the other hand, I can't get out of this without talking about the biggest trophy of the night, the Best Picture Oscar. It looks like the Oscars were being pretty generous this year with their nominations. It's probably because of all the backlash that they were getting from not nominating those who deserved it, like when Jake Gyllenhaal was snubbed for Best Actor when he starred in "Nightcrawler" last year.
They nominated "Mad Max: Fury Road," an action movie, a genre that never, and I mean NEVER, gets nominated for any of the major Oscars. Only director George Miller would be able to pull something like that off. Its competition is what you'd expect it to be. Slow-moving films, while really entertaining and well made, are all arthouse movies that critics eat up like someone who's on the verge of starvation at an all-you-can-eat buffet. You know what needs to happen?
"Mad Max" needs to win the Oscar this year just so we can put in the history books that an action movie was the winner of Best Picture. Because when you have a movie that looks as gorgeous as this...
...the Academy needs to wake up and realize that action films can be artistic masterpieces as well.
Hell, Quentin Tarantino already proved that action movies can have a sense of artistry with "Kill Bill Vol. 1 & 2." I think the Academy is already realizing that, though, since they were kind enough to give it an Oscar nod.
This is turning out to be a pretty interesting year for the awards season. Many of the competitors,
and many films that we thought weren't going to be nominated, are nominated.
The Academy Awards 2016 will be hosted by Chris Rock on Feb. 28, 2016 at 7:00 p.m. EST on ABC.
