Here we go again...

Am I the only one truly happy with this year’s nominees? Holly Holocaustic Drama, Batman! Let’s see…

Best Supporting Actor

While breakthrough performer Dev Patel was subtle and convincing in the gripping Slumdog Millionaire, he wasn’t close to be one of the best supporting actors of the year (especially considering he is his film’s lead). Josh Brolin did more with less by humanizing Milk’s antagonist Dan White and alongside Philip Seymour Hoffman, Robert Downey Jr. (kudos to our editor Clayton Davis for championing this performance before anyone else during the summer) and shocking (but very deserving) nominee Michael Shannon; they delivered the best supporting performances of the year by a male actor. Still, the Oscar is Heath Ledger’s.

Best Supporting Actress

Amy Adams, Penelope Cruz and Viola Davis were easy bets and so was Marisa Tomei. The genuine, deserving “surprise” in this category is Taraji P. Henson (who in my opinion, gave the best performance in The Curious Case of Benjamin Button). Watch out for Adams (my pick) or Cruz to take home the prize although the very capable Henson shouldn’t be counted out.

Best Actor

Brad Pitt should be happy to be nominated along respected vets Frank Langella and Richard Jenkins but this is a battle between Sean Penn in Milk and Mickey Rourke in The Wrestler. The safest choice is definitely Penn (who has the most Oscar-friendly role) but comeback kid Rourke seems ready to put on a good fight.

Best Actress

Kate Winslet’s neurotic housewife in Revolutionary Road was thankfully overlooked by the Academy in favor of her deep and touching performance in The Reader. As Hanna Schmitz, Winslet delivered the most complex performance of the year and I have no doubt she will be finally recognized as the best actress of the year (unless the Academy goes for the always reliable Meryl Streep). And speaking of Meryl, teenagers and young adults in the world rejoice; Anne Hathaway is now an Oscar nominee.

Best Director

Christopher Nolan is not quite ready for his close-up as the Academy opted to left The Dark Knight out of this (and every major) category. Instead, Stephen Daldry was chosen as the fifth nominee alongside Gus Van Sant, David Fincher, Danny Boyle and Ron Howard. Bet on Boyle if you are wise but don’t count out Fincher.

Best Picture

Right after the Golden Globe nominations were announced and way before the British Academy placed the Stephen Daldry drama in the spotlight, I claimed that The Reader appealed to the Academy’s key demographic and it was likely to become a Best Picture contender over unbaity films like The Dark Knight or Wall-E. It didn’t hurt that The Reader was produced by the late Sidney Pollack and Anthony Minghella (rest in peace).

Now, is The Reader a better film than The Dark Knight (the contender that probably never was)? In my opinion, The Reader is a superior film. While The Dark Knight goes deeper than most comic book adaptations, The Reader (which is also one of those exceptions to the rule where the film is better than the book) reaches a moving complexity that the source material from Batman can’t just provide. In The Reader, the characters have well-defined pathos and motivations and while The Dark Knight humanizes the cape crusader and all his adversaries, the Christopher Nolan moneymaker only succeeds on adapting Gotham to a realistic, contemporary scenario but it never completely absorbs you like Stephen Daldry’s emotional film (although that’s just personal opinion). In any case, The Reader should be happy to be nominated (can it hope for more? Let’s wait for the BAFTA results) and the same can be said about the very powerful Frost/Nixon.

This is a duel between Benjamin Button and Slumdog Millionaire and if you follow the trend, the atypical Slumdog is probably ahead of the classy Fincher film, at least right now.