The King's Speech got the most nominations with 12. True Grit got 10 and The Social Network and Inception got 8. That sounds about right except for Inception.
The biggest snub seems to be that Christopher Nolan was not nominated for directing Inception. I think he should have won which certainly requires a nomination. Of course you can't just say who you think should have been nominated, you also have to say who did get a nomination who shouldn't have. Richard Roeper has no qualms about this, he tweeted "No offense to Tom Hooper, but I'll bet Nolan could direct a pretty good 'King's Speech.' Could anyone else have directed 'Inception'?" I think I agree. Though it's not clear Nolan has ever coaxed such strong performances from his actors, though in this case I think it's mostly Firth's and Rush's accomplishments. Aronofsky still spent way too much time in Black Swan following the actors around, literally showing the back of their head. I'd say only half the film deserves a directing nomination. I think both David O. Russell on The Fighter and the Coen Brothers on True Grit were very good, but not as strong.
The other one that Inception should have gotten is a nomination for Best Editing. Definitely over The King's Speech and probably Black Swan as well. Inception balanced between several stories very effectively, letting some go just long enough so you almost forgot them, which was the whole point of the film. Also the action sequences were very well done.
The acting nominations were pretty good. For lead Actor I haven't seen Bardem but he's always good. I wasn't that thrilled with Bridges in True Grit or Eisenberg in The Social Network. Both performances seemed like things the actors had done before. I think DiCaprio was quite good in the otherwise forgotten Shutter Island. The surprise seems to be that Ryan Gosling didn't get nominated for Blue Valentine. I think George Clooney did a great job in The American with a very quiet but convincing performance.
For Supporting Actor I don't really get Mark Ruffalo or Jeremy Renner being nominated though both were favored. Ruffalo wasn't that interesting and Renner's character was pretty one note. Bill Murray should have been nominated for Get Low. Maybe Sam Rockwell for Conviction.
I haven't seen two of the Lead Actress nominations but I think it's right. Julianne Moore was also good in The Kids Are All Right and Hilary Swank was excellent in Conviction. For Supporting Actress Dale Dickey should have been nominated for Winter's Bone instead of Helena Bonham Carter.
For Best Documentaries I haven't seen Waste Land and I completely agree with Inside Job and Restrepo. Exit Through the Gift Shop was good though a little long. It's strange to see underground graffiti artist Banksy get an Oscar nomination. I wonder if he'll show up? I saw and mostly forgot about Gasland. My favorite doc of the year was Teenage Paparazzo and it definitely deserves it over Gasland. I also liked Hubble 3D. I'll try to see Waste Land but otherwise my fifth spot would be The Parking Lot Movie which I saw at IFF Boston. Two others I saw there that were quite good were Marwencol and 9500 Liberty. I don't think they deserved a nomination but there was a lot of buzz about Joan Rivers: A Piece of Work and Waiting for Superman.
Ebert has more as does New York Magazine's Vulture.
I'm going out to see The Way Back.
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