The Oscars, remember those? It all seems like a distant memory now, and it's hard to believe it was just a couple of weeks ago that we were sitting down in extra stretchy pants with some beer and unhealthy snack food to watch the annual Super Bowl for the movies. And while time will tell what the lasting impression from this year's ceremonies will be, debates will continue about who missed out and who should have won.
One film that definitely got overlooked was Jason Reitman's caustic and funny "Young Adult," which unfortuantely didn't see any of its principal players get recognized by the Academy. We spoke to Patton Oswalt this week about his upcoming SXSW film "Nature Calls," and we just had to ask him his thoughts on the Oscars this year, and he too was bummed "Young Adult" didn't get the attention it deserved.
"I’m a movie buff so every year you get frustrated by the Oscars. So yeah, of course I was disappointed that I didn’t get nominated…I was way more frustrated that Charlize [Theron] did not get nominated. Because she, I thought, really deserved it for how she went so goddamn dark and uncomfortable. It really, it really blew me away to get to watch her work. And I was also really frustrated that Diablo [Cody] didn’t get a nomination, especially in terms of growth and risk-taking, based on her first film ['Juno']. And then make this her kind of big follow up with Jason, that’s just amazing, that’s like unprecedented. So I really wish that that had been recognized," he said.
And while Oswalt is disappointed some fellow contenders also missed out, he was also very happy with some of the nominations that did make it through. "I was also very frustrated — and this is none of my business, I wasn’t in the movie — but I really thought Albert Brooks should have been nominated. And that really bummed me. Now on the other hand I was overjoyed that Melissa McCarthy got nominated and I was happy that the 'Bridesmaids' script got nominated because I’m a comedy guy and want to see that rewarded. I just was really happy when Demian Bichir got nominated for 'A Better Life.' So, it was like these three things really pissed me off, but then these three things make me really happy. So, you know I broke even this year," Oswalt said.
That seems to be a pretty fair assessment. You can next see Oswalt in "Nature Calls," which premieres at SXSW on Saturday, March 10th at 4 PM at the Paramount Theatre.
