The Academy is blind! 5 they overlooked for Best Picture

And the little bald dude goes to...

This year the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, or AMPAS® for short (“got your am-pass®? This area’s restricted”), in its vast wisdom, decided to bloat the number of Best Picture noms to 10, a doubling.

And yet even the long list has raised some eyebrows. The Blind Side? An Education? Precious: Based on a Blah Blah? Up in the Air? Hmm… in hindsight, maybe 5 was the right number after all.

And wouldn’t you know it, still a few films managed to fall right through the Academy’s San Andreas cracks. Here’s a look at 5 that, in the opinion of the elitist, closeted, annoyingly erudite ‘Closely Watched’ jury, are just as deserving of a nod as any of the films actually nominated. If not more so.

Jane Campion’s Bright Star.

Come on! Is that a shot or what!?

Previous Best Picture winner Campion’s glorious return to form after a couple shorts and an interesting but probably failed experiment into genre (In The Cut) was thoroughly overlooked. Bright Star features the kind of beautiful, lyrical filmmaking that brought attention to her in the first place, and Academy love for Piano. Where’s that love now? What have you done for me lately, the Academy asks.

Michael Mann’s Public Enemies.

Have you met my wife? She lives in Paris too...

Any movie that divides audiences and critics as much as Mann’s latest is a movie with something interesting going on. Some have dismissed it as more of Mann’s “video period” filmmaking, but this time, unlike with Collateral or Miami Vice, the low-fi form clashed with the period content to bring a remarkable tension to the film. It shouldn’t be dismissed. Easily the best film Mann has made in ten years.

Spike Jonze’s Where the Wild Things Are.

So misunderstood...

This is another film that parted the sea of opinion. Anything that creates such division can not be easily dismissed (see: Public Enemies, health care, our current president, etc.). Of course what’s really at issue here is the liberal attitude Jonze and Eggers took with the adaptation. Some people say they didn’t go far enough and in their attempt to have it both ways won neither battle (and thus, lost the war). But Jonze brought his unique personal vision to the movie, creating an incredibly odd movie, easily one of the strangest film-going experiences of the year. Surely that counts for something…

Steven Soderbergh’s The Informant!

If De Niro can win an Oscar for eating, so can I!

People love to hate Soderbergh these days. It’s probably because he seems (and probably is) really smart. And yet he’s intent on making, every couple years, a really strange, totally “personal” movie. Shame on him! How dare he!? Or, people hate him because he got to hang out with Sasha Grey, probably naked, for, like, a month and probably, I’m almost certain of this, nailed her. Or more likely, she nailed him. Anyway, the point is, yes, Soderbergh makes those mildly annoying “personal” films. The guy likes to keep it fresh. He likes to experiment. Sue him. But he also makes, just as often, something pretty freaking great. The problem with The Informant! is that people didn’t seem to know what it was. Is it a comedy? If so, uh… what kind? Like… Apatowian, or like… John Hughesian, or what? Is it a drama that’s sometimes funny? If so… how am I supposed to know when to laugh, man? Sheesh. Throw me a bone, here, Stevie. 

Duncan Jones’s Moon.

I'm so ronery... so so ronery...

Who knew that Bowie Jr. even made movies? With this, his first feature, Duncan Jones announced himself to the filmmaking world. And while it’s not a perfect movie, it’s a very good movie and, what’s more, a well crafted movie. It’s certainly a better movie than The Blind Side, right? Or Precious: Based on a Blah Blah. Come on. I love a great performance as much as the next guy, but puh-lease. Let’s not get so carried away, here. Working with basically one actor, and maybe two characters, Jones created a claustrophobic antidote to our current sci-fi conceit. Usually the Academy likes to reward hard-working neophytes who prove themselves with their first real flick. Or is that Sundance?