Acting Up

The SAG nominees are out, inching us ever closer to the Oscars. (The Golden Globe nominations are also out, but I consider them a joke.)

Not too many surprises, with three for Lincoln and Silver Linings Playbook and two (plus one for stunt work) for Les Miserables.  Also, Fox Searchlight got four out of the twenty nominations for three different films--John Hawkes and Helen Hunt for The Sessions, and a couple of British grand dames that the Oscars often go for, Helen Mirren in Hitchcock and Maggie Smith in The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel. (I get the feeling Smith may have been nominated because they thought this was another adventure for her character on Downton Abbey--for which she also got a nomination.)  Then there's Javier Bardem, for his eccentric turn in Skyfall--the first Bond villain to get a SAG nomination.--Bond films in general don't get awards of any kind for acting.

Actually, the list is like old home week--most of these nominees have already won an Oscar, including every single one of the male supporting actors, and only a couple haven't at least been nominated.  A few have won more than one Academy Award.  I'd say Daniel Day-Lewis, for instance, is now the favorite to win the Best Actor Oscar, which would be his third.

Anyone missing?  Well, they nominated Philip Seymour Hoffman for The Master, but costars Joaquin Phoenix and Amy Adams are nowhere to be seen--not even an ensemble nomination.  Other films completely snubbed:  Life Of Pi, Moonrise Kingdom, Anna Karenina, Amour, Cloud Atlas and The Dark Knight Rises.

So we're starting to get an idea where the Oscars are heading.  It looks like there might be some good battles.  I'm not even sure if we'll have a strong favorite for best film, what with Lincoln, Les Mis, Silver Linings Playbook, Argo and Zero Dark Thirty all in play.