Top 10 Snubs

10. Alfonso Cuaron “Y Tu Mama
Tambien” is a great teenage road movie, and Cuaron, who is
nominated for writing the film with his brother Carlos, also did a
great job directing it.

9. “Minority Report” Steven
Spielberg showed the world how he could improve upon his flawed
“A.I.” with a more convincing and haunting future
world. The visual effects were better than “Attack of the
Clones,” the cinematography was wonderfully gray, and a
memorable performance by Samantha Morton deserved recognition.

8. Documentaries on Pop Culture Academy members
apparently don’t care for documentaries about artists, even
when they’re good. “The Kid Stays in the
Picture,” “Standing in the Shadows of Motown,”
“Biggie and Tupac” and “I’m Trying to Break
Your Heart” were a few worthy documentaries that got passed
over.

7. “The Lord of the Rings: The Two
Towers” Yes, the film is a best picture nominee, but
where were the nominations for performances, especially Andrew
Serkis, the best example so far of how computer graphics characters
can be compelling? Also, Peter Jackson is the only director of a
best picture nominee who wasn’t also nominated for best
director. It seems the Academy even went out of its way to prevent
more “LOTR” nominations by cutting nominations in
makeup from three to two this year; hopefully one of the apparently
unconvincing Orcs will show up to the awards anyway and eat some
Academy members.

6. Richard Gere “Chicago” was a
phenomenal picture and Gere didn’t screw it up at all. He
played slimy lawyer Billy Flynn with arrogant gusto, and his
tap-dancing wasn’t too bad either. The rest of the cast got
nominated, where’s the love for Richie?

5. “Spirited Away” While it’s
nominated for best animated feature, the other films in the
category are all cartoons (yeah, that’s right, we said it:
“Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron” ain’t all that
““ “Seventh Seal” of the animated horsey world,
please). Unlike the mass-produced kiddie movies,
“Spirited” should have seen recognition for a script
with realistic character arcs, a great auteur director (Hayao
Miyazaki), and a sweet musical score.

4. Foreign films It’s not always the
Academy’s fault that some films are not nominated by their
countries of origin for this award, but it’s bad either way.
“Russian Ark,” “Monsoon Wedding,”
“The Fast Runner,” “City of God,”
“Talk to Her,” and “What Time is it There?”
were all amazing films that were overlooked. Wait, what do you mean
neither Rupert Murdoch nor Michael Eisner had money invested in
these films? Oh, well, all right then.

3. “About Schmidt” UCLA alumnus
Alexander Payne has a knack for telling quirky stories with wit and
humor. Neither his calm direction nor his hilarious script were
nominated. Well, Ndugu, don’t worry little buddy. The film
awards world is a rough place, and sometimes it doesn’t all
work out like it should.

2. “Punch Drunk Love” This film
received no nominations, but fans of Fellini-esque romps should eat
up this delightful film. The cinematography burned so much it
sometimes even morphed into bravely abstract color landscapes, and
the music was joyously nostalgic, combining an organ with a Nino
Rota-like score. Paul Thomas Anderson is perhaps the most promising
of the young American auteurs, but his script and direction were
not enough (or was it too much, hm?) to impress the stodgy
Academy.

1. “Far From Heaven” This film is
nominated for four awards, but it deserved so much more. Supporting
roles by Patricia Clarkson, Dennis Quaid and the amazing Dennis
Haybert were unfortunately not honored. Neither the beautiful
dresses Julianne Moore wore nor those perfect New England sets were
nominated. Todd Haynes wrote a subtle script and directed it
masterfully, envisioning the Douglas Sirk melodrama with taboos
broken. If the Academy knew better, it would have realized this is
best picture material.