Once again, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has soldiered forward and made their feeble nominations.  It’s such a lot of wasted effort when all they needed to to was ask me which movies were naughty and which were nice.  Alas.

The Good

• At least they managed to include Letters from Iwo Jima and Little Miss Sunshine in the Best Picture category.
• The Oscar Best Actress list matches mine, five for five!
• They didn’t forget Ryan Gosling in the Best Actor category!  Thank goodness.
• They did pretty well on Best Supporting Actor, especially with the inclusions of Jackie Earle Haley and Alan Arkin.
• Finally, a big nice surprise:  To see Paul Greengrass’s name included in the Best Director category!

The Bad

• As I feared, way too many nominations for the boring Babel.  (One would have been too many.)  This craptastic Crash rip-off got SEVEN nominations, each more appalling than the last.
• Nothing at all for Akeelah and the Bee, Sweet Land, or Brick.  Shame, shame, shame on you, old fogey Academy voters!!!

 The Ugly

• Only three measely nominations for the best picture of the year, Children of Men (Adapted Screenplay, Cinematography, Editing).  I guess I should be happy it’s represented at all.
• Volver not being up for Best Foreign Film?  Exsqueeze me?!

As with every year, I have to try to take joy in the nominations they got right and ignore the ones they got wrong.  Nurse, please turn up the morphine drip.