They Go Together (Like Rama Lama Lama Ke Ding a De Dinga a Dong)

One of the great falsehoods of movie awards season, eagerly promoted by each year's precursor awards groups, Oscar and most movie fans too, is that if a movie is the Best it is the Best. Period. In every way! This is why you hear the annual gripe "Did this movie direct itself?" when a best picture nominee misses a directorial nod (it didn't happen to any film this year but it generally does) and it's also why a great many adequate to good performances have been Oscar nominated over the years in place of actually great performances that had the misfortune of being in not-so-great films or simply less beloved films.

Viola Davis, Amy Adams, Meryl Streep, Philip Seymour Hoffman
The double nominees of Doubt

This 'all or nothing' mode of awardage is especially aggravating when it comes to the annual Screen Actors Guild awards and their "ensemble" prize. They treat it exactly the same as a Best Picture prize... which it shouldn't be. This year they were especially unimaginative nominating their cast members individually in every case as well. It's especially silly in the case of Doubt. The SAG honor actually only includes the four principles -- none of the nuns or the schoolchildren are part of the nomination -- who are then each nominated individually. It's stingy and repetitive. What's more, I don't personally think Doubt is much of an ensemble. It's more like a duet, most of the big scenes involving just two actors, battling it out or letting the other showboat for that particular scene. A fine cast? Yes. A great ensemble? Er...

Anne Consigny, Catherine Deneuve, Chiara Mastroianni and Emmanuelle Devos
Just one third of the bril' cast of A Christmas Tale

Give me bigger, messier, more interactive acting any day before I start talking "Best Ensemble". I had so many goodies to choose from this year and only 1 of SAG's nominated films is in my top 12 ensembles. That'd be Milk which I don't think will win. (I'm guessing its a three way race between Doubt if they're thinking about acting or Benjamin Button vs. Slumdog if they're thinking in terms of Best Picture as they sometimes do). In addition to Milk, I wish SAG had stopped to at least consider Burn After Reading, A Christmas Tale, Happy-Go-Lucky, Rachel Getting Married, Forgetting Sarah Marshall, Stop-Loss or Synecdoche New York among others...

Click to see new FB Award nominees: Best Ensemble, Breakthrough and Body of Work
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